Chaos Heir

Chapter 1597: Fractured time

Liiza herself was the most surprised about that development. Despite her cold facade, she was genuinely shocked by her reaction.

That wasn’t due to a lack of awareness. Liiza knew why she had reacted like that. She simply hadn’t expected to do so. Her mind had betrayed her at the crucial moment, right before any harm could come to her.

That wasn’t out of self-preservation. If anything, Liiza had calculated and had been ready for the extent of the damage she would have suffered until her technique took complete control over the uneven clump of True Chaos.

The damage would have been negligible at best, only featuring a few, sparse, and superficial wounds. It wouldn’t have even counted as an injury due to how shallow it would have been, and Liiza could have even healed it instantly.

Nevertheless, Liiza had ultimately dodged the attack anyway, ending up letting her frozen cavern endure its full might, allowing the King to take a significant step toward freedom.

As for why, it was both obvious and stupid. Liiza was carrying Khan’s second child, so her mind had chosen a far more unfavorable outcome over shallow wounds.

Of course, the baby would have never been in danger. Liiza had accounted for that even before the invasion, and her child’s safety had never stopped being her main priority.

The pregnancy had barely started, too. It wasn’t at a point where Liiza had to worry about it or develop additional safety measures. It had yet to complete its first month, applying no real hindrance to Liiza’s fighting prowess or metabolism.

Yet, reason rarely had a voice in those matters, especially in Liiza’s case. Yeza’s birth had been messy, with complications happening right in the middle of an important battle. Liiza’s pregnancy had been far more advanced back then, but the worrisome event had still left a mark on her mind.

Needless to say, Liiza had become aware of that mark only now. For all her talks about fixing Khan, she had ended up developing trauma herself. No matter what, her mind refused to go through that scare again, even if it was virtually impossible to replicate at that stage of her pregnancy.

Of course, nothing was certain when it came to children of interspecies unions with such problematic genes. Liiza’s expertise and Zalpa’s support significantly lowered the odds of miscarriages, but they could never be zero.

Still, that reaction remained way over the top, especially from someone as wise and knowledgeable as Liiza. She truly felt like a stupid, clueless girl, and part of her grew annoyed since she didn’t really hate the thought. After all, all her wisdom paled before the happiness of bearing Khan another child.

"[I would have been a failure of an Elder]," Liiza sighed, lowering her gaze, dropping her pointless act to bring her tattooed hand to her waist. "[Being a mother is all I can think about now]."

"[You bear the offspring of the mana’s champion]," The King declared, not forgetting Liiza’s previous statement, "[Its chosen to fight our Father. There’s no greater duty, even if the inferiority of your beings is showing]."

That way of speaking that ignored language barriers told Liiza exactly what the King meant. From his perspective, conception was an inferior method of procreation, especially since it led to Liiza’s current weakness.

And Liiza couldn’t help but partially agree with the King. She came from a deeply emotional species. Her very way of summoning spells and techniques was rooted in emotions, so her condition and trauma became a hurdle she couldn’t ignore.

It wasn’t a matter of control, expertise, or will. It wasn’t even Liiza’s first time being in that situation. Just like when Khan had kidnapped her, she knew her mind would refuse to cast spells or put her in predicaments that could hurt her, placing the baby’s health in danger in turn.

That lack of proper solutions left Liiza with two choices. She could stick to running around, keeping the King busy for as long as possible, before ultimately escaping from the battle altogether. Or, Liiza could simply kill the King without getting hurt.

The first choice was far more feasible, but Liiza leaned toward the second, albeit for emotional reasons once again. Sure, a dead King was better than a busy one, especially during a war, but that whole species had done something unforgivable, which Liiza couldn’t ignore, now more than ever.

The mana was to blame for Khan’s suffering, but the Scarlet Eyes were what had prompted that genocidal reaction. Besides, Liiza now saw that handsome King as the last obstacle to a peaceful family life, earning himself all the genuine anger she could muster.

"[You can twist space, can’t you]?" Liiza asked a rhetorical question. "[But you can’t shatter it or bend it past a certain limit]."

The King didn’t know what Liiza was getting at. Her analysis was correct but also limited, and the path her team had crossed proved as much. The King couldn’t create singularities or dimensional gates, but he could build entire separate worlds capable of hosting battles among evolved warriors.

"[I understand this because our expertise is similar]," Liiza continued, "[Not equal, but adjacent]."

Liiza lifted her face at that point, her white glow shining on the King again. The cracked cavern failed to match or enhance it, but the King experienced the same instinctive fear from before. Something had changed in that inferior child, but he couldn’t understand what.

"[The opposite should be true]," Liiza added, her cold expression becoming genuine now. "[You should be able to understand what happens when time shatters]."

The King’s scarlet eyes widened. His brain rejected that possibility, but his instinctive fear intensified, as if it had found its reason for existence. Yet, it was already too late.

A scarlet radiance began to taint the cavern’s white glow, mixing with it as multiple intricate symbols rose toward its cracked surfaces. A slightly cold but far more suffocating force instantly invaded that enclosed area, submerging the King in a pressure he couldn’t hope to avoid.

"[Fractured time]," Liiza whispered, using words to aid the execution of that new technique, and a straight, diagonal line suddenly cut through the cavern, its two sides sliding in opposite directions.