Novel Full Chapter 533: Time Freeze
The Twilight Forest was eerily quiet. The large death of demons only a few days ago had already caused panic and fear to spread among its residents.
Today, with that person’s return, that fear deepened further.
No demon dared to wander around aimlessly.
They hid in their nests and concealed their presence to the best of their ability, with some going as far as leaving Twilight Forest in order to escape.
Liora paid no heed to them.
She went straight toward her previous residence and took her seat.
As she was activating the existing formations, what had happened before replayed in her mind.
After confirming that there was nothing wrong with her earlier actions, she shifted her attention elsewhere.
Her consciousness spread out and swept over her body.
She carefully checked her current condition.
Satisfying the requirements agreed upon with the Demon World had already made her recover her identity as a Devil.
Similar to what had happened during her awakening in the Demon Weapon World, her body had been fully altered.
From an ordinary human, she had regained her bloodline as a Devil, further evidence that it existed deep within her soul rather than in her body.
Despite this, the Awakener power system had not disappeared.
All her talent genes were still there, and Liora felt that she could evolve them further if she wished to.
"Originally, only the natives of this Cosmic World can become Awakeners. True Outworld Demons don’t have the ability to awaken their talents, and can thus not practice the power system."
This was why the elderly Devil had been unable to regain his strength and had been forced to become a System to try to steal other people’s identities.
"However, it seems that this cannot stop me. Is it because I’ve already practiced the power system and already possess the ’key’ to it?"
"Or is it because of the System or even the Demon World’s influence?"
Liora stroked her chin, looking thoughtful.
But ultimately, she had no way to find the answer for now.
Several minutes later, she decided to push this matter aside for the time being.
Sensing the improvement of her own strength, as well as the changes that accompanied her advancement, Liora fell into thought.
With a move of her mind, she summoned the System Panel.
Instantly, the familiar interface emerged before her.
...
[True Name: Liora Veythalis Dranthera Vexira...]
[Rank: Archdevil (Anchoring), World of Heart (Anchoring?), Rank 7 (?)]
[Race: ???]
[Strength: 2120], [Agility: 2240], [Vitality: 2185], [Mana: 2450], [Soul: 2480]
[Throne: Dragon, Time, Space, Life, Death...]
[Talents: Predation (???-Rank), Dragon Race (SSS-Rank), Elemental Affinity (SSS-Rank), Time Manipulation (SSS-Rank)...]
[Techniques: Snake of Time [3], Cosmic Devouring Technique [5]]
[Evolution Points: 3,260,900]
[Current Absorption Efficiency: 500 (Normal Devil = 1x)]
....
Everything had changed.
Nearly every single column in the panel had undergone some kind of change.
Her Base Stats had more than doubled, her talents had transformed, while the normal Absorption Efficiency increase that accompanied every one of her advancements had also occurred.
But although these were all important, they were not what interested Liora the most.
Her eyes first settled onto the Throne column.
Several new concepts had been integrated with her Throne—or, as people of this world would call them—Laws.
"Although their names are different, they are in fact both the same."
"Whether it is Awakeners or Devils, they all comprehend the operating rules of the Origin Sea.", she thought.
Having plundered all the Laws of the Nine-Headed Hydra, it made sense that these concepts would integrate into her Throne and thus cause it to embody them.
However, Liora was also somewhat surprised.
In the past, her strongest concepts had been Devouring, Natural Disasters, Nothingness, etc.
But after the last transformation, this had changed for the most part.
Devouring had remained the concept in the lead, mostly because of her Predation talent.
But now, the second strongest concepts were those of Dragon and of the Four Elements.
"The latter makes sense. I briefly resonated with the Four Elements Devil in the past, and I’ve been using Elemental Affinity all this time. But Dragon..."
Liora had a hunch that this concept was perhaps the biggest gain she had made so far in this world, perhaps of the same level as the Predation talent.
Thinking of Predation, Liora couldn’t help but lower her gaze slightly.
Her eyes landed on the Techniques column, only to see that the two currently existing techniques had both been upgraded.
The Cosmic Devouring Technique was a result of an evolution through the use of her points.
As for the Snake of Time...
"Coming into contact with the River of Time is a supreme opportunity for practitioners of the power of time."
"Although it was just a few seconds, catching a glimpse of it was enough to give me countless insights."
With a thought, the Snake of Time activated.
A translucent snake emerged from Liora’s soul space and transformed into an illusory river that wrapped around her like a circle.
Countless scenes were contained in each of its drops, as though each of them contained an entire world.
During her battle with the Hollow Ancestor, this technique had been broken, and she suffered backlash.
Obviously, although the Snake of Time gave Liora control over the power of time, it was unable to contend with the power that an actual Ancient Devil had.
It was only now, when Liora advanced to the Anchoring stage and her Devil bloodline had been reawakened, that this technique finally recovered.
Its exterior appearance remained the same.
However, Liora could feel that the river before her had slightly turned more transcendent. Its very nature had been elevated, as though it had ascended to a higher dimension.
She was happy to see this.
The Snake of Time was her ticket to reach the Ancient Devil stage.
She was betting that it would be able to help her resist the influence of the River of Time when that time came, making pulling her Throne out of its clutches easier.
In her view, the stronger the Snake of Time was, the higher the chances of that happening became.
"Of course, even if not for that, just the improvement it brings to my combat power is already worth it.", Liora commented.
Her mind moved.
The forward-pushing waves of the illusory river suddenly halted.
Immediately, silence shrouded the area.
As Liora stretched her consciousness, she noticed that the waving branches of the trees had stopped moving, while the flying creatures had been locked in place.
This did not happen only within the cave. The change affected an area of several kilometers, nearly covering the entire forest.
Time Freeze—a new function that had appeared following the Snake of Time’s upgrade.
In the past, Liora could only increase or decrease the speed at which time flowed.
Yet now, she could also momentarily freeze time itself.
Liora knew that this was not only because of the Snake of Time. The Time Manipulation talent and the accompanying Law were as important, if not even more.
This also made her understand something.
Her current combat prowess might be extraordinary, but she had yet to unleash its full potential.
Only after she had familiarized herself with all the gains she had made would she be able to truly display her apex combat power.
"Whether it is the Laws or the talents, I’ll need to spend some time to grow familiar with them."
"The same is true for my own Devil abilities. The advancement to the Anchoring stage is not a simple enhancement of Base Stats."
Liora softly exhaled.
"It seems that for the foreseeable future, settling these will be my primary goal."