Chapter 1311: Ready, Set....

Turning toward Lyrate, I found her already watching us with an expression that suggested she had grown tired of listening to two versions of the same person bicker. I gave her a slight nod.

"Start preparing our strongest attack. We’re going all out."

Her crimson eyes sharpened, and the faint amusement on her face vanished as she began gathering her power. "About time. I was beginning to think you two would spend the entire day talking."

A faint smile crossed my face before I turned back toward my future self, allowing my golden Soul Force to erupt from within my body.

The immense power surged outward in a sweeping wave, filling the surrounding void with a pressure that made the distant ruins tremble, while the golden light around me grew brighter with every passing moment.

At the same time, I invoked my Absolute Authority, and a magnificent array of multicoloured light blossomed around me as all forty-nine of my comprehended Origins responded to my will.

Normally, coordinating so many distinct forces would have demanded an extraordinary degree of luck or talent, but under my Absolute Authority, they moved as naturally as my own limbs, each Origin retaining its unique nature while aligning itself with the others. The multicoloured radiance expanded around me, transforming the surrounding void into a vast sea of shifting light as the combined pressure of my power continued to rise.

I slowly raised my right palm, drawing the converging Origins toward a single point in front of me. A tiny sphere appeared above my hand, rotating at an almost imperceptible speed before rapidly expanding, its surface shimmering with countless layers of colour.

The sphere continued to spin, gathering more of my Soul Force with every revolution until it became a miniature cosmos of intertwined Origins, radiating a power that threatened to overwhelm the dead zone around us.

I kept my palm raised as the sphere settled into a steady rotation, its multicoloured surface illuminating the ruins ahead. This was not merely a collection of Origin attacks forced together through brute strength; it was the result of my Absolute Authority bringing forty-nine different Origins under a single will, allowing them to function as parts of one complete whole.

Lyrate moved the moment my Origins began to gather, her crimson eyes fixed on the sphere forming above my palm as she prepared to contribute her own strength to the attack.

Unlike me, she couldn’t merge different Origins into a single, unified force under her control, but our connection allowed her to access all forty-nine of my comprehended Origins, and she had developed her own way of combining their power.

Rather than merging them, she could stack their forces together, layering one Origin over another until their combined might reached a terrifying level.

She raised her crimson sword before her, allowing its blade to catch the multicoloured radiance surrounding us, then slowly released her grip. The weapon remained suspended in the air for a brief moment before its entire structure trembled, and with a sudden burst of crimson light, it exploded into forty-nine separate fragments.

Each fragment shot outward, spreading into a wide circle around her as the power of my Origins flowed through our connection and began resonating with the broken pieces.

One by one, the fragments lit up in different colours, each aligning itself with a distinct Origin.

Their auras rose together, creating a layered field of power that grew denser with every passing moment. The fragments began to expand, their edges stretching and reshaping as they gradually moved back toward one another, and rather than simply returning to their original form, they joined together in a carefully ordered sequence, each piece locking into place while retaining the Origin it had absorbed.

The reconstruction continued until the fragments had formed a gigantic sword hovering above us, its immense blade stretching across the void as forty-nine distinct colours flowed along its surface.

Unlike the sphere before me, where every Origin had been merged into a unified whole, Lyrate’s weapon carried each power separately, one layer stacked upon another, creating a tremendous aura that pressed against the surrounding space.

The void trembled beneath its presence, and even the distant palace seemed to fade behind the brilliance of the weapon, whose multicoloured radiance illuminated the ruins like a second star.

I glanced at Lyrate, who stood beneath the enormous blade with one hand raised toward its hilt, her crimson hair drifting in the turbulent currents of energy. She looked completely focused, guiding the forty-nine stacked Origins through our connection while keeping their individual forces under control, and although her method was different from mine, the result was every bit as intimidating.

My future self watched the two of us for a few moments, his gaze moving from the spinning sphere above my palm to the gigantic sword suspended over Lyrate. Then he gave a slow nod, a faint smile appearing on his face.

"Looks like both of you are ready."

My future self glanced at the enormous sword hovering above Lyrate before turning his attention toward the sphere of Origins rotating above my palm, and for the first time since our conversation began, the amusement in his eyes gave way to something resembling concentration. He slowly raised both hands and brought his palms together in front of his chest, holding them against each other as though preparing to pray.

"I’m still new to this," he muttered, almost to himself. "It requires a little concentration."

With that, he closed his eyes.

Lyrate looked at me, her raised hand still controlling the gigantic sword above us, and I could sense the uncertainty stirring through our connection. "Should we attack now?"

I studied the figure standing before us, trying to understand what he was doing, but the fact that he had closed his eyes and left himself apparently motionless didn’t make me any more confident about our chances. If anything, it made me increasingly suspicious. My future self had agreed to let us attack him, yet he was behaving as though he had all the time in the universe to prepare whatever he had planned.

"I don’t think we’ll succeed," I admitted, keeping my gaze fixed on him.

Five seconds passed.

Then my future self opened his eyes and began slowly separating his palms.

At first, nothing happened, and I wondered whether he had changed his mind, but a faint glimmer soon appeared in the narrow gap between his hands. Thin, luminous threads began stretching from one palm to the other, so delicate that they resembled strands of silk suspended in the air.

They moved independently, crossing and weaving around one another as his hands continued to separate, forming intricate patterns that shifted with every subtle movement of his fingers.

I initially counted only a few, but more began to appear with every passing moment. Ten, then twenty, then forty. My attention sharpened as I examined the strange threads, and the moment I recognized what they represented, my expression changed.

Each one carried the distinct resonance of an Origin, with a structure and signature that felt unmistakably familiar to me. They weren’t merely similar to my own Origins; they were the same kinds of fundamental forces that I had spent three years comprehending in the Origin Expanse.

Forty-nine.

My future self had already surpassed the number of Origins I possessed, and he showed no sign of stopping.