Chapter 242: End of the deal

Adrian grabbed his head tightly with both hands as he felt an unbearable pain, making him feel as though his head were about to burst.

"Aaagghhh! Uggghhh!"

'What's happening? This… doesn't make sense. Even if I am feeling pain, it shouldn't… affect me to this degree since I have Immutable.'

Having Immutable didn't mean that he stopped feeling pain. He was just not affected by it to the degree that he should be. Which was why this sudden head-splitting headache was bizarre.

It was a hundred times worse than the ones he used to have back on Earth.

He flailed his arms around as if to grasp something, then suddenly grabbed and pulled the bedsheet, ripping it apart.

'This… headache started the moment I read those words…'

The creature possessing Hazel's body stood up and approached him, placing its hand on his shoulder.

[What is happening to you? I don't sense any sort of attack or interference.]

Adrian tried his best to suppress his screams and answered.

"I think… it's because of my Origin ability… I can feel it reacting… to that set of words."

The reaction he was feeling was quite violent and intense. It was as though something that should've forever remained dormant was stirring. And since Immutable was a mind-related Origin ability, the reaction was causing him to feel an intense headache.

Suddenly, Adrian could feel his senses extending to somewhere else. He could vaguely sense a familiar silhouette. The silhouette of the grey sun bound in ethereal blue chains.

In the next moment, the silhouette vanished, and so did the head-splitting pain he had been feeling.

'What… was that…?'

His vision grew dark, and he fell unconscious the next moment.

***

Adrian let out a sigh as he found himself lying in the middle of a road within the immutable world.

'Well, that was quite the incident. Maybe I should stop poking my nose into where it doesn't belong.'

He had experienced it twice now. The infinite dimension should've been a lesson for him, but he had repeated the same mistake and paid the price.

'I thought it wouldn't be a big deal since those were just letters, but—uh?'

Adrian suddenly froze as he took note of the surroundings.

His eyes widened.

'Just what the hell is…'

The surroundings were quite different from last time, which was already strange since the immutable world was unchanging.

He could not spot any buildings, no matter where he looked. No matter how far he looked, all that entered his vision was… rubble.

'It looks as though the immutable world was struck by some sort of calamity.'

He was pretty sure that this was also caused by the intense reaction Immutable showed to that set of words. After all, his mind realm—the immutable world—was an extension of his Origin ability.

Just then, Adrian's gaze paused as he noticed something.

'It's already getting fixed, huh?'

The rubble was slowly coming back together to form the building once again. It almost looked as though time was being reversed to before the destruction happened.

He was not surprised since he had already known about this function of the immutable world for quite a while.

He had discovered it by conducting some tests.

Adrian had once rammed a truck into a building and made it explode, demolishing the building. But then all that damage was reversed within a few minutes.

This was how Adrian discovered that if a change occurred in the immutable world that he found undesirable, then that change would be reversed. This applied to any and all forms of change. Even moving a random pebble from one location to another was considered a change.

'I remember testing it with a pack of chips once. After tearing open the packet, I started eating the chips while labeling the decrease in the quantity of chips as an undesirable change. Thus, no matter how much I ate, the chips inside the packet never decreased.'

And that was how Adrian created infinite food, even though that food couldn't actually satiate anyone's hunger.

'Well, I should wake up now.'

He twisted the dial of the analog wristwatch and skipped ahead to the point where his body wakes up. In the next moment, his vision grew blurry, and he drifted off to sleep.

Opening his eyes, the first thing Adrian saw was… the chin of a familiar face. Moments later, the being possessing Hazel's body looked down and met Adrian's gaze.

[Oh? So you are finally awake.]

Adrian asked flatly.

"Would you mind explaining why my head is resting on your lap?"

The creature tilted its head.

[Is that a problem? I wanted to be prepared to take action if something happened to you while you were unconscious. After all, I couldn't let you die before extracting the necessary information from you first."

Adrian let out a sigh as he rose.

'Well, whatever. I should just share it all. Maybe it would help me make sense of things better.'

And so, Adrian filled the creature in on everything he knew, leaving out things related to the immutable world.

After he finished, there was a thoughtful look on the creature's face.

[Hmm… this is an unexpected discovery. So your Origin ability reacted to that set of words, and then you saw the blurry silhouette of that grey sun, which you only see during the awakening process of Origin abilities. This is all so strange… But more than that, just what does 'Authority of Origin' even mean?]

'Looks like it's just as confused as me.'

He had hoped that he would get some answers, but that didn't seem to be the case.

'Authority of Origin, huh?'

He looked at the mirror on the floor. It had returned to its previous state, nothing more than a shape created by assembling multiple mirror shards like puzzle pieces.

The supposed leader of Nebulous Veil finally stopped pondering and turned its attention to Adrian.

[You have fulfilled your end of the deal. Now it is my turn.]

It picked up one of the shards from the floor and handed it to him. Moments later, all other shards were absorbed into the sword at its waist.

Then the creature raised its hand and channeled its mana, materializing a wooden crate into existence.

[This is my end of the deal. This entire crate is filled with time reversal regeneration potions of the highest tier. With this, I have fulfilled my end of the deal as well. So from this moment forth, we no longer have any connection to each other. You can freely share the knowledge you have learned from me, but I would warn you against discussing anything related to me or this deal. I hate tedious matters.]

It paused for a bit and then added.

[Also, there is a Grade Two fragment relic in that crate with a storage function. I figured you would want to hide these time potions since being found with so many of them would be quite hard to explain. Think of it as a gift from me for being so cooperative.]

Saying that, the creature possessing Hazel's body left his room.

Adrian quickly opened the crate to confirm the contents inside and found it filled with glass vials containing a dull grey liquid.

'There really is a lot… Considering the demand, its price must be astronomical. I don't think I could've bought this even if I were to use my authority as a child of House Ravenshade. As expected, it was all worth it just for this.'

With this, there probably wouldn't be any need for him to think about time potions for several years. And he would now finally be able to do something that had been on his mind for a long time.

'But before that, there is something else that I need to take care of.'

***

Evangeline stared at her arm blankly as she clenched and unclenched her fist.

After continuing that for a few minutes, she closed her eyes and sighed.

'Aside from the boons brought about by ascending to Phase Four, I really don't feel any different.'

Back then, her mind had frozen from shock and confusion, so she had not been able to think about it, but she still remembered the drop of black liquid that was absorbed into her body after Lilias turned into mana and vanished.

She had only gotten a glimpse of it, but it was clear that the black liquid was extremely special. She was expecting some sort of change after it was absorbed into her, but so far, she hadn't been able to spot anything.

'Another unsolved mystery, it seems.'

Evangeline shifted her focus to a different topic.

During her time on the island, especially her time in the loops, what had helped her the most was her Origin ability, Vox Imperium.

It was clear that she would've struggled a lot more if not for this power.

And two days ago, she had learned a new fact about this power.

'It doesn't work on Adi.'

Back then, she had been a bit too emotional, so she had used it instinctively. But as her emotions settled down, she was rather shocked. The fact that there was someone out there who was unaffected by her power was something that she had never even considered.

'I don't know how exactly he was able to do that, but if Adrian can do it, then there might be others too who are also capable of such a thing.'

Now she felt stupid to have never even considered that.

But just as she was lost in thought, she suddenly heard a knock on her room's door.

'Uh?'

She waited for a while, then asked.

"...Who is it?"

An extremely familiar voice replied in a dull tone.

"It's me. I was hoping that we could talk."