Chapter 36: The Contract of Shadow
The Myriad Beast Domain was not a jungle in the traditional sense. It was a hallucinogenic nightmare.
Instead of trees, massive fungal stalks rose hundreds of feet into a violet sky. The ground was a carpet of breathing moss that squelched softly under our boots. Floating islands of rock drifted lazily overhead, dripping glowing blue slime that sizzled when it hit the ground.
"Gross," Seraphina muttered, lifting the hem of her silk dress. She incinerated a patch of moss with a flicker of demonic fire before stepping on it. "This place smells like wet dog and old magic. Why did the Academy build a dungeon here?"
"They didn't build it," I said, scanning the horizon with my Void Sense. "They found it. This dimension is a shard of a dead world that collided with the Middle World eons ago. That's why the spatial laws here are loose."
I looked at Prince Valerian, who was currently swatting at a dragonfly the size of a hawk.
"Valerian, stop playing with the wildlife. We have points to farm."
"It tried to bite me!" Valerian yelped, hiding behind Ria.
"Target neutralized," Ria stated calmly. She snatched the dragonfly out of the air, crushed its thorax, and stored it in a sample jar. "Rank-2 Insect Core acquired. Value: 5 points."
"Only 999,995 points to go to beat the high score," I quipped.
We walked deeper into the fungal forest.
Most students were already engaging beasts near the entrance, fighting over low-ranking wolves and boars. I ignored them. My target was deeper.
I closed my eyes for a split second.
Inside the Ouroboros Ring, my clone, Chronos, spun the gears of causality.
'Probability Check: Where is the highest concentration of Destiny?'
A golden thread appeared in my mind's eye, leading North. Leading toward a massive, hollowed-out volcano in the distance.
"We go North," I pointed.
"Why North?" Lyra asked, checking her map. "The map says the high-density beast zone is East."
"Because someone is waiting for us," I said.
The Ambush.
We reached a clearing surrounded by towering stone pillars. The air here was heavy, vibrating with a silent tension.
"Halt," I said softly.
The team stopped. Valerian drew his sword. Seraphina's eyes narrowed, her violet pupils glowing.
"Come out," I spoke to the empty air. "You paid 10,000 stones for a conversation. Don't be shy."
From the shadows of a stone pillar, a figure emerged.
It was Kassandra, the blind Oracle Princess who had fled from my toll booth earlier.
She looked worse for wear. Her black robes were torn, and she was clutching a staff made of white bone. Her white, pupil-less eyes were wide with fear, staring not at me, but at the empty space around me—the void where my future should be.
"You came," Kassandra whispered.
"I follow the money," I said, crossing my arms. "You said you wanted to hire me. But then you ran away like you saw a ghost. Explain."
Kassandra took a shaky breath. She bowed deeply—a gesture of submission from a Princess of the Oracle Clan.
"I apologize, Lord of No Fate. When I looked at you... I saw the Void. It terrified me. My clan is cursed to see everything. To see nothing is... unnatural."
"Get to the point," Seraphina snapped, stepping forward possessively. "Why are you stalking my husband? Do you want to die?"
Kassandra flinched at the Demon Queen's aura but held her ground.
"I need his help. My clan... the Oracle Clan... we are dying. The Arbiters cursed us three hundred years ago because my ancestor saw their true faces."
She pulled a scroll from her robe.
"The curse rots our bloodline. We go blind, then mad, then we turn into dust. The only cure lies within this dungeon."
"A cure?" I asked.
"An Heirloom," Kassandra corrected. "The Eye of Truth. It was hidden here by my ancestor before he died. It is a key. Not just to cure the curse, but..."
She lowered her voice.
"...it is the Key to the World Core of the Middle World."
My interest piqued instantly.
The Middle World Core.
If I could access that, I could feed it to Chronos. My control over Time would jump from "Parlor Tricks" to "Sovereign Authority."
"And let me guess," I looked at the distant volcano. "It's guarded by something you can't kill."
"A Rank-5 Void-Touched Chimera," Kassandra nodded grimly. "It exists in three seconds of the future. No attack can hit it because it dodges before you even swing. My team tried. They are all dead."
She looked at me with desperate hope.
"But you... you don't exist in the future. The Chimera cannot see you. You are the only one who can kill it."
I smiled. A beast that uses Time?
That wasn't a monster. That was a snack.
"Ria, draw up a contract," I commanded.
"Terms: I kill the beast. Kassandra gets the Eye to cure her curse. But after she uses it... the Eye belongs to me."
Kassandra hesitated. The Eye was her clan's greatest treasure.
But without it, she was dead anyway.
"Deal," she whispered.
"Excellent," I clapped my hands. "Anya, get your hammer. We're going to break a timeline."
The Nest of the Chimera.
The volcano wasn't filled with lava. It was filled with Temporal Mist—a grey fog that slowed down time.
Rocks falling from the ceiling took minutes to hit the ground. Water droplets hung in the air like diamonds.
"This feels weird," Anya said, moving in slow motion. "I feel... sticky."
"Push your Qi outward," I instructed. "Create a personal time bubble. Don't let the mist touch your skin."
We descended into the crater.
In the center, guarding a massive stone altar, lay the beast.
The Void-Touched Chimera.
It was a monstrosity. It had the body of a lion, the heads of a goat, a dragon, and a serpent, and a tail that ended in a scorpion stinger.
But the terrifying part wasn't its shape. It was its existence.
It flickered.
It appeared in three places at once—overlapping images of itself. One image was slightly behind, one was present, and one was slightly ahead.
"It sees us," Kassandra whispered, gripping her staff.
The Chimera roared. The sound echoed three times.
ROAR. Roar. roar.
It lunged.
It didn't attack me. It attacked the weakest link. Valerian.
The Dragon Head breathed fire.
Valerian screamed and raised his shield. "Block!"
The fire hit his shield... two seconds before the dragon head opened its mouth.
BOOM.
Valerian was blasted backward, his armor singing, before he even saw the attack coming.
"It attacks from the future!" Lyra screamed, calculating the vectors. "We can't block it! The cause happens after the effect!"
"Cheater!" Anya yelled. She threw a fireball.
The Chimera simply stepped aside before she threw it. The fireball passed harmlessly through its afterimage.
"It knows every move!" Kassandra cried. "We are doomed!"
"Relax," I said, stepping forward.
I walked toward the beast.
The Serpent Head hissed. It struck at me, its fangs dripping with temporal venom that would rot me in seconds.
It struck where I was.
But I wasn't there.
The Chimera paused. All three of its heads looked confused.
It looked into the future—one second ahead—to see where I would dodge.
It saw... Nothing.
It looked two seconds ahead.
Nothing.
I was a blank spot in its vision. A glitch in its radar.
"Confused?" I asked, appearing directly in front of the Lion Head.
The Chimera panicked. It tried to swipe at me.
I didn't dodge. I simply wasn't hit.
I activated Chronos. I edited my own timeline, deleting the frames where the claw connected with my skin. To the naked eye, the claw passed through me like smoke.
"You rely on seeing the future," I whispered to the beast. "But you can't see what doesn't exist."
I drew Antakala.
The black blade hummed. It was hungry for the Temporal Qi radiating from this monster.
'Seal 3: Sword Emperor.'
'Concept: Time Severance.'
I didn't cut the beast's flesh.
I cut the link between its three states.
SHING.
A black line appeared in the air, severing the ghostly afterimages from the main body.
The Chimera screamed. The future-self and the past-self shattered like glass, forcing the beast into a single, vulnerable present.
"Now!" I shouted. "Seraphina! Anya!"
Seraphina didn't hesitate.
"Hellfire Prison!"
Violet chains erupted from the ground, binding the beast's limbs.
Anya jumped from a cliff, her Fire Hammer glowing white-hot.
"BONK!"
CRACK.
She smashed the Dragon Head into the ground.
The Chimera thrashed, pinned and bleeding. It looked at me with terror. It realized it was no longer the apex predator.
I walked up to the main Lion Head.
I placed my hand on its forehead.
'Technique: Heaven-Devouring Sutra.'
'Mode: Temporal Siphon.'
"Your time is up," I whispered.
SLURP.
I didn't just drain its Qi. I drained its Lifespan.
The beast aged rapidly. Its fur turned grey. Its muscles withered. Its bones turned to dust.
In five seconds, the mighty Rank-5 Chimera turned into a pile of ash.
I absorbed the energy.
Inside the Ouroboros Ring, Chronos inhaled. The clone grew stronger, his clockwork eyes spinning faster as he processed the stolen Time Laws.
'Proficiency with Time Law: Increased to 5%.'
I dusted off my hands.
"Easy."
I walked over to the altar.
Sitting there, on a velvet cushion, was a small, golden box.
I opened it.
Inside lay a gemstone that looked like a human eye, but the pupil was a galaxy.
The Eye of Truth.
Kassandra fell to her knees, weeping. "You did it... You actually killed it."
I tossed the box to her.
"Cure your curse," I said. "Be quick about it. I want that key."
Kassandra held the gem. She pressed it to her forehead.
A golden light enveloped her. The white film over her eyes dissolved. Her pupils formed—sharp, clear, and golden.
The curse of the Oracle Clan was broken.
She handed the gem back to me, trembling.
"Thank you, Lord Rudra. You have saved my bloodline."
I took the gem. It felt warm.
"Ria, analyze."
"Object contains high-density spatial coordinates," Ria reported. "It points to a location beneath the Divine Sky Academy. The World Core."
I smiled.
I had the map. I had the key.
And I had a pet Oracle who owed me a life debt.
"Kassandra," I said, pocketing the gem. "You saw my 'No-Fate' nature. Does that scare you?"
Kassandra looked at me with her new, golden eyes.
"It terrifies me," she admitted. "But... a world ruled by the Arbiters is a cage. A man with no fate is the only one who can break the bars."
She bowed.
"The Oracle Clan is yours to command."
I grinned.
"Good answer."
I turned to my team. The dungeon was cleared. We had the loot. We had the points.
"Let's go back," I said. "I think Prince Aethelred is waiting for his arm."
End of Chapter 36.