Chapter 258: Broken Time

Max wrapped his entire body in void magic and commanded it to devour everything touching him, but the tick refused to disappear. Darkness consumed the crimson power pressing against his scales, yet every tick seemed to restore what the void had taken before it could reach the source.

In the next instant, an invisible force seized Max’s body and dragged him somewhere else within the crimson storm. Before he could steady himself or understand where he had been taken, a streak of crimson light passed through his shoulder and tore open a deep wound between his scales.

The ticking sounded again.

Max disappeared and reappeared in another part of the storm, facing a completely different direction. Another crimson streak crossed his chest before he could raise his blade, cutting through his scales and spraying blood into the air.

Again and again, the ticking moved backward as Max was dragged from one location to another. Sometimes he appeared high above the battlefield, while moments later his claws struck the ground without warning. Attacks reached him from every direction, opening wounds across his arms, chest, and sides before vanishing into the crimson storm.

No pattern connected the places where he appeared or the directions from which the attacks arrived. His void magic continued devouring everything it touched, but each time it consumed part of the power trapping him, another backward tick returned Max to the same helpless cycle.

It felt as though he had been trapped inside a moment that refused to end.

Outside the crimson hourglass, Aragon remained standing upon the enormous stopwatch platform with his chest heaving heavily. Sweat mixed with the blood covering his skin, while the wound through his neck continued releasing thin streams of crimson mist. Behind him, the hands of the second stopwatch spun faster with every passing moment, forcing more power into the time storm imprisoning Max in the distance.

"I need to hold him in there for as long as I can," Aragon muttered as he spat a mouthful of bloody saliva onto the translucent platform beneath his feet. "That kid is too strong, even though he only just completed his transformation. Did I underestimate him?"

The crimson hourglass surrounding Max trembled as darkness crashed against its inner walls, but the structure quickly stabilized beneath the power released by the two stopwatches. Aragon watched it carefully, his smile remaining in place despite the increasing strain upon his body.

"I need to weaken him first, and then we can brawl properly." He wiped the blood from his mouth with the back of one hand. "Damn dragons. That recovery rate is ridiculous, and his strength is already too much for my fists to handle directly."

Inside the hourglass, Max continued fighting against the crimson storm. Multicolored magic erupted from the Spirit Sovereign’s Mana Heart and spread in every direction, striking the inner walls as he attempted to tear apart both the storm and the force displacing him. The entire hourglass shook beneath the impact, yet every crack vanished the moment the backward ticking returned.

Nothing worked. Even when Max covered his body beneath several layers of crystal, the ticking restored him to the moment before those defenses had fully formed. The next crimson attack would tear through his exposed scales, only for the wound to close when the loop dragged his body backward once again.

However, the mana he spent did not return with him.

His flesh recovered, and the blood vanished from his scales, but exhaustion continued accumulating within his body. Every failed defense drained more power from his two hearts, revealing exactly what Aragon intended to accomplish.

"So that is what you’re doing, coward," Max spat.

He stopped struggling and allowed the storm to carry him into its next position. A crimson streak struck his side and tore through several scales before the ticking dragged him away, while another attack pierced his shoulder the moment he reappeared. Neither possessed enough power to cut his body in half, but every strike opened a deep wound and forced more blood and mana through the translucent vessels beneath his scales.

Max ignored the pain and took a slow breath.

Instead of wasting more power trying to escape, he began studying every displacement. The first pull twisted his body toward the left before an attack struck his shoulder. The next placed him several meters higher and turned his back toward a crimson streak aimed at his right thigh. After that came a cut across his chest, followed by another attack that descended toward the joint of his left wing.

The sequence initially appeared random, but as the loop repeated, Max noticed that every displacement placed him in the same position and every attack followed the same path. The storm was not creating endless possibilities. It was forcing him to experience the same series of moments again and again.

The method remained brutal. Max continued allowing the attacks to strike him while committing every sound, movement, and change in pressure to memory. His wounds repeatedly opened and closed as the loop dragged him backward, while his exhaustion worsened with every cycle.

Eventually, Max opened his eyes.

The calmness within them was far more unsettling than the anger he had shown before.

He raised the void blade beside his left shoulder before the next ticking sound reached his ears. A crimson streak emerged from the storm and struck its edge, producing a violent shower of sparks instead of tearing through his scales.

The loop immediately displaced him again, but Max was already moving before his new surroundings became clear. He turned the void blade behind his right thigh and caught the second attack at the exact moment it arrived.

Aragon’s smile disappeared.

"No way..."

The stopwatch behind him began spinning faster as his expression grew serious. The ticking within the hourglass accelerated, forcing Max from one position to another so quickly that several images of his body appeared throughout the crimson storm at the same time.

It made no difference.

Max had already memorized the sequence. His blade moved before each attack appeared, blocking the crimson streak aimed at his chest before twisting upward to protect his wing. Every displacement threw him into a different position, yet his body responded without hesitation, guided by the pattern he had learned through his own blood.

Aragon continued increasing the speed, but Max blocked every attack. Crimson magic crashed against the void blade again and again, filling the hourglass with shockwaves that caused its translucent walls to tremble.

"So he figured it out..." Aragon muttered as his expression grew increasingly ugly. He stared at Max for another moment before his grin slowly returned. "Then let me see how you escape this."

The stopwatch beneath Aragon’s feet began spinning as well, but its hands moved in the opposite direction from the one behind him.

Inside the hourglass, Max suddenly felt a mysterious force seize both halves of his body and pull them in opposing directions. Agonizing pressure passed through his spine, making him feel as though his entire body had been broken in half.

Dizziness flooded his mind as the crimson storm twisted around him. The ground appeared above his head while the sky shifted beneath his feet, and no matter how hard Max tried to steady himself, he could no longer distinguish his left side from his right.