Chapter 642
The symbiote was none other than the minion of the "God of Existence."
It preserved the "seeds" for the "God of Existence" that would one day be born, conducting experiments with other "seeds" in preparation for the god's arrival...
But once discovered, it erased its own existence, vanishing from everyone's memory...
If this were the first possibility, then the stakes were high...
This was a game of cat and mouse; as long as it could hide until the birth of the "God of Existence," then Shaer would fail.
These minions had no way of determining whether the world they inhabited was the "real" timeline, so after guiding the timeline toward the "Great Cataclysm," they chose to conceal themselves.
A group of "mice" capable of erasing their own existence... Theoretically, as long as they did nothing and Shaer continued to live a mundane life without choosing to awaken the past, they would surely survive until the moment of the "God of Existence's" birth.
Shaer fell into deep thought.
However... they couldn't hide forever...
The Great Cataclysm they had engineered created a filter.
It was as if a barrier had been set up on a smooth timeline, preventing "Ascenders" and "seeds" from passing through. Those "seeds" and "Ascenders" were forced to be diverted to another line, that line being the "Otherworld."
The current world was a timeline where "reality" and the "Otherworld" ran parallel yet could influence each other, with a barrier existing between the two.
Some weak beings from the Otherworld could cross the barrier to affect reality, while powerful extraordinary beings from reality could also find ways to breach the blockade and enter the Otherworld...
But the division net created by the minions of the "God of Existence" exposed a problem: they had bypassed the diversion of the Great Cataclysm and had not been contained within the Otherworld.
Their own "seeds" could only pass through the "sieve" in fragmentary forms, much like the life alchemy of Hecate, unable to be contained by the Otherworld...
As long as they could obtain one of the "uniqueness" fragments, according to the system's "uniqueness" aggregation law, the fragment in their hands would surely attract other minions holding fragments.
They wouldn't even need Shaer to search for them.
As long as Shaer could contain one of the fragments, the future birth of the God of Existence would be completely erased from this timeline.
And if Shaer could merge with that fragment... it would collapse directly into the reality of Shaer's timeline, existing nowhere else, becoming the true singularity.
At that moment, in all timelines lacking that fragment, the birth of the God of Existence would become mere talk, and the god's influence on the past would turn into a paradox.
This would undoubtedly trigger a disaster, a paradoxical storm sweeping through different times and spaces...
If things truly developed to this point, Shaer couldn't even imagine how the world would twist.
If they really merged with a "uniqueness" fragment, preventing the birth of the God of Existence across all timelines, leading to a divine-level "grandfather paradox" of "if He cannot be born, He cannot influence the past," the world would surely descend into chaos.
The Great Cataclysm might vanish, and even the barrier between the Otherworld and reality could be erased, allowing beings from the Otherworld, untouched by the timeline, to descend into reality, dragging the entire world back into a realm of horror worse than the old days.
But... Shaer felt there was a chance to resolve this...
That was to utilize their own "uniqueness" to grant themselves power.
The pathways of the "Fictionist" and the "Recorder."
They could fabricate a true history from start to finish, a genuine history untouched by the God of Existence, quelling all potential chaos.
Shaer slowly closed their eyes, taking a deep breath.
This was an extremely bold plan, one so audacious it seemed only a deity could possess such power...
To accomplish all this, Shaer would need strength rivaling that of a god, and they had to do it before the God of Existence was born...
It was difficult.
Very difficult.
At least, Shaer had no clue how to achieve any of it at the moment.
If there were no time constraints, Shaer might not feel such immense pressure.
But there was an implicit limitation: before the birth date of the God of Existence.
Though it was called a birth date, it was essentially the time of Shaer's destined death.
"Shaer." Remedais turned her head, looking in Shaer's direction, drawing their attention.
The train of thought was interrupted, and Shaer turned to meet Remedais's gaze.
Perhaps it was due to reuniting with Sadana and themselves, but Remedais's emerald eyes sparkled with a hint of brilliance, appearing more lively than when she first emerged.
If one overlooked her shadowy robe and the writhing tendrils beneath her, Shaer might have thought they had returned to the old tower, where Remedais had discovered something while researching and was now calling out to them.
"What's up?" Shaer asked, looking at Remedais.
I forgot... I forgot...
At that moment, Shaer sensed Sadana's whispers in their mind. They looked up at Sadana and said, "It's okay, Sadana, I understand now."
Saying this, Shaer reached out to pat Sadana's shell, and upon hearing Shaer's words, Sadana's murmurs gradually faded away.
Then, Shaer turned back to Remedais, waiting for her to speak.
"I remember now..." Remedais slightly lifted her head, looking into Shaer's eyes, and said, "The Witch's Association... learned..."
The Witch's Association?
Shaer looked at Remedais and asked, "The Witch's Association? What did you remember?"
"The Witch's Association... I wanted to... leave a message..." Remedais smiled as she spoke, "I trained... an... Ascender..."
You trained an Ascender?
"She is probably... in the... Otherworld now..."
An Ascender from within their pathways?
How could that be?
Shaer had only intended for the Witch's Association to develop the pathway of the pocket watch, ideally evolving it into a complete fourth-tier pathway... but they had never considered training someone from the Witch's Association to become an Ascender.
Why hadn't they thought of it?
Because one of the most important and defining aspects of becoming an Ascender was merging with "uniqueness," that is, merging with a "seed" fragment.
Shaer's pocket watch "uniqueness" could not possibly be divided again; they were still in the process of collecting... So, how did that Ascender from the Witch's Association come about?
There was only one possibility...
She collected other fragments of the pocket watch...
"Do you know where she is in the Otherworld?" Shaer took a deep breath, looking at Remedais and pressing for more information.
"I don't know... but she must have become an Ascender... that's my memory..." Remedais said, her previously confident expression beginning to show signs of doubt, as if questioning her own memory.
The Witch's Association might not have survived... but could there possibly be an Ascender from the Witch's Association existing in the Otherworld...
Shaer furrowed their brow.
Shaer had entered the Otherworld before and knew the kind of damage their mind would suffer there, but if what Remedais said was true, that Ascender would surely carry the pocket watch's "uniqueness" and a nearly complete pathway.
If they could make contact... Shaer's power would receive a tremendous boost...
But the question remained: was it possible for them to find that Ascender in the Otherworld?
The Otherworld was an extremely chaotic and twisted realm, and Shaer's understanding of it was only slightly better than that of an ordinary person, far from being proficient.
Should they first seek the pure white armor?
To bring it along next time they returned to the old days for a trade?
---
Chapter 329: The Message from Sadana
"Thank you, Remedais."
Shaer looked in Remedais's direction, expressing gratitude for the information she had left for them.
The message brought by Remedais was crucial.
As long as that Ascender remained in the Otherworld, Shaer only needed to expose their pocket watch in the places where the Ascender might appear, and there would be a chance to attract her.
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