novelhk Chapter 313: The Shattered Universe, Time Out of Control
Chapter 313: The Shattered Universe, Time Out of Control
The stars are dazzling, and the universe is transforming in silence.
Fate has been broken; the future is free.
Ares stood at the edge of the newborn universe, gazing at the once unshakeable river of destiny, now transformed into countless intersecting tributaries, each representing a different possibility.
He should have felt relieved, but his brow was furrowed.
The universe is out of balance.
Fate is no longer a single shackle, but an infinitely expanding net. However, things that should have been fixed on a certain timeline begin to overflow and erode reality.
“This isn’t freedom,” he muttered to himself. “This is… out of control.”
"Ares!" A familiar voice called from afar. Selna leaped onto the nebula, her eyes filled with anxiety. Behind her lay a universe that had just undergone a transformation, where everything seemed to be collapsing.
“The timelines are devouring each other,” Selna gasped. “Just now, five futures appeared simultaneously in our world. Different possibilities intertwined, past warriors, wars that never happened… everything is playing out in reality.”
Ares' pupils contracted slightly, and he clenched his fists.
He broke free from the shackles of fate, but triggered a deeper cosmic catastrophe.
The concept of time began to become blurred.
Ares stood atop the starry sky, gazing down at the world below. Souls once bound to the past were resurrected, empires that had never existed appeared out of thin air, and in some places, multiple versions of himself coexisted.
—In a burning temple, he saw himself standing on the ruins, clad in golden armor, looking down at the kneeling gods.
—On another chaotic battlefield, he saw another version of himself, standing alone in a pool of blood, surrounded by the destruction of everything he cherished.
All possibilities that never happened are becoming reality.
Selna's face turned pale: "We must stop this."
Ares took a deep breath, his expression grim: "This is not simply a disorder of time, it is the collapse of the very essence of destiny—we broke it, but we didn't have time to build a new order."
"Then what do we do?" Selna frowned. "Rebuild the River of Destiny?"
Ares shook his head: "No, fate cannot be rebuilt, otherwise everything will return to its origin... But we must find a balance to stop the torrent of time from completely engulfing the universe."
At that moment, a deep voice came from the void.
"You simply cannot stop it."
Ares turned around abruptly and saw a dark rift appear between the nebulae. A blurry figure slowly emerged from the rift. His figure was distorted, seemingly belonging to all timelines, yet also as if he had never existed.
"Who are you?" Ares gripped the hilt of his sword, his eyes blazing.
The blurry figure smiled slightly: "I am the 'erased one'."
"What do you mean?" Selna frowned.
"You have shattered the river of fate and released everything, but have you ever thought about those beings that fate has erased?" The figure slowly approached, his voice seemingly coming from countless broken timelines. "We...were once alive, but fate defined us as 'unfit to exist,' so we were erased, forgotten, and buried in the cracks of time."
Ares' pupils contracted slightly: "You are... a being abandoned by fate?"
The shadowy figure chuckled softly: "It's not just me. Countless other timelines that 'shouldn't exist' have awakened at this moment."
He raised his hand and waved it gently, causing the entire universe to tremble.
—On countless planets, vanished cities have reappeared, long-extinct civilizations have begun to revive, and dynasties, warriors, demons, gods… that should have been forgotten by history have all returned!
"You think that breaking free from fate is freedom?" The shadowy voice echoed through the starry sky. "No, you have merely opened a door, allowing true disaster to descend!"
boom!!
The starry sky cracked open, and countless black shadows poured out from the rift in time. They had no fixed shape; each shadow was a branch of fate that had been abandoned and was now released to devour reality!
"Ares!" Selna suddenly drew her sword, a beam of light piercing the darkness. Her sword energy instantly shattered a shadowy figure, but the figure quickly reformed and became even larger.
Ares took a deep breath, his eyes utterly calm.
"We must act immediately."
Selna turned around, her expression anxious: "What do we do?"
Ares slowly raised his hand, and golden lines appeared on his palm, the last bit of power he had snatched from the river of fate.
"Fate is no longer a chain... but it is still a rule."
He closed his eyes, sensing the turbulence of the entire universe, trying to find a point of balance.
But at that very moment, a dark shadow suddenly pounced on him, trying to devour his soul!
boom!!
A burst of purple light suddenly erupted, and a familiar figure stood in front of Ares.
It's Ulysses, the man who once disappeared into the time rift!
"Not quite dead yet?" Ares raised an eyebrow.
Ulysses snorted coldly, holding a black and gold spear, his gaze icy: "You're a real troublemaker, Ares."
"Likewise." Ares smiled, his gaze fixed on the dark figure in the distance. "Coming to help?"
Ulysses licked his lips: "No, I'm here to collect a debt."
As the number of shadows increased, the entire universe began to distort, and the timeline, like a collapsing torrent, swallowed up all reality.
Ares, Selna, and Ulysses stood side by side, knowing that this was an inevitable war.
They are facing not just one enemy, but the entire abandoned universe, an unpredictable, unstoppable, and invincible enemy!
"Can we win?" Selna whispered.
Ares smiled and gripped the hilt of his sword: "It's not a question of whether we can win... it's that we must win."
He slowly raised his sword, pointing it directly at the shattered void: "Come, let us see if the existence beyond fate... is truly invincible!"
boom!!!
The battle broke out.
The battle erupted in the starry sky, as if the universe had been torn into countless pieces. Black shadows surged in like a tide, each representing an abandoned timeline, desperately struggling with an inescapable fate. Ares, Selna, and Ulysses stood at the center of the battlefield, with the collapsing galaxy behind them and the darkness relentlessly encroaching on reality before them.
"Come on, fight alongside your Grim Reapers!" Ulysses sneered, his spear spitting golden flames, each swing shattering a phantom. But each subsequent swing brought forth another phantom, even more ferocious, rushing towards them, as if these beings would never disappear.