Galaxy's First Ruler

Time...

Not one other thing could explain Boudicca's presence and then her disappearance. Not one other thing could explain him seeing the Reverse Rainbow Flying Serpent coming towards the skies over the Manor.

Two bat-like wings sprouted on his back, and changing his direction, Aldrich dashed towards the sky. He didn't know from where that sound had come, and he also didn't know from how far in the sky it had come. But he knew to find its origin, he had to reach it before it could make him go back in time again.

From the absence of Sha in his shadow, Aldrich had realized that this reversing of Time only affected a limited region. Much like how he could only use his Divine Sense only in a specific area depending upon the value of his Perception. But this wasn't the only thing he had noticed.

The loss in Divine Sense because of Serpent Slither and space-fluctuations hadn't returned to original values. It was like this reversing of time had affected only the physical things. Aldrich looked at the Skill Arise, and as he saw it had come out of the cooldown, he nodded, confirming his guess.

Not caring for his SP and MP getting consumed by the Wings of Bat Lord, Aldrich let himself loose in the skies in search of anything that seemed out of place. He even stopped his search for the mythical serpent with the Darkness attribute. The only thing that mattered to him now was the being who could manipulate time. And the good thing was, Aldrich already had some ideas about the identity of this serpent's spirit.

After getting the prophecy, Aldrich had scoured the data available to House Venomous Rose. And on Golden Birds and Mythical Serpents, he had gone even a step beyond. He had spent a significant amount of time researching the name and abilities of mythical serpents. Serpents whose existence the current and ancient Dreamers had confirmed in the past. And among those, some mythical creatures had the ability of Time manipulation, too.

Aldrich didn't know which serpent was it exactly, but now he knew what he was looking for.

Thump-Thump...

As Aldrich passed by the Rainbow-colored serpent's spirit, his heart thumped, realizing the moment of sound was upon him. If he were to fall for this time-reversal again, all his Divine Sense would be consumed and he would have to return to the Shadow World empty-handed.

'Where is it...'

Aldrich hovered mid-air, and looked around, above and below, but couldn't see and sense anything.

Gulp!

'Where...'

Aldrich's mind was racing, calculating the probable locations based on the sound that he had foolishly ignored. Just when it seemed he would not find anything, the air vibrated around him.

Grrrr...

The familiar growling sound made Aldrich's heart palpitate. He snapped his head diagonally upwards to his right and saw a hint of a massive wind-ball a few miles away. The entire ball was also getting sucked towards the fissure. He was familiar with the concept of wind, so he could tell in one glance that it wasn't the wind, and it wasn't the space, too.

It was more in tune with the fluctuations happening around Aldrich, but its nature deviated from any Law he was familiar with. And through the process of elimination, he could only guess that it was Time. Not caring for the fancy hand gestures, Aldrich shouted.

"El Cid... ARISE!!!"

... hiss...

As the second part of that sound came to Aldrich, El Cid came out from the Darkness in front of him. The wings vanished, and Aldrich grabbed El Cid's cloak. The black-armored knight's hands went for his greatswords, and as El Cid's stomach ballooned up, both Aldrich and the undead Boss vanished.

Shuuu!

False One Step Shunpo!!!

The pair appeared a few meters away from the transparent wind-layered ball, whose size was easily greater than many football fields combined. And though it looked transparent, Aldrich could feel there was a layer between him and whatever was beyond it.

Bang!

Countless slimy toothless snakes burst out of El Cid's stomach. His legs were flailing as if they had no bones, and through his helmet's gap, one could have seen the mutation had also made his skin peel off his body. But not caring for his state, he grabbed Aldrich's ankle as if already knowing his lord's thought, and flung him towards the ball.

... houuu!!!

And as the last part of the strange sound came out of the ball, Aldrich's entire body plunged into it.

"Ahhhhhh!!!!"

Aldrich couldn't help but let out a roar. It was like millions of knives were going in and out of him. He felt as if countless insects were biting him, and eating away his flesh. His organs were rotting and returning to their original state. And his hairs kept turning short and black from their white color.

Even though he had the will to bear this pain, this will of Aldrich was now concentrated on resisting the weakness because of losing his Divine Sense. Sometimes, letting these feelings run amok was the best of the options.

Aldrich's eyes gradually turned black before returning to white, and the mask on his face kept losing its horn. When it seemed to Aldrich that many days, weeks, and months had passed going through this agonizing pain, a pop resounded around him.

POP!!!

Aldrich heard this pop, like the bursting of a bubble, and finally reached the other end of the transparent film of the ball. And as he controlled his broken breath, he looked upward and saw something that made him let out a huge smile.

In front of Aldrich, there was a massive coiled serpent. Massive enough for Aldrich to feel like an ant. Its entire body was reddish-brown, and its pupil-less eyes were white. But from time to time, Aldrich could see many colored twinkling gases churning its eyes, like galactic nebulae.

Hisssssssss!

The massive serpent let out a hiss, and as it moved its head towards him, Aldrich muttered its name out loud.

"It's you... FALAK's BREATH - THE STRAND OF TIME!!!"