Whoosh—
The Astral Express pierced through the clouds and slowly descended from the sky.
Frieren and Serie fell into unprecedented shock.
"This is... a thousand years ago?!"
They saw Flamme below, teaching Frieren.
At that time, Frieren was still truly a young Spirit girl. Her village had been destroyed by demons, and she had been taken in by Flamme.
She was only in her early teens, following by her side to learn magic.
In just a few dozen minutes, they had crossed over a thousand years of time and arrived in the world of a millennium ago.
"Time-reversal magic? How did you do this?!"
Serie stared at Setsuna. Her usual lazy demeanor was replaced with seriousness.
"This isn't magic. It's science."
"We live in a three-dimensional universe, moving forward along the axis of time. But in higher dimensions, time doesn't have just one direction."
"If you can traverse higher-dimensional space, you can appear at any point in the past, present, or future."
Setsuna took a sip of tea.
"!"
The science of the interstellar era was far too advanced for natives to comprehend. In a classic world of swords and magic, there was naturally no concept of modern physics.
However, to most people, technology advanced beyond understanding was no different from magic or miracles.
"Ah..."
"Back then, I had just started learning from my teacher. I wonder what this tree looks like a thousand years later?"
Frieren murmured absentmindedly.
In her memory, Flamme was already a figure from over a thousand years ago.
Personally traveling back into the past inevitably stirred deep emotions.
"It's still there a thousand years later. Flamme sealed her notes inside the tree and a barrier. Though it won't be very useful for your future self."
Setsuna replied.
"She really hasn't changed."
Serie felt a trace of relief, then suddenly realized a major issue:
"Wait. That means at this point in time, there are two of us?!"
"If I meet myself from this time, what would happen?!"
"That's the classic paradox of time travel. I suggest you don't get any strange ideas, or you might cause some unexpected consequences in the future."
With a wave of his hand, Setsuna guided the Astral Express to slowly land.
Boom—
After planting the sapling, Flamme suddenly felt something strange, as if time and space had paused for an instant.
It was as though she had stepped into a singularity of time. This moment felt infinitely long, yet also nonexistent, leaving her senses in complete confusion.
When she turned back, she saw three figures descending from midair.
"Frieren? Why did you suddenly change your clothes?..."
"And Master? And this is...?!"
Flamme was momentarily confused.
The Frieren standing before her had not changed much in appearance, but her temperament seemed more mature.
The simple white short robe had been replaced by a refined mage's outfit, its edges adorned with dark golden trim, giving her an elegant and composed presence.
If one had to describe it, it was as if Frieren had grown up in an instant.
Beside her stood her own master, Serie, along with a tall man she had never seen before.
"Flamme."
Frieren and Serie were filled with emotion.
They hadn't expected that crossing a thousand years would truly allow them to meet someone from the past.
"What did you just say? That once this tree grows, it will protect this place even a thousand years later?"
Serie stepped forward and examined Flamme and the sapling.
"You were right. A thousand years later, it's still there. Though we never got around to unsealing it."
"?"
Flamme grew even more confused.
"Master, why are you with Frieren?..."
"We came to find you from a thousand years in the future."
Serie casually conjured a chair with magic and sat down.
"Ah, you really haven't changed from how I remember. Still fond of that boring little magic."
She glanced at the sea of flowers covering the ground.
There was no need to guess—it was Flamme's flower field magic.
"???"
Flamme was completely stunned.
"What?"
"That's right, Flamme. Someone kindly offered to let me see you again, and I didn't expect it to actually be true."
"Hmm... the Frieren from a thousand years later is quite an excellent mage."
Resting her chin on her hand, Serie stared at Flamme for a long time.
Perhaps because they had been separated for so long, she wanted to take a better look at this former disciple.
"It's time travel magic. We came from a thousand years in the future to the present. He wanted to meet you."
Frieren pointed at Setsuna.
As if to prove her identity, she released the suppression on her mana.
Whoosh—
Her mana surged outward like a pillar of light, instantly enveloping most of the area.
Flamme could clearly sense it—that was power far beyond what the current Frieren could possibly possess!
Only centuries or even a millennium of accumulation could create such vast magical power.
Frieren's habit of suppressing her mana had originated from her, and over a thousand years, she had refined that skill to perfection. Even Flamme could barely detect any flaw.
"You..."
Flamme subconsciously took two steps back.
She finally understood the sense of dissonance she felt from Frieren:
This was no longer the young Spirit girl she had once picked up. She was now unquestionably a great mage!
"This... what is going on? How did you all..."
Flamme looked at Frieren, then at Setsuna.
"Simply put, a thousand years later, the entire world has been brought under the rule of the Starsea Empire."
"We have completely eliminated the threat of the Demon King's army and unified all the fragmented nations across the continent."
Setsuna snapped his fingers.
He showed Flamme the Demon King and several great demons locked inside cages.
"Since it wouldn't be right to leave out any of your master-disciple lineage, why not come with us together?"
"In the Starsea Empire, not just a thousand years—even ten thousand or a hundred thousand years—you can continue living."
Setsuna extended a direct invitation.
"Don't you want to see what the world looks like a thousand years from now?"
...
Half an hour later.
Under Serie's enthusiastic persuasion, a still-dumbfounded Flamme boarded the Astral Express.
It took her quite some time just to barely understand the situation.
"Mm... time travel magic?... Let me think... how is this even possible?"
"If you want to understand the principles, you'll need some time—go study in the Research Department."
"The world a thousand years in the future... is even more bizarre than I imagined?"
Like every native who boarded the Astral Express, Flamme felt completely out of place.
Holographic interfaces were everywhere, the crew wore strange outfits, and the mechanical structures had bizarre shapes... every corner was filled with devices and equipment she didn't recognize.
"You can learn the details yourself. If you have questions, ask the Sophon or the Angeloids."
Setsuna handed her a tablet and casually checked off another item on his list.
Boom—
The starship set off again, returning from distant history to the original timeline.
"So, can you take me to your country now?"
Serie sat in her seat, swinging her legs as she looked at Setsuna.
"You can, but I need to give you a small task first."
Setsuna thought for a moment.
"What?"
"Go establish a magic association and recruit some people."
"I'll provide you with a list. A research team and Angeloids will arrive here later to assist you and ensure the timeline doesn't deviate too much."
Since the timeline of Frieren's world was currently in the Hero's childhood era, the magic association of later generations had not yet been established, and many of those mages had not even been born yet.
This situation had occurred before in the Honkai world as well, and it wasn't difficult to handle.
"Huh?"
Serie found it a bit strange. Looking at the list, the information provided was incredibly detailed—so detailed that she almost suspected this man could foresee the future.
"You mean you want me to take in some disciples for you?"
"Wait, this is going to take a long time."
"From the planet's frame of reference, yes. But we can jump to the future, so the actual time spent won't be long."
Setsuna smiled.
"Besides, for someone like you who has lived for who knows how long, spending a bit of time shouldn't matter, right?"
"...Troublesome."
Serie originally wanted to refuse, but after thinking for a moment, she agreed anyway.
"Fine. I'll do it for the sake of your time travel magic. But why are all the names on this list girls?"
"Don't worry about such details."