Author's Notes: Chapter edited and corrected by Scott Fellman.
Serena POV.
I looked at Innocent Zero's castle before me. It was a huge flying fortress, with hundreds of creatures flying around it. It had a massive magical defensive shield that disintegrated anyone who didn't enter through the gate—gates that could only be opened from the inside and were magically reinforced. Pretty nice, I must say.
And that was where Innocent Zero was. He could see his enormous, colossal magical power. I had felt and seen Wahlberg's, and there was no doubt that Innocent Zero's far surpassed it. But I could also see the dark magic within him; it almost seemed as if he and Voldemort were cut from the same cloth. Their bodies were so changed and altered by rituals and dark magic that they looked terrifyingly similar.
But hey, that would be a good match. Before that, though, I'll get my phone out and finish buying Paradox Defense.
Paradox Defense II [-44] [664]
She wasn't stupid enough to fight someone whose main power was time manipulation without the proper defenses.
With that done, I descended from the sky without even trying to hide. I could see the flying monsters roaring and coming toward me. Hundreds of lightning arrows erupted around me and tore apart the nearby monsters. When I reached the castle's shield, I launched Hati at it, and it began to devour the defenses.
It started small and quickly grew, consuming the entire shield. I entered through one of the holes Hati had made. I descended into the middle of the castle, destroying the roof as I went, and finally reached Innocent Zero.
He waited for me calmly, looking at me curiously. Or rather, "looking" was an exaggeration, since he had no face. I moved my hand, and a portal dropped the heads of the quintuplets and Cell War. Innocent Zero just stared at them, not worried or annoyed in the slightest.
"I must admit you have me at a disadvantage," Innocent Zero said calmly. "You kill my sons; you come to my castle and confront me. Perhaps you have some reason, but I don't even know your name," Innocent Zero said.
"You can call me Baiser. And I'm here to take down the Innocent Zero group. And you're the only one left." I said simply. "And I want your head; I thought that was obvious." I said while looking at the heads of his children.
"Oh, I didn't ask you for what you wanted," Innocent Zero said casually. "I just wanted to know your name, so I know what to call your corpse when I reanimate it." I looked at him, amused.
"That's quite an impressive claim. If only you could back it up." I said playfully. Innocent Zero nodded.
"Summon, Chronos, God of Time," Innocent Zero said calmly. His wand transformed into a long red staff with a large clock at one end. "Timez Unmove," Innocent Zero said. I could feel time around me stop completely; I was utterly still. I saw Innocent Zero walking toward me. "I wonder what secrets your body holds that allowed you to defeat my children, especially Doom. I suppose that's a windfall," Innocent Zero said close to me.
I finally moved and punched his face, or whatever Innocent Zero had; my fist buried itself in his face, and Innocent Zero shot out against the wall, crashing through it.
"Is that all you've got? Boring magic I can easily break? " I asked dully as Innocent Zero rose from the rubble. I could see his head flicker, cubes forming before a face finally emerged.
"You... broke my Timez Unmove. Truly impressive," Innocent Zero said, sounding excited. I just snorted and shook my head.
"Enough talk." I said simply, then stepped forward and used Acceleraise along with Kokonoe. Acceleraise Arrows that increased the speed of those who stepped on them. I combined all nine of them into one, greatly increasing my speed.
I appeared next to Innocent Zero and tried to hit him. Only for Innocent Zero to disappear and avoid my blow.
"Timez Arrow Rain." Innocent Zero sent hundreds of clock hands my way. I just went back to using Acceleraise.
This magic technically worked on other magic, but I adapted it quickly nonetheless. Each arrow was placed in the path of a clock hand, knocking the hands out of the way with a new push in another direction.
Interesting. I approached Innocent Zero again and placed an arrow beneath him. Innocent Zero stepped on it unexpectedly, and his body lurched toward me. My fist slammed into his stomach, sending him flying once more.
Before the dust settled, a massive serpent of darkness tried to attack me. I dodged it before it struck again. I easily created dozens of solar shots and positioned the Acceleraise in front of me.
Arrange several of the directional arrows in a spiral, like a rifled cannon. Each solar shot passed through one of the rifled cannons, causing it to spin rapidly and its speed to increase explosively.
Innocent Zero dodged it to the side, but more directional arrows appeared. Each one appeared in the path of the shots and curved toward Innocent Zero, causing the solar shots to track him.
Innocent Zero simply flicked his wand, and an enormous mass of darkness appeared before him, dispelling my solar shots. Then he raised his wand and fired a blast of darkness at me.
I only moved slightly to dodge it and watched as the darkness destroyed everything in its path. I raised my wand again and used Graviole. The enormous gravity I created crushed the entire castle. Innocent Zero leaned slightly, then growled, his magical power exploding in annoyance as he broke free.
He was about to move when Marioness's threads ensnared his body, immobilizing him. Finally, a beam of destructive power struck him in the stomach, causing Innocent Zero to cough up blood. I freed him from the threads as he tried to clutch the hole in his chest.
Then he glared at me with hatred. Then he moved his staff. I could fully feel time rewinding a few seconds thanks to the defenses. After I used Graviole, Innocent Zero disappeared the moment I used my Marioness threads and positioned himself behind me. A massive wave of darkness surged toward me while I was distracted.
In contrast, my power of destruction pierced his Darkness without him noticing, as he seemed quite sure he had me trapped, or didn't believe anything could break the Darkness magic, so I made another hole in him.
Innocent Zero spat blood in disbelief as he stared at me in surprise.
"No matter how bad things get, I still have this! Summon, Chronos, God of Time! Timez Thirds: Timez Rewind!" Innocent Zero exclaimed with all his might. His magic seemed to explode as a huge black clock appeared above us and began to rewind.
Thanks to the defense I had bought. I felt time start to rewind, then stop. I looked around, and I was on top of Innocent Zero's castle. To my surprise, he had only regressed a couple of minutes. I just smirked and launched myself back at the castle.
This time I didn't even hold back. I destroyed everything around me until I reached Innocent Zero. He seemed ready, and we started fighting again. I smiled broadly as I easily deflected all his blows, then hit him and left another hole in his chest. I just looked at him mockingly.
"Summon, Chronos, God of Time! Timez Thirds: Timez Rewind!" Innocent Zero shouted once more. I felt time rewind again. It truly was incredible magic. Incredibly annoying. This time, I felt it go back days, and I stopped momentarily. I was above the Magic Realm.
I looked around, then turned to Easton. The entrance exam. Wow. I didn't know how long Innocent Zero had been gone, but it had been days. I just appeared in this world at this exact moment, and I can't go back any further, since I didn't really exist before this, and I doubted he could send me to another universe. Curious.
Even so, I smiled mockingly. I created a portal and appeared in Innocent Zero's castle. I raised my hand as hundreds of spells shot out and rained down on Innocent Zero's castle. The shield shattered almost immediately, and my barrage destroyed the rest of the castle.
"BAISER!!" Innocent Zero yelled furiously as he emerged from his hiding place, almost seeming surprised by my attack. But to my surprise, the quintuplets were there; I'd sensed them as soon as I appeared, but it didn't change anything. I just laughed out loud as I charged into the fight.
Killing the children was extremely easy, and finishing off Innocent Zero once again was just as easy. Innocent Zero glared at me with fury.
"Summon, Chronos, God of Time! Timez Thirds: Timez Rewind!" Innocent Zero shouted once more. I went back in time to, well, a few minutes before this fight. Since my timeline was exactly when I appeared in this world, I had no way of knowing how much time Innocent Zero had rewound.
Even so, I went to the castle only to be greeted with a massive beam of darkness. I simply used Spaces to erase the attack in front of me and then dodged a 100% Doom. I smiled broadly before starting the fight once again.
This time, they all seemed prepared, with their Summons and Thirds activated. Even so, it was no fight. I countered their magic with ease, killing them one by one before striking Innocent Zero and destroying half his body.
"Summon, Chronos, God of Time! Timez Thirds: Timez Rewind!" Innocent Zero shouted again, and I returned to the starting point. I smiled, then headed back to Innocent Zero's castle.
This time, Innocent Zero greeted me not only with his sons, but with Wahlberg Baigan and all the Divine Visionaries, their eyes glazed and moving unnaturally. I could see the parasite that was mentally controlling them. I just smiled even wider.
I'd almost be offended that Innocent Zero had brought them here, and that meant my altercation with the Bureau and my encounter with Wahlberg hadn't been necessary,. Still, I was lucky this was actually fun.
This time, with Spaces on the table and the Bureau's magic, I had to work a little harder to avoid getting hit. I just have to say, Acceleraise is absolutely broken. It wasn't vector control in the strictest sense; it just generated impulses in certain directions. But by stacking them one after another and guiding them, I could practically deflect and avoid any attack.
He could use Acceleraise against a few attacks Spaces and Sand. The former was too intangible, and the latter was made of many particles, both of which overwhelmed Acceleraise.
But even Ryoh Grantz's Light could be deflected with my Acceleraise. I smiled excitedly, laughed, and killed each of them once more. Finally, Innocent Zero stood before me with a hole in his chest. He continued to glare at me with hatred.
"Summon, Chronos, God of Time! Timez Thirds: Timez Rewind!" he shouted, and once again I was back at the beginning. I stepped through my portal to the castle only to find it was gone. I smiled slightly.
Hiding? Wow, I didn't expect that from him. I smiled slightly. Now, let's see how we can—
I blinked, then smiled broadly and burst into laughter.
Oh, this was beautiful. Mors was still working! I didn't know if it was because of Paradox Defense, or if it was Mors's own functionality, Bellatrix's magic born from Thanatos's influence and authority, but Mors had survived the time reversal. Even death itself.
I still had Cell War marked and could track him just as easily, even after the magic had worn off after I'd killed him. But Mors seemed much more persistent than I expected.
I created a portal and crossed through it. To my surprise, they had moved to the other side of the continent. I only saw the castle; its defenses had improved considerably.
I just let out a laugh before bombarding him again.
"BAISER!!" I heard Innocent Zero's furious shout. I didn't even face him before continuing to play guitar. "Summon, Chronos, God of Time! Timez Thirds: Timez Rewind!" and we returned once more to the beginning. I smiled, amused, then stopped and looked around.
The Magic Realm… was destroyed. I could smell, see, and feel the dark magic in the air; I saw traces of a dark ritual before my gaze finally fell on its source.
I could see Innocent Zero, transformed by the Body Construction ritual, descend slightly. It was his incomplete demonic version. Black, hairy legs and arms; enormous wings of black feathers; horns; and a black halo of darkness.
That… shouldn't be possible. The eclipse should amplify dark magic in this world; at that moment, the ritual could be performed. Unless… look around me. I sacrificed the entire magical realm to amplify dark magic and carry out the ritual.
"Impressive," I said to Innocet Zero, narrowing my eyes. "You've been a real nuisance, Baiser. I don't know how you do it, how you retain your memories, but I know you appear at this exact moment. I couldn't find any trace of you before now. I don't know who you are, or where you came from, but I'll make sure to finish you off."
"Every time I rewind, the magic I need to consume increases more and more. I have to go further and further back to recover what I've lost. But that's given me years to prepare for this." Innocent Zero growled. I just smiled mockingly at him.
"You can try. It'll all be useless," I said mockingly. Innocent Zero simply raised his wand, and time stopped. I moved with equal ease and smiled mockingly at him. "What happened? I thought we'd already established that time doesn't affect me," I said mockingly. Innocent Zero narrowed his eyes and abandoned his Time Cold magic. I suppose he thought that, having evolved, his power would affect me—a pity it was completely useless.
To my surprise, he created hundreds of clock hands and threw them at me, then raised his wand.
"Timez Rate Up!" Innocent Zero said. I raised an eyebrow. Rate Up? My eyes widened as the clock hands sped up. One of them pierced my shoulder before I dodged the next few attacks.
Okay, Innocent Zero wasn't an idiot. He had created a new spell. 'Timez Rate' slowed down the passage of time by one-hundredth. It meant everything was incredibly slow, almost completely frozen. Apparently, he could reverse it and now accelerate time by a factor of 100. And it worked on magic, so his shots increased to an enormous speed.
I removed the hand from my shoulder and let my shoulder heal while I began dodging and deflecting attacks with Acceleraise. His shots were fast, but nothing I couldn't dodge or intercept.
Not only did he start throwing hands, but he also used Darkness magic. Enormous, gigantic, super-fast Darkness beams that I intercepted or dodged. We fought and destroyed everything around us.
His body was more resilient, so he was withstanding far more punishment than before. And most importantly, he was extremely defensive. He used Darkness shields to erase my attacks before they could hit him, or Timez on himself to dodge other attacks, instead of using it on me and my magic.
Actually, I wasn't the only one learning from our fights. And that only made it more exciting. I kept throwing magic back and forth. Unfortunately for him, my magic was still superior. Hati and the demonic fire devoured the magic left and right, even his Darkness magic and time magic.
It reached a point where we were immersed in a world of fire. Hati had grown enormously, fueled by my demonic fire and solar energy. He melted everything around him and kept growing.
Innocent Zero was covered in wounds; both his legs were burned, and one of his arms was mutilated and still bleeding. None of his magic could regenerate them, and I just looked at him with a smile.
"I guess this is it," I said to Innocent Zero. I didn't even wait; a solar shot pierced his forehead. Innocent Zero fell dead. I turned to survey the Magic Realm and drew my wand, then stopped when I heard something creak and break.
I turned to see Innocent Zero's body explode before a massive figure appeared in front of me. It seemed to have a human body with wings, but it was completely white, almost godlike, and had a huge halo above its head.
"Thank you. I needed extraordinary power to break the seal and reach the next step in my evolution. Now I have achieved perfection." Innocent Zero said in his perfected form, and I just looked at him curiously.
"I thought you needed six hearts for the complete ritual," I told Innocent Zero.
"I told you. I've had years, years to perfect a ritual that will increase my dark powers so I can perform it. And during that time, I searched for my last stray son," Innocent Zero said honestly. I paused slightly. He had gone after Mash. That… I really hadn't expected that. The only good thing… was that I hadn't decided to bring Mash along and would have helped him train. I was genuinely worried about facing Mash.
But Innocent Zero? Even his perfected form? No, he wasn't a concern.
"And you really think that will make any difference?" I asked, narrowing my eyes.
"I have left my human form behind to become a new deity. I am the personification of magic. I create from nothing. I control the flow of life. You... are completely defenseless against me. All you can do is accept the inevitability of your fate." Innocent Zero said authoritatively. I just looked at him with narrowed eyes.
To Innocent Zero's dismay, the fight turned out… the same. Yes, his power had increased tremendously, but… it was still magic, and he hadn't managed to do anything to nullify mine. His Timez still did not affect me, no matter how many times he tried. And even though he had managed to increase the speed of his attacks almost a thousand times, it still wasn't enough.
Thanks to Acceleraise and my speed upgrades, I was fast enough to dodge any of his attacks. So I finally managed to defeat him once again.
"Impossible... It's impossible that I lost... Never!!" Innocent Zero screamed furiously. "Summon, Lucifer, God of Darkness. Darkness Thirds, Divine Punishment!!" A huge, horrifying, six-armed entity appeared above Innocent Zero. It was large enough to cover an entire country. And then it created a massive sphere of darkness as big as the continent. "I will destroy the entire world! And with it, I will kill you! " Innocent Zero screamed madly.
I just watched the attack with curiosity. I projected a Rule Breaker between my fingers and examined it closely before looking at the enormous sphere of darkness. And I simply threw my Rule Breaker at it. The ceremonial dagger flew straight ahead, only to strike the sphere uselessly. I chuckled. I guess it was too powerful to nullify.
"Is that all you've got?" Innocent Zero mocked. I just shrugged.
"No... but I suppose we can finish this," I said simply. "Summon, Chronos, God of Time! " My wand transformed into Innocent Zero's staff, causing him to look at me in surprise.
"No, wait-"
"Timez Thirds: Timez Rewind!" I said playfully. Interestingly, the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown also had a time elemental gem, and along with my wand's upgrades, the time reversal spell was easy to manipulate and use. It was… quite confusing seeing time as another dimension to manipulate, but I did it anyway.
I began to undo all the timelines and loops Innocent Zero had made before we got back to where we originally were, and finally I undid the magic.
So now, I stood before Innocent Zero in his human form, with a hole in his chest, staring at me in fear. I guess he remembered everything about the loops. I smiled broadly at him.
"Thank you for your wonderful magic!" I said cheerfully before beheading him. I chuckled softly. I stole the magic from his body, grabbed his head and his children's heads, and placed them in a box.
I guess that was it. It was… good training.
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Author's Notes: As I mentioned and promised, and this time I was able to deliver, the Mashle arc ends with this! Yay!
Author's Notes 2: Lately, I've been playing around with AI and generating images, as always, so here are some of Serena that I thought I'd share. As always, the AI doesn't quite capture some details, so here are the best ones I could get!
https://imgur.com/a/sTy4f3K
And also, I have a couple of images created by TeoPJ that I thought I'd share.
https://imgur.com/a/JnAVBk2