It turned out Bymor had no talent for fine energy control at all. Fortunately, the Timelady also had no talent in unscrambling broken spacetime. Unlike Bymor, she was leaning though. It had taken her five hours the first time, four hours the second time, and two hours the third time.

Bymor was badly hurt after destroying his active portal skill so many times. The issue was that he had to destroy it on the side they were coming from, the side the Timelady would read the past of. So the portal had to be active while he did it. If it weren't for that, he would be able to simply cancel the skill and shatter space on the leaving side.

He was having trouble dealing with the piling damage he was receiving. Rebounds damaged the spirit, and that damage could spill into both body and soul. It usually spilled in the body, hence Bymor's coughing blood the first time. The last time had also injured his soul.

Healing spirit and soul were harder than the body. Bymor had all kinds of potions, but they were weak to begin with — the Thenor Empire's alchemy was as terrible was its formation mastery — and the more his body consumed before getting rid of all of them, the less effect they had. It was much like how the mortal body adapted to common medicine back on Earth too, but it was faster when dealing with magical medicine. Bymor's spiritual channels were bent, many of them burned.

So, this time, Aaron was healing the man as they ran. Burned spiritual channels couldn't be healed though, on remade anew, a delicate job that took a lot of time. Alas, after one hour of flight, Bymor was as good as new — and Aaron was missing half a dantian worth of Arcane Energy.

"I only ever saw the ministers heal this well," Bymor said. "This is miraculous. You should—"

Suddenly, a beam appeared on the horizon. It looked like a black pillar connecting earth and heaven. It felt too distant, more distant than they should be capable of seeing, yet there it was.

But that wasn't what made Bymor stop talking. Just as the pillar appeared, he clenched his heart and fell on his knees — or would have fallen if Aaron wasn't keeping him flying. "Ahhhhhh!" He yelled in agony.

Aaron watched but did nothing. That was a psychological pain that came from his connection with the Goddess. The only way to heal that was to cut the connection, but he wouldn't touch that unless Bymor asked him to.

Tears of blood fell from his eyes as he looked at the heavens in pleading silence. His mouth was open in a mute scream. He reached at the blue skies with one of his hands, then let both hands drop.

The mental pain was gone, but not whatever he was feeling.

"The Divine Mandatary has betrayed the Light," he said with a hopeless voice. "The Apostle of Light has been slain." He looked at the black beam. "That mark of sin shall forever follow the betrayer for the rest of his miserable life."

As if to mock him, the pillar faded away. His mouth opened so wide his jaw almost touched the ground.

"All skills can be countered, even those cast by the gods," Aaron said. "We'll deal with the emperor later, focus on surviving right now."

The most pressing issue was Bymor's energy regeneration. Keeping the Timelord frozen while moving him at the same time was starting to take a toll after half a day. One-third of the Space Energy his dantian could now only be recovered if he unfroze the beast or if the Timelady took days to reach them.

Unfortunately, the ritual was still going strong, it would take at least a few days to dissipate. Aaron praised the Timelady's ritualistic skills once more in his mind. If only she weren't his enemy, she might have become a rare useful ally instead.

Alas, it wasn't to be. On the bright side, midnight would mark three days since he had last consumed a Divine sprout, and he would be able to cultivate again.

Not that it would solve all his issues. From the Timelady's attack against the crusade's Champions, it was clear she was a powerful Master. She at least was well versed in attacking using Time blades, and that might mean she would still be too powerful for him to deal with even after his level up. The gap between Champion and Master was that big, and the Master being skilled only widened it. However, he would at least be able to run faster and assist Bymor in creating portals.

Arcane Energy was second to all in everything, except Vital Energy. The energy expenditure was much greater than using the "native" energy for most things though, even with his workarounds and creative energy usage. As a Champion Arcanist, he would be as capable as any Five Star Shaper. That would allow his portals to go far enough before he spent all his energy away in only a couple of them, as was currently the case.

The Timelady's rate of advancement in fixing the broken spacetime to follow them stopped decreasing too much by then. It was only expected. Aaron would take half an hour by using ample experience and knowledge she wasn't privy to. For her to take only one hour and fifty minutes the fourth time was already amazing.

Aaron and Bymor kept running throughout the day. He had to heal after each jump now, and by late evening, over half his dantian was kept completely spent before they teleported away again. Even that little was only because he was using very rare and valuable Spatial crystals to recover faster and wasn't using any detection skill anymore. Everything seemed to be going relatively fine though.

That's when things went downhill.

They were in a desert by them. Aaron had just finished healing Bymor after the teleportation when his active perception picked up someone moving fast at them. Someone coming at them from straight ahead. The Timelady had visited that place previously and could Time-teleport close to there. More importantly, she had gotten to them before Bymor had enough energy to portal away again.

Aaron couldn't create a portal himself with her there, no matter how short-ranged. The Timelady had started attempting to block them from the second portal onwards. Master Bymor could push through her blockade of spacetime through sheer power, but a Five Star Aaron couldn't.

Bymor also couldn't just teleport them away either. Portals could be opened safely if time in an area was scrambled, but straight teleportation was too sensitive to Time fluctuations. The Timelady only needed to twist time a little, and they would be effectively killing themselves.

There was only one way out, Aaron had to level up and portal away. Though it was close, he wasn't still at the right time to cultivate, so he might injure himself — not to mention the danger of getting killed by the Timelady while focusing on cultivating. However, it was more dangerous not to level up.

"The Mouth-Woman is here," said Aaron. "If we keep running, how long do you think you can postpone your defeat?"

He had claimed to be able to fight her to a standstill, but that had been at peak condition. Now it was only a matter of time for him to lose.

"An hour. Maybe two if I use all my trump cards."

"Make it five. Fly me away and remember to not unfreeze the Timelord no matter what. The last thing we need is for the ritual to complete." He sat in midair and let Bymor take control of his body. Then he took a few hundred Arcane crystals from his ring.

He needed energy, and he needed it fast. The crystals would help shave away the cultivation time for Arcane Energy, but Qi and Vital Energy would be an issue. If need be, he might level up only as an Arcanist first and keep being a Five Star Qi Manipulator and Vitamancer.

Five hours was already half the time leveling up to Champion should take. He would accomplish that by inscribing a fourth formation in his dantian to increase his energy absorption. So many different formations that close to each other affected themselves in potentially explosive ways, hence the reason the fourth formation wasn't there already.

Inscribing it would be dangerous even for him, and it was one of the few times that that world's limitation of his reasoning attribute hindered him. He had conjectured the formation beforehand because of how useful it would be, but he was still only halfway through to double-checking it in his thoughts. At that level, formation mastery was no child's play.

Alas, nobody ever said cultivating was easy or risk-free. Which reminded Aaron of yet two alternatives to get the required energy to level up, but they came with way too many issues that he wasn't willing to take. One was to outright sacrifice Bymor for his Vital Energy, but Aaron would rather die than cross that line unless Bymor himself suggested it. No, he would not do that. As for the second option, it was so potentially hindering that he would only use it if he failed in inscribing the fourth formation and was on the brink of death.

What were the changes he would fail though?

He closed his eyes and cultivated.

The herald asked for five hours. Bymor chuckled in desperation as he kept flying away from the female Timelord. He had been optimistic already when he said one or two hours. He was sure he would be dead before the second hour.

The biggest issue was that the female Master knew exactly what to do to keep his energy expenditure high without ever putting herself in a position that allowed him to attack her. Instead of erecting Time domes or the kind to hinder his movement, which would allow him to destroy it and cause a rebound on her, she kept her distance and locked the surrounding space with an area skill. Destroying area skills would take a lot of his energy, so he was forced to only untangle himself from it and keep running.

She also kept him mentally exhausted by keeping Time blades coming. The herald had taught Bymor how to deal with those blades in an almost offensive way, but it still caused him to use his energy. He was merely a Three Star Devout and a One Qi Manipulator besides being a Master Shaper. Even his levels as a Shaper had come straight from the Goddess of Light, bypassing the Qi-cultivation-first barrier most people in the world were limited by. His Holy Energy reserves were little, and his Space Energy was already close to getting depleted.

They kept at that for way too long. The damn female Mouth-Man — what a weird species name when talking about their females! — was too careful, but that only meant Bymor never had any chance of escaping or doing something that would buy him extra time.

Exactly fifty minutes later, he had used almost all his energy. So he started taking out his rare and expensive protective or attacking items.

The Aegis of Aeons, a huge three bark enchanted by the goddess herself, was broken in less than a thousand Time blades.

The Azure Phoenix Feather burned true and forced the Timelady to a stop for once — for two minutes. She destroyed the flames after only that little time though, a feat of power and skill.

The Holy Tear of Light, his strongest item, protected him for ten minutes. That gave him a respite, but it was too little.

All his items were used, but in the end, one and a half-hour after the herald asked for five hours, he used his last shred of Space Energy other than the energy required to keep the Timelord frozen.

Bymor kept running physically, but the female Timelord had detected his lack of energy usage. A Time blade came straight for him and cut his legs clean in a single strike. He fell rolling on the ground.

Thankfully, he worked out. He used a strand of Qi to stop the bleeding and balanced himself in his two arms as he kept "running" away with them. The next to Time blades cut his arms away.

He fell face-first this time. Still, he used his chin to keep running. The herald had asked for five hours. Bymor would give him the closest to that he could. To obey the herald in all things were the orders the goddess had given him, and he owed her everything he had. Dying today for the glory of her crusade was only natural.

A foot on his back pinned him to the ground. Then the female Timelord flipped him over with the same foot. Her hood was down, showing a surprisingly beautiful face. Despite her lack of hair and excessive whiteness, Bymor had never seen such a beautiful woman.

"Don't blame yourself, big man," she said with a delightful voice that stirred something in Bymor in spite of the situation. "You were never fated to flee from me." She turned to the still meditating herald. "Neither were you."

No. Bymor refused to give up like this. He still wasn't done. He could use his radiant skills to win the herald a few extra seconds. "The Light that shines over the world..."

He started changing but was frozen in time much before he could finish it.