A few minutes earlier...

"Goodbye, Ed Wilberforce." The child admiral released another black laser from his eyes. He'd already wounded Edard severely, with the latter out of his lightning form and lying on the ground, clamping his bleeding arm.

It was in this dire moment that the rune on his neck shone with a white light. A red ball popped out of the rune, which then transformed into the giant figure of a dragon.

Spiritual Sense has reached level 10 which is the maximum proficiency for a Tier 2 skill.

Spiritual Sense has reached Tier 3: besides your ability to see and smell everything within a thousand meter square radius, you can feel. Feeling is the ability to perceive things through your skin. You can feel and understand the nature of beings through the vapor released from their bodies.

Spiritual Sense has reached level 1 Tier 3.

This wasn't the right time. Edard pushed away the notification and focused on the dragon.

Its very appearance had momentarily stopped all the fightings. Edard heaved a sigh of relief. This was the first time he would use the dragon in battle and he wasn't sure how.

[It's okay, master. I got this.]

Yeah, of course, he can speak. Edard mused.

[Can you create those imposing golems?] Edard asked.

[And why would I need them?]

[Eh... forget it. Just pummel the bastard.]

Dragonkiller lunged forward. However, the child admiral was faster and he knew exactly what the dragon was going to do.

This wasn't a surprise, what really surprised everyone was how the child admiral clamped the dragon's horn and swung it down to the ground. The massive body of the dragon crashed down onto the battlefield. And just before it hit the ground, five black laser beams hit it.

[Kaarghhh...] The dragon screeched. It's body exploded into a pool of ether.

Everything happened so fast that nobody could actually react.

The rune on Edard's neck glowed again. Edard felt as if someone had put a smoldering iron on his skin.

[Thank you, master, for giving me some of your dragon magic.]

[What? How? When...?]

Edard didn't know whether to laugh or cry. On one hand, the dragon was still alive, on the other, the excruciating pain on his neck was still there. He knew he'd abundant dragon magic, albeit being locked away, so he had little problem lending some to the dragon. Hopefully, it that continued he could tap it.

The dragon attacked the child admiral again, firing giant fire balls from a distance. They were, of course, not effective. The child admiral dodged easily and effortlessly. After a few exchanges, the child admiral teleported to the dragon and tore him apart with Negrinki.

The dragon took Edard's dragon magic and recreated itself again.

0.2% of your dragon magic has been unlocked.

Edard read the screens and a sudden smile came to his lips. It appeared the actions of the dragon were slowly unlocking his dragon magic.

But the child admiral realized it as well. Not that he was afraid of Edard's dragon magic, but he didn't take any chances.

He withdrew a few meters back and summoned his own monster. A giant octopus with over one hundred tentacles. When Edard appraised it he saw 'Kraken'. That wasn't his definition of a Kraken. Hell, its body was larger than the dragon's, and it had... horns, no, spikes on its head.

The 'Kraken' lunged and hugged the dragon. Several previously-hidden mouths appeared on the tentacles and started drooling some oily, black saliva that smelt like crap.

Bottom line: Dragonkiller could no longer provide any help.

Luckily, he just ascended to Deva through his clone. His body turned into lightning again and the bleeding stopped. Unlike before, he could now maintain this form indefinitely using Push. He had a Mind Loop to protect his mind as well. Currently, his only problem was his soul. His basic soul protection could protect him against low level soul attacks but not this. He knew from experience that the admiral was still not being serious. A battle between a Wilberforce and an Urúrú was always a single exchange: you either win or die, no one got a second chance.

Edard stood slowly. His two new Deva Core skills (Intimidation and the Sixth element) were his most powerful skills. He would attack the admiral's mind with the most powerful telepathic attack he could muster, and attack his body with the Sixth element. The first mental attack would be necessary to interrupt the admiral's 'future vision' for the second attack to work. All of these would be made in a nanosecond. Simultaneously trying to defend himself against the admiral's attacks.

It would be a deathly match but Edard had trust in his Sixth element. In fact, it was the reason he'd decided to attack the immortal dais in his previous life.

Talking about the battlefield...

There was something uniquely familiar about that man Keleyenkov, it was probably because of the new Tier 3 Spiritual Sense but Edard felt very uneasy about the man.

A topic for another time. Right now, he needed to face the child admiral.

His body is protected by that indestructible lightning and his mind is protected by a Mind Loop - which isn't so invincible. The child admiral analyzed Edard. The way is through his soul and mind. My primary Deva core skill is soul-based and my secondary skill is mind-based... I couldn't have asked for a better opponent.

He smiled as he remembered something. A memory he'd stored just for this special occasion.

As Edard prepared, he was doing the same thing. His body wasn't as indestructible as Edard's, but his eyes helped him to avoid any lasting damage. His mind was also protected by a Mind Loop and his soul was completely impenetrable. His only weakness was his longevity, and Edard's Curse wasn't leveled up enough to hurt him.

Everything was in order. Even if something was to go wrong, he would see it two seconds before it happened.

When he killed the last scion of House Wilberforce, he would be appointed as the eleventh Divine Knight. That was the promise.

Kyandir released another laser beam from his eyes, but this time it formed a black orb. The orb transformed into a black sword. As soon as that swore appeared, the entire battlefield darkened. Upon closer inspection, the sword was actually absorbing all the sunlight like an indomitable Black Hole. After a minute, it was no longer possible to see your palm because of the darkness.

Edard immediately took precaution.

You have activated night vision.

Night vision has reached level 1 Tier

At the same time, he prepared his Sixth Element. It was a pure brown gel, which he mixed with Dragon-essense to create a brown-green mist. The mist then turned into a brown-green sword.

Sixth element + impurities.

That was what his Status-key showed, but he knew better. Wielding the sixth element with bare hands was absolutely impossible; it destroyed anything it came in contact with, including his hands. The only way to actually wield it was to mix it with Dragon-essense. Edard separated from his clones and gave each clone the same brown-green sword.

He intends to counter my future-vision with clones. The child admiral thought. It was another way to counter the Black Eyes. If you had intelligent clones who could think and act separately, and at the same time share their thoughts then you could counter the ability of the Black Eyes to see the future. All you had to do was to attack together with your clones: each clone lagging by a second. Two clones would give you an extra two seconds, three clones would give an extra three seconds and so on. As long you could create enough clones to outdo the targets duration to see the future, then one of your clones would ultimately land their attack.

Edard had three clones with him. If you added him, you would have four extra seconds. The child admiral could only see two seconds into the future, which meant two of Edard's clone's would hit the target.

It was time. Both the child admiral and Edard were prepared. Fully ready to destroy their opponent in a single strike.

Edard lunged forward, sword at hand.

The child admiral did the same thing.

Both attacked the mind of the other, almost simultaneously, as they slashed with their Deva weapons.

Admiital Kyandir looked into the future just before the contact. He saw a picture of himself and Edard, lying unconscious. His mind went blank as he was hit by Intimidation.

Edard didn't see through the admiral's mental attack. But whatever it was, it didn't affect his consciousness.

Edard slashed the admiral obliquely through his shoulder to his chest, while the admiral slashed him vertically through his head to his torso. Both dropped to the ground.

Edard's Sixth element had destroyed the right half of the admiral's body, with the other half barely moving. Whereas the admiral's slash had little effect on Edard's body. But his soul was in a sorry state.

The connection between your soul and body has been damaged.

Percentage damage: 98%

Because of these you can't use any skill until you are fully healed.

Pain Resistance has been permanently deleted from your genome.

NB: currently, your soul and body are being kept together by a soul bond.

Your pocket dimension is damaged; all contents are out.

It was true, soul damage was the most painful thing in existence. With the sudden loss of Pain Resistance, Edard was almost knocked out by pain.

Nusi was thrown out of the dimension.

"I win." Edard murmured to himself as he saw the lifeless body of the admiral. It would take some doing but he was sure Dylas and Ikenga could sneak him out of the battlefield.

Fleet admiral

Admiral Kyandir was right. The fleet admiral had led an army of a hundred thousand soldiers to the ancient castle of the family of Dé. Their targets were Hidaya and Zaikid, who had escaped the battle with the Divine Knights hundreds of years ago.

Why the hell aren't they showing up? Is it true professor Zaikid has died from his wounds? Even if that's true, Hidaya is alive. Last we heard she was still fighting in the spirit realm. Where the hell is she? The fleet admiral mused.

The two admirals supporting him had already killed everyone inside the castle. They were now levelling the entire castle to the ground. But there was no sign of Hidaya or Zaikid.

We've searched everywhere, the only place left is the battlefield.... A thought appeared in his mind and he jerked at the sudden realization.

"Red Rider, Armiyau, leave this place at the hands of the vice admirals, let's go."

With that, the fleet admiral and the two admirals teleported toward the battlefield.

Hunter clone

This was the clone sent to rob the empires' dungeons and to hunt for longevity. His job was almost done as he was currently robbing the last empire.

Assessing destinations in range....

Five destinations have a higher nature energy concentration than the others.

•Blueboy {a property of Deniz empire}

•Lara {a property of Deniz empire}

•Linder {a property of Deniz empire}

•Ar {a property of Deniz empire}

•Yrs {a property of Deniz empire}

Absorbing nature energy from destinations....

Destinations have been cleared up.

He teleported into the city. From there he teleported to the palace and used Intimidation and Mind Reading to find his target. In five minutes, he was standing in front of the queen's quarters. He teleported inside to meet the wife of the emperor. A middle age woman, dressed in a fine silk and sitting calmly at a table, like she was waiting for someone.

"Are you queen Arlia Déniz, Bihanzin's wife?"

The woman nodded. "I am, mister...?"

"Call me Hunter."

She nodded.

The clone grimaced. "You are calm for a woman in your position. Were you expecting me?"

"Well, not you. But I was expecting someone."

"Then I will go straight to the point. First, I want to know why you put the soul bond on your adopted daughter."

"What!?" The woman had a look of disbelief on her face.

The clone shrugged nonchalantly. "You can pretend all you want but I will get what I want. You can either tell me or I'll knock you out, mess up your memories and copy everything. It's your choice."

She hesitated. The clone was a Deva, shouting for help wouldn't help. Her only choice was to... commit suicide and took all her memories to her grave. That was the only way to save her husband's thousand-year old plan.

Her determination was like nothing he'd ever seen. She just blew herself up without a second thought - or at least she thought she had blown herself up. But Edard was faster, he struck her mind with series of telepathic attacks before she could.

And the interrogation began.

"Tell me everything: from where your adopted daughter killed the Báyir envoy." The clone said.

"We asked her to kill him and when she did we asked to run away on the day of the hearing."

"Why? You didn't benefit from anything as far as I could see."

"It's to bring emperor Daljári into the fold. We need him for the ritual."

"Ritual? What the hell are you talking about?

She hesitated.

"SPEAK!"

"It's to break through Deva to the Awakening beyond. We need three special souls including Daljári's, his step son's and our adopted daughter's."

The clone sighed inwardly. It wasn't only his sister that was trying to breath through. He was damn ignorant in his previous life: how could he have missed something so glaring?

"So why do you have to soul bond me with your adopted daughter?"

"We have to. Otherwise the Salvation Army will disrupt our plans. With you and your family serving as a decoy, the Army won't even realize what we are doing until it's too late."

"But how? How did you even find out about my summoning? Even the Salvation Army didn't. And how did you know I'll be passing through that cave? Do you see the future or something?"

"No, we had a little help from your cousin. He told... "

"C... cousin? Which cousin?"

"Ikenga of course, do you have any other living cousin? He told us about your plan and helped us to delay the memory return of the old man and the horse. My husband has a Divination class at the peak Deva, he easily divined the route you will take. All we have to do was to make sure our adopted daughter was there in that cave when she lost consciousness, and to put the one-eyed raven as an incentive for you to take our daughter. The truth is you couldn't have separated from her even without the soul bond, we made sure of that. We also tipped the Salvation Army about your return to make sure they didn't miss it."

The clone was struck speechless. The woman was under Intimidation, there was no way she could have lied. But it just didn't make sense, why would Ikenga possibly betray them? They were the only family he had. He still had other questions, but he needed to tell his original about this. Luckily, they had a telepathic connection.

He reached out.

All connections with the original have been temporarily cut off.

"What?" The clone blurted.

"Have you lost telepathic relay?" The woman asked with a bit of excitement.

"What do you know? Tell me before I rip you to shreds."

"We won. Our plan is a success once all connection to the battlefield is cut."

"What the hell... "

Emperor Bihanzin

At this point, emperor Bihanzin Déniz and emperor Daljári had been fighting for several minutes. It was a deadlock, but emperor Daljári was mostly on the defense.

"You are impressive, old man," Bihanzin said, "even after all these years you are still strong. It's a pity you have to die. Any last words?"

Emperor Daljári looked at Bihanzin as if he'd lost his mind. There was absolutely no any indication he would lose. "It's good to have some confidence, child, but I came prepared."

Bihanzin's sighed. "I know. It's not your fault. Anyone would think they are fully prepared when they spent the last one thousand years preparing. But I have spent five thousand years preparing for this very day. I'm sure you understand what I mean. Taking your life isn't something personal, it's a requirement for what I need."

Emperor Daljári grimaced. He'd calculated Bihanzin's entire move - or at least he thought he did.

"You are here, your step son is here and my dear daughter is here as well. Everything is ready. Allow me to show you a secret that would shape the future."

Bihanzin made a simple hand gesture and three pillars of light arose from three people: emperor Daljári, Nusi Kil'zanki and the child admiral. The three pillars joined together to form a cycle. And the cycle connected physically with Bihanzin's head. Another pillar of light arose and surrounded Bihanzin protectively.

The battlefield fell silent, nobody had any idea what was going on.

Keleyenkov broke the silence. "By mixing the blood of the three you intend to open the door and stepped out of Deva. But you shouldn't have this ritual." He told Bihanzin.

Bihanzin laughed uproariously. "You Bloodline Limits are so arrogant, you always think you are the best. And that nobody will ever caught up to you."

"Bloodline Limit, huh? So you already know who I am. I have to say you are a master planner, Bihanzin. Your patience alone is worthy of note. But hijacking my plan to summon my brother back was really bold." Keleyenkov said which made everyone looked at him. But what they saw wasn't Keleyenkov, it was Hidaya Wilberforce.

"Ita just a Mind Compulsion, stop giving me that look." She snapped like it was nothing. "You have tried to use us, Bihanzin, how would it feel if we return the favor?"

Bihanzin, like everyone else, was stupefied. What happened to the actual rebel leader Keleyenkov? Was she the rebel leader all along? Just what the hell is going on?

Hidaya snapped her fingers and Edard appeared next to her. She smiled at him. It was the warmest smile anyone had given him his entire life. "It's okay now. I'll take care of everything. I couldn't talk to you earlier because Bihanzin was watching. I needed him to start the ritual first before I can hijack it." She murmured as she took his hand into hers and gave him a sisterly hug.

"H... how did you...?" Bihanzin stuttered.

"How did I what? Replace the rebel leader? He died two months ago so all I had to do was copy his personality and used my Compulsion. Or do you want to know how I uncover your *cough* plans? You think you have turned ikenga against me? Laughable. He was working for me. Or did you want to know how I *cough* *cough*..."

Edard saw streaks of blood on his sister's lips as she coughed. He tried to talk but he couldn't.

"You are still sick, Hidaya. The backlash from failing to break through has taken its toll, huh?" Bihanzin said.

"I still have enough power to use your ritual and allow my brother to break through. That's all that matters." She smiled wickedly. Ikenga, Dylas and the old man who had summoned Edard appeared behind her. She pointed at the circle of light connecting Bihanzin and the other three people involved in the ritual. Suddenly the light changed direction and fell on Edard.

"No!" Bihanzin trembled with anger.

"Yes. Yes. Yes. And now I'll defend my brother from you and the entire world."

At this point, the fleet admiral and the other two admirals arrived. Not only that, Edard saw the child admiral with them. He looked toward the ground where the child admiral was lying in his blood and he was still there. What could possibly be going on? Had he been fighting with a clone? Fuck!

The battlefield was in chaos. The fleet admiral and the admirals didn't know how to proceed. They had explicit orders to take down Edard and his sister, but they couldn't just fold their arms while Bihanzin, or anyone else, broke through Deva. It was the greatest sin.

Emperor Daljári and his son Rafiyan Nazára were completely immobilized by the pillars of light around them. Just like Nusi who was still unconscious.

The soldiers on the ground were so shocked they couldn't even move. Should they changed sides? Who was the enemy?

Emperor Djinn and his five thousand soldiers backed off from the war.

Emperor Fáyra attacked Hidaya directly.

Even as everything was happening, Edard was receiving the benefits of the ritual.

You have initiated the Undying Ritual. Your soul will be separated from your body and be prepared for the ultimate break through.

Bihanzin noticed as he unsheathed his blade and attacked with all his might.

Hidaya was calm. Bihanzin was dangerous but her actual opponent would be the fleet admiral and possibly the Divine Knights if they decided to come down. Like they did when she attempted to break through. She knew she wouldn't survive but she would fight and buy time for Edard to break through. Once he did, it would all be worth it. Her life for her brother's; it was a good bargain.

"If any of you isn't willing to die here, they should go." She told the three standing behind her.

Dylas didn't give her a verbal response, but he jumped in front and blocked emperor Fáyra.

The old man blocked Bihanzin.

The three admirals and the fleet admiral came to an agreement as they both lunged forward and attacked Hidaya. Leaving Ikenga the only one standing next to Edard.

Ikenga didn't hesitate. He summoned a stone altar from his storage and put it in front of Edard.

At first nothing happened. Edard thought it was another protective device. But he immediately took it back as he saw the altar drawing the ritual light towards it. Hidaya and Bihanzin seemed to have noticed as they both teleported back to Edard. But they were a bit late.

As soon as the ritual light touched the altar, the whole ritual disappeared, including Edard.

Edard opened his eyes in an unfamiliar place with a very unusual notification.

Your soul and your soul bond have been sent back in time.

Calculating lost time...

It wasn't clear how much time had passed when Edard opened his eyes. Apparently, whatever happened in that battlefield had sent him back in time.

He looked at his body and saw a swirling smoke instead of flesh and blood. He was nothing but a bodiless soul.

The surroundings looked the same as the battlefield except he was all alone, and, of course, no Tyrant.

Lost time calculated.

You have been sent back one year in time.

Year 8018 AD

What the hell... 8018 AD is exactly one year before I was summoned. What happened? Did Ikenga sent me back in time accidentally? Was it the stone altar? Was it the soul damage I have sustained from my fight with the child admiral? Edard cursed internally. It didn't make sense at all. And if he and his soul bond were sent back in time then what about Nusi? Was she sent back as well? What happened to the battlefield after he'd left? What happened to his sister? What of the backstabbing son of a bitch Ikenga? Did Hidaya killed him? He deserved it. What about Dylas and the old man? Wait... It all didn't matter since everything and everyone would be alive and healthy in this timeline.

Does this mean I have a second chance... to stop everything and overturn the table? Is this a chance to finally defeat Bihanzin, Ikenga, the admirals, the immortal dais and the Eternal Empire?

A sudden hope appeared on his face. Emperor Bihanzin, Ikenga and the Salvation Army... He named them the evil trio and he was going to overturn the table.

All he needed was to get a new body for his soul and he would have his revenge... wait, WHAT?!

The immortal dais welcomes you to Màsar.

Congratulations, you have become a Conqueror. You will not age but you will die if your longevity runs out.

As an Initiate, you have zero longevity. On its infinite mercy, the dais has given you one-hour to gain longevity, else you will die.

Longevity: 00:59:59

What the fuck... where the hell is my longevity?

But that wasn't all.

Assessing heritage for Classes...

You have inherited two Classes from your elven heritage: Cloning and Psychomancy

You have inherited two Classes from your draconic heritage: Dragonbreath and Lightning Elementalist.

You have reached the requirements for the class Violet Rose. Assign class? Y/N?

Shit! Does this mean all my classes and skills are back to level 1 and Tier 1?!

A wise man once said: if you have two problems, you are bound to have a third one.

Edard closed his eyes to take a moment off but what he saw was a completely naked lady standing in front of a mirror.

"Wait, is that Nusi the corpse?"