The Overall Grade of Kai's Main Mission's Timeline… finally rose to B+.
For the last year, it had already been happening, with the Timeline advancing toward Pillar Status.
There was no such restriction that to be a Pillar Timeline, the Overall Grade needed to be above B+.
However, because of the sheer vastness of the expanded lore, all Pillar timelines' baselines tended to linger around A-, their upper limits having literally no cap.
Depending on which Floor the Contestant belonged, the Systems could assign him a Mission in a Pillar timeline, despite the timeline's Overall Grade being much lower than his or her equivalent Floor number.
And it was all because of that fluctuating upper limit.
The dangers, the rewards, the characters, and the myths in such cases would match the appropriate level.
Something like that happened to Golden Mage as well.
That's why, despite there being only Seven Pillar timelines, Seven Mirror timelines, and Seven Key timelines, they all gave an illusion of infinity.
To be a true Pillar timeline would mean having the authority over these illusions, with the said Timeline having the ability to branch off such illusions against all its fluctuating upper limits.
And that's where a Pillar Timeline differed from Mirror and Key Timelines.
This authority over the illusion of infinite timelines was unique to the Pillar status.
The Mirror and Key Timelines? They kept sprouting out of nowhere, kept going under several Karmic Dissolutions, and kept ceasing to exist, never truly learning whether They were the one true Timeline upon which the infinite illusions were based.
Most Mirror and Key Timelines possessed no intention of going against Their fates… for only one reason.
They couldn't do anything about it.
They couldn't even undergo Karmic Dissolution ahead of Their time — an event that was indispensably important for Them to advance Their status, like a snake shedding its skin.
Well, not by Themselves.
For that, They would need an external hand — the hand of an Outer One!
There lay Their greatest irony, though. Just how many Outer Ones across the grand Multiverse of Bubbles even existed? A thousand? A few hundred? Even less, perhaps? And just how many of those Outer Ones would help Them to advance Their status instead of outright ripping Them off the Bubble for personal gains?!
So, no Mirror or Key Timeline carried any intention of becoming something more than what They were — a perceived illusion, with the hope of being the reality.
However, give Them one ray of hope, the slightest nudge, and They would pounce upon the opportunity, risking everything.
EVERYTHING.
It was true for the Key Timeline of the Fate Bubble, who had agreed to go against The Great Spider for the slightest hope that Kai had given Her to be a Pillar Timeline in his Verse Fusion Bubble.
It was true for Kai's Main Mission's Timeline as well, who had gone so far as to request the Outer One's presence after learning about him from Death the Artificer.
Death hadn't known what kind of Main Mission Kai would be given.
But He had known that the Systems would, one day, assign him a Mission in the Harry Potter Bubble. Also, with His mark on Kai, He had already learned just what kind of Mission he was seeking to master his Contrasts of Facelessness, helping Him choose the perfect Timeline for the task.
Regardless of what led to the current situation, one couldn't deny that the Timeline's Overall Grade rising to B+ was as much a momentous occasion as it was a delicate one.
That it happened when the Forest Vault exploded into smithereens was just a matter of coincidence.
With the Timeline's Overall Grade standing at B+, She had absolutely no reason to obliterate Darth Kars.
The only reason She had done so to Black Ghost was that such over-the-Overall-Grade Contestant's existence tampered with a timeline's inherent laws and fates, and the stability of the timeline itself, especially if it was advancing to a higher status.
However, She still acted against Darth Kars at the last moment for two simple reasons.
First, no matter if She could easily tolerate a 12th-floor contestant's existence, Darth Kars was still an intruder, using a backdoor to come to the timeline, and not through the Systems. As such, under the Grand Old Contract, She had all the authority to erase his existence.
Second, Nyarlathotep might not be on the same footing as She and Death, yet, but… He was Her future. His Verse Fusion was Her fate. He still was the reason behind Her leaving the illusions and stepping toward reality.
As such, not taking His side, no matter who was right and who was wrong, could cause a dissociation in fate.
And, so, She had done Her part — ripping Darth Kars to pieces!
Sadly… that was not enough.
Not in Darth Kars' case.
In outer space, beyond the Timeline's authority, specks of red-black hue pulsated as the distant Sun pelted them with its rays.
If Black were here, he would instantly recognize what these red-black hues were, as they looked incredibly similar to the parasitic Force that had invaded his Source.
Suddenly, all these scattered hues began converging, revealing what they had been hiding within them.
Cells.
Tissues.
Strands of flesh.
Darth Kars' Body Manipulation was much inferior to Biokinesis.
However, at the end of the day, it was still an Advanced Ability given by an Inheritance.
And, standing true to the saying — Skills made soldiers, Abilities made Kings — the converged cells, tissues, and flesh exploded into a mass of mutation, taking the form of a small, island-sized Darth Kars.
The moment he regained his body, the 12th Floor Contestant's eyes snapped open, his bloody pupils letting out a terrifying glow.
With a HUM, the entire space next to him erupted with a bluish-white glow, a moon-sized object leaving Hyperspace, placing itself right next to the real moon.
The Death Star!
Yes.
Darth Kars, the Sith General of Hyperspace Raiders, had decided to annihilate the planet…
… the planet where he had not only lost comfort, but — had suffered the humiliation of getting fooled — over and over!
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Volume 25 - White Serpent Pirates' Quests - Ends!
I hope you guys liked this Arc. There are some Side Characters who seem left out, but we will cover them in the upcoming Volume.
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