"What... what happened to Naomi?"
Anbaixiu considered himself well-traveled and experienced, but he had genuinely never seen anything like this. Wounds constantly appeared and vanished, yet Naomi did not seem to be affected. Catching sight of Anbaixiu, she even managed to force a small smile.
It was just that the young girl seemed to have lost the ability to speak, leaving the God of Alchemy to explain on her behalf.
"Allow me to briefly recount this dramatic sequence of events. You likely remember that after putting Naomi to sleep, you left her atop the tower in the City of Alchemy..."
As the God of Alchemy explained, Catherine could not help glancing toward Anbaixiu. This lich usually seemed like a decent person, so why would he do such a thing to a young druid girl? Knocking out a little girl—what was he trying to do?
However, Catherine held deep reverence for deities and dared not interrupt thoughtlessly. She quietly shrank to the side, listening to the God of Alchemy narrate Naomi's story.
In truth, the matter was not overly complicated.
Back then, Naomi had been placed on the altar by her own family to serve as the final sacrificial offering for Gary Watts's ascension to godhood.
The druids who had raised her since childhood had done so solely to send her to the altar. From the day she was born, everyone had nurtured her just to slaughter her. Naomi had already broken down at that moment.
Anbaixiu's Sleep spell had merely granted her a brief respite. Yet upon waking, she discovered that, like the City of Alchemy itself, she had been banished into the void.
Within this ruined city, corpses lay strewn everywhere—residents who had failed to flee in time, paladins left behind by the Ryan Empire, and the few things still moving were leftover undead.
Naomi had grown numb; tears could no longer flow from her eyes. After wandering aimlessly for a time, she arrived at the location indicated by the prophecy: the sacred ground known as the City of Alchemy's Hall of Wisdom.
All momentous decisions had been discussed and set into motion within that hall.
Perhaps by the design of fate, Naomi arrived there, and from the archives strewn haphazardly across the floor, she discovered everything concerning herself.
She saw that the guildmaster of the Alchemists' Council had personally ordered the execution of that cruel, horrifying plan.
Traumatized once again and utterly despondent, Naomi took her own life in the Hall of Wisdom.
In a tone tinged with pity, the God of Alchemy said, "The little girl slit her own throat. At the time, she was truly resigned to death, without the slightest hesitation."
"Then what is happening now?" Anbaixiu asked, puzzled.
The God of Alchemy sighed. "Later, Gary Watts appeared. Seeing Naomi's corpse, the guildmaster cast Wish on her, intending to resurrect her."
At those words, a flicker of emotion finally crossed Naomi's face—unvarnished hatred.
"Under normal circumstances, Wish can resurrect someone perfectly. But as you know, for Gary Watts to perform resurrection, it requires immense amounts of material and energy as the cost. The City of Alchemy had already cast Wish once for you, and the remaining reserves could not support the effect of a perfect resurrection. Gary Watts attempted a shortcut: he tried to rewind Naomi's time by a few minutes, returning to the point before she took her own life."
Puzzled, Anbaixiu asked, "Did he think time reversal was just some ordinary time spell? Was he mad?"
Even though a spell like Time Stop could be cast from a scroll, stopping time and reversing time were entirely different beasts. Even turning back time by a single second was a power on the level of deities.
The God of Alchemy shook his head. "No, he wasn't mad. Because time and space are chaotic in the void, rewinding time is far simpler there, free of many restrictions present on the Material Plane. His calculations were correct; the expenditure for that effect is indeed lower. Unfortunately, he only considered that the void could reduce the cost of time spells, completely overlooking how the void affects time itself.
"This was likely Gary Watts's first time entering the void. The gods chose this place for his exile precisely because its space-time is turbulent and chaotic—aside from the gods, no one can enter, and no one can leave. When he cast a time-based spell, how could it possibly remain unaffected?
"As a result, Naomi became what you see now. Her state a few minutes before death and her state after death have overlapped. She now exists as though she is situated in two different timelines simultaneously. To tell the truth, even I have never witnessed such a phenomenon."
After hearing Naomi's ordeal, before Anbaixiu could speak, Catherine could not help but exclaim, "What a pitiable girl."
Catherine was not a lich like Anbaixiu, stripped of most mortal sentiment. Listening to Naomi's tragic past, she could barely hold back her tears. How heartbreaking this poor girl was! How could someone in this world be so vicious as to commit such an atrocity against their own kin?
Anbaixiu had no time for such sentimentality; he was pondering how Naomi could be of help to him.
Since the God of Alchemy had brought this young girl over, did he believe Naomi could help him travel back to the past?
A druid trapped in a superposition of time... No way? The old man couldn't be that creative, could he?
Just as Anbaixiu was about to speak, the God of Alchemy chuckled. "Haha, you guessed it, didn't you? Truly my cleverest student. Indeed, since this young druid girl is in a state of temporal superposition, it means the power of time still lingers upon her. If she can master this power and fuse it with a druid's natural power, she might just be able to transform into a time dragon."
A time dragon... Exactly as Anbaixiu had thought.
Dragons were inherently formidable, but not every species of dragon could advance into a legend; their odds were merely far higher than those of other races. Yet there were three kinds of dragons that could be called natural legends, and the time dragon was one of them.
Time dragons were exceedingly rare, but exceptionally powerful. True to their name, they could command the power of time.
High-tier spells like Time Stop and Haste, which required immense effort from human mages, were as effortless as drinking water for a time dragon. They could even turn them into passive abilities, permanently maintaining a particular state of time.
Thus, a time dragon's strength could not be judged by appearance; their age had no necessary correlation to size. They were the very conceptual embodiment of time, making it virtually impossible for anyone to kill one.
And rewinding time to return to the past was precisely one of a time dragon's innate capabilities.
Such a talent was beyond the reach of many deities.
Yet a druid wanting to become a time dragon? Under normal circumstances, that was pure fantasy.
A druid could indeed transform into any beast, and theoretically into a dragon, but turning into a dragon did not mean gaining a dragon's racial abilities. At most, they could fly and breathe elemental energy, while remaining unable to use many of a dragon's unique magical abilities. Even wild shaping into an ordinary dragon had limitations; wanting to transform into a time dragon... at best, one might replicate the color of its scales, but mastering the power of time was an utter pipedream.
If not for such restrictions, druids would be the most powerful class in the world.
However, that rule only applied to ordinary druids. Naomi was different: she already possessed the power of time; she simply could not control it. As long as she could master the power within her and learn the skill to transform into a dragon, it was very possible for her to become a genuine time dragon.
Even if it wasn't the complete version, it should suffice to help Anbaixiu travel back to the past.
"Teacher, that idea of yours is too far-fetched. Setting aside whether your hypothesis holds water, even if it does, how long will it take Naomi to control the temporal power inside her? And how long will it take her to learn how to transform into a dragon? Her druidic skills are barely entry-level."
Naomi was far too young, and her comprehension of nature was insufficient. Transforming into a panther was already her limit; without several decades, there was no way she could transform into a dragon. By the time that happened, the chance would have long slipped away.
Anbaixiu could not even cheat using his private demiplane, because the uncontrolled temporal energy on Naomi would clash with the time-adjustment effects of his demiplane, potentially blowing it to pieces.
The notion was simply impractical.
The God of Alchemy, however, pointed a finger at Catherine and said, "Under normal circumstances, there certainly wouldn't be enough time. But you're like a pretty boy kept by the Goddess of Fate. This Elven Queen happens to be capable of solving that problem for you."
Catherine looked utterly bewildered, having no clue why this matter was suddenly being pinned on her.
Anbaixiu reacted quickly, saying to Catherine, "Earlier, you mentioned that the Demonic Dragon Tyrant left behind an artifact capable of reversing space-time."
Catherine realized it as well, saying in astonishment, "Respected God of Alchemy, are you saying that artifact can help this young girl master the power of time and aid her in transforming into a time dragon?"
The God of Alchemy nodded. "I suspect it can, because the Demonic Dragon Tyrant of that era was precisely a time dragon."
Anbaixiu felt something was amiss and countered, "Time dragons are natural legends, and all are of neutral alignment. How could one be a tyrannical monarch? That contradicts their nature."
"That is indeed true for the vast majority of time dragons, but in every race, there are always a few outliers. Just as the humans of the Ryan Empire all revere the Lord of the Dawn, yet aren't there still plenty of human lords on the continent who are cruel and merciless? Have you forgotten that the alchemists in the City of Alchemy were mostly human as well? Compared to that demonic dragon, their character wasn't much better."
The God of Alchemy utterly despised those alchemists who would discard their humanity for the sake of experiments. No matter how great their contributions to alchemy, he had been willing to let his divine power decline just to punish those bastards.
Regrettably, the God of Alchemy had not been ruthless enough after all. He had harbored a forgiving heart toward those madmen who pursued truth by any means necessary, hoping they would strive to mend their ways, which ultimately brought about such a catastrophe.
This deity had not hesitated to destroy the City of Alchemy with his own hands—much like the elven gods refusing to save the elves—hoping that these children would learn a lesson. Unfortunately, the God of Alchemy was not as mighty as the elven pantheon; the destruction of the City of Alchemy had severely drained his vitality.
Learning that she could also be of use, Catherine immediately brightened, but soon looked back toward Naomi. The little girl was being steered by a deity like a puppet; was she personally willing to help? Then again, with a god's command, she probably had no choice.
Just as this thought crossed Catherine's mind, she heard Anbaixiu ask Naomi, "You heard what my teacher said. What do you think? Would you be willing to do me this favor?"
Catherine could not help looking at Anbaixiu in a new light. A lich was said to lack humanity, yet Anbaixiu shared the exact same concern as her: he was actually willing to ask for the young girl's own feelings.
Naomi could not speak, but she nodded vigorously. Then, taking out a sheet of paper, she swiftly penned a passage:
"You saved me many times. When nobody cared whether I lived or died, you were the only one willing to look out for my feelings. If you hadn't put me to sleep back then, I probably would have gone mad right there. Therefore, I am willing to do anything for you."
After reading the words, Anbaixiu immediately broke into a smile and said to Naomi, "Since you put it that way, would you like to become my contracted partner?"
Chapter 153