An overwhelming feeling of guilt invaded Daniel’s mind. He knew for a fact that a faster way to find Alesia did not exist.. Otherwise, he would have done it. But that did not change the fact that every single day since they had parted, she would hope that that, would be the morning in which Daniel would once again appear in front of her, and bring her back to her family and friends.
This feeling of guilt soon turned into a need to apologize.. A need to let her know why he hadn’t come for her sooner, but now was not the time for that. Now Daniel, Alesia and her father Edmund were trapped into a spherical formation that was locking them into a frozen layer of time essence.
"What do you think you are doing?" Asked the Envoy, which appeared right next to the time trap. He then looked at Daniel with contempt before adding, "No matter which dimension you come from, in the end, your kin can never be trusted." As he finished speaking, almost as choosing to interrupt Daniel’s destiny like a petulant child would to an ant, he touched his wooden bracelet, causing the time within the trap that surrounded Daniel’s body to twist and morph.
The constant shifting of time over Daniel’s skin should have rejuvenated and aged his body at a molecular level, and ultimately disintegrate him into dust. Nevertheless, Daniel bore this attack with a calm and unbothered attitude, and once over, he stood where he was before, completely unaffected by it.
What was stopping the time essence from even approaching Daniel’s body was an extremely thin layer of essence of spacetime, which was a power of a superior tier than time alone, and that Daniel was using to protect both his body, and that of Alesia and Edmund.
For a moment the envoy was surprised by what he saw, but the surprise only lasted a few moments. "You are also at the godhood stage." he said in amusement, and an extremely well hidden hint of embarrassment caused by his failure in noticing this, despite spending hours at just a few meters of distance from Daniel.
Daniel did not bother with the envoy, and instead, tried to use his power to open a portal that could lead them away from Anima, but after a few attempts, he quickly discovered that his means of teleportation were unusable. The thick spiritual essence of which Anima was made of made it extremely difficult for a connection to be formed to the outside, and the time formation in which the envoy had trapped them interfered with his mental powers, locking them not in a different point in space, but in a still point in time.
However, Daniel had come prepared. He turned towards Edmund who, after a quick nod, used his gift to create an interdimensional portal that led into the void. Once through, he would be able to open a second one that would lead them back into their universe and into safety. All of this happened in just a few short seconds, which were just enough for Alesia to realize what was happening, and burst out with hurry, "Stop!"
Edmund and Daniel turned to look at Alesia with confusion, but before they could ask, Alesia said while pointing at the sky, "We can’t leave yet. They came to rescue me.. Gai’ha is with them!"
Daniel said nothing. Instead he closed his eyes, and opened a window with the use of his karmic system. This window was the mission that would allow him to find Gai’ha, and what it described now, confirmed Alesia’s words. Gai’ha was in the midst of the large army of the Dominion of the War God, and had accompanied the entire faction in saving Alesia and in declaring war on the spiritual faction.
In orbit Daniel could see the enraged spiritual emperor exterminate large parts of the dominion’s army, and felt an urgency to intervene. He couldn’t leave Gai’ha to die, so he turned to look at Edmund with the intention of telling him to leave first with Alesia, but before he could, the envoy said with audible irritation, "I hate being ignored."
As he finished speaking, two eerie light blue lights appeared in the spot where his eyes were, and a dark aura started to be emitted from his body. The sheer presence of this aura was enough to force the observing cultivators on their knees, however, by itself it wasn’t enough to kill anyone.
Before Daniel could order the karmic system to create a path that would help him save Gai’ha from the emperor’s rage, Daniel turned to look at the envoy, who after finally obtaining his attention, showed a smile which glowed with a similar light-blue hue of his eyes. It suddenly became very clear to Daniel that he would not be able to do anything before getting rid of the envoy of the soul clan, so he formed a shield of space time around both Edmund and Alesia, and floated out of the trap as it wasn’t there to begin with.
It only took a look at the envoy for Daniel to realize the nature of his cultivation. He wasn’t exactly a spiritual cultivator, just like he wasn’t quite like a mental warrior. He could be considered either a spiritual warrior with a powerful mind, or a mental warrior with strong spirit, but regardless, he was different from anything that existed in Daniel’s home universe.
While this kind of combination was difficult to face due to its unknown powers, to Daniel, who possessed a strong body, spirit, and mind, the envoy was less than menacing. After all his physical resistance should not be above that of a common spiritual cultivator, and his mental power should not be above that of a mental warrior, both of whom he had faced before, and would not fear.
However, Daniel could not help but notice that there was an odd calm in the face of the envoy. A feeling that created a sort of urgency, to which Daniel reacted to by covering himself with the power of spacetime before disappearing, and reappearing next to him in the blink of an eye. The sword he had constructed in between movements slashed down on the body of the envoy, but right as he was about to strike him, the long nail of the envoy moved inwards, causing an indescribable pain to go through Daniel’s body.
"AARGH!" he screamed while sinking his nails into his scalp.
This pain was excruciating, to a point where not even having his mind devoured by a parasitic entity like Sewah could compare. It was a mixture of physical, mental, and emotional pain that tested the resistance of his mental fortitude, and almost drove him to insanity.
"Oh, what do we have here?" Asked the envoy with curiosity before moving closer to Daniel’s body, and pinching the empty space next to him one more time.
Once again Daniel felt another wave of excruciating pain even stronger than before, and a few seconds later, when the pain seemed to be decreasing, the envoy pinched the air again and again and again while saying, "I didn’t hear you.. More.. let me hear more.."
"STOP!" Shouted Alesia while trying to jump out of the time trap, but she was stopped by Edmund right before she could.
"You thought that just because you are at the godhood stage, you’d be able to defeat me? I have been at the godhood stage FOR MILLIONS OF YEARS!" said the envoy with an increasingly angrier tone, but then, after about two minutes of this torture, the envoy regained his calm and indifferent demeanor.
Instead of his nails he used his whole hand to grab an invisible string in space, which the observers could only guess was what he was picking on to torture Daniel, and said, "I have had my fun.. Let’s end this." as he finished speaking, he tightened his fingers around the string, and jerked his whole arm backwards.
A sudden snapping sound resounded through Daniel’s whole body, and a moment later, the face that was pained by the most excruciating pain that could possibly be felt, suddenly disappeared, and his body went limp. At the same time, the two barriers of spacetime that were covering Alesia’s and Edmund’s body disappeared, leaving them powerless against the time trap.
"What.. W-What did you do to him?!" Asked Alesia with tears threatening to mark her face.
Now that the spacetime barrier had disappeared, the envoy finally noticed the fluctuations of Alesia’s spirit. What before had indifference and resignation was now filled with anxiousness, as well as a sentiment that was extremely rare in the cultivation world. At that moment, the envoy understood that Alesia was in love with the man he had just killed.
The amused smile reappeared on the face of the envoy, who floated closer to the time trap, and said, "I have erased his connection to the spiritual plain. Not even the cockroach ability of his system will be able to save him. He is gone. Dead."
Every spirit possessed a connection to the spiritual plain.
This connection would be the path that a cultivator would use to exchange the absorbed mana with spiritual essence, and for spiritual cultivators, as well as immortal cultivators, this path was vital. The disappearance of this connection would be like separating a drop of water from a sea. Sooner or later, the drop of water would evaporate, or be absorbed.. Similarly, the moment the connection between one’s spirit and the spiritual plain would be severed, the cultivator would die with no exception.
What the envoy had used to torture Daniel was this connection, which thanks to the abilities of his clan, he was able to see as a thread that connected the spirit of every cultivator to the crack that provided spiritual essence to the universe. That was also the reason why Daniel was so overwhelmed with pain. By possessing a spirit that was merged with his body and mind, any damage that he had endured was tripled in intensity.
At the mention of the word ’dead’, both Alesia and Edmund lost a bit of their sanity. They looked at Daniel’s floating corpse in hope to see it move, but every second that it wouldn’t, would feed the little bug that the envoy had put in their minds.
The shock they were feeling was so vast that they didn’t even notice the envoy approach them, "I usually would not be able to interfere with another universe’s matters, but I am sure that anyone here would be able to confirm that he attacked first." he said while willingly omitting the fact that, if not for Daniel’s ability, the envoy would have killed him with his time trap. He then placed himself in the line of sight between Alesia and Daniel, and added, "Since I have been wronged in this universe, I will take you with me in mine. My lord will reward me for a unique specimen such as yourself."
These words seemed to be able to catch Alesia’s attention, but not a single word could be made out by her mind. What entered her ears was just white noise, and the only desire she had left was for her eyes to never move away from Daniel’s body.
The envoy found Alesia’s reaction quite amusing, and after enjoying her struggle within the time sphere for a few moments, he became bored, and reached for her body. He did not care for Daniel’s universe, as for him that was just a weak battlefield which would not be of any use to his faction. He only cared about Alesia, whose nature was somewhat similar to that of the leader of his clan.
Contrary to his words, what he really wanted to do was study her, and find out her secrets, so that he could become like her.. But, his dreams remained just dreams, and were interrupted by a voice that came right from behind him.
"Let me refuse in her stead." Said Daniel before piercing the envoy’s body with both hands, through which he released what looked like dark flames. A mixture of dark essence and fire essence that had the power to erase any form of existence. Be it one’s body, spirit, or mind.
Engulfed in these flames, the envoy desperately looked around in hope to find Daniel’s connection to the spiritual plain which he was so sure to have severed, but as his eyes were eaten away by Daniel’s dark flames, he found nothing. After his body was turned into nothing, his cloak fell on the ground and towards the guests area of the emperor’s wedding, which was filled with power cultivators that had witnessed the fight since it had started.
The death of the envoy deactivated the time sphere, and turned the wooden bracelet used by the envoy into a seemingly useless trinket that fell alongside his robes, and was quickly pocketed by one of Iewah’s children, next to whom it had fallen.
Seeing Daniel alive was too much of a relief for Alesia, who burst into tears while diving into his arms. Daniel knew that nothing could be done to reassure her but to let her cry, so he tightened his arms around her, and said nothing.