Chapter 905: Time Paradox

This chapter is a bonus chapter for the "Dreaming Immortal" patronage.

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Without rushing to wake Acheronides for consultation, Liszt quietly pondered alone.

The sudden impact from earlier had left him unsettled, and it took him a while to calm his emotions. Discarding the rotten wooden stick in his hand, the image of those eyes resurfaced in his mind: "Such a terrifying gaze, even more sinister than Leo's... No, not sinister, but rather..."

He struggled to find the right words to describe it.

Eventually, he settled on "ruthless" as a rough approximation—the kind of ruthlessness akin to "if heaven had feelings, heaven too would age." It was a ruthlessness that embodied the natural order of all things, from which no one could escape.

"Whose eyes were those? Could it be the Magical Web Dragon?"

When tearing through the magical web and peering into its nodes, Liszt had once glimpsed the Magical Web Dragon, slumbering in an indescribable space—terrifying and grotesque, yet the magical web emanated from it. The flourishing magical civilization of the Moon Empire era likely arose because of it.

"If it is indeed the Magical Web Dragon, and it has awakened, does that mean magic will experience a full revival at some point in the future...? But perhaps I'm focusing on the wrong detail. What I should be concerned about is the consequences of the Magical Web Dragon's awakening. It seems to be hunting Acheronides?"

Before leaving, Acheronides had said, "It has awakened. This thing is even more detestable than Droo Mickeyta." Clearly, the Magical Web Dragon was no benevolent creature—after all, Acheronides had only encountered Liszt after being pursued across vast distances by Droo Mickeyta.

"Daring to hunt Acheronides? Even if you're the Magical Web Dragon, I'll tame and ride you!"

Liszt clenched his fists.

This glimpse of the future didn't weigh too heavily on him. During his meeting with the "future" Acheronides, she had explained that the Time Scepter's ability to reflect time involved selecting one possibility among countless potential futures to connect with—a concept tinged with parallel universe theory.

Though he didn't fully grasp it, he understood clearly that this so-called "future" was merely one possibility, not necessarily the true future.

The time power represented by the Twilight Dragon was more akin to prophecy.

If the future were fixed, the Twilight Dragon's power would be a paradox—communicating with the future would inevitably alter reality, and altering reality would in turn change the future. Just as Liszt had seen the future Acheronides and, following her advice, rode numerous dragons, thereby changing the future.

The new future would clearly differ from the one he had previously seen. So, at this moment, had Liszt truly seen the future or not?

He picked up the shattered gem fragments from the ground. They had lost their color but faintly reflected a normal human figure.

"Thus, only the present is real. Everything else—about the future or the past—is false... or perhaps illusory, because the past is already gone, untouchable and unchangeable, while the future has yet to arrive, and every change affects countless branches."

During his time on Earth, Liszt had enjoyed watching science fiction movies and had studied topics like parallel universes and time travel.

He was quite familiar with time paradoxes.

One movie in particular, *Predestination*, had intrigued him. In short, the protagonist essentially gave birth to themselves, and later, as a secret agent, fought against their future villainous self. Time was like an ouroboros (the serpent eating its own tail)—an endless loop from start to finish.

Suddenly, another possibility occurred to him: "What if the Twilight Dragon exists precisely to create such an ouroboros loop like in *Predestination*?"

The future Liszt that Acheronides had seen, and the future Acheronides that Liszt had seen, might very well be part of this ouroboros loop.

However, this unsettling speculation was quickly dismissed: "The Twilight Dragon might foresee the future, but the Smoke Dragon can alter fate. As fellow Sacred Dragons, if the Jade Dragon can't trick the Invisible Dragon, how could the Twilight Dragon possibly surpass the Smoke Dragon in power?"

Most importantly, this was merely a future foreseen by a single Time Gem, but Liszt possessed the game-breaking advantage of being shrouded in smoke.

"The future seen through the Time Scepter is not the true future."

"But the information revealed may not necessarily be false. The Magical Web Dragon will eventually awaken and not remain dormant forever; the Fairy Dragon is located in the Land of Exile, and if I seek longevity, I must go there; and Acheronides will grow immensely powerful, casually conjuring magic gates that even the Magical Web Dragon cannot overcome."

"So."

He gathered the Time Gem and muttered to himself, "Now I have clues about the Mist Dragon, Jade Dragon, Twilight Dragon, and Fairy Dragon. I’ve already ridden the invisible dragon. Are the Sacred Dragons destined to fall into my grasp? Even the Magic Web Dragon has left traces... if you can call them that."

Regardless.

Whether this future is prophecy or fate, Liszt felt no need to panic. In both visions of the future, he and Acheronides were doing well—healthy, unharmed, and growing stronger.

All he needed to do now was ride dragons, one after another. Once he had mounted all the Sacred Dragons, even if the Magic Web Dragon turned out to be the final villain, he would still ride it—if it dared to wreak havoc. The only question was whether the dragon saddle would fit.

With his mind made up.

He walked to the neighboring tent and gently woke Acheronides from her light slumber. He recounted the future visions he had seen in detail, and the two talked late into the night. Though they didn't make much progress, one conclusion was clear—they needed to ride more dragons.

"The next dragon will definitely be the orichalcum dragon!"

...

Late at night.

Liszt had another dream—the same great transparent river, where a ferocious dragon, its details indistinct, was locked in battle with another glowing dragon, equally blurred. He couldn’t tell where he stood, only that the fight was nearing its end. The glowing dragon was savagely slaughtered.

Then, with a silent explosion, the glowing dragon chose to self-destruct. Its body shattered into countless streaks of glowing light, plummeting into a pitch-black world.

In that darkness, countless plants seemed to grow, some even giving birth to spirit bugs.

The glowing light swiftly merged with the plants and the spirit bugs. In the next moment, the spirit bugs began to swell and expand. Then, tiny hands tore through their outer shells, bursting forth from within.

Spreading their wings, they flew about joyfully.

They suddenly evolved into little spirits.

One by one, the little spirits soared upward, playing along the transparent river. Yet, they cast no reflections upon its surface.

Instead, as countless little spirits gathered, the faint shadow of a dragon began to rise from the river.

This shadow resembled the glowing dragon that had self-destructed earlier. Suddenly, the dark world split open, and a bizarrely-shaped dragon claw tore through the darkness, as if searching for something. But smoke slowly unfurled above the transparent river, veiling the glowing dragon’s shadow.

The bizarrely-shaped claw paused briefly before slowly vanished into the darkness.

As the smoke dissipated, the little spirits had long since departed. Only a crowd of transparent, vacant-eyed figures remained, shambling mindlessly along with the river.