THE GOD EATER

He said that would stop overthinking time travel, but he was still thinking about it when his consciousness reached the first anchor point. The sudden stop in motion jarred his mind and drew his attention to his environment.

As he looked around, he saw that the world had stopped moving backwards around him. He also sensed the second anchor in the river of time. The second anchor was nearly ten minutes into the future.

After he determined that the time loop was set well, he nodded in satisfaction and thought, ’So time will flow from this moment up to the second anchor before returning to this point.’

Then he asked himself, ’Is the restriction for me or for everyone in the area affected by the time loop, or everyone in the universe, though? I mean, is the flow of time for me and the time loop exists in my perspective, or does the time loop exist for everyone?’

’The time loop should be for everyone. But I’m the only one who remembers it, so I am the only one who knows it exists.’

’So the time loop should exist for everyone who can remember it. For everyone else, there is nothing wrong with the world.’

While he was contemplating the philosophy of existence and perspective regarding the temporal phenomenon known as a time loop, he activated the Power Identification Ability to see how his existence had been affected by the Time Loop.

Race: Dragon King

Available Lifespan: 69,842,879 years >> 92,124,680 years

Dao Status: 9

Domain: 2117^3

Body: 9

Soul: 9

Mind: 9

Will: 9

Insight: 9

Authority: 1,000%

-DIVINE SPARK: World Power. Dragon Appointment. Dragon King Authority. Power Shifting. Mountain Lord(Unavailable)

-FENRIR(ESSENCE OF THE HUNTER - 81): Power Identification. Tracking. Seal. Devouring. Siphon. Hunting Form.

-DOMINATION(ESSENCE OF SUPERIORITY - 49): Untouchable.

-SPEED(ESSENCE OF MOBILITY - 25): Extreme Speed.

-TIME(ESSENCE OF CYCLICAL TIME - 81): Time Loop. Time Stasis. Time Slow. Time Speedup. Past Self. Blade of Time.

-LUCK(ESSENCE OF PEAK LUCK - 81): Fate Defying.

-KILLING(ESSENCE OF DAMAGE- 49): True Damage.

-DEATH(ESSENCE OF DEATH - 81): Death Proclamation(9).

As he looked through his attributes, he thought, ’Hmm. There are some changes. Some are good. Some are bad. But it is mostly good.’

’First of all, I’ve lost the divine crystal. That’s bad. It is very bad, but it is not hopeless. If I can get it before, I can get it again.’

’Secondly, my Cave Heaven has shrunk in size. I lost the increase from assimilating Golden Sun’s Cave Heaven.’

’This and loss of the divine crystal corroborates the consensus that only my consciousness was traveling through the River of Time when I restarted the time loop. Just like the Rewind Metac, I can’t carry physical things with me through time. In fact, I shouldn’t be able to bring anything with me other than my consciousness.’

Then he shook his head, thinking, ’But if that is true, why did I manage to bring my lifespan along for the ride?’

’My lifespan was nearly 70 million years before I dropped the first anchor and started the time loop. I gained more than 40 million more during the fight with the Dao Lords. I lost a lot when I restarted the time loop, but I still have an extra 22 million years left over.’

’If I shouldn’t have brought anything with me to the beginning of the time loop, I should have the 70 million years of lifespan that I started out with. I might even have less than 70 million years of lifespan for the cost of restarting the time loop, but I definitely shouldn’t have more lifespan than I started out with.’

’And there is still the fourth change, the increase in the number of Supreme Metacs I have. All of the Supreme Metacs I devoured followed me into the past, which breaks the rule that nothing should be able to follow me.’

At this point, he realized something that made his eyes glint with mischief as he thought, ’The fact that I could bring the Supreme Metacs over can only be because of the spark of power. It is the container for my consciousness, so once Supreme Metacs are fused with it, they have to follow me through time.’

’This gives me a lot of questions, though. Like, what is the consciousness if it can accommodate Supreme Metacs? Or is it that only my consciousness can do this?’

’And what will happen to the Supreme Metacs I assimilated? Will a new one appear in the past like this, or are they gone forever because they are with me?`

He chuckled and said inwardly, ’I doubt the Supreme Metac will disappear in the past, but if it happened, I am sure it would be hilarious to see Black Chains and Sword Maestro trying to understand why they’ve suddenly lost their Supreme Metacs.’

’They will deserve it for destroying the record of every Metac and Divine Metac in their Supreme Metacs before they let it fall into my hands. Those bastards are too cheap. They have poor sportsmanship.’

He berated the two Dao Lords some more. But that lost its amusing element quickly, so he returned to the matter of assessing the Time Loop Metac.

He nodded and thought, ’All in all, it is good. I can use it to save my life, and it has fixed boundaries for better control. The only problems are that it is very expensive to use and it stands a risk of being broken by someone more powerful than me.’

After assessing everything he gained and lost from the time loop, he wasn’t particularly dissatisfied with the performance of the Time Loop Metac. But he was very dissatisfied with how Sword Maestro and Black Chains behaved after they lost their Supreme Metac to him.

The two Dao Lords had employed the tactic of burning fields and salting the earth after they were defeated by him. This was why their Supreme Metacs didn’t contain any other Metac aside from the rank 9 one baked into the Supreme Metac.

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