The Last Paragon in the Apocalypse

“There’s no need to look shocked, sisters. Chronis can control time to some extent, and Axis can bend space, so trapping us in ice was the least of our worries,” Nia said with a smile.

The look on the faces of her three sisters said it all; they were in great shock from what had happened and didn’t know where to look.

Behind them are three ice statues housing Nia and her three shadows. In the background, Nia and her shadows are smiling at them.

These two events made their minds bend backward and forward, yet they couldn’t understand.

“Just how long can she hold time?”

It’s been a minute already, so why were the ice statues still there? And the worst part, Anna doesn’t have control over them anymore.

By logic, even if Chronis somehow managed to stop time and Axis was able to split space and let them out, the statues of ice should have vanished by now.

Two things of the same kind down to the last atom shouldn’t be able to exist in the same quantum of space and time.

Since that wasn’t the case, the three ice statues, trapping Nia and her shadows, can be said to have been lost to time and space.

And that was the case in this regard.

“Chronis can hold the time for 10 seconds as if now; however, what is happening to the ice statues is due to a loop she created around them.

The ice statues were supposed to vanish within ten seconds; however, the ten seconds repeat because of the loop.” Nia explained

“Is that even something simple or easy to do?” The way Nia said it made it sound simple. However, it is much more complex than that.

But it could indeed be as simple as she said, and yet again, that was the case for Nia and her shadows. This, of course, was Axis, the shadow of space.

Axis controls space, so she created a vacuum around the three statues.

This took Anna’s control over the statues, and since they are now under no authority, they became something that doesn’t have will or presence, meaning they can be manipulated without much influence or interference.

If Nia were to have trapped a person inside the loop, the person has consciousness, and due to that, they would have a will that cannot be easily messed with.

At most, the best she could do was make the loop run for a few minutes, perhaps four minutes tops, before she would have to let go and let time take control of the rest.

However, Nia is merely playing with inanimate objects, which was thanks to Axis taking Anna’s will over her ice element.

So Nia can hold the loop for as long as she wants.

The time loop skill was meant to be used on herself whenever she goes against a powerful target – at least that was how her past self did.

In the situation she was killed in, time will loop, giving her another shot to try until she succeeds. She can keep trying thousands of times if she has more control over time.

The moment she succeeds in killing her target, she can break the loop.

However, in most cases, the number of times she can use the loop will depend on the strength of the person she is going against.

Those with powerful mental strength can sense the loop after looping a couple of times, and if they are powerful within the soul, too, they can easily break it.

But as time goes by, as she or her shadow increases their comprehension of time to some stage, she can remain inside the loop for years, ultimately needing to change her title from Shadownless Assassin to Timeless Assassin.

The irony.

“This is too much for me to understand,” Lucy said, raising her hand in surrender. Her sister Anna was the same, but Queenie looked at Nia with a smile.

“How many times did we have the conversation?” Queenie asked, but Nia smiled and said.

“I don’t know what you are talking about, big sister.”

“Oh really,” Queenie retrieved her red sword and slashed to the side using an ability called [Reality Slash].

Suddenly, reality was cut, and the outside world came into view; the loop broke, and the ladies found themselves back in real time.

On the tribulation ground, Aoi stood with her gaze directed at them.

“It worked, Chronis. The loop can be looped again inside the same loop,” Nia smiled, looking very happy.

“Wait, you created a loop inside another loop,” Queenie asked, and Nia nodded.

“It was a theory we came up with when I was training. They couldn’t manifest into humanoid form then, so I couldn’t try it then, but now…hehe.

Now that I have awakened my bloodline, it worked.”

“Wait, how long since we entered the loop?” The more questions the ladies asked, the more confusing the whole process became. It was like a puzzle put into another puzzle.

“It’s only five minutes, but within the loop, it took me ten days to figure it out,” Nia responded, leaving her sisters looking at her like some monster.

“But I am exhausted, so I will take a nap now.” The pressure of staying and controlling the loop for that long exhausted her mind, so standing, she closed her eyes and fell asleep.

Her shadows dissolved into her body, and then she fell back.

However, before landing on the ground, flowers grew and caught her, wrapping around her like clothes. Lucy used one of her healing abilities on Nia.

Messing with time and space is something perilous. Luckily for her, she only got tired.

“Focus on your tribulation, Aoi. She is fine,” Anna said to Aoi, who came out exactly five minutes after Nia awakened her bloodline.

“What do you want to do about the situation? Should we inform Klaus?” Lucy asked, looking at Nia’s body wrapped in flowers.

“No. Mother said he is busy searching for minerals on Mars, so we shouldn’t disturb him.”

“Okay. But if she wakes up and feels any discomfort, we will tell Klaus.” The ladies suddenly concluded and then focused on Aoi, who stood with both her swords in her firm grip.

When the tribulation started, she moved and, like a blur, she started cleaving through the obstacles. She didn’t use any skills.

It was pure swordsmanship, which made her use more strength and speed.

But when the last level of the tribulation was cleaved using her sword, she moved down and sat in the lotus position.

“She is very good with the sword…” Queenie said, “When it comes to raw swordsmanship, she is better than I.”

One could see the proud look on her face. She was proud of Aoi. All her sisters are proud of Aoi, for she really spent every single day honing her sword skills.

“Her father is the king of swords for a reason…and as someone who is the descendant of sumarai, it will be a disgrace if she can’t hold her sword,” Lucy said before thinking about Klaus.

“I wonder who taught Klaus how to use the sword, though. He also seems good with it…”

“Well, it is Klaus we are all talking about; he is a monster in every field.” They laughed and continued to talk about their man for two hours until a sudden sharpness in the air drew their attention back to Aoi.

Two beautiful swords, one blue and the other green, hover atop Aoi’s head. Surrounding them was a dense sword qi.