Defiance of the Fall

Cracks teeming with temporal mayhem spread across Zac's body, and his human half inside the shrine wasn't faring much better. A surge of hostile Dao and Energy at this level would be incredibly dangerous no matter which affinity it held. It being the Dao of Time simply made it so much worse.

The Dao tearing him apart was at least at the level of a Late Earthly Dao. It could be even higher, seeing how effortlessly the invasion overwhelmed his attempts at fighting back with all three of his [Spiritual Void]-empowered Daos. There seemed to be no end to the truths coming from the resurrected [Solidarity Link]. Worse, just holding out took everything Zac had.

Zac could only hopelessly watch on as the two command brands crumbled, unable to withstand the differing time flow between guardian and controller. Zac tried to infuse another surge of Dao before it was too late, but only scraps got through the temporal gauntlet before it was too late. The connection was severed, and Zac's vantage of the outside disappeared.

The situation far surpassed Zac's expectations, even if he'd been aware of his weakness against Time since his breakthrough into Middle Hegemony. He'd searched high and low for treasures to recover from the backlash. Unfortunately, such specific items were rarer than Longevity Treasures and just as popular. Who didn't want to abuse time to prolong their life or catch up with the competition?

He'd only secured two with average effect from Limited Exchange and had to let his body reacclimatize on its own. It was no different from how he'd overindulged on Cosmic Water shortly after the integration. Time heals all wounds, even those made from time. Unless someone like Kator came along and ripped that wound open before it could fully recover.

Esmeralda was desperately trying to help, heedlessly consuming the stockpiled liquid on her back. Unfortunately, time was also Esmeralda's nemesis with the curse afflicting her. Zac could see how Esmeralda aged months in a second because of her attempts to help. Her sacrifice did at least help somewhat by filtering the influx, lessening the temporal clashes.

With the root cause still not solved, Zac activated equipment and talismans in a flurry. The air around him solidified, becoming a temporal anchor. It barely changed anything because the attack came from within his body. Not being the only one suffering didn't bring Zac any joy, either.

Zac darkly looked on as Kator emerged from the control room, draped in a shroud of purple Killing Intent. He radiated identical temporal fluctuations as those that were tearing Zac apart. They were in lockstep, equally dislodged from the river of time, and his torment wasn't enough to hide the truth from Zac's eyes.

He'd taken some pleasure in transferring spiritual damage and mental drain through the [Solidarity Link] when advancing his Daos, especially after confirming it didn't trigger a backlash from their contract. Kator, with his weaker soul, had suffered much more than he had from the tribulation. Now, Kator was using the very same method against him.