Chapter 778: The Price Of Time

An hour later, Alex and his army moved southwards.

Nessia, Vaan, Renard, Fran, Latifa, and Evangeline accompanied him on this campaign. The rest were left in the castle to defend Everdawn City from an invasion by the people of Reverse Arcana.

According to Alex’s estimate, it would take them two days to reach their destination. After all, moving with an army numbering a little over ten thousand wasn’t easy.

Any less wasn’t an option, for they would need that many fighters in order to face off against the Ant Army under Charles’ control.

It would not be an easy battle, especially since their purpose was not to eliminate Charles, but to subjugate him.

Alex still didn’t know how they could free their friend from the influence of the Synchronization Rate. But they had to do something, no matter what.

As the army rode out of the city, Chuck, Astrea, Lapiz, and Aeris watched from the balcony of the castle.

All of them wished that Alex and his friends would return safely with Charles in tow.

While all of this was happening, a battle was taking place in the west of the Kingdom of Faelarun.

"The two of you are so annoying!" Reverse Vaan glared at the Devil and the Angel that had been sabotaging his attempt to summon the people from Reverse Arcana.

When Vaan goes to the west, they go to the east and tamper with his magical formation.

When he goes back to fix it, they head ‌east to tamper with that one as well.

This game of cat and mouse had continued for several days, driving Reverse Vaan to the brink of madness.

Gone was his calm, confident expression. Only anger, unease, and anxiety could be seen on his face.

In the end, he decided to confront the two saboteurs and put an end to their interference.

"Stop moving and allow yourselves to get hit, you damned flies!" Vaan lashed his whip toward Efa and Himea, who dodged his attacks by the narrowest of margins.

Although both ladies looked calm on the surface, dodging these erratic and deadly whiplashes was harder than it looked.

In reality, they were putting their lives on the line by fighting someone stronger than them. But on the surface, they deliberately pretended like the attacks were not a big deal, further irritating Reverse Vaan.

"I said stop moving!" Vaan roared in anger.

The crisp cracking of a whip reverberated in the surroundings as he unleashed a flurry of blows, making his whip move so fast that the only thing that could be seen was a faint blur.

Knowing that this was something they couldn’t face head-on, both ladies retreated as fast as they could, while throwing smoke bombs to hinder their opponent’s sight.

If Dim Dim had witnessed the scene, it would have been thrilled and probably jumped into the fray as well, while thinking it looked like a lot of fun.

As the two retreated, Vaan followed in pursuit.

The young man wasn’t aware that he was being lured by Efa and Himea away from the magical formation he had just established.

A minute later, the Little Devil appeared and erased two rune markings from the magical formation.

He made sure to only erase the runes that were very hard to spot, so that it would take Reverse Vaan a long time to realize what just happened.

"We can only hold out for two days at most," the Little Devil muttered after completing his task. "I just hope Alex and his friends didn’t waste the time that we fought so hard to protect."

——————

Somewhere in Reverse Arcana...

"What’s taking Vaan so long?" Reverse Alex frowned as he sat on his makeshift throne. "He should have finished his task a few days ago."

"Maybe he went sightseeing first?" a beautiful elven lady replied before sitting on the armrest of Alex’s throne.

She then wrapped her arms around Alex’s neck and kissed the top of his head.

"Hey, how long are you going to keep that thing on display?" Reverse Lapiz asked. She pointed at another elven lady, who was tied up with her arms and legs spread wide.

Faint bruises from whip marks marred her once beautiful and smooth skin. Out of annoyance, Reverse Alex had decided to vent some of his frustration on the lady whom he treated as a doll.

"What’s wrong?" Reverse Alex sneered as he rested his hand on Lapiz’s thigh. "Do you want me to set her free?"

"I don’t really care if you set her free or not," Lapiz answered. "But displaying her in the throne room like this doesn’t sit well with me."

"Fine." Reverse Alex stood up. "You take her away."

Without even glancing at the tied-up elf, he walked away without a care in the world.

A few minutes later, a sigh escaped Lapiz’s lips as she walked toward the tied-up elf, who was none other than her sister, Aeris.

Here in Reverse Arcana, the one who was overflowing with confidence was Reverse Lapiz, while Aeris was the timid one with an inferiority complex.

"You already know he’s in a bad mood, yet you still tried to attract his attention," Lapiz said in a tone filled with annoyance. "What good did it do to you, sister? Are you happy after getting hurt like this?"

"... You don’t understand," Reverse Aeris replied weakly.

"Yes, I don’t." Lapiz shook her head. "I’d never do something as stupid as this. You already know what he’s like, and you still throw yourself at him like a maiden in love.

"One of these days, he will not be able to stop himself and kill you by accident. I just hope I’m not around when that happens because I don’t know if I’d slap him or your dead body."

Lapiz then untied her sister and supported her body that had lost its strength to even stand up.

She then carried her toward her room like the princess that she is.

"Thank you... Lapiz."

"If you want to thank me, stop doing stupid things. In his eyes, you and Nessia are just his toys. Nothing more than an outlet for his desires. Did you drink your pill before seeing him? I don’t want you getting pregnant all of a sudden."

"..."

"You didn’t drink it, did you?" Lapiz’s voice was tinged with helplessness, but she just took her sister back to her room. Once there, she poured some healing potion on her body and let her drink another for good measure.

After doing first aid, Lapiz used cleaning magic to clean her sister’s body.

Perhaps due to exhaustion and relief, Aeris finally fell asleep.

Lapiz glanced at her sister with a conflicted gaze before placing her hand over her lower abdomen to check something.

A minute of silence passed before another sigh escaped her lips.

"You are indeed pregnant," Lapiz muttered. "Now what to do..."

Based on the spell she used, her sister had successfully conceived.

While there were still no signs of any embryo inside her womb, the process had undoubtedly begun.

Before then, Lapiz could still erase everything, so that her sister’s pregnancy wouldn’t continue.

But she hesitated.

Her sister had risked her life for this result.

"How stupid." Lapiz clicked her tongue before pinching the bridge of her nose.

In the end, she decided not to kill the small life that was simply trying to grow inside her sister’s womb.

Lapiz believed that even if Alex abandoned her sister, she would still be able to help raise the child even without his support.

"I hope that your counterpart in Arcana isn’t as stupid as you are, sister," Lapiz muttered as she left the room. "Because if she is, I’ll personally end her suffering so she wouldn’t end up like you."

The door closed behind her with finality.

Latifa had already confirmed that there was another Alex in the other world.

Lapiz was very curious about him and about her own counterpart.

In fact, she was perhaps the one who was looking forward to crossing over to that other world.

She couldn’t explain it, but something... or someone, seemed to be calling out to her in that world, which seemed to make her heart ache.

’What’s taking you so long, Vaan?’ Lapiz thought, while walking the hallway of the castle in the Aetherion Empire. ’Stop fooling around and open that portal now.’

Lapiz had no idea that Vaan wasn’t fooling around. He was busy trying to kill the two troublemakers, who were repeatedly getting in his way.