The floor was covered in pools of half-melted ice. The floor and pillars bore the traces of fierce fighting.

At the very center of the room stood the homunculus. She looked at Desir, who defiantly stood before her, the corners of her mouth pulled back into a sneer.

‘This was definitely a tricky opponent.’

The only other time she had consumed this much mana in a battle was when she faced off against Zod Exarion. The Starling Party had thoroughly analyzed her patterns of attack, and had adapted superbly throughout the battle.

Being pressured to continue using her ability to control causality, her weakness had been exposed. While it may seem like she had infinite mana, this was not the case. Had it not been for ‘that ability’, she would have most assuredly been defeated.

‘But no matter how hard they try, it’s impossible for a human to figure out how it works.’ The homunculus was convinced that her ability could not be comprehended by mere mortals. This conviction was grounded in reality.

It was the sole reason behind the creation of homunculus, requiring research that consumed immeasurable quantities of rare material as well as eons of research. Their true purpose could only be realized after gaining a precious ability, a sub-ability only available to those that could manipulate causality.

She was certain there was no human alive that could understand even a fraction of her power. It was certainly a power far beyond the level of technology in the present era.

‘I’ve won.’

For this reason, the homunculus was confident in her certain victory.

The dominance of the homunculus was obvious. All of the Starling Party’s front line fighting force had been neutralized. The remaining members had no way to respond to close-range combat.

Just as the homunculus stopped internally gloating, and lifted her left leg to sprint toward Desir…

A spell was instantly aimed and invoked at her. [Wind Blast]

A bullet of wind pierced towards the homunculus. Since it wasn’t a powerful spell, the homunculus chose not to avoid it and simply crossed her arms in defence.

But before she could react, another spell was invoked. [Pierce of a Thousand Wings]

Romantica had once again instantly invoked another spell, aimed at holding the homunculus in position.

This spell resembled that of a bird with a thousand wings. It had no blind spot and descended on the homunculus from above.

[Wonder Twilight]

This time it was Desir’s turn.

Then Romantica’s.

They continuously unleashed a barrage of magic on the homunculus.

With the uninterrupted chain of attacks, no matter how hard the body of homunculus may be, it would be hit hard enough that it would have to restore itself using its power over causality. ‘I could ignore this attack and close the distance with him, but… ’

The homunculus had used this kind of tactic when she overpowered Adjest and Pram. Simply restoring her body with the power over causality when required.

But at this time, such a strategy could not be used hastily. ‘I don’t have much mana left… ’

The homunculus had relied on her ability to manipulate causality a considerable number of times, buying time until she found an opportunity to overpower Adjest and Pram.

She had also used ‘that ability’ three times. That ability transcended all concepts of power, but required an enormous amount of mana to pull it off. If she acted hastily here, her consumption would greatly exceed what she would be capable of recovering.

If she allowed her mana to be exhausted, she would definitely be killed.

For these reasons, the homunculus did not rush out, but stepped back and waited for an opportunity.

[Avarosa Storm]

[Wind Bullet]

But Desir and Romantica’s continuous chain of spells didn’t show any signs of ending. *Crack*

As a result of the non-stop barrage of spells from those two, the Jormungand Citadel started to disintegrate.

Looking at their indistinct figures amongst the rising plumes of dust, the homunculus smiled. ‘Are they trying to kill themselves?’

Desir and Romantica seemed to have gone berserk and were spending all of their mana to cause as much destruction as possible.

*Boom*

*Boooom*

The sound of explosions rung out constantly.

There was no chance of them winning a close-range battle with the homunculus, so they were attempting to block its path to reach them.

However, the homunculus would not stand idly by and let their strategy go as planned. While she was desperately trying to limit mana consumption, it wasn’t as though she had completely run out yet. She could still recover her body a few more times.

‘Are they just struggling out of desperation… ?’

It was clear that the situation was growing more and more advantageous for the homunculus, even if she did nothing.

‘But they’re really lucky.’

She had sensed the approaching movement of something.

The Eastern Guerrilla Force.

They had just emerged victorious after battle against Crow Mask’s men. Under these circumstances, if they were to reach her, it would be difficult to even retreat.

Before they found the opportunity to entrap her, she had to get rid of Desir and flee.

‘Worry about the amount of mana, but with ‘that ability’, I can win before my mana runs out.’ With new-found determination, the homunculus dashed forward.

Soon after, attacks from Desir and Romantica, attempting to block the homunculus's approach, washed over her like a tsunami.

*Boom*

*Crash*

She focussed all of her effort into moving faster, without bothering to defend at all. One of Desir’s spells hit her and her neck snapped. Romantica launched many precise shots that destroyed her arms, knees, and even large chunks of her torso.

But the homunculus just smiled.

She had already invoked her ability.

An ability that no one else could recognize.

And the world changed. Beyond recognition.

Her body, that was in full flight towards Desir, disappeared.

And in its place, in this unrecognisable world, was the homunculus in full condition. The homunculus took steady steps and approached Desir.

Desir did not react in the slightest.

There was no defensive magic in sight.

Not even a trace of that spell he seemed to be able to invoke through pure muscle memory. ‘It’s over.’

The human body, without any form of defense, and without the ability to act, was an incredibly weak object.

The homunculus reached out towards Desir’s heart. Suddenly, the homunculus could feel all of the mana in his body circulating.

[Parie Arund] *Splash*

The homunculus’s body exploded without a single piece of flesh remaining. It splashed in all directions.

Utterly decimated. There was not a single recognisable chunk remaining.

The forces of causality began to twist and bend around the homunculus.

Again, the homunculus returned to her best condition. Immediately after, the homunculus kicked against the ground.

As if nothing had happened, she withdrew from Desir. Romantica continued sniping at the now stationary homunculus. The homunculus was overwhelmed with emotion and didn’t even bother dodging.

‘What the hell happened?’

The pupils of the homunculus shook violently.

Her face was frozen into an expression of pure astonishment.

For the first time in its life, it was strongly agitated.

‘What happened? What was going on? What was it? What happened? What, how… how?’

By using her ability, she had guaranteed invincibility and would be able to reap the life of any foolish being that dared stand against her. For someone to be able to react was fundamentally impossible… even if they knew how her ability worked and could anticipate where they would move and what they would do.

‘It’s a coincidence.’

It must still be their last struggle. Somehow, they were able to recognize the moment right before she used the ability, and implemented some kind of delayed defence.

This was her special power. The one thing that she could do, that guaranteed utter dominance. Something that no other human could come close to replicating.

This was her last resort, a trump card. A fool-proof way of coming out on top of any battle, no matter how strong the enemy was.

She couldn’t accept this miserable feeling.

Thus, it was dismissed as a coincidence.

Thinking that they were somehow extremely lucky, and managed to somehow hit her, she reached the only logical conclusion and assuaged her doubt.

“You-You were extremely lucky. But next time, I’ll really end you.”

Desir was still. He rubbed his palm against the blood of the homunculus that had splattered onto his clothes.

Red blood, just like his.

Desir looked at his enemy, who had incapacitated two of his colleagues, with very cold eyes. “No luck, I’m afraid. After that attack, I’m now certain about how your ability works.” “Lies.”

The homunculus strongly denied his assertion.

She had no choice but to deny it.

Desir voiced it, even though he knew she would deny it. He still chose to do it, knowing that it would inflict more damage than any of the spells he had cast so far. A kind of damage that could not easily be restored.

The homunculus continued to deny his words, re-positioned herself, and readied to charge. Desir Arman had grasped the ability of the homunculus. He had worked it out, step-by-step, using the meagre hints presented as well as the pool of knowledge he had assembled after beating two of these abominations.

He first focused on identifying the limit of her ability. No matter how absolute it may seem to be, there would always be weaknesses in any given technique.

‘First of all, the homunculus’s abilities are not invincible.’

The proof of that, was in the fact that the use of them still hadn’t brought about the results that the homunculus wanted. Desir was still alive, and she was unable to deal with him in a single blow.

‘The range of its ability is limited to that of a conventional impairment recovery spell.’ And there was another thing.

When the homunculus and Desir fell downstairs, there was a time when Desir had used [Prarie Arund] to destroy the body of homunculus. The blood that had splashed onto Desir from that explosion disappeared after it used its sinister ability.

In comparison to when it restored itself by meddling with causality, instead of the result of an action being erased, it was as if the action itself had never occurred. It was a subtle difference, but this was the key to understanding her ability.

These two pieces of analysis were enough to allow Desir to reach a preliminary conclusion. ‘The homunculus can return to the past, briefly.’

It was a ridiculous conclusion. Utterly dumbfounding that anyone could believe such nonsense; however he couldn’t figure out any other way it could achieve what he had witnessed three times now.

Ruling out the logical, all that remained was the illogical.

Armed with this knowledge, the impossible had become possible. ‘If we know what its abilities are, we can formulate a counter.’

The final piece of evidence to confirm his theory had fallen into place as a result of the measures he had taken when they re-engaged the homunculus after Adjest was incapacitated. Desir had instructed Romantica to use her magic to cause as much damage to the room as possible, regardless of whether she hit the homunculus or not. She used wind magic to shatter and collapse the supporting columns and walls as much as possible and Desir did so as well. As a result, the room was filled with stone powder.

The attack trajectory of the homunculus had become visible.

When the homunculus finally leapt towards Desir, he put all of his concentration into following that trajectory. When the homunculus invoked its ability, he saw how its trajectory suddenly shifted and looked completely different to what he had been tracking just a second ago.

With the three pieces of evidence, Desir was now confident in his analysis of the homunculus’s ability.

‘The homunculus can definitely move within the past, for at least five seconds.’

That is, the homunculus can return to the past, dodge any spells she was hit by, and then have free reign to close the distance and nimbly kill her opponent.

After doing so, it will seem as if she has instantly moved, as well as instantly been restored to her perfect state.

As Desir felt assured in his analysis of the situation, he began to feel time slow down again. He started preemptively circulating his mana, readying himself to cast a spell.

This was presumably the feeling of experiencing the past changed by the homunculus, being superimposed onto his reality.

As a result of this time distortion, a trail would instantly appear in the dust, revealing a movement pattern different to the one Desir had tracked.

‘It’s only visible for a single moment.’

The single moment when the changed past would overwrite reality. That was the only opportunity he had to respond to whatever changes the homunculus made.

The movement in dust would reveal five seconds of movement all at once.

Based on this, he could analyse and invert the behavior of the homunculus. He had to find out

what part of the past the homunculus had changed.

He focused his all, anticipating the moment when the past and present would join, dictating how the homunculus would move and act.

Desir heightened his concentration to a level he had never reached before. Based on the speed he was processing everything around himself, there was no difference in time between perception and conclusion.

*Snap*

He figured out the location within the instant.

And Desir, within that instant, invoked a spell he only needed a moment to develop. [Flame Storm]