Chapter 235: The Illusion of Time

Chapter 235: The Mirage of Time

After synchronizing their watches, a heavy silence fell over the three captains.

Even Cance, whose explosive temper and deep-seated prejudice against Neo were well known, now bore a stark, grim expression.

Of course, his attitude toward Neo might not have been prejudice at all, but rather a realistic assessment.

"Three hours. We are short by three hours," Anthony immediately barked to those behind him. "Check your watches! Calibrate by the stars!"

Cance immediately echoed the order: "Follow suit!"

Neo looked up, casting a glance at the starry sky, and tapped the blue seashell resting by his ear. "Fannie, calibrate the time."

Before long, the results from both sides were clear.

On Anthony and Cance's side, it was just past one o'clock; on Neo's side, it was just past four.

Though they stood face-to-face, a three-hour chasm separated them. Even the starry vault above their heads was entirely different.

"What is going on?" Anthony asked, his eyes fixed on Neo.

Cance demanded, "Neo, what did we do over the course of these next three hours?"

As captains of the Whiplash of Order squads, they did not lack the fundamental professional competence and basic occult knowledge. Naturally, they would not waste breath crying out, "This is impossible! This is impossible! It must be a hoax..."

Now that this bizarre phenomenon had manifested, the immediate priority was to resolve it by any means necessary.

Neo spoke calmly. "You entered the Alais Castle Manor. More than an hour later, you left the estate. I ordered my men to intercept your convoy, only to find the vehicles empty with no sign of you. As I led my squad back here, I saw you driving up from this very direction."

"So, we have already entered the mission objective?" Anthony said, a contemplative look entering his eyes.

Cance asked, "What exactly is inside that manor?"

"I don't know," Neo replied, shaking his head.

"You don't know?"

"I never entered the manor. Sensing danger, I decided to abort the mission."

"So, only Anthony's squad and mine entered the grounds?"

"Yes."

Cance licked his dry lips and said, "If we take you as the baseline, we are looking at ourselves from three hours ago. Does that mean whatever we do now, we cannot alter the predetermined outcome?"

Neo raised a hand, cutting Cance off. "I believe we should not be debating philosophy right now. We need to focus on practicalities."

Anthony inquired, "Neo, what do you suspect happened?"

"I suspect there is some mystical entity within the Alais Manor that has cast its influence over you."

Cance let out a gasp of surprise. "A holy relic capable of manipulating time?"

Neo swept a glance over Cance and asked, "Do you even comprehend what a temporal relic implies?"

Though legends of holy relics and divine artifacts of time had always circulated, their existence had never been verified. The ecclesiastical world was not devoid of churches that worshiped and believed in deities associated with time, but without exception, these were minor sects. Even the gods they revered were likely fraudulent, non-existent entities.

For time could neither flow backward nor be mastered.

Era after era, the gods themselves had researched and dabbled in the domain of time, yet every single one had ultimately failed.

Though no god would ever step forward to openly admit the failure of their research, one only had to look across the succession of eras. The constant annihilation of so many deities and orthodox

"Very well, you remain behind. The rest of you, push onward."

Neo’s squad briefly intersected with the squads of Kanse and Anthony on the highway before passing them by.

Marlowe remained behind.

Meanwhile, as the tactical crossing came to an end, two new members trailed into the rear of the squad—men from Anthony’s and Kanse’s units. Clearly, those two captains had made the exact same arrangement as Neo.

There were no words exchanged, no formal introductions; those staying stayed, those following followed, and the two groups drifted ever further apart.

At last, they reached the railway junction, where everyone stood by the tracks, waiting for a train bound for York City.

York City was a grand metropolis that boasted York Harbor, so even late into the night, trains ran with high frequency.

Before long, a freight train rumbled into view.

"Board."

Everyone scrambled up onto the moving cars.

Karen, Richard, and Memphis stood together in the drafty coupling between two carriages.

"This assignment is going to be incredibly thorny," Karen noted.

Richard spoke up: "It certainly seems so."

Memphis offered a silent nod.

"Have you noticed anything out of the ordinary?" Karen asked.

Richard replied, "Nothing. Though I’ve been watching our surroundings with the utmost vigilance, there is still nothing."

Memphis shook his head.

The train rolled steadily onward.

Suddenly, Karen noticed that the distant landscape looked wrong; they had clearly been drawing nearer to a dense cluster of city lights, yet in what seemed like the blink of an eye, that luminous horizon had abruptly receded into the distance.

Gripping the iron edge of the carriage with one hand, Karen leaned his torso out and saw that the stretch of track they were about to reach was the very railway junction where they had boarded the train.

This was... they had come right back.

"All hands, disembark!"

The captain's order rang out, and everyone leaped from the train one after another, watching as the iron beast continued to rattle away into the night.

"March on foot!"

A new command was handed down.

Everyone began to march, but after twenty minutes of trekking, the group found themselves standing once more at the exact origin from which they had set out.

Richard uttered a piece of useless dialogue: "It seems we can't walk our way out of here."

Memphis spoke up: "It is possible we haven't actually moved at all."

Karen looked toward Memphis and asked, "Have we been hypnotized?"

Memphis shook his head and said, "It is more intricate than that."

Just then, several crows alighted ahead, pacing about the ground. Neo walked over and waved his hand, causing the black birds to dissipate into nothingness; clearly, these were messages the captain had sent out, but the intelligence could not be transmitted.

The group felt as though they were trapped at the bottom of a colossal well; though the surroundings bore no sharp angles, the moss-slick walls only served to deepen their despair.

Richard glanced at his watch and said, "It’s nearly five o'clock. Dawn is breaking."

Karen asked, "Richard, what is the exact time?"

"Oh, five o'clock... wait, what? It’s half past midnight!"

Similar cries of astonishment erupted from other pockets of the squad; evidently, Richard was not the only one who had noticed the shift in time.

Karen lifted his gaze to the starry sky above; he was not well-versed in astrology, but he could sense that the celestial bodies seemed slightly altered from before.

Soon, the results of their synchronized time-check came in: it was indeed just under one o'clock in the morning.

This meant that what they could not escape was not merely this stretch of land, but time itself.

"They're gone!" Fanny cried out suddenly.

The group immediately rose to scan their surroundings. After verifying the count, there were fifteen people present, including the captain.

The squad had originally consisted of the captain, twelve rostered members, and three auxiliary members—sixteen in total. Subtracting Marlowe, who had been left with those two other squads, there should have been fifteen.

Everyone else was present; the missing ones were the two members dispatched by those other two squads to follow them. Karen did not know their names, but he was certain they had accompanied the group here and had boarded the train with them.

"They got off the train," Gray spoke up. "The two of them had been standing right next to me the whole time. I was responsible for keeping an eye on them for any changes. I remember vividly that when the captain gave the order, they disembarked alongside me and even voiced their anxieties about our current predicament to me.

One could say that just moments ago, they were right by my side. Yet I was entirely oblivious to how they managed to vanish just now."

"Did those two go back?" Peg asked. "And by that, I mean, were they 'returned'?"

Fanny countered, "Then what about Marlowe? If those two were 'returned,' why hasn't Marlowe come back to us?"

"Because the point of return is wrong," Memphis said.

Everyone turned their gaze toward the newcomer.

Memphis suffered from no social anxiety; instead, he explained with grave earnestness: "They have likely gone back, and Marlowe should have returned as well, but the coordinates each of them returned to are different. The place they go back to is not necessarily where we are standing right now."

"Forgive me, I don't quite follow..." Fanny said.

"The coordinates are not centered on us. There might exist one or several fixed coordinates, and when their time is up, they are 'returned' to that specific location."

"Then what about us? Why are we still here?" Fanny inquired.

"Our squad might currently be a mobile coordinate."

"A mobile coordinate?" Peg asked in bewilderment. "Why?"

"I do not know, but I have a feeling that if individuals wander off alone, they might be 'returned' to that fixed coordinate. However, as long as our squad maintains a certain number of people, we possess a mobile coordinate—one that is reset only in terms of time, but not in space."

"Time?" Gray caught onto the word.

"It is a different manifestation of time. I do not believe the reality of time has undergone any actual change; reality's clock must remain unaltered. What has changed is our perception of it.

Our watches, the starry sky above—they could all be illusions. I do not know what has caused all of this, but the entity responsible for this phenomenon seems to be deliberately guiding us to accept the concept that time has been severed into pieces."

Neo spoke up: "Memphis is correct. Do not speak of time, and do not reinforce this concept within yourselves. I do not believe there exists any sacred artifact of time in this world, nor is there any power of time.

We must not follow its guidance to perceive and explore, otherwise we will never be able to leave this place.

Now, since we cannot forge ahead, we shall go back. We return to the hillside where we first halted to observe. I hope Marlowe is waiting ahead to rendezvous with us."

Neo did not mention whether those two other squads would meet them there; Karen suspected that Neo likely felt they would not appear at that spot, even though they would certainly hold their ground there as agreed.

The group began to retrace their steps. As they marched, Richard asked Karen in a low whisper, "Is there truly no sacred artifact of time?"

"There is not," Memphis interjected first. "It is said that the God of Light ultimately vanished because he pursued the mastery of the power of time."

Hearing this explanation, Karen paused in surprise and asked, "There is such an explanation?"

There had always been countless speculations regarding the end of the God of Light, and the mainstream theories of each era differed from one another. This was entirely natural; after all, even the study of a single novel could split into numerous schools of thought arguing endlessly against each other, to say nothing of the God of Light.

The current, more unified understanding was that the God of Light had "vanished" at the end of the previous era or the beginning of this one, and this "vanishing" certainly included the possibility of his demise.

"There are many explanations; it depends on which one you are more willing to accept," Memphis continued. "Time is a power that would fascinate even a god."

For only by mastering time could one endure eternally through era after era, without the dread of being reduced to nothingness.

Karen could not help but recall how his golden retriever had spoken that night, using the word "lost" to describe the God of Eternity.

But if time truly was a power unattainable even by gods, a force they yearned for above all else, then what manner of power was currently acting upon his companions and himself?

Karen knew no answer, and the captain’s attempts to contact the outside world had all ended in failure; even the earliest distress signal sent via Marlo to the Church must have come to nothing by now.

If only his own cat and dog were by his side, they would surely have been able to offer a deeper analysis and shrewder conjectures regarding their present plight.

At long last,

The squad arrived at the place where they had last met with Anthony and Canse's teams, and to their unsurprising surprise, the two squads ordered to remain here, along with Marlo, had vanished without a trace.

Richard ran to the side of the road to examine the ground, prompting Karen to ask, "What are you looking for?"

"When I volunteered to stay behind, I scraped out a small pit here with the sole of my boot. I am certain this is exactly where I stood, but the pit is gone."

Karen remembered that Richard, in his eagerness to project an air of nonchalance when volunteering for the task, had indeed been rather restless with his feet.

Just then, Karen heard Fanni make a suggestion to the captain:

"Captain, since we cannot break out, I think we should go and take a look at Castle Ales."

"Yes, Captain, everything is already a mess anyway, so we might as well head to the castle to see what on earth is inside," Gery chimed in.

Neo shook his head and said, "Yet I believe that our failure to enter the Ales Estate is actually our greatest advantage right now. I refuse to believe its effects can endure for so long.

Everyone, gather up, pitch camp right where you stand!"

With the captain ordering them to camp, Karen and Memphis walked toward the group, but Karen noticed that Richard had not followed, still lingering there in search of his little hole.

"Richard, come on, we're setting up camp," Karen urged him.

Memphis also paused, looking back at Richard.

"Oh, right, coming, Karen."

Richard clapped his hands and stood up, and then, right under the watchful gaze of Karen and Memphis, he began to sprint in the exact opposite direction, shouting all the while as he ran:

"Hey, don't run so fast, wait for me, Karen!"