Vile Rabbit

Four hundred years passed.

Apexion stood on his path with countless fate strings in his right palm. Around him rotated two six-tier True Meanings, Life and Death.

Unlike his other tier-six True Meanings, he made sure not to add his individuality to them the reason being he didn't want to bind them to himself, for the source of these concepts already belonged to another: the Death and Life Pathfinder, an entity he was sure he couldn't face at this moment.

So, in order not to anger that entity and possibly be killed across time, he refrained from making them his own.

For even though it is said that the Alpha Pathfinders are most likely dead, sealed, or too broken to operate on their own, he didn't quite believe it and even if it were true, he didn't believe they still couldn't kill a being below the 9th tier even in their broken state.

He cleared his thoughts, gazed toward a certain direction, and muttered softly,

"It's about time."

Then vanished. He reappeared in the False Realm exactly at the spot that overlapped with the Super Realm where the Forbidden Echo was predicted to bloom. He stood patiently, waiting for the right moment to move.

…

A minute later, inside said Super Realm, a nexus sphere belonging to a shimmering orange realm cluster suddenly started pulsating like a ticking time bomb. Then,

Boom!

It exploded, and the space twisted and turned, ripped apart, creating a flat crimson dot spanning hundreds of light-years in diameter. After which,

"FATHER! WHY!"

A gut-wrenching wail laced with sorrow and betrayal boomed from outside the dot, then manifested into a dark shockwave that spread outward in all directions at extreme speed akin to a tsunami. It destroyed everything in its path. Soon, it shattered the barrier of the realm cluster.

PASH!

But at that moment, before it could go any further, it was stopped by a transparent barrier inscribed with countless law engravings.

This barrier was the work of his projection. It had been put in place to conceal the energy waves of the Forbidden Echo from those unaware of it and to possibly block those who knew of its existence beforehand.

The projection stood directly before the forbidden echo, just a few kilometers away from making contact with it.

At that moment apexion's body stop existing in a state of perpetual

motion beyond that of hundred time the speed of light, then vanished and reappeared a few light years from the echo.

At the same time the projection made contact with the echo, and it started to be pulled in but right before it could be fully absorbed it swapped places with apexion, who vanished in side.

Vash!

It reappeared where Apexion was and,

Chi-Ching! Pash!

Right as it reappeared, thousands of law chains slammed into it. The energy from the chains caused its body to instantly shatter.

…

GUUSH!!

Apexion reappeared in the middle of endless water that was flowing downward. His starry eyes shone brightly as he scanned his surroundings. The water was black in color, and each droplet was heavy enough to instantly kill a 6th-tier creature.

His fate star shimmered as he made a few deductions, and a second later, he shot upward against the flow of the water.

Whoosh!

As he traveled, the water within a light-year of him vaporized. Soon he reached a region where countless ghost-like shadows appeared in the water around him.

Along with them came whispers that would cause a 6th-tier creature to go mad and commit suicide:

"Why! Why! Why! Why!"

These shadows launched themselves at him, but the moment they entered the vaporized area, they too vaporized.

Puff!

Apexion continued his journey with pure indifference. Those dusts weren't worthy a hint of his attention.

Soon he encountered a divine giant octopus-like shadow of cosmic proportions, spanning the size of a realm. Its figure also collapsed before it could make contact with him.

Puff!

A few moments later, he entered an area where the water was heavy enough to destroy the body of a weak divine being.

Apexion still effortlessly ascended, his speed even increased.

Vash!

And before you knew it, Splash! He breached the surface of the water and floated in the air.

His will and eyes pulsed as he scanned his surroundings. Around him was darkness so suffocating that even a divine being would have a hard time perceiving inside it. And the water he had just exited…

"A waterfall."

Yes, the water he had been in was a waterfall belonging to the cosmic ocean he was now standing above.

This ocean was black and massive, the size of thousands of realms.

At the center of this ocean was something that caught his eye,a giant humanoid the size of a realm. It figure radiated a desolate atmosphere.

It was clad in obsidian runic armor akin to the ones innate beings wore. Beside it stood a giant sword taller than his body. It armored head leaned against the sword, with tears of blood flowing down his cheeks.

Apexion vanished from where he was standing and appeared before the creature. 'A sliver of will, equal to a top 7th-tier being,' he thought as he scanned the creature.

The creature gazed at him for a second before a deep voice, laced with curiosity and sadness, rang out,

"If you had to choose, would you point your blade against the creature who was like your father, the one who you admire and loved most, or would you point it at your mother and all of your kind?"

Hearing this question, Apexion paused for a moment before his right hand vanished as he swatted toward the creature,

Pash!

Boom!

His swat instantly destroyed the creature and produced a shockwave of black flames that instantly destroyed 90 percent of the ocean, and his majestic voice rang out,

"I did not come here to answer riddles of a broken and forgotten god."

No. He came here in search of time. specifically to penetrate the secrets of a Forbidden Echo and travel to the past, where hopefully he would be able to comprehend the most profound force in existence.

Time. Just as True Sound had done.

Even if it was just at the level of a tier-one True Meaning, he would be satisfied.

His existence desperately craved the law of time, for only with it could he somewhat guarantee his safety against the entities who used the past, present, and future as a game board.

To be honest, he felt extremely vulnerable. He felt that he could possibly die at any moment and not even knew how he died.

And his feelings were justified, for it would take just one of those entities to find him repulsive, and they could simply go to the point of his birth and destroy his world.

Erasing him.

To be even more honest, sometimes he wondered why he was still alive, because if he were one of those entities, there would be no way he'd allow a being such as himself to grow up.

He would find a way to kill him, no matter the cost whether he was a state of brokenness or dead.

The reasons he came up with for his continued existence was that those entities needed him for something.

Two. The seal on time and space was so strong that even they couldn't defy it not even a little.

Three. Perhaps it was his future self was protecting him.

Most of those reasons he wasn't fond of.

He cleared his thoughts and looked intensely at the spot where the creature had stood. His will and eyes blazed, but he saw nothing. Still, his instincts told him what he was looking for was right there.

He frowned, and his fate star started blazing brightly as he issued a Fate Decree,

"Reveal that which I cannot perceive!"

After which, Boom! the decree materialized and stamped into the spot he had been staring at. The space started blurring, as if something was being erased and that something was falsehood.

What was revealed was a small colorless hole that pulsed with an indescribable aura.

"The breach in time and space,"

Apexion muttered with fascination and wonder. Countless thoughts flooded into his mind, and his body instantly shrank to the size of the breach.

Then he stretched out his right index finger as he attempted to touch it but his finger went right through it. He frowned.

'Let's see.'

His finger started pulsating with his law and,

Shoos!

He felt it, the breach. He couldn't describe what it was like to touch it. Suddenly, he noticed that his right hand had vanished.

He raised his arm to his face and scanned the severed area with wonder.

'Time!'

He could tell the reason his hand had vanished was because it had been devoured by time itself.

He sat cross-legged before the breach and fell into deep comprehension.

Time passed tens of thousands of years… a hundred thousand years…

When suddenly he opened his eyes and,

Shing!

His body radiated a colorless aura.

"A hint of the concept of time not even equal to a tier-one True Meaning… unfortunately, this is the limit of what I can understand with the seal's suppression. But it should be enough."