Global Gods : Skill-Resonance Awakened Chapter 384 384: Ch 384 : God of Time

Sunny navigated the dense, viscous expanse of the negation domain, his thoughts a cold cascade of calculations and solidified resolve.

The oppressive darkness within this realm didn't simply obscure vision; it seemed to devour the very essence of potential.

In the outer world, he was a Sovereign, a being capable of weaving multiverses into his very soul and dictating the fundamental laws of reality with a mere gesture. Within this domain, however, he was merely a man.

A man of high-tier, cosmic-blooded lineage, to be sure, but brutally stripped of the divine faculties that had elevated him to the status of a God.

His Nihilium Omniscience was extinguished. His Void Step had faded into a distant memory. Even his intrinsic connection to the System, that constant influx of data and progression which had served as his internal rhythm for millennia, had fallen silent.

He found himself confined within a sphere of encroaching non-existence, a void expanding at a speed far exceeding his physical movement capabilities.

At this alarming rate, his fate wasn't merely imprisonment; he was destined to become the focal point of a growing abyss that would, inevitably, consume all that he had ever constructed.

"This is the ultimate countermeasure," Sunny uttered softly, his voice absorbed by the vacuum of the stifling dark. "A domain designed to reduce an immortal back to the sheer vulnerability of a singular existence."

Just as the crushing weight of his absolute solitude began to impinge upon his mental fortitude, a subtle flicker materialized. It wasn't a source of light, but rather a rent in the seamless blackness, revealing the faint outline of a seated figure.

Even without his Divine Eyes, Sunny's biological evolution had reached such advanced stages that his natural retinas possessed the acuity to detect the faint thermal signature of a living entity from a considerable distance.

"Who could possibly endure in this desolate graveyard?" Sunny mused aloud. A wave of wistful recollection washed over him, remembering the days when he could simply survey a soul to ascertain its entire history. Now, he was relegated to the reliance on his own two feet.

He pushed off from the void, his muscles, fortified by his Nihilium bloodline, launching him forward with a raw, primal power that dwarfed any mortal lineage.

Within moments, the gap was closed. As he neared the solitary figure, Sunny modulated his speed, his palms held open in a universally recognized gesture of peace.

"Hello, fellow traveler..." Sunny initiated, the words perishing in his throat as the individual turned to face him.

The being presented an appearance of profound antiquity, not the revered, dignified age of a deity, but the decrepit, decaying senescence of a mortal left to wither away.

His skin resembled yellowed parchment stretched taut over a skeletal frame, his back contorted in such a severe hunch that it appeared his spine was on the verge of folding inward upon itself.

An uncontrollable tremor wracked his frame, his bony hands clamped onto his knees as if striving to prevent his very bones from rattling apart.

Notwithstanding the evident decay, Sunny's memory remained an impeccable, indelible record. He recognized the specific contours of the face, the characteristic angle of the brow, and the unique, unmistakable resonance emanating from the soul-knot.

"Chronos?" Sunny breathed out, his eyes widening in surprise. He reached forward, his robust hands gently clasping the old man's shoulders to assist him in rising. "The God of Time? How... how did you descend to such a state?"

Chronos tilted his head upwards, his eyes clouded and frail, blinking with agonizing slowness as if the act of focusing required Herculean effort. "Who are you?" he rasped, his voice akin to the dry rustle of fallen leaves skittering across barren stone. "How is it that you know that name? It has been... an exceedingly long time since it was spoken."

"My designation is Cosmos," Sunny responded, maintaining a composed and steady tone. "I am familiar with your name because I have encountered you previously."

"Cosmos..." Chronos echoed the name, a fleeting, spectral smile gracing his parched lips. "A name of grand ambition. A name belonging to youth. Prithee, sit with me. There is no escape from this desolate place. I have roamed these shadows for sixty long years. Time herein holds no significance, for the very Law of Time has been annihilated."

He emitted a cough, a wet, rattling sound that convulsed his entire being. "I was an ascended God. I possessed immortality. But as you have discovered, this domain represents the utter negation of all divine endowments. Deprived of the Law that sustains us, our divinity is systematically stripped away. We are reverted to our most fundamental biological state. I am now a mortal man, nearing the century mark, and I can palpably feel my heart's rhythm faltering. Sit. Resign yourself to the inevitable conclusion. It is far less arduous than confronting this encroaching darkness."

"Sixty years?" Sunny inquired, his mind working at an accelerated pace. "Is there truly no discernible path? In all that protracted duration, did you not uncover even a single avenue of egress?"

"None whatsoever," Chronos whispered in reply. "Within the confines of this domain, every inhabitant is rendered equal. We are soft. We are susceptible. Perhaps if your nature aligned with that of a Great Dragon or a Titan of the Primal Earth—beings whose physical prowess exists independently of any bestowed talents—you might possess the capacity to forcibly breach the boundary. But for beings like us? We are but corporeal vessels adrift in an indifferent void."

Chronos leaned back, his respiration noticeably labored and strained. "When I first entered this place, the domain was but a fraction of its current size. I was drawn by the lingering essence of the Time Law resonating within it. I mistakenly believed it to be a valuable treasure. Little did I comprehend that it was, in fact, a digestive organ. It was not expanding then... it was merely patient, awaiting its consumption."

"It's not waiting anymore," Sunny replied grimly. "It is expanding with lightning speed now. It's devouring multiverses. Even if I could run at my absolute physical limit, I cannot outrun the expansion of the sphere itself."

Sunny shivered. The truth was more brutal than he had imagined. If he died here, he wouldn't revive.

"My clones..." Sunny thought, a cold dread pooling in his gut. "My connection to the sixteen soul-shards outside is severed. If this main consciousness passes away in this negation zone, will it jump to a clone? Or will the connection remain broken, leaving sixteen Sunnys to wake up as independent beings while I rot here?"

The thought of sixteen versions of himself, each with his memories but without his central soul-anchor, was a nightmare. He would be creating sixteen rivals for his own throne.

"Don't overthink it," Chronos said, sensing the tension in Sunny's grip. "Just lie down. Save your energy. Perhaps a miracle will happen... perhaps someone will look down and pity us. But if you keep pacing, you will die of exhaustion soon. Like I will die by the next day."

Sunny looked at the old man, and a spark of his old defiance flared. He wasn't ready to lie down in a grave.

"You should save your energy, Chronos," Sunny said. He reached out and tapped the old man's forehead with a single finger. "I am going to find the heart of this thing."

That tap was not a simple gesture. Within that touch, Sunny utilized the one thing the negation domain couldn't fully suppress because it didn't rely on mana or external Laws: Faith.

Faith was a conceptual energy generated by the souls within Sunny's inner world. Since his inner world was physically integrated into his cosmic body, the battery was still there. He couldn't use it to cast a spell, but he could transfer it.

A surge of pure, golden belief flowed from Sunny's finger into Chronos's soul. It was a dense, magical and sent straight to the dormant, shriveled seed of the Law of Time within Chronos.

The Law of Time, sensing the absolute negation of the domain outside, had curled into a tiny ball to survive.

But as the Faith flooded in, it recognized a source of fuel. It didn't try to expand, that would be suicide, but it began to release a steady, nourishing warmth into Chronos's physical cells. It began to wake up his latent Void-born physiology, the natural durability of an ancient being.

Chronos gasped, his eyes flying open. His skin took on a faint, healthy hue, and his shivering stopped. "What... what did you do? I feel... I feel the pulse again."

"Don't speak," Sunny commanded, already drifting away. "Absorb it. It will give you back your powers, it will give you an another century of life. Stay alive, Chronos. I'm going to find the exit, and I'm coming back for you."

"A century?" Chronos whispered in shock. He watched as Sunny vanished into the darkness at a speed that made his old eyes blur.

As Sunny moved deeper into the negation, he felt the constant trickle of Faith points filling his reservoir. It was a massive, untapped fortune.

"Faith is the ultimate energy," Sunny whispered to himself. "It's built from the inside out. The domain can't take it because it's mine."

But his frustration remained. He had the fuel, but the engines, his talents and professions, was still stalled. He was like a man with a billion gallons of gasoline and a broken car.

He looked into the infinite black, his violet eyes searching for the source of the expansion.

Somewhere in this dark, there was a heart beating. Somewhere, the Beyonder was feeding.

And Sunny decided that if he couldn't cast a spell to see it, he would simply keep walking until he bumped into it.

"Sixteen clones," Sunny muttered, his jaw setting. "I'm not letting sixteen versions of me ruin my world. I'm getting out of here."

Far behind him, Chronos sat upright for the first time in decades, a tiny spark of silver time-light dancing in the center of his pupils. For the first time in sixty years, the God of Time looked at his watch.