Power of Runes Chapter 541: The Depths of Fate (2)

{Yes. I found it rather interesting myself. I cannot determine where he obtained it, who granted it to him, or whether its origin is connected to something that has yet to happen.}

Silence fell, heavier than the words themselves.

Arthur was silent for a moment, clearly thinking.

"That explains the disturbance, but it doesn’t explain the Resonance."

{It does not. The Chaos merely provided the final push. The conditions for the Resonance had already been accumulating through Ash’s actions, the damaged Web, and the rewriting of the Grand Fate. Had those conditions not existed, the Chaos alone would not have been enough.}

Arthur slowly nodded, but his gaze had already become more serious.

"So the bastard unknowingly prepared the entire situation, then accidentally gave it the final push."

There was a faint trace of disbelief in his voice.

"How absurd."

The Rune of Fate said nothing to disagree with him.

Arthur’s expression gradually changed as another thought surfaced.

"Wait."

His eyes narrowed.

"What happened to Ash while I was comprehending?"

{He used the opportunity you gave him. While your consciousness was immersed in the enlightenment, the Rune of Time used its power and destroyed Ash’s Temporal Anchor.}

Arthur’s eyes widened slightly.

"They actually did something that crazy?"

He had spent so much time calculating how Ash could be cornered, yet somehow, while Arthur had been gaining enlightenment, Ash had not only survived but reached the threshold required for the Rune of Time to interfere with his Temporal Anchor.

"How long was I occupied?"

{Long enough.}

Arthur’s expression darkened.

"So while I was comprehending the Rune of Fate, Ash was already preparing his escape."

The realization irritated him more than he expected.

{Not merely preparing it. He has already entered the River of Time.}

Arthur went silent.

For several moments, he simply stared into the endless Web of Fate.

"The River of Time..."

"How far has he gone?"

{Far enough. I can locate him, but it might be delayed by some time. And if he leaves that place in the meantime, I will have to locate him once more.}

Arthur’s fingers slowly tightened.

He had just advanced his comprehension by 4% through an enlightenment that could only occur once across countless eras, had returned with a level of understanding that made even his previous self appear ignorant, and yet the first thing he encountered after awakening was a problem that remained completely outside his reach.

A quiet laugh escaped him.

"Interesting."

The irritation in his voice slowly disappeared, replaced by something far more dangerous.

"So that is what you’ve become, Ash."

The Rune of Fate remained silent.

Arthur continued thinking.

"If he is inside the River of Time, then simply waiting for him to return would be the most ordinary but a foolish choice and after what I have learned about him, I have no intention of doing that."

{Then what will you do?}

Arthur’s gaze remained fixed upon the endless Web of Fate, but his thoughts had already moved far beyond the simple question of waiting for Ash to return.

"I will follow him."

For the first time since the Rune of Fate had begun speaking, there was no hesitation in Arthur’s voice.

{You intend to enter the River of Time?}

"Yes."

Arthur slowly looked toward the endless depths surrounding him, his thoughts moving through everything he had just learned, and the more he considered the situation, the more obvious the answer became.

"Waiting is certainly the safer choice, but I don’t have the luxury of safety right now. Ash has already entered the River of Time, and every moment I spend sitting here is another moment in which he can move through History, becoming more powerful, and create changes that I may never be able to undo. I have already given him enough time because of this enlightenment, and I will not give him even more simply because I am unwilling to take a risk."

The Rune of Fate remained silent for a brief moment before answering in its usual detached tone.

{That is certainly one possibility, although it is considerably more dangerous than allowing Ash to leave the Present and waiting for his eventual return. The River of Time within this Fake Dimension is not an ordinary river, and entering it without sufficient preparation would be unwise, particularly in your current state.}

Arthur’s gaze sharpened.

"You said it yourself. This is the River of Time of the Fake Dimension."

His thoughts turned toward the distant past, toward something that only his former self could remember clearly.

"I created this Fake Dimension before my death, and therefore the River of Time within it is not completely foreign to me. There is a connection between it and my own existence, even if I cannot currently perceive that connection as clearly as I once could."

{There is such a connection.}

The Rune of Fate’s answer came almost immediately.

{But your current cultivation is insufficient to awaken your Dimensional Authority completely, and without that Authority, traversing the River would be considerably more difficult than it once was.}

Arthur’s expression became colder.

"I know."

He understood exactly how ridiculous the situation was.

He had once created the Fake Dimension to hide the Runes from his enemies, once stood at a height where the River of Time within it could be traversed without the slightest concern, and yet now, despite possessing 90% comprehension of the Rune of Fate, his current cultivation still prevented him from freely using the authority that belonged to his former existence.

But Arthur had never been someone who allowed a limitation to become an excuse.

"I don’t need to awaken all of my Dimensional Authority."

The Rune of Fate remained silent.

Arthur’s eyes gradually became sharper as an idea formed within his mind.

"I only need enough."

{That would depend on what you are willing to risk.}

Arthur gave a faint smile.

"Everything."

The Rune of Fate remained silent for a moment before its voice returned, carrying that same strange lack of concern that had always characterized it.

{Then there is another matter you should consider. Your Temporal Anchor.}

Arthur’s gaze became still.

"I won’t destroy it."

{You intend to preserve your connection to this Timeline while entering the River.}

"Of course."

Arthur’s answer came without hesitation.

"If Ash can move through the River without an Anchor, then I don’t need to throw mine away merely to pursue him. I only need to conceal it."

The Rune of Fate seemed to fall silent for a slightly longer moment this time.

{Concealing a Temporal Anchor from the River of Time while entering it is not something that should normally be possible, particularly with your current level of cultivation. The Anchor is what binds an existence to its position within History, and once an existence enters the River, that connection is extremely difficult to hide. So, what will you do about that?}

Rune of Fate asked in such a tone that screamed that it already knew what and how Arthur was going to accomplish it, but it still wanted to hear it from Arthur’s mouth.

Arthur slowly raised his hand.

"Normally."

His voice carried a quiet certainty.

"But I have 90% comprehension of the Rune of Fate. And you know very well, what that power can do and what it can’t do, so don’t test me while asking such obvious questions."

The golden threads surrounding him began to move faintly.

"For countless years, I believed Fate was a system of fixed connections, something that could only be manipulated within the rules that already existed, but after the enlightenment, I understand something far more important."

Arthur’s gaze settled upon the countless threads.

"As long as the connection exists, there is a possibility of changing how that connection is perceived."

The Rune of Fate remained silent.

Arthur continued.

"I cannot awaken my full Dimensional Authority with my current cultivation, but with ninety percent comprehension of the Rune of Fate, I don’t need to force the River to accept something impossible. I only need to make it believe that my Temporal Anchor is somewhere it isn’t."

There was a long silence within the connection.

Then the Rune of Fate finally spoke.

{That is an interesting possibility.}

Arthur’s lips curved into a faint smile.

"You sound like you want to see whether it works."

{I want to see whether you can pull it off, because its not that easy to accomplish.}

The Rune’s voice remained completely detached.

{If you succeed, you will enter the River while retaining your connection to the Timeline, which would give you considerably more control than Ash currently possesses. If you fail, however, the River may reject the false connection and expose the Anchor immediately, and I cannot tell you which possibility is more likely until you attempt it. Its more interesting and fun that way.}

Arthur laughed softly.

"Then I suppose we’ll find out."

His consciousness began gathering around the Rune of Fate, and countless golden threads slowly converged around him, wrapping themselves through the structure of his existence.

He was not trying to destroy his Temporal Anchor.

He was hiding it.

Just as he had once hidden his powers and his authority within the Web of Fate, he intended to conceal the existence that tied him to the Present Timeline, burying its presence beneath layers of Fate so deep that even the River itself would have difficulty recognizing where his true Anchor rested.

It was an absurd thing to attempt.

Perhaps an impossible thing.

But Arthur no longer viewed impossibility in quite the same way.

If enough Will was applied to Fate, even something that should not exist could be forced into the realm of possibility.

Ash was a living proof of it.

**