CHAPTER 165: BEAUTY.

(A/N Big thanks to everyone for the Power stones and Golden tickets, they mean a lot. As usual, please don’t hesitate to comment or drop a review. ENJOY)

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Power stones people, Gimme it.

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Finally...

His eyes opened slowly.

He whispered the name in his mind.

*Temporal Locus

A temporal-detection technique that reads the "present-time signature" of targets within range.

Instead of sensing mana or spatial displacement, the user perceives the continuous thread of a being’s temporal presence—allowing detection even if the target exists across multiple dimensions or distorts spatial readings.

Accuracy and range depend on proficiency and concentration.

Orion breathed out.

Temporal Locus.

The perfect counter.

The perfect evolution.

And the first step toward something even more dangerous.

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Despite taking the roundabout path—going through the X-axis of time instead of the Y-axis of space—Orion had still managed to extract the core concept of phasing from Thaddeus’s dimensional simultaneity. The idea was absurd. Implausible. Incredibly idealistic. The kind of thing only a lunatic or a genius would attempt.

And he was both.

If he could shift his physical form into a parallel dimension while keeping his visuals anchored in the current one, then theoretically...

He could pass through anything.

Literally anything.

Walls.

Weapons.

Attacks.

Matter itself.

But the undertaking was proving catastrophically difficult.

If there were a progress bar hovering over his head to measure how close he was to succeeding, it wouldn’t be 30%. Or 20%. Or even 15%.

He was certain it would be below 10%.

He needed guidance—proper, high-level guidance. Far beyond what this academy could realistically give him. That was another reason he couldn’t wait to go home. His father would have answers. His father always had answers.

And if worst came to worst...If he eventually required information from Thaddeus’ branch.

If they refused to share the inner workings of dimensional simultaneity...

If they hoarded the technique like a sacred relic...

Then he’d have to find a way around it anyway.

The thought of stopping now, of abandoning the technique altogether, crept into his mind like rot. Maybe the system’s silence—the absence of a quest—was a sign he wasn’t meant to achieve this yet.

Orion shook his head sharply.

No.

He was not going down that path.

Temporal Locus had seemed impossible too. Completely unrealistic. And yet he had achieved it. Slowly, painfully, stubbornly—but he had done it.

This would be the same.

He breathed out, slipped off the bed, and walked toward the shower. Ten minutes later he stepped out, fresh steam trailing behind him as he dried his hair. His thoughts felt cleaner too, stripped of mental noise.

He snapped his fingers.

A large aether-board materialized in front of the bed, covered in half-erased scribbles from the previous week.

"Let’s get started," he muttered.

Caelum paused mid-page, glanced at him from the balcony, then shook his head and returned to his novel without a word.

The rest of the day passed quickly—hours melting into each other as Orion scribbled formulas, erased them, meditated, recalculated, and erased everything again. At one point he nearly convinced himself he’d made breakthrough progress, only for the math to collapse in on itself five minutes later.

At 1 p.m., he and Caelum went downstairs for lunch, ate quietly, and returned to their separate routines.

By 4 p.m., Orion was sprawled across his bed, taking a much-needed one-hour mental break. His body felt rested.

His brain did not.

He groaned, sat up, and called toward the balcony, "Does Selene know about the new time?"

Caelum didn’t look up.

He just nodded.

Good.

Orion dragged himself to the sink, splashed water on his face, and dried off before motioning to Caelum.

They left the room together.

Their meeting spot was a small restaurant tucked away in Magnum 1—a place they had used for years whenever they needed a quiet corner to talk or simply exist together without being disturbed. Orion didn’t bother walking.

He bent space, snapping the world sideways, and the two reappeared directly in front of the restaurant’s polished doorway.

Inside, they were immediately recognized and guided to a private room overlooking the balcony street. The servers here had long since memorized their habits.

Neither Seris nor Selene were present yet.

Of course.

Orion sat back, arms crossed, tapping the table with a single finger. Minutes passed. Five. Ten. Caelum read silently, legs crossed, entirely unaffected by the wait. Orion was just pulling up his bracelet to contact Seris when something shifted in the distance.

He sensed them.

Far away.

Fast.

Approaching.

A few minutes later, the door to the private room slid open.

Two silhouettes entered.

Two presences that were unmistakable.

Selene and Seris—walking embodiments of why A1 was terrifying, talented, and unbearably dazzling to look at.

Orion felt the air change the moment they stepped in.

Seris’ silver hair had grown longer, falling in sleek waves down her back with an even brighter sheen than before. Her face remained soft, delicate—still carrying that faint sweetness—but new hints of mature beauty had begun to bloom around her cheekbones. Her figure had started its own noticeable upward curve, her posture confident in a way that made everyone else in the academy feel small.

She smiled—radiant, dangerous, effortless.

Then there was Selene.

Colder. Calmer. Sharper.

Where Seris let her hair fall freely, Selene kept hers tied neatly in a bun. Her blue eyes were piercing as ever, framed by features that had slowly shed their childishness for something more regal, more composed. She didn’t need to smile. Her presence alone was striking enough to silence a room.

Even their clothes made a contrast—Seris in gold, soft and warm; Selene in cool blue, elegant and crisp. Both wore frilled gowns, perfectly fitted, perfectly highlighting the trajectories their bodies had taken these last few years.

And of course, Orion noticed the details he would never say aloud.

Selene was developing faster in certain aspects.

Her shape was... impressive.

Seris caught the faint pause in his gaze instantly.

"You’re gawking, Orion," she said with a smirk.

There it was.

The ruinous mouth belonging to an otherwise ethereal beauty.

Orion closed his eyes for a second.