Author's Reincarnation in a Fantasy Setting

Chapter 300 The Future Of Nothingness [3]

"It was something I could not believe right away," she said with a slight smile that lasted only for a millisecond. "Everything did go like I wanted. I went into the Nhility and activated the skill thinking that somehow all the pure energy present there will merge with my time-related skill while getting absorbed into my body and creating something that was close to time travel.

"But still, I hadn't expected it to go just like I'd thought. Nihility is a strange place and I still don't understand its rules and how things work there. However, for some reason, I got what I wanted."

As she spoke, Zero was quietly paying attention. The things about the Nhility were quite interesting to him. Other than that, he was amazed at the fact that he wasn't having even a bit of a problem trusting what his future variant said. For one reason or another, he knew that he would've ended up doing something like this if she hadn't come in between to save him.

"Once I had gained the power to travel in time, I of course tested it on a small scale first before coming here. I did some things. For example, I picked up a stone and put it in a certain place, then I went back in time and stopped myself from doing that. From that, I got to know that this world did in fact change your future rather than creating any paradox or alternate timelines.

"I was able to interact with my past self, and whenever I convinced him to not put the stone in that place, the future was rewritten and I lost consciousness because the future I existed in was completely erased from existence. And if you're wondering how I have these memories if I lost consciousness then it's because even though the future version of myself was erased, the past version still remembered that a Zero came from the future to stop him from putting the stone there.

"And that past version of me also knew my plan of testing this skill by going back in time and stopping my past self, so that way he was able to understand that the plan worked. In fact, I don't remember traveling back in time at all. The only memory I have of time traveling is when I came here.

"Well, that's about it. Once I was sure that the time traveling was working and I would not create any paradoxes, I decided to do the final thing. However, even that was a hard task in itself. Because just like the other skill I got from the Nhility, this one too consumed my mana when used. And this time it used even more; just after testing it once I felt like I was about to die— which was a strange feeling considering my level. I hadn't felt this much drained in a long long while.

"According to Req's calculation, I would only be able to use this skill three times before I completely run out of mana. That's why I needed to be careful. I planned everything and went through all the details once again before I finally jumped into the past.

"Well, that's about it. Now I'm here in front of you, and I guess I have probably taken too much time in telling you about what happened in the future. But it was important too," she said.

"Hmmm," Zero mumbled as he shifted in the throne and held and played around with his bangs. "How many times can you make a time leap?" he asked.

"Of course, you would have noticed," she said. "Originally there were three chances, as I just told you. One I used when coming here, but after that something unexpected happened and I ended up using a bit more mana than I'd thought. So now only one chance worth of mana is left within me."

"And what do you plan to do with it?" Zero asked.

"I always intended to use it on you, that is my plan. I'll send you back in time, one day of the academy festival before the calamity started," she replied.

"Oh? Why not send me to the very beginning?" Zero questioned. "Or could it be that it is somehow connected to your saying 'I don't have much time left' again and again."

"Hah," she smirked. "So you're not even leaving out your future self, huh? Well, there's no point in hiding it so I'll tell you. Yeah, you're right. It is connected to why I'm saying that there's not enough time. And as for why I'm saying that, well, it turns out that I'm not completely immune."

Her words left Zero in a perplexed state, and he wasn't able to figure out their meaning. Which wasn't completely true, since he kinda knew what she meant but was not entirely sure about it.

"What do you mean?" he asked at last.

Upon that question she straightened up and looked at Zero, then she cast her gaze down at her stomach. Slowly, the shadows covering her stomach moved back and her skin was revealed. And with that came a hole.

"The time travel didn't exactly go as I expected," she said. "It seems like when this skill is used to make a long jump in time it damages your body. I made the jump of a few decades and in the process lost most of my internal organs," after saying that she looked up and the shadows covered her body back.

"I am somehow keeping myself alive with the cloak of the Requiem sword but that won't last long, it's the truth. That's why I keep saying that I don't have much time. And that's why I can't send you in the very beginning of things, since I don't know much damage you will take from the leap."

"I see. I kind of expected something like this," Zero said, as he continued to think.

After that he didn't say anything for a while, he was busy thinking. He was going through everything his future version has said and coming to his own conclusion.

Then after a good ten to fifteen minutes, he stood up and looked at the girl sitting on the other throne in front of him.

"Okay, what do you want me to do?" he asked.

A smile came over her face, and this time it was not a forced one. She was genuinely smiling, for she was for the first time in a while, taking a breath of relief.