Little Tyrant Doesn't Want to Meet with a Bad End

Chapter 667: The True Identity of the Witch Queen

The return of the Savior was a nightmare to Roel. It was the one scenario he knew he absolutely had to avoid, and he had thought about how to avoid it at the strategy discussion table and in his own calculations.

Yet, it still happened anyway.

Everything spiraled out of control from the moment the Savior regained His sanity. Sia’s Scepter falling into the Savior’s hand meant that he couldn’t even put the final plan into action. Given so, there was only one thing he could do.

I can only put my everything on the line and go all out.

If the Savior was still holding onto Sia’s Scepter, it suggested that He had yet to absorb the immense mana contained in it, which meant that He wasn’t in his complete state at the moment.

The chances of victory were appallingly slim, but this was the weakest state the Savior would ever be in, as well as humankind’s only opportunity. If Roel absorbed the Six Calamities as he had done in the Witness State, even though it would likely spell death for him, there might still be a shot at victory here.

Just then, the Witch Queen appeared.

Roel was startled.

The Savior’s expression flickered, as He sensed a peculiar aura that shouldn’t have appeared here. A faint light shone from His body as He narrowed His eyes and asked, “Who are you?”

“I am Witch Queen Artasia,” Artasia replied.

“A witch? How interesting. I have never seen you before, and the Witches have never had a Sovereign. A blatant lie.”

“It isn’t a lie. You just don’t know it yet.”

“What?” The Savior frowned in displeasure as the light around Him intensified.

“It’s normal You don’t know me, just like how You are unaware of Your impending defeat.”

“My impending defeat?” The Savior first glanced at Artasia, followed by Edavia, Grandar, and Peytra, then He shook His head. “Not a bad hand, but you’re up against the wrong opponent. You don’t stand a chance now that I have regained My sanity and My body.”

“…” Roel’s expression turned severe.

It was possible to defeat the Savior. Roel, Grandar, and Edavia had each defeated Him once before, but those victories were achieved under extremely specific circumstances.

When Grandar confronted the Savior countless years ago, he had the support of the Giants, and the Savior had already succumbed to madness by that point. These favorable conditions created an opportunity for Grandar to destroy the Savior’s body.

In the Witness State, the Six Calamities were in their strongest ever state, and Light Devourer had been gathering mana across an epic battlefield where countless races clashed. Roel attained unbelievable powers after fusing his soul with them, and that was how he had been able to destroy the Savior’s body.

And it was only when the Savior lost His body that Edavia was finally able to vanquish Him. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been able to exert her authority on His soul despite being the Spiriteer Sovereign.

Even though the Savior hadn’t regained His full strength, He had been freed from His madness. It would be extremely difficult to find a way to destroy his physical body, not to mention that he would be guarded against that.

Roel had no idea where he should start from.

While he was racking his brain for ideas, the humans in the imperial capital finally noticed the glowing man in the sky. Alicia, who had inherited the Mother Goddess’ memories, recognized the Savior and was startled.

“Lord Brother!” Alicia immediately rushed over to Roel’s side.

Nora, Charlotte, Wilhelmina, and Lilian rushed over as well. Their approach filled Roel’s heart with worry and anxiety.

The Savior raised His eyebrows and remarked, “Meaningless, but brave. Fearless courage is hard to come by, but none of you are worth My attention.”

The Savior gently tapped Sia’s Scepter, and a blinding light burst out from within and enveloped both the Savior and Roel. At the same time, a fiery heat wave rippled outward, forcing Alicia and the others to put up their defenses.

It took only a single move for the Savior to stop five Origin Level 1 transcendents in their tracks. The disparity in their strength was truly intimidating. It was the reason the Savior was fearless.

Much to Roel’s surprise, Artasia wasn’t fazed by their adverse situation. Her madder-red eyes still showed no hint of fear; on the contrary, there was a hint of relief as if she had finally reached the ending point after a long wait.

“It took a thousand years of preparation for you to be freed from the Black Moon’s judgment. That seems to have inflated you with confidence, Incarnation of the Sun,” Artasia said.

“You know quite a bit. It has taken a thousand years of preparation, but everything is unfolding the way I planned. Now, it’s time for the final act.”

A thick layer of light shrouded the Savior. Powerful shockwaves rippled from Him, exerting tremendous pressure upon the imperial capital that threatened to snap spines. He was invoking the exclusive authority of His Divine Domain.

The moment He unleashed His spell, almost every single being in the imperial capital froze in time. Humans and Fallens alike lost their freedom in this instant. Even Alicia and the others found themselves unable to move.

Yet, Roel was impervious to the time freeze.

The Savior’s power dissipated in the face of the Witch Queen’s ability. He was unable to breach Artasia’s Cogs of Time to manipulate Roel’s time!

Roel widened his eyes in astonishment.

“Impossible! How are you able to control time?” the Savior exclaimed in disbelief.

“It’s my ability too,” Artasia calmly replied.

Before the Savior’s astounded eyes, Artasia released a blinding burst of light.

Sia’s Scepter began shaking in resonance. As if summoned, the immense mana it harnessed broke free of the Savior’s control and flowed toward Artasia and Lilian.

“No!” the Savior roared in horror.

Upon realizing that Artasia was siphoning the powers inside Sia’s Scepter, the Savior anxiously clawed onto His power, trying to keep as much of it for Himself as possible, but He was only able to retain a tenth of it.

Unable to comprehend the situation, He stared at Artasia in utter shock. “Impossible! How are you able to siphon my powers… Who in the world are you?!”

“Allow me to introduce myself once more, then,” the Witch Queen sneered in response. She stood dignified as tremendous power burst from her. “I am Artasia Ascart, the Witch Queen and the ruler of the Unified Human Empire Saint Tanar. I am one of the Twin Child Gods who would siphon your powers in the future. Last but not least, I am the daughter of humankind’s final saint whom you killed, Roel Ascart, and Lilian Ackermann.”

“!” The Savior’s expression turned awful. He finally understood why Artasia was able to earn the recognition of Sia’s Scepter.

Carolyn and Charles had determined that a child born from the Ascarts and the Ackermanns would have the greatest priority in inheriting the power of Sia’s Scepter, which was why they deemed them Child Gods in the final plan.

Not even the Savior in Lukas’ body could compete against that, not to mention that He was up against two people. The Savior could only stare helplessly at the glowing scepter.

On the other hand, Roel stared at the Witch Queen with widened eyes. His mind was swiftly connecting the dots through the doubts he had harbored for the longest time.

…

Witch Queen Artasia was the third ancient god Roel had contracted with. Unlike Grandar and Peytra, she had been an enigmatic existence right from the start.

In the first place, Roel had thought that the term ‘Witch Queen’ was oxymoronic. He had learned about the Witches from the books—they were an eccentric bunch who freely roamed the world and preferred to keep to themselves instead of gathering in groups. A Sovereign shouldn’t have risen from such a race.

Artasia’s obsession with Lilian had been intriguing too.

Aside from that, Artasia’s background was a complete mystery.

Grandar was the final Giant Sovereign in the ancient era who defeated the Savior. Peytra was the very first Primordial Earth Goddess, as well as the Saint Beast Sovereign. Edavia’s history could be traced further back to the creation of the world.

Only Artasia had remained a mystery.

Every time he visited her domain, he would wonder about her majestic palace’s background. Surely a country that had built a city as grand as this would have left its mark in history. Today, it finally made sense to him.

The term ‘Witch Queen’ didn’t refer to the Witch Sovereign. Instead, she was a witch who ruled over the whole of humankind. The majestic palace she lived in hadn’t appeared in any records because it was from the future Unified Human Empire, Saint Tanar.

She couldn’t talk about herself because everything she did would affect the future.

But most importantly of all, she was the daughter of him and Lilian. That explained many things. She was obsessed with Lilian because Lilian was her mother. Now that he thought about it, Artasia had never called him by his name. She had always opted to call him ‘my hero’.

He thought Artasia had addressed him so out of her quirkiness as a witch, but it was probably a cover for how she would have actually addressed him, as well as a hint about his fate.

Artasia had described him as ‘humankind’s final saint whom the Savior killed’. That was his ending in the future she had lived in. Roel had a feeling that might have been the case from the dream he had where he wandered the streets with a little girl.

That little girl didn’t reveal anything in that dream, but her behavior and affection for Roel were unlike those of an ordinary child of her age. Roel could more or less guess his fate from that.

It was uncanny that the source of his power stemmed from defying fate. Despite knowing the fight with the Savior would most likely end in his death, he couldn’t cast aside his faith. He would continue to fight as long as there was a glimmer of hope.

What he hadn’t expected was for the twins he had with Lilian to have completed the final plan by stealing the power inside Sia’s Scepter and becoming the Twin Child Gods. They defeated the Savior and even utilized their temporal powers to interfere with the past.

This should have been an impossible feat. It was a temporal paradox for those who should have existed in the future to appear in the past. However, Artasia was able to pull it off because of her ability—Contradiction.

No contradiction in the world could limit Artasia.

Temporal contradiction was the greatest issue when it came to temporal spells. The only way to overcome this contradiction was to pull oneself out of the flow of time.

The realization of that made Roel’s golden eyes light up.

Meanwhile, Artasia’s mana surged. The sun and the moon suddenly lost their luster, making the stars in the sky look brighter than ever. Cogs of Time manifested behind her and transformed into a law that integrated with the world.

The Witch Queen unleashed her countless years of seething resentment and anger. A blinding light engulfed the world once more, and it swiftly overwhelmed the Savior’s spell.

Meanwhile, the only other person who could move in this frozen world, Lilian Ackermann, narrowed her eyes.

“That is…”

“Mother, thank you for bringing me here. I’ll be heading over to Big Sister’s side.”

“Ah?”

Upon hearing the familiar voice, Lilian looked down at her bump. A stream of light whizzed out of her body and flew over to Roel’s side. Along the way, the stream of light transformed into the form of a girl.

It was the little girl Roel had seen in his dream, but she had taken a more mature form here. Her appearance was strikingly similar to Artasia’s, though she shared some of Roel’s and Lilian’s traits too.

As soon as she appeared beside the Witch Queen, Sia’s Scepter shook intensely, and even more mana surged toward the two of them.

Roel received the Savior’s power through his window with Artasia, and he swiftly grew stronger. A holy white light shone from him, as he felt an unprecedented mana flowing in him.

“You blasphemers! How dare you steal My power?” the Savior roared.

“You’re the thief here. This is the power Sia reserved for the Kingmaker,” Roel replied with blazing golden eyes.

With Artasia and the girl swiftly siphoning away the mana inside Sia’s Scepter, the Savior was forced to take decisive action. “Do you think you can defeat me like that? You fools, that’s just a portion of my power. I still have other means to deal with you.”

Tremendous mana gushed out of the Savior’s body, and the sun by the horizon started rising once more, bringing light upon the world. The Savior murmured a spell that He had hardly ever used, “Divine Domain.”

In an instant, the world was engulfed by light.

Artasia and the girl revealed grim looks before they were devoured by the light. Roel was swept into it too, and before he knew it, he was already spiraling down a pitch-black abyss.

…

Amidst the darkness, countless scenes flashed across Roel’s eyes.

The battered human empire, the civilizations devoured by the Six Calamities, the Tripartite Alliance, and many more scenes that even he didn’t recognize…

It felt like he was going to be absorbed into one of these scenes.

Something tugged at his body, attempting to tear him apart, but through the protection of the Crown Origin Attribute and the holy white light, he survived the ordeal. When he finally opened his eyes once more, everything had changed.

The imperial capital had vanished without a trace. His comrades were nowhere to be seen. He was alone in a pitch-black space. The darkness around him was revolving toward the unknown, and many scenes flickered before his eyes.

Roel immediately understood where he was.

This pitch-black space was the Savior’s Divine Domain, and His jurisdiction was time.

Similar to how living beings had used day and night to measure time, the Savior’s Divine Domain allowed him to control the time in the past, and that was what Roel was witnessing now.

“Oh? You didn’t vanish. I’m surprised. Is it because you absorbed My powers?”

A familiar voice prompted Roel to raise his head, where he saw a smiling Savior holding onto a darkened Sia’s Scepter.

The power inside Sia’s Scepter no longer belonged to the Savior, resulting in His weakening. However, His confidence was unwavering after unleashing His Divine Domain, and He looked at Roel with disdain.

“This is my Divine Domain, the Dayless Domain. It’s a temporal spiral leading to the past. Those two future existences who dared to tamper with the past have already vanished, and you’ll be next.”

“…”

Roel’s mind started whirring after hearing the Savior’s words, while the latter assessed him in fascination.

“Roel Ascart, you are an exception. Even your offspring amazes Me. However, none of you are My match. Your fate was sealed the moment you dared oppose Me… However, I can offer you a chance.”

“What is it?” Roel impassively asked.

“Perhaps your existence here is a calling. Kneel down and submit to Me,” the Savior said with a dignified and intimidating disposition similar to an emperor. “I can kill you easily, but your death would be a waste. It’s the same for those two girls. Become My servants. That’s the only way I’ll spare you.”

“You want us to become your lapdog?”

“Indeed. What other choice do you have?” The Savior shook his head in disdain. “Humans, Elves, Dragons, and even gods—all races are my lapdogs. They are merely tools for me to rule the world. Yet, they rebel against their master as soon as they gain power. Little do they know their efforts are futile. It has already been prophesied. They are opposing the inevitable. They are opposing fate.”

“Fate?”

“Yes, fate. The unstoppable flow of fate. Just like how your race ended up with nothing after generations of servitude. But now, you can change things,” the Savior said with an expectant smile. He believed that Roel had no other choice here.

However, Roel had pondered upon this question before, and his answer was the same as the one he had offered in the Witness State. “My apologies, but I refuse to serve the likes of you.”

As Roel’s calm and determined voice echoed in the darkness, his body emanated a holy light. His golden eyes blazed with the obstinacy of his predecessors who refused to be extinguished by adversity.

“Humans aren’t your lapdogs. The races aren’t your tools. They are born in Sia’s embrace, and they know of happiness and sorrow. They desire freedom, just as Sia had envisioned them to. When someone seeks to take away their freedom, they will follow Sia’s teaching and fight back. And we, the Kingmaker Clan, have never bowed down to fate before!” Roel roared.

The Savior turned livid. He glared at Roel with seething anger before suddenly bursting into laughter. “Oh? You refuse to bow down to fate? What beautiful words. But what can you do? Nothing in the world can escape the jurisdiction of time. You may have lasted thus far, but you’ll eventually be crushed under the relentless flow of time.”

“You’re the one who’s going to be crushed, Savior.”

“What?”

“Time doesn’t just flow; it’s an accumulation too. My ability to exist here is not solely due to your power either.”

Before the Savior’s shocked gaze, a transforming light shone from Roel’s body. It was mana with the power to corrupt reality. It was the key to changing fate, the light of tomorrow.

“Divine Domain!” Roel muttered, and the pitch-black space lit up.