NOVEL NEXT Chapter567-I Never Lie
The moment the forcibly-shattered time seal collapsed, the unleashed power didn't fade.
Instead, the imbalance triggered something far worse—
a raging temporal maelstrom, spiraling into existence like a wounded beast gone mad.
A violent suction force erupted without warning, tearing through the distorted corridor of time.
Before Daniel could fully comprehend what was happening, the sudden pull swallowed both him and Karlbira whole.
Everyone knew what a time vortex meant. No amount of explanation was needed; its danger was self-evident, universally acknowledged.
Even as Daniel's expression hardened, his instincts moved faster than thought. He layered himself with a full stack of defensive buffs—each barrier shimmering with temporal and spatial runes—then reached out mentally and pulled Karlbira back into himself.
Karlbira was simply too weak.
Even if she held the title of a Fake God in the time domain, that was nowhere near enough. Against something as erratic and catastrophic as a temporal storm, even she faced the very real possibility of being shredded into nonexistence.
Stashing her inside the Corridor of Time was the safest option available.
Just as he secured her essence, a crisp, surprised voice whispered beside his ear—
a voice he knew all too well.
"Crossbridge!"
Daniel's head snapped sideways on instinct.
And there she was—
Kartora, wearing the exact expression, the exact posture, the exact presence he had seen the day she left his timeline.
Yes.
This was that Kartora.
The one from that moment.
Two thousand years ago.
His eyes widened a fraction.
Kartora shouldn't have been here.
By her own limitations, she couldn't travel into future timelines at all—so why was she appearing inside a temporal rift that shouldn't belong to her era?
"Kartora," Daniel asked, confusion slipping into his voice despite his attempt to stay calm,
"You said you cannot enter future timelines. So why… why are you here?"
Kartora opened her mouth, about to answer—
but the surrounding space trembled violently, cutting her off.
It wasn't the earlier quake; this tremor carried the weight of collapsing ages, threatening to crush the three of them into timeless ash.
Kartora's bright expression vanished instantly.
Her gaze sharpened.
"Crossbridge," she said, all playfulness gone,
"this isn't the moment for explanations. Release Karlbira right now—we need to leave first!"
Daniel frowned.
Her tone was urgent, but urgency alone never swayed him.
Quietly, almost imperceptibly, he activated Psychic Perception, peering straight into Kartora's heart.
Nothing was hidden.
Nothing was disguised.
He could sense the raw sincerity of her anxiety.
She wasn't lying.
Without further hesitation, Daniel released Karlbira from the Corridor of Time.
The surrounding temporal currents were chaotic, but not immediately lethally unstable; otherwise even he wouldn't dare open internal spaces.
Karlbira materialized beside him, her eyes widening as she instantly sensed the severity of the situation.
No one spoke.
There was no room for chatter, no time for past grudges. All three aligned their focus, tense yet coordinated without verbal agreement.
They drifted toward the nearest visible fracture—a jagged crack in the timestream—and began flying upstream with all speed.
But they barely covered any distance before the space behind them collapsed once more.
A second shockwave hit.
Daniel didn't even have time to react.
The world under his feet dissolved, and he was thrown violently into a different flow of the river. Temporal currents engulfed him, battering him in ways physical attacks never could.
His consciousness faded.
When he came to, he was somewhere entirely different.
A different timeline.
A different era.
Two thousand years in the past.
And in front of him—
the little ice mountain reappeared.
A familiar presence.
A dangerous one.
The Ice of Possibility, radiating an aura of disdainful mockery, as if greeting an old annoyance.
Daniel's expression tightened.
Karlbira and Kartora were nowhere in sight.
Before he could attempt to reorient himself, the Ice of Possibility attacked first.
The creature's strength was beyond all doubt.
A true monster, fully at the sun rank.
To put it bluntly—
even a god would struggle to gain any real advantage over this being.
Daniel's sudden reappearance in its territory not only provoked its irritation but also stirred its curiosity. And so, with a half-testing, half-playful malice, it launched attack after attack.
Each strike came in ruthless waves, strong enough to pulverize a demigod.
Daniel, only a Fake God in this moment, felt every blow push him to the brink.
By all logic, he should have been obliterated.
Yet each time the Ice of Possibility believed the next hit would finally crush him—
Daniel endured.
One second.
Two seconds.
The ice creature's curiosity snapped into pure impatience.
It abandoned testing.
It unleashed power.
The next attack carried not mere force, but a skill—an ability forged from conceptual ice, summoning countless crystalline blossoms meant to freeze possibility itself.
Daniel felt death closing in.
Even he couldn't guarantee survival.
But right as the Ice of Possibility prepared to seal everything around him—
a jubilant voice echoed across the battlefield.
"What incredible luck!"
"I just became a god, and I already get to test my new authority on a demigod? What a generous volunteer!"
Daniel almost laughed.
He knew that voice.
The space around them surged; all elemental energy was abruptly sucked away by a superior force.
Daniel turned toward the newcomer.
Faer.
Relief washed through him.
Regardless of everything else—he was no longer facing this alone.
The Ice of Possibility sensed Faer's arrival and immediately roared in silent fury.
"Why are gods always such an annoyance!?"
Faer didn't bother responding.
He raised a hand, and infernal flames burst into existence.
Hellfire danced across the battlefield, melting through layers of ice element that the creature had compressed around itself.
Against Faer's divine authority, the Ice of Possibility's domain was almost perfectly countered.
At least for now.
Then Faer spoke directly to Daniel, his voice sounding exhausted despite the bravado earlier.
"Crossbridge, I can't defeat it completely. Not right now."
He paused; Daniel could hear the strain under his words.
"I just became a god. I barely understand how to wield divine authority. Don't count on me to win this fight."
"But," Faer added,
"I can stall it for a while."
The Ice of Possibility clearly sensed his weakness.
Its icy aura surged violently, clashing against Faer's hellfire. Frost and flame collided in bursts of light bright enough to distort the entire space.
Daniel felt like his vision was being split open by the brightness.
And then—
behind him—
a soft ripple spread through the air.
A teleportation channel silently unfolded.
Two slender arms slid around him from behind, wrapping tightly around his torso.
The warmth, the breath, the familiar presence—
Daniel stiffened.
"Thank you,"
Karlbira whispered against his ear, her voice trembling with suppressed emotion.
"I won't resent you anymore."
Her embrace tightened.
Daniel could feel her heart pounding, feel the desperation and fragile hope trembling inside her.
"Are you… truly willing to give me a chance to exist?" she asked softly.
"If that's the case… I really am grateful. Even if you're lying, I wouldn't have a way to resist. My life is in your hands."
Daniel didn't need to turn around.
He answered in a tone calm, steady, and resolute.
"I never lie."
Karlbira trembled.
Then, with sudden determination, she clasped his arm firmly—
and pulled.
A tremendous force swallowed Daniel whole.
The battlefield shattered into countless fractal fragments of light and time.
Faer's flames, the Ice of Possibility's frosty domain—all disintegrated into streaks of broken possibilities.
The world collapsed.
And Daniel was once again dragged into the roaring, endless current of the River of Time.