If sound could travel through the space, one would have heard a magical roar.
This roar was so powerful that it surpassed the loudest rocket engines; the gurgling sound suggested an acceleration that bordered on defying the laws of physics.
Kai's entire body was covered in thick, red, circuit-like veins as his Magic Crest optimized his Mana output. The Crest Worms within him worked tirelessly, feeding on his Mana to force his body to produce even more of it.
Glyphs, of unfathomable and archaic origin, were dancing in his surroundings as the Ad Infinitum decrypted the Ancient Magical Script to accelerate him.
Master Magical Aptitude allowed Kai to have not only a delicate but precise control over his Mana reserves, not letting even a drop of it go to waste.
But, surprisingly, it wasn't the Magical Aptitude that was acting as the core at this moment.
It was Kai's Master Ability — Flying!
With the buff in Correspondence granted by the Hogwarts Uniform Set, adding 18 Points to his Stat, combined with the other ones, Kai had been accelerating for the last dozen hours, hissing toward Earth like an asteroid.
Still, everything had its limit when it came to challenging the cosmic scale.
As he burned across the space, leaving behind a magical trail, he noticed that he wasn't accelerating anymore.
Neither did he lack Mana, nor were his tactics wrong. Yet, no matter how much he twisted and turned the Ancient Magical Script, changing the nature of the fire shooting out of his soles, he wasn't gaining speed.
For the first time after beginning this space journey, Kai frowned.
A small chunk of rock came blasting toward him. With the relative speed, it felt like a bus-sized bullet, traveling at hundreds of kilometers per second.
With Kai's one thought, a massive, yellow-colored spell circle manifested in front of him.
A thick pillar of yellow light shot out of the spell circle, and the Band of Light incinerated the piece of rock.
In the very next moment, Kai saw hundreds more such meteoroids appearing in his vision, the frown on his face deepening.
Around 60 more hours… Kai thought as the AI calculated the numbers with precision. If I maintain this speed, then I will reach Earth in 60 hours. But…
Despite the frown on his face, he wasn't truly worried.
Now that he had arrived back in the Harry Potter Bubble, the Echoes let him see everything that Meg and others were seeing at this moment. Not only see, but he could also hear, smell, and sense everything that the White Serpent Pirates were sensing.
Unlike others, Kai didn't have to worry about keeping the Echoes within them in hibernation. They were as much as his followers as they were his slaves. Letting Kai intrude in their privacy willingly was expected of them.
Also, the boundaries of Bubbles and the vast distances between them didn't matter to the Echoes.
The only reason Kai had not contacted them when he had been in the Fate Bubble was because of Zelretch.
If the Deep One had sensed this transfer of information, no matter how unlikely it was, then He could have traced it back to the specific timeline in the Harry Potter Bubble.
It would have been nothing but the greatest disaster for Kai, letting Zelretch know the oddity of the Harry Potter timeline. With His power, He wouldn't have taken long to figure out that not only Death, but the Timeline also favored him. Which, in turn, would have led Him to relate Kai to an Outer One…
Now, despite being outside Earth, Kai could freely use Echoes.
He could see Meg, Moraine, Spawn, and Tina losing their minds as Red Sun told them about the rumors about him in the Primordial Tower.
The next day, he saw Red Sun quivering, like a man dying of cold, as he held Kai's Wanted Poster in his hands.
Across the several hours, Kai saw Meg putting on Pikachu's Plush Hat as she grinned at herself in the mirror… kissing the Wanted Poster.
He sensed the enormous struggle within Moraine as she found herself lagging in strength.
Kai also tasted the hate within Spawn, as her heart burned for revenge.
With an AI as his mind, these observations didn't bother him the slightest.
Everything felt… normal on the other side.
Then why was he having a feeling that it was somehow related to Herpo the Foul?!
Time passed in the space, melting inside the blackness. Blasting stray meteoroids, using Telekinesis and Mana to survive deadly bursts of radiation, and continuously monitoring the various Echoes on the Earth… 50 out of the 60 hours calculated by Ad Infinitum had already passed.
Kai could see the Moon clearly now, the Planet burning blue in his vision.
It was then that he picked up the first oddity.
It didn't arrive from a person, though.
Kai's eyes narrowed as he sensed Lilith, the Lethifold, suddenly… disapparating, wrapping the fake Darcie within.
Death… Kai instantly contacted the Deep One. What's going on in the timeline?
[… I cannot sense it,] Death the Artificer said through the Cloak of Disguise. [I am still on my way back to the Bubble.]
Kai would have enjoyed a Deep One admitting that He was slower than him when it came to traveling between Bubbles, but another question bubbled in his mind first.
"… how long?" Kai asked.
[…] Death the Artificer sensed the pause in Kai's voice. [Ten hours.]
Kai's face hardened at the coincidence. If he hadn't feared losing all his momentum, then he would have stopped on the spot, expressing his shock.
[No need to worry, my scion,] Death the Artificer hissed through the Cloak. [The Timeline will never…]
The sentence never ended.
Kai's eyes had widened so much that even the Deep One could have seen them outside the Bubble. Because Meg had just sensed… his arrival, rushing to the boundary of the Bounded Field with Moraine, Spawn, Red Sun, and Tina.
In the very next moment, Kai came to an abrupt stop.
Step by step, surrounded by the silence of the space, he saw the impossible happen, all the Echoes transferring only one word back to him — horror.
A horror named… Herpo the Foul!
*****************
AN: Up to 60 more chapters are available in advance across three Tiers. [Use the link in my Webnovel profile to access all options.]
You can even subscribe to the Trial Tier for just 1 dollar to have an experience of exclusive chapters for an entire month. I hope a few of you will consider supporting the work.
100 Power Stones/day: +1 Bonus Chapter next day