Chapter 1122. Ascension

When the final vestiges of Sparkle's presence disappeared from this world, Charles no longer cared about anything. At this point, Charles could only care about Sparkle, but now, even she was gone.

Charles had lost his obsession to protect the world, his feelings for Anna, and finally, Sparkle. With an empty heart, he no longer felt like he could even care about the world.

"I have descended in response to your wish. Are you going to proceed?"

A "thought" appeared out of nowhere in Charles' mind.

Moments later, hundreds and thousands of sensory organs drilled out of Charles' proliferating blood vessels, and they all "looked" at the sky—no, they were "looking" at 005's true form amidst the black dandelions in the skies.

005 tasted like the sickly-sweet blood; she smelled like freshly cut metal, and she sounded like the crackling of lava. For some reason, all of Charles' sensory organs could perceive her except for his visual organs.

In addition, what his organs had perceived couldn't be retained.

Charles tried to make sense of the being before him using the knowledge that his organs had perceived, but every single idea born from his cognition seemed to grow legs and walk away on their own, eluding him.

005's true form couldn't be stored in his memories, as even the vague ideas born from his cognition about 005 belonged not to him, but to Her.

"Are you going to proceed? Time is meaningless, but I dislike repetition."

005 urged.

"Proceed with what?" Charles said mechanically. All his sensory organs retracted as he numbly continued to absorb the knowledge containing everything around him.

"Wishes are my way of negotiating with humans, and your daughter has wished for her father's success. Since she had done her end of the deal, I must assist you in achieving your goal,"

005 responded.

Before Charles could say anything, the dense black dandelions in the air descended, enveloping Charles. They took away something—the final traces of humanity within him.

Having lost the last vestiges of his humanity, Charles lost control of his body. His flesh and swollen appendages proliferated endlessly throughout the Subterranean Sea as if it were some kind of tumor.

Charles' body expanded rapidly. When it reached the rock layer up above and the seafloor down below, it moved sideways.

The expansion was rapid, but it was not truly endless. When the expansion reached its limit, yellow-brown eyeballs manifested all over it before the entire thing collapsed inward.

Charles' worry had finally been realized.

He had crossed the threshold, becoming Edikth.

This time, however, unlike what happened to the Charleses in other planes, 005 gathered Charles' scattered humanity and injected it into him right as he became Edikth. Then, time came to an abrupt halt..

Charles was now in a superposition state between Himself and Edikth.

Meanwhile, the flesh island down below was also going through a transformation, becoming an indescribable lump of flesh shaped into a spindle, but the lump of flesh wasn't entirely solid.

It also looked like a layer of watercolor filter was applied to it.

The part shrouded in a watercolor filter was the organ Charles could use to manipulate time.

The quivering flesh was riddled with yellow eyes of varying sizes as well as deformed mouths screaming noiselessly with a black substance dripping from the corners of their lips.

At the center of all this was a massive, bright yellow eyeball. Charles remembered that eyeball. He had seen it many times before, after all.

However, it was only today when Charles finally realized that the eyeball could see through the past and the future.

In Charles' eyes, there was no cause and effect, only cycles and unique lines.

Perhaps the world in the eyes of the other Edikths was like this as well, but there was a stark difference between Charles and the other Edikths. It was the fact that he still possessed a bit of humanity thanks to 005's help.

Charles had completely merged with Lily, obtaining complete mastery over time.

Upon sensing that he truly possessed the ability to manipulate time, he willed it, and the world around him moved in reverse as if it were a tape being rewound.

𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

In no time, he went back in time to a month ago and saw Sparkle. Out of deep concern, Charles couldn't help but crawl out of the spatial rift.

Before Charles could make any move, Sparkle unhesitatingly stood in front of him.

Flashes of white light flickered incessantly around them, along with spatial rifts in a variety of sizes. The densely packed spatial rifts formed a wall-like barrier separating Sparkle and Charles.

Charles' yellow-brown eyeball, which was as large as an island, focused on Sparkle.

However, Sparkle couldn't recognize that she was staring at her father in the future. In her eyes, the spindle-shaped lump of flesh was a very dangerous god—a god that was perhaps even more powerful than her father!

"Whatever you are, don't you dare touch my father! Go away!" Sparkle roared. She furiously waved her tentacles as if she were an enraged octopus.

"Sparkle is protecting the past me, even though she knows that she's no match for me," Charles muttered to himself. He could feel his daughter's determination.

Looking at his daughter's glowing, luminous green eyes, Charles finally made a move. He slowly extended a tentacle through the wall of spatial rifts, and with a

swoosh,

the tentacle was cleanly severed by the spatial rifts.

However, the result was within Charles' expectations. Despite getting severed, the tentacle didn't fall to the ground. Instead, it flew toward Sparkle at breakneck speed.

Flashes of white light erupted before Sparkle as she desperately tried to teleport the tentacle away. However, Sparkle's reliable special ability failed her for the first time.

The tiny tentacle ignored all of Sparkle's attacks and flew toward Sparkle while leaving behind a trail of afterimages. In the end, the tentacle came to a halt right above Sparkle.

The tentacle containing Charles' will curved slightly and patted Sparkle's head repeatedly as if it were dribbling a ball.

Sensing his daughter's warmth and soul once again, Charles' icy heart, which had become indifferent to any emotions, cracked open, scattering into countless fragments.

A wave of tranquility was transmitted to Sparkle, soothing her in an instant.

The tense air eased and was replaced by warmth. The wall made out of spatial rifts vanished, and Sparkle's hundreds of eyes widened as she stared at Edikth, asking, "Daddy?"

Charles' heart almost shattered once more upon hearing that. He wanted to speak; he wanted to tell his daughter to stay away from him, the farther, the better.

Just as he was about to say something, the world before him distorted, becoming unstable. Upon ascending to become Edikth, Charles became extremely powerful, and at this moment, he could see two different futures.

As for which of them would come true... it all depended on whether he would speak to Sparkle or not. Unfortunately, none of those futures depicted a different outcome for Sparkle. Her fate... was still the same.

She was still destined to leave him, just in a different way.