Faykes' Decision (2)

He had also seen some weird structures, some of which resemble clouds in an airless dimension, free-floating in the wide ocean, but seemingly repulsing any other connections beside the ones already formed.

So what happens, if you cut one? Nothing much will happen; maybe at that moment, you might feel something disappear, but the feeling quickly fades. The truth is, that feeling indicates your doll of life suffered a damage. if it suffers damage, so does your life essence. But one string is negligible in hundreds, of not thousands of thousands of karmic strings. It's a drop in the ocean, unnoticeable.

But the moment they begin snapping en masse, you would have a problem. The present you, would rapidly wither and die. Here is where a loophole appears: You can literally resurrect yourself and reestablish the karmic threads with the people around you. Resurrection is basically loading your last save point, which is re-recorded every second of your life. How would this be solved?

By cutting every existence of the karmic threads in your predicted lifetime.

Yes, under the Fate system, one is capable of divining the future in junction with the time element, showing a predicted lifetime.

Your past, present and future branches are exposed, with the karmic threads present for each time stage. The contract would cut each and every existence of the karmic threads. This is way more efficient than killing the newborn baby in the past because there's no butterfly-effect that would happen.

Simply put, you never existed in any possible past, present, and future. What happens to you, the contract breaker who experienced this, then?

You are ejected from the ordered system. Since you have no karmic threads that bind you even to the universe, you are disposed of as unrecyclable waste; you can't even be re-utilized as energy because you have no markers that indicate you are from this universe' byproducts. First, the remaining life essence you have from the dimension Xander discovered is expelled from it.

You don't go to Heaven, hell, or purgatory dimensions in the ordered system. You just exist in the void beyond the universe until your consciousness disappears by being corroded with void energy, or is eaten by beings that exists in the void. And to avoid decreasing the balance of energy and matter in the ordered system, the ordered system takes in void energy to replace the lost energy and matter.

Another problem for Xander would then rise: once you reach Demigod stage, not only will your predicted timeline disappear, if ever the contract succeeded in eliminating the karmic threads, the lost energy and matter by the system would be quite large, although it's not large enough to be that harmful for the ordered system, but it warrants a response from the will of the universe.

After all, this wasn't a high-level application of space-time elements, since it is merely manipulation by elemental tier suppression. One could even reverse this process, as long as one has enough magic energy, comprehension, and control over the Fate elements. Generally at the stage of Demigod, one prepares to strengthen their own doll of life, according to the ancient records he had gathered.

Xander hasn't thought of a way to resolve this for now, and basically stipulated that the contract becomes null and void at the demigod stage upon the agreement of the two parties. After all, Xander didn't explain the situation of the contract to the signing party.

There was a trap here as well: Once null and void, all the benefits of contract is automatically removed from the agreeing party. What this means is that the karmic threads between the two parties are cut.

Xander hypothesized it is possible for a demigod magician to downgrade to Mythic class, while the amalgam of elements, life essence, magic circles, and rules will be extracted, existing in the physical and metaphysical space. He can't absorb it, but he could hire a magic artifact maker to create an artifact for him… or maybe make one for himself?

For Faykes, on the other hand, was still thinking about the contents of the contract and the requirement it holds. First, he cannot speak a word of it beyond the villa or in the presence of someone who has not signed the contract, or who is not Party A, or Xander.

He cannot cause accidental or intentional harm towards Party A, as Party B. He cannot go to certain areas of the villa as stipulated, unless given permission by Party A or in the company of Party A. Whatever happens in the villa that Party B have witnessed must not be spread outside by Party B through direct or indirect methods. The silence and secrecy required from Party B is until the termination of the contract upon the agreement of Party A or if Party B reaches Demigod stage.

He cannot ask questions about Party A's power, but he may ask questions in regards to theoretical and practical knowledge. Party A may or may not respond.

He can ask a request from Party A while within the villa that does not violate the other clauses, unless Party A agrees beforehand, once every 2 weeks. Party A may or may not acquiesce to the request. The request count can stack, but will be completely invalidated every 2 months.

Party A may give Party B external benefits upon completion of set tasks

These requirements are not really harsh as it gives both negative and positive outcomes, with the latter outweighing the former, for those who signed the contract. But a lifetime of silence of what happens within the villa... is such a contract really worth it? People change over time, after all.

While Faykes was experiencing the dilemma of signing the non-disclosure contract with Xander, the latter was in his room and established a space barrier and created a time acceleration field. He began to think about his current magic seeds.

Currently, all 8 magic seeds had their own pseudo-magic circles, all from different elements.

[Void Wind] falls under the Void element, specifically, a sub-element under it, which is "Absence".

[Golden Light] falls under the Yin-Yang elements, specifically under Yang element.

[5 Elements Foundation] falls under Yin-Yang elements, specifically the 5-elements system.

[Aether Control] falls under the Space-Time element.

[Body Manipulation] falls under Order element.

[Blood Manipulation] falls under Life-Death elements.

[Divination] falls under the Life-Death elements.

[Magic Rejection] falls under the Space-Time element.

Currently, Xander decided to get for his 9th pseudo-magic circle a spell that embodies chaos element. Upon checking the unrestricted database of magic spells, he used the system to filter the spell list to his criteria and got 3 matches, the latter two being forbidden spells.

[Chaotic Field]: Creates an area where elements become mixed up randomly, including the caster's elements (if within the range). Can only be cast for 10 minutes max, or else the area it has been cast on would undergo turbulence before returning to normal, and the caster suffering the effects of magic rebound.

[Entropic Elemental Conversion]: Forcefully changes the entropy of the designated element to another, random element in the designated target area. This causes the designated element to exhibit the properties and characteristics of the random element. No limit on the number of designated elements. Lasts as long as the caster can continue casting it. After casting, the caster will experience the effect of magic rebound based on the period of time it was cast and the number of elements designated.

[Penumbral Entropy]: Forcefully removes the entropy of the designated area, causing everything fall into an eerie stillness, including the caster. Warning: If one would enter the area, one would rapidly experience the removal of entropy, causing that being to fall into stillness. One can die in the field if all bodily functions have completely stopped. Lasts for 30 minutes, and every minute more decreases the stability of the field. The larger the designated area, the slower the loss of entropy.

After reviewing, he decided to get [Penumbral Entropy] as his last magic seed pseudo-magic circle. One reason is that it embodies the properties of Chaos element, while containing Space-time elements.

After sorting his thoughts, he read several tens of books and hundreds of research papers concerning physics, ideas concerning Space-Time element, and applications of physics to interstellar travel. Xander wasn't surprised that people were already focusing on understanding the aspect of space and its relation to time, since majority of them were derived from mathematical formulation as well as observations and experimentations.

What surprised him, however, was that a set of recently published papers focused on element research, details the possibility of Space and Time elements existing, but gives no actual proof, as no one has managed to show that these aspects in the world of physics have an elemental counterpart that can be forcibly controlled, manipulated, or even ruled.

As he read the paper, the more Xander frowned. It seemed correct. Correct for someone who has experienced transmigration and can manipulate the said elements in the paper. It starts of logically, with the main argument being the universe as an ordered system. It even cites Therault's paper 4 years ago, and believed that Space-Time elements actually existed in a different spectrum than that of the other known elements. What made him frown was that it suggested revisions in the hierarchy of elements, and it was correct!

He wanted to classify Yin and Yang elements, as well as Life and Death elements, to be a higher-ordered series of elements, and classify Space and Time elements as well in the same level!

When he checked the main author, it was written in a pseudonym. How did he know? The writer's name was Gold D. Roger! According to the system's database of researchers and social profiles in the internet, this person does not exist. Even the secret files of Eta country haven't shown this person as a person of interest before; only when other people of significant importance who read the paper began frantically searching for this person did they add him. Xander, however, knew the meaning of the name.

In his original universe, the name Gold D. Roger was famous because of a series of comic drawings known as One Pece! In the year he died, it just celebrated its 3000th chapter, and Wuffy, the main character, still hasn't found One Pece, the treasure that Pirate King Gold D. Roger hid in a nameless island, with his companions. By that time, the four emperors and the Holy Land had fallen and a new generation of pirates appeared, and the marines destroyed and rebuilt by a new generation.

Is it possible that it wasn't just him who was transmigrated to this universe...? Xander pondered at this problem.

After a few hours, even with the help of the system, he came up with no concrete solutions.