Chapter 211: The Black Mist

The black mist that engulfed the world came as another shock to the already despairing and fearful normal people of Pentateuch, they again trembled, fearful of what in the world will come next whilst confusion welled up as they saw the incoming mist in front of them, again, all of the powerhouses fighting or those that just finished their fight like Kasikis of Mayari who have his spear imbedded in the head of his brother looked at the mist that seem to reach until the very end of the atmosphere and at the very core of the planet with confusion and a little apprehension.

"What is it this time?"

"Is it Loki's attack? But it seems to be undodgeable... could it be Sophia? Before she was sealed, she had a contingency? But Eris doesn't even have a reaction..."

Mayari is already clutching his spear, now fully aware that the affairs of Mayari, Apolaki and the invasion of their Kingdom to Gjallarhorn during the continental wars is something that was orchestrated by the power of time, a concept that even Sophia failed to contend against, and considering the strength of the Darkbringer siblings, Mayari assumed that Eris' brother will deal the finishing blow to the world.

However, just when he was about to defy the shackles of time, risking his very existence as it was implied to the system notification earlier, yet, because of the sudden yet brief pause of the war, Aoi, who is now has successfully vented out her frustrations and now is watching her three opponents slowly ripped the skin on their faces slowly until they reached the brain heard the self conversation of Mayari, she replied.

"This... is definitely from Sophia."

Hearing this, Mayari stopped in his tracks and looked at Aoi as she watched with impartiality the gruesome spectacle in front of her.

"I will first tell you this, Eris is much, much stronger than Loki and Urduja, yes, some might argue that Urduja is the most iconic, or Loki is the most influential and the only man that can match the brilliance of Sophia's brain, however, the King of Devils or the Hero of the Sun can't create something that can influence the whole world in a way Eris do."

Aoi once again paused amid her explanation, the dodomeki then looked at the sight of flickering light and darkness, the place wherein the battle between Urduja and Loki is happening, and then continued.

"Look, at most, only half, or a 4th of the world can they influence... and as for Sophia, remember that she was able to retrieve the staff of the god of the undead that was already tainted by the goddess' of nature's divinity, so it's not far off for her to be to have triggered this... regardless, I feel like this is a safe mist."

Finally, the hero of endless thoughts ending her explanation, and as she did, she let the mist pass through her, and confirmed that it's a harmless mist, though her sclera turned pitch black before returning to normal, and upon doing so, Aoi, who have realized that her immunity to illusions have become useless against the black mist, smiled.

"See, I told you it was from Sophia."

_____________

The ruins of the western city of Apolaki, Bakunawa tried to revert to her serpent form, causing her face to morph into a serpent, yet failing to fully become one.

The blood dripping from all her body has made a trail on the small distance that she has traversed in a futile effort to reach and help her wife, that again and again, she failed to do so in any installment of the time loop.

One loop, Sophia was purged early, and Bakunawa was still an enemy.

Another, and Bakunawa was the first one to be purged. Sophia ran rampant and destroyed Genesis, and again, Sophia was snuffed out.

Every time, she failed to even dent the ultimate fate of failure of Sophia.

It was like a curse, a curse that not only would she disobey her father, but she would also fail to assist the love of her life in the waning parts of her effort to destroy the woman who had been enslaving the world.

_Damn it! Move!_

_What the fuck is wrong with you!?_

_Why can you move so well when riding her!?_

_Why do you move so well when opposing her?_

_Why can't you stand by her side right now!?_

Such is the question in Bakunawa's mind as she started to lose hope, loathing herself, her powerless self, not even caring about the repercussions of disobeying her role in the time loop, to watch Sophia fail every single time.

Yet, this determination that came from Bakunawa's pervent desperation proved to be futile as the bloodied serpent started to have her vision grow faint because of blood loss that was caused by her short, yet intense fight against Minokawa.

Maybe that's why she never noticed a black, seemingly all-consuming mist pass through her, and only when her sclera turned black and went back to white as she heard the oh-so-comforting words of her wife that every single person who got enshrouded by the mist did she calm down.

"I see... then I will wait... for your victory..."

Bakunawa, through the coaxing of a single sentence from Sophia and, of course, a little brainwashing from the queen of the undeads, finally decided to resign to her fate.

____________

The battlefield of Urduja and Loki once again paused from this fight as both of the calamities' sclera turned pitch black before going back to normal.

Hearing the content of the illusion of the all-encompassing black mist, Loki smiled, and suddenly had his whole body swell, transforming into a giant devil, with the face of a goat that has two horns coiling towards the heaven and a muscular human body.

Urduja looked at Loki and sighed.

_How can Sophia be so confident..._

The hero of the sun shook her head as she started to shine brightly as she created an equally giant woman of the same visage as herself by condensing the sunlight coming from her body.

She intends to follow the flow of time for herself and trust her daughter and her plans.

___________

Kasikis of Mayari, Aoi Dodomeki Tawalisi, Bakunawa Demiurge, Loki Darkbringer, and Urduja Tawalisi immediately stopped their thoughts of helping Sophia, for the moment they were engulfed by the black mist, they have heard an arrogant, yet strangely reassuring words of the strongest powerhouse that they can use to match Eris, oozing with confidence despite being unable to move even an inch due to Eris' time seal.

"Do as what you have been told and fret not about me, for I will emerge victorious... like I always do."

Well, every single one of them, even Loki known for his interest in probabilistic outcomes would be lying if they said that they are not skeptical on what Sophia have assured them, yet, somehow, someway, all of them choose to believe that Sophia will emerge victorious with her odds against the Dictator of Time, even the powerful and normal people that are not familiar with Sophia and only knew her through her nuclear spectacle or through her feat of causing a 3 month economic collapse to Gjallarhorn trusted her words, with visible skepticism, finally lowering their selves and settling on their respective places and/or nations.

Seeing this, not only Siginarugan but all the gods in the pantheon of the two remaining elder gods became confused.

Of course they saw Sophia putting up a huge black mist that coagulated and became perfect sphere of water, but they would have never thought that Sophia will just use it to say "Sit yo ass down and let me run a fade to this bitch right here.", doing such a thing is just a waste of mana and a waste of time.

Though more importantly, all of the gods have the same itching sensation deep within their consciousness upon seeing Loki, not even warning his sister openly about this phenomenon.

Though of course, this sequence of events is non-sanctioned of the time loop, meaning it's not punishable even though it didn't canonically happened in the previous time loops, if anything, it helps the time loop to reach all the cannons it has in its sequence that it failed to reach for all the previous loops.

Indeed, such a thing happening is non-bearing time loop-wise, but all the gods still felt like something was wrong.

They felt like they had forgotten something really, really important.

______________

The forest wherein Eris and Sophia are currently facing off.

Eris, looking at the mist that engulfed the world became alert, but after seeing that such an all encompassing, and if she might be honest, terrifying mist doesn't affect her, she relaxed and looked at Sophia and then strode slowly towards this pitiful opponent of hers that still have her grin plastered over her overconfident face.

"That might be your last resort, unfortunately, I have a brother who is far greater than you in controlling dark magic... You might be intending to drop that large ball of mist on top of my head, but instead made it harmlessly encompass the world..."

Eris paused for a moment and caressed the soft cheek of Sophia, however, the dictator of time's face froze as she saw the sands of time that is tightly binding the face of Sophia peel off slowly, she immediately get her hands out of the queen of Undead's face and stepped back as she slowly watched how did Sophia regained the mobility of her face, yet such a change stopped right through the neck.

Seeing this, Eris immediately knew that something was wrong with the black mist, yet before she could even activate the purge sequence of Sophia manually, her sclera turned pitch black before going back to before.

_No, no, this is normal! Sophia didn't unsealed herself completely, she can't even restore any of her abilities, if she already did so, then I would be notified... yes, this might be an evidence of how it would have been more effective that blob of water is if Sophia was able to make it land over here._

Sophia looked at this silent contemplation of Eris and smiled a little as if to have been able to confirm something from Eris, who had regained her calm demeanor.

"Did anyone ever tell you that you have such an immaculate waist?"

Sophia's question left Eris, who had just relaxed, dumbfounded, The dictator of time, scrutinized Sophia once again and saw that Sophia was gritting her teeth as if she was barely able to get to move her head and speak.

It was a wonder how can she could even speak, let alone waste her time in asking how good Eris' waist is.

"You are sealed, unmoving like a fool because of your continued challenge of the absolute power that I wield, and that's what you want to ask me?"

Hearing this, Sophia, who has been trying to hide her frown, smiled with a little bit of difficulty.

"Well, what do they say, you have to enjoy the last moments of your life, so I might as well admire the things I love... and I love women, so... well, did anyone tell you that?"

Sophia's tone is relaxed, though it's evident that she was barely holding it in, it was really like she was trying so hard to enjoy the last moments of her life, something that Eris will not believe, even as she looked at Sophia with relaxed posture as if completely certain of her victory, she slowly scanned every nook and cranny of the time loop, for any events with an unsanctioned lapse that can be exploited by Sophia.

She squinted her eyes and scanned it two... three and for the fourth time, yet Eris still felt like she had not forgotten anything or anyone that needed to be accounted for.

However, she didn't dare relax and decided to probe how will Sophia attempt for the third time to escape from her predicament and maybe even try to save the universe of Paraluman.

"...I... yes, quite a few have openly admired them, however, you're the first person to have voiced your lust out loud since I was born... Honestly, I would find such remarks flirtatious if we were not enemies as of the moment."

Sophia, hearing this, tilted her head.

"Since you were born... are you... born with slender waists and child-bearing hips like that?"

Eris was once again shocked, she's not used in dealing with someone so direct, though she do hear a lot of people remarking about all of these features of hers, it was still quite startling how can Sophia confidently ask such questions.

"Yes... actually, you can say that I am the eldest sister of all undeads."

Eris sighed, her face full of melancholy, anguish and anger, causing the face of Sophia to show a face of shock.

"Oh... it seems like Siginarugan is the one at fault of all the misfortunes of this world... I wonder how will his mother react..."

Sophia sighed before shaking her head and continuing.

"Well, since it seems like you intend to destroy the universe alongside yourself and me, why don't you make me the outlet of your story? I am already dying after all."

Eris, upon hearing this, squinted her eyes, in them is the swirling doubt that even her face can't hide.

_What the hell is Sophia doing, exactly?_