Chapter 512: So what’s up with the Sphere?
After asking about Yulaya and Hazel, Arabel recalled her recent conversation with Esma.
"Do you want to go back to Limbo?" Arabel wondered when Esma asked to be returned there for a while.
"Yes, little sister," Esma nodded, hugging Okto tenderly. "You do remember that I still have my own store there, don’t you?"
Arabel immediately remembered that quirky Esma store where they had first met.
"So, I want to go back and sort out all my affairs in the second city so that I can fully focus here," Esma shared her wish.
"Okay.", — Arabel agreed after a moment’s thought. "In the next few days, when I have free time, I will help you return to Limbo."
"Thank you, little sister," Esma said happily, expressing her gratitude. "And one more thing: I would like you to allow my two new sisters to enter this territory."
"New sisters? Which ones exactly?" — Arabel asked.
"Yulaya and Hazel", — Esma replied, and an image of Irene’s two friends appeared in Arabel’s mind.
Neither Arabel nor Idan were familiar enough with these girls yet, and it was difficult for her to make a decision right now.
"I’ll think about it and ask Irene and Arslan’s opinions first before making a decision," Arabel promised.
"Don’t worry, little sister, I give you my word that you can trust them," Esma assured her. "If something happens, I will take responsibility for their actions."
"Okay, okay," Arabel said, making a mental note to ask Irene and Arslan about the two girls before they returned home today.
***
And so, as breakfast was about to end, Esma reminded Arabel of her two new younger sisters, Yulaya and Hazel.
"Of all my friends, I trust them the most," Irene said of Yulaya and Hazel. "And I would be very happy if you would cooperate with them."
"I haven’t talked to them very often, but I can say with confidence that they can be trusted," Arslan expressed his opinion.
"Okay," — Arabel nodded. "Then ask them for a meeting, I want to talk to them before I make a decision."
Irene happily agreed to Arabel’s proposal and wondered if it was worth hiding Aran’s existence from these two anymore, since she herself assured them that she trusted them. Although she had been hiding her son’s existence from them all this time.
***
After breakfast, using the Access Portal, Arabel brought Irene, Arslan, Hailey, and Esma back to the capital.
Hailey went on an errand, and Irene and Arslan had the task of convincing Irene’s mother to move to Idan and Arabel’s territory. Esma expressed a desire to return to the capital with Irene and Arslan. Exactly what she was up to, Esma did not tell.
The mother of Irene and Idan still did not know that Idan was alive and had returned. Idan himself, for some reason, was in no hurry to reveal himself to her.
After breakfast, Idan decided to return to Limbo to continue his studies with Alois and discuss the possibility of cooperation with him.
Arabel, having returned all four of them, returned to the house and, assuming the image of Elsa, knocked on the door of the guest room to call Essora, as suggested by Idan.
Essora’s younger brother opened the door, and when he saw the beautiful stranger in front of him, he froze in amazement. It was only when Arabel smiled at him that he ran back into the room, embarrassed.
Soon after, Essora appeared.
"Come on, Essora, I have a task for you," Arabel said. "And bring the sphere with you."
After a moment’s hesitation, Essora took the sphere and followed Arabel, who was in the form of Elsa. They stopped at the door of the second guest room.
"Have you tried out the sphere’s abilities yet?" Arabel asked.
"Yes," Essora nodded. Then, looking at Arabel, she asked: "Excuse me, but are you that young man’s girlfriend?"
"A young man?" — Arabel raised an eyebrow.
"Ah, I’m sorry," Essora lowered her head. "I do not know what his real name is. Erza called him Idan, and Milla always calls him Ethan."
"That’s it.", — Arabel thought, realizing that their diverse personalities were confusing to many. Those who were not closely acquainted with them still could not figure out which of these personalities was the real one.
"Listen, Essora, his name is Idan Fein, and he’s my boyfriend. All the other names are just his temporary identities that he was hiding behind," Arabel said.
"As for me, my real name is Arabel Morgan. And yes, what you’re seeing right now is not my true identity," Arabel said as she took off her Ghost mask, revealing her true identity.
Essora had not yet seen what Arabel really looked like, and when she looked at the beautiful woman with long red hair and azure eyes, she froze in amazement.
"You are so beautiful," she blurted out, admiring Arabel’s beauty.
"Hehe, thank you," of course Arabel was very happy with her praise. What kind of woman wouldn’t be happy if she was praised for her beauty?
"Now call me Elsa," Arabel asked, putting back on the Ghost Mask and assuming a new appearance.
"As you wish, Mistress," Essora nodded.
"Mistress? No, no, you shouldn’t call me that," Arabel hastened to correct. "You’d better call me Leader or Guild Leader. Idan said you joined us."
"Okay, Leader," Essora nodded again.
"That’s better," — Arabel said. "So what’s up with the Sphere?"
"Oh, yes," Essora, flustered, remembered Arabel’s original question and hurried to share her discovery.
According to her, the Chronomarian race, upon reaching a certain age when they gain access to their bloodline, acquires one of three time manipulation abilities: stop, decelerate, or accelerate.
It turned out that Essora has the ability to stop time.
She could stop time, but she was wasting her life span. After she turned into a creature of darkness, this power weakened, and the opportunity to develop it was lost.
Now, using the sphere, she could stop time for about half an hour, without expending any energy and without experiencing any negative consequences.
However, she needed resources to decelerate and accelerate time. She couldn’t use these abilities without expending energy.
"And what is the energy consumption?" asked Arabel.
"It all depends on the size of the area, the number and rank of creatures that will be affected by time manipulation," Essora replied.
"Hmm... good," — Arabel nodded. "I want you to use it on a gold-rank awakened one soon. I need to know how much energy the Sphere consumes and how long you can keep the awakened one inside the Sphere’s area of effect."
Essora nodded eagerly, accepting Arabel’s offer. Her eyes were burning with excitement: she herself couldn’t wait to try out the Sphere and understand its possibilities.
Seeing that Essora was ready to experiment, Arabel opened the door with satisfaction and entered the room where Milena was.
Milena was sleeping peacefully at that time. For the first time in days, she managed to fall asleep without having nightmares that would bother her.
Arabel walked over to Milena and checked her condition. It was stable, and some improvements were already planned.
Essora, in turn, was very surprised to see Milena. She knew immediately what had happened to her, because she had been through something similar herself. However, her experience was meant for servants, not for the elite like Milena.
"Great, her human bloodline is over 50 percent." Arabel nodded, pleased with the result.
"Essora, come here, please, use the power of the Sphere on her and speed up time." Arabel asked Essora, not wanting to wake Milena up and giving her some sleep in an accelerated time.
"I’ll do it now," Essora said, and summoning her sphere, she created a small dome around Milena’s cot. Inside this dome, she used time acceleration, feeling the pressure and influence emanating from the sphere.
"Done," sighing, Essora wiped the sweat from her forehead. She then took out some mana crystals and began to stack them around the sphere.
"Due to the fact that the Awakened one is alone, and the area is very small, I was able to speed up the time inside five times, and at the same time the energy consumption is not too high," Essora shared after waiting a while.
"You just need to add mana crystals or another energy source near the sphere from time to time. She will absorb all the energy that will be next to her," added Essora.
Then, turning to Arabel, she said, "Leader, I also advise that no one stay too close to the sphere while it manipulates time. Otherwise, she might start absorbing his life force instead of other resources."
"Thank you for reminding me about this in advance," Arabel said, surprised by this discovery.
Essora hurried to reassure her, saying that due to her connection with the sphere, she would be able to sense when it would begin to absorb someone’s life force. In this case, she will be able to stop the work of the sphere and prevent the worst outcome.
This, of course, calmed Arabel down, and she and Essora waited for Milena to wake up.
They had to wait two hours, which was comparable to ten hours inside the dome.