278 Shattered Time

Elise was hit with a sudden wave of dizziness as the scenery in front of her shifted dramatically. She stumbled, her hand on her head, until she regained her composure.

The air was thick with the sickly sweet scent of mold and alcohol, and she quickly realized she was no longer in the luxurious reception room. Instead, she was in a dark, dank tree hole,

surrounded by dry, cracking trees that reminded her of a shriveled mummy she’d once seen at a circus.

Wait…

And then it dawned on her. This was the normal, mortal world she’d once known, before she’d inherited the name “Silence” and gained the Eyes of God.

No longer could she see the magic woven through time, the colors of emotion, or the truth of all things. Instead, all she saw was the basic outline of objects, the material, color, perspective, and shadows.

“Are you Miss Elise?”

Just as she was taking all this in, she heard a voice calling out her name. Fear stiffened her neck.

She spun her head in fear to see a nun with an orange-yellow lantern in one hand and black cloth covering her eyes.

The nun had a stern expression, and appeared ominous.

“Yes… May I know who you are? Where am I?” she turned around warily and asked.

“The correct question is what period is it and why do you know me, Miss Elise.”

said with a hint of malice in her voice. Her expression was stiff, like that of a dead person, and Elise feared that she might turn into a ghost and attack her at any moment.

She shuffled her feet backwards, her breath held tight as she planned her escape.

But just then, the other party suddenly raised her left hand and covered her mouth, giggling uncontrollably.

“Don’t run away, or Lady Sibylla will give me a hard time when she returns.”

Elise was taken aback by the nun’s sudden change in demeanor. She cautiously asked, “Do… do you know me?”

She was sure they had never met before.

The girl stopped laughing and brushed off her elbows.

“Of course I know you, Elise Silence. The last leader of the sisterhood that Lady Sibylla can see. Since you don’t know me, I guess this is our first meeting. Lucky me, huh?”

The latter half of the sentence was obvious. Since she didn’t know the other party, this was definitely the first time she was meeting her.

Elise thought.

The other party was speaking nonsense, chuckling as she went.

Elise’s mind was a jumbled mess, shattered clues trying to reassemble into some kind of coherent thought.

She remembered the Threads of Time she had manipulated before losing consciousness. The illusions she had seen about the past, and the girl in front of her calling her the last leader of the Blind Sisters. The pieces of an extremely absurd puzzle slowly came together.

As absurd as it sounded, Elise realized that her consciousness had somehow transmigrated through time, and was now living in the body of the first leader of the Blind Sisters, Sibylla Silence.

The illusions Elise saw herself as Sibylla in her dreams, the ones she had always thought were just memories left behind, were now a reality for Elise. It was a truly unbelievable scenario, but she couldn’t deny the evidence before her.

Elise lifted her hands to her face, the scent of alcohol strong in her nostrils. Her callused hands were decorated with intricate tattoos, her chest was well-developed and her legs were slender.

There was no denying it, her consciousness was definitely in Sibylla’s body.

As for Sibylla’s consciousness… it was probably transported to the era she was in?

“What era is this?” Elise gasped, disbelief etched on her face.

“How could I possibly know how future generations will describe our current era of chaos?” the girl shrugged and replied.

“What year is it?” Elise pressed on.

A sly smile crossed the other party’s face.

“Lady Sibylla thinks it’s hundreds of years away from your time.”

“I need a specific year,” Elise demanded.

Upon hearing this question, the other party immediately looked like she had taken the bait. Then, she deliberately sighed and said, “This question is meaningless. You’ll never understand that time.”

“Why?”

Although she knew that her question was exactly what the other party wanted, Elise couldn’t help but ask curiously,

“Because… Alright, if you must know, it’s the Platinum Calendar. ■■■ Year, ■■ ■■.”

“What?” Elise was certain she had heard a string of numbers, but then it slipped from her memory like a forgotten dream. Frustration filled her mind.

“That’s a time that doesn’t exist. Even if I tell you directly, your mind won’t comprehend it,” the blindfolded girl said.

“What do you mean, time that doesn’t exist? How can time not exist?” Elise asked, confused.

“It’s complicated to explain,” the girl said, “but basically, Lady Sibylla shattered the linear flow of time with her talent, creating infinite possibilities. You’re in a confirmed future and we’re in one of the infinite possibilities of the past.”

“But the past can’t have infinite possibilities,” Elise subconsciously retorted.

The so-called past must be something that had already been set in stone.

“That’s true under the framework of causal time.”

The other party nodded frankly.

Then, she continued, “But if we break that framework, the past might not be certain.”

“I don’t understand…”

Elise gazed at the other party in confusion.

“Listen up, I’ll break it down for you. You’ve already figured out that your consciousness has temporarily switched with Lady Sibylla, right? It’s all thanks to the power of the Eighth Holy Spirit and using the last name Silence and the Eyes of God as a medium. But, if you take the easy way out and commit suicide with Sibylla’s body, she won’t be able to pass down the Blind Sisters. Got it?”

That wasn’t all. This created an even greater paradox—if the Blind Sisters didn’t pass down their legacy because of Elise’s suicide, how could she have the chance to time-travel back to be Sibylla in the first place?

If William were here, he would have exclaimed that this was the grandmother’s paradox.

“People often make the mistake of thinking that time is a linear thing, following the laws of cause and effect. But, under certain circumstances, time can show a different nature.”

With the dim lantern in her hand, Elena led the way deeper into the tree hole.

“Follow me, I’ll explain it all to you. Oh, I almost forgot to introduce myself. I’m Elena Kane. Lord Sibylla Silence’s adopted daughter and future successor of the Blind Sisters. To you, I’m a senior from the past.”

The girl named Elena Kane said as she walked, “In your understanding, time is exclusive, right? In other words, it’s impossible for a person to be in two places at the same time.”

Although the other party’s back was facing her and she couldn’t see, Elise subconsciously nodded and replied, “That’s right.”

“But this is a limited perspective,” the girl named Elena corrected her bluntly.

“Time is stratified. It’s not just a straightforward linear progression. There are endless cycles and eternal moments with countless possibilities that run parallel. And the purpose of our linear, causal time is to converge with eternal time and eliminate all other possibilities, leaving only one path to become reality. But Lady Sibylla, she shattered a certain period of time, creating countless parallel and even conflicting possibilities.

“Returning to the previous example, if you want to take your own life using Lady Sibylla’s body, I won’t stand in your way. I wouldn’t recommend it, but I won’t stop you. The fact is, Lady Sibylla can be dead and alive at the same time. She can be anywhere, and do anything. Right now, we’re in a state of countless possibilities. No temporal paradox can touch us. No matter how many times we die, we won’t stop existing.”

Elise struggled to keep up with the other person’s words. She was filled with confusion and had another question.

“Then why did she do this?”

Elise couldn’t understand why Lady Sibylla would give up her uniqueness. Humans were creatures that lived in a causal world, and they had an innate exclusiveness, even when it came to other possibilities that shared the same body and soul. The thought of their existence being replaced filled them with fear.

But Elena simply sighed and said, “On the one hand, Lady Sibylla’s experiment is about the connection between time, creation, and eternal gods. On the other hand, her fate is inevitable, and she wants to leave as much information as possible for the future Eighth Holy Spirit before her time is up. That’s what she told me.”

“What do you think?” Elise pressed on.

The other person was silent. Only when they reached the end of the tree hole and stopped in front of a transparent barrier covered in frost, did she finally speak.

“Why are you asking me that? You already know my last name.”