[Jin, you're looking pale. What's wrong?]

"The spell. Do you know how powerful that shit was? Fucking drained me of most of my mana. But I had to use it. Still pisses me off that I don't know who Eve is, though." Jin stretched his body and started to regain the mana he had lost.

He touched the ground to make sure the spell had worked, feeling the effects of it, and smiled.

"Now that we have this out of the way, I can enjoy—"

A hand appeared in the air next to Jin, the space around it cracking like glass. It grabbed the cracked space, opening it enough for another hand to grab the other end of that space and pull it apart.

"No fucking way!" Jin wasted no time in attacking right away. He turned Shadow Jin into a blade, put all of his power into it, and swung down with a slash attack that was capable of splitting continents in half.

But when the sword reached the hand, it was stopped by it.

"You know, that really hurt." Eve stepped out of the cracking space, shadows still covering her body to prevent Jin from knowing who she was.

Because of how wide the tear in space was, Jin managed to get a glimpse of the previous timeline and saw it unraveling in on itself until it was destroyed.

"You're not human." Jin knew that there was no way a mortal could survive what he had just done. Not even he could survive that in his current state; that's why he anchored himself to the fixed point alongside his loved ones.

If it were his previous body, then it would be no problem since he was nearly divine, and divine beings exist outside of time. It would still be tough to break out of, but it was possible. However, he was no longer like that, and Eve shouldn't be like that either.

"Is that so surprising?" She stepped in front of Jin, placing a hand on his chest. Her movements were too fast for him to keep track of, and he didn't even realize when he was blasted away.

But before he collided with anything, Eve was already behind him, proping him up as if he were in need of help standing.

"You can't erase what doesn't exist in the first place." She whispered in his ear.

That's when Jin realized it. Eve wasn't here at all. What he was fighting was literally her shadow. Not a manifestation of her power, like Jin's shadow, but her actual shadow that appears on the ground, given form and life by her magic.

While her shadow did exist, since it was tied to her real body, the timeline didn't consider it existing, so she wasn't affected by Jin's spell. This also meant that the real Eve had countered his spell before he had cast it.

"Hah!" Jin shook his head and raised his hands. "I lost." It was impossible to beat her. For her shadow to even bleed like that, even if the blood was fake, she had to be extremely powerful, so powerful that Jin knew she wasn't on the mortal plane anymore.

Then he remembered that he could barely sense her mana, why it felt as if she didn't have mana in the first place, why it felt as if mana was scared of her. She was on a different plane of existence, that's why.

"Realized what I am?" She chuckled

"Yeah. And I can't beat you as I am now." He was being honest.

"Fufu, at least you know. But don't worry, my plans aren't complete, and you still have a chance. But let me tell you this, Jin." She grabbed him by the neck and instantly appeared in front of the sun.

"Arghhhhhhh!!!" His back was burning, blood and body fluids boiling from the heat. Mana was used to protect him from the intense heat and rays, but being so close to the sun wasn't helping him out.

"I want you to suffer, to feel pain! I want you to cry, to feel despair, to feel hopeless, powerless, and heartache." Her hand tightened around his throat.

"Then, once you kill your loved ones by your own hands, that's when I'll finally kill you, because then you'll know the pain you've caused me in our first life, Viron!" She then threw him back onto the planet, crashing in a desert, his body aching like crazy.

[You know, you just got your ass beat.]

"Clearly."

[You're weak as fuck.]

"Say that again, and I'll infect you with a virus."

[Haha! I can get your powers back.]

Jin paused. "Explain."

[Remember when I told you that your mana made a copy of your lost DNA?]

"Ya."

[Well, I studied your mana signature and found where it's being kept.]

"But I'll have to do what you said before, expel my mana entirely to allow the DNA to come back before I absorb mana again. Do you know how much mana I have in my body? I expel even a quarter of that, and I'm significantly less powerful. Spell cost doesn't always equate to mana loss."

[True, but do you want to stay weak like this forever? Do you want to have everyone around you die?]

"Honestly, I don't even care to get those powers back. It's not like it would help. And Esper's abilities are weaker than mana."

[But they can be strengthened by it. Look at Addison.]

"She's lucky enough to have powers that align with mana. Powers that align with nature are greatly amplified by mana. This is why she's powerful, hell, even Mrs Horton will become a beast once she actually learns how to properly use it."

[And what if your powers are absolutely cracked?]

"That's a gamble. Most people in the world have Primal or Meta powers. Arcane and above are rare."

[So you're just a bitch, got it.]

"You're doing this on purpose."

[Maybe.]

Jin sighed. She was right. Even if his powers weren't that powerful, they could still be of use to him.

"Fine, but I also have to do something to increase my strength as well."

[What is it?]

"Have you ever heard of something called the Room of Spirit and Time?"

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