Chapter 2000 No. No, this shouldn’t be possible. Step Nux stepped into the river, and once again, the water tried to enter his body and age him. Yes, it tried to. But this time, something else happened. As if an invisible barrier had appeared around his leg, the 'water' couldn't touch him. Nux was manipulating the flow of time around him to protect his leg. The concept was simple. The 'Water' around his leg was the Fastened Flow of Time, something that should have aged him. To counter it, Nux simply slowed the Flow of Time around his leg, and once the two opposing forces collided, their effects were nullified. His left foot stepped into the Reversed Flow of Time, something that should regress his age, and this time, Nux fastened the Flow of Time around him, canceling the regression. It was similar to how Nux was using the power he had gained to resist the change in his body before. This time, however, everything was happening outside his body, keeping things much simpler than before. With the Flow of Time around him altered to suit his needs, Nux swam forward. The ease with which he was doing this was almost as if the water around him now had no effect on him. Soon, however, the difficulty rose. The wave was here. But this time, Nux had a way out. The Flow of Time in the wave was chaotic. One part was fastening the time around itself, another was regressing it, all at different intensities, making it almost impossible to resist the change using the method before. And the Temple didn't want the Trial Taker to use that method either. It was Nux who was brute-forcing it. What the Temple wanted was for the Trial Taker to understand how to control the Flow of Time, not around oneself alone, but around other objects far from one's own body. Yes, the Temple wanted the Trial Taker to control the Flow of Time around the chaotic wave and move past it. Nux tried to do that, but he failed. His control over the Flow of Time became weaker as he moved it away from his body. It was different from how he used Aeliana's Law of Absolute Control to change the Time Flow around himself. That Law allowed him to use his energy to control anything, even the Flow of Time. But using that Law, he never understood the Flow of Time itself. Something he had to make up for when he was here. Nux tried and tried again. He failed, but every time he did, his mind found a way around as his comprehension deepened even further. His control strengthened, and after about a hundred more tries, his comprehension deepened. He swam and stared at the wave in front of him. Very quickly, he covered the chaotic wave with his own Flow of Time and slowed it down. The entire wave pretty much paused. It was extremely similar to how the Seer had neutralized that Transcendent when they had first met. The moment Nux got close to the frozen wave, he increased the Flow of Time around him and, Flicker He moved past the wave, just like that. The chaotic Flow of Time inside the wave didn't even get the chance to affect him. The Flow of Time around the wave returned to normal as it went past Nux. Nux smiled as he swam ahead. This time, no new wave originated. Almost as if the Temple had decided it wasn't needed anymore. Nux continued to swim and reached the end. Then, he paused. His eyes once again fell on the last line of defense, the frozen water. Nux tried to cover the water with his own Flow of Time, but no matter whether he tried to slow it down or increase its speed, it didn't change anything. The water still remained frozen. Nux thought about what to do. He had spent quite a significant amount of time in this place. His mastery over the Flow of Time had increased quite a lot as well, He fastened the time to counter the Reversing Time Flow. He slowed the time to counter the Aging Time Flow. What was he supposed to do… to counter the frozen time? But he couldn't find a way around this. He fastened the time to counter the Reversing Time Flow. He slowed the time to counter the Aging Time Flow. What was he supposed to do… to counter the frozen time? Fasten the time around him to infinity? "…" Suddenly, Nux paused. 'No. No, this shouldn't be possible. Increasing the Flow of Time around me to infinity would disintegrate my body into nothingness. All this while, the river sent my body back to the shore to heal. What would it send back if there is nothing to send back? I don't have my abilities either. I won't be reborn if I die here. At least not back here.' Nux shook his head, trying to get rid of the crazy thought but… No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't come up with another way. It was either this or nothing. Nux paused. He had experienced being disintegrated from existence before, when he was sucked into the black hole. It wasn't an experience he wanted to relive. But… 'If I don't do it, I remain here. If I do it and fail, I will be thrown out of the Temple. Then I'll be in a situation similar to Vashti and others, who can enter the Trials again but not gain anything out of it. However, if I do it and clear the Trial…' A smile appeared on Nux's face as he thought about it. Then, he closed his eyes and, 'Fuck it.' He made the decision. He moved his hand towards the frozen water. Slowly, he started increasing the speed around his entire body to get a greater push. His hand finally touched the frozen water and froze just like how it happened before. Nux put in more and more energy and suddenly, Flicker He felt his existence fade. He was about to be disintegrated. 'Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck!!' He cursed. To outsiders, his figure just became a blur and everything happened too quickly. For Nux, however, everything was extremely slow. He could feel how his body was literally being ripped out of existence. 'Fuck it!' But he didn't stop and continued to fasten the flow, reaching infinity. His body started flickering in and out of existence violently, almost as if Time itself was warning him not to tread forward, or else he would be punished. Nux didn't care and fastened the flow around him even further. Then it happened. His arm, that was right in front of the frozen water, flickered out of existence and this time, it didn't return. 'Shit…' Nux cursed in his head as he realized what had happened. The disintegration spread forward, from his hand to arm, then to his entire body, and finally, it was his head. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦 Nux's body was disintegrated out of time. For a very small instance, it followed no rules of Time, not even the rule of being unable to move when Time is frozen. His disintegrated hand, that was frozen in time, momentarily returned to existence as he finally touched the other end. And just as that happened, [Trial One: Complete] The First Trial was over, and Nux's disintegrated body was brought back by the Temple and teleported to another region. [Trial Two: The Labyrinth of Infinite Echoes] It was time for the Second Trial, and Nux… "HHAAAAAHHH!!!" He couldn't believe what he had just experienced. He… He saw another world… Or was it… Another Universe? "Haaahh… Haaahh… Haaahh…"