Chapter 447: Chapter447-A Leisurely Time
Kartora raised her hand casually and opened a shimmering portal.
Without hesitation, she took Daniel by the arm and stepped through it.
Immediately, Daniel felt as if the surrounding space-time had turned into a thick swamp.
The air grew viscous, his movements sluggish, and a suffocating stillness pressed against him from all sides.
When he finally regained awareness, he found himself gliding through the River of Time.
It was a peculiar sensation—especially because Kartora had frozen his personal time flow.
With his temporal state suspended, his consciousness felt lighter, and he could fully appreciate the breathtaking view of the Time River.
The two strolled side by side along the golden current.
Above them stretched a vast starry sky, its constellations sparkling in quiet majesty.
Below their feet flowed the radiant, mirror-like river—at once fluid and motionless, an eternal paradox.
Although Daniel had long been familiar with the concept of the Time River, this was the first time he had actually walked upon it.
When he normally used Time Stream, countless restrictions bound him—he could never move so freely, nor could he take his time to admire it like this.
Perhaps this was the true difference between himself and a genuine god of the time domain.
Kartora’s soft voice broke the silence.
"Lord Crossbridge," she said with a playful smile, "don’t you think there’s something rather romantic about walking together upon the River of Time? After all, in this entire world, only the two of us can enjoy such a luxury."
Daniel chuckled faintly, just about to reply—but before he could, the scenery around him shifted dramatically.
In an instant, the brilliant river and cosmic stars dissolved into a blur of light, replaced by the blistering sands of a desert ruin.
Daniel’s eyes widened.
He recognized this place—it was somewhere he had visited before.
Back then, it had been a barren wasteland.
Now, though still an arid desert, it was dotted with numerous oases, like emeralds scattered across gold.
Kartora and Daniel’s figures emerged in one of them—the Mandorla Oasis.
The oasis was vast but devoid of intelligent life.
Only a few ordinary monsters roamed its fringes, none stronger than level 100.
At the oasis’s center lay a large lake, upon which floated a colossal stone platform.
And in the middle of that platform shimmered yet another portal.
Daniel’s mind power swept across the area.
"So this is the portal we’re going to use?" he asked.
Kartora nodded, tightening her grip on his hand. Together, they approached the portal.
Before stepping in, she offered a calm explanation.
"Crossbridge, the destination we’re traveling to is extremely distant in both time and space," she said. "So... it might take a while. But then again, for beings like us, time itself doesn’t hold much meaning, does it?"
With that, she smiled and stepped through, pulling Daniel along.
Inside the portal, fragments of countless timelines flashed by.
Daniel could clearly sense how immense this journey was—it consumed an extraordinary span of temporal distance.
Yet because Kartora had frozen his personal timeline, he didn’t feel the passage of time at all.
To him, it was as though he floated endlessly through a tunnel of shifting colors and broken histories.
They advanced like this for what, in objective measure, would equal an entire month.
During that long transit, Kartora spoke incessantly.
She had an inexhaustible desire to talk, to share her experiences and thoughts, and Daniel found it rather endearing.
So he simply listened in silence, speaking only when she asked for his opinion.
That one-month journey—unhurried and peaceful—became a rare treasure for both of them.
For once, there were no Apocalypses to confront, no threats from the gods looming overhead, no urgent need to train or scheme.
It was pure respite. A fleeting fragment of serenity amidst endless chaos.
Daniel even felt a faint reluctance to leave when it would eventually end.
But of course, even the longest portal must have an end.
As the colors ahead brightened into a resplendent light, the pair finally reached the tunnel’s exit.
[Time: Fifty Thousand Years Ago]
They emerged into a new era—fifty millennia before Daniel’s own time.
Kartora glanced back at the fading portal and stretched lazily, inhaling deeply.
"Ah, the air here is so fresh!" she said cheerfully.
"But... we haven’t quite reached our destination yet. The farther we travel into ancient times, the heavier the strain on the portal becomes. You can think of it as a kind of cooldown period. We’ll need to rest until it resets."
Then, smiling softly, she added,
"Still, I must admit—this long and lonely journey has been far more enjoyable with you, Lord Crossbridge. Thank you for accompanying me."
Turning toward him, Kartora’s smile brightened like a crescent moon.
"I’m going to take this chance to gather temporal fragments from this era," she said. "It’s part of my advancement requirement. And you—surely you have something you wish to do as well?"
Daniel nodded, giving a gentle wave as she departed.
When Kartora’s silhouette disappeared beyond the dunes, he began to examine the surrounding environment carefully.
Through Mental Deduction, he perceived something intriguing—This place... might be perfect for Alice.
According to the known principles of temporal existence, two identical souls cannot coexist within the same era.
So if he were to place Alice here, he would need to retrieve her later, before her original birth in this timeline.
Otherwise, if both versions of her lived simultaneously...Who knew what catastrophic paradoxes might occur?
To be safe, Daniel planned that when he next traveled through time, he would come back to fetch her.
By then, perhaps Alice would have reached the Fake God tier—or even ascended to Demigod Rank.
But such an arrangement was not without risk.
Leaving her alone in this distant age meant facing innumerable uncertainties.
Time itself was a dangerous force—one that rarely revealed its menace on the surface.
Unlike the Primordial Core Weapon, which could obliterate a city in an instant, time destroyed through quiet persistence.
Given enough of it, even gods could wither and vanish.
None were exempt.
In short, placing Alice here offered undeniable advantages—yet it also came with countless potential dangers.
And with the sheer gulf of years separating them, even Mental Deduction could not fully predict the outcome of her fate.