Catherine, claiming that she had reached the end of her visit, left the Emerald Dreamwood smoothly.

Not being pestered by the druid Brandir made her extremely happy. She repeatedly remarked that she had learned something valuable. If she ever ran into someone that clingy again, she would emulate Ambrose's method and declare outright that she would never marry outside her race.

Ambrose didn't waste any time. He returned directly to his underground palace.

During his absence, his undead had been working diligently, excavating over a thousand square meters of new space within the ancient underground ruins.

The lost subterranean civilization whose ruins he had bought the rights to had truly been wealthy. Among the newly unearthed areas were numerous golden artifacts worth over a million gold coins.

But a million gold coins was, by this point, small change for Ambrose. He simply locked the treasures away in his vault without even bothering to weigh them carefully.

Now fully prepared, Ambrose asked Naomi to attempt transforming into a time dragon.

Naomi stood at the center of the plaza Ambrose had prepared for her and took several deep breaths. Natural energy circulated within her body and quickly transformed into a honey-like radiance that enveloped her.

The luminous, liquid-like glow expanded in the blink of an eye.

Body, claws, head, horns, wings... A gigantic silver-white dragon appeared in the plaza.

Its body shimmered with magnificent light, as though constantly shifting in form, giving it a hazy, dreamlike beauty. The dragon's figure was slender, and its eyes sparkled like galaxies.

Draconic aura surged outward, causing even Ambrose to feel a slight pressure. Naomi's transformation was perfect. She had even replicated the dragon's presence flawlessly.

Catherine marveled. "It's beautiful, though it looks a little different from the time dragons described in the records."

Ambrose replied, "She's not a real dragon, after all, and a time dragon is an especially unusual species. Differences are only to be expected. Her appearance doesn't matter as long as she can use the power of time."

Catherine nodded in excitement. "Exactly! The key is reversing time. We're just going back to the past like this, without any preparation? How far back are we going? And how do we return?"

Ambrose shrugged. "I'm not entirely sure how it works, either. Let's ask Naomi."

Naomi lowered her enormous dragon head and said to them, "I can feel immense power gathering, but I'm afraid I won't be able to control it perfectly. Master, I may not be able to send you to the exact time you want."

"How significant might the deviation be?" Ambrose asked.

"A day or two... or perhaps a year or two. I've never practiced this before, so I can't say for certain. Maybe I should try a few practice runs first?"

Ambrose shook his head confidently. "That won't be necessary. I'll help you. Fate will guide us to the correct moment."

For a legendary diviner, probability was something that could be adjusted at will.

Naomi naturally wouldn't disobey Ambrose. "If everything goes smoothly," she continued, "I should be able to control both the return to the past and the return to the present. Since we're returning to the exact same moment we left, we should only disappear for an instant. Of course... that's assuming everything goes smoothly."

Ambrose glanced at Catherine. "You might want to stay behind. There's still some risk."

Catherine immediately shook her head. "Absolutely not. I've worked hard all this time for a chance to experience time travel. How could I miss it? Don't worry, I've already arranged for everything. The elves will be fine even without me."

Ambrose had already handed over the entirety of his research on the elves' spell seal. The elven race was no longer facing extinction, and Catherine had stepped down from the throne. She was free to choose what to do with her own life.

Time travel was something countless elves had never experienced. Catherine had no intention of missing out. Ambrose sighed. Leaving her behind now would feel rather like discarding her after her utility had run out.

"Fine, as long as you're willing to accept the risk."

As he spoke, numerous dice of fate began to appear around him.

Naomi also prepared herself to control the elusive power of time.

As Naomi unleashed her power, the surrouwnding space grew hazy. Countless shards of glass seemed to appear, slicing reality into fragments.

Then those fragments spun wildly and turned into a rainbow swirl.

Yet Ambrose and Catherine felt nothing at all. The shifting lights before them seemed like an illusion, with no tangible effect on either of them.

Ambrose, however, did not relax his guard. He threw several dice of fate at Naomi so she could better control the exact time to which they would return.

Ambrose intended to travel ten days before Harvey first sensed the prophecy, giving himself ample time to locate his wayward apprentice.

Ten days should be enough for Ambrose to find Harvey and weave a false destiny for him.

But as the dice of fate flew toward Naomi, Ambrose immediately sensed something was wrong. To his senses, Naomi had become like a black hole. One or two dice wouldn't be enough. Even a hundred seemed far from sufficient. To guarantee that he could reach that precise moment in time, Ambrose would need to pour in far more power.

"Too reckless. I should have let her practice for a few days... Just how unlikely is this...?" Ambrose muttered helplessly.

Then, he summoned his Golden Throne. Fate could also be fueled with gold. The number of dice of fate surged explosively, then poured into Naomi's body like a tidal wave.

Several minutes later, the spinning lights around them gradually came to a stop. Naomi collapsed onto the ground, exhausted, and quickly reverted to human form.

Time reversal had drained every ounce of her strength. She couldn't even move a finger.

Ambrose hurried over, lifting her up and casting several recovery spells. Only after confirming that she was merely exhausted did he relax.

Catherine asked curiously, "Did it work? Nothing seems any different."

Indeed, nothing seemed to have changed. They hadn't even moved. They were still in the same dark underground space.

Ambrose shook his head. "No, look around. The ‘home' we built is gone."

He pointed into the darkness. There stood a massive stone structure. In the future, Ambrose would remodel it into a laboratory, and Catherine would build a greenhouse beside it. Now, however, it was still in its original, untouched state.

Ambrose murmured, "Time has reversed, but our location hasn't changed. That makes sense. A time dragon alters time, not space."

Whether that explanation was entirely correct, Ambrose couldn't say. He didn't truly understand the power of time. When Naomi had used it earlier, he hadn't sensed a thing.

Naomi had already fallen asleep from exhaustion, so waking her wasn't an option. They would have to leave the place and explore.

"Let's head to the surface and confirm exactly what point in time we've returned to."

Ambrose led Catherine toward the entrance of the underground ruins. There they found a perfectly sealed gate, without even the slightest crack.

"...Damn. I forgot about this."

Ambrose touched the massive gate, made from some unknown material, and froze.

The ruins had remained sealed until an earthquake had cracked the gate open, which was why Heki Stone had told Ambrose to move here.

But the earthquake hadn't happened yet. The gate was completely intact.

This was a gate the dwarves had spent years trying—and failing—to excavate. So how were they supposed to get out?

Catherine also began to panic. She fired an arrow at the gate. The energy arrow released by her divine longbow could pierce fortress walls—yet it only left a tiny dent in the stone.

Catherine goggled. "Just what kind of material is this? It's unbelievably strong!"

Ambrose shook his head. He only knew that it was made from the carcass of some unknown creature mixed with numerous metals, nothing more.

Ambrose stopped Catherine from preparing another shot. "Don't waste your effort. Since this gate was opened by an earthquake later on, we cannot open it ahead of time. Remember what I said. A destiny that has already occurred cannot be changed. When we return to the past, we can only change that part of the future that hasn't yet happened."

Destiny was like a single thread. No matter how it twisted or knotted, it still ran from beginning to end. You couldn't snip it off and attach a new strand.

Perhaps fate had already determined the outcome of Ambrose's attempt to save Harvey. Success or failure, Ambrose might simply be following the script that fate had laid out.

"Are we just to wait here, then?" Catherine complained. "We shouldn't have reversed time here in the first place."

Ambrose wasn't worried. He would do what he could, then leave the rest to fate. A solution would appear eventually.

"Let's look around first. I refuse to believe the Goddess of Fate sent me back in time just to mock me."

Ambrose was confident that, after everything he had experienced, he truly had the favor of the Goddess of Fate. If she appeared and offered him the position of her chosen champion, he would probably accept without hesitation.

Unfortunately, fate was always mysterious and impossible to predict.

Guided by memory, Ambrose began searching the dark ruins for another exit.

But before they had gone far, Ambrose abruptly summoned his Golden Throne in alarm. Catherine reacted instantly as well, summoning her black panther mount and raising her divine longbow.

Within the darkness, countless strange points of light had appeared. They looked like eyes.

Something was very wrong. According to Heki Stone, these underground ruins contained no living creatures at all, not even bones.

So how could there be living things here? What were those eyes?

The darkness could not block Ambrose's perception. Soon he clearly "saw" the creatures hidden within it.

There were many of them, and every single one looked like a toad.

Ambrose suddenly recalled an illustration from a monster compendium he had once read. Weren't these creatures known as... the splaad?