Daniel lifted his hand and closed his status panel. This breakthrough—this time—was unmistakably significant. Every single God Rank Skill of his had undergone tremendous amplification, and the improvement wasn't subtle at all.

After confirming that much, Daniel expanded his mind power once again, casting it across the surrounding space in search of Kartora's presence.

By now, his mental field could cover an astonishingly vast range, spanning across entire regions like an invisible ocean. He had an intuition—a strong one—that once he reached the Fake God level, his mind power would be vast enough to cover the entire Land of Origin.

Yet, when he finally sensed the faint fluctuations that marked the reappearance of the puppet Kartora, Daniel couldn't help but let out a quiet sigh.

If one wanted to be precise about it, that puppet was his own creation—a living being brought forth by his hands. And yet, its sole purpose for existing… was to be sacrificed. There was something cruelly ironic about that, even by Daniel's standards.

With another sigh, he activated [Mental Deduction], filling his mind with a surge of high-speed calculations. His consciousness began threading through complex chains of logic, deduction, and probability.

A few moments later, he arrived at a decision. From his mental library, he recalled several pieces of knowledge he had once absorbed from the Emperor's Library—ancient techniques about construction and manifestation—and using the materials stored in his dimensional inventory, Daniel began crafting something new.

Piece by piece, a new puppet took shape before him. This one looked exactly like himself—his mirror image in every way—but unlike Kartora, it was made entirely of metal, its polished surface gleaming like forged divinity.

After completing the basic body, Daniel cast [Gift of the Veiled Goddess], altering the puppet's outer appearance. Its metallic shell shimmered and shifted, transforming into the likeness of a demigod he had once encountered. It even emitted the aura of a genuine demigod-rank being.

Daniel didn't hesitate for a second. With a thought, he sent the puppet through a teleportation gate, directly to where the puppet Kartora resided.

Of course, the puppet wasn't truly powerful—it was only equivalent to a Level 200 demigod at best, and Daniel hadn't bothered to imbue it with any God Rank Skills. It was just a disposable tool, a piece on the chessboard.

Once it was deployed, Daniel turned away and stepped into the return portal behind him.

Within the passage that lay beyond the teleportation gate, waves of temporal ripples undulated through the air like silvery water. The space around Daniel shimmered faintly—real and unreal all at once—its surface gleaming with a pale, luminescent glow.

Through those transparent layers of time, Kartora caught sight of something—two immensely powerful beings, locked in battle outside the tunnel. But just as suddenly as she saw them, they vanished without a trace, swallowed by the folds of time itself.

It almost felt like a mirage, as though her perception had been tricked. But Kartora had no time to dwell on it. Her attention was fixed forward—on her mission, on her destination.

She flew on through the corridor, wings of light trailing behind her as she cut through the silvery void. Time lost meaning. She could not tell how long she had been traveling—seconds, years, or centuries.

Eventually, she slowed down and came to a halt. Extending her hand, Kartora attempted to tear open a spatial gate to the side. But the moment her fingers brushed against the fabric of space, her expression darkened.

"This space… is sealed?" she murmured.

She could feel it—a restriction laid upon this dimension, a temporal barrier anchored deep into the flow of time itself. Her delicate brows furrowed. "Who would dare place a ban in this region of time?"

From her understanding, the only ones capable of sealing a specific segment of time were beings who had achieved mastery over the laws of time—that is, gods of the temporal domain.

Kartora hesitated briefly. Then, after a moment's contemplation, she turned around and began retreating through the corridor, returning to her previous timeline.

"If I wish to merge the puppet," she muttered to herself, "I'll have to raise her power to match my own. She needs to reach the Fake God level…"

Her voice faded into the shifting echoes of the time stream. But just as she was preparing to move again, a new portal appeared beside her—sudden, unexpected, and eerily silent.

It hadn't been there before. It simply manifested, pulsing faintly like an invitation.

Kartora narrowed her eyes. She could sense a familiar presence leaking from beyond that gate—her own. Somewhere on the other side of this portal, another version of herself was waiting. And the aura… it came from a different era.

Her pupils constricted sharply as she identified the coordinates. "The era of… four million years after Daniel's awakening?"

Her mind buzzed. Four million years. The future had always been murky, but she had never imagined such a distant time would still contain echoes of the Land of Origin. Nonetheless, she stepped forward.

The instant Kartora crossed the threshold, the atmosphere changed. The world trembled. The very Land of Origin quivered as though standing on the brink of total collapse.

The storm seas surrounding the continent had swollen to terrifying heights, waves rising endlessly into the sky. Every gust of wind carried the scent of destruction.

And then—

In the next heartbeat, hundreds of figures appeared around her, encircling her completely. Each emanated an overwhelming aura—Fake Gods, all of them.

"Leave this place!" one of them roared. "This era is not yours!" shouted another. "Kartora, you are not welcome here!"

The air grew heavy with killing intent. But Kartora didn't even flinch. She simply snapped her fingers.

A crisp snap echoed through the void.

And in that instant, every one of the Fake Gods froze in place—as if their bodies, their thoughts, even their flow of time had been locked solid.

Her voice was calm, almost bored. "With just you lot? You're not qualified to interfere with my existence."

Then, she raised her hand slightly. A temporal field expanded from her body, shimmering with overlapping circles of light. Time accelerated wildly for everything within it.

The Fake Gods' bodies began to age in fast-forward—their flesh shriveling, their eyes dulling, their power collapsing in on itself.

In the span of a few breaths, what had been an army of formidable deities was reduced to ashes carried by the wind.

Kartora remained standing amidst the silence, untouched and expressionless.

"…Four million years later, and there are so many Fake Gods?" she murmured to herself. "Curious. But how did they recognize me?"

With a faint flick of her wrist, she pointed into the air. One of the Fake Gods who had just disintegrated reappeared before her—rewound in time until he stood alive again, though reduced to a mere demigod.

It was an almost casual display of her temporal mastery—a control over time so profound that she could resurrect, regress, and rewrite a being's timeline at will.

Even among Awakeners, this was godlike power.

She stared coldly at the trembling demigod before her and asked, "Tell me—where is the god who resembles me?"

The revived Fake God only clenched his teeth, refusing to speak. Instead, he expanded his own domain, his aura flaring defiantly.

Kartora's eyes narrowed. "Still resisting?" she said, her tone turning icy. "Very well. I have other ways of making you talk."

Gone was the sweet, neighborly girl who once lingered by Daniel's side. In her place stood something regal and terrifying—a goddess of ice and judgment.

She lifted her palm. Instantly, the Fake God's body convulsed. His inner energy spiraled out of control—erupting and imploding in rapid succession.

One moment, his demigod-ranked vessel was overloaded with demigod-level energy, almost bursting apart. The next, his form flickered into Fake God rank, only to find his core nearly empty. The imbalance tore through him mercilessly.

In mere seconds, his life force drained away, leaving behind a hollow, withered husk that collapsed into dust.

Kartora exhaled softly, her voice a whisper between contempt and disappointment.

"I won't force you to speak," she said quietly. "He once told me… that in the future, no one had ever heard my name."

Her gaze turned distant—melancholy flickering behind her divine calm.

"But I still want to make this clear…" Her eyes hardened, glowing like twin suns of judgment. "My power… is far more terrifying than you fools could ever comprehend."

The silence that followed was absolute. Only the hum of temporal energy filled the air, stretching endlessly into the fractured horizon.

Kartora turned her gaze skyward, her voice dropping into a whisper.

"Still… why does this era have so many Fake Gods?"

No one answered. The only reply was the sound of time itself, shifting and sighing in the distance—as if the universe, too, was holding its breath.

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