Red Sun yawned as he sat in space, the Earth blanketing the expanse behind him.
Top-level 12th Floor…
Even now, after months, he still couldn't believe it.
Only years ago, he had been a 9th Floor Contestant when he had met King Purple Mist and His prodigious student, the Five-Crowned Prince.
Even then, he had grand plans to rise to the 4th Set.
Even then, he had grand hopes to reach the 5th Set.
Even then, he had grand ambitions to someday become a Contestant of the 6th Set.
When he had achieved all that, only then had he thought he would have his revenge against the Temple of Amon-Gorloth.
Sure, he would die ultimately, as just being a 6th Set Contestant wouldn't protect him against a Temple's grand power.
Still, at least, he would have taken down as many of those filthy Claws as he could, while securing a safe future for his son, Mark.
Turned out, his luck, despite being nothing extraordinary, worked harder than he himself did.
That was the only thing that could explain the coincidence of his meeting with Captain Red not once but twice.
And here he was — a living testament to how mere coincidences could change fates so drastically.
Red Sun looked at the half-destroyed Death Star, lost in thought.
This was his Main Mission — to protect the timeline behind him from external forces for one year.
It was simple.
But, with Captain Red's involvement, the simple Mission shockingly possessed a B+ Grade.
Darth Kars was unanimously considered the strongest 12th Floor Contestant at this moment, according to the rumors—not only from Chaos' Valley, but also including the Contestants from Order's Peak. Of course, Glitched Contestants were never compared to non-Glitched Contestants when it came to such rumors.
Red Sun believed that with Darth Kars' involvement, his B+ Main Mission was justified.
Still, it wasn't like he would lose to the brute if it came to fighting one-on-one. It was especially so with his Blood Demon Art — Double Barrel Angel Arm — now available at a moment's notice.
Combined with his advancement in Vash the Stampede's Plant Inheritance, letting him teleport from one location to another instantly, he doubted there was anything that could prevent him from completing his Main Mission and finally ascending to the mythical realms of a 5th Set Contestant.
The Instant Teleportation that his Angel Wings bestowed upon him had a range limit of a 50-mile radius.
It made it look unimpressive compared to other teleportation-based Skills, like Apparition and Disapparition from the Harry Potter World, and Spells from Fate Bubble.
That observation was a mistake, though.
It wasn't Double Barrel Angel Arm that had pushed him into the Billion Club.
It wasn't taking down Agent Zero from Quasi Cipher Pol that had given him a bounty of 1.6 Billion Berries.
No.
It was his evolved Inheritance — the White Angelic Wings.
Because the most impressive thing about his Instant Teleportation was that it didn't consume any Mana, Breath, or Life Essence.
As long as he was alive, as long as he assumed his Vash the Stampede transformation, he could continue to teleport within the spherical zone created by his range limit as much as he wanted.
For a lower-floor Contestant, such a Skill was the greatest trump card of survival.
For a Top-level 12th Floor Contestant, such a Skill was a single shot to victory in battles that rarely lasted longer than a few moments.
Moments…
That's all Red Sun needed to act against an attack.
That's all he got when a brilliant glow left the Death Star, so unannounced and unexpected that his Perception, covering the entire planet, couldn't even notice the threat before the beam of utter destruction entered the atmosphere.
Speed of light.
Nothing was faster than it.
Black, who had suddenly opened his eyes, surely wasn't.
Kai, who was still examining the hole that ran deep into the planet with Mang Jian and the Hashiras, definitely wasn't.
Dumbledore, who was drowning himself in Despair within his dark Headmaster's office, wasn't, either.
In fact, even Voldemort, evolved, enhanced, and empowered with blood magic, could barely look up, seeing the light as a bright point of starlight that turned the night into day.
The entire world seemed to light up.
The Timeline screamed for Nyarlathotep, who had taken the timeline's Supreme Providence out of the Bubble along with Him.
Death reached out to Kai as well, using His creation as the medium.
Sadly, against the speed of light, they were all just too slow.
Not Red Sun.
Instant… meant Instant… at least within a 50 miles range.
A BOOM, as loud as if the Death Star's green superlaser had landed on the target, raged across the upper atmosphere, sending clouds drifting away all over the planet.
Slowly, the blinding light left behind by the collision receded, revealing Red Sun, bearing pale skin, demonic eyes, and angelic wings.
But this appearance was overshadowed by other changes…
Like the way he was missing his lower half; the way he was missing his right arm; the way he was missing one of the two wings, the other's white feathers drenched red in his blood.
Instant did mean Instant.
It didn't mean he could counter instantly as well.
Yet, Red Sun carried a sick grin on his face, taking out a new set of round, hazel glasses and putting them on before running his bloody left hand through his blond hair.
"Wow…" he said, flesh squirming all over his body as his enhanced Regeneration kicked in. "That… almost made me forget… that an 8th Floor Contestant fooled you… Fart Kars. Haha!"
Black blinked next to Red Sun and threw a couple of HP capsules into the guy's mouth.
Then, he looked toward the Death Star, which had gone utterly quiet, as if it hadn't just fired the planet-killing beam toward the timeline.
"Something's wrong…" Black narrowed his eyes, looking around. "Was your Perception covering the entire planet as I asked you to do?"
Red Sun, who was still laughing at his joke, suddenly paused, petrified.
"… I was…" he admitted. "But to take on the Death Star's attack…"
Together, Black and Red Sun cursed…
… realizing that the attack was only a distraction!