In the following weeks, Jasmine and Mary explained everything, recounting all about the worlds as concepts, laws, information influencing those worlds, order and scripts for them. Each world doesn't just stop at infinity; each world, when reaching a certain point, will create countless uncountable worlds, and if each world does the same, it escalates to infinity upon infinity of other worlds being born and created. At the same time, they also took Lastnine around and showed him those worlds, the beautiful landscapes of each place, each unique individual. Lastnine also revealed that the place where Jasmine and Mary were dragged to and beaten by him a few weeks ago was the 'dream' world, an independent place created by him, with no bindings on it. It was merely a place to generate Platonic concepts for the worlds and also his research area, a place only known when Lastnine was brought there.
-One day-
While Mary and Jasmine were learning new magic, they were practicing how to masterfully control reality manipulation, but they still couldn't get it. Each time they used it more than usual, they would lose strength extremely quickly, feel exhausted, and lack energy. Lastnine saw this, approached them, and said:
"Can't learn it?"
Jasmine nodded, wiped his sweat, and said:
"This ability consumes too much strength and energy. I just used a little, and the energy surged to the point I couldn't control it."
Lastnine thought for a moment, then said:
"Alright, you two brats, instead of trying to control everything, we should start with controlling the input and output energy when using reality-bending abilities."
Lastnine said this and stepped back.
Jasmine and Mary stood up with annoyed attitudes and shouted:
"We already know that!"
Lastnine showed a displeased face and said:
"You two will never reach the higher realms if you continue with that attitude. The end awaiting you if you keep this up is being erased into nothingness or killed with just a thought, even dying from the opponent's energy alone..."
Mary shouted:
"SHUT UP!"
Mary, furious, unleashed multiple blue orbs attacking Lastnine, but Lastnine easily dodged and used a white beam to paralyze Mary. Jasmine, seeing Mary hurt, lost his composure and joined the fight, teleporting above Lastnine's head. He fired countless red-black beams at infinite speed. Lastnine saw this and flew away, but the beams chased after him and continuously exploded. They pursued Lastnine, but he suddenly vanished, causing the energy beams to stop due to losing the target. Lastnine suddenly appeared behind Jasmine and delivered a punch straight into Jasmine, sending him flying to the ground, followed by a series of white orbs flying and creating a gigantic explosion that made Jasmine cough up blood because the damage was overwhelming, more than a thousand galaxies exploding together. Lastnine raised his gun, and a white orb formed in front of the gun, gathering power increasingly larger. At that moment, Mary unleashed a slash from her staff straight at Lastnine, but it still vanished upon touching his energy. Lastnine clenched his fist and controlled Mary's soul and mind, throwing her next to Jasmine. Then Lastnine fired a series of accumulated white beams at them, causing a massive explosion with energy equivalent to 10,000 IC 1101 galaxies. When he landed on the ground, the grass around him within 12 meters withered rapidly, then died or burned, even erased due to the radiation and heat his energy radiated.
After a while, Jasmine and Mary were still unconscious. Lastnine sat beside them, slowly took out a cigarette and lit it, calmly took a drag, exhaled the smoke. He looked at the two still unconscious, then gazed up at the sky and everything around him. The place that was once a plain was now gradually drying up and burning due to his continuous radiating energy. He spoke as if only to himself:
"A young couple with dreams of ascending to higher realms, or do they just wish to play around together?... I don't know, I wonder if they'll end up like me? I hope not..."
After pondering for a bit, he stood up, kicked the two, making Jasmine and Mary jolt awake. It was still Lastnine's face, but instead of the cold expression, it was the face of an older brother or uncle. He extended his hand to help them up and said:
"Heal and rest up. We'll prepare to explore new worlds. You may have prejudices against me, but I did this only to make you two learn to control your anger and your own power."
Mary was about to retort but was stopped by Jasmine. Perhaps he understood what Lastnine said. Jasmine spoke:
"Alright, we get it, old man."
Lastnine smiled and teased:
"A couple protecting each other, huh?"
Those words made Mary and Jasmine blush furiously, and Mary almost boiled over with embarrassment, but she stopped and smiled, saying:
"Thanks, old man. From now on, we'll try our best."
Suddenly, Jasmine remembered something and said:
"Hey, old man, do you even take baths?"
Lastnine paused and said:
"Of course, bathing is a way to relax. I've already created a private bathtub."
Jasmine asked in surprise:
"How did you create it so well?"
Lastnine replied:
"Just reality manipulation, that's all. Don't tell me you two have never used it for practical purposes?"
Jasmine and Mary looked at each other and nodded. Lastnine, receiving the answer, sighed and explained:
"First, reality manipulation is simply changing according to one's own perspective to everyone else's, and it can be used for everything, including daily conveniences."
When Jasmine and Mary heard this, Mary said:
"Not like what our teachers said. They said reality manipulation is only used in combat and rarely—."
Lastnine interrupted Mary and said:
"There, your teachers said rarely, not that it can't be applied. Because it has high difficulty and consumes a lot of energy, normal wizards using it won't be effective. You two are different."
Jasmine and Mary nodded. Lastnine demonstrated by snapping his fingers, creating a luxurious hot spring area, surprising Jasmine and Mary. Lastnine continued:
"As you two can see, it's completely possible. In combat, it's more effective, but for everyday conveniences, it's also very u..."
Before he could finish, both jumped into their separate areas to bathe. Lastnine grinned mischievously and separated the area into two distinct places, but then pushed both into one side, making them scream. After doing that, Lastnine also went to bathe. After bathing, with two slap marks on his face, and getting dressed again, Jasmine felt something strange and asked Lastnine:
"Hey, old man, why don't your bullets affect me anymore?"
Lastnine replied:
"Simple, because my gun classifies. If you work with me, the effects from the bullets will disappear, but if we fight or you betray, they'll activate again. But I've removed them all, so no need to worry."
Jasmine nodded and asked:
"So, what do you want us to do, old man?"
Lastnine thought for a long while and said:
"Alright, your mission is..."
After saying that, the three of them teleported to another world.
-A few hours later-
Jasmine and Mary, along with Lastnine, were in another world. They were hiding and tailing a strange creature. And when it was about to deliver the end to the fate of this world, suddenly a white beam shot through it. It turned to look at the three of them and began to ask:
"Who are you three?"
Lastnine sensed and through his eye saw that this was a very strong opponent, with energy far more than Jasmine and Mary combined. Jasmine whispered to Lastnine:
"Old man, are you sure? He's a demigod, you could say a god in the worlds near him."
Lastnine smirked, not caring about Jasmine's words, and stepped forward in front of the creature, speaking with a contemptuous attitude:
"I'm here to give you a choice."
The creature said:
"Alright, kid, I've had enough or more than enough choices already. Go away, you're distracting me."
The creature turned away, making Lastnine unhappy. A voice echoed in the creature's head:
"Hey, be careful with these intruders. Remember those demigods before?"
The creature looked at the three with a cautious face, and the voice echoed again:
"They've found this place, so they'll never leave here again, escape from our hands! Give me your body, I'll kill them!"
The creature's eyes changed from white to black, then red, and spoke with a different voice:
"I have a better idea for you three pieces of trash!"
The creature snapped its fingers, and suddenly the surroundings began shaking violently. An explosion completely destroyed the world's structure, forcing the three to teleport elsewhere, but the creature chased them to another world. When the three confronted the creature, Lastnine looked at Jasmine and Mary; they understood each other. Mary used the light slash she used before, but it took time to charge. The creature saw this and charged, but was stabbed in the stomach by Jasmine and pushed far away. But before it could react, it was punched in the face and flew hundreds of meters, but before hitting the ground, it was riddled with bullets. When the creature looked around, it saw Lastnine with his gun flipping a coin, 'Face down'. He charged a small orb in front of the barrel and fired, creating a large beam that erased everything in existence as it was fired. When everything calmed, the creature was right behind Lastnine, and as it swung a claw, everything froze due to Mary's time stop. The creatures here, including 'it', were frozen, but Lastnine, Jasmine, and Mary were unaffected because the skill would freeze allies and the caster too if not for immunity ten times above it. Lastnine drew his dagger and cut it in half; even Mary's time stop was useless against this sword swung with pure power and speed. The creature was split in two, and the time stop was destroyed accordingly. The creature's absolute defense was also split. The creature was cut in half and fell to the ground. It slowly regenerated but couldn't regenerate anymore, and in the next second, it was erased. Everything related to the creature turned to nothingness, and the creature itself was voided. The more it tried to self-regenerate, the more it was voided. But it began to laugh. Lastnine was surprised, and it exploded, erasing everything and turning the world into nothingness. Jasmine and Mary, along with Lastnine, were voided, but Lastnine, linked to the very aspect and thanks to the source above all worlds, began regenerating instantly. He looked around, started laughing. Lastnine looked around and sensed, using his nullifying eye to look far and see infinite versions of the creature. He saw that when its version and world were lost, it would regenerate in another version in another world. He then used his ability to track and kill the creature. He killed it, suddenly a loop occurred, everything identical to his actions, and he continuously did so to confirm if it was a loop, and it was indeed a loop. The creature teleported to him, pummeling him relentlessly, but at the same time, many bullets shot into the creature's body, making it scream in pain, but the more pain, the stronger it became, and speed doubled. He then used an ability that anyone would find hard to perform, killing the creature with one blow. After that, he quickly reset everything back to the beginning, including the creature restored to wholeness. Lastnine grabbed the creature by the throat, threw it far, and used his own cords to bind its two arms and two legs. Jasmine charged and stabbed his sword straight into its heart, pinning it to the wall. Mary unleashed the final charged light slash and shouted:
"Judgment!"
And the slash descended at unimaginable speed, equivalent to infinity, and slashed down. Luckily, Jasmine dodged in time, and the attack created a dust explosion spreading 1000km. When the dust cleared, the two saw the creature lying wounded. At the same time, Lastnine pointed his gun at the creature's face, fired once. The creature, one without past or future, not in any timeline, was negated by one shot from Lastnine, and it slowly fainted. Lastnine used mind manipulation, an ability also within reality manipulation, to alter and erase unnecessary minds. He used cords to drag the creature along, with Jasmine and Mary following. Mary asked:
"What do we do with this creature now?"
Lastnine said:
"I'll handle the rest. You two go back to that place. Oh, don't forget, from now on, this creature's name is Jacob."
Both nodded. Lastnine teleported back to the old world. Jasmine and Mary looked at each other awkwardly. Jasmine spoke first:
"Looks like this journey won't just be the three of us, huh?"
Mary smiled and replied:
"Yeah, I'm really looking forward to the next exploration."
Seeing the girl he liked smile, Jasmine also smiled unconsciously. He nodded, and the two held hands. From afar, someone was watching—it was Lastnine. His claim of leaving was just an excuse. He was in a hidden spot watching the couple talk. A smile formed on his lips. Lastnine said:
"Indeed, I hope you two will be safe traveling with me, and now..."
Lastnine dragged the creature and truly teleported back to his world. When Lastnine returned, he threw the creature into a black murky pool in his world and waited. Meanwhile, he teleported to another world and admired the majestic sceneries. Each world is independent, none like the other, each unique. He enjoyed the beautiful red scenery, closed his eyes, and lay down to sleep with a peaceful feeling. At the same time, Jasmine and Mary went playing through many worlds they knew. They ate, hunted white rabbits, and watched timelines together. Again, someone was sitting watching the two of them—it was Jack. He landed on the ground, creating a massive explosion shaking countless continents in this world. The dust obscured Jasmine and Mary's vision. He was behind Mary and slashed down a powerful blow, but at the same time, Jasmine reacted in time and drew his sword to block, but the sword was easily cut, the blade slashed into Jasmine and cut him from top to bottom. Blood splattered everywhere. He only had time to look at Mary one last time. Mary panicked, using light weapons to fire continuously at Jack, forcing him back. She fearfully hugged Jasmine's body and tried to heal with faint hope, crying and whispering pleas:
"Don't die... Jasmine... please don't die... I beg you... I love you... please don't die... without you, how can I live..."
But no miracle happened. Jasmine's body remained split in two, leaving only Mary's painful cries. Meanwhile, Lastnine jolted awake with an ominous premonition. He used his eye and saw the scene. He wasn't sad, he wasn't angry, just felt a loss of something. But in his heart, he knew he had to do something. Something. Inside, he felt he wanted to kill the one who killed Jasmine! He wanted to show him what death feels like. Without a word, Lastnine took out his gun, flipped a coin, and it was 'face up'. All his stats increased infinitely, and with one shot, piercing through countless worlds, countless timelines, countless concepts, countless layers, one shot through Jack's heart. Even so, Jack wasn't dead yet. He angrily looked at who shot him. Lastnine took his glasses and charged to that world at infinite speed to prepare for this battle.