Duke Vorlag, the Master of Temporal Stagnation, shrieked as the Aesthetic Vortex forced his dull, black robes into a shimmering, temporary state of iridescent chaos. The sheer beauty was causing him physical agony.
"STAGNATION!" Vorlag bellowed, throwing his driftwood staff to the ground. "If I cannot defeat your current, disgusting aesthetic, I shall revert it!"
He unleashed his most powerful magic: the Temporal Loop of Mundanity.
A wave of gray, dusty energy surged toward King Felix. This was not a physical attack; it was a magical attempt to revert the King's personal timeline—specifically, to rewind his Aesthetic Integrity and his Flow back to a point of profound weakness.
"You shall be returned to the moment before your frivolous Ritual of Gooning!" Vorlag declared. "You shall be the weak, unfocused little man you were when you died!"
The gray energy hit the Aesthetic Vortex bubble. Felix felt an intense, sickening pull—a magical force trying to peel away his Digital Dawn ensemble, trying to strip the Clout Crystals of their charge, and worst of all, trying to undo his memories of The Flow.
[SYSTEM ALERT: TEMPORAL MAGIC DETECTED. ATTEMPTING AI ROLLBACK. RESISTANCE: MINIMAL.]
Felix staggered, momentarily blinded by the magical rewind effect. He saw flashes of his past life: the dusty apartment, the cheap screen glow, the threadbare pajamas. The shame of his former life threatened to crush the regal strength of King Felix II.
"No!" Felix roared, his voice laced with pure defiance. He stabilized himself by forcing a perfect, fighting pose, even while his skin felt like it was aging backward.
He accessed his system, focusing every remaining erg of personal DF. He realized he couldn't block the temporal magic; he had to evolve through it.
"My people's focus is not static!" Felix projected, his voice echoing with the full, ritualistic Flow from Thighland, which was still flowing strongly despite the temporal interference. "It is constantly evolving! It is not merely obsession; it is dedicated obsession with what comes next!"
Kingly Skill Activated: The Flow State Paradox (Evolutionary Counter)
Using the raw, concentrated energy of the Flow, Felix injected a paradox into the Duke's temporal loop. He didn't revert the timeline; he accelerated his personal aesthetic development at an impossible rate.
Instead of returning to "weak Gary," Felix briefly cycled through every possible S-Tier King Felix outfit, hairstyle, and pose that could exist in the future—thousands of potential, aesthetically perfect futures—all compressed into a single, blinding millisecond.
The effect was devastating. Duke Vorlag's temporal magic, designed only to revert to the familiar and dull, encountered an infinite spectrum of hyper-novelty.
"ERROR! TOO MUCH NOVELTY! SYSTEM OVERLOAD!" Vorlag screamed, clutching his head.
When the temporal distortion faded, King Felix stood exactly where he was, but his Digital Dawn ensemble had subtly shifted: the Clout Crystals now glowed with a sharper, more focused light, and his hair was impossibly perfect, having incorporated the best elements of a thousand future hairstyles. His AI score was not just 100%; it was permanently enhanced.
[SYSTEM UPGRADE: AESTHETIC INTEGRITY CAP RAISED TO 120% (PERMANENT). FLOW EFFICIENCY BOOSTED.]
The Duke's temporal magic had simply made Felix more powerful and aesthetically complex.
Felix seized the moment. The citizens of Apathea, having witnessed the spectacular light show and the overwhelming aesthetic battle, were now irreversibly invested.
"The vote!" the King commanded, turning to the Neutral Judge. "The people have experienced the power of The Flow!"
The citizens of Apathea, having their brains forcefully expanded by the aesthetics, rushed forward. They didn't vote on the parchment or the glitter. They voted on the King's look.
"We demand Aesthetic Reparations!" screamed an Apathea citizen, suddenly furious at the sight of his own drab, gray vest.
The vote was unanimous: The Law of Aesthetic Reparations passed with overwhelming, obsessive support.
Duke Vorlag collapsed, his power base—dullness and stagnation—utterly shattered by the forced evolutionary leap. His final, defeated words were a choked whisper: "How... how can I fight dedicated aesthetic obsession?"
Felix looked down at the defeated Duke. "You cannot. Because the power of Gooning is not weakness. It is unyielding, focused, self-actualized power. And it has just won the first political battle of this war."
The King had achieved total aesthetic and political dominance, securing the neutral zone and proving that The Flow could defeat even the oldest, deepest forms of magic.