Aiden asked, "Can I ask why I found you in a dungeon?"

Cronyssia, who already knew that such a question was coming, then answered, "During the war against the existence humanity came to know as the demon king, Cronyssia of the present summoned different versions of herself from the past to aid in the battle. For the forces of the demon king were in numbers like sands on a seashore. Humanity's forces alone were never going to cut it."

There was a brief pause and then she continued.

"Right before the Dragons completed the seal that locked the demon king and his forces away in the demon realm, I went into the realm. So when the seal completed, I was sealed away as well."

"Why…" Aiden was going to continue when Cronyssia interjected again and took the words right out of his mouth, "Why I went into the realm, you ask?"

Aiden nodded.

"Heh," she smiled again. "It was intentional on my part. For one reason, to stop time!"

"I don't understand," Aiden said, shaking his head in confusion.

"I know," Cronyssia said, nodding in amusement before she continued.

"The Demon King's power was too great, and I knew that seal was never going to hold him for too long because he would make every effort to break it. So I asked myself, what if I brought an absolute stop to that effort, or at least slow it down…"

"Hm…" Aiden muttered, trying to process the implications of what she was saying.

"See it this way. If time stopped in an area, it wouldn't just freeze the victims in the area. Their thoughts, their actions, everything would be halted as well," she explained.

At that point Aiden immediately understood it and replied, "So by stopping time in the demon realm, your aim was to halt every single thought, action, and effort that could lead to the demon king trying to break the seal."

Cronyssia nodded and said, "Exactly, but his power was too great, and within his realm it was exponentially increased. I could not freeze time as planned, but I managed to slow it down for as long as I could, until the demon king found a loophole… Forcefully sending out different parts of the demon realm into the human world, in the form of dungeons."

There was a brief pause and then she continued.

"Perhaps humanity hasn't figured it out yet, but Dungeons are an extension of the demon realm and a direct portal leading into them. It is a loophole we never envisioned when sealing the demon king."

"So you're saying that when we enter these dungeons, we are entering the realm of demons?" Aiden asked.

"In a way, yes. Each dungeon you see in your world was from a location in the demon realm. These locations are then forcefully sent into the human world, along with the monsters you find in them."

At that moment, something happened. A crack appeared on her face. Then another crack on her armor.

"What's happening?" Aiden looked on with shock.

"Cronyssia in this present timeline has realized that she has a time variant which is still existing somewhere and has undone the power that initially brought me into the timeline of the present. The reason I can still talk right now is because I'm currently slowing down time and reducing the rate at which I dissipate."

Aiden had a worried expression on his face after hearing this.

"I don't have much time left, so listen to me, new Dragon of Destruction. Find the Cronyssia of this present timeline and give her this warning. Tell her the demon king has gotten enough power to send me out of the demon realm through a dungeon. And even if the seal takes a little more time to break, he might still have the power to force himself out of the realm through these dungeons. This is also a warning to you. If he could send me out, it means he already sent out a few of his generals a long time ago."

Aiden was at a loss for words, but he nodded continuously in understanding of her warning.

"Good, good," Cronyssia said, then added, "Now I'll do you a little favour."

She snapped her fingers, and with that, time in the dungeon stopped.

All of Aiden's avatars roaming about were brought to a halt.

The members of Ravens Grave who had already continued on their way further in the dungeon also stopped abruptly.

The Malgia that had been moving from one place to the other and was about to do so again also stopped moving, and the continuous altering of the landscape ceased.

The only two people who had not been caught in the time freezing skill were the time variant of Cronyssia herself and Aiden that stood before her.

At this point a few more cracks appeared on the time variant's body.

"I know you have a lot of questions, and I wish I could answer them for you, my little one, but go. Go and kill that vile creature and get out of here," she said with an endearing smile on her face.

Earlier when she spoke with Aiden, her much better dragon's sight had let her see the entirety of the vast dungeon to understand what had been going on all along.

That was when she realized that Aiden's avatars and the rest of the humans had been roaming about in search of the Malgia.

"Thank you," Aiden said as he had turned to see, to an extent, the effect of her time stopping ability.

Thankfully, right before she stopped time, one of his avatars had seen the Malgia, so he knew where exactly to teleport in order to get a hold of the monster.

With that in mind, he used transport magic to teleport out of the room. Cronyssia smiled when he left.

Aiden appeared before the Malgia, who was still frozen in time.

He had this scowl on his face as he looked at the creature, although mostly due to the fact he didn't even get to ask Cronyssia most of the questions he intended to.

Well, he knew the right way to channel out this annoyance, and so he grabbed the Malgia by the neck and whispered:

"Limbo Dome."

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.