That wisp of Destruction Rule behind the Bronze Gate only lingered in the Experimental Zone of the God of Machines' fortress for the briefest instant.
But that single instant was enough for Saine to push every unrelated experiment he currently had underway into the low-priority queue.
After large quantities of light-element materials dimmed, the Moonlight Essence Branch at the center of the Experimental Zone seemed to be lightly touched by something across infinite time-space.
The feeling was extremely peculiar.
It was not a simple attack.
It was more like some exceedingly distant Destruction Time-Space had looked back along the faint connection just established between Saine, Paradise Lost, and the Ancient Tree of the Moon.
"They're peering at us too," Saine said in a low voice.
The illusory clock face behind Alarm Clock Girl had still not completely withdrawn.
When that wisp of Destruction Rule swept past just now, a small segment of the time scale she had fixed in place was directly erased.
For Alarm Clock Girl, who had only just advanced to Level-12 Late-Stage, this phenomenon counted as a first as well.
"The time over there is very cold," Alarm Clock Girl said.
What she used was not a description of temperature in the normal sense.
It was a kind of temporal sensation.
The instant that wisp of Destruction Rule touched the Experimental Zone, the nearby time was neither accelerated nor stopped.
It was more like it had been made to walk to its end ahead of time.
No future.
No continuation.
Only a blank left after something had been terminated.
Saine recorded this information into the Sky Net Central Hub, then resealed all the light-element materials in the Experimental Zone that still possessed activity.
The Moonlight Essence Branch still hovered at the center.
On the cut, the charred