Lynn's brow furrowed deeply. Of course he understood what the Painter meant.
Because if that fellow really could draw support from that calamity and wield its primordial source, which embodied finality, then going there would truly mean walking into a trap.
But this once again reminded Lynn of the question that had always puzzled him.
"What exactly did they use to cross the River of Time?"
He hesitated.
He had never understood this.
Because returning to the past undoubtedly required time as a medium.
Something like the Time Divine Spark, or Firstborn Power. How had they bypassed all of that to wage these repeated Time Wars against the whole of past history?
The Painter's expression remained calm as she said:
"They never bypassed it."
Lynn froze.
"You mean..."
The Painter gazed into the distant void, her eyes seeming to reach across that endless river.
"Time transcends everything, Lynn. Whether in this dream or in the outside world, it has never ceased. And just as every law corresponds to a deity, time also has its eternal Controller. It is just that, at some point, you took that Controller's place."
Lynn immediately thought of the version of himself who had severed the River of Time in the original timeline.
And it was precisely that self's existence that had brought about the history they had now.
But he.
Had never been the Lord of Time in the true sense.
At that moment.
A terrifying truth slowly began to emerge.
"The Time God-King still exists."
Not the phantom he had encountered, revived from time, but the one who truly controlled the flow of all time... the Lord of Time.
Lynn's breathing grew slightly faster.
The Painter fell silent for a while, then said:
"I can only speculate, because I don't know how the you