Authority Over Time: The Frozen Flow.
Alephee wielded her powers and the time flow around her was almost stopped. A domain was created, taking her, Eren, and Sara inside. This was her domain.
Eren felt like he was submerged in some thick and illusory liquid that prevented him from moving freely. Even his heartbeat stopped. His thoughts were also affected by being inside the Frozen Flow.
This was an exclusive time-element barrier or domain that nobody could enter or leave willingly without Alephee's permission. The concept of time in the domain was slowed down as Alephee wanted it to be. Even Eren and Sara could only keep their minds working for them inside the barrier, if only barely. They lost their ability to move even an inch of their bodies.
Eren had experienced this power before. Alephee used this power for the first time after Eren tamed his spirit beast. At that time, Alephee struggled to keep this power active for a long time because her vessel wasn't strong enough
But it seemed that she was having a much easier time than before. Thanks to the improved status of her vessel's status, she could use her Authority more freely without hurting a mortal like Sara.
Since Alephee could wield this power more naturally than before, Eren could tell that it was different from spellcasting or Ability activation. He used his soul sense to liberate his thoughts from Alephee's powers before thinking to himself.
'Hmm. There's something different about this. There's no mana ripple from Ability activation. It seems this is a power that exceeds an Ability. I wonder what the requirements are to unlock such capabilities.'
Eren somehow managed to move his eyes and stare at Alephee, wondering how many things she had not told him yet. He then looked at Sara who couldn't even blink her eyes while inside the Time domain.
Neither Eren nor Sara wanted to talk and disturb Alephee's process anyway. The homunculus closed her eyes. Her grimoire was wide open and floating right in front of her. Alephee placed her hand on her grimoire and traced the runic circle written over one of its pages carefully.
This was an array Alephee was about to use on Sara to alter the demonic runes. After making sure everything was in order, Alephee opened her eyes and looked in front of her at where Sara was.
She snapped her fingers and a runic circle appeared around Sara. This circle had the same runic symbols as the ones found in the grimoire.
Sara found herself standing in the center of the circle that suddenly appeared. She wasn't scared of what was happening around her. For some reason, she trusted Eren and Alephee. But that didn't mean the red-haired girl wouldn't get tense either.
Sara closed her eyes as Alephee activated the array circle around her. The homunculus took out the vial she had taken from Eren, containing his blood, and poured it onto the open page of her grimoire.
Elder Ichor fell on the grimoire's page and instead of drenching it with red stains, it disappeared. In the next moment, the array circle around Sara exuded a red hue, indicating that Elder Ichor had been integrated into the array.
A strange sensation surrounded Sara. The demonic runes hiding deep within herself surfaced over her soft and rosy skin, turning it flaky and red.
Sara would have screamed at the potential pain involved in the process. But since time had slowed down for her, her ability to process pain had also been affected. This enabled her to skip the suffering part attached to the demonic rune alteration.
Alephee placed her right palm over the open book completely and altered the demonic runes in real time. The demonic runes slithered over Sara's skin like agitated snakes as a result of these changes.
Eren watched the process with keen vigilance as Alephee rewrote the runes over Sara's skin. The demonic runes couldn't resist the changes when the bloodline energy of Elder Ichor got involved.
***
The process took almost an hour to complete. At the end of her work, Alephee dispersed the time-element barrier. She sweated bullets. But the smile on her face indicated the procedure was successful.
Time flow returned to normal for Eren and Sara. Nothing really changed for the butcher. But Sara felt like she was suffering through another turmoil.
"Sara, use the ranking technique this instant."
Alephee ordered Sara to practice the fault ranking technique she had received and the latter obliged immediately. She sat in her position and assumed a meditative position. She controlled her breathing and followed the ranking technique instructions step by step.
A Novice-ranked mana cloud was summoned around Sara a few moments after she started practicing the technique. In the next moment, her body absorbed that mana cloud before starting mana core formation.
Within seconds, Sara broke into the F-Rank to become a ranker. She didn't face obstructions or bottlenecks. It was as if she had the finest mana circuits for her breakthrough into the Novice rank.
As the mana core formed inside her body, her stressed expressions eased. They were soon replaced by expressions of joy as Sara spread her mana sense around for the first time. She felt the world around her for the first time in a long while.
"I… This… is just great. This is better than seeing with eyes."
Sara mumbled to herself as she opened her eyes. She looked all around her with unmasked curiosity as she used her mana sense recklessly.
Alephee protected herself from Sara's mana sense right away. But there was someone ready to let his body be "scanned" by Sara's mana sense. He didn't take any countermeasures and allowed himself to be seen "naked" while still wearing clothes.
"Aaaaaaaah!"
Sara screamed in part horror and part shock as she inadvertently used her mana sense on Eren in a way it shouldn't have been used. This form of scanning was usually frowned upon by rankers. But since this was Sara's first time using her mana sense, she couldn't control it until it was too late.
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AN: Alephee uses Authority Over Time: The Frozen Flow for the first time in chapter 849. The term "Authority" was first mentioned by Maya in chapter 1127.
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