Rise of the Cosmic_Emperor

Quick as the beams were sure to be, they still gave Hal enough time to converse with Grimoire and to prepare alternative protection which was to take his ladies and himself into the Harem space where the attack was sure not to hit.

After all, anyone who could witness the entry apart from Svetlana and Embry would be dead anyway.

'It's time. That's the Artifact's ability. Well, actually it's time and fortification' Grimoire said.

'Not sure I follow' Hal replied.

Grimoire sighed, 

'There really is no simpler way to say it. The Artifact's ability is time and fortification. Every beam of energy or presence or pressure that goes through it comes out stronger. Also, it gives its wielder the ability to bend time in their favor.

In other words, it gives Svetlana Pseudo Time Ordinance insight. I guess it might have extended to pseudo-Time Ordinance Harnessing if she was able to use the Artifact's complete abilities but she can't on account of her cultivation. Right now, she's limited to about forty percent if the Artifact's true might.

That chime you hear comes from the balls and announces the moment she bends time. Either her time or the time of something in her surrounding.

It's how she was able to stop the cage in place and how she was able to avoid these impossibly fast Rune circles the gardener just tossed at her.

She's bending time.'

Hal nodded mentally in understanding but Grimoire was on a roll, 

'It has the potential of making her fast enough to evade any of the Divine Array's attacks and intercept any of it.

After all, her rune casting is already impossibly fast. This will just make it impossible to avoid or see.

But this is not the really frightening part of it all...'

'Then what is, does it warp time?' Hal asked with a mild chuckle. Mostly as a joke but Grimoire answered seriously.

'Actually it does and the time-warping Array you use has nothing on that Orb' Grimoire said.

'Wait, she really can?'

Grimoire gave a mental appropriation of a head shake, 

"Not her, the Orb. That's one of its passive abilities. As I said, its ability is time. But I was actually referring to how it can be used as a template for her to gain insight into the Abstract ordinance of time. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if she has already started...'

The conversation ended and Hal came to full cognition of what was going on at the moment just as the chime sound rang out once again and multiple deep blue Rune circles appeared to defend against the beams that shot out of the purple rune circles.

And while the beams attempted to overpower the circles, another chime sounded which saw to the simultaneous destruction of all purple giants and their purple winds swords.

However, the array had a large number of Astral energy supply to burn through and prepared to reconstruct the destroyed giants but then Svetlana raised her hand and the Orb floated up to it.

Then she began projecting runes and passing them all through the Orb which fortified them all so that they were of a bolder deep blue color to when she had projected them and then they began coming together to form Rune circles and then came together to form a gigantic Array.

One that spread all over the entire garden.

"Oh, I'm not falling for that again" Embry said as he gave a quick look at the Array and Hal understood what it was talking about.

While the energy coming off the Array was more powerful than he could ever hope to produce as he was right now and while it was also more complex, the basics were very much like the Array he had drawn himself.

A sealing Array.

More purple Rune Circles appeared on the garden floor and they all shot beams at Svetlana but a single chime after and the beams froze in place.

The Array refused to give up and more appeared but this time they appeared above Svetlana and shot at her from above but another chime and once again they froze in place.

Then the Sealing Array was complete and it slammed into the Garden floor but did nothing.

It was simply glowing but seemed to have no effect.

"Hahaha..." Embry began to laugh when suddenly, all the Rune circles the Divine Array had created so far were absorbed into Svetlana's Array and became the energy the array needed to JumpStart its sealing abilities.

This was the best way to hold down the Divine Array; using some of its own Astral energy as a baseline to seal it off. 

As every single one of its attacking capabilities stopped reacting to command, the Array, through Embry said, 

"You win today. But you can't seal me forever. Maybe I was not able to kill all of you today but the next time I'm awake, anyone I find on my ground will face the full might of my wrath. I won't spare anyone. Especially you Doxons. Scum born of that bastard that calls himself..." The rest of Embry/The Array's words were not heard as the Gardener melted into the Purple rune circle beneath its feet which was then absorbed Into the sealing Array and powered it further.

The gradual blending of the sealing Array with the garden floor marked the completion of the seal.

The Array dome around Hal and the others faded and the Blue-eyed witch addressed them, 

"The array will make good on its promise and my seal will only really hold it for the day so if you wish to pick the herbs here, that is the window of safety you have. I will not tell any of you not to return to the garden after today and I will not tell you to be careful should you return.

However, I will say that if you come here after all you have experienced so far and are not a Demi-god, then you deserve everything you get. Including getting skewered by a Vindictive Array created by the greatest Runemastering genius the Haron Continent has ever seen."

With that, Svetlana turned around and her form vanished as in a space of a second, she left the Garden in its entirety.

However, even as she left, Hal heard her voice right by his ear, 

"Hal, might I have a word? You are being awfully unfilial not to visit your dear old mother. Come to the Duchy palace and you, Rita and I can I have a nice little chat"

Hal scoffed at her words and turned his attention to the Doxon trio who had sour expressions on their faces. 

Neither Ivan nor Artyom liked to be saved by Svetlana. They were happy to be alive of course and following that display they knew now they had no hope of survival even if they did have the Seal containing Semi-saint pressure within it, but, 

"Why did it have to be her?" Artyom groaned.

To him, it was like she was throwing it in their faces how impossible it was for them to surpass her.

And wasn't she right?

They were hardly worth being called ants next to her right now.

Ivan was glaring at Hal who was also looking over at them, 

'It's you, isn't it? You're the reason she came here, aren't you?' He kept thinking in his mind.

Meanwhile, Elora was thinking, 

'She's so cool. By far the coolest woman to have ever lived.'

She did indeed once dislike the Duchess but it was really hard to hate Svetlana when she was a symbol of feminine superiority in the Doxon Duchy and today's display only made that all the more true.

Especially since she did not have a personal vendetta against the Duchess as her father was not one of the Duchess' brothers like Ivan and Artyom's fathers were.

It was really hard to pretend to hate the Duchess in the company of this vindictive duo.

But she liked being a member of the trio enough to try.

Their spatial treasures were now free and many were quick to collect them by using Cosmic energy to get a hold on whichever was theirs to pull it towards themselves.

Vanya was quick to go back to picking herbs and it was clear that she was going to take full advantage of the window of safety.