Combat Maid Harem

"The sun rises, and it also sets… A cycle of life and death…"

Lawrend was lost in his thoughts. He remembered his previous epiphany and the view of the setting sun in front of him. Somehow, it felt like he saw a movie.

The start was morning, and the end was twilight.

Each day, the sun lives and dies. It was a cycle that was never broken ever since the creation of this world. Without the sun, the world would quickly die and freeze into a giant snowball.

Life wouldn't exist without it. At least, that's what Lawrend remembered from his previous life. The specific details regarding that were already blurry within his mind.

Lawrend closed his eyes. The space around him rippled slightly, and he disappeared, but he was technically still there. No one noticed it in the slightest.

He focused on the planetary system within his body.

Lawrend's soul body hovered around the system. He flew around it and looked at it from different angles. Afterward, he turned into a string of light headed towards the planet.

"This is my world," Lawrend said as he stood on its surface.

He looked around him. The sky was blue, and the sun hovered above his head. But unlike his current world, this world was desolate. There was no life except for the giant tree in the distance.

It was so big he could see the tip even though it was below the horizon.

"Time. I need time. Is there even time magic?" Lawrend asked himself.

'What if I speed up the rotation of the planet?'

The planet slowly sped up, and the sun started setting over the horizon. Lawrend saw a scene similar to what he saw earlier, but there was something lacking about it.

"I see. This world's mana is still limited. I need to feed it so that it can become a true world."

Lawrend finally understood what was missing from his planet for it to truly become a real world.

As the planet rotated faster and faster, Lawrend stared at the giant tree in the distance. He planted that using his plant magic, and it served as the start of life for this world.

"The planet's rotation doesn't make time flow…"

Lawrend confirmed that his idea was wrong. He slowed down the rotation with a single thought and put the speed back to normal.

He sat on the hard rocky ground and stared at the distance. His mind wandered as he thought about time. It was an illusive force that brought change to everything.

Without time, there would be no change in the universe, which would result in a lack of life.

His planet had time and a giant tree. He theorized that a million years passing would be sufficient enough for the giant tree to spawn a variety of lifeforms in this world. But the problem was that he didn't have that much time.

Lawrend's lifespan would last longer than the average Earth Mage, but he would still die of old age before he could last for a million years. It would be impossible for him to become a Heaven Mage that way.

He needed a faster way.

"Ah!"

As Lawrend was staring at the moon that was slowly appearing above, he suddenly remembered something vague he had read in an online article. Things would experience time differently if they moved faster through space.

It was the theory of a German-born physicist that time and space are related. As long as something moves fast in space, it will experience time slower.

The question for Lawrend now was how he would implement that into his planetary system. He needed to speed up the passage of time so that it would develop quickly.

Lawrend was reminded of the time when his planetary system turned into countless tiny particles before reforming again.

"How did that happen?"

Lawrend traced back that memory and relived everything through his powerful memories.

"I need to understand the laws of another world."

Lawrend now had a clear idea of what to do. He also realized that his next attempt to become a Heaven Mage would be more powerful than his previous one if he succeeded.

The space rippled under the tree, and Lawrend's body reappeared again. A smile slowly formed on his face.

"Time to visit the Demon World after this," Lawrend said to himself and stood up.

He looked back to the competition. It was now in its second phase. Those that won were assigned points and ranked.

He would wait till this competition finished and head to the Demon World with his family. It would be a great change of pace, and it would also satisfy Aezel's request.

A huge board was set up at the side, and he walked towards it. It listed the ranks of the surviving contenders. Unlike what Lawrend expected, Inferno nor any of his other children weren't at the top. They were around the middle.

"That is to be expected. Your children can't earn that many points since they didn't fight against particularly older opponents," Paeia explained.

"Mm."

Lawrend simply nodded his head.

The mysterious old man from before walked to the center.

"Ehem."

He glanced around, making sure that he caught everyone's attention.

"The first round has finished. Sorry to those that lost both duels. In total, there are 225 contenders left. The next round will be similar, but your current ranks will be your numbers."

After hearing the old man's words, Inferno and the others glanced at each other. There was a bigger chance for them to meet each other and duel since they were all concentrated in the middle.

"Consequently, there is a lucky person who wouldn't have to participate. You, stand aside."

"Me?" Inferno pointed at himself in surprise.

"Yes. Now, continue! Everyone after him, subtract 1 from your ranks and find your new opponents," the old man waved his right hand above his head at the contenders.

Everyone became envious of Inferno, especially Thug, who gritted his teeth and stomped on the ground.