The portal opened with a faint ripple—
right in the middle of a dense forest clearing.
It was night.
The moon hung heavy in the sky — large, almost unnaturally round — casting a cold blue glow over the entire scene.
Tall trees stood like silent sentinels around the clearing, their shadows long and deep, merging with the thick darkness between the trunks.
The wind was still.
The only sound was the soft crackle of a nearby campfire — small, controlled, its flickering light illuminating two figures.
Ryndall sat cross-legged by the fire, his cloak draped loosely over one shoulder.
His sword lay resting beside him, within arm's reach.
A few feet away, an elf girl slept peacefully — her breathing steady, deep in slumber, wrapped in a blanket. The soft rhythm of her breath was the only break in the heavy silence.
As the portal snapped closed behind TIS and Camera, both their gazes locked instantly.
Ryndall's sharp eyes narrowed, scanning TIS in an instant.
[Bandit?] he asked, voice low but steady.
"Definitely bandit," TIS replied, stepping forward without hesitation.
"I'm here to rob you."
Ryndall didn't flinch.
[You're not a usual bandit, are you?]
"Yup."
[What do you need?]
Without answering, TIS calmly pulled out a pistol from beneath his jacket —
and fired.
The shot cracked sharply through the air.
But Ryndall moved with absurd precision — his body shifting just enough for the bullet to miss, slicing harmlessly past his shoulder into the forest beyond.
His eyes didn't even blink.
[I suggest you not make any hasty move,] Ryndall said, voice now colder as he gently gestured toward the sleeping girl.
[My friends are sleeping.]
The flames of the campfire danced between them — two silhouettes, staring, locked in a silent standoff under the moonlight.
TIS tilted his head slightly as he took another step forward, voice calm but sharp.
"You think yourself so tough, huh? What, you think you're able to bang that woman?"
The words slipped from his mouth like venom, deliberately poking at Ryndall's nerves.
Ryndall's eyes narrowed, a faint grin tugging at one side of his mouth as he too stepped closer.
[Heh... so confident, aren't you?]
His voice was low, but steady.
[Hey — I remember you. You're the guy that saved Lance, aren't you?]
They were closing the distance now — only about five feet separating them.
The firelight flickered between their silhouettes like a warning bell.
Then — click.
Without warning, something triggered beneath TIS's foot.
A small rune-lit panel glowed as a trap activated — iron bindings shot upward from the ground to lock his legs.
[Unfortunately,] Ryndall said, his voice sharpened with satisfaction,
[I do prepare a lot.]
But—
instead of binding TIS, the mechanism only expelled a puff of smoke.
A harmless cloud dissipated into the cold night air.
[What—?] Ryndall blinked.
TIS raised his hand slightly, revealing his sword.
The blade faintly shimmered with residual energy — a soft, crackling aura that hummed in the air.
"Disabled," TIS said, voice quiet but cutting.
"While you were dodging my bullet."
His eyes locked onto Ryndall's as he shifted the blade slightly, revealing faint slashes on the ground—
precisely where each trap had been planted.
TIS had triggered every trap in the area before they could activate.
Each one dismantled silently during Ryndall's momentary dodge earlier.
"I already walked through your web," TIS added calmly.
"You just didn't notice."
Ryndall stood silently for about two seconds, then tilted his head, narrowing his eyes as if studying TIS under a microscope.
Camera buzzed quietly.
'TIS… should I show you what he's thinking?'
TIS took another calm bite of the chips.
"Show it to my kind, not me."
'Okay then.'
Suddenly, Camera projected the fragmented thoughts like data lines floating in space:
This guy… out of nowhere hijacked me.
What is his goal though? I already changed the Rule so that I have the ability to see his intention, but it doesn't show up. All of his status also didn't show up. This guy is weird…
Usually characters like this only appear at the end of isekai stories. Why does he appear now?
TIS tilted his head slightly, deadpan.
"Are you done yet?"
Ryndall didn't respond immediately.
TIS casually pulled out a small bag of chips from inside his Next Stop jacket and opened it with a crinkle.
"Want one?"
Camera hovered, still frustrated.
'TIS, why don't you just attack him? I don't think he's going to move anytime soon.'
TIS shook his head.
"Look around."
He gestured with two fingers toward the edge of the forest, where even the falling leaves had frozen mid-air.
"The entire time stopped while he was thinking. If I attack him now, it'll disrupt the entire timeline — not the conditional one.
If that breaks, the HR won't be triggered."
Camera buzzed aggressively.
'WHAT THE F IS THAT EVEN NOW…'
TIS smiled while crunching another chip.
"I'll explain later."
Finally, after the small eternity of frozen narrative, Ryndall moved again — breaking his own time-looped thought process.
He opened his mouth, speaking calmly but with a glint in his eye.
[Are you here to look for a worthy opponent? If yes, I can give you a good time.]
TIS grinned, still chewing.
"I prefer to be dominant… ohh, THAT kind of good time — okay okay."
In less than a blink, Ryndall moved — his figure distorting the very fabric of space as he accelerated past light itself.
A sonic boom didn't even have time to exist.
The world hadn't reacted yet, but TIS had.
Without even fully drawing his sword, TIS shifted his stance and blocked.
Clang—
The edge of Ryndall's blade struck the spine of TIS's unsheathed sword.
No sparks. No shockwave.
Just pure, controlled collision — like two equations canceling each other out.
Ryndall instantly followed up.
His blade whipped horizontally — but TIS tilted his blade, redirecting it like deflecting water.
Another strike.
Another parry.
It was almost silent — no shouting, no unnecessary movement.
Just cold, flawless exchanges.
Their feet barely touched the ground — every step calculated.
In the background, Camera could barely follow their motions. Its lens recalibrating hundreds of times per second, trying to catch each movement.
'You two are literally bending the narrative engine, stop…' Camera muttered to itself.
TIS spun slightly, dodging another diagonal slash — his jacket fluttering as the wind curved unnaturally around them.
Ryndall's sword vibrated with pure law-breaking energy.
TIS's blade? Still unsheathed.
Its surface hummed with controlled distortion — not resisting force, but redirecting it, constantly nullifying the intended impact.
Their eyes locked for a brief instant mid-clash.
Neither of them breathing heavily.
Neither losing ground.
This wasn't a battle of stamina.
It was a chess game at the speed of god
[THE BATTLE BEGINS]
The night was silent— but only for those who couldn't perceive the war happening within it.
Camera hovered about 20 meters back, its lens shifting into full analysis mode.
'Switching to Active Recording Mode. Attempting motion tracking…'
Multiple holographic data streams filled Camera's interface.
Target: Ryndall — locked.
Target: TIS — unknown. Motion unreadable.
'Of course…' Camera muttered.
Ryndall's blade carved horizontal arcs like a painter slicing through the fabric of reality itself.
The forest around them twisted briefly as space warped under the sheer speed of his swings — yet TIS danced through the distortions, like he was simply stepping around rain droplets before they even formed.
Each of Ryndall's swings carried rewritten laws — attacks that would, by default, bypass durability, space, or speed.
Yet every time the blade closed in, TIS's unsheathed sword shifted — not to block head-on, but to disrupt the very angle of contact, deflecting force without meeting its full intent.
Clink—
Shift—
Whip—
Redirect—
Every strike echoed like whispers lost in wind, rather than grandiose crashes.
'Data input: Ryndall is utilizing at least 3 separate law modifications per strike. Spatial anchoring, velocity scaling, predictive correction.'
Camera's lens kept adjusting.
'Unable to read TIS trajectory. Current conclusion: pre-emptive movement combined with localized distortion nullification. He's… predicting everything.'
Suddenly, Ryndall shifted his approach.
Instead of direct slashes, his body vanished—
multiple afterimages appeared across the clearing, each one a projected false movement generated by timeline fragmentation.
[Try this.]
Five slashes came from five directions simultaneously — a form of Law-Created Omnidirectional Attack.
But TIS—
He calmly slid his foot half a step.
With that minimal movement, his sword twisted sharply — still unsheathed — causing every slash to slice into empty air behind him.
His jacket fluttered as the shockwaves missed entirely.
Camera buzzed aggressively.
'Impossible calculation detected. He's not countering the attacks— he's positioning himself before the attacks even exist in localized timeframes.'
Ryndall narrowed his eyes, breaking his stance for a fraction of a second.
[You're not supposed to be here.]
His voice was low, but cold.
TIS simply smiled while slowly rotating his blade.
"I know."
Ryndall flared his energy further, activating Temporal Density Field Manipulation — time around him compressed and expanded unpredictably, attempting to overwhelm TIS's predictive advantage.
Now the air itself cracked, creating visual ripples like breaking glass.
Camera's lens vibrated.
'Route Density Spike Detected. This is exceeding theoretical timeline stability!'
But TIS—
He stepped into the unstable field.
Every ripple that approached him was… swallowed.
Not resisted.
Not deflected.
Swallowed.
His jacket briefly pulsed with faint symbols — fragments of Next Stop internal barrier system absorbing the temporal instability into self-correcting null zones.
Then—
For the first time, TIS finally moved fully.
In an instant, his blade was unsheathed.
The sword flashed across space — one clean horizontal arc — targeting not Ryndall directly, but the collapsing edges of Ryndall's active field, slicing off access to his instability.
SHIIIINGGG—
The entire clearing went completely silent for 0.7 seconds.
The timeline briefly stabilized, forced into clean default states.
Camera's lens was now fully extended, wide open, recording everything desperately.
'...Recording event log: TIS Route Intervention Slash — suppressive field disruption successful.
This guy…'
Ryndall exhaled for the first time.
[You're insane.]
TIS lowered his blade calmly, eyes still razor sharp.
"N word"
Ryndall narrowed his eyes.
[You forced me to pull this earlier than I wanted.]
His voice was still calm— but his presence shifted.
The ground beneath him twisted as if rejecting its own geometry.
The air distorted sharply.
Space Control — Active.
In an instant, Ryndall's domain expanded.
The space around him folded, extended, compressed, and warped like ribbons dancing in multiple directions.
Distances became meaningless.
Left could become up.
One step forward could place him behind his opponent.
He vanished— and reappeared inches from TIS's blind spot.
His sword sliced horizontally — or at least, where the "space projection" of TIS was supposed to be.
But TIS… was still standing where he was.
"Neat…"
He said, his voice casual, as if admiring a magic trick at a street performance.
His unsheathed blade shifted only by a few centimeters — enough to stabilize the spatial ripple near him.
The distorted distances collapsed harmlessly.
Ryndall's eyes flashed as he immediately escalated:
Time Control — Active.
The moon above flickered unnaturally.
Multiple versions of its light phased in and out, as time splintered into parallel threads.
Around them, frozen birds hung mid-air, droplets of moisture hung like crystals.
For TIS — every second was now a battlefield of layered timelines.
'Temporal fracturing detected… Correction attempt unstable…' Camera logged frantically.
Ryndall moved simultaneously through multiple moments — attacking TIS from his own past, present, and half-second future.
Swords came from every layer.
TIS calmly shifted his grip.
As the first strike almost connected—
"Oh!"
He ducked his head by mere inches, slipping past the incoming sword that came from a parallel time thread.
A follow-up blade came down from above—
TIS kicked off one falling leaf mid-air, twisting his body sideways, dodging two separate time projections like flowing water.
Every breath remained steady.
Every step remained light.
The world was chaos.
But for TIS — it was… choreography.
Then—
Ryndall whispered his final escalation.
[Then die.]
Instant Death — Active.
The air thickened unnaturally.
There was no projectile.
No visible energy.
Instead, existence itself rejected TIS — every law forcibly aligning to erase his being.
Absolute causality targeting his core existence.
Deletion command: Executed.
Camera's lens spasmed.
'Warning — Existence Deletion Triggered!'
But TIS simply blinked.
His smile widened.
"Ain't gonna work."
[INTERCEPTION FIELD - INTERNAL CORE TRIGGERED]
A soft pulse glowed from inside his jacket — faint golden fractal circuits unfolded momentarily as reality's "instant death condition" simply… failed to acknowledge him.
The deletion command hit nothing.
As if TIS was never registered as part of the existence index that could be deleted.
He stood there, perfectly fine.
Ryndall's pupils shrank.
His hands trembled for the first time.
[That's… not possible…]
TIS took one step forward.
"Now… my turn?"
TIS suddenly moved.
No build-up.
No warning.
Just one clean step — faster than prediction, faster than Ryndall's law calculations could track.
The ground beneath his foot barely even cracked as he accelerated.
Ryndall's instinct flared instantly — all of his active laws stacked simultaneously:
Full Space Control — Full Time Manipulation — Constant Death Activation.
The world around TIS twisted violently:
Space bent into impossible angles, folding into non-Euclidean pathways designed to trap him into recursive loops.Time fractured into incomprehensible spirals, trying to place TIS in moments where his body would already be deleted.Constant Death applied absolute erasure — an ongoing deletion condition that continuously reset itself with every failed attempt.
Camera's lens glitched rapidly.
'WARNING. Multilayer Law Stack Detected.
Route Compression 3000% above stability threshold!
I CAN'T CALCULATE THIS ANYMORE—'
But TIS—
He simply kept walking forward.
Unfazed.
His jacket flared slightly with each destabilization pulse, small golden symbols flickering like calm breathing — adaptive core correction in real-time.
Every space-fold collapsed behind him.
Every time fracture dissolved before touching him.
Every deletion command simply failed to register his existence.
Within a blink, TIS closed the distance — standing inches away from Ryndall's face.
Ryndall's pupils dilated.
Before any reaction could form—
TIS's right fist shot forward.
CRACK—
His knuckles drove cleanly into Ryndall's left zygomatic bone, the side of the cheekbone snapping with brutal precision.
The force wasn't overwhelming.
It wasn't designed to kill.
It was controlled pain — sharp, disorienting, enough to rattle the brainstem and temporarily disrupt Ryndall's focus entirely.
Ryndall's head snapped sideways as the shockwave rippled through his skull.
His entire body staggered backward— not because of raw force, but because his control faltered.
His entire stacked law field destabilized instantly, collapsing like glass shattering into the night.
Camera froze for a second, then finally managed to speak:
'...you just...
punched through law-stacked omniversal cheat code with pure hand-to-cheekbone contact.'
TIS exhaled softly, stepping forward as Ryndall stumbled back.
"Sometimes, Camera..."
He adjusted his jacket with one hand.
"...all you need is basic anatomy."
The moment TIS's fist connected with Ryndall's zygomatic bone — everything snapped.
The entire world —
the main timeline, life, death, space, and cause-effect —
all of it shattered under the weight that had been compressed and balanced by Ryndall's law manipulations.
The collapse was instant.
Around them:
Time fractured into infinite shards, each displaying alternate versions of events happening all at once.Space tore open into expanding geometric holes, spiraling outwards like broken glass falling into infinity.Reality itself rippled into overlapping versions of itself, folding like broken film reels spooling out of control.Even Ryndall's own body was segmented into uncountable pieces, sliced into mathematical partitions — yet oddly frozen, as if dissected by the timeline itself.
Camera floated mid-air, processing everything at maximum capacity.
Its lens distorted as its AI screamed internally:
'Route Load Exceeded!
Main Route Compression Failure!
Multi-Layer Reality Breach!
TIS WHAT THE HELL DID YOU—'
But TIS—
Still stood.
Still chewing.
Crunch.
He calmly ate from his bag of chips, unfazed as the world around them spiraled into narrative oblivion.
For a full 10 seconds, the collapse spiraled endlessly— until:
SNAP.
The entire system rewound itself.
Like nothing ever happened, the forest restored.
The campfire flickered normally again.
The stars aligned back to their rightful places.
Ryndall and the elf returned to their exact original positions by the fire, sleeping peacefully, as if the universe simply pressed "Undo."
TIS gently grabbed Camera, dragging him backwards.
"You know…"
His voice casual as ever while still chewing,
"I figured with that overpowered ability, Ryndall must have never been touched in the Main Route."
He paused, dusting crumbs from his jacket sleeve.
"So punching him, would—"
'Destroy…' Camera whispered in disbelief.
TIS grinned, pointing one finger toward the sky.
"Anddd… jackpot."
Camera looked up.
Above them — in that silent sky where only they could see —
glowing digital letters formed:
HIDDEN ROUTE TRIGGERED — 100%