The pages didn't sit still.
They refused to.
They floated around me—hundreds of loose, glowing sheets orbiting my body in a slow, deliberate spiral. Each one whispered with power, etched with symbols that pulsed like a heartbeat.
Julius Novachrono's Coverless Grimoire
"…So this is how you work," I murmured.
Unlike every other grimoire I'd ever seen, there was no spine, no binding, no order. Just fragments—memories of time itself—floating, shifting, responding to me.
Not to my mana.
To my will.
I reached out.
A page slid into my hand.
The moment I touched it, knowledge poured into me—not violently like before, not like the crushing flood of lifetimes I had endured—but clean. Structured. Elegant.
Time magic.
Pure. Refined.
It wasn't like my original time manipulation.
That power—borrowed from Homura Akemi—was brute force in comparison.
Rewind. Reset. Loop.
Crude. Effective.
But this…
This was precision.
I stood slowly, letting the pages orbit faster.
I could feel my mana—no, not mana—magic from multiple worlds—reacting, adjusting, aligning with this new system.
Black Clover's magic theory was different.
Structured around flow. Control. Intent.
At first, it resisted me.
But not for long.
"I've learned harder systems than this," I muttered.
I raised my hand.
A page flared.
"Chrono Stasis."
The air in front of me froze.
Not visually.
Not dramatically.
Just… stopped.
A candle flame halted mid-flicker.
Dust hung motionless in the air.
Even the faint movement of shadows paused, locked in perfect stillness.
I stepped forward into it.
And smiled.
"Beautiful."
I released the spell.
Time resumed like nothing had happened.
Again.
Faster this time.
"Time Acceleration."
The opposite effect.
The candle burned out instantly.
Metal rusted.
Stone cracked and aged decades in seconds.
I exhaled slowly.
My control… was improving rapidly.
Not surprising.
I wasn't new to time.
I was just… learning to speak it properly.
Days turned into weeks.
Weeks into months.
My learning speed was absurd.
Even by my standards.
I flipped through dozens of pages at once now, each one feeding me fragments of spells, techniques, theories.
I wasn't just learning individual spells—
I was understanding the system.
"Time Storage…" I whispered.
That one caught my attention.
I extended both hands.
Magic gathered—golden this time, different from my usual violet.
A strange, shimmering energy condensed between my palms.
Time itself.
I pulled from the surroundings.
From the castle.
From the air.
From everything.
Seconds.
Minutes.
Stored.
A small orb formed.
"…So I can save time… and use it later."
My lips curved into a slow smile.
Now that was interesting.
I crushed the orb.
The stored time released instantly—
My body surged forward faster than reality could keep up, crossing the entire hall in less than a blink.
I stopped.
"…Oh, that's broken."
I laughed quietly.
This wasn't just another ability.
This was synergy.
Shadow portals… combined with time acceleration.
Necromancy… enhanced by temporal reinforcement.
Combat… layered with time stops and stored bursts.
And most importantly—
Merlin's seal.
I turned slowly toward the walls of my prison.
Golden threads faintly visible beneath reality.
"…Time affects everything."
Even spells.
Even his spells.
If I couldn't break it with raw power…
Then I would outplay it.
Age it.
Rewind parts of it.
Desynchronize its layers.
Exploit the fact that it existed in time.
A dangerous idea.
A very dangerous idea.
But I was smiling.
Because for the first time in ninety years—
I had a real path forward.
The pages of the grimoire spun faster around me, reacting to my intent, glowing brighter with each passing second.
"I think," I said softly, "it's time to start breaking you, Merlin."