"...How does he plan on getting rid of this?" Ria asked as she stared at the black hole from the rooftop of a nearby building.

[Spatial Manipulation: Teleport.]

Her figure vanished before appearing in a flash above the giant black hole.

"Worrying about it won't help..."

From the top, she thrust her right arm downwards at it, slamming her palm against it's hard surface.

[Spatial Manipulation: Teleport.]

A blue ray of light passed through her palm down to the giant sphere. The ray of light was only able to cover a quarter of it, starting from the top before coming to a stop.

She clicked her tongue and narrowed her eyes.

"It's not enough..."

She let out a sigh.

"Not that I was expecting much, even if I could teleport it, I don't even know where I'd even be able to teleport it to in the first place.

She shook her head before focusing back on the task.

"Guess we'll have to do it the ol' boring way."

[Spatial Manipulation: Distort.]

At that moment the space beneath her palm instantly became distorted. Distortions began appearing in the space around the black hole as the air began to bend in strange ways.

The Black hole was quite quickly becoming disfigured and losing pieces of itself while paused. Simultaneously, drops of blood began flowing down from Ria's nose.

*Slash!*

Cuts and bruises began manifesting over her arm as despite being paused, the black hole's force was returning it back to her.

Her expression became more serious but she didn't let go. She continued to applying her ability.

At a speed much faster than before, the distortions were consuming the black hole.

Ria who saw this couldn't help but smile. Even with her heart aching, and her arm feeling as if they could fall off at any second, she kept going.

[Spatial Manipulation: Distort.]

With her strength almost fully drained out of her, she could see it. A faint light at the black hole's core.

That was the last remaining thing she needed to consume.

The edges of her lips curled up in a smile.

"Consu-"

*Thump*

She felt a strong pound come from her heart, and her vision instantly grew blurry the instant after.

"Ah- Crap..."

After that she lost all her strength and began her descent downwards towards the black hole's core.

'Damn it... So close too.' She remarked whilst annoyed and filled with regret.

But that was the least over her concerns.

'...Looks like I overdid it.'

As she began her plummet down she couldn't help but notice she couldn't use her ability anymore. She was completely out of juice.

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Before she could think of her next move, a figure suddenly appeared beneath her before catching her on their shoulder.

"Took you long enough... Brother." She muttered with a slight giggle.

There Gray stood on top of a platform right beside her.

The air around him was different, his eyes were glued to the distortions in the air and the few remains of the black hole.

There was just a little bit of it left alongside it's core, dealing with it wouldn't be a problem if she had more power.

But in her current state it was impossible.

Still she had completely forgotten about it, she was more concerned about Gray himself.

His expression, it felt so still and calm that it was kind of scary. Both of his eyes were glowing even brighter than ever and the strength being emitted from him... It was far larger than anything before.

'Is it just me or did he grow taller..? And is his hair longer too? He just cut it a while ago... And is that a halo?'

Just a few inches ahead of Gray's head, a halo rested. It's power source seemed to be a glowing puzzle-like mark on his forehead.

Just what exactly happened to him?

"Are you okay? How did you get hurt?" He asked before wiping her nose with a pair of tissue he removed from his pouch.

Quite a lot of blood had come out of it.

'Looks like it's still him...' She thought happily.

"*Sniff* I'm fine... It was because of that." She muttered as she pointed at the black hole.

Gray placed his other hand beneath his chin as he inspected the black hole.

"You did this?" Gray asked as he turned to her.

She gave him a slight nod, not knowing how he would react.

To her surprise, Gray ended up patting her head before giving her a slight smile.

"Well done." He responded.

With a slight blush, she nodded once more lowering her head to cover her expression.

"I still didn't manage to finish it off... Where did this black hole even come from?"

"Rather can it even be called a black hole? Aren't they supposed to be super powerful or something?"

Gray shook his head whilst placing his sister down on the platform.

"No... This isn't a black hole."

"It's just a large black sphere with properties similar to it."

"In the end, it's just an ability."

After saying said things, Gray vanished appearing before it with his palm stretched out toward it's small remain.

It's size which had been covering a whole 100-meter diameter was now only 20 meters.

[Timer on pause ended.]

Just as he pushed his hand out to make his move, the notification rang out inside of his head.

A split second after the vacuum from the black hole returned, the lights left the city once more as all the air in the vicinity along with the debris began to get pulled in by it's gravitational force.

Probably due to the fact that it had suddenly lost most of it's mass due to distortions, the black hole appeared to have began to act in a more irregular and abnormal fashion than before.

It's core began to vibrate at high speeds, sending waves of pulsing energy with every tenth of a second that passed.

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'Is it going to blow!?' The thought flashed through Ria's mind.

But that was the last thought she or anyone had, before everything came to a stop.

'Time stop.'

[Pause Level 4: Incomplete Time Stop.]

Silence, followed by everything remaining in black and white.

Other than the sound of Gray's quiet breaths, his chest slowly expanding and contracting, there was no other signs of life.

At least for a short while.

The black hole's core vibrated ever so slightly even with time stopped.

It was a bizarre sight, so bizzare that Gray couldn't help but sigh.

Before this would have troubled him, but now...

-Memory

[LEVEL 10 REACHED!]

[EVOLUTION: CHRONOS NOBLE!]

[COMPATIBILITY REQUIREMENT MET!]

[COMPATIBLE SKILL: PAUSE LEVEL UP!]

[PAUSE LEVEL 4 --> LEVEL 5!]

-Memory End

With a deep inhale of his breath, Gray closed his eyes.

His arm remained stretched as he focused, the halo on his head glowed ever so brighter.

[Pause Level 5...]

Gray's eyes slowly opened.

He let out the deep breath.

"Authority over frozen time."

[Authority Over Frozen Time]

"Break."

[Break.]

Within the world of the world of paused time. The Black hole's core suddenly broke, creating cracks in the space it was connected to.

The cracks slowly grew before eventually.

*Crackle*

Shattering into pieces.

"Time resume."

[Time flows once again.]

Ria's eyes widened.

"Where... Where did it go?"

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The colours had returned once more, the flying pieces of debris were slowly floating back down and the vacuuming pulling force had completely disappeared.

Before her eyes, only a single figure could be seen.

It was her brother, Gray.

With him shining so brightly beneath the night sky staring at her with a smile, she couldn't help but be speechless.

She was dumbfounded, not knowing what to say.

'Is my brother... Really human...?' She wondered.

The halo around his forehead faded along with the mark, the glow behind his eyes completely disappeared, returning back to it's usual Gray while the other remained silver.

Gray sighed slightly before looking over at his screen.

[Name: Gray Caliber.]

[State: Evolving.]

[Race: Chronos Noble.]

[Level: 10]

[XP: 40/2000]

[Pause Coins: 800]

[HP: 55/55]

[Strength: 48] (+10 Evolution)

[Agility: 49] (+10 Evolution)

[Stamina: 45] (+10 Evolution)

[Sense: 37] (+10 Evolution)

[SP: 22]

[Skills]

[Pause Level 5: Authority Over Frozen Time] (New!)

Gray could feel it, the power coursing through his veins. The evolution had given him not only a power up but also levelled up his pause.

That was all a great benefit, but what really surprised him was...

"I'm unharmed after moving in the world of stopped time."

He glanced at his hand slowly clenching it before analysing the situation.

"The movements were minimalistic... Any injuries I sustained were healed by the mark..."

"Evolutions are truly the greatest feature of this system."

'That being said, they equally come at a risk.'

[Mark Of The King timer has increased significantly]

While it was truly something to celebrate, Gray couldn't help but wonder just what exactly he'd be giving up to keep this power in check.

He looked towards his sister with a smile before asking.

"How much longer are you going to continue to stare at me? Let's get going." He said.

"R-Right!" Ria suddenly nodded whilst blushing once more from the embarrassment.

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'Was I staring too hard? Not again...'