I created my own system

"Hmm? Let's see, ah why don't I use the authority of time to see the past of those beast, I am sure I could find something"

Snow parted beneath Apollo's boots as he descended from the sky, his body crackling with traces of lightning.

"Let's see what we can find here," he muttered as he approached the forest where the toher him had restraint the creature. T was redner powerles since the fragment was already taken from its body. However despite that hte mutation brought by its power still lingers. The mana left by the fragment made the broodmother still capable of releasing spawns but wasn't as strong as before. As for Apollo? He was interested in its origin.

"Its useless to used it in the main body," he said. "It still have some resistance to the Authority of Time…..even without the fragment the resistance is still there, but the forest?"

He then float right above it, "They should have the past I wanted to see"

He raise his hand and began commanding th time to take him back, right into the past that the forest has. Threads of time unfolded like a book, and Apollo is the reader. The forest pulsed, and the past rushed forward like a floodgate bursting open.

He saw the moments play out, animals living, dying, seasons changing.

Nothing abnormal.

Until November.

A group. Hooded. Five of them.

They look ordinary at first but as they enter deeper into the forest carrying strange containers and a covered box wrapped in strange seals. Apollo paused for a bit and watch them.

One of them reached into the container and pulled out a black, fleshy fruit, almost pulsing, like it was alive. Seeing that Apollo suddenly remember the two mysterious beast he just encounter.

"Wait dont tell me" he suddenly felt his annoyed but then that annoyance turn to frustration as he saw a creature crawling from the dried bushes

It was a red rat, and it was immediately attracted towards the fruit. Upon consuming it, it convulsed violently. Veins blackened, limbs twisted, and an unnatural awareness flickered in its eyes. Then it was yet again feed with the same fruit though with a different effects. The cycle of feeding continues until the magical beasts shows signs of mutation.

Apollo watched this silently, arms folded as the memory continued.

[Observation: That fruit was laced with fragments but it was weak that is why they need to feed it so many times]

"You are right should we see what past they have?"

[The possibility of someone replicated Dominos' research. Perhaps even used his failed research materials to make this]

"Yeah let's follow the past of this people"

He then began rewinding the past of the hooded ones, digging deeper into he source of thier fruits.

The fruits was handed to them by a man in tattered robes.

Apollo followed him.

That man got it from a vendor near the outer districts of certain Kingdom.

Apollo followed him.

That vendor? Paid by a courier.

Apollo followed him.

Courier? Just another beggar, offered coin and a promise of food.

Again and again, Apollo trailed this tangled, mind-numbing chain of pass-offs and random nobodies… until finally, the last layer show it self. A girl revealed herself, there she was.

In a well furnished office. A dark velvet cloak. Silver hair spilling from beneath a hood. Elegant fingers flipping through research materials that Apollo wasnt aware that she has.

She turned.

That smile.

Apollo's jaw tensed.

"…Of course," he said bitterly.

"Hah! So it was you after all. My, why dont I feel surprised"

Apollo stated as he saw a girl he was well familiar with. Her face came into the light. Soft. Pretty. Perfect. Manipulative. A girl that is well love by a certain Lionheart.

"Ah, what was her name again I forgot about it, ah! Her name is bitch"

A sigh sounded from within Apollo's mind and he knew who it was.

"Jeremiah"

[Its Emilia, Creator]

"Who?"

[His fiance, her name is Emilia Catarina Von Aileas, the beloved princess of the kingdom of Aileen]

"Was it like that?"

[Yes, you were the one who told me about her before]

"I see I see, so shall we approach her?"

Apollo return to the present though his body was already at the place were Emilia is last see.

"She should be on her lab"

Then he disappear and appears somewhere in the castle where Emilia where last seen by Apollo.

Looking around everything looks normal until he noticed something.

"There is a hidden space beneath this lab"

Then he teleported and bypass all the defensive measures that was put up in the hidden lab. As soon as he enter what he saw reminded him of Dominos when he was just starting his research.

There were corpses of rats on her desk half-transformed ones, dissected with different purposes. A series of vials labeled with different codes sat nearby.

[Decoded: "Mutation Shard – Version 0.23"]

"What, version?," Apollo said.

He spotted the fruit again. On her shelf. It was inside a specialized containing. Pulsing as if it was alive and breathing.

"And this is just version 0.23. That means there are more."

He took one final look at it, and remember her smiling face in the memory of the past.

"So, was this your way of destabilizing the empire? I was already aware of your plans but to think you would use this method. And when did you ask for his hand? Did I really miss something?"

[Creator, shall we report this to the archduke?]

Apollo's expression twisted into a half-grin, half-snarl.

"No. Let them keep playing for a bit, I wanted to see more and if my thoughts are right we might not need to do that. That man is someone we can never underestimate"

He the put several seals and spies into the lab wanting to know about exactly are they trying to accomplish. Whether it was a person or item he made sure to mark it after he was done, he went back to the Afra.

The snow returned. The silence returned.

But Apollo? He was still thinking.

"She always was obsessed with thought of dominating the continent and being in power, though I am not surprised after all she did inherit it from his father. The greed and desire to devour thier family have it as if its a generational disease. They worshipped their belief, thier tradition like a damn god. They probably still believes that they can complete the dream that their fist king has"

Apollo felt stupid just by thinking about it.

He then turned towards the horizon.

"Well, if she wants to play deity of even emperor with rotten fruit, I'll show her what happens when you invite a lunatic to the garden."

He called forth a map in the air, and track all the possible lab Emilia might have using the one they invaded a while ago.

"Her servants sure travels a lot, I should pick one of the places that seems to be thier favourite"

His fingers clenched as he remember those fruits, and the creatures produce by it.

"She's testing these in different regions. If I hit the right place… I can halt her process before she finishes any other versions."

Then he looked at the copied research materials he got there. Finding it protected by codes, if it was magic breaking it was easy but codes that is exclusively made to hide things might take a while before being analyzed.

"Should I focus on this first?"

[Recommendation: Prioritize intercepting shipments. She cannot deploy new fruit without distribution.]

"Ah, you are right I'll burn the whole damn supply chain," Apollo growled.

He rose into the sky again, higher this time, casting a long shadow over the forest below.

"And then… I'll pay a visit to our lovely princess."

He looked down at the ruined battlefield one last time.

"Happy New Year, huh?" he muttered.

A dark smile spread across his lips.

"Let's make it unforgettable."

Lightning sparks at his body as he zoomed into the the direction of one of the warehouses mark in the map.

As Apollo plans for chaos the other side of the forest was already having chaos with the beasts he left for them to take care off.

The tower mages with sir Gavin and Tim on the lead arrived at the place where Apollo left the half dead half living creature. And upon seeing it the mages of the tower had mix expressions.

It was moving like a worm, crawling along its tiny legs. Some of its flesh has rooted into the ground with strands of muscles scattered as well, and the one that is hte most eye catching is the weapons that pin.

The mages look even futher into the dying beasts and inside, is a tiny malformed fetus of a beast spasmed and died mid-transformation. The stench of rotten flesh thickened the air.

"This… how can something like this exist," Seralin muttered. "I never encounter such beats that is capable of creating other species of magical beats that completely unrelated to it. It's not laying eggs, but...its...vomoting it?."

She was confused but half curious as well but stillshe still tried to see what type of anomaly they are encountering.

The creature wasn't just disgusting it was wrong. Gavin and Tim look at each other before caling a single name.

"Apollo!"