Infinite Doubling: Conquering the Divine Realm from an Island-Chapter 44: Temporal Overlap

He pretended to step forward, but suddenly swung the Dwarven King Iron Hammer with full force.

In an instant, the Dwarven King Iron Hammer unleashed a burst of icy energy, forming an ice dragon that charged toward Louise.

The moment the ice dragon made contact with Louise, her body began to twist unnaturally.

At that exact moment, the world around George started to distort as well.

After a few moments, George’s vision cleared, and he realized he was still standing on the edge of the City of Magic.

He took a deep breath, still feeling shaken.

Fortunately, he had been cautious enough—otherwise, he would have fallen victim to an illusion.

And as for what would have happened had he fallen for the illusion, it was likely a quick death.

George didn’t want to linger any longer. He summoned his Holy Light wings and flew into the City of Magic.

The City of Magic, once a place of legendary grandeur, now lay in ruins and decay.

Brown hadn’t gone into much detail about why the City of Magic had fallen, so George didn’t know the full story.

Flying around the outskirts of the city, George didn’t spot any Azure League members.

Of course, it was possible that they were simply very good at hiding, which might explain why George couldn’t find them.

When George arrived at the ruins of the city hall, he frowned, sensing something was off.

The building was enormous, though quite old and dilapidated. Still, hints of its former grandeur remained, but time had clearly taken its toll, leaving only ruins.

Taking a deep breath, George walked through the front doors.

As soon as he entered, a chilling cold swept over him.

"I should’ve brought more people," George muttered, feeling a bit regretful.

This place was enormous, and trying to find the Magic Lamp by himself seemed nearly impossible.

Just then, he heard a noise coming from upstairs.

His heart skipped a beat as he quietly made his way to the second floor.

There was no one on the second floor, but the sound of footsteps echoed through the halls—now faint, now loud—driving George crazy.

He could feel the footsteps sometimes right at his feet, yet he couldn’t see anyone.

"What kind of magic is this?" he sighed, choosing to ignore the footsteps for the time being.

Then, he heard whispers coming from the third floor.

"Here again?" George’s face tightened with irritation as he stomped up the stairs to the third floor.

Once again, the third floor was empty, with only the soft whispers echoing around him, now near, now far.

"Damn it, why is this place so damn strange?" George took a deep breath, forcing himself to push aside the urge to just tear the place apart.

Before he could finish exploring the third floor, a loud noise came from the fourth floor, as if someone were rummaging through drawers.

"Damn it! I’ll kill you!" George shouted, raising the Dwarven King Iron Hammer, ready to charge up the stairs.

But just as his foot was about to step onto the staircase, he suddenly stopped.

Something wasn’t right! Very wrong!

He quickly realized that this wasn’t some magic trick at all. Something was deliberately trying to lure him upward with these noises!

If he let his anger take control, he might very well fall into a trap.

"Such a deep plan, almost got caught in it," George sneered, his mood immediately calming.

Now, the various sounds of footsteps, whispers, and rummaging through drawers felt like nothing more than a clown’s performance to him.

It seemed that the sounds had realized they couldn’t fool George anymore, as they all abruptly stopped.

George let out a relieved breath, but then a new problem arose.

Where the hell was the Magic Lamp?

The government building had twenty floors—he couldn’t possibly search them one by one.

Unless... he could find a map of the entire building. That might help him pinpoint the Magic Lamp’s location.

"What should I do?" George started pacing, thinking it through.

At that moment, his eyes landed on a notebook on a table.

"This is..." He picked it up, and saw the Azure League’s emblem stamped on the cover.

"Azure League has been here?" George frowned, growing more concerned.

He opened the notebook, but it was completely blank. He couldn’t figure out why the Azure League would have left it behind.

"Wait!" Just as he was about to put the notebook back down, something didn’t seem right.

The notebook was covered in dust, which made no sense.

The Azure League members had only arrived a few hours before him, and no matter what, there shouldn’t have been so much dust on it.

He slowly placed the notebook back down, starting to analyze the situation carefully.

Footsteps, whispers, a dusty notebook, an empty building...

"Could it be... that this is a temporal overlap?" A bold idea popped into George’s mind.

This could very well involve some kind of time magic.

The thought made him feel a surge of excitement.

Time magic, along with space magic, was one of the two jewels of the magical world!

If he could obtain time magic, even if he didn’t find the Magic Lamp, it wouldn’t be a loss.

Of course, the most important thing right now was to figure out how to break this magic.

Thinking back to his earlier guess about the spatial overlap, George suspected that this notebook was some sort of artifact connecting two different time periods.

With that thought in mind, George cautiously took out a pen and wrote in the notebook, "You’ve arrived?"

After a moment, the notebook actually began to change.

Beneath George’s writing, a new line appeared: "Who are you?"

George couldn’t help but feel a surge of excitement. After thinking for a moment, he wrote: "I am the owner of this building. You... must be members of an organization called Azure League, right?"

This time, the reply came slower. After quite a while, the words appeared: "Yes, my name is Yasha."

"That’s a giveaway," George smiled to himself, then wrote: "You came here to find the Magic Lamp, didn’t you?"

Yasha’s response came quickly: "Yes, honored Lord of the City, could you please grant us the treasure? We promise to rebuild the City of Magic."

Reading this, George sneered. He didn’t believe a word from a group of thieves.

He wrote: "Of course, my friend. But first, you must find my office."

Yasha replied: "Don’t worry, the priest has already given us clues. We are currently searching for the map."

The mention of the priest made George’s brow furrow. He didn’t know what role this priest played in Azure League, but he assumed the priest was likely quite powerful. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

A moment later, Yasha replied: "Oh my, there’s a demon here! It took us a long time to deal with it, and we lost several teammates in the process!"

George understood that Yasha was trying to express how difficult things had been for them, but what concerned George more was whether they had gotten the map.

After a brief pause, Yasha answered: "We got it, but... we don’t really understand it. The layout of the map seems to be different from what we expected."

"Let me see it," George commanded.

He suspected that he and Yasha might be in different timelines, and that the building itself might have undergone some changes.

Yasha, without hesitation, quickly drew the map and sent it over.

When George saw the map, he almost laughed out loud.

If he wasn’t mistaken, he and Yasha were likely experiencing a kind of temporal overlap.

As a result, many items from both sides had been swapped.

For example, the map Yasha had obtained was actually from the timeline George was currently in.

And Yasha’s notebook had somehow ended up with George.

Looking at the map, George found the location of the office and prepared to head there.

But then, something Yasha had said earlier crossed his mind.

There was a demon here, and it was clearly strong—Azure League had already lost several players.

"Why not let them clear the way for me?" A plan formed in George’s mind.

He immediately wrote in the notebook, addressing Yasha: "I can help you find the Magic Lamp, but there’s one condition: kill every demon in this building."

George could already imagine the anger on Yasha’s face, but to get his hands on the Magic Lamp, Yasha had no choice but to agree to George’s terms.

Soon after, the building was filled with the sounds of demons wailing in agony.

It was clear that Yasha and his team had started hunting the demons, and that this had an impact on the timeline George was in.

A while later, Yasha’s writing appeared in the notebook again, this time with a hint of exhaustion:

"Lord of the City, there are too many demons here. I’m down to only three teammates, but we’ve fulfilled our mission. We’ve killed all the demons here... Now, it’s your turn to keep your promise."

"I’ll give you a promise to eat!" George sneered, shaking his head, then started walking toward the room where the Magic Lamp was located, following the map.

Sure enough, there was not a single demon in sight. The path was unusually clear.

Soon, George reached the door of the room. When he pushed it open, he found a skeleton inside.

A skeleton dressed in luxurious robes—likely the former lord of the City of Magic.

In its hands, it held a lamp, and beside it, there was a letter.

Instead of grabbing the Magic Lamp right away, George carefully took the letter and paid his respects to the skeleton.

Then, he gently took the Magic Lamp.

The moment he touched the Magic Lamp, the entire building began to shift.

All the timelines merged into one, returning to the current time.

Just then, George heard a man’s furious voice coming from downstairs: "Why won’t he talk to me? Why won’t he tell me where the Magic Lamp is?"

George almost laughed out loud. Holding the Magic Lamp, he summoned his Holy Light wings, smashed through the window, and flew out of the building.

His actions naturally drew the attention of Yasha and the others. Yasha looked through the window and saw George outside.

And... the Magic Lamp in his hands and the notebook!

In that instant, Yasha understood everything. He gripped the window tightly, gritting his teeth and shouting, "George, I’m going to kill you! I’m going to kill you!"