Chapter 998: 534 Billion Years
"I saw you here when I was checking potential futures," Arthur said in response to Artemisia’s question.
Artemisia placed the other fang into her bag and turned toward Arthur with a slightly raised eyebrow as she asked, "The future? What are you looking into the future to find?"
"Something big is about to happen in this universe," Arthur replied. "It’s possible the scale could reach something like an intergalactic conflict. I looked into the future to see possible outcomes of that conflict, and in several of those outcomes, this part of the galaxy is affected, and you’re protecting this planet from destruction at the hands of foreign enemies."
"Foreign enemies?" Artemisia asked, and after a short pause, she added, "People from other universes?"
Arthur nodded lightly at her question.
"People from other universes might end up fighting within this one. I want to prevent this universe from becoming collateral damage in their conflict, and for that to happen, I need your help."
Arthur raised his hand, holding up three fingers, and said, "I need your help for three specific things."
"That’s quite a lot," Artemisia responded.
At this, Arthur shook his head and replied, "Oh no, there’s only one where you’ll actually need to exert effort. The others are minor matters.
For example, there’s the possibility that foreign enemies from outside the universe may try to incite local powers here to join their conflict. The two most likely targets are the god Emperor Craig and the Elven Emperor Falael, and they’d naturally mobilise the Race Kings under them. If that happens, I want individuals strong enough to stop the subordinates of those Race Emperors from entering the conflict between foreign universal powers.
I need your father’s help and Beatrix’s mother’s help to handle things on the god side. I’ll speak with the 72 Demon Kings to have them assist as well in preserving the stability of the universe by not interfering in conflicts brought here by outsiders that only concern those outsiders."
Arthur lowered his first finger after stating the first point, and though Artemisia had words to say, she held them back and allowed him to continue.
"The second thing is that I need to borrow your power of Evolution. One of the figures from outside this universe will require that power of yours due to her special circumstances.
I’ll also need it since I have a contractual obligation to do something for her, and I’d like to be as empowered as possible when carrying out that obligation."
Arthur clapped his hands once after saying that, then added, "Of course, you’ll be duly compensated for this. I’ll make sure of it."
He took a breath and stepped forward as he continued, "Now then, this is the last and easiest part for you, because all you have to do is stand where you are and not make a move."
Artemisia’s brows narrowed ever so slightly at his words, but Arthur didn’t notice the subtle change and went on.
"I want a backup in case all plans fail, something that ensures this universe suffers the least possible damage. I already have an idea of what I want that backup to be, but it requires the help of a certain entity to be realised, and the fastest way for me to reach that entity is through you."
Those words were enough for Artemisia to understand exactly what Arthur wanted from her at that moment.
He placed his hands on her shoulders and spoke.
"It’d be one thing if it were her alone, and something different if it were me alone. But a foreign universal Grade 7 Singularity and your dear favourite? You’re definitely watching, aren’t you, ’Valmone’?"
The moment Arthur spoke those words, his body vanished in a short burst of cosmic energy.
◇ ◇ ◇
Arthur found himself in the dimensional realm created by Kronos on Aramis, the same place where he’d discovered Novak’s corpse 97 years ago.
He blinked once, then crouched to take a fistful of sand from the ground before nodding to himself.
"I see. It looks like Kronos’s dimensional realm, but it isn’t."
Turning around, Arthur found himself facing a beautiful, fair-skinned young woman with long black hair.
It was undoubtedly Artemisia’s appearance, the one he was familiar with, but Arthur was certain the being in front of him wasn’t Artemisia, as her expression was deeply contorted with annoyance, and her golden eyes held far too much irritation for the real Artemisia to ever show in front of him.
"Hello ’Valmone’," he said with a casual wave.
At his light greeting, the ’woman’ in front of him frowned even more deeply, opening ’her’ mouth to speak.
|An estimated amount of 534 billion years.|
’Her’ voice seemed to come from above, even though ’she’ was standing right in front of him, and Arthur glanced toward the sky before looking back at ’her’ and asking.
"534 billion years for what?"
|The total amount of time I’ve been in existence.|
All emotion disappeared from ’her’ face, though ’her’ eyes still showed clear annoyance as ’she’ continued.
|A great majority of that time was filled with the influence of beings from other universes. Towards the end, Cosmic Realm Existences were entering here every single day, and Progenitors turned this place into their battlefield.
But in the end, I was able to engineer circumstances that made them leave, and I attained it. Peace and freedom from their influence.|
’She’ looked toward the sky above, and it immediately began to distort into a mess of colours.
|There was the occasional Cosmic Realm existence who stumbled across here, like Jamie Westley, or that Eternal named Ranus, but that was fine.
It was acceptable.|
’She’ paused, silence filling the area for a moment.
|But then, billions of years later, you came here.|
’Her’ voice grew colder as ’she’ looked back down at him, stepping forward as ’she’ continued.
|You only spent a little over a year here, but the actions you took within that time have now become the focal points that have drawn more Ultimate Realm Existence into this universe than there have been in the past 53 billion, 468 million years!|
The space around them shook with each step ’she’ took toward Arthur.
|4 Primordial Progenitors. Dozens of Ancient Breeds of dragons, drifters, vampires and gods! There have been more outsiders inside this universe because of you than there have been because of the natives in the past 53 billion years, so tell me why!|
’She’ reached out and grabbed Arthur by the collar, pulling him close as ’she’ continued.
|Why do you think I would listen to anything you say?!|
Clearly, the sentience of the Valmone Universe wasn’t fond of Arthur.
He sighed, reaching out to grab ’her’ hand and push it away, stepping back as he responded.
"You’re trying to pin it all on me, but I’ll have you know all those beings came here on their own. I don’t have any power to influence their will.
Aleksas, Quinn and Nash all came here on their own."
|They came here because of you! Because of what you did!|
"And that was their decision. I didn’t take any action hoping to draw their attention or make them come here.
Nash was the one who ordered his Ancient Breeds. I didn’t tell Luka to send her Imperium dogs here either. And Vampires? I didn’t even know Ancient-Breed Vampires were here. Then don’t even talk about the dragons, because I’m 100% certain ALL the Levites already knew of this universe before I even told them about it, and they came here on their own.
At most, I simply tagged along with them."
|That’s soph—|
"That’s unimportant right now," Arthur said, cutting ’Valmone’ off.
He reached out and grabbed ’her’ by the shirt like ’she’ had done to him, then asked,
"You asked why you would listen to anything I say? I’ll tell you why.
It’s because you’re a universal sentience. Your existence is bound by logic. It’s impossible for you to let emotion cloud your decisions when your safety is involved, and you’ve just revealed your dislike for conflict caused by beings from other universes, which is exactly why you WILL listen to what I have to say."
’Valmone’ couldn’t immediately deny Arthur’s words because not a single thing he’d said was false.
Pulling ’her’ closer and looking directly into ’her’ eyes, Arthur continued.
"Now then, a certain planet just tried to kick me off its surface, and it reminded me that the woman whose appearance you mimic is unable to enter that planet. She’s been barred out somehow.
I don’t think Planetary Consciousnesses are allowed to do that randomly, so some condition must have been met, which brings me to my question."
Narrowing his eyes, Arthur asked, "What condition needs to be met for you to forcefully expel a foreign existence from your space-time continuum?"
