Chapter 999: All Preparations Complete
Chapter 999- All Preparations Complete
Arthur’s conversation with the universe’s sentience went exactly as planned, and after that, Arthur went straight to Gozon to request McEnda II’s cooperation in preventing Craig and Falael from interfering in the inevitable confrontation between Roseborn and Alexia.
Next, he headed to the Abyss Labyrinth to see which region of the danger zone Alexia had chosen to hole up in, arriving while her subordinates were clearing the area of any hostile lifeforms.
The planet Alexia had chosen to reside on during her stay here was one where nature’s beauty could be seen in full display.
When he arrived at the coordinates Alexia sent him, he paused for a moment to take in the sight before him.
The faint sound of rushing water from a waterfall in the distance mixed with the rustling leaves from the trees of the forest on either side of the river below, all of it visible from his vantage point atop the cliff he stood on.
Around him was a field of flowers, and in the centre sat a glass table with several people gathered around it.
What truly caught his attention, however, wasn’t the immense pressure that eclipsed even all of Valmone’s Race Emperors combined that each of the three men bowing to those seated at the table radiated, but the enormous structure suspended in the sky.
A magic circle, it seemed, filled with intricate runes written in languages he’d never seen before.
Most importantly, it was surrounded on all sides by 13 rings of light.
"Tier 13 magic, huh? How grand," Arthur muttered, walking over to the glass table just as Alexia’s subordinates vanished to carry out the tasks she’d assigned them.
"You’ve really outdone yourself here, Alexia," he said, pointing up at the sky.
Hearing him, Alexia simply nodded and replied.
"We plan to create a nested pocket dimension around this star system with this planet at its core and remain here until we’re done with our business. If any enemies attack, they’ll be in for an extended siege battle."
"Extended siege battle, you say? I can sense temporal law energy from that thing, so I assume time within it would be accelerated."
Alexia nodded in confirmation as Arthur took a seat opposite Kelly at the glass table they were seated at.
"That’s good. It’ll speed up your recovery," he said, drumming his fingers on the glass surface.
A small circular disk appeared in his left hand, and spinning it on his finger, he asked, "How did things go with the Dark Young?"
"We managed to secure a pact of non-interference," Alexia responded.
"That’s good news. So it doesn’t matter how much of a ruckus you cause in here, it won’t matter as long as we steer clear of where it’s residing."
Arthur infused energy into the spinning disk, revealing it to be a holographic projector displaying a map of the Abyss Labyrinth, one he’d gotten from McEnda II.
The Abyss Labyrinth was a pocket dimension with thousands of galaxies nested within it, and this map had every single known galaxy and planet labelled correctly.
However, the far corners of the map, around 10% of it, were blacked out, and when she glanced at it, Alexia immediately understood why.
"That’s the Dark Young’s territory."
Arthur nodded as he looked toward that section of the vast 3D projection filling the space around them.
"There’s a lot of space for you guys to go wild without affecting it," he said.
Dismissing the map, he placed the disk on the table and continued, "Now then, let me update you on how things are on my end."
He proceeded to inform them of his plans to involve some of the 72 Demon Kings, as well as Uvton and Rilene, though he didn’t go into much detail since he hadn’t received confirmation from the Race Kings yet.
After letting them know he intended to bring them over if they were willing to cooperate, Arthur moved on to the next most important topic.
"There’s this goddess in this universe who has a rather strong power over ’Evolution’, and she’s an existence favoured by this universe."
The last words he spoke finally drew Kelly’s attention, and she lifted her head from the table where she’d been resting it and asked, "Favoured by the universe? How so?"
"I don’t know the mechanics behind it. I just know this universe’s sentience favours her, and I was able to use that favour to get a meeting with it and plan a backup."
Kelly wanted to ask another question, but Arthur raised his hand to stop her.
"Wait, that’s not why I brought her up. The real reason I brought her up is her power of Evolution. It’s capable of a variety of things, but most importantly, she can boost the level of one’s three Existential Aspects."
"Level...?! Wait, Arthur, are you suggesting—"
"The Soul Damage," Arthur said, cutting Alexia off before she could finish. "If she raises the level of your soul, then your damage recovery would be much faster, wouldn’t it?"
"So that’s what you’re aiming for," Kelly muttered, narrowing her eyes at Arthur.
Arthur nodded, then took a deep breath and spoke.
"There’s just one concern. She’s an Intermediate Stage Mid-Tier Deity."
Hearing this, Alexia frowned lightly.
"She wouldn’t have nearly enough energy to use her power on me. My soul is far too powerful for a mere Mid-Tier to affect it."
Saying ’mere Mid-Tier’ when she herself was only one Realm above sounded like Alexia was being condescending, but one had to remember that she had absorbed over 4500 Aspects of Time.
Arthur was boosted from the Mid-Tier to the High-Tier Deity Realm simply by gaining the destructive energy of about 16, and Alexia had over 4500.
That alone made it clear that Alexia’s soul, which could comfortably contain all that power, was far stronger than any High-Tier Deity’s soul could ever be.
As such, Artemisia would exhaust her energy before she could even apply her Evolution ability to significantly enhance Alexia.
"That won’t be a problem," Arthur said, dismissing Alexia’s concern with a chuckle. Turning to Kelly, he added, "We’ve got you here, don’t we?"
For a moment, Kelly looked at him with confusion, then she understood his intention and her expression darkened.
"You want to use me as an energy battery for her?"
"I’d prefer you use the word ’Support’ instead," Arthur responded with a sly smile as he rose from his seat.
Kelly continued to glare at him, but Arthur only laughed and said, "The faster Alexia recovers, the better, no?"
Rising from his seat, Arthur activated the Cosmic Teleporter and then said, "I’m going to bring her over so you can see her for yourself.
If she’s good enough in your eyes, then we’ll proceed with her included in our plans."
As the cosmic gate finished forming, Arthur stepped into it, waving his hand backwards as he added, "And don’t forget to prepare compensation for her services."
◇ ◇ ◇
The plans Arthur and Alexia had flowed smoothly, with very little standing in the way of their progress.
Arthur was able to receive positive responses from the Race Kings and Queens of Valmone, whom he planned to involve in his schemes. Though naturally, there were quite a number of them, especially within Gozon’s 72 Demon Kings, who were displeased that Arthur had brought Alexia’s group to Valmone.
Nevertheless, they chose to take it as an opportunity to cut down some of the gods’ forces, and also do the same to the elves, who had recently become enemies in some of their territories far from the Orithyia galaxy, which lay much closer to the galaxy where Falael was from.
While they were strategically positioning their forces in preparation for the inevitable arrival of Roseborn and his army, Arthur was carrying out experimentation on captured monsters that roamed the Abyss Labyrinth.
This experimentation served as a test run of what he planned to do with Alexia, using his Selective Destruction on her soul to erase certain infected parts of it.
After Alexia and Kelly met with Artemisia, Kelly had to admit that Artemisia’s power of Evolution was impressive, and she also pointed out that there was something artificial within Artemisia’s soul that was elevating her Evolution ability to a level she normally should not have been able to reach.
When Arthur asked for a simple explanation of what she meant, Kelly plainly stated that, despite being a Mid-Tier Deity existence with Mid-Rank Authorities, Artemisia’s Royal Evolution Authority operated at the level of a High-Rank Authority.
This revelation made Alexia even more willing to bring Artemisia into their plans, as applying Artemisia’s power to her would certainly speed up her soul’s recovery after Arthur was finished.
Anyways, Arthur and Artemisia did a bit of practice with her using Evolution power on him to temporarily boost his capabilities, specifically the strength of his soul, so he could draw out the full power of his Destruction Aspect for a longer period than usual.
He ran tests on several captured monsters that Kelly had placed under intricate curses using her own power, and all of them were resounding successes, leaving only the real event remaining after those successes.
The Tier 13 magic barrier that Alexia planned to create around the star system she had chosen to reside in was completed. Her subordinates were positioned around it under the cover story that Alexia wanted to attempt to increase her power and did not want to be interrupted.
She selected a few of Roseborn’s spies within her forces that she was already aware of and had brought to this universe on purpose, using them as scapegoats while explaining to her subordinates that they had betrayed her and informed Roseborn of her intention to increase her power, something Roseborn did not want. Because of that, Roseborn would likely come to attack, which was the reason they needed to protect her during that period.
It was a necessary cover-up, since the details and mechanics of her curse were not common knowledge among her subordinates, only to a select few.
All preparations were completed, all final checks were done, and finally, the D-Day arrived.
