Chapter 1012: A Lesson in Sibling Rivalry
"And so you see, this is why communication is very, very important," Barda Levite said.
"If you communicate your intent, if you communicate your desire, if you communicate what you feel, the other party doesn’t make any wrong assumptions based on the fragmented information they can glean from the way you act without communicating, and you can avoid situations where they do things that, to put it bluntly, piss you off."
"Is that so?" a calm voice responded, and Barda nodded.
"Indeed, that is so. In your case, Miss Priscilla, you and your dear brother could’ve avoided every possible problem in the entirety of this Cosmos if you’d simply decided to say a single line to him. ’I do not like that you’re involving yourself with the same Cosmic Forces that took our home and loved ones away from us.’
If you’d simply told him that, then your brother, who loves you so, so much, more than anything else in the Cosmos, would’ve definitely done something else."
He paused for a moment before continuing.
"He wouldn’t have thought that you’d understand the sacrifice he was making for the stability of the Cosmos. He would’ve tried to get someone else to handle the position of Eternal.
And in that situation, the roster of Eternals and Aggressors that we currently have may have been different. We may have had another Progenitor on the side of the Eternals, and maybe Gaia would’ve become the Eternal of something like Creation and Reality, and our poor sap who used to handle Time and Destruction would’ve handled Time and Space instead.
Destruction could’ve gone to someone else, one of the Primordial Progenitors who fought alongside the First Defenders, maybe. Maybe Aleksas, probably Adam, definitely not Luka.
Luka’s batshit crazy, so giving her the Concept of Destruction would be the death of the Cosmos as we know it.
Hyperion already has the Ordered Concept of Creation to deal with, so maybe, possibly Syndra or someone else who’s a stickler for rules."
"Is that so?" the voice asked Barda once again, and Barda nodded enthusiastically.
"Yes, indeed, that is so."
"Are you done?" the voice asked, and he nodded.
"Indeed, I’m done now."
Still sounding just as calm as before, the voice then spoke. "So now I’m going to drop you, okay?"
"But why!?" Barda immediately exclaimed. "I even gave you advice!"
The disbelief in Barda’s voice was clear as day, as though he couldn’t imagine that he’d still be ’dropped in’ even after all he’d said.
To understand the reason for this, a little context was needed on his current location.
Barda was currently within a region of the Dark Multiverse, hanging upside down in chains, with a pulley holding up the chains tied around his legs as he dangled above a giant pit filled with thousands upon thousands of Cosmic Horrors.
These were the Ordered type of Cosmic Horrors, which didn’t cause horror through their monstrous madness-inducing appearances like their Chaotic counterparts, but through overwhelming, oppressive perfection that made one feel wrong in comparison.
Within this pit were thousands of captured Ordered Cosmic Horrors, and the one who had Barda hung above the pit was the person who’d captured all of them and imprisoned them there.
She was the woman who held the title of Aggressor of Space and Reality.
Her name: Priscilla.
She’d noticed Barda’s existence after he finished the task Aleksas had given him, and instead of returning immediately, he decided to play around for a while, long enough for Priscilla to pinpoint his location and swiftly remake the surrounding reality into the prison where he was now trapped.
Within the Dark Multiverse, where the Ordered Concepts reigned supreme, Barda’s power, which had its roots in the Chaotic Concepts due to being an existence from the Origin Multiverse, was naturally suppressed slightly, and with the power of the Ordered Concept of Reality, it wasn’t difficult for Priscilla to capture him.
"Make your choice. Explain what you were doing in my domain, or become food for those things down there."
At Priscilla’s calm demand, Barda immediately began trying to save his skin.
"Wait, wait, wait. It’s not that serious. I didn’t do anything wrong. I definitely did not mess with anything you should be concerned about. I simply came to pick up a few things and put a few other things in some places. Definitely nothing you should be worried about."
Priscilla’s eyes narrowed when he mentioned putting a few things somewhere, and noticing this, Barda began wiggling under the chains of reality binding him.
"Wait, it’s not what you think it is. It’s actually—!"
The man’s voice suddenly cut off mid-sentence, and his eyes widened, a flash of light passing through them as he saw something in the future that caught his attention.
Barda’s expression immediately turned cold, and cosmic energy burst from his body, the violent release cracking the chains of reality around him.
His slit pupils glowed while blue scales appeared along the sides of his face as he broke free from Priscilla’s restraints and appeared directly behind her before speaking.
"I’ll play with you another time, Priscilla. I need to leave now."
Priscilla instantly turned around, the reality around them warping under her will as she declared, "And who gave you permission to enter and leave my territory as you wish?"
However, Barda immediately activated his Dictum of the Continuum Dragon, causing the space-time within the reality Priscilla manipulated to fall under his control.
He broke out from the sealed pocket reality she had created around them through sheer force, then turned toward her with a cold expression as he said, "Let’s not make this bigger than it already is, Priscilla. We both know the only way this ends is unfavourable for you."
The woman’s brows furrowed deeply at Barda’s words, and upon seeing her darkening expression, Barda added, "We’ll talk later."
With those words, he turned away and muttered under his breath, "It seems one of my students is about to do something very foolish."
Without waiting for a response, Barda vanished immediately, his body tearing through the fabric of space-time and leaving the Dark Multiverse behind as he headed straight for the Second Multiverse.
◇ ◇ ◇
The aftermath of the battle against Roseborn and his forces was handled rather quietly, a stark contrast to the preparations that had preceded Roseborn’s arrival.
It seemed that after Arthur had gotten himself and Roseborn expelled from the universe, Craig had attempted to lead his forces toward the Abyss Labyrinth to interfere with the battle unfolding there, only to be stopped by the combined forces of Uvton and Rilene, along with several of Gozon’s 72 Demon Kings.
The final addition to that resistance came in the form of two Race Emperors, the Spirit Empress Kaylatheurge and the Demon Empress Nephinae.
Rilene happened to be close with Kaylatheurge, so she had gone to request her assistance, and Kaylatheurge, already holding grievances against Craig, was more than willing to disrupt whatever he was planning.
As for Nephinae, she had been located by Kelly, who, at Arthur’s request several months earlier, had searched the universe for demon race Monarch Realm Existences.
Unable to face the combined forces of the demons, gods, and the spirits serving Kaylatheurge, Craig had no choice but to withdraw his forces, leaving him incapable of reaching the Abyss Labyrinth to fulfil his end of the arrangement he and Roseborn had made shortly after the Flugel arrived in the universe.
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