Chapter 1013: The Century-Long Sabbatical
As for the Abyss Labyrinth itself, the battle there had been extremely intense.
Several of the prisons where Race Kings had confined those who opposed them were broken open during the clash, and some prisoners attempted to escape in the chaos.
Unlucky for them, most ended up being used as meat shields by both sides of the battle.
Roseborn’s clone that had been deployed to the Abyss Labyrinth, the stronger of the two, had been using one of his Authorities to empower his forces, making Alexia’s subordinates focus their efforts on eliminating it.
The combined forces of several Primogenials had forced that clone onto the defensive, which led him to attempt recombination with the clone sent after Arthur in order to activate his stronger Authorities and his innate ability.
However, Arthur removing that clone from the universe made that impossible, leaving it gradually forced back by Alexia’s forces, who had more than prepared for a battle against Roseborn for centuries.
Of the ten Candidates Roseborn had brought with him, two died at Arthur’s hands, and Alexia’s forces went on to eliminate three more, while the remaining two were killed instantly when Alexia, having completed her ascension to the Primogenial Realm, burst out of her healing pod and shot straight into the battlefield with her Rule Breaker, the Chrono Controller, operating at full output.
The two Candidates didn’t even realise when Alexia activated the Chrono Controller’s Weapon Authority, as they were already dead before the battlefield even realised she’d arrived.
Naturally, she didn’t hesitate to absorb all of their Temporal Aspects, and the moment the remaining three Candidates witnessed this, they immediately turned tail and fled.
Alexia would’ve loved to chase them down, but she had a personal score to settle with her father, so she allowed them to escape in favour of attacking Roseborn instead, joining forces with her subordinates to eventually bring down his clone.
Throughout the entire conflict, Kelly had been relegated to a support role.
Progenitor of Dragonslayers she might be, but Kelly was currently serving as Alexia’s Watcher in the Candidate Selection, and Watchers most certainly didn’t fight for or alongside their Candidates.
As such, Kelly couldn’t use her power offensively and could only focus on accelerating the flow of time within Alexia’s healing pod, allowing her to complete her ascension faster so she could enter the battlefield herself.
With Roseborn’s clone defeated and the Candidates fleeing, the remaining forces under Roseborn withdrew from the Valmone universe without hesitation, fully aware that continuing the fight would only lead to their deaths.
Alexia’s forces continued their pursuit until every last remnant had retreated, a process that took just over a week to complete.
Arthur participated in this phase as well, moving across the battlefield in search of any gods he could prey upon, absorbing their divine sparks to strengthen his physical body further, all in pursuit of enhancing it to match the level his soul had reached after his encounter with the Concept of Destruction.
By the time the battles and clean-ups were fully concluded, nearly a month had passed.
Only then did Arthur finally return to Nienope for an extended stay.
Over the following months, he focused entirely on governance, working to establish systems meant to endure for centuries.
Observing these activities of his, Stelan, McEnda II, and the Demon Kings of Gozon all understood that Arthur was preparing for a prolonged absence, one long enough to make his previous disappearances seem insignificant in comparison.
It was only after over a year of administrative work, along with the construction of infrastructure across the new planets Arthur had acquired and the linking of all of them through a network integrated into Gozon’s system, that Arthur finally sat his friends down and broke the news to them.
"So, I’m planning to head back to Hell very soon, at the end of this month, to be exact. And this time, I’m not gonna be leaving for a very long time."
Hearing this, Layla, who had already suspected that Arthur would be leaving soon, asked, "And how long is this long time that you say you’re not going to be leaving for?"
At this, Arthur rubbed his chin before replying, "Give or take about a century, maybe a little over a century. Though towards the beginning, I might be going to some universes in the vicinity."
The mention of a century brought faint surprise to all of them, and Esna asked, "A century? Just what the hell are you planning to do?"
"I am planning to focus solely on law comprehension so that I can meet the requirements for higher Existence Realms," Arthur responded.
There was no lie in his words, as that was truly what Arthur intended to do.
"I also have some other plans to recruit more subordinates," he continued. "There are certain existences I have in mind that I want to use Race Conversion on to turn into godslayers. There’s a lot of work for that century."
Arthur clapped after speaking, then asked, "What I mean to say is, I’m planning to head back to Hell, so I wanted to ask, do you guys want to stick around here and make use of this system to level up as much as possible? When you want to go back, I can maybe ask one of the Levites to bring you back, or do you want to come back with me?"
When he asked this, Layla glanced at Nicole and Esna before looking back at him.
"Yeah, we’re coming back with you."
Nicole immediately followed up, "Coming back, definitely."
"That’s a no-brainer," Esna added.
Arthur wasn’t particularly surprised, but there was still a part of him that hadn’t expected it.
"I’m sure you guys have all seen how convenient this levelling-up system is, right? I thought you’d want to stay here and maximise it so you can reach higher Existence Realms faster."
Esna immediately responded, "The levelling up is cool and all, but we still have to comprehend universal laws to ascend Realms even while we level up, so the levelling up only helps with the speed of accumulating energy within a Realm.
It doesn’t do anything for our law comprehensions, so regardless, we’d still have to spend a lot of time in our current Existence Realms comprehending universal laws."
She made a point Arthur couldn’t refute, and right after she finished, Layla added, "And besides, while the universe may treat us nicely, that’s only because you’re here, and you already have a working relationship with them whose foundations were built by your great-grandfather.
We’re not you, and we’re not related to you by blood. They’re not obligated to treat us the same way once you’re gone. So I’d rather not deal with the problems that are going to come later, and just leave."
When Layla finished, Nicole then asked, "I’m slightly worried about these planets you’ve been adding to your territory in this universe. Do you trust those demons to handle everything properly without coveting the resources of these planets in your absence?"
Her question made Arthur smile wryly as he replied.
"I’m not gonna lie, I was skeptical before, but so far they’ve shown they’re at least willing to build some sort of trust with me.
However, I now have the means to make sure they definitely keep their promise, and that’s besides the binding contract I signed with their Demon Kings before."
The moment Arthur said that, he exhaled softly, then took off his Concealment ring.
At that moment, the expressions of the three women changed as they sensed his power was greater than before.
And if they did, so did the universe.
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