Chapter 1014: The Dark Young of the Abyss
The Devour Class System of Valmone immediately reacted, confirming Arthur had met the requirements, and upgraded his godslayer Lord authority to a godslayer King authority, establishing a new category of Race Kings within this universe.
Now, he would no longer negotiate with Gozon’s Kings from a lesser position, but as an equal to them.
"Arthur, you got stronger again," Nicole noted.
"Does it have to do with that battle you got involved in because of that Alexia woman?" Layla asked.
Arthur nodded. "Yeah, I did get stronger after that. I absorbed a lot of divine sparks," he said, clenching his fists.
Unlike the universe, which instantly registered Arthur as a High-Tier Deity Realm Existence, his friends couldn’t tell, since he was limiting how much of his power they could sense.
Arthur didn’t plan to tell them about his encounter with Luka, nor the fact that he had died, entered Conceptual Space, and gained significant power in the process.
Emotionally, he wasn’t really ready to do so. Logically, revealing it would negatively affect his future plans.
For both reasons, Arthur chose to keep it to himself and simply let his friends believe he had ’grown stronger’, without knowing exactly how much stronger he had become.
"Anyways, you guys are coming with me back to Hell, right?" Arthur said, putting his Concealment ring back on. Then he continued, "Well then, start packing your bags, we’re leaving by the end of the month."
Just as he finished speaking, before any of the three women could respond, ambient cosmic energy gathered rapidly in the room, and space tore open violently.
Emerging from the rift was a familiar figure, a blue-haired dragon they all knew.
"Oh, hi, Bar—"
"Come with me, Arthur," Barda said coldly, cutting him off.
His unusually serious demeanour and dark expression made Arthur blink in surprise, and without waiting for a response, Barda turned away, leaving the rift open as he said, "We need to talk, NOW."
Layla, Nicole, and Esna turned concerned gazes toward Arthur upon sensing the difference in Barda’s attitude, but Arthur simply smiled to reassure them before rising from his seat.
"I’ll be back in a bit," he said.
"Arthur..."
"Don’t worry, dear. I’ll be fine."
He kissed Nicole’s forehead after she called out in worry, then stepped into the rift Barda had left open.
Arthur emerged from the other end of the rift into a part of the universe he knew very well.
’The Abyss Labyrinth, huh? I’m starting to get tired of seeing this place every so often.’
They were on one of the few habitable planets within the labyrinth, in the middle of a sparse forest filled with purple trees.
Barda was seated on the stump of one of those trees, his legs spread lightly apart, and his left fingers tapping repeatedly against his lap.
Arthur was about to call out to him, but he noticed something strange about the light coming from above, so he raised his gaze to the sky, where he saw three suns hovering above, evenly spaced from one another.
Then, he turned behind him, and his eyes widened at the deep darkness that covered the other half of the sky.
No, it wasn’t exactly the sky that was dark. The planet’s atmosphere, filtering the light from the three stars above, gave its sky a dark blue to purplish sheen.
The darkness Arthur could see lay beyond that atmosphere, in deep space.
It wasn’t the usual darkness of space where the light of billions of stars still dotted the vacuum, but a deeper kind that seemed to swallow even light itself, reminding Arthur of the time he’d seen a black hole up close.
The moment Arthur made that comparison, both Celestia and Lostvayne manifested their humanoid forms in front of him. Celestia reached out, covered Arthur’s eyes, and turned his face away, while Lostvayne rotated Arthur’s body so he no longer faced that darkness.
Arthur had only stared for a second, but even that second was already too long.
In the next second, countless swirling eyes of every conceivable colour and gaping mouths filled with jaws formed across the darkness, all staring down at Arthur.
A wave of chaotic cosmic energy burst from the darkness, but before it could reach the planet, Barda raised his hand and forced the wave back into its source, an action that caused all those eyes to shift their attention onto him instead.
|Explainyourself,Levite.|
Arthur suddenly heard that line in his head, not as spoken words, but as though it had been implanted directly into his mind.
"I just need to borrow the effect of your sub-edict," Barda said, responding to the speaker.
|Idonotlikethepresenceofthatthing.|
Another line formed in Arthur’s mind, and in the same instant, half of the eyes in the darkness shifted away from Barda and toward Arthur.
No, not exactly Arthur, but the one beside him.
’Celestia. It’s looking at Celestia.’
And Celestia was glaring right back at those eyes.
"Well, you’ll have to tolerate it for a short while," Barda replied toward the entity in the darkness. "We’re not going to be here forever."
He looked up toward the eyes as he spoke, and for a moment there was silence, then the eyes began to close.
|Bequickandgetout.|
With those last words, all the eyes in the darkness vanished, and silence returned as the pressure of chaotic cosmic energy fully receded.
Immediately, Celestia removed her hands from Arthur’s eyes and stormed over to Barda in anger.
[Are you insane?! Are you trying to kill Master?! Why the hell would you bring him here?!]
"Kill him?" Barda replied in disbelief. "I’m trying to stop him from killing himself. In fact, I should be asking you that. Are you trying to kill your owner?
That Dark Young wouldn’t react violently unless it was met with the presence of another Cosmic Force’s power. You’re definitely not connected to the Cosmic Force of Order, which can only mean that you’re—"
[Not another word out of your goddamn mouth,] Celestia cut him off, reaching to grab him by the collar.
Before she could, however, Lostvayne closed the distance and grabbed her hand, pulling her back as she spoke. [Calm yourself, Lady Celestia.]
Celestia snapped her gaze toward Lostvayne with a furious glare. [You’re telling me to calm myself?!]
[Yes,] Lostvayne replied in her usual flat tone. [I’m telling you to calm yourself and think logically. You’re letting your emotions override your logical train of thought.
The Dark Young would not have done anything to master. It simply doesn’t care. The most it would have done is send him out of this dimension.
And also, there is no way Barda could have known about your Cosmic Force connections when he brought us here.]
Lostvayne’s words made sense, so Celestia couldn’t refute them. She clicked her tongue in annoyance and Lostvayne away, before turning back toward Arthur as she said, [Master, let’s get out of here. It’s in no way a good idea to be anywhere near that thing.]
However, Arthur didn’t answer her. In fact, he wasn’t even looking at her and was instead staring straight at Barda, the one who had brought him here.
"Hold on for a moment, Celestia."
Arthur ordered her silence as he walked up to Barda and then asked, "What the hell did you mean by that just now? What did you mean by saying you’re the one trying to stop me from killing myself?"
Barda had indeed said something like that when he replied to Celestia, and given the serious demeanour he had when he called Arthur here, there was no way those words had been spoken lightly.
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