Chapter 1015: The Irony of Time
At Arthur’s question, Barda scoffed and then said, "Arthur, you should know more than anyone else exactly what it is you’re trying to do to get yourself killed."
"You’re gonna have to be a lot more specific than that, Barda. My mere existence is the reason people try to kill me."
"Specific?" Barda asked with a raised eyebrow. "Alright, let’s get into specifics then. The Dark Multiverse," he began. "Alkosh, Zeus, Jupiter, Lugh, Odin."
The man paused, an expression of mock surprise appearing on his face as he said, "Oh my, am I speaking too far into the future? Then let’s come back to the present for a bit.
How about, Athena, Persephone, Zeus, the Underworld... ring any familiar bells?"
Arthur’s expression changed, his eyes widening slightly at the names Barda listed. It wasn’t just the names, but the exact order he used that made Arthur react with surprise.
A moment later, realisation dawned.
"Ah, that’s right, you were in the Dark Multiverse, weren’t you?" he muttered with a light chuckle, shaking his head as he turned around.
"How could I have forgotten? Those eyes of yours can see past, present, and future."
Barda, the Continuum Dragon, bore that title because of his ability to manipulate the fabric of space and time across all dimensions. The space-time continuum was something he could control as easily as it was in the palm of his hand, and within that control lay the ability to perceive across its various axes.
When Arthur and Barda had first met, the man had responded to Arthur’s future inquiry in the present, as he had been simultaneously viewing both present and future at the time, mistaking that future for the present.
But that mistake had only been due to him still being groggy after waking from a billion-year slumber. Since then, he had not shown any of this ability, and because of that, Arthur had nearly forgotten this.
Turning back to Barda, Arthur slipped his left hand into his pocket as he asked, "Doesn’t that get tiring?"
"Don’t change the subject, Arthur," Barda shot back.
"Oh, I’m not changing the subject. I’m genuinely curious if it gets tiring."
"That doesn’t matter right now. What matters is that you’re trying to involve yourself in the Dark Multiverse, Arthur.
Your actions will make your future intertwine with the Aggressors. Do you think they’ll be as nice to you as Ranus was? Do you think they’ll treat you as indifferently as Gaia did?"
"I’m not expecting them to be nice. Come on, I don’t even expect all the Eternals to be nice to me. Why would I think the Aggressors would be?" Arthur said with a casual shrug.
That finally made Barda snap.
"Then why the hell are you getting involved with them?! Has your pursuit of power finally driven you mad?!"
His loud voice echoed through the empty forest, and faced with his questions, Arthur simply started laughing.
"Mad? Oh, please, Barda. All of us existing in this absurd Cosmos are already mad. I’m simply no less insane than the rest of you."
"That doesn’t answer my question, Arthur. Why are you getting involved with the Dark Multiverse? Why are you getting yourself involved with the messes of the Eternals and the Aggressors? Weren’t you the one trying to avoid Cosmic Forces? So why are you suddenly seeking them out now?
Why are you taking actions that go against everything you’ve stood for in your life until now?"
"My life until now?" Arthur asked with a raised eyebrow, a hint of fury crossing his eyes as he said, "Hey Barda, use those eyes of yours and look at my life. You can see past, present, and future, can’t you? Look at my immediate past."
Barda went silent, and Arthur stepped forward, grabbing him by the shoulders as he demanded, "Do it. Look at my past."
Finally, the man relented and activated his Dictum. His slit pupils glowed faintly for a moment as he scanned through Arthur’s past, and what he saw made his eyes widen in shock.
"You... you met Luka!"
Seeing his reaction, Arthur sighed. "As I thought, Berlal really didn’t tell you guys, did she?
It would’ve been better if she did, so I don’t have to go through the stress of explaining it four more times."
He let go of Barda and shook his head lightly, but the Continuum Dragon could only stare at him in stunned silence, having just seen the answer to all the questions he had asked.
Seeing the man so completely lost for words, Arthur couldn’t help but chuckle lightly.
"You see, Barda. I’m not mad like you think. I’m simply a man whose hand has been forced by his circumstances."
He walked over to a nearby tree, waved his hand, and sliced it down with a blade of energy before turning and sitting on the stump. He raised his right foot onto it, resting his arm on his knee and his chin against his arm.
"Tell me, Barda. You saw the future consequences my plan would have on the Dark Multiverse while you were there, didn’t you?"
Barda didn’t answer immediately, but Arthur didn’t seem bothered as he continued.
"Since you spoke about my fate becoming intertwined with the Aggressors, then my plan succeeds, doesn’t it? I obtain the power of both sides, don’t I?"
"...No, you don’t," Barda replied after a moment of silence.
Arthur, however, looked doubtful at that answer.
"Hmm? Then why hesitate? If I failed completely, you definitely wouldn’t have hesitated before answering."
"My hesitation changes nothing. You don’t succeed. Even across a billion possible futures, that insanity you’re attempting with the power you stole from that Flugel will never succeed.
Do you really think the Cosmic Forces would allow it?"
The mention of what he had absorbed from Roseborn with his innate ability over a year earlier made Arthur raise an eyebrow before he exhaled softly.
"And here I was thinking I’d found a loophole to exploit," Arthur said with a self-deprecating smile.
"But that still won’t stop me," he continued. "The Cosmos isn’t going to sit around waiting for me to catch up to you Ultimates.
Putting Luka and her Imperium dogs aside, there are billions of other gods out there who’d want me dead simply because I’m the Progenitor godslayer. I don’t have time, Barda."
Arthur scoffed lightly at his own situation as he spoke.
"Ironically, ’Time’ is the thing I lack the most. Isn’t it only natural that I’d take actions to compensate for that lack of time?"
Barda exhaled softly and ran his fingers through his hair, the anger from earlier fading away as he sat back down and spoke.
"Taking actions to compensate for your lack of time is completely understandable, but the specific actions you want to take are not."
Holding out his palm, he condensed an absurd amount of cosmic energy, so much that the barrier of the Valmone Universe began struggling to contain it, but Barda ignored it completely and compressed that energy to its absolute limit, creating an entire universe within his palm.
Extending his hand toward Arthur, he spoke.
"Here. Time flows a thousand times faster inside this. You could spend a thousand years there, and only one year would pass outside."
Arthur silently stared at the pocket universe hovering in Barda’s palm, his eyes filled with envy for the power that allowed Barda to create something like that so effortlessly.
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