Chapter 1016: Projecting Past Mistakes [Monthly Bonus 1]
"Time isn’t the only thing I’m after, Barda. It’s the thing I lack the most, but it isn’t the only thing I lack," Arthur said, shaking his head lightly.
"Not the only thing? Then what else do you lack?" Barda asked. "If there’s really something you need from the Dark Multiverse, I can head there whenever I want and retrieve it for you."
"Then what about the Ancestral Regression spell?"
"Getting Gaia’s avatar out of that Olympus universe would be child’s play," Barda replied immediately.
Arthur exhaled deeply, shaking his head at the man’s response.
"So what, you’re going to hold my hand through everything? That’s not possible, Barda, and you know it."
Barda was about to argue back, but Arthur continued before he could speak.
"I plan to walk multiple paths toward greater power simultaneously, and I have to walk those paths on my own terms."
Arthur allowed the power of destruction to flow through his arm, his fingertips turning crimson, and while staring at them, he spoke.
"My original plan for dealing with my weakness to creation also has me gaining greater cosmic power and possibly acquiring an Aspect from it. I can’t accomplish all that if I’m trapped inside your pocket dimension while you hand me everything I need."
"And I’m telling you that I ca—"
"That’s enough, Barda," a voice interrupted, and hearing it, Arthur and Barda both turned to the side where Berlal suddenly appeared.
She cast her gaze toward her younger brother, and as she stepped forward, she spoke.
"You’re projecting someone else onto Arthur, and trying to use him to correct what you see as your past mistakes.
That’s an insult to Arthur as an individual. That’s an insult to his decisions. That’s an insult to the convictions that led him to make those decisions.
Weren’t you the one who said a person should bear the consequences of their decisions and learn from them?"
"And what happened to the last person I told those words to?" Barda shot back. "Where are they now? Did they live long enough to learn from the consequences of their decisions? Decisions I knew were dangerous and could’ve stopped them from making?"
The man’s voice cracked lightly as he spoke, an emotion spilling through. This time, that emotion wasn’t anger, but sadness.
"They tried to involve themselves with the Cosmic Forces just like Arthur wants to, and how did that end for them? They were completely devoured, their soul ground into the raw material used to create those damned horrors lurking outside the Hyperverse now."
Hearing this exchange, Arthur felt a little understanding dawn upon him regarding why Barda had been so angry earlier.
’Now it makes a lot more sense,’ he thought.
He’d found Barda’s willingness to practically spoon-feed him what he needed to gain power rather strange.
Sure, he and Barda had grown close over the past few decades, but that amount of time should’ve been nothing more than a drop in the ocean compared to Barda’s trillion-year-long life.
Because of that, Arthur had found it strange that Barda was willing to go this far, but Berlal’s words about him projecting made things clearer.
’So he’s been through something similar before. He let someone do what they wanted, and they didn’t survive it.’
At that thought, Arthur simply smiled and shook his head, lowering his legs to the ground as he said, "Really, Barda? Sticking to the teacher role to the very end, huh?"
"What?" Barda asked, turning toward him.
"Nothing. I just thought the only emotional obstacles I’d have to deal with would be my parents. Who would’ve expected you’d become part of that, too, Barda?"
"Emotional obstacles?" Barda repeated incredulously. "That’s what you call the pain and grief you’re going to cause your parents and everyone who cares about you? Mere obstacles?
Then what about the others completely unrelated to you or your pursuit of power, who are going to get dragged into this mess you’re trying to create?
The quintillions that’ll die, the ones that’ll suffer for decades, the universes you’re going to pull into these plans, the people whose beliefs you’re going to break just so you can accomplish your goals?
What about them?"
"Whatever happens to them is their fate," Arthur replied. "I’m simply taking actions for my own benefit.
Just like the gods who’ve tried to kill me since before I was born were all taking actions for their own benefit, and just like Luka, who actually killed me, was simply taking action for her own benefit, for her own amusement.
Why should I burden myself with the fallout when others don’t?"
Arthur’s voice held no trace of doubt regarding the actions he planned to take.
"We don’t like admitting it, but deep down, everyone in this Cosmos is selfish. The only people I truly care about are my loved ones. As long as they’re fine, nothing else matters.
If my actions are going to cause a war, and that war benefits me, then so be it. If it helps me reach the Dark Multiverse and retrieve all of Celestia’s fragments, then so be it. If it helps me gain enough power to eliminate the first bastards who tried to kill me before I was even born, whose deaths will feed my power and make me even stronger, however little that increase may be, then so be it."
Hearing Arthur’s words, Barda could only curse Luka silently in his mind because he knew the only reason Arthur was willing to go this far was because of his encounter with her.
He’d known Arthur for a little over 50 years, and that was enough time to understand how Arthur’s mind worked.
Arthur wasn’t the kind of person who’d normally go to such extremes and willingly take actions that would break the hearts of the people he cared about.
But his encounter with Luka had changed something in him.
And now, despite knowing he was going to cause pain to a lot of people, despite knowing his actions would lead to deaths in the billions, he was still going to do it.
Arthur turned toward Berlal after speaking and then said, "Please take care of Elaine for me. She should be able to grow fairly powerful while I’m...not around."
"And are you confident you can withstand her wrath afterwards?" Berlal asked. "That child relies on you more than you realise. You are her mental pillar. If you vanish from her life under the circumstances you’re planning, the love she holds for you may turn into hatred."
Hearing that grim possibility, Arthur would’ve been lying if he claimed he wasn’t saddened, but...
"If that’s what it takes for us not to get killed by some random Imperium dog, or for Luka’s amusement, then a little hatred is a small price to pay."
Looking back at Barda, Arthur then spoke. "So, Barda, how about you allow me to make my own decisions and learn from the consequences of those decisions? I might gain something from it, don’t you think?"
Barda’s expression contorted with displeasure at Arthur’s words, but Arthur simply chuckled lightly at the look on his face as he got to his feet and unsummoned his Ego Weapons.
"Is Aleksas around, Berlal? Or is he somewhere else?"
"He’s on that planet with the dragon-godslayers," Berlal replied.
Now that he knew Aleksas’ location, Arthur nodded before throwing out his right fist and punching the space in front of him. The Cosmic Teleporter activated and generated a Cosmic Gate leading back to the Orithyia Galaxy.
Before stepping through it, Arthur left one final sentence for the Levites.
"Thanks for everything in the past, and thank you for everything in the future."
And with those words, he stepped into the Cosmic Gate and vanished beyond it, leaving the two dragons behind in silence.
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