Godslayer's Legend

Chapter 1021: Pre-Ordered Sacrifices

Arthur’s answer to Celestia’s question only deepened her frown, since the implication had now become very obvious to her.

At that moment, Lostvayne also manifested her humanoid form, and when Arthur turned toward her with a questioning look, she asked, [You’re going along with that ’script,’ aren’t you?]

That question informed Celestia that Lostvayne had reached the same conclusion she had.

[Why? You seemed completely against going along with it before, so why’d you suddenly decide to follow it now?

Weren’t you trying to avoid being manipulated by your future self? Just what did that god of time tell you to let you willingly allow your future self to manipulate you now?]

"I’m not allowing myself to be manipulated by my future self, Lostvayne," Arthur replied with a soft sigh.

"In the end, my so-called future self is simply the result of the decisions I’m making now in the present. I’m taking advantage of the information that future self gave me to make very dynamic plans, all aimed at extracting the greatest possible benefits for myself.

If I find a different path with even greater benefits for myself, then I won’t hesitate to deviate from that little script future me cooked up with Alkosh. The only reason I’m following it right now is because it’s currently the best route toward the greatest benefit for myself and the quickest way to accomplish several goals simultaneously."

Arthur exhaled softly again, then decided to explain a little more of his intentions so Lostvayne and Celestia would stop bombarding him with questions.

"I want to weaken several universes, Olympus and Asgard included. Olympus for pretty obvious reasons, and Asgard because there are certain things I want from Asgard that I can’t get while it’s as powerful as it currently is, so I need their forces reduced a little.

I’m also going to need something major enough to distract them so thoroughly that they’ll take their eyes off Fenrir in Niflheim, allowing me to acquire a god-killing wolf.

These two universes are also connected to certain specific universes that have contributed to the legions of assassins sent after my life and my mother’s life ever since it was leaked that the Cosmic SOS turned Prophecy referred to me.

I want to weaken those universes too, but I don’t possess the inter-universal influence necessary to make them dance to my tune.

So instead, I’m going to take actions that’ll make the people who do possess that influence dance to my tune, and those people will then take the actions I want them to take because those will become the only choices available to them in those situations."

Arthur spoke so casually of manipulating beings of greater power and influence than himself, beings whose major actions affected the fates of billions upon billions.

"The first major result I’m aiming for is all of those universes consuming their forces in a meaningless conflict built upon a flawed justification.

But that flawed justification is going to paint me as being in the right when I eventually take action against them. That same flawed justification is also going to make my predicted retaliation proceed exactly as planned. It’ll make certain people react in specific ways to my actions, causing events to unfold exactly how I want them to, so I can end up in the Dark Multiverse and retrieve Celestia’s fragments.

"Then I’ll handle some other business in the Dark Multiverse before returning here to wrap up the Script," Arthur concluded with a light clap.

[You’re being extremely vague,] Lostvayne said.

Arthur nodded. "Yeah, I know I’m being vague. I’m only telling you this much because it’s you two. I wouldn’t tell anyone else this much of my plans.

The success of my entire plan depends on as few people as possible knowing the true scope of it. Because if people realise this is my plan, if they realise they’re dancing according to my tune, then they won’t do it.

No one likes being manipulated by someone else, and once someone realises they’re being manipulated, their instinct is to rebel. It’s common psychology. They’ll want to act differently from what their manipulator wants, and I’m no different.

As such, I need as few people as possible in the know, so everyone involved reacts authentically. That authenticity in their reactions will prevent even the people smart enough to realise something’s wrong from figuring out exactly what’s wrong. And even those with Authorities over Fate, Destiny, and Time who can peer into the future and examine possibilities won’t be able to determine which parts of what’s happening are planned and which parts aren’t."

Arthur paused to take a sip of his drink before continuing, "Right now, the only people aware of the full scope of anything are me, myself, and I.

Even Alkosh doesn’t know what other little extras I’ve cooked up. Even he doesn’t know about the conversation I had with my father where I confirmed that Tartarus is indeed the best location for the longest phase of my plan, the phase where I’ll be most vulnerable."

After Arthur finished speaking, he sat up and stretched lightly.

"Now then, my delivery is arriving soon, and since it’s divine in nature, you’re going to have to sit this one out, Lostvayne. I’ll take Celestia since she’s better when it comes to utilising anti-divinity."

The moment Arthur mentioned that his delivery was divine in nature, Lostvayne released a pulse of cosmic energy in every direction, and what she detected caused her eyes to narrow slightly.

[gods,] she muttered. [More than a dozen of them, and all of them are Mid-Tier Deities. gods this powerful should be under heavy scrutiny in this universe.]

Hell was ruled by devils who wouldn’t allow gods to move around openly there, and the gods in Hell didn’t dare make any major moves for fear of elimination by devils waiting for the slightest justification to kill them.

The only gods who wouldn’t know this were gods who weren’t from Hell and didn’t know how the Devildom handled matters related to its divine inhabitants.

’But gods like that haven’t been able to enter Hell since the days when they were still sending assassins after Arthur during his teenage years, when his Diablo and Cattleya strategically controlled the entrances those gods used to sneak into Hell so they could identify all the assassins and eliminate all of them in one g—!’

Lostvayne’s thoughts halted there, and she immediately snapped her gaze toward Arthur, her eyes widening in alarm.

[You! You let them in!]

At that sudden accusation, which seemed completely random to Celestia and left her confused, Arthur smiled wryly and said, "You see, Lostvayne, this is exactly why I want every part of my plan kept secret, because there are smartasses like you from outside the universe who piece things together from random disconnected clues."

Before Celestia could even ask a question, he forcefully returned her to her Weapon Form and got up from his chair.

Then he glanced toward Lostvayne from the corner of his eye.

"Time out, Lostvayne."

Lostvayne stared at Arthur in silence for a few moments before finally speaking. [You’re treading a very dangerous path, Arthur.]

"And I’m pretty damn sure I’m going to reach the end of that path and accomplish all my goals," Arthur responded with a confident smile.

The two stared at each other for several seconds before Lostvayne finally shook her head and dismissed her humanoid form manifestation.

Arthur looked up toward the sky and then said, "Just sit back and watch, Lostvayne. The movie made out of my Script is the best you’ll ever see."

He raised Celestia and rested the sword across his shoulder before speaking in his true voice.

|Now then, there are about 24, maybe 25 of you, which is a little more than what I ordered. Did I get a freebie?|

He dominated the ambient cosmic energy around the planet and used it to create a barrier that completely encased the planet, trapping everyone within it, including the 25 gods who had just entered the planet’s atmosphere.

At the same time, he activated his Spatial and Gravitational Authorities simultaneously, powerful anti-divinity erupting from his body and blanketing the skies, shattering the layers of space concealing those hidden gods, much to their shock.

Arthur teleported and appeared in the middle of them, his arms spread lightly apart as he spoke.

|Welcome, my pre-ordered sacrifices for the sake of increasing my power.|

The gods immediately pulled back warily, all of them drawing their weapons and infusing them with powerful law energy.

Arthur, however, paid no attention to their actions as he ran his palm across Celestia’s semi-transparent blade, coating it with a mixture of anti-divinity and destructive cosmic energy while continuing to speak.

|I am Arthur Vaughn. Take your time to study my face properly. It would be the last you’ll ever see.|