Chapter 274: Subduing Lostvayne
"You’d only make things worse if you pull him away!!"
Lucifer shouted to cut her off, turning his gaze back to Lostvayne and clicking his tongue.
"Stupid sword, can’t you tell ’I’ am not the one wielding you."
|You only sensed a bit of ’my’ power and reacted as if ’I’ am your wielder, adjust your power appropriately. |
The energy that made up his current physical body was rapidly consumed and his body flickered faintly like an Illusion about to disappear, however, the effects were clear to see as he exerted the last dredges of control that he possessed over Lostvayne as a fragment of the original Lucifer’s soul.
The cosmic energy wave that was being released from the sword lessened greatly, to the point where an Epic realm existence like Arthur could bear it without stress.
However, his eyes widened in shock as he noticed that despite the sword’s energy being something powerful enough to knock back a serious Cattleya, Arthur was completely unaffected.
"...What?"
His confusion was only natural as Arthur was not supposed to be strong enough to resist it.
It was then he noticed the dark glistening crystal filled with pure divinity in the boy’s palm, and the thin layer of divinity that was protecting his body from harm.
"That’s...a Ruler’s Authority!"
Indeed, the crystal in Arthur’s palm was something that contained the Authority of a ’Ruler’. It was not on the level of a Universal Master’s authority, but it was not far off.
It was only something someone who had a massive ’territory’, or controlled a vital realm or dimension within a universe could create.
Just when Lucifer was wondering how Arthur had such an item, he then remembered who the boy’s father was.
"Hades...That’s Hades’ Ruler’s Authority."
The owner of the Authority was indeed the god of Darkness, Hades and the crystal in Arthur’s palm was one of the three crystals Hades had given him during his Crystal realm training trip.
’Each of those crystals lets you use my Authority as the king of the underworld and a god of darkness once.
Use them wisely.’
Arthur offered his thanks to his father in his mind as he channelled the divinity in the crystal and used it to wrap around the sword.
As the Authority of the King of the Underworld permeated the entire room, Arthur adopted a casual smile on his face as he spoke to Lostvayne.
"Now then, he said something about you having absorbed the powers of lost souls, didn’t he?"
The divinity in the crystal exploded into the surroundings, with one of Arthur’s eyes turning blue as he channelled his cosmic energy and began speaking in his Pseudo-True Voice.
|¬Souls Lost in Hell...¬|
**WHIRRR!!!
The sword in his hand cried out upon hearing his words, causing him to narrow his eyes, before alternating his gaze between the sword and the crystal in his hands.
’The Sword has Hell’s power but the authority binding it is Olympian in nature, naturally, there’d be a little rejection.
In that case, let’s modify things a bit.’
With those thoughts, he opened his mouth and uttered a set of words that caused a stir in not only the Nine Thousand Circles, but in the faraway universe of Olympus.
|¬Doomed to roam the Fields of Asphodel in vain for all eternity. ¬|
◇ ◇ ◇
The Fields of Asphodel.
The Asphodel Meadows.
Called by many names, this place was a section of the Olympus Universe’s underworld, where majority of ’ordinary’ souls were sent to live on after death, and where most of the souls to be recycled for reincarnation were chosen from.
It was one of the three main divisions of the Underworld as a whole, along with Elysium and Tartarus, where souls were granted eternal reward and eternal punishment respectively.
As for its size, let’s just say that an average-sized galaxy was tiny compared to it. It made sense though, as it was supposed to accommodate ordinary souls from all across an entire universe.
However, right now, its size was of no concern.
The entirety of the Fields of Asphodel was currently trembling, with heavy pressure descending on the entirety of the section.
A bearded young man with ash skin, with two feathered wings on his back that had a similar colour flapped them lightly as he crossed lightyears of distance, heading straight towards the ’centre’ of the underworld.
|Lord Hades! |
He arrived at the top of one of the ’Underworld Towers’, landing a few feet away from the tall man with obsidian dark eyes and hair who was staring in the direction he came from.
|Wha-?!|
The man was about to question Hades on why he had suddenly manifested his authority atop one of the three main sections of the underworld as a whole, when he noticed something strange.
He was sure that the Authority currently pressing down on the Fields of Asphodel belonged to Hades, and there was no way he could mistake it, however, the strange thing, was that the current Hades...wasn’t doing anything.
Yes, the ash-skinned man, the god of death, Thanatos, saw that Hades’ aura was calm without any fluctuations, something that was not supposed to happen if he was using his Ruler’s Authority.
|Lord Hades, what is happening? |
Before he could get a reply, a teleportation magic circle manifested a few feet close to him and a red robe-wearing black-haired woman emerged from it.
|Hades! What are you doin-...you’re not doing anything...?|
Her confusion was visible on her face as she could not comprehend why Hades’ aura was calm despite the fact that his authority was active.
Suddenly, the trembling stopped and everything returned to normal, with Hades chuckling lightly as he spoke.
"It’s nothing too serious. My son was just borrowing my Authority for a while.
I’m really curious about just what exactly he is doing right now."
A wry smile appeared on his face as he turned around and calmly walked back into the tower, leaving the two dumbfounded gods who were still very much confused about what just happened.
◇ ◇ ◇
Back on Arthur’s side, things weren’t so ’calm’ as a mass of darkness energy, largely consisting of horror-stricken faces swirled around him and the sword, his brow twitching as he thought to himself.
’You damn sword, you absorbed too many lost souls!!’
[This is what Master gets for cheating.]
Celestia’s voice rang in his head, and just when he was about to admonish her, Lostvayne also hummed lightly, as if agreeing with her words.
’What...?’
[Shut up, you hunk of Nullinium. I’m the only one allowed to scold Master.]
’Um...Celestia. Lostvayne is more powerful than you, you know? Shouldn’t you mind your figurative tongue?’
[Hmph!]
Arthur had no time to dwell on the sword’s actions as he drew out even more of Hades’ authority and used it to supplement his own progenitor’s authority, before finalizing his command sequence.
|¬Heed to my call, and bend to my will! ¬|
**BOOMM!!
|¬I command you, Rule Breaker Lostvayne! ¬|
**BOOMM!!
The sword released another massive burst of bright multi-coloured cosmic energy, one that caused Arthur to reflexively close his eyes.
However, when he reopened them, he was not standing in the treasury of his great grandfather’s vestige’s domain, but in a white space that he stretched out infinitely.
’What?’
He turned around and saw a large wall that was higher than the tallest mountaintops he had seen and seemed to stretch out endlessly, but that though quickly escaped his mind as he infused cosmic energy into his eyes and looked at it.
’That’s not a wall.... that’s someone’s...foot.’
