Chapter 453: Narrowing Paths
While Arthur was rating her time stopping abilities, Beatrix continued speaking to Alvey.
"I am not Aramisian and I care not for the fate of this world. I have zero qualms about joining the war even if it was against the gods.
I control two rare elements, Time and Space, and can work both support and combat roles. As a goddess, I can serve as the ultimate spy into Aramisian territories."
Beatrix sounded like she was selling herself but Alvey cared not for this and remained firm on his decision for her to return via whatever means she used to arrive.
It was at this point that Artemisia broke out of the time stop that Beatrix had put on her and unsurprisingly, she was livid.
"Beatrix!!"
"Calm down, Arty."
"Calm? I would be completely justified if I punched you in the face right now.
Your whims could have cost us our lives! Now you’re spouting some nonsense about wanting to interfere in a Gozonian war?
Did your brain take a break? Because it’s clear that it’s not working properly!"
"Oof!"
Arthur burst out into laughter when he heard that and even McEnda couldn’t help his lips from twitching as he tried to hold it in.
Sigesi’s expression remained the same as ever, but one could see the mirth in her eyes as he looked at the two girls arguing.
Alvey remained silent and let it happen, hoping that Artemisia would scold sense into Beatrix and the two would leave via whatever means they had come here.
If they joined the war because of him and got injured or lost their lives, he was going to be the one the gods of the Xagna and Delgasso Families would hold responsible.
His mind was already occupied with trying to end this war, so he did not want more trouble on his plate.
As for Arthur, the boy didn’t really care about Beatrix. Sure, her powers intrigued him, but that was it.
What got his attention was Artemisia’s ability which had somehow allowed her to increase her strength even while under the effects of his godslayer realm suppression.
He was curious if that ability would still work even if he used his Progenitor Authority.
’There’s also the ability she tried to use when she wanted to touch my back. Must be a skill that requires physical contact.’
Just as he was staring at the girl intently, he suddenly began noticing something in his vision.
’Hmm?’
Tiny golden threads intertwined with blue strands of energy which he recognized to be the energy of the law of time.
’Wait a second!’
Arthur activated his Pseudo-Authority, and this action turned all gazes towards him but the boy ignored them and focused on these golden threads.
The time law energy around them became clearer and when he followed the threads, he saw that they moved from him as the starting point and towards the two teen goddesses.
|¬Parallel Paths. ¬|
His faux true voice suddenly ringing out gave the two girls migraines but Arthur did not even notice as the world around him had transformed into one where he could see the ’Parallel Pathways’.
There was a saying that the future had countless possibilities and these Parallel Pathways were a representation of that—Arthur’s alternate future possibilities.
Of course, they were not truly infinite; they were just so many people just assumed they were ’infinite’.
Each path was represented by a line heading forward and there were thousands of them arranged next to one another, like the strings of a violin.
He saw as the paths at the furthest edges slowly began converging towards the ’Main Path’ in the centre just like they did a week ago.
’It’s happening again...and it’s related to these two!’
Arthur identified the golden threads he was seeing as the threads of the law of fate.
’Stasis.’
With that word, Arthur halted the time flow of the two girls, to the point where even their consciousnesses were halted in time.
He walked close to them and the closer he got, the faster the number of parallel paths reduced. It continued for another 30 seconds before abruptly stopping.
’I still don’t have enough comprehension to understand what this is. Is there someone I can ask? Maybe a Demon King who has Time powers?’
Arthur deactivated his Pseudo-Authority, along with the stasis and the two of them regained their mobility. Beatrix, however, realised that Arthur had halted their time flow.
She looked at the boy with a hint of fear in her eyes as he turned towards Alvey and spoke.
"Can we keep them?"
"...what?"
Alvey was bewildered by Arthur’s sudden decision. He understood that the boy had discovered something with his time powers and that was what made him suddenly ask this.
"What’s going on?"
"Trust me Alvey, I want an answer to that question as well. That’s precisely why I want them to stay, so I can find out what is going on."
"..."
Artemisia clearly had something to say about Arthur’s words but Beatrix who still wanted to stay silenced the other girl before she could talk.
"Your case is a lot different from theirs, Arthur.
They may be strong for their levels but that’s about it. They do not have the power or any special abilities to make any significant impacts in the war."
"What he means is that it’s not worth it to take them in with all the risks and trouble they come with."
McEnda added to Alvey’s statement and hearing it, Arthur adopted a pensive look as he pondered this.
"What she said earlier—about acting as spies in Aramisian territory. As they are known children of god Rulers, we could use them to gain access to places I would not be able to sneak go even if I masqueraded as a Divine Human."
The two goddesses were confused about what Arthur meant by masquerading as a Divine Human but he wasn’t paying attention to them to notice this.
"No...let’s cut the BS.
I want them around for personal reasons. If anyone has problems with that, then I’d be the one to take responsibility."
Arthur’s words had the three demons narrow their eyes lightly.
As he was currently acting as a Major General in Gozon’s Army, even if only on Aramis, his words held a lot of weight.
There was also the fact that he had about 7 Demon Kings who had supported him to gain that title and then his battle with Duskhand last week had piqued the attention of the ones who didn’t care about him before.
His ’Chronoslash’ attack on Duskhand was something that impressed not only his opponent Divine Human but also the deities who had been spectating.
With the valuable war potential he had and knowing his background as Lucifer’s descendant, these Demon Kings would actually consider shielding him from the backlash in the event that anything happened.
McEnda and Alvey, however, still felt that it was best to not get more gods involved in Aramis’ situation.
Beatrix and Artemisia being with Arthur could attract the attention of other gods who were enemies with their parents and they may lend their own lower-ranked god subordinates to join up with the Aramisians, whilst having the main goal of killing the two.
That was just one of the many problems they came with and the two High Ranked Demons would rather avoid that.
Arthur could see that they were not still on board with it and he thought about how to handle the situation.
He glanced at the clock on the wall and saw that it was nearing the time he was to meet with Rachel, and the thought of her made him remember the man sealed in his subspace.
’Ger...I can use him.’
In mere seconds, Arthur had formulated a plan and he presented it immediately.
"The ’Fake Divines’."
"What about them?"
"If I gave you information on where they are created and how they are created. Enough information that you can stop the Aramisians from churning out tens of thousands of new ’Fake Divines’ to replace the ones you all wiped out during last week’s battle, would that be enough to convince the Demon Kings to open a negotiation with their parents, to prevent any complications from the other gods?"
Alvey and McEnda were certainly interested in Arthur’s information about the Fake Divines. Besides Duskhand, they did not know of any other place on Gledea where these Fakes were being created.
So, the value of the information Arthur held was very high.
’If we can reduce the number of Fake Divines the Aramisians can create, our battle casualties would reduce greatly.’
The Demon race’s weakness to ’Divinity and Light Magic’ was one of the reasons why the Aramisians put so much effort into creating these Fake Divines and Alvey had to admit that they were indeed a massive pain.
Some High-Ranked Demons had been killed by these ’Fake Divines’ in the past and it was precisely because of this that both Alvey and McEnda were then transferred from their previous Worlds and to this one to replace the dead Demon Transcendents.
"McEnda, what do you think?"
Alvey passed the baton to his friend and the Archdemon went silent for a moment, glancing at Artemisia and Beatrix before getting to his feet and saying.
"I’d run it by my old man and see what happens. Don’t be too hopeful though.
Delgasso is one thing but there are some Demon Kings who are enemies with Xagna and are allies with Devil Kings she’s enemies with.
There’s a whole lot of political webs of alliances and enmities that can make it fall through. These webs are part of the reason we don’t want them here."
After saying his piece, he and Sigesi left the room while Alvey sighed before saying Arthur should keep them in his ’hideout’ in Githal until McEnda returned from Rhigor.
Arthur informed him that he was sure they had where they were staying before this and he took the two girls to Githal along with him, separating from them at the Noble Baron Hotel before he went off to meet Rachel like he had originally planned to.
