Chapter 516: Titan god
Beatrix woke up an hour later, completely confused about why she was unconscious in the first place. A few seconds later, her brain updated her memories, reminding her that she was on the verge of death not too long ago.
Artemisia recounted everything that had transpired, informing Beatrix that Arthur was all the way over at the Veil behind Iklaque.
The Veil was a shimmering, semi-transparent wall that seemed non-existent from afar, but the closer they got, the more they could sense the Veil’s presence.
As they approached, the divinity beyond it became increasingly palpable, reaching levels that could suffocate anything below Level 500 within 100 metres of it.
When they were close enough, they saw Arthur seated on the ground at the base of the Veil, surrounded by dozens of rapidly spinning Tier 5 magic circles. Beatrix was about to speak when Arthur’s sword, Celestia, manifested in front of them and projected her voice.
[Don’t say anything. Master’s concentrating.]
They glanced from the blade to Arthur, who was moving his hands rapidly. He was using the magic circles and his Progenitor Authority to channel anti-divinity, attempting to pierce a small opening in the Veil.
Arthur’s hands glowed with power as he manipulated the magic circles, threads of energy weaving into the fabric of the Veil. The circles spun faster, emitting a hum of raw power.
The air around them crackled as Arthur focused his efforts, and gradually, a small opening began to form.
With a final surge of energy, the opening widened to the point where a person could walk through, and then it stabilized.
As Arthur stood up, divinity gushed out from the floor and soon the opening was covered up, but he didn’t seem to mind and called them over.
"Didn’t the entrance you made just close?"
"No. We can phase through it."
Arthur replied to Evan’s question, before picking up a stone and throwing it to Evan.
"Right before you enter, throw that stone up into the air."
After saying this, he walked towards the place he opened up before and his body phased through it like the Veil wasn’t there, leaving behind the remaining three who looked at the stone Arthur gave Evan and then up at the sky.
"Why’d he say that?"
"Dunno."
Evan shrugged and tossed the stone into the air with a flick of his wrist. With that, he, Beatrix, and Artemisia stepped into the Veil.
◇ ◇ ◇
As they passed through, a wave of nausea hit them instantly.
Buffeted by torrents of energy, the three of them nearly lost their footing. The gravity felt twice as strong, forcing them to consume law essence just to stay upright.
It was then that Arthur’s voice rang out.
"Don’t try to resist it.
Just let your energy radiate off your body and blend in with the surroundings. Trying to resist it would only get you crushed under the pressure."
The trio heeded his instruction, though their first few attempts failed.
Each misstep multiplied the crushing force of gravity they felt. Gradually, however, they found their rhythm, letting their energy harmonize with the oppressive environment until they regained mobility.
"This reminds me of Nemo."
[Master, why do you keep bringing up that place where you got shot with Soul Poison?]
Celestia’s voice projected outward with cosmic energy questioned Arthur and the boy shrugged nonchalantly.
"Because the things that happen here remind me of there."
[Keep your reminiscing here and don’t dare bring it up in front of your mother.]
"Haha, I wouldn’t."
Arthur responded with a dry laugh, knowing better than to do anything to remind Cattleya about the time he almost died in Nemo.
Just as he was about to speak again, Lostvayne appeared, humming loudly. Celestia responded by smacking the handle of the other sword.
[Shut up. I wouldn’t tell you.]
Lostvayne seemed to protest, its hums growing louder, but Celestia shouted back. After a brief back-and-forth, Lostvayne slowly fell to the ground, exuding a dejected air.
"What are we looking at?"
Evan asked, bewildered by the scene and Arthur replied as he grabbed Celestia.
"Swords talking, that’s what.
I wonder why Lostvayne listens to you anyway."
The second half of his statement was directed at Celestia and the Sword escaped his grasp before replying.
[Because I’m better, duh?]
Rolling his eyes, Arthur unsummoned both blades and started walking forward. The others trailed behind, discussing his enigmatic Ego Weapons.
’Their egos as so strong it feels like they were Sentient Humanoids put into weapons...’
Artemisia had this random thought as she followed Arthur. They walked up a small cliff, and Arthur who got to the top first, shook his head and sighed.
Curious, the three of them rushed up to see what made him react like that and upon getting to the top, they simultaneously took a step back in shock.
"...w-what on Earth?"
Evan’s eyes widened in shock, his mouth falling open as he took in the sight before them. Artemisia and Beatrix mirrored his expression, their faces etched with disbelief.
Arthur, however, simply laughed.
"My ancestors really loved to go ’wild’."
In the valley before them stretched a vast forest, nearly a thousand kilometres long and wide.
Amidst this expanse lay a single body, an enormous figure that occupied around 75% of the forest’s length.
The figure’s massive form was clad in broken armour, a testament to a battle long past. A giant wound marred its chest, from which a pool of golden blood flowed down to the ground, forming a shimmering river of gold beneath it.
The river emanated a staggering amount of divinity, its frequency identical to that which Idrilla, the Holy Knights, and the Chief Priest had channelled.
Strangely enough, it was in a relatively fresh condition.
Its eyes were wide open, staring blankly at the sky above, devoid of any light.
Over 700 kilometres tall, his colossal figure before them was...just a corpse, sprawled across the forest floor.
"A Titan god."
Arthur spoke, his eyes emitting a faint glow as his Progenitor Authority told him what the body before them was.
Just like how ’Divine Humans’ were ’Humans’ with the ’Divine Factor’, this ’Titan god’, was a ’god’ with the ’Titan Factor’.
It was this that enabled them to acquire a body as large as this.
’Oh well, this is small compared to Hyperion’s.’
Arthur remembered the Progenitor Titan’s form and thinking of how massive it was, he didn’t feel this Titan god was anything much.
That wasn’t the case for the other three though.
They were still stunned to silence and Arthur just chuckled at their expressions, swirling cosmic energy around himself and dashing into the air.
"Catch up when you’re done being dumbfounded."
Leaving those words behind, Arthur flew off at hypersonic speed, but even at his fastest, it still took him over 5 minutes to get to the hole in this Titan god’s chest.
As for Teleporting? Arthur wasn’t suicidal.
The sheer density of law energy this corpse exuded had the entire space on lockdown. If he tried to teleport, he’d either get stuck inside the spatial channel, or the teleportation spell would blow up in his face.
On a side note, Evan wanted to use Blink but Beatrix grabbed him and used her power to forcefully cancel his skill activation, saving him from having the spatial energy blow up in his face.
Back to Arthur, the boy was currently getting all the answers he wanted.
"Death energy contamination.
That’s why their lifespans were so short. This Titan god had a powerful Death Authority, and it spilt forth and contaminated the land after his death.
As such, it reaped the benefit of ’Life’ from everything born here."
He also guessed that it was because of this Death Authority that Idrilla had manifested such powerful control over death energy.
"The divinity they channelled was also this guy’s divinity..."
Arthur glanced at the flowing river of divinity, his iris flashing as he looked at it with his left eye’s Time Vision.
’It’s like it’s looping... Eternally flowing.
The body’s condition is also good for something that had been here for hundreds of thousands of years—assuming Kronos is the one who did this.’
From the powerful residuals he could sense, Arthur could tell that this Titan god had Death and Time powers, but he wasn’t strong enough to peer deeper and sense any other residuals.
"Was he a Candidate of Time?"
The answer was Yes. This Titan god was the same Candidate of Time that Kronos bullied the Orithyia Galaxy’s gods years ago to find.
The Titan King had kept the corpse in a special pocket dimension he created, but pressing issues came up which caused him to leave the Universe without ever retrieving it.
Of course, Kronos took the Candidate Sigil of Time, so he didn’t suffer any losses by abandoning this.
"Kronos is most likely the ’god’ the people of Iklaque worship. What was he thinking, creating a religion here?"
Sadly, Arthur would only know the answer to this if he asked Kronos. Unfortunately, there was a low chance of Kronos listening to him as the boy was the great-grandson of Lucifer, a man Kronos hated.
Considering Kronos could eat his children, it wasn’t hard to imagine he’d dislike Arthur for being Lucifer’s descendant.
While he was thinking this, Artemisia and the others finally arrived and with their arrival, Arthur finally turned his focus to the biggest prize here.
Flying forward for 5 more kilometres, he came to a stop at the edge of a ’cliff’.
Well, it was a Cliff due to the size difference, but in reality, this was the wound on the chest of the Titan god, where the blow that had killed him was dealt.
Sticking out of his chest, was a black crystal emitting an amount of Death energy that made him sweat. A massive crack ran through the crystal and shattered fragments lay on the floor around the hole in the Titan god’s chest.
Arthur had been suppressing his instincts to touch it ever since he got here, and now he was this close, (about 500 metres out) he could barely hold himself anymore.
