Chapter 518: Massive Upgrade
"I was going to collect you...but for later! Why’d you enter my hand now?"
Seeing Arthur talking to the fragment, Beatrix laughed. Then, her eyes flashed and her face rapidly paled.
"Guys...we should get out of here now."
"?"
Artemisia turned to her with a questioning look, and Beatrix grabbed her friend while keeping her gaze fixed on Arthur.
"We need to leave his vicinity."
**KPAKK!!
Hearing that sound, all eyes turned to the fragment in Arthur’s palm and the Progenitor calmly advised them.
"You should do what she says."
**CCCRACKAKAKA!!!
Again, there was a noise, only this time, Artemisia grabbed Evan and Beatrix by their hands and dashed in the opposite direction.
In the next moment, the Crystal in Arthur’s palm exploded and all the contained energy erupted with the force of a nuclear bomb.
***KABOOOMM!!!!
Shock waves swept omnidirectionally, and the three of them who hadn’t gone far enough were violently blown away.
The pitch-black surge of divinity swirled around Arthur’s body and within it, he shrugged and spoke.
"Oh well, this was gonna happen either way.
Better earlier than later."
With that, he exerted full control over his Progenitor Authority, preventing it from acting out unnecessarily and absorbing more power than he needed.
"A little at a time.
I’d first fill up my Legendary Realm power capacity..."
The remaining 7 levels that kept Arthur in the Legendary Realm were what he was going to fill up now.
Power swirled into a torrent shooting up into the sky, and then it curved and shot down towards Arthur, crashing onto him with force.
It was worth noting, that despite all these blasts, not a single scratch had appeared on the Titan god’s armour he was standing on.
Only the many shattered fragments on the floor were affected by the shockwaves and blown away.
The energy he absorbed started from strengthening his physical body, augmenting his muscles and hardening his bones. Every cell in his body seemed to vibrate with newfound vigour, the power they carried increasing exponentially.
It didn’t take long before his energy core started to expand.
Within seconds, the energy flowing in the circuits throughout his body contracted and expanded in a rhythmic dance, each pulse refining the energy to a higher quality. This also created more space for more energy to flow.
His body’s capacity grew rapidly, reaching the highest possible limit that any Legendary Realm in the Cosmos could ever have.
Arthur wasn’t done. As he absorbed more divinity, that limit began to break.
With a sudden, sharp pain, his wings burst from his back. As he flapped them, the black divinity surrounding him began to change, slowly shifting hues until it matched his signature silver. This silver energy surged into his body, but it didn’t linger there. Instead, it used his body as a conduit, to reach the third and most important Existential Aspect: his soul.
This was the most delicate part of Arthur’s breakthrough.
The energy didn’t charge in uncontrollably like it wanted to, instead, it flowed calmly, guided by Arthur’s will. He modulated its intensity, allowing it to nourish his soul without overwhelming it.
His soul’s space expanded first, a slow process since it was expanding many times its original size. It was followed by the quality upgrade of his law energies.
Nodes for manipulation and control of law energies increased in number and strength. His pseudo-origin cores grew sturdier, and other aspects of his soul all flourished under the influx of power.
On his wings, silver lines flashed and they wrapped around his body like a bat’s. The swirl of divinity around him solidified into a spherical cocoon, with tiny silver lamé particles orbiting it like rings.
Evan, Artemisia, and Beatrix watched anxiously. If it took longer than an hour, they planned to inform Alvey and McEnda of what was happening.
Fortunately, they didn’t need to wait that long as in under five minutes, Arthur’s evolution was complete.
The silver cocoon shattered into countless pieces; each fragment absorbed into his being.
Arthur floated gently to the ground, landing on his knees, his head hung low, and his wings draped around him like a protective shroud.
He breathed in deeply, then exhaled a silver mist, blanketing everything within a 5-meter radius in a monochrome hue. Time froze momentarily as Arthur gathered himself.
With eyes closed, he murmured to his companions.
"Give me a few seconds."
He remained silent for the next thirty seconds, then finally opened his eyes and stood up.
"That’s a wrap."
He declared as he reached out with his right hand, and one of the shattered divine spark fragments flew into his palm.
There was no reaction from his body or his Progenitor Authority—just as he expected.
Arthur had reached his current limit. His vessel was full, and the next step was to accumulate enough energy to break this new limit and ascend to the next level of power.
The Valmone universe’s system offered a fast means to raise this limit, but first, Arthur needed to allow his existence to acclimate to this new level of power.
Just like a motor needing to cool down after overheating, after a breakthrough in power, one’s body required a period to cool down so it could avoid breaking down.
In cases where one jumps multiple stages or realms of power; the bigger the jump, the longer the cool-down time needed.
Non-standards like Arthur and Evan, usually had shorter cool-down times, but it was still there nonetheless; they could not escape the need for it.
It was an unavoidable step in the path of power, ensuring that each breakthrough led to sustained strength rather than a fleeting surge.
"Now then, I need to think about how I’d carry this thing with me."
Arthur turned towards the giant divine spark behind him, summoning the Staff of Olympian Authority and raising it.
However, there was no reaction and Arthur just shrugged.
"I expected this as well."
Arthur had tried to see if he could move the Divine Spark into his subspace by using the power inside the Staff, but he could not.
The Divine Spark had the energy of a Deity, and there was no way such ’weight’ could enter Arthur’s mortal Subspace.
He didn’t have the capacity for that.
"You want to take this thing with you?"
Artemisia got closer and asked, her eyes scanning Arthur’s body to try and discern just what realm or stage he was in but she drew blanks.
Evan also attempted to appraise Arthur, but he was greeted with three simple words.
[Unable to Appraise.]
This wasn’t too much of a surprise as Arthur’s concealment ring was fully active, so unless Evan had the Perfect Appraisal skill, he wouldn’t even be able to see a single letter of Arthur’s status.
"Yeah. Finders, keepers.
If I can absorb all the power inside this, I’m guaranteed at least, the Mid-Tier Deity Realm."
With such knowledge, there was no way Arthur wouldn’t want to keep it for himself. The problem was that he couldn’t move it by an inch.
Even some of the shattered fragments on the floor held the power of Half-Deity realms, far too much for Arthur to take into his subspace.
"I need to get the help of a Deity.
Preferably someone with a Spatial Authority who can help me isolate it in a way that its ’weight’ would be reduced to the level I can carry in my subspace."
When he mentioned the conditions he wanted, Beatrix and Artemisia glanced at one another, before looking back at Arthur.
"Um...maybe I can ask my mum?"
"Hmm? Oh, right. Your mother is the Main Entity governing Space."
Arthur remembered just who Beatrix’s mother was, but he wondered if she’d agree to do such a thing for him.
Personally, he wasn’t keen on getting physically close to any god Deities so he was actually thinking he’d ask a Demon King.
"Hold the thought.
Let Evan and I get back from the Summit first."
When Arthur mentioned the Summit—Gozon’s Annual Interstellar one, Evan raised a brow in surprise as he didn’t expect that he was going too.
"I’m following you?"
"Alvey has already reported your existence to McEnda II, and knowing that guy’s personality, there’s no way he wouldn’t want to see you.
So even if we go to Gozon without you, he’d send us back to get you."
Arthur spoke with a shrug, and just before Evan could say anything, he continued.
"Worst case scenario, he’d come over and get you himself."
"!"
Now, that was a scenario Evan wanted to avoid at all physically and spiritually possible costs.
’A Demon King coming over just for me would throw massive star-sized spotlights on me and I don’t want that.’
While he was thinking this, his senses picked up on something flying towards him and he reflexively caught it, opening his palm to see it was a fist-sized cube with the frozen figure of the Chief Priest inside it.
Looking at Arthur who threw it to him, he asked.
"Why?"
"Kill him and get the EXP you need to become a Legendary. I’ve loosened the seal so just break it on the ground and I’d release him."
"...that’s awfully nice of you."
Evan wasn’t just referring to this, but the earlier battle where Arthur helped them weaken their Level 700 opponents to the level where they could deal the final blows and reap the most EXP.
"I have my reasons for wanting you guys to be as strong as possible.
Besides, we’re the same."
Arthur’s words hinted at some deeper scheme at play, and it made Artemisia very suspicious. She remembered when Arthur had spoken of ’Parallel Paths’ on numerous occasions, referring to her, Beatrix, and Evan.
’It’s also why he wanted us to remain on Aramis in the first place despite initially not caring...’
It felt like Arthur was preparing them for something, but she knew that if she asked him, she wouldn’t get the answers she wanted.
Still, it did not change the fact that being near him brought benefits for her. It was ironic considering he was a godslayer, but he had helped her get better with her divinity and improve her power control.
As such, she decided to be grateful for that.
