Chapter 553: Tension
Beatrix’s expression turned back to normal when Jamie spoke and she literally jumped over the couch and table to reach where he sat before hugging him.
Jamie silently patted her head, before looking up at the door where Artemisia walked in a moment later.
Unlike Beatrix, her reaction to Jamie’s presence was more subdued. She just slightly bowed before turning her gaze in the direction of the floating holograms above the centre table.
Thanks to Jamie’s fast reactions, in the instant Beatrix opened the door, he could erase all the images on the spell circles so none of the two goddesses had seen them.
All they saw were the stick figure holograms and the floating spell circles, with two circles crossed out.
"Whatcha doing?"
Beatrix asked with a tilt of her head when she saw the deconstructed spell circle and Arthur replied to her while shaking his head.
"We’ve been trying to figure out how and why Evan got sent back in time, but that isn’t going well..."
Technically, he had not told a single lie.
"Oh...what’s with the stick figures."
"I was trying to recreate the scene at the time I got sent back, too bad it’s not helping matters."
Evan spoke as he manipulated the hologram and made the stick figures begin to fight each other with swords and magic.
All eyes watched the scene of the sole blue stick figure being knocked aside, then when that one attacked again, the red figure with the spell circle pointed at them and sucked their attack into a portal before creating a portal behind them which pulled the blue figure into it.
"The end.
Starring: Blue Stick Figure as Evan. Red Stick Figures as Bad Guy 001 to 10?
How many were they again?"
Evan placed a hand on his chin as he tried to recall the number of Fallen Celestials that he was fighting.
Beatrix quickly lost interest in the holograms and focused more on Jamie, asking him why he was here.
"I kinda pissed McEnda off, so I ran so he’d cool off."
"Oh, so the usual, then?"
When she replied in such a manner, Arthur arched his brow and questioned what she meant by this.
"Uncle Jay always pisses Mum and Uncle Uvton off. Uncle Uvton is usually calm but mum always flares up and chases him across the world."
Jamie just chuckled lightly upon hearing Beatrix’s concise explanation of his usual routine with her mum and Artemisia’s father.
Speaking of Artemisia, she was over at the area where Evan dropped the Arcade Consoles that he swiped from Jamie’s penthouse on Gozon.
"Hey, Jamie. After the Summit is done, how about we go to Artemisia and Beatrix’s home world?"
Arthur suggested casually, but the moment the words left his mouth, Beatrix’s expression darkened.
"...that might be possible for me, but not Arty."
"Huh? Why?"
Arthur asked, clearly puzzled. How could it be possible to visit Beatrix’s home world but not Artemisia’s, when they both came from Aidos?
Beatrix shot a troubled glance at Artemisia, who was standing nearby, but before she could respond, the goddess herself spoke up, her tone as light as ever.
"It’s nothing so grand, Beatrix."
Artemisia said as she powered on the Arcade Console in front of her. Then, without a hint of emotion, she dropped a bombshell.
"The World I once called my ’home’, no longer exists."
"??"
Arthur and Evan exchanged startled looks, blindsided by Artemisia’s words. They had both assumed that, like Beatrix, Artemisia was Aidosian. Now, she had just revealed otherwise.
"How?"
That was all Arthur asked and the Artemisia’s reply was as nonchalant as before.
"Our star went Supergiant; It was an irregular situation.
Normally, stars take millions of years to go supergiant, but this one did it in just five years. In the process, it destroyed all the planets orbiting it within the habitable range."
She revealed the fate of her home world with the same indifference one might use when discussing the weather, her focus seemingly more on the game she was preparing to play than the devastating story she was recounting.
"Apparently, some people blame the Spirit Empress, saying she must have done something since she was in our star not long before it suddenly went supergiant.
Anyway, the star eventually couldn’t support its own weight due to the abnormal situation, so it collapsed, became a black hole, and devoured the rest of the star system."
Artemisia’s voice remained steady, as if she were reciting lines from a book, likely a result of having told this story countless times before.
"My father and Beatrix’s mother were friends long before then, so she made space in Aidos’s Solar System for us to evacuate our entire planet.
Since Aidos was bigger and the Epsilon continent was free, my family migrated there.
As my father was already affiliated with Aidos before then, people who don’t know the story usually just assume he’s Aidosian as well; it’s a hassle having to explain every time."
Arthur absorbed Artemisia’s words, his brow furrowing as he tried to reconcile the casual way she spoke with the gravity of what she had just revealed.
This didn’t seem like a story of before she was born, or when she was too young to remember. She was old enough to remember it at the time it had happened.
"Enough about that. Can you teach me how to use this thing?"
Artemisia broke him out of his line of thought and Arthur looked up to see ’GAME OVER’ written on the screen of the Arcade Console.
"You’re not good at games, are you?"
"Obviously."
The goddess candidly admitted it and Arthur chuckled as he went over to help her out. Meanwhile, Beatrix continued talking with Jamie, and their conversation quickly delved into more personal matters, the close relationship between them evident.
Evan, on the other hand, watched the interactions in silence, his gaze flicking between the two goddesses.
He remained like this until something in the air around him caught Jamie’s attention. Jamie’s eyes narrowed, a hint of suspicion creeping into his expression as he suddenly addressed Evan.
"Evan...what are you thinking?"
The abrupt question took Beatrix and Artemisia by surprise, but Arthur needed only a glance at Evan to understand Jamie’s concern. Evan’s response confirmed their suspicions.
"Nothing. I just finally understood why some people take out potential threats before that ’potential’ can turn into real power—a power that could become a real threat."
As he spoke, Evan’s eyes began to glow with a golden light, a sign that his Unique Skill activated.
"Don’t even think about it, Evan."
Jamie’s expression turned blank as he spoke and his eyes glowed with a faint light. At the same time, Arthur sighed and shook his head.
"That’s a very bad idea, Evan."
"...I haven’t even said it yet."
"Come on, Evan. That’s ’basic time traveller thought process’."
Arthur responded as he walked over to the couch and plopped down on it, his left eye glowing as he spoke.
"Time can be a bitch sometimes. Trust me, I know. When it works with causality, it becomes even worse.
When you tamper with time, you’re not just interfering with your target—you’re messing with the fates the target would have changed, the Karma they would have sown, and the destinies they would have brought.
The Causality Index of a Deity Realm existence is high enough that if you try to prevent them from becoming a Deity through time travel while you do not possess a higher index than them yourself; the Universe itself would either stop you or just kick you back to the future and correct the change you made.
Changing the past of a being with a high Causality Index and Universal Influence is not easy, because their high Universal Influence would make the Universe itself protect their past."
Arthur advised Evan to get the thought he had in mind out of his head, and right after Arthur spoke, Jamie followed up.
"There’s what Arthur said, and then there’s my personal view.
Regardless of what happens in your time, the current time period is a different case.
You don’t think I’d just sit back and watch something bad happen to my friends and their family members, right?"
Jamie’s underlying message was clear: ’Don’t even think about altering the past to prevent future enemies—try it, and I will deal with you first.’
"Think of a way to solve your future problems, in your future. Don’t mess with another time period, it usually doesn’t go well."
"Ah...I get. That shit always goes sideways."
Arthur concurred with Jamie’s words, and the understanding look on his face made Jamie wonder if Arthur had experience with time travel.
Not one to hold his curiosity, Jamie asked directly.
"You’ve time travelled before?"
"Hmm? Oh, no. It’s just I’ve had a little interference here and there. Maybe it’s the deal with Alkosh or something. Who knows? Not gonna follow their script though."
His response was cryptic, leaving Jamie and the others puzzled, but Arthur just shrugged and headed back to re-join Artemisia at the Arcade Console, leaving the deeper mysteries for another time.
