Chapter 558: Level 899
Arthur’s arms had been completely broken, forcing him to rewind them to a state where he could move them before beheading the god.
But his gravity energy was too strong, and since gravity affected time, he couldn’t fully rewind the damage. He had been forced to wait for his natural healing factor to do the rest.
But now, with the divine spark in his grasp and his body restored, Arthur felt a surge of power and satisfaction.
[Level Up] x5
|You have reached Level 899|
|You have reached the Peak of Mortality. |
|You are required to prove your qualifications to surpass Mortality to progress further. |
...
|...|
|Existential Records Computed. |
|Detected Presence of Pseudo-Authorities. |
|Detected Presence of Ultimate Seed. |
|Detected Partial Cosmic Superiority. |
...
|Qualifications Exceed Minimum Threshold. |
|Conditions for Transcendence: 8/10|
"Mind telling me what the remaining two are?
Arthur received no response to his question, causing him to click his tongue with a hint of irritation.
Normally, he’d have been happy to see that he had exceeded the minimum threshold of qualifications for Transcendence, but because of the extra two unknown conditions, he couldn’t bring himself to feel joy.
"Wouldn’t it be a much wiser decision to tell me what they are so I work towards achieving them?"
|...|
The System seemed to be loading something, but Arthur’s attention was taken off it as he sensed...something else.
His eyes turned to the sky, then he looked around at the sky with narrowed eyes before speaking in his faux true voice.
|¬If you guys want to watch, then do It openly. Don’t sneak around. ¬|
Arthur spoke to the Race Kings whose gazes he felt on his body. They weren’t heavy enough to trigger the System’s indirect messaging, but having grown up in a family of Deities, he could faintly sense them.
He didn’t know how many were there though.
In the time he spent looking through the system and all, the battlefield around him had managed to recover from the shock of his sudden descent.
As such, Arthur got to his feet and dusted his trousers as he began speaking to the people of Olrerth.
Rising to his feet, Arthur dusted off his trousers and, with deliberate calm, began to address those present.
|¬People of Olrerth. I know you not, neither do you know me.
There is no enmity between us, perhaps we could have lived our lives without ever crossing paths.
But alas, that possibility is long gone. ¬|
As he spoke, Arthur slowly sheathed Celestia, his gaze locking onto the wounded transcendents who were glaring at him with a mixture of fury and fear.
|¬As circumstances would have it, we stand here on opposing sides. As such, I’m going to need you to die for my goals. ¬|
Murmurs spread through the ranks of the gods and Divine Humans. Some bristled with anger, their hands twitching towards their weapons, eager to charge at him and wipe the calm arrogance off his face.
Tension crackled in the air as they exchanged looks, the collective wrath of dozens of gods barely contained.
One of the gods, though not the most powerful among them, stepped forward.
His presence caused the others to hesitate, their anger momentarily giving way to deference. This man clearly held a position of authority, and his mere approach was enough to halt any immediate retaliation.
"Tsk...!"
Seeing this, two of the Four-Star Generals of Gozon’s Army immediately rushed to his side, their demonic energies flaring up.
They had been briefed on Arthur’s unique ability to weaken gods, and they knew how crucial his power would be in the battle ahead.
Thus, they couldn’t afford to let this figure, known as ’The Bound Warden’ on Olrerth, engage Arthur directly.
The man—Jakimor—was tall, clad in silver bloodstained armour with stark white hair that matched the cold intensity of his eyes.
Chains of ethereal light coiled around his body, glowing faintly with ominous divinity.
Despite not being a Superior Stage Transcendent, he was one of the most feared individuals on Olrerth. His Unique Skill, ’Eternal Binding’, had sealed away hundreds of powerful demons throughout the war, effectively neutralizing threats that others could not.
Even the strongest transcendents were wary of this and his ’Pseudo-Authority of Binding’, knowing that his chains could ensnare them if they weren’t careful.
The generals could not allow Jakimor to engage Arthur, knowing full well the risk of the Warden’s chains sealing him away, but Arthur simply ignored their concerns.
He stepped forward, his hands casually crossed behind his back, and raised an eyebrow in genuine curiosity as he studied Jakimor. He was intrigued by the man’s aura, the energy of a law he knew existed but had barely seen practised.
Jakimor’s expression remained stoic, his eyes narrowing slightly as he measured Arthur. The air between them was thick with unspoken tension, the battlefield holding its breath in anticipation of what would happen next.
Finally, the silence was broken.
"Why?"
"? Elaborate."
Arthur’s expression was one of confusion and Jakimor’s brow twitched a bit but he calmed himself and spoke.
"Why would you leave your own Universe, cross trillions of lightyears worth of space and come to another Universe to interfere with matters that have absolutely nothing to do with you? Why ruin another world teeming with billions of lives?"
The revelation that Arthur hailed from another Universe was startling to everyone present—both the gods and demons alike. Yet, Jakimor’s focus remained solely on Arthur.
"Why, huh? It’s rather simple: For my benefit."
"...your benefit?"
Jakimor echoed Arthur’s words with an incredulous expression on his face.
"Yes.
I want to get stronger."
Arthur replied nonchalantly, taking a hand to his chin and sinking into his thoughts for a second before continuing.
"I’ve only mentioned this to the Gozonians, but I guess there’s no harm in me saying it here.
I’m conducting a little Universal Influence experiment, and I needed a Universe outside my own for it."
"...for such a selfish reason, you are dooming the lives of billions to Gozonian control?"
"pfft...hahahahaha!"
Hearing the man’s words, Arthur laughed aloud, shaking his head as he spoke right after.
"Don’t try to preach to me, god. People are inherently selfish. No one would ever take action if it wasn’t for their benefit."
Raising his hands Arthur gestured grandly to the battlefield around them.
"Everyone here is fighting for a benefit. For the Gozonians, it’s more worlds under their control; individual soldiers can accumulate merits, and gain more power and renown.
For you people of Olrerth, your benefit is that your world remains under your control should you win. Individual soldiers could also accumulate merits.
In the case of soldiers who were forcefully conscripted, the benefit is that they can go back to their normal lives after this madness called war ends."
"So, you acknowledge that war is madness and yet you actively engage in it?"
"Of course."
Arthur matter-of-factly replied to Jakimor, pointing to his chest as he asked.
"Did you forget what I am? I am the Progenitor godslayer. Do you have any idea how many trillions, quadrillions of gods are out there looking for me to kill me before I get stronger?
Damn, even my uncles want my head and have sent so many assassins that I can’t even count them anymore.
As such, I have to do what I got to do."
The boy shrugged his shoulders, putting his hands back into his pocket as he concluded.
"If It is to keep my life, both from the gods who want me dead and the other Progenitors who may or may not like me being around, then I wouldn’t hesitate to engage in this madness of war.
This Universe just happened to be the first on my list. Nothing too serious about it."
"But you could accumulate your power while remaining in YOUR UNIVERSE!!"
Jakimor roared out, his divinity flaring and releasing pressure that caused some Inferior Transcendents to step back. However, Arthur was undaunted.
"My potential enemies are renowned across Universes. Why should I limit myself?"
After speaking, Arthur removed his right hand from his pocket and summoned Celestia. The blade gleamed with his silver energy as he pointed it directly at Jakimor, his voice carrying an edge of finality.
"This talk with our mouths is over. Draw your blade and let out weapons carry on the rest of the talk."
As he spoke, Arthur’s magic and destruction energy surged outward, causing the earth beneath his feet to crack and tremble. The ground around him began to fracture, fissures spreading outward as if the land itself recoiled from his power.
Jakimor, unfazed by the display, summoned his great sword, the air around him shimmering with the force of his divinity. He was the strongest, but the might of an Intermediate Transcendent was not something to be underestimated.
The other gods instinctively stepped back, as if giving the two space and the sight made Arthur wonder briefly.
’Why do they follow him? Has he bound them with his power?’
It was a fleeting thought, one he dismissed as quickly as it came. Arthur hadn’t been briefed on the major Olrerth combatants before the battle began—since he arrived right in the middle of it.
But he wasn’t concerned.
Information was useful, but not always necessary. After all, one didn’t always have the luxury of knowing their enemy before facing them.
Besides, Arthur wasn’t here to understand the intricacies of this world’s hierarchies. He was here for a singular purpose—to kill, to devour divine sparks...
"...and make my way towards Transcendence."
Before the sound of those words even travelled far, Arthur and Jakimor kicked off the ground and with an explosive burst of speed, they dashed toward each other, closing the distance in an instant.
Jakimor’s great sword met Celestia with a thunderous impact, the force of their collision sending shockwaves rippling across the battlefield.
The ground beneath them buckled, fissures spreading out like a spiderweb as raw energy surged from the point of contact while the air itself distorted, warping under the immense pressure of their powers.
Time energy accelerated Arthur’s speed and gravity enhanced the force of his strikes, each blow gaining momentum and force. Jakimor’s sheer strength was higher than Arthur’s due to the level difference, so Arthur had to do things like this to meet up with heavy strikes.
He used his gravity manipulation to shift his weight and angle, enabling him to meet the Transcendent’s strikes and parry when necessary.
As they exchanged blows, their battle escalated and with each clash, they rose higher into the sky, leaving the cracked earth behind as their fight became an aerial duel.
Arthur’s destruction energy laced each of his strikes, adding a devastating edge which Jakimor could not ignore as it ignored his durability and chipped at his soul’s defences.
Though it wasn’t active, Arthur had a Pseudo-Authority of Destruction so his destruction energy quality was far higher than that of any other mortal’s.
Jakimor held his own Pseudo-Authority, and though it wasn’t a directly offensive one like Arthur’s, merely having one increased an existence’s attack potency.
Every time their swords met, sparks of destruction energy splintered off, cutting through the atmosphere and causing minor explosions.
As Arthur and Jakimor clashed with intensity in the skies, the battlefield around them roared back to life. Demon Generals, seeing their forces regaining composure, bellowed commands that echoed across the bloodstained landscape.
[CHARGE! PUSH THEM BACK!!!]
One of the generals shouted, his voice like a war drum that ignited the ferocity in the hearts of the demon soldiers. The demons and dark elves roared and surged forward like a tide crashing against the shores.
The gods and Divine Humans, not to be outdone, met them with equal ferocity. Steel clashed against steel, and the air filled with the sickening sounds of flesh being torn apart, the metallic scent of blood heavy in the air.
