Chapter 570: Cosmic Sword of Destruction
Arthur’s posture was relaxed, his hands casually tucked into his pockets, as if he hadn’t just withstood an attack that should have annihilated him and turned him into a mere memory.
His expression was one of mild amusement, a small, almost pitying smile playing on his lips. Tilting his head slightly, he spoke in a calm and almost mocking voice.
|¬Did your friends on Aramis not inform you about what happened in my fight with Duskhand? ¬|
His gaze swept over the stunned angels before him, his words dripping with condescension.
|¬You cannot kill me. ¬|
Arthur spoke while shaking his head as if he were scolding a child who had made a foolish mistake.
The shock that rippled through the ranks of the defenders of Toverus was palpable. Their eyes widened in disbelief, their minds struggling to comprehend what they were seeing.
Two transcendents had attacked Arthur, hell-bent on killing him, and yet he stood before them, completely unscathed.
It was impossible—they knew he wasn’t invulnerable.
The Angels of Toverus had been sent reports on his activities on Aramis and they’d seen that he’d been wounded in previous battles. Reports reaching the angel generals from the battlefield he was on previously—where he killed the dragon—confirmed that he could be hurt.
But here he was, untouched by attacks that should have obliterated him.
Only Arthur knew exactly why he had survived. The Stellar Guard had activated to protect him from certain death.
The two transcendents’ attacks had been lethal, but the Stellar Guard’s cosmic energy barriers had absorbed them, sparing Arthur’s life.
Arthur knew that the stellar guard only had three more charges left before he had to recharge the cosmic energy in it, but he felt the sacrifice was worth it.
The display of invulnerability would serve his purpose—it would sow doubt and fear among them, pushing them closer to doing exactly what he wanted them to do.
Although they knew Arthur was not invincible, whatever was protecting him was something beyond their immediate comprehension.
However, they did not have the luxury to try and test the limits of whatever mysterious power or artifact was protecting him as they still had the high-rank demons, dragons, devils, and dark elves to contend with on the battlefield.
They were not harmed by Arthur’s attacks and could attack at any time.
And there was no telling how many more meteors Arthur would call down or where they would strike next.
But more than the threat of the meteors or Arthur’s anti-divinity, it was his Progenitor Authority that truly unnerved them.
The Authority weakened the gods, divine humans, and even some of the angels who possessed divinity and it was the biggest threat here.
Seeing this, the angel general who had been wary of Arthur from the get-go, clenched his teeth silently and sent a telepathic message to his cohort.
’I’m using it.’
"?!"
Expressions of surprise spread across the faces of the other High-Rank angels, who quickly frowned a moment later.
They knew exactly what it was, and that knowledge brought no comfort. The Book of Truth was a powerful artifact, but its effects were not instantaneous.
It needed time to unveil one’s true name and banish them using it.
A True Name was the very essence of an existence’s soul—something far too precious and elusive to be easily discerned.
The Replica of the Book of Truth took even longer to work than the original, and the process was especially prolonged when used against a non-demon.
Arthur was clearly NOT a demon, which meant the Book would take significantly longer to work on him than it had on the demon Transcendents they had banished in the past.
But that wasn’t the real cause for the angels’ darkening expressions.
The true issue was that, for Arthur’s True Name to be perceived by the Book, he needed to engage in combat with angels in and from Toverus.
If he fought against allies of the angels, their friends, or even angels from another world, it wouldn’t work.
The effectiveness of the Book also depended on Arthur’s causality index and Universal Influence.
The higher his Universal Influence and causality index, the more the Universe itself would protect his True Name from being discovered, increasing the number of angels required for the Book to function.
But did they have a choice? Even if they couldn’t banish him today, as far as they got his name and this war continued, then they would eventually permanently expel him from Toverus.
This would end the godslayer threat to their world, allowing them to fight the demons at full strength.
Time was against them, but it was a risk they had to take.
The Book of Truth’s activation was subtle, devoid of fanfare or dazzling light.
It was precisely this subtlety that had allowed High-Rank demons to remain unaware when it had been used against them in the past.
The High-Rank angel wielding it knew his target’s name—Arthur Vaughn—revealed during the Gozonian Summit. The event’s publicity had spread the name across worlds, making it easy for the angel to quietly inscribe it in the Book.
But there was something neither he nor any other angel in this universe knew.
The reason the Book’s activation appeared so inconspicuous wasn’t because it was inherently subtle—it was because they were not Cosmic Superior.
Arthur, however, was.
The moment the angel activated the Book, Arthur sensed a shift in the cosmic energy flow, his eyes glowing with awareness.
|¬Lostvayne! ¬|
Immediately he cried out, the sword which had snacked on thousands of souls streaked through the air as a blur of light, and collided with his open palm.
|¬Partial Release¬|
At his command, Lostvayne unleashed its cosmic energy, radiating a dense, ominous aura of destruction.
This was but a fraction of the true might of the weapon once wielded by the Devil King Lucifer, and its presence alone was enough to make even Deities feel existential fear.
Suddenly, a sharp string of high-frequency sounds pierced through Arthur’s mind, a cacophony of unintelligible noise that sent searing pain across his skull.
The information was being forced into his consciousness, an overwhelming torrent that he could not stop.
But despite this, a strange understanding crystallized in his mind.
[I am the Rule Breaker with the Serial Number of ’3’; Cosmic Sword of Destruction: Lostvayne.
My Weapon Authority is ’Soul-Devouring Oblivion’.
Never forget that, Master.]
"?!"
Arthur’s eyes widened in shock. At the same moment, Celestia also reacted, though for different reasons.
Arthur was stunned by the revelation of Lostvayne’s Serial Number and even more so by the realization that the sword could forcefully make him comprehend its words.
But this caused him great soul strain and the longer it spoke, the greater the burden; thus the sword opted to simply rely on Celestia as a translator.
For Celestia, the revelation was monumental. She had always known Lostvayne was a Single Digit Rule Breaker, but the exact number had been unclear until now.
The confirmation of its Serial Number, ’3’, was the missing piece of a puzzle she had been contemplating since her first awakening in Arthur’s grasp.
Celestia...finally gained a clue on what she was.
Yet, this was no time for reflection.
Arthur pushed all thoughts aside, suppressing the questions that threatened to surface. His focus sharpened, rousing every ounce of his power as he charged toward the angel wielding the Book of Truth.
He attempted to teleport, intending to finish things swiftly, but an angel possessing a Pseudo-Authority over space sensed the ripple of spatial power and countered Arthur’s teleportation, forcing him to confront them directly.
"?!"
"How did he-!"
"STOP HIM! KEEP HIM IN PLACE!"
’In Place?’
The words the angel wielding the book spoke resonated in Arthur’s mind, and he quickly realised there had to be some other condition for his name to be inscribed in the book.
So, the boy did the exact opposite of what they wanted.
|¬Extreme Nothingness! ¬|
The beam released a purple light that filled their eyes, tearing through space and bashing the first two transcendents out of the way, knocking them down like dominos.
They weren’t dead, but they sure as hell wouldn’t be disturbing Arthur anytime soon.
’Need to act fast, can’t maintain Lostvayne for too long.’
Arthur told himself this as he accelerated his movements, whilst his left hand conjured a Five Ringed Spell circle that quickly gained a Sixth, flickering ring.
|¬Summoning Magic: Ascendant Apex Conjurism! ¬|
The three-stage summoning called a thousand Level 700 Hellhounds, a Hundred Level 800s, and one Level 900 Three-Headed Hellhound—the same one he helped reach Transcendence during the Triton’s Ark.
The Level 800 and 900 beasts roared aloud and lunged at the High-Rank angels before them to hold them off, while the Level 700s scattered and attacked everything ’divine’ in sight.
Arthur’s sudden action of calling forth hellhounds out of nowhere reminded them of the title he was known by on Aramis.
’Silver Summoner!’
|¬Anti-Gravity! Time, Be Still! ¬|
Arthur commanded and he felt his energy leak out of his body at an alarming rate, the great cost of reversing the gravity and stopping time of Transcendents who were actively resisting.
The High-Rank angels broke out of the time stop in a split-second and one charged at him with blinding speed.
The angel’s blade, glowing with a powerful law energy, sliced through the air and if it wasn’t for his perception enhanced by the Third Magic, then Arthur would barely have been able to raise Lostvayne in defence.
The moment their swords met, space itself seemed to fracture around them, unable to withstand the collision of the overwhelming powers.
A shockwave rippled out from the point of contact, distorting the battlefield and sending waves of energy cascading through the surroundings.
Lostvayne’s cosmic energy lashed out, coiling around the angel’s blade and overpowering the light with its cosmic might.
The force of it was too much for the Transcendent to withstand and with a deafening crack, the angel was blown back.
