Chapter 572: Arthur used ‘Steal’, Syndra was very angry!
Kaerndal Palace
Apex World Choralis
Ithuriel Universe
Unknown Day
1907th Cosmic Cycle
"Syndra?"
"Hmm? Sorry, Zane. I was lost in thought."
The woman turned her head slightly, her golden hair cascading over her shoulder as she met the gaze of the man who had called out to her.
They sat on a terrace overlooking an ethereal landscape, a realm where the sky seemed to be in perpetual twilight, painted in hues of violet and gold.
Soft light filtered through the canopy of shimmering trees, casting a serene glow over the marble floor beneath them.
’Zane’, the man beside her, had brown hair, tousled in a way that suggested he had run his fingers through it one too many times, and his eyes were a deep shade of green.
The terrace where they sat was open on three sides, allowing the gentle breeze to carry the sound of distant waterfalls.
A low table between them held a carafe of wine and two intricately designed goblets, reflecting the soft glow of their surroundings.
As Syndra’s gaze returned to Zane, her eyes narrowed slightly and she refocused on the conversation.
"You mentioned Aleksas. What about him?"
The person that Syndra asked about was none other than the Progenitor of Dragons, Aleksas Castor Weiss, and the father of the Progenitor Dragonslayer. As for the one speaking to her, he was the Progenitor of Celestials, Zane Austin Conner.
"Aleksas has been completely ignoring everything and everyone else, saying he’s busy looking for those Six Ancient Dragons."
"He’s still looking for them? How are they even able to evade him this long?"
Syndra could not understand how Aleksas could lose track of Six Ancient-Breed Dragons. And not just any Ancient Breeds, but the first six that came into existence after Aleksas himself!
They were the 2nd to 7th oldest dragons in the Cosmos and were important powerhouses of their race, so Syndra’s brain could not compute how Aleksas of all people lost track of them.
Seeing her expression, Zane smiled wryly and responded.
"You have not interacted with them much which is why you do not understand. Those six are..."
The man sighed, shaking his head as he continued.
"I don’t know how to explain it; all I can say is I understand why Aleksas calls them ’Six Old Fools’.
They are the kind that can put in a lot of effort in the wrong places."
"Wrong places?"
"They spent nearly a thousand years cracking a portion of the code of the Cosmos, just so they can create a means to cut off their link to their Progenitor and prevent him from finding them."
Syndra reacted with mild surprise when she heard this. For them to completely cut off their link to their Progenitor was something she’d previously only thought possible in the event of race changes.
"Why would they do that?"
"Because they wanted to sleep."
"...what?"
Zane’s words made Syndra’s brain hang and the man laughed at her expression.
"Exactly. They wanted to sleep, and they didn’t want Aleksas to disturb them while they were sleeping. So now Aleksas has to scour entire Universes trying to find their current loca-!"
||WHO DARES!!??||
The sound of Zane’s voice died abruptly as Syndra’s sudden exclamation cut through the air like a thunderclap. His eyes widened in shock, the casual ease in his posture vanishing in an instant.
’Woman, what the fuck!?’
Syndra’s expression twisted from one of mild curiosity to one of pure, unadulterated rage. Her usually composed features contorted, her brows furrowing deeply as her golden eyes darkened with an intense, fiery glow.
Cosmic energy violently erupted from her body, causing the ground beneath them to tremble, and a deafening rumble reverberated through the entire planet.
"...Syndra?"
Zane called out to her, and Syndra took a deep breath, calming herself down before pressing her fingers to her forehead.
"...someone dared to steal from me..."
"Steal what?"
"...a portion of my Progenitor Authority."
"..."
Zane was silent for a moment as he nodded, and then a second later, the realisation dawned on him.
"WAIT, WHAT?!"
Now he understood why Syndra had reacted the way she did. To think that a portion of her Progenitor Authority had been stolen!
Syndra wasn’t just any Progenitor; she was one of the nine oldest in the Cosmos, a ’Primordial Progenitor,’ who was several steps above the others in countless ways.
Even those unfamiliar with cosmic hierarchies would recognize that such a title meant she was built different.
Recognizing Syndra wasn’t difficult either; unless you were blind, the dozen pairs of feathered wings folded at her back were impossible to miss.
And yet, someone had dared to steal from this very Syndra. Zane couldn’t help but wonder if they were courting death.
Progenitor Authorities could only change hands between Progenitors, so the thief had to be one as well.
Zane was unaware that the amount of Authority Syndra had lost was, to put it bluntly, minuscule. Nevertheless, in her billions of years, Syndra’s Authority had only ever grown.
Even when she had cut out numerous fragments, scattered across Books of Truth and other Demon-Killing Cosmic Artifacts, she had never lost control over these pieces and could always reclaim them when needed.
This marked the first time it had diminished, making her explosive reaction entirely understandable.
At that moment, a cosmic gate ripped open beside her, and a streak of golden light shot through it, entering her head.
All the memories of the Book of Truth Replica from the Valmone Universe were instantly downloaded into her consciousness, as the fragment fused back with her main self.
She immediately understood exactly what had happened.
"A teenage Progenitor with Nothingness powers? Wielding LOSTVAYNE?!"
"Huh? Isn’t Lostvayne that Devil brat’s sword? The Eternals should have retrieved it after killing him, shouldn’t they?"
Zane asked, wondering how whoever was responsible for this theft wielded Lostvayne. He wondered if they were a ’Candidate’, but quickly dismissed that idea—Akasha’s personality alone ruled that out.
’Akasha would NEVER give out that sword.’
It was no secret that the Eternals were trying to gather the Single Digit Rule Breakers. However, each known weapon in that category was in the hands of a powerhouse that could not be easily touched.
Lostvayne was one of the few Single Digit Rule Breakers whose whereabouts were known.
"Rule Breaker Number 3, Lostvayne was with that Devil Brat.
Number 6, Astravalor is with Ranus. Number 5, Starbreaker is with that damned Devil and Number 4, Galaxy Sword, is with the Zanerth Universe’s Alpha Hybrid."
Zane muttered, recalling the known wielders of the Single Digit Rule Breakers.
Lucifer, The Eternal of Space, The Progenitor Devil...and Jamie Westley—the same Jamie whose avatar was currently acting as a Valmone Universe Demon King!
As Zane contemplated the situation, Syndra sifted through the memories accumulated over aeons by the fragment of her consciousness in Valmone.
"You said the culprit was a teenage Progenitor? What’s that Universe’s Time flow?
He may have been born for thousands of years for us, but it might not have been 20 years in his Universe."
Syndra shook her head, refuting Zane’s assumption.
"No. That Universe’s time flows faster than average, not slower. He is truly a teenager."
Zane paused, rifling through his memories to recall the last time he sensed a Progenitor’s birth.
"The Last one came around 34 years ago. That one who had a lot of fanfare with the prophecies and all."
His words revealed another Time Difference. For the people of Valmone, 40 years had passed since Arthur’s birth. For wherever these two Progenitors were, it had been 34, but Arthur himself was only 17 years old!
"It might be him, but the time difference is off. He seemed too young..."
"Then what if he’s from another Universe with a slower time flow? A Primary Universe, perhaps?"
"..."
Zane’s suggestion made Syndra pause. She considered the possibility for some moments before nodding in agreement.
"Might just be the case."
"What Universe is he in?"
"Somewhere called Valmone."
Zane rifled through his memories, but Valmone was unfamiliar to him. When he relayed this to Syndra, she wasn’t surprised. After all, with the countless Universes Zane had traversed over the aeons, it was no wonder he had forgotten millions of them.
Syndra, too, had little recollection of Valmone, her memories of it buried beneath the weight of countless newer experiences.
"It wouldn’t be hard to find him, though. All I need are the coordinates, and I can telep—"
She abruptly fell silent, her eyes widening in shock. Zane instinctively moved away, ready for another outburst, but Syndra’s expression revealed not rage, but dismay.
"...I...can’t find the coordinates..."
Every fragment of Syndra’s consciousness and power was equipped with a ’Coordinate Module.’ This Module allowed her to track and retrieve these fragments remotely or in person by providing the exact location and time of each piece. It also allowed the fragments to find her main body.
With the Coordinate Module, Syndra should have been able to reverse-engineer the coordinates to locate where the fragment that recently merged back originated—namely, the Valmone Universe’s location.
Finding a Universe in the Multiverse was like looking for a tall tree in a Pine Forest. If you didn’t know which tree you wanted, you could get lost.
However, to Syndra’s shock, she could not find the coordinates of the pine tree she was after!
"The Coordinate Module...is damaged?"
She hadn’t noticed this flaw until now. If the Module was compromised, finding Valmone—and thus locating Arthur—would be impossible.
"But how?"
How could it get damaged without her noticing?
The woman scanned the memories once more, and she immediately noticed something that struck the fragment of her consciousness as off.
"?!"
The first thing Arthur had done after noticing Syndra’s Consciousness, was to attack with Lostvayne!
Even after she blocked it, Arthur still kept Lostvayne up against her palm and didn’t pull back the sword.
When he finally sheathed the sword and she tried to inspect her palm, Arthur grabbed her hand and stopped her from doing so. She found it off, but considering he’d stolen the cosmic energy anchoring that consciousness to the Book of Truth before she could comment on it, she never noticed what had happened.
But now, Syndra realised that Arthur grabbed her hand not to steal the anchoring energy, but to prevent her from noticing what he had done.
Lostvayne had damaged the Coordinate Module!
The reason why he held the Sword to her palm for that long was because he was damaging the module, and it needed direct contact to do this without alerting her.
’If it’s Lostvayne, then it’s very possible...’
Arthur had zero desire to entangle himself with ancient Progenitors like Syndra, who had existed for billions of years and were in realms of existence he didn’t even know the names of.
Because of this, he didn’t tell ’Syndra’ his name.
His act of damaging the Coordinate Module ensured that while Syndra could remember his face—unavoidable as he wasn’t wearing his mask at the time—she had no way of identifying him beyond that.
She had a face, but no name, no race and no location.
Thus, she couldn’t find him.
"Say hello to your main body for me—from a junior Progenitor who never wants to see her in reality."
Now, Syndra understood what those words Arthur had spoken meant, and the woman was none too pleased that a child had gotten one up on her.
In her first exchange with this new unknown Progenitor, Syndra was the one who’d lost out!
