Chapter 613: About the Cosmic Lens
Jamie’s Penthouse
Imperium Astra Region
Imperium Continent
Prime World Gozon
August 7th
Year 1054 of the 50th General Calendar (Valmone)
Jamie Westley was deep in concentration, his eyes fixed on the intricate hologram map of Gozon’s Interstellar Empire that floated before him.
He moved his hand, panning across the map and adjusting spaceship travel routes when a ripple in space caught his attention.
Turning his gaze to the right, he saw a Cosmic Gate open up right in the middle of his living room and two figures stepped in through—Arthur and Evan, dressed in casual clothes.
Arthur met Jamie’s gaze and gave a laid-back wave.
"Hello, Mr Hybrid. What’s up?"
"...what are you doing here?"
Jamie knew about Arthur’s Cosmic Teleporter, so he wasn’t surprised by the boy’s presence. Nevertheless, they didn’t have anything planned so he had no idea why Arthur had come over along with Evan.
"We had some stuff we wanted to ask you."
Arthur responded as he sat on the couch while Evan moved over to the arcade consoles in the corner of the room.
Looking at the star map floating in front of him, he continued.
"Seems like you were busy."
"Yeah. I haven’t updated my map."
Jamie said as he released a pulse of Cosmic Energy, spreading it out across the entire galaxy at FTL speed.
The echo of the Cosmic Energy infused with his Spatial Authority returned in about ten seconds, and the holographic map in front of him changed.
Before Arthur’s eyes, three planets on the map vanished. His eyes widened slightly and he asked.
"Those things that just disappeared, could it be..."
"Yes, those are planets that have recently gotten destroyed."
Jamie responded before Arthur could even finish the question, before waving his hand and dismissing the entire map.
Arthur shrugged, not particularly curious about why those three planets met unfortunate fates and retrieved the Defective Cosmic Lens Replica from his subspace.
The moment he saw it, recognition flashed in Jamie’s eyes and he spoke before Arthur could.
"Ah, yes. I forgot to tell you to bring this to me yesterday."
He reached out and the visor floated from Arthur’s hands and into his and he continued.
"It’s been millions of years since I lost this thing."
"Millions?!"
Evan, who was more focused on his game overheard them and questioned in a loud voice. Silently, Jamie nodded and looked the visor over before speaking.
"When I first came to this Universe. In my real body, that is.
I was attempting to replicate a certain artifact and this is one of the many failures I got."
Arthur and Evan exchanged a glance, only mildly surprised that Jamie was behind the creation of the Defective Cosmic Lens. They’d already considered it, especially after seeing the ’Witch of Chaos’ mentioned in its description.
"So, you know this ’Witch of Chaos’ person..."
"Yes. Angela’s the reason I’m immortal."
This ’Witch of Chaos’—whom Jamie just called ’Angela’—was the woman responsible for turning Jamie into the Immortal Hybrid that he was now.
Arthur, however, was more curious about the authenticity of the artifact’s description.
"And the part about her stealing the Eternal of Knowledge’s Authority... that’s true?"
"Yeah, it’s true. Angela really did steal the Authority of the Eternal of Wisdom and Knowledge. How she managed that? I have no idea. I wasn’t born yet."
Considering that Jamie was at least a few hundred million years old, Arthur realized that the incident had taken place an unbelievably long time ago.
Before he could ask any more questions, Jamie’s expression turned serious and he pointed at the visor in his hands and spoke.
"Arthur...you didn’t put this on, did you?"
"Huh? No. That thing has ’Defective’ in its description. What’s more, there’s a hidden drawback I’m not ready to find out.
No matter how broken an ability it has I’m not gonna risk it."
Hearing Arthur’s response, Jamie nodded in satisfaction.
"That’s good. If you did, then even my real body wouldn’t have the power to help you."
The words he spoke made both Arthur and Evan freeze, and they turned towards him with a bit of apprehension in their gazes.
"...what would have happened if he put it on?"
Evan asked and Jamie conjured a small orb of void energy in his palm.
"When I was making this thing, some of my void power seeped in through. That’s why the ’hidden drawback’ exists.
My Void power erased the system’s ability to recognize it, so no matter how many times you appraise the visor, you’d never see the real problem.
But since I made it, I know exactly what drawback it has."
Looking up from the Visor, he explained to the two boys.
"Void power can erase things. Wearing the visor isn’t the issue. Using it, however, is where the danger lies.
With every use, a small part of the concept of sight is erased from your existence."
Evan blinked, confusion etched on his features. Pressing a hand to his forehead, he asked.
"Uh, can you translate that into something more understandable?"
"Simply put, you’d lose your vision permanently.
Not just physical vision either—your very ability to see, both physically and spiritually, would be erased.
The concept of sight itself would be deleted from the source code of your existence. No matter how many bodies you inhabit, no matter what race you become or how many times you reincarnate, you will never be able to see again."
"That’s scary as fuck!"
Evan exclaimed after Jamie’s explanation and the man nodded in affirmation.
"That’s why I asked if you’ve used it. Even a single use erases a fragment of the concept of sight from your existence.
I should’ve destroyed this thing, but... for some reason, I didn’t. It’s been so long, I don’t even remember why."
Without another word, the orb of void power in Jamie’s palm expanded, engulfing the visor in an instant. It vanished into nothingness, erased from existence.
"Good."
Jamie muttered as if finally settling a long-forgotten debt.
With that out of the way, Jamie then switched topics to something more important—making the two boys in front of him stronger. Especially Evan.
"So, there’s two places I have in mind for you guys to go.
For Arthur, I think you might be able to get the push you need for your Extreme Nothingness, and for Evan, you’d be able to raise your stats and level."
"Raise my stats, you say?"
Evan repeated Jamie’s words, his brows narrowing a bit as a particular place came to mind.
"Yeah.
The first place is a special realm called the Regal Void Expanse."
The moment the name came out of Jamie’s mouth, Arthur turned to Evan and asked.
"Isn’t that the place you and Artemisia were talking about before?"
Evan nodded in affirmation, confirming that he knew about the place Jamie had just mentioned. It was a special Realm, but even more special was the ’Garden of Stars’ that existed within it.
The Garden of Stars was practically a myth, as locating it was very difficult, even for the people of the RVE.
However, many people have been to and from the Garden of Stars, confirming its existence.
Some had even managed to bring others along with them, and the special powers they acquired in the Garden were the real deal.
Hearing about how difficult it was to get into the Garden of Stars, Arthur wondered if Jamie had a sure-fire means for them to get in. He asked and Jamie confirmed his words with a nod.
"Yeah.
In fact, I know a way to get directly into the Garden of Stars. It’s through a Dimensional Rift in a world you’re very familiar with..."
Jamie turned to Evan and the boy nodded and completed his statement.
"Aidos. I know the Dimensional Rift you’re talking about."
Evan had confirmed that he’d been to the RVE’s Garden of Stars before (Chapter 497), so it wasn’t surprising that he knew about this rift.
"There’s just one hiccup."
Jamie continued speaking, turning to Arthur this time as he continued.
"The rift is sealed and the ones with the keys to the seal are two existences I’m not sure you want to meet."
For a moment, Arthur was silent. He thought about people he didn’t want to meet in the Valmone Universe, and it didn’t take him long to arrive at the answers, especially since it was related to Aidos.
"...gods. No, god Kings."
"Yep.
Artemisia’s father and Beatrix’s mother. They’re the only ones with the Authority to open the Garden of Stars through Aidos’ rift.
I could enter without their permission, but that would mean breaking in and that’d cause a lot of problems that’d be a hassle to deal with."
"..."
Arthur went silent again. He did not want to physically meet any god Kings in this Universe for rather obvious reasons and Jamie completely understood his reasoning.
It was one thing if he was on Aramis or Gozon, but going to Aidos meant entering the domain of not just one, but two of the Universe’s most powerful god Kings.
He was literally entering their backyard!
"Well, to be honest. Uvton and Rilene wouldn’t do anything to you as long as you don’t antagonize them first. I can guarantee that much."
"But those two are not the only god Kings on Aidos, are they?"
"No, they are not."
Arthur placed a hand on his chin after Jamie’s response. He was silent for a few moments, and then suddenly, his energy signature completely vanished.
His passive ’Divine Suppression’ completely vanished as well, and in its place, his divinity rose quietly to the surface.
Jamie’s eyes widened slightly at the change.
Unless one knew he was a godslayer beforehand, then they wouldn’t believe the boy before them who seemed no different from a ’Normal Divine Human’ was the Progenitor of godslayers.
"Well, I guess that works as well."
When Jamie said that, Evan, who had casually pulled out a strawberry juice pack from his inventory and started drinking, finally chimed in.
"I was wondering when you two would arrive at this rather obvious solution. If he doesn’t want to meet any god Kings, then they just shouldn’t know he’s on Aidos at all.
Rather than Arthur, I’m the one who should be worried about going to Aidos."
At Evan’s words, the other two couldn’t help but agree.
Evan was a Hero of Aidos from the future. If he set foot on the current Aidos, the Planet’s Consciousness would immediately detect his existence.
Also, the current Heroes of Aidos might detect his existence as well.
That wasn’t even the most dangerous part. Having two Heroes from different time periods, each wielding the same powers and Hero Authorities, could cause a serious backlash from the laws of time.
The reason Evan had been fine until now was because the spell that sent him to the past—Eon Sunder Regressio—cloaked him with an aura that prevented the laws of time from detecting the anomaly.
But that cloaking was not permanent and he’d return to the future once it wore off.
"I’m not so sure if the cloaking would still obscure your existence from the laws of time if you go to Aidos though..."
Jamie spoke as his eyes glowed slightly. Activating his Temporal Authority, he searched for the answer to this predicament.
After a few moments, he spoke.
"Well, I think I can stop the Temporal Laws of the Universe, but the localized time laws on Aidos would still detect you, though they shouldn’t be able to cause any harm as far as you don’t get too close to anything that conflicts."
