Chapter 619: Rule Breaker Number 4
"4%."
Arthur muttered that figure under his breath, opening his eyes a moment later before taking a sip of the drink in the glass.
This one didn’t seem to have any extra buffs and instead helped him recover a small portion of the energy he had consumed to boost his stats by one sub-rank.
As for the 4% he mentioned, it was how much his Destruction Comprehensions had been forcefully increased.
’I’d need my Origin Core to stabilize a bit before I can attempt comprehending the law further. But that’s all good. I’ve saved myself the time I would have used to comprehend that 4% with this.’
Now, Arthur’s 5 Main Law Comprehensions were as follows.
Time 87%, Destruction 80%, Extinction 26%, Space 43%, Gravity 53%.
He raised his gaze from his status board and looked at Jamie before speaking.
"Thanks for bringing me here."
Arthur was truly grateful. The gains he’d made were substantial, even though it wasn’t directly related to his immediate goal of fulfilling his final Transcendence condition. This trip would undoubtedly aid him in the long run, after he’d fulfilled that condition.
"What about you, Evan? What did you get?"
"Not much different from you.
Energy Quality Upgrade, Law power buff, skill and stat upgrade."
Evan responded as he signalled the automations, and as the automations approached, Arthur placed an order for normal food—he was starving, and the earlier depletion had taken more of a toll than he initially thought.
When the food arrived, it was every bit as delicious as it looked, and Arthur dug in with enthusiasm. He ate until his hunger was fully sated, then leaned back in his chair with satisfaction.
As everyone was done with their meals, Jamie finally spoke.
"So, to be honest, I didn’t bring you two here just for this.
There’s another special place that gives triple EXP boosts, but unfortunately, it can only be accessed with permission from Revi—the Realm Lord.
And like I said earlier, she’s not around."
Jamie spoke with a disappointed sigh and though they were similarly disappointed, there was nothing they could do about it.
Just then, Byrant, the Spirit King they’d met earlier, appeared once more, though this time he was dressed far more formally. Spotting Jamie, his eyebrows raised in surprise.
"Huh? You’re still here J-man."
"Was just about to leave."
Jamie responded and got up from his seat and his reply put a small smile on Byrant’s face.
"What a coincidence. I was about to leave too—Her Majesty sent me on an errand."
The moment Byrant mentioned "Her Majesty," Jamie froze, his eyes going wide. His head snapped toward Byrant.
"Wait...who sent you on an errand??"
"Uh... Her Majesty?"
A long silence followed as Jamie processed the information, his expression shifting. Slowly, his lips curled into a mischievous, almost wicked grin.
Byrant, seeing the sudden change in Jamie’s demeanour, took an instinctive step back but Jamie closed the distance, his hand clapping firmly onto Byrant’s shoulder.
"So, you mean that ’Her Majesty’ is in this Realm as we speak?"
Byrant didn’t want to answer that question. His instincts were telling him to run, but Jamie had frozen the space around him so he couldn’t move even if he wanted to.
Left with no choice, he reluctantly nodded in affirmation and Jamie’s grin widened.
Arthur and Evan, who had been observing from nearby, exchanged confused glances. Neither understood why the mention of this Her Majesty had caused Jamie such joy.
"Jamie, context?"
When Arthur called out to him, Jamie turned and explained.
"This guy is a ’Spirit King’. There’s only one person he would address as ’Her Majesty’ and that’s the ’Spirit Empress’."
"?!"
Evan’s eyes widened as the realisation hit him.
Of the Five Race Emperors of this Universe, the Spirit Empress, Kaylatheurge—someone that he had connections with in the future he came from.
At the very least, she was present on the day he got sent back in time and the spell had used her energy as one of the deciding factors to bring him to Aramis.
’Unlike with Artemisia and Beatrix, this is an encounter I can avoid.’
Such thoughts crossed Evan’s mind at that moment.
Kaylatheurge did not know that they were in this place. If she did then she would be making every effort she could to physically leave this Realm since she did NOT want to be anywhere near Jamie.
And for good reason—Jamie’s grin was far too mischievous, the kind that promised trouble. It was more than enough to make her keep a wide berth.
Evan pondered on things for a few moments before nodding silently; and like that, the last thing holding Jamie back was released.
The man took a deep breath and retracted the passive law energy and magic power he emanated naturally, taking care to conceal as much of his presence as he could.
When Arthur gave him a questioning look, Jamie explained.
"If Kayla senses me coming, she’ll bolt.
I don’t even think this is enough. Instead of going to her, I need her to come closer... close enough for me to grab her before she can run."
The way he spoke, it sounded like he was planning to kidnap her.
Jamie extended his hand toward the space in front of him and spoke.
"Come, my friend. I’m going to need you for something."
Arthur and Evan exchanged puzzled glances. Who was Jamie talking to? There was no one there—at least not that they could see.
Their confusion was soon answered. The space in front of Jamie’s palm tore open like a fabric being ripped apart, revealing a patch of darkness.
He reached into the darkness, his hand disappearing for a brief moment before emerging again, this time gripping the hilt of a long sword.
The sword had a hilt crafted from polished obsidian and a blade that seemed to be forged with an expanse of black mist, shimmering with an ethereal iridescence.
It resembled the swirling galaxies and nebulae that adorn the night sky, and the appearance of outer space itself.
"Wait a second!"
Arthur reacted immediately at the sight of the long sword, and simultaneously, both Celestia and Lostvayne manifested of their own volition.
[Galaxy Sword?!]
Celestia’s voice rang out, naming the sword in Jamie’s hand—Rule Breaker Number 4.
Lostvayne also said something, and though Arthur couldn’t hear Lostvayne’s words, as the sword spoke in a frequency that lower existences could not hear, Celestia translated.
[The Ego of the sword is...it’s asleep?]
Just like Lostvayne, this ’Galaxy Sword’ Jamie wielded had an Ego of its own, but for some reason it was asleep.
According to Celestia, it didn’t seem to be a forced slumber as there was no external force pressing down on its Ego.
"Oh, Lostvayne. Long-time no see."
[-- ---- --]
Jamie, unfazed by the revelation, smiled as he addressed Arthur’s sword, and the weapon let out a low hum, saying something which made Jamie laugh.
"Didn’t I tell you once? The day would come when you’d find yourself serving a ’lower existence.’ Guess I wasn’t wrong, now was I?"
Lostvayne, apparently irritated, pointed its blade away from Jamie as if huffing in annoyance, while the man chuckled at the display.
Arthur, Evan, and even Byrant could only watch, dumbfounded by the surreal scene unfolding before them.
It was Byrant who first snapped out of his daze, moving quickly to stand in front of Jamie, panic creeping into his voice.
"Wait, J-man. What do you wanna do?!"
"Hmm? Get Kayla’s attention. What else?"
"Then why did you summon that thing?!"
Byrant screamed out while keeping a healthy distance from Jamie’s sword, but the Hybrid only laughed in response.
"Relax. I’m not trying to fight her or anything."
"That doesn’t—!"
Before Byrant could finish, Jamie waved again, this time releasing a swirl of cosmic energy that enveloped Byrant in an instant. The Spirit King was whisked away from the area, disappearing in a blink.
Jamie then infused the Galaxy Sword with enough Cosmic Energy to make Arthur feel cold sweat running down his back.
Though the Galaxy Sword had a slumbering Ego, it was still a Rule Breaker. And unlike Arthur and Lostvayne, it was in the hands of a Deity who could bring out its original power.
Jamie’s eyes glowed upon the activation of his Unique Authority, his lips parting as he calmly spoke in his True Voice.
|Dimensional Slash|
He swung the blade and his azure spatial power fused with cosmic energy tore through the sky in a single, devastating slash.
Reality itself fractured in response, and a massive crack split the heavens above. A second later, the sky ’broke’.
Half the stars in the night sky vanished.
The eyes of both boys went wide in shock. The Automations nearby were also dumbfounded.
Evan couldn’t have words come out of his mouth. His hand trembled as he pointed at the now-empty sky, his voice faltering.
"Di-did y-yo...?"
Jamie chuckled at Evan’s obvious bewilderment, sheathing the Galaxy Sword before turning to address the unspoken question.
"No, I did not destroy all those stars. I only destroyed a portion of the ’spacetime’ between us and those stars."
He continued, his tone light as if he’d done something as simple as moving furniture.
"Stars emit light, and that light travels through space and takes time to reach us. What I erased was that space and time.
So, with nothing for the light to travel through, we can’t see it. To us, it looks like those stars have disappeared.
But they’re still out there, perfectly fine, however many millions of light-years away."
As his words sunk in, both boys exchanged looks, still awestruck at the sheer magnitude of what Jamie had just done.
’I’ve seen my share of crazy shit, but I guess there’s always something crazier.’
Who knew how many star systems had suddenly lost half the stars in their night sky? From the auras he could sense surging up hundreds of kilometres away, then it was a LOT.
Taking a deep breath to calm himself, Arthur then asked.
"Why?"
Jamie put his weapon back into his subspace before answering.
"Like I said earlier. I need Kayla to come out to my range so I can get her attention. Unless I do something of this scale, she wouldn’t budge.
What’s more, Kayla is an existence closely related to stars."
When Jamie said this, Evan’s eyes widened ever so slightly. But Arthur wasn’t focused on Evan, so he didn’t notice this reaction.
"If Kayla is here, there’s no way she’d sit back while half the stars in the sky abruptly disappeared. She’d attempt to investigate and that would bring her out from wherever she is."
Just then, Jamie looked up at the now-empty sky and smiled.
"She was faster than I expected."
Right after saying those words, Jamie vanished.
◇ ◇ ◇
Space was supposed to be dark, devoid of anything to trap the light of distant stars.
Yet, with so many stars scattered across the galaxy, space should still be dotted with countless points of light.
But Jamie’s actions had altered that, leaving an eerie emptiness where light should have been, and someone was not pleased by this.
Far from the Garden of Stars, a woman floated in the vastness of space.
She was tall, her long black hair cascading down to her waist, curling at the tips. Her simple black dress fluttered around her knees, and a sleepy look lingered in her noble golden eyes as she rubbed them, trying to shake off the drowsiness.
Initially, like many others, she had assumed half the stars had vanished from the sky—a thought that didn’t make sense, prompting her enough to investigate.
But as she neared the affected area, she understood what had truly happened.
Pausing at a certain point in the vacuum, she reached out slowly, extending her hand until it crossed an invisible boundary—and was immediately sliced off.
