Chapter 650: Counterbalance
The Arthur in her vision had seen her looking at him through time.
That look pierced through her visions, reaching her with an intensity that made her shudder.
In every possible future, she had foreseen challenges and gambles—but nothing like that. It was a future she could never let come to pass.
These memories flashed through her mind and when she snapped out of her shock, she saw Arthur’s face very close to hers.
"Oh, seems your ’mind’ is back here."
He drew away before giving a short laugh and continuing.
"Don’t think too much about it. The guy attacked me; I want back at him. That’s all there is to it."
The Prophetess, still struggling to find her voice, simply stared at him, trying to reconcile the Arthur before her with the ones from her divinations.
Before she could speak, Arthur stepped closer once more.
"It seems like you’re that kind, huh?"
Arthur’s tone was light, but there was something sharp underneath. He locked eyes with her, his gaze intense but amused.
"You’ve relied on your power of divination, causality, seeing cause and effect—whatever you want to call it— focusing solely on the outcomes you’ve seen and completely missing the obvious."
The Prophetess blinked, confused and still reeling from the unexpected turn of events.
"Sometimes, things don’t need to be so complicated. The devils attacked me, unprovoked. And if they’re as dominant on this continent as you say, I can’t go after them alone, not when they’ve got Superior Transcendents.
But here’s the thing—you’re already opposing them. So, if I side with you, my chances of getting the payback I want go way up."
The Prophetess wanted to speak, she wanted to say that this was no different from what she had seen. Every potential future she had seen started like this.
But Arthur beat her to the punch.
"I wouldn’t exactly be helping you. It’s more apt to say I’d be using you guys to get payback."
"..."
Arthur let the words sink in, watching her blink as realization dawned. This was the first variable. Something Arthur had not said in any outcome she had foreseen.
"You’ve got an impressive power, but don’t lean on it too much.
Anyway, although I’m someone who lives guided by my pleasure and displeasure, you guys did help me out. Sped up my healing and gave me a nice place to recuperate, so I’ll return the favour. Plus..."
The boy’s lips curled up into a grin that the Prophetess found all too familiar.
"This does sound like fun."
No words escaped her lips.
’Pleasure and Displeasure guiding his actions... It is precisely because of his displeasure with the situation that resulted in that outcome.’
The thought crossed her mind for a second, but she didn’t vocalize it. If Arthur was already diverging from that possibility by himself, then she’d do all she could to make sure he stayed away from it.
’No matter what, we cannot afford to displease him to the point where he uses that Sword of Destruction...’
Snapping out of her thoughts, she saw that Arthur had approached the table in the centre of the room and had taken a seat in front of the gathered spirits.
He glanced at the prophetess, still standing some distance away, and with a simple gesture, used his gravity powers to lift her back to her seat.
Once she was seated, Arthur thought about the Devils and the Spirits of this continent—there was a story there, one he would undoubtedly have to learn later.
But now, his companions took priority.
"My companions, where you found me—were they nearby?"
The Prophetess bowed her head lightly and then responded to Arthur’s inquiry.
"Sir Arthur, we have located your companions who were nearby, and I have sent out forces to retrieve them."
Arthur raised a brow at the word nearby.
"Nearby, you say?"
The Prophetess nodded in response and explained.
"Your Vampire and Succubus companions have been found, and they are on their way now."
Her words reminded Arthur of a crucial fact he’d pushed away earlier. It had been three days since the Infernal Archdevils attacked him.
Within those three days he was unconscious, the spirits had searched for Crim and Hibiki, a part of the Prophetess’ attempts to appease him.
Arthur pulled out the Denerth Sect token from his subspace and infused his magic power into it to confirm her words.
Crim and Hibiki were together and their locations were drawing closer to him.
"And what of the others?"
He asked this as he put down the token, his voice low but probing. At this, the Prophetess’ expression faltered slightly.
"I have divined and confirmed the safety of the two goddesses and the boy with distorted time—"
"Wait."
Arthur interrupted her midway.
"His name is Evan. Stop calling him the ’boy with distorted time.’ It’s honestly a mouthful. Also, what is your name anyway?"
Normally, Arthur would have asked this first, but she went ahead to do something that threw him off so he completely forgot about asking her name.
The prophet blinked in surprise before nodding in compliance.
"I am called Charisse, Sir Arthur.
Moving on, I have divined the locations of the two goddesses and Hero Evan."
She added the title, but Arthur waved it off, uninterested in the formalities.
"Although I have confirmed their safety, I’m afraid there are forces beyond our control that would prevent you from reuniting with them for now."
"Forces beyond your control?"
He was skeptical but Charisse didn’t mind. Instead, she glanced at the other Spirits at the table and then spoke.
"It would be better to show you, Sir Arthur, rather than to explain. You shall see it with your own eyes."
Charisse clasped her palms and muttered a short chant under her breath, and not long after, Arthur sensed something enter his perception range.
’Fast!’
The entity’s speed was quite staggering, especially considering the amount of power he could sense from it.
"Please, follow me. I’ll brief you on the situation as we go."
Arthur nodded, following Charisse outside. As they stepped beyond the shelter of the Spirit’s Abode, a large bird spirit with dark feathers awaited them.
Within seconds, they were surrounded by over a dozen other spirits—Charise’s escorts. Arthur was hardly surprised; someone of her stature would naturally draw such a guard.
Some of them cast him curious glances but he ignored them.
In the meantime, Charisse walked to the bird-spirit and whispered to it. The creature nuzzled its large head against her and she smiled lightly before turning to Arthur.
"Sir Arthur, please, climb on."
Arthur simply teleported atop the creature’s back and Charisse joined him a moment later. The bird spirit then beat its wings and took the sky, carrying them away from Nature’s Dwelling while Charisse’s escorts trailed behind.
◇ ◇ ◇
As they journeyed through the skies, Arthur’s gaze shifted between the shifting horizon and the Prophetess seated beside him.
He yawned and stretched, before resting his back on the bird spirit’s feathery back, staring at the sky silently until Charisse finally spoke.
"Sir Arthur. I’ve summarized the current situation of the Continent in a way that won’t take much of your time. May I explain?"
Arthur gave her a nod, closing his eyes as he began to listen to her tale.
"Triffid, the Tree of Creation was once deified by Elves who lived in the Eastern part of this continent. In its prime, it was one of the life-giving forces that governed our planet, but now, Triffid is a curse upon the land.
The life it grants is a twisted one—a parasite that corrupts everything it touches."
Arthur’s brow furrowed, but he kept his silence, listening intently as Charisse continued.
"Less than a year ago, the plains surrounding Triffid were lush and open. Grass stretched as far as one could see, dancing under the sun. The plains were part of the Elven Empire that dominated the East.
Now, Triffid’s influence has twisted it all into an ominous forest, thick with shadows and dense with an insatiable hunger. It devours everything—every blade of grass, every patch of soil, reshaping it in its own image."
Charisse did not mind that Arthur had his eyes closed and continued speaking with her head faced forward.
"The elves were the first to fall. They kept quiet about Triffid’s corruption for too long, so by the time we noticed, it was too late. Millions were already consumed.
Those devoured by the Tree did not simply vanish. They became a part of it, reshaped and reborn as new extensions of Triffid itself. Guardians of the forest that spread around it.
They became what we call the Vanguards of the Tree—not quite alive, yet far from dead. Bound to Triffid’s will, they defend it relentlessly."
Charisse looked to her right, over the bird spirit’s body and at the mass of trees below them.
"We tried all we could to hold it back. Despite the words of the forest-loving elves, we set fires, thinking we could purge it, but Triffid simply fed on the flames, using them to birth new growth, as if each attempt to destroy it only granted it more power."
She paused, her hand brushing lightly over the feathers of the bird spirit as it soared through the sky.
"In the end, a direct assault was launched.
After carving through the forest and battling the beasts twisted by Triffid’s corruption—a battle in which the Spirit race lost almost all its Superior Stage Transcendents—the remaining sacrificed themselves, pouring all their remaining power into destroying the Tree."
Hearing her, Arthur finally opened his eyes and asked.
"And it wasn’t enough?"
Charisse silently shook her head in response.
"No. Triffid is an existence that was born alongside this planet, birthed by the Law of Creation. When we reduced it to ashes, it rose again.
Its roots drank deep of the energies we used against it, feeding off them like fuel. It grew back, stronger than ever, mocking our every effort."
The young woman’s tone didn’t change as she spoke of this failure of theirs, quickly moving on to the next part of her narration.
"We thought there was nothing that could be done, but thanks to my divination and the last efforts of the previous elders, then we discovered something.
Even the Tree of Creation, with all its strength, has one weakness. The same force that allows it to create endlessly can also be used to unravel it—to reduce it to nothing."
Finally, Charisse turned to face Arthur for the first time since they began this journey. Her grey eyes met his heterochromatic ones as she spoke.
"The Law of Destruction. It’s the counterbalance to Creation, capable of completely removing Triffid from the surface of this planet."
