Chapter 653: Into the Lion’s Den
"I would not deny that the effectiveness of my divinations is reduced, but it’s not an issue as I can simply step away if I want to use them."
"True, you can just do that."
The boy nodded then leaned back and closed his eyes, feeling the wound in his chest slowly closing up and the bones and flesh regenerating.
The war between the Infernal Devils and the Spirits of Iohodis had intensified in the last few weeks. The remnants of the Elves, Humans and other smaller populated races had joined the banner of the spirits as well.
However, some had turned tail and sided with the Infernal Devils, and there were many cultivators amongst them.
Recent news reaching them was that one of the new Transcendent Realm Cultivators who had switched to the enemy camp was someone from Hibiki’s sect. And it wasn’t just a random member, but Hibiki’s Elder Disciple under the same Master.
Luckily, all members of Crim’s Blood Moon Sect were in the Spirit Camp so there was no problem on her end.
"Why do things have to be so complicated..."
Arthur mused aloud, eyes opening slowly as he turned to face Charisse.
"So? What’s the update on the thing I’m seeking?"
"Apologies, Sir Arthur, but I cannot inform you about it before it happens."
Charisse’s response wasn’t surprising for Arthur. This was the ninth time she had given it, after all.
In the past eight weeks, Arthur made sure to ask this question once per week and Charisse gave him the same answer as always.
He was very curious about what she had divined as the reason for his presence here, however, Charisse wasn’t going to say anything about it.
He understood why. It was the same principle of ’If I tell you about your future, that future won’t happen’.
The boy silently activated his Pseudo-Authority of Time and looked at his Parallel Paths.
His future which was normally stretched out with infinite possibilities now had just five paths ahead of him.
The paths had been narrowing and merging, a clear sign that a Nexus Event was drawing closer.
Eventually, the paths would converge to one, and then, he would know it was time.
Cutting off the energy flow to his Pseudo-Origin Core, Arthur closed his eyes once more, settling into a light slumber to rest and recover the energy he had expended battling Kagluk.
◇ ◇ ◇
Nature’s Dwelling
Iohodis Continent
Apex World Taemia
November 3rd
Year 1054 (Valmone)
Arthur felt a gentle touch rousing him from his light slumber. His eyes fluttered open, meeting Charisse’s black eyes, before drifting toward the sky where the rising sun broke through the crimson horizon.
"How long?"
"Fifteen hours."
Charisse answered his question on how long he was asleep and he nodded, before sitting up and checking his arm—newly regenerated, with the holes in his chest fully healed.
Running energy through his body, Arthur felt his circulation flow smoothly.
After confirming this, he snapped his fingers and rewound the holes in his clothes until they were whole again.
Standing, he stretched, loosening the last remnants of sleep from his muscles and only then did Charisse speak again.
"We’ve received confirmed reports of a retaliation on one of our strongholds. It’s Archdevil Yujia."
Still stretching, Arthur yawned, before turning around.
"Let’s get to the council first."
Like so, the two of them teleported to the central tree in Nature’s Dwelling that had been carved in the form of the hall where the Ruling Council of Spirits met.
Inside, the ten Elders argued heatedly, their voices filling the air.
At the centre of the room hovered a holographic map of the continent, with several regions marked in red, and one particular one blinking.
The moment Arthur arrived, the ten Elders turned towards him and the boy, still sleepy, fixed his gaze on the map in front of him.
One of the Spirit’s Strongholds was being attacked, and the reason was as Charisse had stated earlier: retaliation for Arthur killing Kagluk yesterday.
Some of the Infernal Archdevils were rather overconfident.
Knowing Arthur was still technically a Sovereign, they let their guard down—and he seized the opportunity to lure Kagluk out and eliminate him.
For weeks now, Arthur’s true battle power had remained a mystery. Whenever he moved, at least one or two Transcendent Spirits accompanied him, obscuring any accurate assessment of his strength.
Survivors also weren’t much of a thing where he struck, leaving few reliable accounts of his capabilities.
They did know he possessed at least two Pseudo-Authorities, but again, Arthur was still a Sovereign.
As such, they attributed his survival against Vonun’s attack to these Pseudo-Authorities and evaluated his power to be that of an Inferior Transcendent at most.
To these powerful Transcendent Infernal Archdevils, it was impossible for a Sovereign to directly defeat them, even if the Sovereign possessed Pseudo-Authorities.
That might have been true if Arthur had been a standard Sovereign, but he was anything but.
Only Vonun, Jegunul, and Yujia had accurately assessed his strength as they had been the ones to attack him, but despite their warnings and orders, the other Archdevils, confident in their Transcendent power, did not pay much heed.
The situation grew even murkier when both Vonun and Jegunul disappeared six weeks ago. They hadn’t been sighted since, and Spirit spies confirmed that even the other Archdevils had no clue as to their whereabouts.
Kagluk might have known something, but the moment Arthur spotted the Vonun’s flower on his head, he abandoned any plans of interrogation and focused solely on killing him.
Yujia surely knew, but trying to get it out of her would need them to capture, rather than kill her. Quite a tall order considering she was a Superior Transcendent.
Kagluk, confident in his ability to handle Arthur, had miscalculated and ended up on a trip to the afterlife.
Now, Yujia had learned of his death and struck back, attacking one of the Spirits’ bases in retaliation.
The reason for the heated argument amongst the Elders here was due to differing opinions on how they were to respond.
It was one thing if it was another Archdevil, but this was one of the Superior Transcendent ones.
Charisse glanced at Arthur, calm amidst the silent tension and asked.
"Sir Arthur, what do you think?"
Arthur didn’t respond. He sank into a seat, resting his head against the polished table as his eyes focused on the holographic map before him.
His fingers drifted over the floating image, then came to a stop above a mountainous region marked by artificial volcanoes—an area terraformed by the Infernal Devils to suit them, much like the mountainous region where they had attacked Arthur eight weeks ago.
He tapped the area and spoke.
"I say we hit here."
The room fell silent, then erupted. Elders gasped, voices overlapping in swift objection. Their objections were only natural, after all, the region he’d pointed to was none other than Yujia’s stronghold!
"Sir Arthur, that’s her base! We’re here to discuss how to repel her attack on our stronghold, not assault hers!"
"The Infernal Devils’ forces may be split, but this side of the Chasm holds the individually stronger ones."
Just like the spirits, the Chasm had split the forces of the Infernal Devils in two. That other side had quantity, while this side where Arthur was had quality.
Despite not being as much, the Devils here were all stronger than average, even more so as it was the base of one of their three commanders.
Yujia had Transcendent Infernal Devils under her, and this wasn’t mentioning the tens of thousands of troops.
"You’re suggesting we walk into that lion’s den?"
Hearing the Elder’s question, Arthur, still leaning on the table responded.
"Yep. That being her base is precisely why it’s the best option now."
He met their incredulous looks with an air of ease. The objections grew louder until one of the elders, brow furrowed yet intrigued, raised a hand.
"Perhaps we should let him explain his reasoning."
The others went silent and Arthur yawned lightly as he tapped the map.
"The reason you’re all divided on how to respond is, well, Yujia herself.
Her presence makes this situation difficult to resolve. But if she isn’t at the base she’s attacking, you could redirect reinforcements from nearby strongholds and rally them together to push back her forces."
He motioned back to the area marked on the map.
"Attacking here would draw her attention back to her base."
His eyes scanned the room, gesturing to the elders one by one.
"More specifically, you attacking her base would do the job. All of you."
The council stared back at him in disbelief.
"You want us to assault her stronghold?"
"And leave Nature’s Dwelling undefended?"
"Ten Elders on a single raid?! That’s crazy!"
While the Elders were objecting, Charisse surveyed the map, then looked at the elders and nodded.
"There’s sense in his words.
If Yujia hears that the Ten of you are attacking her stronghold, she’ll have no choice but to abandon the assault on our base and return."
After all, most of the Elders were only a bit weaker than Kagluk, with some even as strong as he was.
"The Archdevils stationed at her home base wouldn’t stand a chance against all ten of you at once. She knows this."
Some of the Elders, though beginning to warm to the idea, still voiced their reservations.
"But say we attack. What happens then?"
One Elder asked and another carried on right after.
"If she discovers we’ve left, she might redirect some forces toward Nature’s Dwelling. And even if we strike with all ten of us, victory is far from guaranteed."
Hearing this, Arthur finally sat upright and responded to them.
"True, victory isn’t guaranteed. But I have a plan to ensure it with the least losses."
The Elders exchanged glances, skeptical yet curious.
"It all relies on the ten of you being there to suppress Yujia’s power—enough to drop her strength to a level where I can take her down."
When Arthur mentioned this, some of the Elders frowned.
"Suppress her? Are you asking us to use one of our seals?"
’Perhaps, the reason he wants all ten of us is this?’
Arthur could guess what they were thinking and he didn’t hesitate to admit that they were right.
"Yep. I want you guys to use your Soul Power seal."
The elders fell silent, their expressions pensive, but Arthur continued, outlining his plan in full detail.
When he finished, they all sat back, some nodding in tentative approval while others looked unconvinced.
One elder, shaking his head, spoke up.
"Too much risk. No plan can account for everything. What if she detects you beforehand, or worse, if she’s still too strong even after all of this? We’d have exposed our base and wasted energy, only to face losses."
He raised valid concerns, but Arthur shrugged, unconcerned.
"Big risks, yeah, but that’s what war’s about sometimes. We take chances. Besides, if things go south, I’ll just break out the grenade launcher."
The mention of a ’grenade launcher’ painted puzzled expressions on the faces of all the Elders.
"What grenade launcher?"
Arthur smirked, pulling out a compact, deadly-looking weapon from his subspace.
"This one."
He slid a single round into the launcher—Cattleya’s condensed destruction energy. The thick, volatile aura radiating from the weapon made every spirit in the room instinctively back away.
All of them comprehended laws, and as such they could tell, that the law energy in that weapon definitely came from a Higher Existence!
Laughing at their reactions, Arthur stowed the weapon away and spoke.
"With her wounded and sealed, using this would be a piece of cake."
The room was silent as the Elders deliberated his bold proposal. After a long moment, the strongest among them leaned forward and spoke.
"Let’s do it. And if things go wrong, we’ll use the Return Stones to teleport back to Nature’s Dwelling in an instant."
Despite lingering objections from a few members, the council’s mood shifted to reluctant agreement.
Satisfied, Arthur rose, heading for the door as he spoke.
"Let me know when you’re ready to move."
As he left, the Elders turned to Charisse, waiting for her final thoughts on the situation.
◇ ◇ ◇
The attack began with a sudden, tear in the sky above the Infernal Devil base.
|¬Cataclysmic Divide. ¬|
That Faux True Voice resounded in all the ears present as an island-splitting slash tore through the sky, ripping apart space itself to create a rift that pulled in all nearby matter and energy, including the energy making up the ginormous dome-shaped barrier around the base.
Nearby mountains fractured, their peaks breaking free and getting sucked up by the rift, while hundreds of Lower-Ranked Devils screamed as they were yanked from the ground, their bodies pulled into the spatial tear where they disintegrated in an instant.
As the barrier crumbled, a rain of destruction energy meteors appeared in the skies, descending on the now-exposed base like harbingers of doom.
Each meteor glowed crimson-silver, trailing smouldering tails of Destruction Law energy that set the sky alight as they plummeted down with terrifying speed.
The Infernal Archdevils stationed there rose to the challenge, rousing their law energies to raise shields above the base.
But just as they rallied their powers, Cosmic Gates tore open behind them, from which the Elder Spirits jumped out.
Caught by surprise, the Archdevils barely had time to register the attacks before the Elder Spirits engaged, throwing full-power attacks that knocked down several Archdevils for the count.
They were immediately forced into combat, unable to counter the destruction energy meteors from Arthur’s ’Armageddon’, now falling unimpeded.
The meteors filled with powerful divinity struck the ground with earth-shaking impact, exploding with power that obliterated entire sections of the base, replacing them with smoking craters.
Arthur’s divinity permeated the area and the Infernal Devils, weak to this positive energy, screamed as their skins were scaled by it.
Within seconds, the base had devolved into utter chaos.
[IMPORTANT AUTHOR NOTE]
