Chapter 675: The Culprit!
Movement of his own volition was absolutely impossible.
Arthur’s body did not permit it. His energy core shut down completely.
He silently lay on the ground next to Vonun’s corpse, until a large shadow suddenly covered him.
"Hey, big guy. Mind giving me a lift?"
The Beast of the END stared down at him with its crimson eyes, lowering its head to sniff him silently.
After a few moments, it opened its mouth and bit Arthur’s arm, lifting him off the ground and flinging him onto its back.
Landing on the furry back of the wolf, Arthur spoke.
"Thanks."
The wolf said nothing and simply leapt through the air, heading in the direction of the giant flaming tree in the distance.
’Looks like Evan handled that...’
Such were Arthur’s thoughts as he glanced at the prismatic flames currently burning Triffid to the ground.
Although it did not delete the Tree’s Source Code from existence, it had surely destroyed it permanently.
As such, while a ’Tree of Creation’ could appear somewhere in the Infernal Dimension again, that somewhere cannot be Apex World Taemia.
Unless of course, someone with a Creation law Authority decides to create a new one.
Still, the corruption was halted, and the Infernal Devils were defeated. It was a Victory for the Spirits.
’Is it a real victory?’
Arthur thought back to the presence of the Infernal Devil King he’d sensed. The whole situation felt fishy.
’There’s also my spatial perception...’
The boy’s eyes darted towards the sky, and he sighed once more, just before screams of shock entered his ears.
Naturally, the Spirits were shocked to see the giant wolf suddenly land in their midst, and they clearly couldn’t see Arthur who was on its back.
"What the?! Is that a Wolf of the END?!"
Hearing Evan’s loud voice, Arthur barely managed to raise his head and ask.
"You know this guy?"
"Wait, Arthur?!"
He heard Beatrix’s surprised voice and then, the wolf’s tail wrapped around his stomach and lifted him off, dropping him on the ground before them.
At that point, Evan, who was also on the ground and didn’t seem like he was capable of moving an inch, responded to his query.
"I know another bastard who looks just like this guy..."
The Wolf tilted its head upon spotting Evan, then circled the boy, sniffing him before turning towards Arthur.
"No. He’s a friendly dragon."
That was all Arthur said and immediately, Evan’s eyes widened as he realised the implications. By sheer force of will, Evan pushed himself off the ground and away from the wolf, earning Arthur’s laugh.
The wolf didn’t seem to understand why Evan reacted like that and it tilted its head, acting like it didn’t just ask Arthur whether it was okay to eat Evan like it did to Murobis.
Suddenly, the space around the wolf began to ripple, and it raised its head to Arthur.
"?!"
Magic power flowed into Arthur’s body, not enough to recover his reserves, but enough to keep him out of his energy deficiency state and allow him to regain mobility.
"Why, thank you."
The wolf, silent as ever, just nodded its large head before disappearing, turning into a streak of light that shot up into the sky and out of the planet.
Seeing it, Arthur spoke.
"And thank you for confirming my conjecture, Infernal Devil King."
The others nearby didn’t seem to understand what he meant. Only Evan’s eyes widened at the mention of the title, but he said nothing else.
Arthur forced himself to his feet, thinking about the Law of Summoning’s working process.
’The law of summoning always chooses the most energy-efficient method to summon and return summoning.
So, if the summoned existence’s return point is close enough that using a spatial tunnel would be inefficient, it wouldn’t use one.’
Shaking his head, Arthur looked towards Evan and spoke.
"965. You?"
"815."
Evan responded, and Arthur shrugged.
"Better than nothing."
"Far better."
The two boys fist-bumped after confirming their levels, while Beatrix watched the interaction incredulously.
"How the hell did you guys understand yourselves...?"
Evan and Arthur exchanged glances, then looked at her before speaking one after another.
"Because Trigger."
"That makes sense."
"NO IT DOESN’T!!!"
Beatrix screamed at the top of her lungs, ignoring the gazes she got from everyone nearby while Arthur and Evan laughed at her.
"Still, I thought the Author was gonna troll me with another Level Wall or something."
Evan said this and Arthur turned towards him with a raised brow.
"Seems you didn’t see the original Chapter drafts. You got trolled with Level 799 and 99/100 EXP."
Hearing Arthur’s response, Evan’s jaw dropped, visibly enough that it could be seen even with his mask.
Speaking of his mask...
"Is that thing an artifact or so? How did it survive all the fighting?"
Evan laughed, shaking his head in response.
"Nahh. It’s just a regular mask I infused with magic power to increase its durability. It looks brand new because I had Beatrix rewind its time."
Looking up at the burning Triffid, Evan continued.
"If my guess is correct, then I’m gonna need this mask to be on until we leave the Infernal Dimension.
Can’t have some certain bastards seeing me unmasked."
The boy spoke as he got to his feet, offering no further explanation about his words and letting Arthur form his own conjectures.
’Most likely people he knows in the future...like that ’Gard’ Celestial.’
Arthur made this guess before looking at Evan and speaking.
"Dude. So, when I summoned that Wolf, I noticed something that caught my attention.
After finishing my fight with that devil, I was finally able to notice another thing that I should have noticed way earlier."
Holding out his hand and grasping empty air, Arthur began speaking.
"When an existence steps into the spatial perception of a practitioner of the Law of Space, they show up as a blank spot, signalling that ’something’ is occupying that space.
The practitioner, depending on their comprehension level, can start to determine details—maybe it’s a man, maybe a woman, perhaps even get a 3D map of the area occupied.
But there are times when spatial perception can be overwhelmed, making it feel like it’s just... not working."
The boy moved his hands once more and the ambient spatial law energy began responding to his will.
"But really, it’s because they’re within the range of a presence with an even wider perception—an existence whose spatial presence completely overpowers theirs.
Their perception isn’t broad enough to fully process this spatial presence and it overwhelms their awareness, making it feel as if their perception is failing.
But practitioners with Authorities in the Law of Space, having reached that level of comprehension, understand the real reason why they sense nothing."
Evan, Beatrix, and even Artemisia who just walked up to them exchanged confused looks, wondering why he was explaining this out of nowhere.
Arthur gave them a small smile, his eyes moving to meet those of Charisse who was tending to the wounds of an Elder Spirit in the distance.
"So, why the sudden lecture? Simple. From the moment I gained my new Pseudo-Authority in space, my spatial perception’s been acting... glitchy.
And after fighting Vonun and finally giving it some thought, I realized why: there’s someone nearby with a spatial presence that completely eclipses mine."
Evan’s gaze narrowed as he followed Arthur’s line of thought.
"Now, don’t we know a certain bastard with that kind of spatial presence? Someone who also uses cosmic energy—the same thing my perception is composed of.
Someone with enough cosmic energy to, say... easily blow up a spaceship, and make sure everyone caught in the blast ’miraculously’ survives."
Evan’s brow furrowed, realization slowly dawning as Arthur spoke.
Now, Arthur understood why Charisse had been so cryptic about his presence here when he first met her.
"Hey, Evan, us ending up in this dimension—it wasn’t a coincidence."
Just as the words left his mouth, a series of notifications showed up in their fields of vision. Not just them, but every single existence on this planet that was brought here after the Cosmic Singularity explosion.
[World Quest: "Defeat the ’Tree of Creation; Triffid’!" complete.]
[World Quest: "Stop the corruption of the ’Tree of Creation; Triffid’!" complete.]
[World Quest: "Defeat the Infernal Archdevil Commander; Vonun’!" complete.]
[World Quest: "Stop the plot of Black Dragon; Murobis!" complete.]
[World Quest: "Secure Victory for the Natives of Iohodis!" complete.]
The reactions to these notifications were varied. Some were confused, some were shocked, and some had the realisation dawn on them.
Following this, the sky split open.
The planet’s barrier, the one stopping Deity Realm Existences from entering, tore apart.
Beams of light descended, halting a few hundred meters above, each one taking form.
When Arthur had summoned the Beast of the END earlier, he had sensed three Deity Realm presences on the other end of the spatial channel.
One was the Beast’s Parent. The second was the Infernal Devil King.
The third was the man leading the group appearing in the sky—a silver-haired man in a suit, a face Arthur and Evan knew all too well.
Seeing him grinning down at them, Arthur and Evan cursed in unison.
""You fucking bastard.""
Jamie burst into genuine laughter, his True Voice echoing across the land. His laughter drew every eye towards him, momentarily shifting the tension in the air.
With the burning Tree of Creation blazing in the background, the silver-haired man’s blue eyes glowed as spread his arms and spoke.
|And with that, the ’Special Secret Realm Exploration’ comes to a flaming end! |
Just as Jamie’s words hung in the air, two sonic booms shattered the silence. Arthur and Evan had launched themselves upward, reaching Jamie in the blink of an eye.
Without a flicker of hesitation, their swords materialized in their hands, and both stabbed at his head with lethal precision, their intent so fierce that every Sect Master and Elder from the sects that participated in this whole scheme felt a jolt of shock.
Never had they witnessed two mortals strike at a Race King with such pure killing intent.
Jamie laughed, drawing his Galaxy Sword, its dark blade shimmering with the image of a night sky as he effortlessly intercepted both attacks, blocking their strikes mid-air.
"Let me stab you just once—just one stab in the fucking head."
Arthur’s voice dripped with frustration and Evan chimed in immediately after.
"You’re immortal, right?! You’ll grow your head back, won’t you? Just let me get one in!"
Jamie only chuckled, his eyes glinting with mirth.
"Come on, kids, wasn’t it a fun ten weeks?"
"Fun?! What the fuck do you mean, fun? You tried to kill us! You blew up the spaceship with us in it!"
Evan shot back furiously and Arthur followed up.
"And you used a cosmic singularity to do it. Do you know how close we were to being the first meals of a newborn singularity?!"
Jamie smirked, shrugging with mock innocence.
"In my defence, it wouldn’t have escalated to a cosmic singularity if you two didn’t try to get involved."
He then muttered under his breath, just loud enough for them to hear.
"Which is why I told the staff to give you games and keep you entertained, keep you away from the bridge..."
Arthur and Evan’s eyes widened as realization dawned. The games, the hospitality of the spaceship staff—it all made sense.
Jamie had orchestrated everything, ensuring Arthur was kept distracted and unaware of what was going on.
But they never expected that Arthur had a copy of the old map on him, and he noticed their course veering off track, leading him to investigate and discover the singularity beforehand.
This led to Jamie having to detonate the singularity prematurely since Arthur intended to use the Stellar Guard to protect himself, Evan, Artemisia and Beatrix from the blast.
The realization only fuelled their annoyance. They pulled back their blades, gathering destruction energy, and stabbed at Jamie again, determined to make him pay for every manipulated second of those ten weeks.
Sadly, there was no breaking through Jamie’s defences; their furious strikes met nothing but air and metal, deflected effortlessly as Jamie parried each blow.
With a flick of his sword, he sent Arthur and Evan tumbling back to the ground, both landing with frustrated huffs, unable to unleash their anger.
"Damn it, you’ll pay for this!"
"One of these days, I’m cutting that head off, at least once!"
They shouted their threats with the fervour of B-movie third-rate villains, and Jamie merely laughed, sheathing his Galaxy Sword. Turning to the stunned onlookers, he addressed the crowd.
"Alright, I’m sure you all have questions, but explaining everything would be a hassle. So I’d skip the lecture, and just force it all straight into your minds."
With a clap of his hands, he transmitted the entire truth—revealing how their spaceship’s explosion had been no accident and the past Ten Weeks had been the ’Special Secret Realm Exploration’ they had been told about.
The whole thing was a plan between Jamie, the Higher-ups of various Cultivation Sects, and the Infernal Devil King of Absolute Death.
The collective shock of the crowd, from the weakest spirit foot soldier to the Elders and Cultivators, rippled through the entire continent like a visible wave, their faces betraying sheer disbelief.
Jamie chuckled at their expressions, thoroughly entertained, while Sect Master Chang simply heaved a resigned sigh at Jamie’s obvious amusement.
