Chapter 710: Into the Heart of the Planet
[How do we even get into the Core Dimension?]
Right after Beatrix posed that critical question, her gaze shifted to Evan as she followed up.
[You’ve been to one before, right? How did you get in?]
Unfortunately, Evan’s response wasn’t encouraging.
[I don’t know. I was unconscious when Aidos brought me there ’herself’.]
Evan’s words dampened the mood, and the weight of uncertainty settled over the group. Sensing this, Jamie let out a resigned sigh.
[I really shouldn’t be telling you this, and the Galaxy Sword is definitely going to be pissed when he finds out, but... desperate times call for desperate measures.]
He paused for a moment before continuing.
[My sword’s Weapon Authority is—]
Before Jamie could finish, an unfamiliar female voice interrupted him, echoing in the telepathic link.
[Dimensional Slicing.]
[...what?]
Everyone froze, startled by the unexpected intrusion.
Even Jamie was momentarily taken aback—not because of the interruption itself, but because the voice had come through their shared telepathic link.
As for the speaker? None other than Arthur’s Ego Sword, Celestia.
Celestia was connected directly to Arthur’s mind, allowing them to communicate without him needing to speak aloud.
Jamie had now integrated Arthur’s mind into their telepathy link, effectively creating an open group chat of sorts.
Since the link was ’open,’ Celestia, already connected to Arthur’s mind, was indirectly tied to the telepathy link as well. This meant Celestia could hear everything being said.
So, when the words ’Galaxy Sword’ and ’Weapon Authority’ came up in the conversation, Celestia unconsciously responded with, "Dimensional Slicing."
Arthur’s eyes narrowed as he processed the situation.
This wasn’t the first time Celestia had demonstrated strange knowledge of another Rule Breaker weapon.
It had happened with Alvey’s ’Morphic Edge’, where she knew its name and ability.
Then there was the time during her recent conversation with Lostvayne, when the name ’Astravalor’ came up. And now, Jamie had barely mentioned the Galaxy Sword before Celestia revealed its Weapon Authority.
[We’ll discuss how—and why—you know that later, Celestia.]
Arthur said, steering the conversation back on track.
[For now, let’s focus on the Weapon Authority. Jamie, with it, you should be able to cut through the dimensional walls of the Core Dimension, right?]
Arthur’s question was met with a shake of Jamie’s head as he replied.
[It’s not as simple as it sounds. In my top condition, I could do it from here. But I’m clearly not in top condition, so we’ll need to get ’close’ to pull it off.]
This presented an entirely different challenge, one that Evan immediately voiced.
[Get close? Didn’t you say the Core Dimension is nested within the planet’s Outer Core? How exactly are we supposed to get close to THAT? Dig a hole straight through the ground?]
His sarcastic tone lingered in the air for only a moment before both Arthur and Jamie turned to him with wide eyes.
Evan blinked, confused, until realization struck, and he pointed at Jamie.
"You!"
Jamie laughed, speaking aloud.
"Well, don’t we already have a perfectly good hole?"
And indeed, they did.
The massive hole Jamie had created earlier, in his attempt to destroy the planet, had punched through the surface and breached the Outer Core.
In other words, it was their direct ticket to getting close.
Arthur’s left hand immediately moved to the Cosmic Teleporter on his right, infusing ambient cosmic energy into it as he spoke.
[I remember the general coordinates of that spot since I used my Pseudo-Authority there. Hopefully, the space around it isn’t too warped.]
Inputting the spatial coordinates for a gate, he continued.
[If we can get there and Jamie cuts our way into the Core Dimension, I have a plan that might just work.]
Everyone gave him curious looks, and Jamie voiced what they were all thinking.
[How sure are you about this plan of yours?]
Arthur responded with a wry smile.
[Are you all ready to put your lives on the line for a 50% chance of success?]
To Arthur’s response, Jamie laughed, shaking his head.
[I’ve put my life on the line for less. 50% is plenty.]
Hearing Jamie’s words, Evan rolled his eyes and quipped.
[’I’ve put my life on the line for less’—says the guy who’s IMMORTAL.]
Arthur and Jamie both laughed at Evan’s quip, but Jamie’s laughter abruptly stopped.
[If we’re going with Arthur’s plan—whatever it is—we need to move fast.]
As Jamie spoke, a crack suddenly appeared across his face, with cosmic energy seeping out like a leaking dam.
Seeing this, Arthur didn’t waste a second. He immediately commanded the Cosmic Teleporter to create a gate, motioning for the others to gather close while it activated.
He felt spatial interference—likely Bewússtsein’s doing—but the Cosmic Teleporter shrugged it off. Ten seconds later, a swirling gate opened before them.
"Everyone in!"
Arthur shouted, leaping through without hesitation. The others followed in quick succession, with three undead hands getting severed as the gate snapped shut behind them.
◇ ◇ ◇
They reappeared thousands of meters in the sky, falling at a breakneck speed.
Jamie quickly conjured a spatial bubble around them, reducing air pressure and temporarily masking their presence from Bewússtsein’s gaze.
As the planet’s consciousness scoured an area spanning over 8 billion square kilometres to locate them, they plummeted toward the massive caldera Jamie had created earlier with his destructive punch.
"Ooh, the ground’s literally lava. Good thing I dropped us up here."
Arthur remarked with a chuckle, but Evan wasn’t having it.
"You crazy skydiver! You pulled this same stunt in that Olrerth world!"
Evan shouted, recalling the last time Arthur had dropped him through a spatial gate thousands of kilometres in the sky.
As they fell further, the winged members of the group unfurled their wings, slowing their descent and hovering in the air. The others used spatial manipulation or wind magic to keep themselves afloat.
It was then Arthur suddenly spoke up.
"So, uh... there’s something I need to tell you guys about my plan..."
All eyes turned toward him as he scratched the back of his head.
"Well, there’s a limit to how many people my plan can affect. And, uh, the more people it includes, the less effective it is for each person."
"You didn’t think to share this crucial information earlier?"
Alvey’s exasperated voice cut through the air, and Arthur responded with an unapologetic laugh—like their lives weren’t on the line here.
McEnda was the next to speak, voicing the question everyone had on their minds.
"Exactly what is your plan?"
Arthur’s response was frustratingly vague.
"Well, it involves this handy little trinket I picked up a few months back.
The thing is, its effects are... limited. The more people included, the less effective it is for each person, and the shorter its uptime."
"And how many people are we talking about here?"
Jamie asked the crucial question and Arthur pointed to himself as he answered.
"Myself included? Five."
There were Seven of them.
That meant two would have to be excluded from Arthur’s plan.
There was a momentary silence before Arthur continued, his tone more serious now.
"Not gonna lie, the optimal use is for three people, including myself. Jamie has to come—he’s our way in. So that leaves room for one more."
His words shifted the stakes further, excluding four people from his plan instead of two. Jamie was about to speak, but Arthur wasn’t done yet.
"And whoever the other four are, they will be at serious risk until we reach the Core Dimension.
But once we’re in and my plan succeeds, there’s a very high chance Bewússtsein won’t have the energy—or peace of mind—to keep controlling these corpses chasing us.
The danger to you will drop significantly."
Another heavy silence fell over the group before Jamie broke it with the question he wanted to ask earlier.
"You said three people for optimal execution, huh? Got anyone in mind?"
Without hesitation, Arthur reached out and grabbed Evan by the collar, interrupting him mid-task as he swapped out the magic stones in his forearm guard.
"Huh? Me?"
Evan blinked in confusion, and Artemisia frowned at Arthur’s choice.
"Why not Alvey or McEnda?"
It was a fair question. The two demons were significantly stronger than Evan, and considering the fight ahead, they seemed like the obvious picks.
Hearing Artemisia’s logical reasoning, Arthur turned to her and grinned.
"The fun reason? Because we’re all main characters. The logical reason? The more Singularities we bring, the better our chances of messing with certain restrictive laws."
Before anyone could interject, Arthur pointed at Jamie.
"You know what else the three of us have in common? Ultimate Seeds. Jamie’s got a fully developed Ultimate Skill, but same difference."
At Arthur’s words, Evan raised his hand like a student with a question.
"I’m pretty sure the term ’same difference’ doesn’t really apply here..."
"Don’t sweat the small stuff."
Arthur waved him off with that line.
Then, without warning, he folded his wings and let gravity take over, his body plummeting toward the massive caldera below.
Evan’s eyes widened at the sight.
"You skydiving lunatic!"
The Rogue Hero shouted, clicking his tongue before flapping his wings and diving after Arthur.
Jamie lingered just long enough to give Alvey and McEnda quick instructions, then shot off after the two.
The three of them cut through the air like falling stars, leaving a trail of sonic booms in their wake.
With Arthur’s time acceleration boosting their pace, their velocity skyrocketed.
What started as a descent at over 1,000 m/s quickly doubled, tripled, and eventually quadrupled. Soon, they reached nearly 5,000 m/s, with the ground was rushing up to meet them in mere minutes.
The air grew hotter, the temperature spiking to the point where even magically conjured water would evaporate instantly.
Arthur activated the Cosmic Teleporter mid-dive, conjuring a spatial gate that cut their descent by a full 1,000 kilometres.
They dove through the gate, shaving three full minutes off their freefall, emerging directly above the caldera Jamie had created earlier.
"That’s hot!"
Evan—arguably the one with the best heat resistance among them—yelled, quickly summoning a thin layer of magic power to shield himself from the oppressive, blistering heat.
As they plummeted into the massive caldera, Jamie used his spatial power to propel himself ahead of the two boys while speaking.
"I wrecked this space earlier. That’s why, even with such a massive hole in the ground, there’s no magma surging in to fill it.
I ’deleted’ ALL the mass of the planet in this area. The space here is so broken that nothing can occupy it without being shredded and split apart."
Jamie reached for the crack in his face, tapping into the cosmic energy leaking from his vessel and using it to activate his Unique Skill.
[The Child of Space commands you: Be Stabilized.]
With his decree, the fractured space around them—splintered like shards of broken glass—began to rearrange itself.
The pieces locked back into place, stabilizing the damaged area.
With the chaotic turbulence that would have made the descent treacherous now eased, they accelerated even faster through the repaired space.
But Jamie’s actions didn’t go unnoticed by Bewússtsein.
He’d been scouring the planet’s surface for them since they leapt into Arthur’s Cosmic Gate. He’d only managed to locate Alvey, Artemisia, Beatrix and McEnda since Jamie’s recognition inhibition had worn off after he left, but he couldn’t find Arthur, Evan and Jamie.
But as Jamie repaired the ravaged space, Bewússtsein, the Planet’s Consciousness was naturally alerted that a damaged region had been repaired, allowing him to zero in on their location.
Though he didn’t know what they were planning or why they were plunging into that hole, he wasn’t about to let them succeed.
Suddenly, portions of the planet’s mantle began to tear away, coagulating into flying magma dragons that charged at the trio with gaping maws dripping lava.
Arthur caught sight of them first and shot Jamie a pointed look.
"Uh, Jamie? Maybe speed up that whole space-repairing thing?"
