Chapter 724: Dual Candidacy
As Arthur finally processed the flood of messages in front of him, his awareness of his surroundings returned to normal. The overwhelming surge of cosmic energy that had flooded his body and soul settled, and only then did he realize that Jamie was standing beside him, his hand resting on his back.
Clearly, he’d had some aid in stabilizing that energy.
Jamie spoke first.
"Well, it looks like your energies have calmed down. You good?"
Arthur attempted to get to his feet but staggered, eventually steadying himself by using Lostvayne as a crutch.
"Yeah... I think I can stand now."
Hearing that, Jamie removed his hand from Arthur’s back and remarked.
"With the way those damn things went after you, you’d think they had a mind of their own."
Arthur narrowed his eyes, already knowing what Jamie was referring to.
"Those things... they were the Candidate Sigils, weren’t they?"
"Yep, those were indeed the Candidate Sigils—refined Aspects of Major Concepts of the Cosmos.
Congratulations, Arthur, you’ve just joined the Candidate Selection."
Instead of joy at Jamie’s congratulations, Arthur immediately snapped.
"The fuck you mean congratulations?! Why are you congratulating me for putting myself on Akasha’s kill list?!"
Jamie and Evan blinked in confusion at Arthur’s sudden outburst.
Why did Arthur say he had put himself on Akasha’s kill list? The answer was simple—Lostvayne.
"Newsflash! In case you forgot, Akasha is the one who orchestrated Lucifer’s death 12,000 years ago. And if there’s one thing Akasha didn’t get from that, it was Lostvayne’s location.
He has no idea where the sword is.
There’s no damn way the Eternals—especially control freaks like Akasha—didn’t put some kind of system in place to track who becomes a Candidate and how they acquire the Candidate Sigils.
I’ve basically got a tracker on me now that lets the Eternals know exactly where the fuck I am!"
Jamie, now understanding the reason for Arthur’s frustration, tried to calm him down.
"Relax, Arthur. Unless you walk right up to Akasha and unsheathe Lostvayne in front of his eyes, he won’t know you have it."
When Jamie said that, Arthur stared at him, dumbfounded.
"What? The hell do you mean by that?"
Jamie let out a sigh before explaining.
"Exactly what I said."
After a brief pause, he asked.
"Lucifer used to hoard Rule Breakers, didn’t he?"
Arthur nodded silently. He was well aware of Lucifer’s collection, and it wasn’t exactly a secret that the man had gathered such Rule Breakers.
"When you become a Deity, ask that sword of yours why Lucifer did that."
Jamie gestured toward Lostvayne as he spoke, and Arthur glanced down at the blade in his hand. Now that he thought about it, he had no idea why Lucifer had gone to such lengths to collect Rule Breakers.
Before he could dwell on it further, Celestia’s voice suddenly rang in his mind.
[They are weapons from the Previous Era. Akasha is an Eternal of the Current Era.
My guess? Akasha’s Conceptual Authority of Knowledge doesn’t work on Rule Breakers. I’d also wager that certain Concepts and Laws don’t affect them either.
Well, they are called ’Rule Breakers’ for a reason.]
Arthur rubbed his chin, considering her words.
’That actually makes a lot of sense.’
Weapons from a Previous Era—artifacts from a different Creation.
It stood to reason that there would be fundamental differences, elements in those weapons that rendered them undetectable within the Current Creation.
And, as Celestia had pointed out, they were called Rule Breakers for a reason.
With a sigh of exasperation, Arthur turned to Evan.
"Dude, you didn’t get affected by the weird Eternal tracker, right?"
Evan stared at him in silence for a moment before shaking his head.
"Nope, I didn’t get affected by the weird Eternal tracker. I already have mine from the future."
"...wut?"
Arthur let out a confused sound.
What the hell did Evan mean by he already had his from the future?
Evan, seeing the unspoken question, simply raised his hand and activated his Blessing of Destruction skill. Seeing the crimson glow on Evan’s body, Arthur’s brow furrowed.
"...so, you got that power from an Eternal?"
Evan just nodded and responded.
"Yeah, let’s go with that."
It was clear there was more to the story, but Evan didn’t seem inclined to explain. Instead, he was busier with his thoughts related to the future.
’Candidate, huh? If I factor that in with the effects of Eon Sunder Regressio, then Arthur is probably...’
Evan’s thoughts trailed off as he shook his head, pushing them aside.
At that moment, Jamie spoke up.
"Now that you two are done, can we leave? Things aren’t gonna look too pretty if we stick around."
"Huh? Why?"
Arthur turned to him, confusion evident on his face. Evan had a similar expression, prompting Jamie to sigh and gesture toward what remained of Bewússtsein’s corpse.
"Bewússtsein was the consciousness of this planet. Sure, he had a physical form, but you could also think of him as the ’soul’ of the planet, and the planet itself as his ’body.’
We just killed the ’soul.’ What do you think happens to the body?"
Evan’s eyes narrowed before he answered.
"It’s gonna die..."
As the realization sank in, he and Arthur slowly turned their gazes upward toward the Planet’s Inner Core, still hovering at the centre of the Core Dimension.
A massive fissure ran through the sphere of plasma, molten matter leaking from the crack. However, instead of erupting violently, the destruction was held at bay by a shimmering barrier of energy wrapped around it.
Understanding that the Existence Realm Limitation was gone and Jamie was back to full power, they quickly deduced that he was responsible for keeping the core intact.
Even without that knowledge, the Cosmic Energy Spatial Bubble surrounding the core was a dead giveaway.
Still, despite the containment, the leakage worsened by the second.
After a brief analysis, Arthur and Evan reached the same conclusion at the same time.
""This place about to blow!!""
Jamie nodded in confirmation before glancing toward the fissure they had created upon entering the Core Dimension.
"Good. Now let’s get the fuck out of here before that happens."
◇ ◇ ◇
Jamie carried Arthur and Evan through the fissure in the Core Dimensional barrier, dashing up a spatial tunnel in the hole he’d carved through the planet earlier.
The moment they exited the Core Dimension, the barrier around the Inner Core began to crack, allowing even more energy to seep out.
Jamie folded space to shorten their travel time, and within seconds, they emerged from the Caldera.
Expanding his spatial perception, he quickly located Alvey, McEnda, Artemisia, and Beatrix, immediately teleporting to their location—only to find two additional figures waiting there.
"Sup, Rilene. The older McEnda’s here too."
Indeed, standing before them were the ’Supreme’ god Queen and Demon King—the parents of two of those present.
Rilene Xagna held Artemisia and Beatrix’s hands, while McEnda II effortlessly lifted Alvey and a slightly injured McEnda III by their collars.
Arthur, spotting in the unfamiliar woman, spoke up.
"Oh... That’s Beatrix’s mom. I can see the resemblance."
Evan, glancing between the mother and daughter, nodded in agreement.
"Beatrix is basically a mini version of her."
Rilene shared Beatrix’s long white hair and delicate features, with the only real difference being their eye colour—Rilene’s irises were black, while Beatrix’s were hazel brown.
As they observed Rilene, she studied them in return, her eyes widening slightly at the sight of Arthur.
His Progenitor Authority was still active, and even though there was an immense power gap between them, she could still feel its invisible force trying to press down on her power.
’It’s ignoring all my resistances...!’
Meanwhile, McEnda II, already familiar with Arthur, turned to Jamie with a questioning look.
"What the hell happened here?"
Jamie raised an eyebrow in mild confusion.
"Huh? The kids didn’t tell you?"
It seemed he had expected Alvey and McEnda III to fill him in, but since that hadn’t happened, he simply shrugged and gave a concise rundown of events.
"This planet’s consciousness went rogue. It tried to separate from the planet and become an independent living being. It nearly pulled it off too.
It came to Aramis, kidnapped the kids, and brought them here to steal their powers. Thanks to Arthur, I figured it out in time and got here after deciphering the maze of spatial tunnels he left behind to throw off pursuers."
As Jamie spoke, McEnda III and Rilene narrowed their eyes, recalling the events leading up to this.
Jamie’s power had been flashing across the galaxy, tearing into various territories and the strong Authority behind it had destabilized some Interstellar Civilizations.
This was what caught their attention, and they’d been trying to track him, but he moved too fast. Rilene had only just begun tracing his movements when she received Beatrix’s SOS.
"I found out the guy somehow became a Candidate for Destruction and used a Cosmic ’Item’ as a sacrifice to impose an Existence Realm Limitation, weakening me when I tried to destroy the planet.
To fight him, Arthur, Evan, and I had to go down the hole I made, break into the Core Dimension, and destroy his soul. He had power close to the Low-Tier Deity Realm, but we managed to pull through. Now, he’s dead, and what happens to a body with a dead soul is about to happen.
—In other words, this place about to blow. So, I’m gonna take these two and dip."
With that, he began levitating, pulling the two boys up with him as he spoke to the two Deities.
"Feel free to stay if you want. Not like a planetary explosion would kill you."
Before anyone could respond, he turned into a streak of light and shot out of the planet’s half-destroyed atmosphere.
The moment he left, Rilene and McEnda II immediately sensed the instability of the planet’s core. They realized Jamie had been holding it together while he spoke, and now that he was gone, the inevitable had begun.
Without hesitation, Rilene roused her divinity, ripping space open, while McEnda II’s shadow surged up like a veil, wrapping around him and the other two demons.
In an instant, all parties reappeared in the vacuum of space, millions of miles from Cruotis Prime’s moon, near the fleet of interstellar warships from the Orithyia Galaxy’s major powers, who had been alerted by Jamie’s earlier actions.
Arthur and Evan quickly spotted ships from Aidos, Gozon, and even Denerth Prime among the gathered fleet.
Jamie turned towards the ships and, in his True Voice, spoke a single warning.
|You guys might wanna put up your shields.|
