Chapter 725: Cruotis Prime’s ‘Apocalypse’
|You guys might wanna put up your shields.|
A moment later, Cruotis Prime trembled violently.
Fissures spread like veins of molten light across its surface. Volcanoes erupted in violent bursts of magma, and massive continent-sized chunks of rock were ejected into space, colliding with the moon and shattering it.
But before the moon’s fragments could even drift far, Cruotis Prime itself exploded.
A colossal surge of energy burst outward, an explosion so powerful it outshone the nearby stars for an instant. The blast released an unimaginable amount of radiation, sending an expanding shockwave rippling across the system.
The sheer force of the explosion disrupted the orbits of the surrounding planets, flinging some dwarf planets off course while others were pulled into unstable trajectories.
From their vantage point, Arthur let out a small sigh as he watched the devastation unfold.
"What a waste of energy."
Arthur could see the vast amounts of cosmic energy being ejected into space, dissipating into the void. But just as he lamented the waste, Jamie let out a laugh.
"Not if I have anything to say about it."
Extending his hands, Jamie activated his skill.
|Imperial Privileges: First Privilege—Creation.|
Immediately, Arthur felt his Candidate Sigils stir uncomfortably within him. His expression hardened as he forcefully suppressed them with Cosmic Energy, silencing their agitation.
Meanwhile, Jamie continued issuing commands.
|Activating Ruler Authority. Modifier: Demon. Category: King.
Accessing Ascension Matrix Administration.|
Cosmic energy surged around him, and in the space before him, intricate circuit-like lines began to appear—physical manifestations of the Devour Class System projected into the third dimension.
Jamie pressed his left hand against the circuits while expanding his spatial power with his right.
The sudden energy shift caught the attention of the nearby Deities, but Jamie paid them no mind. Instead, he gave his next command.
|Contract.|
Before their eyes, the energy scattered across space from the planet’s destruction began to reverse its course. Gravity pulled at the shattered remains of Cruotis Prime, drawing them back together, but instead of reforming, the very energy that composed the masses was extracted—leaving behind nothing but dust.
|Compress.|
The extracted energy swirled together, coalescing into a massive sphere of multi-coloured light.
Jamie used his Creation Privilege and Ruler Authority to make some adjustments, pulling in the Existential Records of the billions Bewússtsein had absorbed. After a few final modifications, he deactivated his Authority and observed his handiwork.
"There was still some loss. I only managed to recover about two-thirds."
He waved his hand down and the sphere split into two equal halves. Each immediately rounded itself under its own gravitational pull, solidifying into perfect orbs.
Jamie then clenched his fist and they drew closer, visibly shrinking the closer they got.
Eventually, they shrunk till they were about a metre wide, but even to the untrained eye, the dense energy within them was impossible to miss. Especially, with how they distorted space-time around themselves.
"Two EXP Caches, coming up."
Jamie announced as he used his Gravity Authority to negate the gravitational pull of the spheres and guided them toward Arthur and Evan.
Just as they took hold of the spheres, a True Voice resounded through the space around them, addressing all three.
|Demon King Westley. Progenitor godslayer, and...Masked Rogue Hero.|
Jamie turned his head, meeting the familiar gaze of Denerth Sect Master Chang from Denerth Prime.
|Sup, Chang. You brought quite the crowd.|
Jamie’s response was casual as ever, his eyes briefly scanning the spaceships surrounding them. Each vessel housed numerous Deities, with even a few Race Kings and Queens among them.
Yet, none stepped forward. Or rather, none dared to.
Although invisible to the non-Cosmic eye, Jamie’s vessel was drawing in a massive concentration of ambient cosmic energy, creating an oppressive aura that kept anyone below Chang’s level at bay.
That was precisely why he had come forth as their representative.
|The crowd only gathered in response to your actions.
When you send a threatening mass of spatial power tearing across multiple territories, destroying Stellar Defence Mechanisms in the process, it’s only natural for people to assume you have hostile intentions.|
Hearing that, Jamie placed a hand on his chin, searching his memory.
|Ah... Right, I accidentally destroyed someone’s Dyson Sphere, didn’t I? Not my fault, though. Blame the guy who created a spatial tunnel through it in the first place. That guy was a meticulous bastard.|
Jamie waved a hand dismissively as he continued.
|He kidnapped some important Gozonian associates—including the children of friends of mine—and to avoid being tracked, he left a maze of false trails across the galaxy. I had no choice but to solve that maze to find him.
That’s why I went around breaking stuff.|
Chang opened his mouth to speak, but before he could, Jamie continued, his tone deepening by a pitch.
|If I really had hostile intentions, there wouldn’t be a crowd here.|
It was an indirect method of stating that he could handle all the Interstellar powers behind these Deities present—by himself.
A claim none of them dared to refute after remembering his Domain Declaration earlier.
While this exchange took place, Arthur and Evan held their own conversation.
"Seems like your mask has become your identifier."
"Give me a break..."
Evan sighed, rubbing his temples, and Arthur just chuckled before tilting his head.
"When did you put it back on, anyway?"
The question implied that Evan’s mask had been off—at least during their battle against Bewússtsein.
"When we left the Core Dimension. I need to keep it on until I get back home. It’ll cause a lot of problems for me otherwise."
Arthur shrugged at the explanation, then turned his attention towards Jamie, inadvertently spotting Chang who was before him.
|Sup, Sect Master Chang.|
Arthur addressed the man in the same way Jamie had, drawing attention to himself with the distinct resonance of his True Voice.
The Deities who had seen Arthur before and heard his Faux True Voice immediately noticed the difference.
Before, it was an imitation with Cosmic Energy and lacked the weight of an Authority that a real True Voice carried.
But now? That weight was unmistakably there, and it startled them.
Even McEnda II, who was still being briefed by Alvey and his son, paused upon hearing the shift in Arthur’s voice.
They swiftly scanned him with their auras, checking if he had ascended to Deityhood—but no. He was still Peak Transcendent.
Arthur, however, seemed completely unbothered by their reactions as he continued speaking.
|So, I’m guessing you guys wanna know why we just came out of a busted planet, right? Well, it’s pretty obvious. We blew it up.|
He shrugged, his tone as casual as ever, giving the briefest possible explanation of the entire event.
|The Planet Consciousness became a Candidate for Destruction and tried to kill us, so we killed it first.|
Evan let out a sigh before running a hand down his face. Then, in a magic-infused voice, he deadpanned.
[Aren’t you oversimplifying things a bit too much?]
His voice carried through the space as he continued.
[You’re just gonna skip the part where the planet somehow gained the ability to make its Incarnation leave its own gravitational field, travel all the way to Aramis, kidnap us, and then teleport us across the galaxy?]
Exhaling a bit, he added.
[Oh, and let’s not forget how it managed to impose an Existence Realm Limitation that somehow affected Jamie of all people, capping everyone’s level at 1000 while it had the power of a—]
He paused and turned toward Jamie.
[What did you say it was again?]
|Low-Tier Deity.|
[Ah, yes. Low-Tier Deity.]
Evan nodded before continuing.
[So, there’s the Low-Tier Deity Planetary Consciousness that wiped out billions of people living on this planet, nearly killed us multiple times, and only died after we barely managed to kill it, which in turn caused the planet’s destruction.]
As Evan finished his own version of events, Arthur casually added.
|For real though, I actually thought you died for a second there.|
Evan just shrugged.
[Didn’t really worry myself. Not like it’s the first time I’ve had a hole blasted through my heart.]
The two of them continued their conversation, acting completely indifferent to the incredulous stares they were receiving from the surrounding Deities.
A few turned toward Jamie for confirmation. Sensing their gazes, Jamie simply raised a brow.
|What? You think they’re lying? It’s true.|
He crossed his arms and continued.
|I can show you my memories if you want. Or, better yet, go check Aramis’ Planetary Records.|
As he spoke, some of the Race Kings studied his aura, noting the tell-tale instability that lingered after power suppression.
Meanwhile, a sudden realization flashed across Jamie’s eyes, and he turned to McEnda II.
|Dude. I nearly killed Aramis’ Consciousness.|
|You WHAT?!|
McEnda II’s voice boomed across space, forcing Jamie to cover his ears as if trying to block out the sound.
|’Aramis’ and Bewússtsein—that’s what the Rogue Planet was calling itself—worked together to kidnap the kids. And when ’Aramis’ got in my way while I was trying to find them, I got rid of it.|
Jamie shrugged as if it were no big deal. Seeing his nonchalance, McEnda II just pressed his brows against his forehead in silence.
Chuckling at the sight, Jamie sent a telepathic message to Arthur and Evan.
[Looks like your plan to ’Casually Publicize that you two Killed a Planet’ is doing fine, Arthur.]
[Of course it is.]
Arthur’s response came with a grin, while Evan remained silent, his thoughts elsewhere.
He just hoped this wouldn’t end up making things more difficult for his previous incarnation, the one that would be born sometime between now and the future he came from.
But aside from Evan’s concerns, it was clear that the whole scene of Arthur and Evan casually revealing what had happened on Cruotis Prime had been intentional.
Their conversation, while not fully scripted, had been planned.
Anyone paying close attention would start questioning why Evan’s voice was echoing across space with the same weight as a True Voice.
Some did notice this anomaly and immediately scanned him to gauge his power. That was when they detected two Pseudo-Origin Cores within him—cores that exuded an absurd amount of power for something labelled ’Pseudo’.
His power levels also didn’t make sense.
His body contained far more energy than his level suggested, yet it held all that power without any strain.
What they didn’t know was that Arthur and Evan’s bodies had deconstructed and reconstructed when they were infused with power by the Scales of Balance—a measure taken to enhance them so they could withstand the boost.
Even though the power-up itself was gone, Evan’s body had retained enough residual strength to manhandle most Inferior Transcendents without relying on magic or skills. His durability was a different case altogether.
Regardless, their plan was complete. Now, it was time to leave.
Arthur turned to Jamie, posing a question with a serious voice.
|Jamie, have you gotten any information about that Seal stuff?|
This part wasn’t scripted. It was a genuine question— Arthur wanted to know if Jamie had figured out how to deal with his True Name Seal.
|Hmm? Oh, yeah, that.|
Jamie blinked before nodding.
|I remembered something later. I can unseal it, but I’ll need to give you a detailed explanation of the cost first.|
|How about we handle it now? I wanna Exuviate already.|
The moment Arthur said that, a wave of shocked gazes turned toward him but he ignored them, focusing on Jamie.
Jamie understood this as the cue to leave and turned toward Rilene.
|Rilene. Ask Uvton’s daughter for more details on the incident. I’ll need your help in informing the relevant parties as well.|
Then, shifting his gaze to McEnda II, he continued.
|I need to take care of Arthur’s issue now. We’ll talk after I’m done.|
With that, he snapped his fingers, opening a Cosmic Gate.
Without hesitation, he and the two boys stepped through, ignoring any calls to stop or wait.
