Chapter 748: Interlude 7 – 2: Web of Clues
"...that’s definitely a wild story. A Planet’s Consciousness gaining the ability to detach from its host and becoming a Candidate of Destruction..."
Aleksas didn’t have a hard time believing this. To begin with, Quinn wasn’t one to mess around when Lucifer was involved, so he knew she wasn’t lying.
"It’s seriously wild. But anyway, since the guy became a Candidate of Destruction, it means it wasn’t just Akasha and Ranus.
That bitch was involved as well. My guess is Akasha was simply doing her bidding."
Quinn casually cursed the Eternal of Creation—who, ironically, had almost nothing to do with the mess that went down on Cruotis Prime, aside from giving Akasha a Candidate Sigil.
In her defence, she had no idea what Akasha planned to use it for!
"An incident involving three Eternals... And the Immortal Anomaly is tied into it because he was among those who destroyed the Rogue Planet Consciousness."
"Seems like it. Hard to imagine Westley working alongside Akasha, though. Pretty much every Eternal ranked Fourth and below can’t stand the guy."
Quinn chuckled as she replied to Aleksas, recalling the last time she saw Jamie in the same space with the Eternal of Causality.
That man had come closer than anyone else in the Cosmos to making the Eternal of Causality break the Laws of Causality!
And as for her comment about the Eternals’ opinion of Jamie, it wasn’t an exaggeration.
Currently, there were 11 Eternals. One didn’t particularly care about him, another was friends with him—and the other nine would kill him without hesitation if given the chance.
Such a delightful relationship he had with the Eternals.
"Oh well, I only came here to sate my curiosity."
Aleksas said with a soft sigh, raising his hand as he began weaving cosmic energy to open a gate out of Valmone.
But Quinn wasn’t quite finished.
"Hold on, dragon boy. There’s more."
Aleksas’ brow visibly twitched at the nickname she called at him, but just as he turned to voice his displeasure, Quinn dropped a bombshell that made him show genuine shock for the first time in years.
"The New Progenitor was in this Universe."
"!!"
The cosmic energy Aleksas had been gathering scattered instantly.
"Are you sure about that?" the dragon asked, his eyes narrowing.
"100%.
And I also found out why his Universe suddenly underwent a surge of rapid evolution."
All traces of playfulness disappeared from Quinn’s voice, a rare sight, considering she usually acted like everything in existence was amusing to her.
"From what I discovered, after defeating the Cruotis Planet’s Consciousness, he became a Half-Deity, and he already possesses a Unique Authority."
"Already? But it’s only been a few years si—!"
Aleksas cut himself off mid-sentence, his brow arching as he asked.
"Wait, you said he defeated the Planet’s Consciousness? The New Progenitor?"
"Yeah," Quinn nodded, her next words confirming the suspicion already forming in Aleksas’ mind. "Lucifer’s grandkid is the New Progenitor."
Not even giving Aleksas time to digest that bombshell, Quinn dropped another.
"To top it off, by the time he left his universe, the kid had just turned 18."
"WHAT?!"
That outburst didn’t come from Aleksas, but from the young woman standing near him.
She had quietly taken a step back when Quinn first appeared to allow the two Progenitors talk, but the revelation that someone had reached the Half-Deity Realm before even turning 18—something she considered utterly impossible—shocked her so much that she couldn’t help but exclaim aloud.
Realizing what she had done, she quickly covered her mouth, her face paling as she feared she might have offended Quinn by interrupting their conversation.
But Quinn only shot her a side glance before turning her attention back to Aleksas.
"Is she the reason you’re after the ’Levites’?" Quinn asked, motioning toward the young dragon woman.
"Mm..." Aleksas hummed an absentminded response, still deep in thought, trying to fully process the information Quinn had just dumped on him.
"So the ’Slayer’ was here, huh?"
Aleksas’ mutter reached Quinn’s ears, causing her to blink and raise an eyebrow.
"You already knew he was a Slayer?" she asked, slightly surprised.
Aleksas gave a silent nod.
’No wonder the Ancient gods have been so active recently. They’re looking for him...definitely under Luka’s orders.’
The man took a deep breath, before meeting Quinn’s gaze and speaking.
"I don’t usually get involved in the affairs of other races, but as thanks for the information, I’ll let you know this—Luka already knows that the New Progenitor is her ’Slayer.’ And she’s already looking for him."
"...why am I not surprised?" Quinn sighed, rolling her eyes.
"Looks like I’ll have to have a word with that blabbermouth Nash. I can’t have him leaking information about Lucifer’s grandkid. Who knows what that bored bitch might do if she finds him?"
At her words, Aleksas simply replied,
"Good luck with that. I need to get back to searching for those Six Old Fools, so I can leave this child in their care."
As Aleksas said this, Quinn shifted her gaze to the young dragon beside him. She took a single step forward and the distance between them ceased to exist.
Quinn was suddenly right in front of the young woman, gently lifting her chin with her fingers.
"Hmm, she’s a pretty one. What’s your name, sweetheart?"
The young woman, looking a little nervous under Quinn’s gaze, answered quietly.
"Al...trisha."
"Oh? Risha, then?"
Quinn immediately gave her a nickname, but before she could say anything more, something about Risha caught her attention. Her playful demeanour faded slightly as she glanced back at Aleksas.
"She’s already met Luka?"
Aleksas nodded. "Yes. The two of them seem to have gotten into something from Original Earth called ’Retro Games.’"
Quinn nodded silently, releasing Risha’s chin and stepping back as she muttered.
"Speaking of Original Earth, maybe I’ll go bother Adam for a bit after I’m done beating u—ahem—talking to Nash."
Aleksas just shook his head, choosing not to waste energy trying to figure out Quinn’s bizarre train of thought or how she even arrived at that decision.
He raised his hand and conjured a cosmic gate, turning to Risha as he said,
"Let’s go."
He stepped through, and Risha followed after giving Quinn a light bow.
Just before the gate closed, Quinn flashed a grin and said,
"See you later, Dragon Boy."
As the gate shut, Quinn burst into laughter, clearly enjoying the moment. She could tell that Aleksas’ brow had twitched at the nickname.
Did she know he didn’t like it? Of course. Was she going to keep calling him that? Without a doubt!
That’s just how Quinn was. Her getting along with Lucifer wasn’t without reason, after all.
As Quinn continued to laugh to herself, a voice called out from behind.
"Lady Quinn."
"Hm?"
She turned around, locking eyes with the figure who had appeared just as Aleksas left, and asked,
"What’s up, Star?"
A short distance away stood a man dressed in a classic butler’s uniform. He wore a black tailcoat, white gloves and polished shoes that gleamed even against the scorched ground.
His dark gold hair was neatly combed back, revealing a sharp widow’s peak, and not a single crease or speck of dust marred his spotless attire.
Quinn had called him ’Star’.
Anyone who knew her would instantly recognize that ’Star’ was short for ’Starbreaker’.
The main weapon of the Progenitor Devil: Rule Breaker Number 5: Starbreaker.
The man standing before Quinn was that weapon’s humanoid incarnation.
"I’ve completed my search. The information we received from those Demon Kings was true. Lucifer’s descendant wielded the REAL Lostvayne."
At Starbreaker’s words, Quinn raised an eyebrow and gestured to the ruined world around them.
"I’m pretty sure the concentration of Cosmic Destruction energy filling this place is enough to tell you that much."
Starbreaker chuckled, a wry smile curling on his lips as he replied,
"Indeed, it is.
But in addition to that, as I inspected the ruins of the destroyed planet, I found not only traces of Lostvayne, but Galaxy, and someone else."
"..."
Silence pervaded the area after he spoke, and then Quinn asked.
"Isn’t this the part where you’re supposed to tell me who this ’someone else’ is?"
Without a change in his expression, Starbreaker responded.
"I wish I could. However, I don’t have enough information to confirm it’s that...person. Given that these traces appeared alongside Lostvayne, there’s a strong chance Lucifer’s descendant knows about them.
Until I gather more information and can verify it, I’d prefer to keep my theories to myself."
So, essentially, he wasn’t going to tell her who it was he’d detected traces of. As for Quinn? She simply shrugged, unbothered.
"Suit yourself."
With that, she stretched her arms over her head and yawned as though tired. While doing so, her eyes peered through space-time, sweeping across the third-dimensional space of the Valmone universe as casually as one would pan across a map on their phone.
She pinpointed the location of a certain drifter in a distant galaxy, and with a simple wave of her hand, she tore through space-time, stepping directly into their domain.
As Quinn left to interrogate an unfortunate Ancient Breed drifter about the whereabouts of his Progenitor, Starbreaker surveyed the ruined planet, his pale gold eyes narrowing in suspicion.
He observed the lingering cosmic destruction energy that filled the area, and within that residual energy, something caught his attention.
Faint strands of energy, a mix of gold and silver, intertwined. Yet, wrapped around most of them was the crimson hue of destruction.
It was as though the destruction energy was attempting to conceal these strands, and if Starbreaker hadn’t looked closely, he might have missed them entirely.
This led him to a single conclusion.
"Lostvayne...that bastard was trying to hide the traces. But I guess his wielder wasn’t strong enough so he couldn’t use enough power to completely conceal them."
Placing his hand on his chin, Starbreaker pondered.
’If Lostvayne behaved like this, it could very well be Lady Celestia. And if she’s here, then... her wielder...’
Starbreaker sighed and glanced up at the broken sky.
"Even the destruction of the Cosmos couldn’t kill you, huh? Tenacious bastard."
Shaking his head, he used his connection to Quinn to track her location, teleporting himself just in time to intervene before she could roast an unfortunate drifter atop a white dwarf star.
