Chapter 760: Twelve Years of Growth
At the end of the events of Cruotis Prime’s Apocalypse, Arthur had become a Half-Deity Realm Existence.
He’d assessed his strength at the time and, after giving it careful thought, decided it was best to grow as powerful as possible before heading to Draco Sirus, a place far more dangerous than either Valmone or Hell.
On top of that, there wasn’t a convenient planet or race in Draco Sirus that owed Lucifer a favour and could help Arthur integrate into that universe.
Sure, Lucifer had a few high-ranking connections there, but considering Lucifer’s current situation, relying on them wasn’t a gamble Arthur was willing to take.
So, he chose to stay behind and focus on strengthening himself.
But judging by appearances, one might wonder if he had made any progress at all, since his Realm hadn’t advanced an inch in twelve years.
He was still a Superior Stage Half-Deity. A Deity Level 99 by Valmone’s classification.
So, what exactly had Arthur spent the last dozen years doing?
Simple: Comprehending Laws.
That, along with skill, technique, and Authority training and refinement.
Arthur had focused on understanding his Unique Authorities on a deeper level, learning how to draw out more power, extend their activation duration, enhance efficiency, and more.
Those were the things Arthur had poured the last twelve years into.
As a result, the current Arthur now possessed Four Low-Rank Authorities in the Laws of Time, Space, Gravity, and Destruction.
It’s worth remembering that Arthur had categorised the Laws he comprehended based on priority. So, when lining up his Law Comprehension levels alongside his Authority Ranks, the breakdown was as follows:
His Primary Laws were as follows:
Time – 76% (Low), Destruction – 89% (Low), Extinction – 100% (Basic), Space – 52% (Low), and Gravity – 57% (Low).
Then came the Secondary Laws:
Swords – 19% (Low), Concealment – 100% (Basic), Life – 35% (Basic), Death – 35% (Basic), Languages – 70% (Basic), Fate – 20% (Basic), Destiny – 16% (Basic), Summoning – 50% (Basic), and Fortification – 30% (Basic).
Lastly, the tertiary Laws he’d picked up mostly for the raw energy benefits that came from having more Law comprehensions:
Darkness – 12% (Basic), Light – 12% (Basic), Wind – 10% (Basic), Water – 9% (Basic), Fire – 8% (Basic), Earth – 15% (Basic), Annihilation – 11% (Basic), Entropy – 7% (Basic), and Knowledge – 13% (Basic).
As for his Authorities, besides his default Authority of the Progenitor, and his Unique Authorities, the Extreme Nothingness Authority and Anti-Divine Gravity Authority, he also possessed:
Basic Rank: Extinction, Swords, Concealment, Languages, and Summoning.
Low Rank: Time, Gravity, Destruction, and Space.
With such a vast arsenal of Laws and Authorities, most wouldn’t believe Arthur if he told them he was only 31.
But it was the truth.
That his comprehensions in Time and Destruction were far ahead of the others wasn’t all that surprising considering he held literal Aspects of the Concepts those Laws stemmed from.
Ironically, he’d put more effort into Space and Gravity than into either Time or Destruction.
After all, he couldn’t afford to let his Accelerated Gravitational Singularity of Destruction (AGSD) become weaker.
If the gap between the Laws it relied on grew too wide, it could destabilise... and blow up in his face.
Leaving that particular safety hazard aside, Arthur had also put extra effort into Swords, for obvious reasons. Concealment was useful when he wanted to hide aspects of his existence from appraisal and analysis-type powers. Life and Death were tied to his ongoing experiments with his Progenitor Authority. Languages, like Swords, had clear practical value. As for Fate and Destiny, those were simply necessary basic safeguards since far too many entities in existence liked to meddle with those forces, and Arthur wanted some form of defence against them. Summoning was there because he genuinely enjoyed using it back in Valmone, and Fortification was an investment in stronger defensive capabilities.
He had just acquired his Low-Rank Authority in Space a few days ago. And now, with four Low-Rank Authorities under his belt, Arthur was finally ready to tackle the next major stage in his path to power—the Low-Tier Deity Realm.
He planned to do this right after the party.
Not the next morning, but literally the moment he walked out of his hall.
The EXP Cache Jamie had given him twelve years ago was finally about to be put to use. He intended to use the energy within it during his advance into the Low-Tier Deity Realm, an endeavour that should be relatively straightforward, given that he’d already fulfilled the prerequisites.
He had a general idea of how the process worked, but it was still wiser to seek advice from someone with first-hand experience. Namely, his mother.
This wasn’t like Exuviation, after all, it wouldn’t happen automatically.
Once the party wrapped up, Arthur planned to grab Cattleya, open a cosmic gate to some random Apex Planet in the galaxy, and boom, they’d be off.
But even after reaching that Realm, Arthur wasn’t heading to Draco Sirus just yet.
There was still one final task. Perhaps the most important one.
Achieving Full Cosmic Superiority.
Reaching the Low-Tier Deity Realm was just the baseline requirement for this. However, attaining Cosmic Superiority wasn’t something that happened just because you wanted it.
Fortunately, Lucifer claimed to have a method that could artificially trigger Arthur’s breakthrough into that state. And once Arthur ascended to the Low-Tier Deity Realm, he intended to find out exactly what Lucifer had in mind.
Apparently, the method involved Arthur leaving the Universe, but not on a long-distance trip like Valmone. Just a journey to a smaller universe a few clusters away.
Granted, when it came to distances between universes, a few clusters away still meant billions of megaparsecs, but compared to the journey to Valmone, it was relatively close.
"That universe you mentioned before..."
Layla’s voice broke into Arthur’s thoughts, pulling his gaze to meet hers as he replied,
"What about it?"
"Are you planning to go alone?"
"No," Arthur said. "I was planning to take you and the other three with me."
Layla sighed at his words, then shook her head.
"I’d love to go with you, but I think I’m really close to reaching a Pseudo-Authority in the Law of Darkness..."
"Ohh, I see. You want to focus on your law comprehensions."
Arthur nodded in understanding, his eyes flashing briefly as he checked Layla’s Existence Realm.
The shining core of ’Creation’ within her soul flared under his gaze, causing Layla to flinch. She immediately knew Arthur had done something.
"...what did you do?"
"Checked your Existence Realm. Not sure why that thing’s acting up."
Arthur gave a reply that made it sound like he had forgotten the Aspect of Destruction residing within his soul, something the Pseudo-Origin Core of Creation in Layla’s soul instinctively recognised as a threat.
Indeed, Layla was currently an Intermediate Stage Transcendent, and she had already grasped a Pseudo-Authority in the Law of Creation.
Her affinity for Creation was remarkably strong, though she hadn’t even been aware of it for most of her life, not until the events on Planet Gade in the Varona Realm.
It was there she discovered her Mystic Eyes of Paralysis weren’t her only Unique Skill-level ability.
Imaginary Armament—that was the name Layla had given to this other power of hers, a Law of Creation-based ability that allowed her to manifest imagined weapon constructs into reality.
Because of her deep love for them, her power naturally gravitated toward firearm-type weapons and their countless variations. As long as she understood their mechanics and functions, she could create them at will.
Of course, like all things born from Creation, it was a power that consumed immense energy, so using it recklessly wasn’t an option.
Creating smaller weapons was still manageable, though.
That said, the nature of her ability, which brought things into existence, made it highly incompatible with Arthur’s, which excelled in removing things from existence. So much so that if the two ever fought side by side, she couldn’t rely on it.
Arthur’s far stronger destructive power would overwhelm and destabilise her constructs before they could do any meaningful damage to their opponent.
’Simply put, he’s just that much stronger...’
The thought crossed Layla’s mind as their dance came to a close. She remembered the day Arthur had revealed to her and the others that he’d become a Half-Deity, and the wave of physical and mental shock it sent through her.
’While we were proudly celebrating reaching the Intermediate Epic Realm... he went and became a damn Higher Existence...!’
Just as the memory flashed through her mind, Arthur, who should have moved on to his next dance partner, suddenly linked arms with her again and leaned in.
"You’re thinking something dumb again, aren’t you?" he whispered.
Despite the smile on his face, his tone was uncharacteristically serious.
"I wasn’t," Layla replied.
"..." Arthur stared at her in silence, and after a moment, she glanced away and added under her breath,
"...yet."
Arthur sighed, then reached out and pinched her arm, making her flinch with a yelp.
"Ow! What was that for?!"
"It was either that or I ruffle your hair," he said casually.
The threat made Layla recoil instantly, both hands shooting up in front of her like a shield.
"Do you have any idea how long I had to sit still for the maids to get this right? You think I want to relive that nightmare?"
Her voice held a mix of panic and dread, and Arthur couldn’t help but burst into genuine laughter. Shaking his head, he added,
"That actually sounds fun. Maybe I’ll watch next time..."
"You monster...!"
Layla gave him a betrayed look, as if he’d just committed the ultimate crime, while Arthur just closed the distance between them and lightly flicked her forehead.
"You don’t need to measure your steps against another person’s. You’re already standing where you should, and the years behind you... well, they’re fewer than that of 99% of the entire universe."
His tone was cryptic, but Layla caught every meaning beneath the surface.
She clicked her tongue and turned away, walking ahead without another word. Arthur called after her,
"Why are you sulking now?"
"I’m not," she shot back, this back-and-forth continuing all the way to their target table.
When they arrived, Arthur casually plopped down between Layla and Nicole, mock-whining as he said,
"Layla’s mad at me."
Nicole’s hand instinctively reached toward Arthur’s hair, but she remembered where they were and let it drop. Instead, she looked at Layla and called her name.
"Layla...?"
"I’m not mad."
Layla denied it once more, but under Nicole’s silent gaze, she finally gave in.
"I’m just miffed that the same person who’s indirectly the reason I felt down is also the one who cheered me up."
At that, Arthur grabbed Nicole’s arm, raising it high as he said, "Haha! Another win for the Nicole-47, the best weapon to make Layla crack in seconds."
His words earned him a quick forehead flick from Layla, but he just laughed, carefree as ever.
