Chapter 762: Architect Engine
"Old man! I’m here!"
Arthur’s voice rang out as he stepped into Lucifer’s hidden domain in Varona, casually snatching a small palm-sized box from a nearby table and spinning it on his finger like a toy.
His loud voice caught the attention of the only other person present in the domain, who instantly teleported in front of him and snatched the box from his hand.
"How about you avoid picking up random things in my domain, huh?" Lucifer said, about to store the object in his subspace, only to freeze upon sensing something.
"You finally advanced your Realm..."
"That, I have!"
Arthur confirmed with a smug grin, puffing out his chest with pride.
Lucifer was tempted to retort that the Low-Tier Deity Realm didn’t mean much on the Cosmic Stage, but then he remembered Arthur was still in his thirties.
That thought made him remain silent.
’Now that I think about it... this kid’s actually quite frightening.’
With a sigh, Lucifer stored away the cosmic artifact Arthur had been carelessly spinning and moved on to the real reason for Arthur’s visit.
"I’m guessing you’re here about the Cosmic Superiority issue?"
"Why else would I be here when I could be on a date instead? Today’s New Year’s Day, you know?"
Lucifer ignored the quip and turned away, walking down the corridor as he continued.
"Like I told you before, the item needed isn’t in this Universe. It’s in a Universe called Kriwon."
"Never heard of it."
Arthur replied as he pulled out a tablet from his subspace and searched the database listing all known Universes Hell had discovered or made some form of contact with.
"It’s not that far on a Multiversal scale..."
"Yes, it isn’t," Lucifer agreed, snapping his fingers to open a portal leading directly to his treasury.
He pushed open the unlocked doors and stepped inside, eyes scanning the room as if searching for something specific.
Arthur’s body was buffeted by the usual intense wave of cosmic energy, one that, despite its intensity, didn’t spill beyond the threshold. The pressure came from the hundreds of dormant Cosmic Artifacts and Rule Breakers resting within the vault.
"These guys are all asleep, huh?"
He muttered to himself, picking up one of the Rule Breakers and examining it briefly before returning it to its stand.
Although Arthur was now capable of bonding with another Rule Breaker, he didn’t feel the need since Lostvayne alone was enough.
’Come to think of it, Lostvayne should be able to access more of its power now that I’ve become a Low-Tier Deity, right?’
With that thought, he called out mentally to the Ego Weapon.
However—
[...]
—there was no response.
’Lostvayne? Celestia?’
The unusual silence from the two Ego Weapons made Arthur frown, prompting him to immediately summon them both.
The moment the two swords appeared, the concentration of cosmic energy in the room spiked to a new high, causing even Lucifer, who had just unearthed the item he’d been searching for beneath a pile of cosmic artifacts tucked in a corner, to nearly stumble in shock.
"You—! Put that thing back! Are you trying to wake up all the Rule Breakers in here?!"
Lucifer’s uncharacteristically urgent tone prompted Arthur to comply without hesitation, his eyes drifting around just in time to notice a few of the weapons trembling faintly.
Lucifer quickly checked to make sure none of the weapons in the vault had awakened, then dragged Arthur out of the treasury and shut the doors behind them.
"I assumed Lostvayne would’ve warned you in advance, but clearly, you didn’t know," the man said with a sigh.
But now that you’ve become a ’full Deity’ instead of a Half-Deity, the sword needs to go into hibernation for a bit to recalibrate. The power jump is too significant to adjust instantly."
"The amount of power Lostvayne can access increases as you grow stronger—that much, you’re aware of.
But now that you’ve become a full-fledged Deity rather than a Half-Deity, the sword needs to enter a brief hibernation to recalibrate itself.
The power jump was significant for an instant adjustment. I mean, you somehow managed to reach the end of the Inferior Stage of the Low-Tier Deity Realm already."
Lucifer’s explanation highlighted a key detail about Arthur’s current Realm. Arthur had burned through all the EXP stored in the Cache Jamie had prepared for him back in Valmone, and that had propelled him through the Inferior Stage.
Of course, it wasn’t just the EXP—his four Low-Rank Law Authorities also played a significant role in that leap.
If one were to chart Low-Tier Deity Realm progression on a scale of 100, with each stage accounting for 33%, Arthur currently sat somewhere around 27 to 30%. It had only been about an hour since his breakthrough, so his energy hadn’t completely stabilized yet, hence the fluctuating estimate.
Anyways, that sudden leap had increased the amount of power Lostvayne could use by a margin far wider than a typical ascension to the Low-Tier Deity Realm would allow, prompting the sword to enter a short hibernation in order to recalibrate.
However, during that recalibration, Lostvayne’s energy emissions were quite stimulating to other Rule Breakers, especially those with Weapon Authorities related to ’Destruction’.
If Arthur had kept the sword out even a few seconds longer, some of them might have begun stirring from their own hibernation.
"I understand Lostvayne, but it doesn’t make sense that Celestia is out as well," Arthur said with a frown, and upon hearing this, Lucifer blinked in mild surprise before asking him to summon the sword.
With a thought, Celestia manifested in Arthur’s hands, its semi-transparent form highlighted by the long black line running down the centre of its blade.
Lucifer refrained from touching the sword even after Arthur held it out, remembering that the last time he had tried, shortly after Celestia had regained her fragment from Aeturn, she had thrown a violent fit that nearly sparked a cosmic storm powerful enough to obliterate a small planet.
On the upside, that incident had helped Arthur confirm the nature of the power housed within the recovered fragment.
As Lucifer studied the sword more carefully, it didn’t take long for him to identify the cause of Celestia’s silence, which mirrored Lostvayne’s behaviour.
"Same reason," he explained calmly. "The difference is that, unlike Lostvayne who already possesses tremendous power and simply unlocks more of it as you grow stronger, this one’s strength evolves alongside yours.
You just made a massive leap forward, so it’s taking a bit of time for the sword to scale itself to match your level."
"Is that so...?" Arthur muttered, turning his eyes to Celestia once more, though the blade didn’t seem to be doing anything particularly unusual.
It felt exactly the same to him, the same strength, the same energy capacity. When he voiced this observation, Lucifer gave a small nod and continued with his explanation.
"That’s understandable. The process has only just begun.
I used an Analysis ability to check its internal state, which is how I know. You’ll notice it yourself soon enough when it starts absorbing your magic power and the surrounding cosmic energy."
The explanation seemed reasonable enough, so Arthur gave a slight nod and silently unsummoned Celestia.
’Celestia has better synergy with my Divinity and Anti-Divinity, so wouldn’t she absorb those instead?’
Arthur’s assumption was partly correct, something he would only come to realize in the days ahead.
For now, the conversation between them shifted back to the main reason Arthur had come.
"Ah, right. We got side-tracked."
Lucifer held out the three-dimensional kite-shaped object in his hand, about the size of a chess piece.
When Arthur took it, Lucifer explained, "That is the key to a Seed Engine."
"A what now?" Arthur blinked, clearly confused.
Lucifer silently conjured a projection of a larger object, resembling the kite-shaped piece in Arthur’s hand but with root-like structures extending from its lower side.
"You know what a Galactic Engine is, right?"
Of course, Arthur did. He had even asked Ranus for one while testing the limits of what wishes he could be granted.
"That’s simply a tier of hyper-advanced constructs called ’Architect Engines.’
World Engines, Galactic Engines, Universal Engines—they’re all just different tiers."
These Architect Engines were hyper-advanced constructs engineered to wield absolute control over natural and artificial systems within their designated scale. They manipulated energy, matter, space, and time at an ultra-high order, enabling them to fundamentally alter the nature of existence within their specific operational domains.
Pointing at the image he had created, Lucifer continued, "There are many types of Architect Engines, and this one, a Seed Engine, is among them. Its Operational Domain is ’Creation,’ though it is mostly used for terraforming."
Arthur glanced from the projection back to Lucifer before asking, "And what Tier is this one here?"
"That’s the World Tier. I came across it some years ago and used it to restructure a few star systems back then."
"I see..." Arthur nodded quietly, setting the key on a nearby table before asking Lucifer in the calmest voice he could manage, "Dude, are you trying to kill me or something?"
"Huh?"
"What do you mean ’Huh?’ Did you forget I have a literal Aspect of Destruction inside me? And you want me to come into contact with a source of ’Creation’ powerful enough to restructure entire star systems?"
Just as Light and Darkness were equally vulnerable to each other, so too were the opposing forces of Creation and Destruction.
Simply checking Layla’s Existence Realm had caused her Pseudo-Authority to flare up, so Arthur didn’t even want to imagine what a construct with the Functional Domain of ’Creation’ would do if he got too close.
However, it seemed his worries were unnecessary.
"That same ’Aspect’ is precisely why I even considered this. Creation is just as vulnerable to destruction as it is powerful against.
I taught you Elementary Manifestation, didn’t I? That should be enough for you to protect yourself long enough to shut it down."
"Shut it down? You mean that thing is active?"
"Yeah. I switched it on but didn’t turn it off before I left. When I was going through some of my things after confirming I wasn’t going to fade out of existence anymore, I found the key and remembered it."
His casual words briefly reminded Arthur that the Lucifer he was talking to was originally just a fragment of the Original, who had now become the new original since the former original was dead.
His body was a homunculus, and his soul, which should have dissipated into energy due to lacking a Soul Core, was currently being sustained by a new Soul Core Ranus had created.
But Arthur quickly pushed that thought aside and focused on the present.
"So let me get this straight. You want me to shut it off and bring it here? And how exactly is that supposed to help with my Cosmic Superiority problem?"
