Chapter 775: Intercepted [Monthly Bonus 3]
"Information is power," the old man said, his eyes narrowing. "And in this era, power is forbidden."
At that, Arthur raised an eyebrow, setting the book he had picked back down as he asked, "This era, you say? You speak as though you’ve lived through others."
His eyes flashed behind his contacts, and he blinked, mildly surprised.
"You only seem to be about two centuries old. Has the god of Permanence’s rule really been that short?"
The man was briefly puzzled by how Arthur had managed to guess his age so precisely, but realisation soon dawned.
"Time...you wield the power of Time!"
His tone deepened as he continued.
"The god of Permanence has not ruled for long, yet he has managed to bring the entire known galaxy under his control."
He took a step forward, closing the distance as he spoke, his expression grave, a deep furrow creasing his brow as he peered into Arthur’s eyes with an intensity that contrasted his frail appearance.
"I know you’re not from around here, and I don’t know how you got here, but take my advice and leave quickly. For your own good."
Despite the warning, Arthur showed no intention of leaving. On the contrary, his curiosity only grew stronger.
"You immediately deduced that I wield the power of time simply because I guessed your age, which means someone else must have done the same to you before.
Was it the god of Permanence? More than that, I find it quite interesting how your attitude changed the moment you realised I had such power. Why?"
Arthur took a step forward with each question, closing the remaining gap between them until he stood directly in front of the man.
"Tell me. I’m rather curious," Arthur said, his gaze drifting down to the man’s bare feet before adding, "Even more so about that chain on your leg..."
Just as he noted, a chain was fastened around the man’s left ankle, stretching off into the distance, its end unseen.
The man followed Arthur’s eyes and let out a dry, self-deprecating laugh.
"I was once an explorer and a scholar who saw it as my mission to enlighten the world on the mysteries of worlds beyond our own.
But now, I am forced to stand guard over the knowledge I gathered with my own hands, which has now been sealed away from the same people I once sought to share it with."
"Ouch... that’s rough," Arthur muttered, unable to hide his genuine reaction.
The old man, unfazed, simply repeated his warning.
"You must leave this place as soon as possible. If you disrupt the Galaxy’s ’Permanence’, you’ll earn the ire of a being who doesn’t take too kindly to outsiders interfering with his business."
"A bit too late for that, I suppose..." Arthur murmured, a dry laugh slipping from his lips.
At that, the old man’s eyes widened in alarm.
"What do you mean by that?! What have you done?!"
He grabbed Arthur by the shirt and yanked him closer, but Arthur calmly pushed him back with one hand and replied,
"Nothing. I’ve only been here for barely a day."
The man opened his mouth to speak again, but Arthur cut him off.
"Also, what did you mean by disrupting the Galaxy’s ’Permanence’? And what does that have to do with my time powers?"
"Never mind that! What have you do—"
"Answer my question and I’ll answer yours," Arthur interrupted once more, folding his arms as he leaned against the shelf.
As the old man fell silent, Arthur simply tapped a finger on his arm, one brow arched in an expression that clearly said: I’m waiting.
Silence pervaded the area for a moment before the old man finally spoke.
"Permanence is the mechanism that this galaxy is controlled by.
The god of Permanence, Kalvaro is his name, wields a mutated form of Temporal Authority which, when combined with his Galactic Ruler Authority, enables him to thread temporal locks throughout nearly every star system.
These locks control the speed of historical progression."
Upon hearing this, Arthur immediately figured that Kalvaro possessed a Unique Authority, one seemingly capable of influencing abstracts.
As Arthur came to this conclusion, the old man continued.
"These locks halt the technological development of planets and prevent them from advancing beyond their current stage.
They also restrict breakthroughs in the Existence Realms, blocking ascension beyond designated limits. For instance, no one in this world can ever reach the Transcendent level."
"That sounds more like his Galactic Ruler Authority than his Temporal one..." Arthur interjected.
The old man nodded in agreement before continuing.
"It is. But it becomes temporal once you consider the anchors. The Permanence Anchors, scattered throughout the galaxy, anchor entire regions to fixed temporal spaces, forcing time to flow only at the rate he authorizes.
He traps entire civilizations in historical loops. So even if society appears to advance, it only does so in circles, endlessly returning to the same outcomes with no meaningful change.
He even uses the anchors to reset specific environmental, social, or economic variables to a designated baseline after a set interval.
No one remembers anything changing, so they have no reason to rebel, because, from their perspective, nothing ever did."
"So, fancy words aside, he uses his power to place entire regions of the galaxy in time loops, but it’s not actually people who are looping, just the environment around them?"
"Yes."
Upon hearing the old man’s confirmation, Arthur sighed and shook his head.
"What a literal waste of time. Does he really think he can maintain this forever? That no one will ever interfere?"
’Even if I hadn’t used the Cosmic Teleporter, I could’ve broken through that barrier around the galaxy and entered. What’s stopping someone even stronger than me from doing the same if they come across this galaxy?’
As the thought passed through his mind, Arthur shook his head and muttered,
"Why am I overthinking this? I was just curious anyway."
Shrugging, he turned around, and before the old man could get a word in, he vanished in a flash of light.
◇ ◇ ◇
[Master, you’re leaving already?]
Celestia asked, slightly surprised that Arthur wasn’t staying to dig out more information from the man who clearly knew quite a bit. But Arthur just shook his head.
"No point. He’s already told me enough."
He stepped into his spaceship as he spoke, issuing the command for the AI to power it on.
"I wouldn’t need to stop by any other planets again, but if the Seed Engine key ends up guiding me to an empty region, or if it stops pointing once we’re within a certain range of the target realm, then I might land on a few planets to try and access their restricted information on space."
Arthur dropped into his chair as the ship lifted off. As it pierced through the atmosphere, he suddenly sensed something and turned his gaze back toward the planet’s surface.
Activating his Spatial Authority, his vision bypassed the walls of the ship, pierced through the atmosphere, and zoomed straight into the library he’d just left.
"Oh, it’s the old man."
Upon confirming that the one who had noticed his departure was indeed the chained librarian, Arthur turned his gaze away and the spaceship blasted off into deep space.
◇ ◇ ◇
The spaceship continued moving through space, making repeated spatial jumps and crossing vast interstellar distances.
Days passed in the blink of an eye, the Hell universe calendar in the ship ticking from the 7th to the 8th, then the 9th, and finally to the 10th.
Around that time, Arthur, who had been sleeping on the reclining chair in the spaceship’s cockpit while it cruised autonomously, suddenly woke up.
He sat up, blinking once before glancing at the displays showing real-time feeds from the ship’s external cameras.
Currently, the ship was moving through a twin star system, passing between two planets that orbited quite close to one another.
Well, they were close only by spacefaring standards. The planets were over 500,000 kilometres apart.
Regardless, the planets weren’t the problem.
Within seconds of registering his position, a pulse of spatial energy moving at relativistic speed slammed into the ship. It didn’t pierce the defensive shields, but the force of the impact was enough to slow the vessel down just enough for it to be surrounded.
The cameras displayed several figures clad in armour identical to that of the Sentinels Arthur had encountered on the previous planet, only these sets had been modified for manoeuvrability in space.
Controlling the ambient cosmic energy, Arthur scanned them all and confirmed that each one was a Transcendent Realm member of the god race.
They levelled plasma cannons at Arthur’s ship, and one of them tapped a device on his shoulder and spoke into it.
[Unidentified Signal Transmission Received. Blocking...]
Naturally, their attempt at a forceful transmission couldn’t bypass the ship’s security systems. Arthur had to instruct the AI to lower the firewall and allow the signal through so he could hear what they were trying to say.
[...that travel between planets is forbidden in the Empire of Permanence!]
The voice that rang through the speakers was both accusatory and authoritative.
[How did you acquire the technology to move across planets? What planet are you from, and why have you come to this one?]
Arthur very nearly replied that he hadn’t come to any planet and was merely passing through, but decided against that.
Pressing a button on the console, Arthur responded,
[Can you lower your weapons? I’m not here to fight or anything. I was just passing through.]
[Your presence alone is a violation of the laws of Permanence!]
The man snapped back, his weapon glowing brighter as he commanded.
[You will come with us for interrogation.]
