Chapter 784: A Complex Problem [Monthly Bonus 2]
"Leaving aside all of that, there’s no way in hell I’m gonna use you to replace the core of this realm."
Arthur didn’t even entertain the idea for a split second. Lostvayne was far too valuable for that.
"Problem is... I don’t think I have anything on me strong enough to—"
Arthur abruptly stopped mid-sentence, and right away, both Lostvayne and Celestia turned toward him.
[[You have something, don’t you?]] they said in unison.
And Arthur, scratching his head, said, "Well... a couple of years ago, when I was with Lewis and the others in the Crystal Realm..."
For reference, the Crystal Realm was a special realm in the Hell Universe where the cores of certain planets were composed of naturally formed Law Crystals.
It was in that realm that Arthur had discovered the Time Law Crystal which he later used to cast the Third Magic, the reason why his already ridiculous growth speed had become even more accelerated and far more absurd.
So, during a visit to the Crystal Realm a few years back, while checking in on his ventures there, Arthur discovered another uninhabited planet with a Law Energy Crystal as its core.
It wasn’t conveniently the Law of Creation, but the Law of Space. Still, Arthur didn’t really need it, since Lucifer had already provided him with many Law Crystals containing up to Monarch Rank Laws.
Still, Arthur harvested that planet’s core and kept it with him.
And that wasn’t the only one. Over the past twelve years, he had collected cores from about five different planets, each of a different universal law.
They were all incredibly powerful sources of law energy and served as key parts of Arthur’s trump cards in situations where his life might be on the line. While he had the Stellar Guard, which could protect him from instant death attacks, he wasn’t willing to put all his eggs in one basket.
These planet-core-sized law crystals held enormous amounts of energy and could be detonated to produce explosions with destructive power far beyond anything Arthur could currently generate, even if he burned his life force or his soul.
That was why Arthur had taken them in the first place. In the event he found himself in a fight he couldn’t escape from, against an overwhelmingly powerful opponent, he could detonate one or all of the crystals to try and buy himself a chance to flee.
But now, he found himself in a situation where using one of them could prevent an opponent he currently couldn’t defeat from ever coming after him in the first place.
He reached into his subspace and pulled out the planet-core-sized energy crystal.
Since gaining his Low-Rank Spatial Law Authority, that subspace had expanded so drastically that even he was surprised by how vast it had become.
Because of that, it could contain several objects of such size without issue.
"Since this is a realm, basically a spatial pocket embedded within the mainstream fabric of space inside this galaxy, space would be the most appropriate law to use," Arthur muttered.
At that, Lostvayne commented,
[Well, it’s certainly better than that Destruction Law energy crystal you have inside your subspace for some reason.]
Hearing Lostvayne’s words, Arthur chuckled. "Ah, come to think of it... you were with Lucifer when I went to go harvest that one, were you?"
Indeed, Lostvayne hadn’t been present when Arthur obtained the Destruction Law crystal, so the sword hadn’t even known of its existence until a few seconds ago, when Arthur opened his subspace and brought out the Spatial Law crystal.
Arthur glanced back into his subspace and muttered to himself. "I wonder when my subspace will be big enough for me to walk inside it."
[Master, at that point, it wouldn’t really be a subspace anymore, even if you still called it that. It would be a pocket dimension, or more accurately, a dimensional realm.]
[And while that has its pros,] Lostvayne continued, [it also has cons. If you can enter and exit it physically, then those access points have to exist somewhere.
That means anyone with high enough Spatial Law comprehension could detect the entrance. And if they can detect it, they can attack it, causing damage to your subspace.
By extension, they could harm you through your link to it.]
Arthur muttered, "Hmm... that sounds like a lot. But it’s still convenient."
Lostvayne agreed.
[Yes, it’s still convenient. There were plenty of times when Lucifer had to camp inside his pocket dimension when he was stuck in extremely uninhabitable...well, let’s say death zones—the kind of places normal people shouldn’t even be able to exist in.]
Another one of Lucifer’s antics that made Arthur question the man’s sanity.
Still, pushing that aside and focusing on the current matter, Arthur examined the Law Crystal floating before him and spoke.
"Okay, so we can use this to keep the realm stable. The first issue is getting to the Seed Engine and switching it off. Then we can talk about replacing the Seed Engine’s connection to the planet with this crystal."
Just as he returned the crystal to his subspace, Celestia spoke up.
[Master... are you sure you want to try this? This sounds a lot like a medical student who just graduated from university trying to perform a heart transplant for their first gig.]
Arthur froze, turning his head slowly to face her.
"What kind of perfect analogy is that?"
It really was the most painfully accurate analogy to describe what he was attempting.
A student who had just graduated from medical university—Arthur, who had only recently attained Low-Rank Spatial Law Authority—planned to attempt the metaphysical equivalent of a heart transplant.
His first major application of that Authority, aside from the usual teleportation, and spatial perception, would be transplanting the core of an entire realm, one with five stars and dozens of orbiting planets.
Yeah... that was more than a little excessive.
"Oh come on, how hard can—"
[Master,] Lostvayne cut in, [I believe statements like that are what you usually refer to as red flags.]
And Arthur, falling silent, chose not to finish that sentence. Instead, he said, "I’m going to be very careful and make sure I transplant this thing perfectly."
Lostvayne responded, [That’s a good attitude to have.]
Arthur chuckled, turned around, and floated back to his spaceship. And so began the journey to the Seed Engine’s planet.
◇ ◇ ◇
Around a day later, Arthur arrived at his destination, the region of space containing the rogue planet where the Seed Engine had been planted.
The word planted was the best descriptor since the Seed Engine was a kite-shaped object with root-like extensions protruding from its lower side, and setting it up required planting those roots into the ground.
That was exactly what Lucifer had done on this rogue planet thousands of years ago. Now, Arthur was here to finally shut down the Seed Engine after its long, long day at work.
Some distance away from the planet, Arthur exited his spaceship and observed its surface.
"That thing is an Apex Planet," he said.
Lostvayne’s voice followed. [I’m not too surprised. That Seed Engine has been running long enough to terraform this entire realm. It would be stranger if the planet it was on hadn’t reached the level of an Apex Planet.]
From his vantage point in space, used his Authority of Space to zoom in, and he spotted the Seed Engine near the planet’s west pole, if it could even be called that. It was situated on the western side of the planet.
"It seems like some kind of symbiotic relationship has formed between the Seed Engine and the planet, or maybe parasitic?"
Either way, the planet appeared to have grown additional organic extensions that connected to the Seed Engine, beyond the initial root-like structures the Engine originally had.
"Anyways, we’ve found the Seed Engine, we have the key, and we have something we can use to replace it," Arthur said. "First order of business is shutting it down."
Getting close enough to shut it down, however, was going to be a problem.
From what Arthur could see, the entire atmosphere of the planet was saturated with creation-based cosmic energy.
Entering that environment wouldn’t be as simple as flying down. It would be like diving into an ocean, and just like how water pressure increased the deeper one dove, the pressure of the energy would intensify the closer he got to the Seed Engine.
"The Seed Engine... it has defence mechanisms, right?"
[All Architect Engines have defence mechanisms,] Lostvayne replied.
So in other words, the massive device that appeared completely undefended from the outside most definitely wasn’t.
Arthur asked, "Would holding up the key make it ignore me? Make its defence systems treat me as friendly?"
Lostvayne responded calmly. [I’m not so sure, Master. And I think you probably wouldn’t be able to hold up the key either.
Getting through all that energy is going to require all of your focus. Trying to stop the key from flying out of your hand in the middle of all that is not something I’d recommend.]
This response elicited a heavy sigh from Arthur. He had already figured that might be the case.
The reason Arthur hadn’t just let the key go and allowed it to fly to the Seed Engine was because, just as putting a key into a door didn’t open the door—you had to turn it—Arthur would have to do the equivalent of that to the Seed Engine.
He stared at the planet’s atmosphere, or rather, the ocean of cosmic energy that he was about to dive into, then psyched himself up, and said,
"Alright. Let’s do this."
Leaving his spaceship behind, Arthur dove toward the planet, streaking through space. As he moved, he began to speak, manipulating the ambient cosmic energy surrounding him.
Arthur, leaving his spaceship behind, dove toward the planet, shooting through space while manipulating the ambient cosmic energy surrounding him.
|First Concretization: Aspect Manifestation—Destruction.|
Destruction energy erupted from the Aspect within his soul, merging with the ambient cosmic energy around him. That mixture took form as a bubble of energy that enveloped his body.
With the protective sphere in place, he plunged into the planet’s atmosphere, the bubble lighting up from friction as he charged downward at hypersonic speed.
Finally, he broke through the upper atmosphere and entered the planet fully, descending until his feet made contact with the surface that glistened like some kind of diamond.
Arthur double-tapped his foot against the crystalline terrain and reshaped his energy bubble, expanding it into a dome about three meters wide. At the same time, he created a separate layer of energy beneath his feet, a buffer to guard against any unexpected protrusions from below.
’Well, suppose this is good enough for now.’
Naturally, he hadn’t dropped down directly in front of the Seed Engine. He had landed a good distance away in order to test how well his defences would hold up against the density of creation cosmic energy saturating the region.
They held up well, so now, it was time to begin the approach.
