Chapter 804: The Future’s Shadow
"If I told you that a future version of me projected his consciousness across time and took control of my body to make me give that order," Arthur said quietly, "would you believe me?"
(Refer to Chapter 96)
Lostvayne’s eyes widened, the shock evident on her face.
[A future version of... you?] she repeated, her tone laced with disbelief.
Catching sight of her dumbfounded expression, Arthur chuckled and asked.
"You know how ridiculous my affinity for time is. How can it surprise you that a future version of me would pull something like that?"
He said it so casually, as if it wasn’t something of note.
"It was a passive alteration," he continued. "Nothing too obvious. Just enough to turn up the ruthless side a little bit. He had to make sure no one noticed, especially not me. And ’I’ know how I think, so he had to get creative and think outside the box."
Exhaling lightly, he added.
"If he wanted me to do what he wanted, with the least amount of interference, he had to work slowly. He’s been at it since I was 9 and did it three times." (Chapters 18, 96, 293)
He yawned after dropping that massive revelation like it was nothing, leaving the two Ego Weapons in stunned silence.
Lostvayne blinked several times, a sigh slipping from her lips as the pieces clicked into place.
Most likely, someone on Phirex, a planet Arthur had originally planned to leave once his objective was done, was destined to become a threat in the future. Someone his future self had deemed enough of a problem to override time itself and force a decision.
Hence why Arthur had a squad of Transcendents erase nearly everything on the surface, and if that hadn’t already gone far enough, had Lewis nuke the entire planet.
As the horror of this slowly settled, Lostvayne asked.
[When did you realise this?]
Arthur gave his answer without hesitation.
"Before I left for Valmone, sometime before you came into my possession. That’s when I figured it out that it was my future self who’d been subtly messing with my mind."
In other words, he’d known something was up before then. He just hadn’t known who was responsible.
"Since he couldn’t risk me figuring it out, he used something that even the me of back then could break. But even after I broke it, it made me think... what if Phirex wasn’t an isolated case, and he only intervened then because it was just that much of a threat?
There might’ve been other, smaller but still threatening incidents caused by enemies that weren’t properly finished off."
And so, the outcome of that train of thought was what had just played out moments ago.
Just as Arthur finished speaking, Celestia, having noticed something odd, asked,
[Wait... you said you found out thirteen years ago, and that’s because he did it again, right? But you had those two planets destroyed years before that...]
Arthur didn’t reply, and Celestia pressed on.
[If you’d already had the planets destroyed, then why did he do it again?]
To that question, Arthur responded with a strained laugh.
"Why? Well, obviously... because getting me to destroy those planets wasn’t the real objective. Phirex’s destruction was just a side quest along the way."
Lostvayne narrowed her eyes. [Then what was his real intention?]
Arthur, now able to move his hand, stretched and finally replied, "I wonder. What was his real intention?"
He didn’t sound like he expected an answer.
"Either way," he continued, "he probably won’t be trying that again anytime soon. When I figured out something was messing with me through time, I set a trap, and he walked right into it.
He also realised he’d fallen for my trap, so he hasn’t tried anything since then."
After speaking, Arthur slowly closed his eyes, thinking about the fragments of information about "the script" that had been left in his mind after that last time, a small sigh escaping his lips.
The place was silent, save for the sound of the flickering flames on his body.
Finally, Lostvayne broke the silence after a while.
[Regardless of what the future version of you did or didn’t do, this case was still only a possibility. A very slim, almost non-existent possibility.
Situations like this will likely come up again in the future, and I would prefer that you don’t attempt something like this again.
Even if you wanted to, I wouldn’t allow you to risk your life over a mere possibility.]
After speaking, she turned her head, her crimson eyes locking onto one of the many distant galaxies, specifically, BK-759, the one Arthur and Nicole had first arrived in.
[Looks like Lucifer’s around.]
As she spoke, she released a small pulse of cosmic destruction energy, and though separated by a galactic gulf, Lucifer detected it within seconds.
Cosmic energy rapidly gathered, forming a Cosmic Gate from which the former Devil King stepped through, raising a brow as he saw Arthur’s state.
"Nothing ever goes as planned with you, does it?"
Arthur, lying back with his head still in Lostvayne’s lap, looked up at him and promptly raised his middle finger.
Lucifer chuckled at the response and snapped his fingers, lighting up the area. Until then, the only illumination had come from the flames still burning on Arthur’s body.
"I sent you to get the Seed Engine so that you could induce the situation where you’d become a cosmic being. So how the hell did you become a cosmic being while trying to get it?"
Arthur clicked his tongue and replied, "Because the damn thing tried to kill me, that’s how."
Lucifer blinked, mildly surprised. "It tried to kill you? Guess the defensive systems were more effective than I thought."
"And is this the result of it trying to kill you?" he asked, referring to Arthur’s current injured state. But then his gaze landed on the severed fist lying on the floor not too far away.
"I suppose it’s not," he added.
"I fought a Galactic Ruler."
Hearing this, Lucifer raised his gaze towards BK-789, then he looked back at Arthur and repeated himself.
"Nothing ever goes as planned with you, does it?"
Arthur held up the middle finger again.
Lucifer ignored it, reaching into his pocket dimension as he said, "Lucky for you, I didn’t leave this in Hell."
He pulled out a basket filled with several shining golden apples, and at the sight, Lostvayne asked,
[Why do those things reek of that Cosmic Nexus in the Nine Realms?]
"Because they came from that Nexus," Lucifer replied, rummaging through the apples.
After a few seconds, he selected one that radiated divinity and tossed it toward Arthur.
"There. Have at it. Idunn left her divinity in some of them as a little trick to make them unusable for me.
Unfortunately for her, I happen to have a great-grandson who just so happens to possess divinity and is completely unaffected by it, as any Devil would be."
With that, he slipped the basket back into his pocket dimension while Arthur blinked in silence, his gaze alternating between the apple and Lucifer.
"Did you just say... Idunn, as in goddess of Life, Idunn?"
Lucifer arched a brow at his question. "You know her? Surprising. Most people usually don’t."
Arthur muttered, "I know her because I was making some plans for Asgard in the future, but that’s not the point. Why do you have—"
He paused, eyes widening as realisation dawned.
"Oh... you said you went to collect a debt of life."
He looked down at the apple glowing faintly in his palm.
"You literally went to collect...a debt of life," he added after a moment.
"What did you think I was talking about?"
Lucifer shook his head silently, before creating another Cosmic Gate leading into BK-789 as he added.
"Anyway, eat that thing. It’ll make you better than new."
With that, he stepped through the gate and into the galaxy, leaving Arthur alone with his Ego Weapons.
And true to Lucifer’s words, the apple did make Arthur better than new.
Not only did it completely heal every injury he had sustained, both internal and external, but the divinity within the fruit was absorbed into his heart, increasing his internal energy and nudging him ever closer to the Superior Stage.
His vitality also increased to a whole nother level, granting him a tenacity that even cockroaches would envy.
Since Arthur was already functionally immortal, the ’lifespan’ portion of the apple’s effect was instead redirected into further enhancing his vitality.
Noticing the changes, Arthur opened his subspace and retrieved a box. It was where he’d stored the many shards of the Titan god Novak’s Divine Spark that he’d obtained in Valmone.
Naturally, the largest piece remained sealed in the special container Jamie had placed it in. Arthur had no plans to use that one just yet.
The rest, the numerous smaller shards, had been kept separately, and now, he decided to make use of them.
Activating his Progenitor Authority, he began using Divine Spark Absorption on all of them, from the smallest shards containing Sovereign-level energy to the larger fragments brimming with energy comparable to Half-Deities.
A total of 350 fragments were consumed, and when Lucifer returned, he was met with a newly minted Superior Stage Low-Tier Deity.
With a sigh, the man repeated for the third time.
"Nothing ever goes as planned with you, does it?"
