Chapter 810: Draco Sirus
Meanwhile, the ’boy’ that the Progenitor goddess was contemplating what to do with was currently travelling through a spatial channel, streaking across the vacuum of space in the Draco Sirus universe of the Second Multiverse.
Arthur had departed from Bracken shortly after his unexpected encounter with the Eternal of Creation, but he hadn’t gone straight to Draco Sirus.
Already 13 years behind schedule, he figured a few more months wouldn’t make much difference.
With that in mind, Arthur altered his destination at the last moment and headed for Valmone instead.
And like that, Arthur realised he had severely miscalculated the time needed to reach the Valmone universe.
A trip he remembered lasting 168 hours was suddenly stretching out to 720 hours.
After some thought, Arthur realised his previous trip to Valmone had also taken that long. He had simply failed to notice it for various reasons.
For one, his Pseudo-Authority of Time couldn’t truly grasp the structure of spacetime around him, and his brain had compressed the monotonous 720-hour stretch into a shorter subjective memory.
Additionally, his spatial awareness was far weaker than that of the Cosmic Authority of the Cosmic Teleporter, causing him to fail to perceive large portions of the journey’s duration, as well as the fact that the spatial channel was travelling through pre-compressed space, where layers of distortion concealed the true distance and time.
All that aside, Arthur’s journey took 30 Hell Universe days, with him finally arriving in Valmone 35 years after his last visit.
The first thing he did upon arrival was head to his planet, Neinope, to check on its state.
He completely concealed his presence, so it wasn’t until the Devour Class System fully consolidated his ’godslayer Lord’ Authority, something that had been merely a hollow title the last time, that Stelan, the leader Arthur had appointed, even noticed him.
Stelan had reached the Superior Stage of Half-Deity, and one could only imagine his shock when he suddenly received a system notification declaring him a vassal of a ’godslayer Lord.’
He wasn’t the only one.
Many other Half-Deity realm godslayers on Neinope received the same message, and it was only after Arthur noticed this that he chose to reveal his presence in a rather theatrical fashion.
While speaking with Stelan and the others, he felt a gaze fixed on him from behind but chose to say nothing.
’If she’s not going to come talk to me, then I won’t say a word.’
With that thought, he ignored Rachel and made his way to Gozon, where he came across the now ’Demon Lords,’ Alvey and McEnda III.
The two had advanced to the Inferior Stage of the Low-Tier Deity Realm, with Alvey even managing to obtain a Unique Authority of his own.
After chatting with the Demon Kings present, Arthur learned that even after 35 years, the other races of Valmone had yet to realise Jamie was missing.
Gozon had entered an era of expansion, with the godslayers frequently participating in battles during this period, using the conflicts to grow stronger. As a result, their average power level had risen significantly compared to before.
Their numbers had also tripled, now reaching into the tens of thousands.
Arthur remained in Valmone for exactly six months, during which he led the godslayers to four different interplanetary battlefields, securing victory each time.
In the last two battles, retaliatory wars waged by god-ruled planets on the outskirts of the Orithyia galaxy, Arthur faced multiple god Lords, defeating them and silencing the younger generation’s claims that tales of him were mere fiction.
Of course, upon hearing there was now a ’younger generation’, Arthur spent a while sulking in a corner over how old he’d apparently become.
McEnda could almost sympathise with him, until he remembered that Arthur’s home universe experienced time at a different rate and decided to ask his age.
Needless to say, the now 85-year-old McEnda felt an overwhelming urge to smack Arthur when the godslayer casually replied, "31."
Arthur also went to Aidos to visit Artemisia and Beatrix, dragging them across the galaxy to see how Aramis was doing, and the three of them ended up playing around in a newly built amusement park on Gledea.
Correction—Arthur and Beatrix were the ones playing around, while Artemisia simply sat back and shook her head at the two grown adults acting like children.
After their little escapade, Arthur was ambushed by god Lords on his return trip, associates of those he’d previously defeated. Making quick work of them, he strapped their bodies to a nearby planet’s moon and sent it hurtling through space like a comet.
Such was Arthur’s closing act, marking the end of his six-month stay in Valmone.
On the 19th of December, Year 1090 [October 3rd, 731 (Hell Time)], Arthur set out on a 1,290-hour journey across the Second Multiverse toward Draco Sirus.
While his body drifted through the spatial channel, Arthur focused on deepening his law comprehensions to bring them up to par with his Existence Realm.
During his Valmone stay, he had During his time in Valmone, he had once attempted to fight without relying on his Aspects or Extreme Nothingness Authority and realised that, compared to his Existence Realm, his mastery over laws was relatively lacking.
Thus, he dedicated the journey to Draco Sirus to studying laws, stopping only when the universe’s space-time continuum began registering his existence, to avoid interference from the surrounding spatiotemporal energies.
He didn’t want the universe’s superior Authority over its own laws disrupting his progress and causing him mental damage.
With that process complete, the Cosmic Teleporter resumed propelling him through space-time, while he conversed with his Ego weapons about their plans now that, after nearly 14 years, they had finally arrived.
"First off, Lostvayne. According to the Cosmic Teleporter, we’re headed to a Mekiria Galaxy’s Planet Chazat."
[Yes. That’s the home of the Dwarven Supreme Lucifer encountered during his visit here. He’d planned to return and so recorded the coordinates with the Cosmic Teleporter, but by the time he did, he had grown strong enough not to need it.
Chazat is an Apex Planet populated by dragons, like most Apex Planets in this universe. However, there’s a slight difference.]
"And that is?"
[Chazat is less advanced than most Apex Planets. The average power level is relatively low, and they aren’t interstellar conquerors like the other Apex Planets in their region. Their interaction with other planets in their Star System is minimal, let alone with the wider galaxy.
Naturally, this is due to the Dwarf residing there, who didn’t want outside disturbances. At least, that was the case the last time I was here.]
Arthur was beginning to form a picture of this Dwarf Supreme, though he had little personal reason to meet him.
’I’m here for Celestia’s fragment, after all...’
Speaking of that—
"Celestia, anything new?"
[Well, I’ve now confirmed with absolute certainty that two of my fragments are in this universe.]
["Two!?"]
Both Arthur and Lostvayne exclaimed in shock, and Celestia calmly affirmed it.
[Yes, two.
Before, I was only about 70% sure there was even one in this universe. I just had this inexplicable feeling that one was here after hearing the name of the place.
But now that I’m physically here, I know for sure there are two... and one happens to be in the direction we’re heading.]
At those words, Arthur’s eyes narrowed slightly, his lips pressing into a frown.
"The exact same direction?"
[So far, yes. If we keep moving through the gaps between galaxies without any major detours, we’ll likely come across it soon.]
As she spoke, she sensed Arthur’s mood shift, picking up on the faint displeasure in him.
[What’s the matter?] Lostvayne asked before Celestia could, prompting Arthur to sigh.
"We came here on what was essentially Celestia’s gut feeling, and now we find out there are two fragments, and one just happens to be lying in our current path.
It all just feels... a little too convenient."
Lostvayne was silent for a moment before asking,
[You think a third party’s involved?]
"Why wouldn’t I? Don’t forget Hyperion had one of Celestia’s fragments for some reason.
Why did he have it, and why would he come all the way to Hell in his real body just to hand it to me? And for free, no less?"
Arthur had raised a valid point about Hyperion’s unknown motives, and at his words, both Ego Weapons fell silent.
Only the Titan himself knew what he was thinking, and unless they confronted him directly, answers might remain out of reach.
’What’s more, he knew about ’Balance’... and so did Jamie and Ranus.’
Arthur sighed softly.
"I just hope retrieving this fragment doesn’t take long."
[Ah, that reminds me, I almost forgot,] Lostvayne said, pausing briefly before continuing. [Draco Sirus is a Primary Universe like Hell, so its flow of time is nearly identical.
The main difference is that an average day in Draco Sirus lasts 25 hours instead of 24.
On top of that, every month in the year has exactly 30 days, making a 12-month year exactly 360 days.
The Universe itself has been deliberately calibrated to maintain these figures and their multiples, so you’ll never find a planet here with a 320-day or 365-day year. It’s always a multiple of 30.]
"Why did they do that? To make everything uniform?" Arthur asked.
[Exactly. Similar to how Hell is mostly uniform, though you can still find planets there with 700-day years.
Here, the Dragons went further, altering every planet with a different cycle to match the standard.]
The sheer scale of power and the number of Authorities required for what Lostvayne was describing left Arthur momentarily speechless.
[Next up is the calendar,] Lostvayne continued.
"Calendar? That’s different, too?"
[Yes, it is.]
