Chapter 812: Invitation
"Huh? Wait, he was talking to me?"
He said it aloud, which only seemed to further enrage the speaker and draw the crowd’s attention. Now people realised exactly who the furious shout had been aimed at.
The speaker was another dragon, his draconic features fully on display despite being in a humanoid form, horns jutting from his head, crimson scales gleaming under the sun, and a thick tail swaying behind him.
He was flanked by two other dragons and glared at Arthur with open contempt.
The woman seated across from Arthur rolled her eyes as the man sneered, "You lowly species dare to speak to the Lord’s Daughter?!"
At the words ’Lord’s Daughter’, Arthur glanced toward the woman. "Oh, he’s with you?"
Before she could answer, the dragon roared again, "And you’re still sitting there?!"
His magic power burst out, cracking the ground beneath him as he advanced with his entourage.
The overwhelming pressure he released forced several passers-by to their knees in agony. Those strong enough to withstand it quickly moved away, wanting no part in whatever was about to happen.
Seeing this, the woman finally spoke, her eyes narrowing.
"Restrain yourself!"
She released her own magic power, forcing back his oppressive aura. At that, the male dragon froze, eyes widening as he turned toward her.
"Princess... why do you show compassion for these inferior species...?!"
Arthur rolled his eyes and muttered, "Wow, he’s a racist."
[You’ve already run into one, huh?] Lostvayne noted dryly. [They’re pretty common around here.]
The princess snapped her gaze back to Arthur, eyes wide. "Why would you say that—?!"
But she didn’t get to finish. The male dragon, who had clearly heard him, roared in outrage.
He swung his arm, sending a wave of magic power laced with law energy tearing through the air toward Arthur.
But before it could reach him, and before the princess’s hastily prepared defence could even take shape, Arthur simply turned his head and looked at the dragon.
"!!—!!"
**KABOOM!!!
In the next instant, the dragon was sent hurtling backwards, smashing through the air before slamming into the wall of a nearby building.
"..."
"...??"
Silence blanketed the street.
Everyone froze, wide-eyed. The two cronies who had been standing beside the dragon stared in disbelief.
One moment their leader had been right in front of them, the next he was flying past them like a ragdoll and cratering into the wall.
The ’princess,’ who had been about to shield Arthur, looked equally stunned, unable to immediately process what had just happened.
Arthur himself said nothing, his gaze still fixed on the fallen dragon before he slowly shook his head in disappointment.
That small movement seemed to jolt the two cronies back to reality. With roars of outrage, their humanoid features morphed, heads elongating into draconic maws, bodies armouring themselves in gleaming scales.
They didn’t bother asking questions as they launched themselves at Arthur in unison, having already concluded he was responsible for what just happened.
This time, the princess reacted first. Her pupils transformed to slits as she spoke in her True Voice.
|Halt!|
A crushing wave of magic slammed into the two mid-air, forcing them down like puppets with their strings cut. Both hit the ground hard, their knees cracking the stone beneath them.
Unfortunately for them, at the same moment the princess even spoke, Arthur transmitted his will to the law of gravity.
As such, the instant their knees hit the ground, the gravitational pull around them multiplied fivefold, slamming their faces flat into the dirt and creating small craters beneath them.
Having already acted, Arthur merely shrugged.
"You must be used to this planet’s gravity since you live here," he said casually. "But I wonder... are you used to it at five times the intensity?"
Then he snapped his fingers.
"What about ten?"
The pressure doubled instantly. Stone split beneath them as their bodies sank into the ground, several metres deep.
Watching this, the princess quickly pieced together how the red dragon had been sent flying earlier.
If this went on, however, the two would be reduced to paste.
Raising a hand toward Arthur, she said, "Wait. I understand they tried to attack you, but please, don’t kill them."
Arthur tilted his head. "Oh? And what made you think I was going to kill them?"
Another snap of his fingers, and the crushing gravity vanished, though not before it had fractured more than half the bones in their bodies.
He turned back to the princess, his voice calm. "Now, are you going to answer my earlier question, or should I find another dragon to ask?"
The sudden return to the original topic left her staring in disbelief, until an overwhelming wave of magic power erupted from across the street. The immense pressure flooded the area, spiderwebbing cracks through nearby buildings.
The red dragon, finally regaining his senses after being sent flying, roared in fury and began to swing his arm.
But before the motion was even halfway through, Arthur, still not looking at him, lifted his left index finger skyward. Instantly, the dragon’s body was yanked high into the air.
Then he pointed down.
With a thunderous crash, the dragon slammed into the ground, shattering the street. Simultaneously, a protective barrier formed around the impact zone, keeping debris from flying toward Arthur.
Still facing the princess, he said, "Don’t worry, I’m not going to kill him either. Just wanted to remind him that gravity exists. What goes up... must come down."
The words made little sense to the princess, who simply chose to ignore them, narrowing her eyes at him instead.
"You...who are you?"
"Someone from very far away," Arthur replied. "Who has no idea how things work around here. That’s why I asked if that mountain was restricted to dragons alone, or if others can climb it too."
’From very far away? Another Continent? Or...another Planet?’
The princess studied him anew. If he truly wasn’t from this world, it explained why he didn’t know who the dragons he had just manhandled were. If he did know, then she could only admire his boldness and audacity.
She opened her mouth to speak, but once again, her response was interrupted as a torrent of magic power erupted from the crater in the middle of the street.
Arthur rolled his eyes. "Come on, dude. Just stay down."
As his gaze shifted towards the red dragon, who had just returned to his full dragon form, the princess rose from her seat, intent on intervening before things got worse.
[Master,] Lostvayne’s voice echoed in Arthur’s mind, [His arms.]
Arthur’s eyes narrowed, having already sensed what Lostvayne pointed out.
Around the dragon’s forearms gleamed a pair of bracelets made of scales, emanating an intense cosmic energy.
The moment he sensed the dragon pouring magic power into them, he didn’t hesitate to act.
’Anti-Divine Gravity Authority.’
He clenched his left fist, and an overwhelming pressure slammed into the dragon from every direction, crushing his wings, breaking tailbones, and squeezing his massive frame like a vice before he could even react.
The princess’s eyes went wide, and she immediately turned to Arthur. "Wait, don’t kill him!"
She activated her own Authority, attempting to interfere with Arthur’s, only for the effort to fail miserably. The backlash hit her hard, forcing a wince.
’He’s... stronger than I thought!’
The realisation drained the colour from her face.
She was just beginning to consider attacking Arthur outright to distract him and force him to stop when, unexpectedly, Arthur released the pressure.
Almost at the same moment, a beam of energy descended from above, wrapping the battered red dragon in a protective barrier.
A massive shadow fell over the street, and Arthur looked up, his expression calm.
Hovering above was a colossal white dragon, three pairs of wings beating slowly.
The princess stiffened, whispering, "...Father."
That mutter reached Arthur’s ears, and he raised an eyebrow at the dragon.
"Oh, so you’re the lord of this area." His gaze then dropped to the red dragon. "Yours? Or just one of your servants?"
The white dragon looked down at the smaller red one, then back at Arthur as he responded.
The white dragon’s eyes shifted briefly to the smaller red one before returning to Arthur.
"The son of an associate. Please, stay your hand, being from a foreign universe."
The princess’s head snapped toward Arthur at her father’s words, shock clear in her expression.
Ignoring her, Arthur replied,
"If he’s the son of an associate, you might want to tell this associate to teach his son to pick his fights.
If you get knocked down twice by someone whose power you can’t even sense, maybe waving around an artifact you don’t fully understand isn’t the brightest idea."
The white dragon nodded slowly. "I will make that clear."
Arthur shrugged. "Then I suppose we have no more business... Well, except for your city. I did break a few things."
Blue temporal energy erupted from his body, enveloping the area in a dome of magical power.
|Turn back.|
Before everyone’s eyes, the ruined street, collapsed buildings, and injured civilians rewound to their untouched state, time itself reversing as though the scuffle had never happened.
The white dragon calmly glanced around before returning his gaze to Arthur as he said, "You appear so young, yet possess such precise control over the Law of Time."
"Why, thank you," Arthur responded.
"Since you’re already here, I might as well ask. Is that mountain off-limits to outsiders? I might need to speak to someone who may or may not be at the top."
The dragon shook his head silently.
"No such restriction exists. And he who resides at the summit wishes to speak with you as well."
"Huh?"
"He also said," the dragon added, "to bring the Sword of Destruction with you."
Just as the words echoed, Lostvayne spoke to Arthur.
[I didn’t notice him until just now... Looks like Mofil’s gotten a lot stronger.]
’It appears you’ve been detected,’ Arthur said.
[Yes,] Lostvayne replied. [He’s intentionally revealed his presence. Though it’s quite literally in another dimension, so you wouldn’t be able to perceive him even if you wanted.]
Arthur rolled his eyes. ’I don’t even want to.’
It was worth remembering that Arthur was intentionally avoiding knowledge of the Sub-Cosmic and Cosmic Realms.
Rising from his seat, he addressed the dragon.
"Very well. Shall we head up the mountain now?"
The white dragon nodded silently, weaving cosmic energy to create a portal for Arthur.
Arthur scanned it with his spatial Authority before stepping through, arriving at a wide compound atop the mountain.
From the thinness of the air and the darkness of the skies, it was clear they were barely within the planet’s upper atmosphere, a region where mortals couldn’t stay conscious without external aid.
The mountaintop had been flattened, forming a small compound with some tools scattered across the lawn, a few children’s toys stacked beneath a gazebo in one corner, and a modest one-story building with an extension that had a smoking chimney.
The door to the extension slowly opened, as if inviting Arthur inside, while the sound of constant hammering echoed from within.
