Chapter 813: Mofil Ashfinger [Monthly Bonus 3]
Upon entering, Arthur saw the back of a muscular man, clad only in a singlet, hammering down on a piece of metal that changed shape with every strike.
[That’s an incredibly dense lump of adamantium. [How that thing’s gravitational field isn’t having this mountain orbit it is a mystery to me...]
Celestia’s comment made Arthur raise an eyebrow, mildly surprised by how effortlessly the man reshaped such a dense material with a single hit.
’Well, he’s a Supreme, so that makes sense.’
[I’m afraid he’s not, Master.]
’Huh? What do you mean?’
Lostvayne didn’t respond, instead condensing cosmic energy and taking on his male humanoid form, dressed similarly to Arthur in a casual T-shirt, joggers, and sneakers.
[You’ve grown much stronger, Mofil.]
As he spoke, the man hammered down on the lump of metal, then picked it up with tongs and dipped it into a bowl of what appeared to be water.
’Appeared’ because the temperature of that metal should have vaporised ordinary water in an instant.
Then, a deep, gruff voice echoed.
"I have not, Lostvayne. You’re simply meeting the real me."
The man said this while lifting the metal lump, narrowing his eyes as he inspected it. Hearing his words, Lostvayne raised an eyebrow.
[Meeting the real you?]
"What you and Lucifer knew was only my second body, created from organic material from my once severed arm. It resembles me and carries a similar presence, but it was merely controlled remotely."
Dipping the metal lump back into the liquid, the man continued,
"What you see now is the true body of Mofil Ashfinger."
He placed the metal lump back on the anvil and resumed hammering as Lostvayne pondered silently.
’So you and Lucifer met a clone of this guy before?’
[Apparently so. A Second Body, huh? To think even I didn’t realise it was remotely controlled.]
Lostvayne sighed before glancing back at Mofil and adding,
Lostvayne responded to Arthur with a sigh, then looked back up at Mofil and added,
[At least, Jamie Westley. His true body, that is.]
’...’
Arthur was momentarily silent.
’...!’
Then, the realisation dawned.
It turned out that Mofil was an even bigger shot than Arthur had assumed.
’Zenith Haven...!’
On day one of his arrival on a planet in Draco Sirus, Arthur had already come face to face with arguably the strongest being roaming a planet’s surface in this universe.
While Arthur was still processing Lostvayne’s revelation, Mofil continued hammering the metal lump into a perfectly shaped cuboid ingot. He then added it to a stack of adamantium ingots on a nearby shelf, set down his hammer, and turned around.
The five-foot-tall man had long hair tied back and a brown beard segmented into several sections. His chiselled face showed a few wrinkles, with soot smudged across his cheeks.
Raising a brow as he looked at Arthur, he said,
"You don’t resemble Lucifer."
"Of course, I don’t. He’s like 3 generations up there. The similarities have gotten lost down the line."
"You certainly talk like him," Mofil added, picking up a rag to wipe his face.
"You arrived later than I expected."
Arthur’s eyes narrowed slightly at that line.
"You were expecting me?"
The dwarf, noticing Arthur’s suspicion, simply set down his rag and moved to another part of his workshop.
"There is something called Providence, Progenitor. It has revealed many a thing to me. For one, I expect more to come."
More of what?—Arthur wanted to ask, but he chose to focus on the first part.
"Providence? A Unique Authority?"
[No. It’s a standard Dictum formed by the fusion of the assimilated laws of Fate and Destiny,] Lostvayne explained.
"Right, Dictum. What’s that supposed to be again?"
[A ’Supreme’ command over reality that governs the unified expression of fused Authorities.]
Hearing their brief exchange, Mofil paused and turned to Arthur with a puzzled look.
"How do you not know this basic knowledge?"
"I see no reason to fill my head with information I wouldn’t need for the next 10 Existence Realms. When I need to find out, I will."
Arthur’s answer left Mofil silent for a moment before he nodded, seemingly accepting Arthur’s reasoning.
"So, why have you come to this world? Searching for Lucifer’s legacies?"
Mofil clearly wasn’t aware of Lucifer’s re-existence, and Arthur had no intention of telling him. Instead, he straight-up revealed his true purpose for coming to Draco Sirus.
"I’m looking for a fragment of a weapon that should be somewhere on this planet."
After a moment, he directed a question to Celestia, "What’s the update? Have you located it?"
[No, Master. It’s like that time with Aeturn. Something is blocking my perception, so I can barely tell which direction it’s in. I just know it’s somewhere on this planet.]
"Well, that’s not good to hear."
Hearing Arthur’s response, Mofil turned to him, then, after a moment, detected Celestia’s existence.
"I’m impressed that sword can maintain her ego in such a terrible state."
"That’s my Celestia. By the way, have you noticed anything emitting the same cosmic energy signature as her?" Arthur asked, though he didn’t hold out much hope for a positive answer.
"Not that I recall," Mofil replied, pulling a box from a cupboard that opened into what Arthur could only describe as a black void.
"Lucifer left a lot of his junk here last time. Make sure to take it all and dump it over his grave."
"Pfft... really?"
Arthur shook his head with a chuckle, then glanced at the box of cosmic artifacts the man had placed on the nearby table.
Spotting one of the items, Lostvayne, who had been near the metal ingots, stepped closer and said, [So that’s where this ended up...]
He picked up a cuboid box and examined it, prompting Arthur to ask, "What’s that?"
[A Xelvan Tesseract, a remnant of the Third Multiverse’s now-destroyed Xelvan Empire.]
"What does it do?"
[It absorbs destructive phenomena and replicates them on a larger scale, limited to a Universal Scale.
Anything beyond that was destroyed along with the Xelvan Empire.]
That sounded like a very dangerous item in Lostvayne’s hands, and Arthur sensed something ’Extra-Dimensional’ about it as his spatial perception had become distorted ever since Mofil brought out the box.
[If this thing were functional and absorbed something like... say, your AGSD attack and activated with enough cosmic energy, it could create a singularity large enough to destroy an average-sized universe.]
"..."
So it didn’t just sound dangerous, it was dangerous.
"...what sort of lunatic made this?"
"...what kind of lunatic made this?"
[The Xelvan kind of lunatic. What’s worse, each Tesseract has a limited number of uses. When it was exhausted, one had no choice but to return and request more, which only increased the Xelvans’ power and cosmic influence.]
After Lostvayne finished speaking, Mofil took the Tesseract from him, examining it closely as he infused it with cosmic energy, causing it to glow faintly.
"...please don’t switch on that scary sounding death machine."
"It’s not functional. All its charges are spent," Mofil replied to Arthur’s plea, continuing to pour immense amounts of cosmic energy into it, perhaps trying to understand its internal systems.
Still cautious, Arthur silently activated his Cosmic Teleporter and turned to Lostvayne.
"And how did this Xelvan Empire end up destroyed?"
Arthur’s curiosity about how a cosmic force capable of mass-producing items like this met its downfall was met with an unexpected answer.
"They were destroyed by Zanerth’s Immortal Anomaly."
Mofil’s casual response to the question drew a shocked reaction from Arthur.
"Zanerth? Wait, Jamie destroyed them?"
[Yes. Single-handedly. In less than 24 hours.
Apparently, the Xelvans interfered in an internal Zanerth conflict despite repeated warnings and were destroyed as a result.
It’s recorded as the fastest fall of a Cosmic Power to date.]
Destroying a multi-universal empire that had reached Cosmic Power status within 24 hours would certainly break records.
"Crazy," Arthur muttered.
Just then, Mofil, having satisfied his curiosity about the Tesseract, tossed it back into the box and said, "All yours."
"Not sure I have any use for that."
He didn’t have the necessary cosmic energy to even power it on.
Shaking his head, he asked, "Can I leave this here for now? At least until I find what I came for?"
"No problem."
Mofil didn’t mind, so Arthur pushed the box against the wall and turned to Lostvayne.
"You coming?"
[Hmm? Ah, yes.]
He returned to his sword form, and Arthur headed for the door, but just before he stepped out, Mofil spoke.
"Wait."
Arthur turned with a raised brow, and in an even deeper voice than before, Mofil said,
"Whatever you do, do not enter the Southernmost Continent. That is forbidden territory."
"Okay."
Arthur replied casually, stepping out and closing the door behind him. He spread a wave of cosmic energy, locked onto the coordinates at the mountain’s base, and teleported down before speaking.
"This planet is quite large, so sweeping its surface will take some time... Isn’t there a more efficient way? Like using a Fate-related power?"
Understanding the hint, Lostvayne responded.
[I’m afraid even the powerful Dictum of Providence can’t deduce much about someone you have little to no ’Fate’ connection with.
Since you’ve only just met Mofil, Providence won’t be able to calculate Lady Celestia’s fragment location, as that’s tied to your Fate, not his.
Only when your Fates cross or intertwine can it provide answers in such detail you’d think it’s stalking you from the future.]
"That’s a pretty creepy analogy."
Arthur remarked as he slowly lifted off the ground. Using his Spatial Authority, he generated a continental map, then shot north, beginning his search for Celestia’s fragment.
