Chapter 815: The Hoard
After a minute of silence, Arthur finally spoke, "It’s shiny."
Lostvayne responded, [Shiny it is.]
Celestia added, [Definitely shiny.]
The cave Arthur had come out of led into a vast hollow space, causing him to wonder if the entire surrounding mountain range was hollow.
Glancing to his left, he saw the hollow expanse stretching for several kilometres, confirming his suspicion.
"So, this entire mountain range is hollow inside, and within that hollow space, there’s another mountain range."
Lostvayne agreed, [It’s definitely a mountain range.]
Celestia added, [Regardless of what it’s made of, it’s surely a mountain range.]
The three of them stood silently, gazing at the shiny structure before them.
Shiny, indeed, because this mountain range was made of literal gold.
Not a natural lump of gold, but hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, of tiny golden trinkets piled so high they formed actual mountains several kilometres tall.
Gold was the dominant material, but there was also silver, platinum, and other shiny metals that Arthur couldn’t even identify.
Among the mass were countless items, from simple earrings to gold coins, raw metal lumps, and weapons radiating an immense amount of cosmic energy, so much that Arthur wondered how he hadn’t sensed them until reaching here.
Looking at it all, Arthur said, "Yeah, this is suspicious as hell."
Lostvayne added, [I can count on one hand how many things more suspicious than this I’ve ever seen.]
That was quite a statement coming from Lostvayne, who had existed for trillions of years.
Arthur turned toward the floating sword and asked, "You’ve seen things more suspicious than several mountains’ worth of precious metals just lying around inside another hollow mountain range?"
Lostvayne replied, [Master, there are crazy things in this Cosmos.]
Arthur didn’t even want to know what Lostvayne considered more suspicious than what they were seeing.
He shifted his gaze to Celestia on his right and said, "Celestia."
She responded, [Master...it’s in the second one.]
Arthur silently facepalmed.
Celestia was now certain that somewhere buried within that second pile of shiny precious metals stacked like a mountain was a piece of her ’existence’.
If she willed it, she could even force the fragment to pull itself out, attracting it to her, just like she had done with the one Aeturn had.
The problem was that these mountains of gold and precious metals were incredibly suspicious, so she hadn’t dared to act, uncertain of the consequences if she did.
Arthur remained silent for a moment, then sighed, "Yeah, no, Celestia. I’m not about to mess with this."
He didn’t know what this was or whose precious stash it could be. Maybe it was Mofil’s secret hoard, though Arthur wondered why Mofil would keep it here when he already had a cupboard that was practically a pocket dimension.
But none of that mattered now. This was suspicious, and even though Celestia’s fragment was inside, Arthur wasn’t going to step in.
He waved his hand firmly, saying, "Nope. We’re leaving."
Though disheartened, Celestia understood. This whole situation was too strange.
No one in their right mind would tamper with a suspicious pile of gold like this.
So, despite her reluctance, she knew they had to leave.
Arthur said, "We’ll go back to Mofil, tell him what we found, and ask him about this place before we move on. Okay, Celestia?"
Celestia reluctantly agreed.
Stretching, Arthur said, "Alright then, off we go."
With that, he turned around...and that’s exactly when the problem began.
Arthur had waved his hands in the air as he expressed his reluctance to step into the hollow space, to interfere with those vast mountains of precious metals.
He then casually stretched his body and made an about turn—actions that seemed perfectly normal.
But that was only from Arthur’s perspective.
Having wisely decided not to step further in, Arthur had only been observing the golden mountains from the mouth of the cave corridor he had entered.
He hadn’t actually entered the hollow space.
As he turned, his outstretched hand moved through the air, crossing the boundary of the cave corridor into the hollow space, passing an unseen threshold that Arthur couldn’t perceive.
That brief, momentary crossing, lasting less than a second before he pulled his hand back, triggered something.
The reaction to that ’something’ happened in an instant.
|What audacious thief—?|
"!"
[Mas—! **WHOOSH! **BAMMM!!
"GruGK!"
Arthur’s brain couldn’t process what had just occurred.
One moment, he heard a voice, and the next, he slammed full force into an incredibly hard surface, so strong that its planet-level durability gave way, creating a crater.
An immense, unseen pressure bore down on his existence, making him feel as if his internal organs were being twisted and squeezed like a towel, with blood pouring heavily from his mouth.
Then gravity pulled his body downward, and he slid along the surface, crashing onto the ground while struggling to catch his breath.
[M ... st..!]
Celestia and Lostvayne’s voices echoed, but all Arthur could hear was a loud ringing.
The two Ego Weapons rushed to his side, with Celestia quickly shielding him using her cosmic energy, while Lostvayne unleashed his destructive power to ’destroy’ the pressure bearing down on Arthur.
Despite the pain ringing in his head, Arthur tried to activate the Cosmic Teleporter to escape.
But—
’...it’s...not...working?’
For the first time, the Cosmic Teleporter failed to respond to his command.
It was attempting to activate, but couldn’t exert any influence on the surrounding space to open a gate.
Arthur couldn’t heal his wounds either. He couldn’t use his destruction energy for protection, nor manipulate gravity to form a shield.
It felt as if the entire reality around him, and everything within it, belonged to someone else, and Arthur was forbidden from influencing or altering it.
Just as he failed to activate the teleporter, the voice echoed again.
|Oh? You’re a tenacious one.|
The entire mountain range began to tremble like an earthquake was happening, stalactites falling as the gold mountain in front of Arthur started collapsing.
Bursting out from the left side was a giant claw attached to a forearm covered in scales so large that even the smallest was twice Arthur’s height across.
The gold mountain crumbled even further as another massive arm burst out from the other end, then the front of it exploded, scattering trinkets and metals in every direction.
"!...!"
Emerging from the giant mountain was a massive head covered in rough crimson scales that shimmered faintly in the dim light.
Its amber eyes glowed faintly, a scar crossing the scales above its left eye. Its mouth was filled with razor-sharp teeth, and attached to its chin was a protrusion resembling an arrowhead. Thick ridges traced along its snout, while wisps of smoke drifted from its nostrils as it slowly turned to face Arthur.
Its gaze on Arthur felt like an invisible weight pressing down to crush him, and just as the enormous head opened its mouth, Lostvayne’s shocked voice rang out.
[Raikis??]
|Hmm?|
The head shifted its focus from Arthur to Lostvayne, closing the distance as its eyes scrutinised the sword.
|A weapon from a different ’Creation’? How do you know my name?|
[What do you mean, ’how do I know your name?’]
Cosmic energy rapidly condensed, Lostvayne’s ’destruction’ pushing back the Authority dominating the surrounding reality as he took his humanoid form.
[I’m the one who gave you that scar above your eye.]
That probably isn’t the best way to remind this guy who you are—is what Arthur would have said if he wasn’t too busy groaning in pain.
Meanwhile, the enormous eyes fixed on Lostvayne blinked, and realisation flashed in them.
|Oh, Galaxy’s elder brother.|
[I am NOT that thing’s brother.]
Lostvayne immediately denied the Galaxy Sword, but the being didn’t seem to mind.
|Yeah, right. As far as I’m concerned, all you weapons from the previous creation are siblings.|
Blinking, they then asked.
|What was your name again? Vain?|
[Lostvayne! And that’s not important. Release your Sub-Edict already!]
Lostvayne shouted at the being, unleashing cosmic energy to push back the pressure they were emanating.
But the being only titled their head to the side in apparent confusion.
|Why?|
Then, as if recalling Arthur was present, the head turned toward him and asked Lostvayne,
|And why are you with this thief?|
"...I didn’t... try to steal anything..." Arthur managed to gasp out between heavy breaths.
[Yes, he didn’t, and you can verify that by looking at his past, so just release the Edict already!]
Lostvayne snapped at Raikis, but they said nothing, their eyes glowing as they gazed ’through’ Arthur.
|You’re tenacious. I’m pretty sure I intended to kill you with that.|
’...yeah, I know...’
The loss of a charge from the Stellar Guard was enough for Arthur to understand.
Suddenly, his body trembled as he felt something pass through him, a strange, violating sensation, as if someone was splitting his existence open and searching inside.
His Aspect of Time reacted automatically, unleashing an uncontrollable blast of temporal energy, even momentarily pushing back the Authority dominating the surrounding reality.
|Oh? An Aspect? So the Eternals still haven’t found a replacement?|
[RAIKIS!!]
Lostvayne shouted, and at last, Raikis withdrew their Authority.
|Fine, fine. I’ve seen that he wasn’t trying to steal.|
Raikis had essentially scanned Arthur’s temporal axis as one would move forward or backwards on a video progress bar.
With that, they saw Arthur’s intent to leave and understood he had only set off the alarm by accident, finally withdrawing their Sub-Edict, whatever that might be.
|It seems I accused you wrongly. My apologies. My last visitors were an unruly bunch of thieves.|
Raikis spoke as they pulled back their head, the gold encasing the rest of their body falling away to reveal their full form.
Their upper body was massive and covered in the same rough, faintly shimmering crimson scales.
Powerful muscles rippled beneath the armoured plates, and thick, jagged spines ran along their broad shoulders and down their back. Their lower legs remained buried deep within the mountain of gold, whose precious contents spilt out like molten lava flowing down a volcano’s slope.
Before Arthur’s eyes was a ginormous amber-eyed red dragon, their neck stretching as they yawned.
|First, to restore you.|
And with that—
’Eh?’
—Arthur was as good as new.
He blinked, confused, unable to comprehend how his life-threatening injuries had just vanished.
The memory of pain confirmed they had been real, yet they had simply ceased to exist.
In truth, what the dragon had done was both infinitely simple and incredibly complex.
They had asserted control over the surrounding reality and altered the state of ’the Progenitor before them’ from ’wounded’ to ’default.’
Thus, Arthur’s injuries no longer existed. End of story.
