Chapter 819: Fusion
[...master?]
Celestia’s voice echoed, clearly confused by Arthur’s actions. The godslayer, however, simply sighed as he stared at the fragment in his palm.
"This thing holds some of your memories, right?"
[Yes.]
"...Then are you aware that those memories carry the risk of overriding your current self?"
[...]
Celestia fell silent, which was enough for Arthur to know she understood.
If the memories stored in this fragment of hers outweighed her current memories of the past 18 years with Arthur, then there was a high risk that her present self could be overwhelmed by those memories.
In fact, she was already being affected, even though she hadn’t absorbed the fragment yet.
"Do you still want to go through with this? Even if you don’t regain your memories, you will keep growing stronger the more I do. And we can always opt for the Power Fragments instead of the Memory ones."
[My existence would remain incomplete, and I wouldn’t be as useful to you as I’m meant to be—unacceptable.]
Celestia responded immediately, using her cosmic energy to try and pull the fragment, but Arthur countered with his own energy to resist the pull as he said,
"I’m not talking about usefulness. I’m warning you about the real possibility of your Ego being overwritten!"
[Overwritten? I’m happy you care so much, Master, but you seem to forget something. Before being your travel companion or friend, I am your WEAPON.
The reason for my existence is to be useful to you in battle. If I cannot fulfil that to the best of my ability, then nothing else matters.]
"And I’m the one who’s saying th—"
[Master,] Lostvayne interrupted, causing Arthur to turn to him with narrowed eyes and an annoyed look.
"What?"
Lostvayne’s chance to speak was cut off by Berlal.
"It’s admirable."
Arthur turned to the dragon, meeting her grey eyes as she hovered lightly in the air, legs crossed in a lotus position.
"It’s clear how much you care for her, but good intentions don’t always lead to good results. Setting aside my own desire to observe the fusion process, the way I see it, this fusion is necessary.
Without it, you risk stagnation, as the alternative you suggest will eventually reach its limits. Even if the memories are ’heavy,’ they are still a part of who she is.
Resist, and you could lose far more than you can imagine. Besides..."
Berlal’s eyes narrowed slightly, and a hint of emotion crept into her otherwise calm voice.
"She cares about you just as much as you care about her, which is why she wants to reclaim all that is ’her’. Try not to overlook that."
It almost seemed as if she had experienced something similar, and the sight before her had stirred memories.
When she finished, Lostvayne added,
[Master, I understand your hesitation, and I have my own misgivings about this. However, there are things only Lady Celestia can know, things you NEED to know.]
It was for that reason alone that Lostvayne had kept his own doubts to himself.
Hearing their words, Arthur pursed his lips and, after a moment of silence, released his grip.
Almost immediately, the shard collided with Celestia’s blade in a burst of bright silver light, cosmic energy swirling around them in a massive storm that drew the attention of all the other dragons.
Even the sleeping Barda woke.
The cosmic energy formed a dome that rapidly expanded, and Arthur stepped back to avoid being pulled in as it distorted space-time, causing rocks and other objects on the ground to orbit the dome.
Snapping his fingers, he nullified the gravitational pull on them, sending the objects flying away to avoid disturbing what was happening.
Then, Arthur silently pulled a chair from his subspace and sat down, making it clear without words that he intended to stay until the fusion process finished.
Berlal hovered slightly beside him, her eyes glowing as she studied the cosmic energy swirling inside the dome, along with the universal laws being drawn in.
Then she said,
"Weapon laws? Not just the law of swords, but spears, blades, projectiles, and several others..."
Arthur didn’t react to her words, but Lostvayne raised an eyebrow and then looked at Berlal.
[Can you place a concealment barrier around this planet?] he asked. He extended his hand toward her and added, [Use me as the signature for the target of concealment.]
Berlal regarded him with an inquisitive gaze. "Why?"
Lostvayne replied, [There are 997 other entities across the Cosmos that I don’t want to sense what’s happening here right now.]
Berlal was silent for a moment before the realisation dawned. "Ah, I see."
She slowly turned toward the dome enclosing Celestia and snapped her fingers, activating her Dictum of Darkness. The entire planet Chazat was then shrouded in a veil of cosmic energy that blocked all cosmic signals from escaping.
Did this cause problems for dragons in certain parts of the planet? Yes, it did.
Did Berlal care? Ha! What is care? Can you eat it?
◇ ◇ ◇
Arthur’s mind was a whirlwind of thoughts and emotions.
He’d been with Celestia for 18 years, and he still vividly remembered that day during the battle with Owen at the end of the Monsterization incident when they first became aware of each other.
He had entered that fight with confidence, but midway through, he lost his weapon. He nearly took a serious hit, and in that moment, when he simply desired a ’sword’ to block Owen’s attack, Celestia appeared in his hand.
Arthur didn’t react as most would in such a situation, where a sword had literally appeared out of nowhere, addressing him as ’Master’ without explanation.
But as had been said many times before, both Celestia and Arthur instinctively knew they had been linked since Arthur’s birth, and she was his soul-bound weapon.
That certainty was part of the reason Arthur never pursued the matter further than asking a few questions.
However, over time, after understanding that Celestia was fragmented, his curiosity grew. How did she become fragmented? Why had she ended up with him?
Many questions filled Arthur’s mind over the years, questions that began to find answers only after Lostvayne entered his life.
Yet, despite the answers he gained, none had been confirmed.
Now, there was a chance to confirm those answers, but at the risk of losing the Celestia he knew and cared about.
That was the source of Arthur’s hesitation.
The logical side of his mind told him the best decision was to let Celestia absorb that fragment, despite the risks.
It was only the emotional side resisting.
From the moment he saw the fragment, he noticed something distinctively different about it. It was a Hybrid Fragment carrying both a portion of Celestia’s memories and a portion of her original power.
So by fusing with it, Celestia was going to become even stronger, which in turn, would increase Arthur’s battle power.
Alongside that, Arthur sensed something else that made him frown. He detected a very familiar silver power on the fragment, something he called Null, his limited ability to manipulate nothingness.
Arthur wasn’t the only one in the Cosmos with this ability. Jamie, Lucifer, and many others he didn’t even know existed could do it, too.
Still, distinctions existed in how each manipulated nothingness, whether in the names they used or the way they channelled cosmic energy to reduce what is to what was never there.
Because of that, even if others couldn’t, they could somewhat recognise the source of that absence, and Arthur could see that the source of the nothingness on Celestia’s fragment was him.
◇ ◇ ◇
The clock ticked, hours slipped by, and days passed as the planet orbited its star.
Arthur silently observed the dome, engaging only in brief conversation with Berlal, who hovered beside him the entire time.
They both watched everything it pulled in, the weapon laws, an overwhelming amount of destruction energy, the way it drew divinity from a distant region of the universe, and at one point, Arthur’s own anti-divinity was extracted from his body and siphoned into the mass of cosmic energy.
All the other Levite dragons had at various times left the planet to explore the rest of the universe and returned multiple times over the days.
They were curious at first, but after realising the process was going to take a long time, they dispersed, having told Berlal to notify them when the process was nearing completion.
Days passed, and eventually, the rate at which cosmic energy was absorbed began to decrease, initially so slowly it was barely noticeable, then gradually slowed further and further until the mass stopped absorbing energy altogether.
The cosmic energy dome continued to swirl as it shrank, and by the time it had reduced from about ten meters wide to roughly 5% of its original size, spinning rapidly at an incredible speed, 30 days had gone by.
Eventually, the dome lifted off the ground and began to transform, taking the shape of a giant sphere.
The sphere held its form for nearly thirty minutes as the cosmic energy within seemed to liquefy, then gradually solidify, forming something resembling a pupa made of organic material.
Slowly, cracks appeared along a line of the pupa, splitting it open, and from within emerged a fully humanoid woman.
Her features were perfectly symmetrical, with thin lips and striking silver irises encircling golden circular pupils. Her long, curly hair flowed in waves of golden strands streaked with silver highlights.
As she stepped out, cosmic energy enveloped her body, weaving into a simple black halter neck dress that outlined her figure. The neckline wrapped around the back of her neck, leaving her shoulders and back bare, while the A-line skirt flared gently, falling just below her knees. On her feet were a pair of simple sandals with straps that fastened above her ankles.
On her wrists, she wore two glassy bracelets, each about five centimetres wide. They caught and reflected light softly, dispersing it like a muted prism.
The moment her feet touched the ground, she slowly raised her gaze.
Her eyes reflected no one, not Lostvayne, not Berlal, nor any of the other dragons who were gradually appearing one after another after receiving Berlal’s signal, but only Arthur, who was seated not far from where she stood.
The silence lingered for a while, with Gindry doing her best to quiet Barda and Raikis, who seemed ready to break it, until Arthur finally sighed and asked, "You’ve recovered your memories?"
The familiar voice he had grown accustomed to hearing echoed from the woman’s lips.
[Yes, Master.]
Her tone was polite, to say the least, yet it remained the same voice he knew well. She continued, [I’ve recovered enough to understand exactly what I am and to make conjectures about the series of events that led to my current state.]
"Is that so?" Arthur asked, and she bowed her head lightly. [Yes.]
Then, stepping forward, she added, [I understand you have questions, but before I begin to answer whatever you wish to ask, permit me to properly introduce myself to you.]
Hearing this, Arthur raised an eyebrow. "Proper introduction? Very well then, go ahead."
With that, she took another step forward and began to speak in what was unmistakably a True Voice.
|The final creation of the Primordial Progenitors of the Harmonia Era, Hyperion and u̶͎̳͈̼̪̱̣͚̮̼͐̒͘͝͝A̸̢͈͎͚̲̺̲̼͗̄̄̐̍̆̿h̷̫̜͓͍̠̮̻͔́̈ŗ̸̖͗̄̾̇̈́̔̇̓̊͠u̷̢̮̮͇͎̬̍r̶̘̄͒̍̍. The Cosmic Armament of Nullity that treads the boundary between existence and non-existence.|
Then, pinching the hem of her skirt and bowing directly before Arthur, she concluded,
|I am the Rule Breaker bearing the Serial Number of 1, Celestial Darkness at your service.|
