Chapter 831: Calm Getaway
What appeared to be black and white lightning erupted from Gindry’s mouth, crackling across the whiteness at impossible angles but ultimately failing to touch the black and red dragon, which roared and unleashed an omnidirectional burst of cosmic energy, blasting the others away and regrowing its two heads in an instant.
Orbs of light appeared around it, and from them countless beams of cosmic energy erupted, multiplying instantly and turning the entire area into a prison of black light.
The Levites somehow dodged these seemingly unavoidable attacks, their bodies partially vanishing as they moved in directions beyond the conventional three dimensions, all while simultaneously countering.
Cosmic energy erupted from Gindry, and the reality around turned greyscale, the rapidly expanding domain reaching the ten-headed dragon and causing its heads to twist and tangle, while Barda unleashed a spatiotemporal erasing breath that eliminated its two middle heads.
Raikis fired a destruction breath that tore apart reality, revealing the void beneath as it removed four of the ten-headed dragon’s left wings and punctured a hole in its torso.
Before a second had even passed, Berlal fired a blast of energy that visually resembled a black hole, but one of the black-red dragon’s heads swallowed it whole, and its tail whipped out, firing the absorbed energy as a beam toward Gervod, who blocked it with a multi-layered shield of cosmic energy.
Barda lunged and chomped down on the tail, but before he could use it to pull the black and red dragon’s entire body, his eyes widened in shock, and he immediately cursed.
|Oh, shit!|
In an instant, Barda’s enormous body vanished, and just as he did, a loud voice echoed across the whiteness.
|What the hell are you all doing?!|
Every eye turned to the new arrival, a figure they all recognised.
A black-haired man floated in space, his triangular pupils spinning in his eyes as he gave the six dragons before him an incredulous look.
Everywhere was silent for a moment before Raikis finally spoke.
|Oh, it’s Ranus.|
|Yes, it’s Ranus,| the man replied, |the Eternal of Space and Reality, who naturally wouldn’t sit back and do nothing when seven Ultimates decide to duke it out in his territory!|
His gaze then shifted in a seemingly random direction as he added, |And you do realise I can still see you even if you leave this multiverse, Barda?|
Ranus sighed, facepalming as he continued.
|I mean, I expected this from these six idiots, but really? You too, Aleksas?|
He gestured toward the ten-headed dragon at the centre as he spoke, but received no response as the dragon’s tail moved through space at nearly immeasurable speed, striking the heads of all the other dragons with space-rupturing impacts.
Then, with a flash of light, the ten-headed dragon’s body shrank and transformed into the figure of a handsome middle-aged man with long red hair, a neatly trimmed red beard, and glowing red eyes.
Simultaneously, the whiteness around them receded, and space returned to its natural state, still bearing the tears in reality from Raikis’ and Barda’s earlier attacks, though.
Barda then reappeared behind Arthur in his humanoid form, grabbing him and pulling him out of the spatiotemporal lock he had been placed in.
When Arthur blinked, he found himself standing back on the beach in Chazat.
’What the fuck just happened?’
Arthur’s internal question was answered by Lostvayne, who had been silent the entire time.
[You just saw seven dragons have a fistfight.]
’I saw someone shoot a black hole from their mouth,’ Arthur protested.
[You just saw seven dragons have a fistfight,] Lostvayne repeated.
Apparently, all of that, even with the gaping wounds left in reality that Ranus was now busy repairing, amounted to no more than a fistfight for them.
A few seconds after Lostvayne’s startling analogy, the other Levites appeared back on the beach, joined by the ’Genesis of Dragons’, with Ranus following behind and immediately beginning to complain.
"What is wrong with you gu—huh? What are you doing here, Arthur?"
The Eternal finally noticed Arthur’s presence, and for a moment, he looked genuinely surprised to see Arthur here of all places.
With the focus suddenly on him, Arthur, barely managing to collect himself, answered.
"Um... touring the Cosmos?"
It was the first thing that popped into his head, and as soon as he said it, he felt a probing gaze fall on him, coming from the red-eyed Progenitor Dragon standing not too far away.
They say that when faced with a being of incomparable power, so far beyond one that their power cannot even be comprehended, one would either be rendered immobile, unable to breathe, or left doubting whether they even had the permission to exist in its presence.
’I call bullshit! That only happens if they’re actually trying to intimidate you or something.’
If they are doing nothing at all, then there is nothing to feel, because, as already established, their power cannot be comprehended in the first place. The gap is so immense that it lies completely beyond perception.
Arthur was certain of this, since in all the decades he had spent with the Levites, he had never once sensed even a trace of their true power, and he definitely felt nothing now from Aleksas either.
Just as that random thought passed through his mind, Aleksas spoke.
"...negative divinity?"
The man muttered in a baritone voice, and a moment later, he nodded to himself as he instantly figured out who Arthur was.
"So you’re the one Luka is after..."
"!"
Arthur froze when he heard those words. He slowly turned his head toward Aleksas, the Cosmic Teleporter on his right arm activating as he asked just to confirm.
"Luka, as in, Progenitor goddess Luka?"
"Who else?"
Arthur accepted Aleksas’ response with a silent nod before turning to the Levites and speaking.
"I’ll be right back. You all have your...reunion."
The Cosmic Gate opened behind him, and Arthur stepped through casually, leaving the planet without another word.
A brief silence followed before Ranus traced the fading path of the Cosmic Gate with his eyes and asked.
"Wait, did he just leave the universe?"
At that, Berlal sighed and muttered.
"He’s not coming back, is he?"
"Nope," Barda replied at once.
"Definitely not," Gindry added, shaking her head.
The other three Levites nodded, agreeing with their siblings, and at this, Aleksas turned toward them with a puzzled expression.
"He’s not...coming back?"
His confusion was plain on his face, and seeing this, Raikis pressed a hand to his forehead and muttered.
"The old man’s finally gone senile."
"It was bound to happen eventually," Barda added with a shrug, their words making Aleksas’ brow twitch in irritation.
"Shut up and explain."
The Levites, however, did not answer, as Ranus finally caught on to what they were talking about and spoke.
"Oh... He’s the Progenitor godslayer, Aleksas."
"Okay?"
Aleksas was still lost, and Ranus blinked several times, unable to understand how Aleksas had not pieced it together.
"He’s the Progenitor godslayer, and Luka is the Progenitor goddess."
"That is common knowledge. Why are you repeating it?"
Aleksas’ confusion was still obvious, and as Ranus went silent in disbelief, Berlal spoke up.
"You just told him that the Progenitor goddess is after him."
"That is indeed the case. Luka is searching for him," Aleksas replied matter-of-factly.
"Old man, you’re friends with Luka!"
Barda shouted, unable to put up with Aleksas’ obliviousness any longer, but the Progenitor Dragon still looked puzzled as he frowned and said,
"Just get to the point already."
"Didn’t it occur to you that maybe, just maybe, he would think you might try to ship him over to Luka, who is after him?"
Wyndella asked with a raised eyebrow, and at this, Aleksas blinked in confusion.
"Why would I do that? I have no intention of involving myself in Luka’s affairs."
"""""""Well, he doesn’t know that!!"""""""
Both Ranus and the Levites shouted at the Progenitor Dragon, and only then did Aleksas finally realise the reason for Arthur’s sudden departure, something he hadn’t even considered since he truly never intended to interfere with Luka’s business as he had already stated.
Gindry sighed and shook her head before commenting.
"But I have to admit that was the calmest getaway I’ve seen in a long time."
The other Levites immediately nodded in agreement.
Arthur had neither panicked nor shown any hesitation behind his actions, and if the Levites hadn’t known him for several decades, they would not have so quickly grasped his intent.
Even Ranus needed a few seconds before it clicked for him.
Barda, chuckling at the thought, waved his hand to open a Cosmic Gate as he said, "Give me a few seconds, I’ll go bring him back."
At that moment, Ranus, finally remembering he was here to scold them for the mess they had caused earlier, snapped back to focus.
"Hold it right there, Barda!"
He reached out his hand and disrupted the Cosmic Gate the dragon had created before speaking.
"I’ve got multiversal maintenance running right now, so could you all do me a favour and not decide to rewrite reality while I’m at it? Thank you!"
With that said, the man vanished, and Barda simply reconstructed his gate before warping away to track Arthur down.
