Chapter 833: Power and Responsibility
"Arthur, meet Aleksas. Aleksas, meet Arthur. Progenitor godslayer. Progenitor Dragon."
Those were Barda’s words as he gestured between the two Progenitors, and barely a second after saying ’Dragon’, he slung his arm over Arthur’s shoulder and continued.
"Introductions done. Back to the pocket universe, guys!"
And indeed, not just Barda but all the Levites turned around with every intention of leaving Aleksas on Chazat and heading back to their pocket universe where they played Sims with the survivors of destroyed planets and galaxies.
Naturally, Aleksas wasn’t going to just let them leave.
"Hold it right there, you lot!"
The man extended his hand, his Progenitor Authority activating as he froze the movements of everyone except Barda, who instantly teleported behind him.
"You guys handle the old man, Arthur, and I will go continue our training. See you later."
With those words, Barda tried to teleport again, but Aleksas had already turned toward him, his Progenitor Authority locking onto the Continuum Dragon and freezing him as well.
At this, Gindry facepalmed and spoke.
"You could’ve just run off, you idiot!"
Indeed, if Barda had simply teleported the moment Aleksas focused on his five siblings, he could’ve escaped the Progenitor’s range faster than Aleksas could turn toward him.
But he chose to give a ’farewell message’, and there was no way Aleksas would miss the opening that gave him.
With a little bit of cosmic energy, Aleksas lifted the frozen Barda and tossed him into the group with the rest of his siblings.
Pointing downwards, he commanded.
"Sit."
He forced them all to their knees in seiza position, and at this, Berlal muttered,
"We really should’ve made that magic to sever Race Command too..."
"It was gonna take too long. The old man would’ve caught on to what we were doing during the trial-and-error phase!" Wyndella immediately shot back.
"That’s why I suggested we trick him and trap him in the Dark Multiverse first," Gervod added, making Wyndella frown.
At the sight, Aleksas could barely stop his brow from twitching, and Arthur, seeing it, couldn’t help but shake his head.
’These guys are complete nutcases...’
The audacity these guys had to casually talk about their plan to sever Aleksas’ Race Command—what he was using to force them down on their knees—right in front of him, and even bring up how they wanted to trap him in the Dark Multiverse.
Although it had only been a few minutes since their reunion, Aleksas had already lost track of how many times he’d sighed.
As he sighed again, Berlal turned to Gervod and Wyndella, who were arguing over whose Fifth Concretization was better for trapping Aleksas in a dead universe, then raised her finger in front of her lips.
"Shhh!! The old man wants to say something. Let’s listen to him so he doesn’t feel bad."
At her words, all the Levites turned to Aleksas, suddenly acting like students eager to learn in a classroom.
Seeing this, Arthur glanced at Aleksas and said,
"You...have my condolences."
"Condolences accepted," Aleksas replied, sighing once more before speaking.
"Do you fools have any idea how much of a mess you caused with your silly stunt?"
"Shouldn’t be much," Berlal answered right away. "I made sure we had several layers of contingencies that covered a grand total of 14,000,605 different possible scenarios that would’ve required our presence.
We’ve been awake for over a decade, and I confirmed none of those contingencies were triggered, so we definitely didn’t cause much of a mess."
Aleksas deadpanned at Berlal’s confidence, then raised his hand and instantly projected a slideshow of images moving so quickly Arthur could barely make out what they showed.
The pupils of the Levites, however, darted side to side at ridiculous speeds, and five seconds later, Aleksas lowered his hand and lifted an eyebrow as he asked,
"What about the 1,601,065 you didn’t prepare contingencies for?"
"Those were simply situations that could’ve been resolved faster with our presence. We weren’t REQUIRED for them to be solved," Berlal answered evenly.
"It matters not. Because you weren’t present, unnecessary losses happened and potential assets and allies were lost," Aleksas shot back.
"Old man, there are trillions of other Ancient Breed Dragons besides us, you know?" Wyndella cut in, one brow raised.
Aleksas, not even bothering to comment on her calling him ’Old Man’ when the age gap between them wasn’t even two decades, turned to her and said,
"None are as powerful as you, and none have the specific Unique Authorities you six possess that would’ve allowed the Dragon Race to acquire 75,532 new universes, expanding our Cosmic Influence."
At Aleksas’ response, Raikis frowned slightly and spoke.
"Then make them get the necessary Authorities! Make them stronger! You’ve got a fuck ton of material to work with!"
Gindry, nodding in agreement, added, "Exactly. There’s no way none of them have caught up to us in a billion years of inactivity. Are they all incompetents?"
"Are you seriously asking that? Even knowing how much stronger you six are compared to them?" Aleksas asked incredulously, fixing his gaze on Gindry, and just as the grey dragon was about to respond, Barda cut in.
"WAIT! We are so NOT playing this blame game right now."
"And when exactly do you think we should play it? When you six pull another silly stunt like this, and a major problem occurs?" Aleksas countered immediately with narrowed eyes, and Gervod fired back just as quickly.
"If a major problem that required our presence happened, we’d have woken up. We can mess around, but we still know what’s important."
"Exactly," Berlal followed right after. "We went to sleep because we were bored and exhausted, not because we wanted the Dragon Race to go extinct."
Wyndella chimed in next. "The spell we used to sever our link to you was conditional and would reconnect us instantly when specific conditions are met. Conditions that pose a risk to the continued existence of dragons."
"And pray tell, what happens when a ’threat’ outside the risk conditions you’ve set appears?"
Aleksas asked calmly, and Gindry answered in the same tone.
"Then it still wouldn’t be enough to threaten our race’s continued existence, or the conditions would have triggered. That’s the whole point."
"No, that’s the whole flaw!" Aleksas shot back, his voice rising slightly.
"The point," he continued, "is that you are a deterrent, not a final failsafe! Your absence invites the ’threats’ you claim to have contingencies for!
Did your conditions account for a ’threat’ so unique it falls outside your meticulously crafted contingencies? A threat that can’t be handled by your Unique Authorities, or one that could’ve been nullified entirely, or never even happened, if you’d been present from the start?
Your spell depends on pre-defined risks, but the greatest dangers are always the ones you don’t foresee. Some are too subtle or too fast to trigger your ’precious’ spell before they deal irreversible damage.
Worst of all, your conditions assume the only threats worth addressing are those that endanger the entire race."
Aleksas was about to continue, but Raikis interrupted him, speaking with uncharacteristic calm.
"That’s not entirely fair, old man. You talk like we abandoned everything without care, but you know better than anyone how much we did before stepping back.
We kept the race safe for countless ages, expanded its reach, and built foundations strong enough that even without us, they should have held.
We didn’t just vanish and leave nothing behind. We set conditions, safeguards, and systems meant to keep things stable, even if imperfect. You’re right that no spell or condition can account for everything, but we were never meant to babysit eternity.
We earned the right to step away for a time, to recover, to breathe. If our presence is the only thing holding dragons together, then maybe the real problem isn’t us leaving, but that the rest of the race hasn’t learned to stand without us."
Aleksas’ eyes narrowed at Raikis’ argument, his voice calm but edged.
"You say you earned the right to step away, but power at your level isn’t something you put down when it feels convenient. It’s a responsibility. You don’t get to disappear and expect the rest to ’stand without you’ when the only reason they haven’t caught up is because of how far above them you six stand.
The safeguards you left behind are nothing more than patches over cracks. They don’t stop the walls from collapsing when the foundation itself is gone.
You talk about fairness, Raikis, but tell me, was it fair to every dragon who died because their deterrent was asleep? Was it fair to the countless universes that slipped from our hold because the six who were supposed to stand at the front chose absence over duty?"
The question was directed at Raikis, but Berlal was the one who answered, her voice a pitch lower.
"Duty goes both ways, Aleksas."
