Chapter 840: A Touch of Doom
Unknown Continent
Planet Solymus
8th of Fourth
9423rd Draconic Year
"Thinking about it, I guess Aleksas’s presence is probably what kept the Watcher occupied. Even if he showed up in secret, his clash with the Levites would’ve definitely set off alarm bells for a subordinate of the Eternals, another Major Cosmic Power."
[That sounds plausible. Then again, it’s not like Watchers are supposed to stay with their Candidates at all times.
Their purpose is just to ensure the rules of Candidate Selection aren’t broken, and if they are, to apprehend them.]
Lostvayne replied to Arthur as he brought his spaceship down on a flattened mountaintop, flicking switches to shut everything down right after.
"Rules, huh? You mean like the Dual Candidacy thing, and how Candidates of Time aren’t allowed to kill Candidates of Destruction and vice versa?" Arthur asked.
[Affirmative. There’s also the restriction against going to the Dark Multiverse. And Watchers are needed to stop Candidates from the Dark Multiverse from making contact with Numbered Multiverse Candidates.]
It went without saying that just as the Eternals were searching for a replacement, so were the Aggressors.
They naturally had their own Candidate Selection, and through Hyperion’s influence, it followed a system roughly similar to that of the Eternals’.
Arthur didn’t know this, but Hyperion had set it up that way so it would be just as simple for him and Gaia to sabotage the Aggressors’ Candidate Selection as it was with the Eternals’.
After all, if one side were to complete its process, the Cosmic Force of ’Balance’ would make sure the other side inevitably completed not long after to maintain the Equation, just as when the ’Eternals’ were formed, suitable Dark Multiversal beings with exceptional compatibility for the Concepts always emerged around the same time a new Eternal gained their Cosmic Conceptual Authority.
"Aggressor Candidates, huh? They’re not so different from Eternal Candidates, are they?"
[Not at all. The only difference lies in the Cosmic Force their powers are drawn from,] Lostvayne answered.
Arthur nodded silently, stepping out of the spaceship and tossing it into his subspace before sweeping his gaze around to scan the surroundings.
This Mid-Level World, Solymus, apparently had a small dimensional rift that Wyndella had explored years ago, and according to her, the region on the other side of the rift was suitable for Arthur’s Whip Trials.
He assumed it would be swarming with flying creatures and other threats that attacked from beyond standard melee range, but he wanted to confirm for himself so he could plan his movements properly.
After killing Baruuk, Arthur went to the place where he’d taken Barda’s Sword Trial, where he encountered the Continuum Dragon along with Aleksas.
He quickly recounted his fight with Baruuk to Barda so the dragon could evaluate his post-battle clean-up. The Continuum Dragon only needed a few seconds to scan the space with his higher-dimensional perception, and when he nodded in satisfaction afterwards, Arthur understood that his efforts had erased the traces well enough.
Barda just added a little extra scrubbing to remove the possibility of a temporal recovery ability restoring the galactic records Arthur had erased.
After that, Arthur continued his trip to Solymus, and now he was scanning the planet thoroughly to locate the spatial distortion caused by the Dimensional Rift Wyndella had mentioned.
With his current level of power, scanning an entire planet didn’t take long, but before Arthur located the dimensional rift he was searching for, he sensed something else that drew his attention even more.
It was something that only stood out to him because he was the Progenitor godslayer.
"This feeling...!"
Arthur’s eyes widened, his head snapping toward the direction of the presence he’d picked up, and he immediately leapt off the ground, dashing across the terrain while scanning again to confirm what his senses had detected.
It was the exact sensation he’d felt multiple times before, with Larry in Hell, with Artemisia in Valmone, and with the Levites here in Draco Sirus.
"Ancient Breed...!"
The only difference this time was that the race wasn’t Drifter, goddess, or Dragon.
"An Ancient Breed godslayer!"
Arthur’s eyes gleamed with both surprise and excitement.
With the birth of a Progenitor, members of their race would inevitably begin appearing across the Cosmos.
These naturally occurring members were mostly born from Race Factor mutations, and in the case of Slayer Races, these mutations usually happened when a member of the race they were meant to slay had a child with someone from a race of the opposite polarity spectrum.
For instance, in Arthur’s case, his father, Hades, a god on the Positive Side, had him with his mother Cattleya, a Devil on the Negative Side.
Unions like this were more common than one might think, and on the scale of the vast cosmos, ’common’ meant nearly every universe.
This was how the first members of a new race came into existence, and as they had children and grandchildren, their race gradually spread across the Cosmos.
Over time, the Race Factors would concentrate enough that higher breeds would start to emerge.
From ’High’ Breeds, to ’Arch’ Breeds, then ’Elders’ and finally ’Ancients’.
Arthur had encountered several higher breed godslayers during the dozen years he spent in Hell before going to Kriwon, but for Elders and above, he had only met two.
One was Esna, a naturally occurring ’Elder Breed’, whose existence was likely a result of Arthur’s presence in the Hell Universe.
A Progenitor’s continued presence in a particular universe increased the chances of members of their race being born, depending on how much Universal Influence they possessed.
Hell was the universe where Arthur had the most influence, being born as the son of its Devildom’s Princess, so if he spent time searching, he was confident he’d find many more there, but scanning an entire universe took too much work and time Arthur wasn’t willing to spend right now, not when his main goal was to grow stronger.
The second ’Elder Breed’ was Rachel in Valmone, whom Arthur had artificially converted into an Elder Breed to test his Progenitor Authority, Race Conversion.
Arthur had in no way expected to encounter an Ancient Breed so soon, which was why this discovery made him completely ignore the Dimensional Rift he had also detected as he rushed toward the Ancient Breed he had located.
There was also a trace of worry in his heart, because on this planet where he sensed the Ancient Breed godslayer, there were several gods present.
Dozens of gods were on the moon, and several Low-Tier Deities were on the planet itself, though they were far from the region where he sensed the godslayer.
The treatment of godslayers by gods in universes where they had been discovered was predictably harsh. Arthur was certain that what he had seen on Stelan’s home planet, Nienope, in Valmone, was just one example of many.
With the goal of one day growing his Race to match the power of the other famous races of the Cosmos, Arthur couldn’t afford to ignore an Ancient Breed, especially with the high likelihood that they were under oppression by gods or their servants.
’Even if I can’t help the ones I don’t know about, I can at least make an effort for the ones I do know.’
Besides, it would benefit him in the long run, as saving someone from oppression was a reliable way to sow the seeds of strong loyalty.
With thoughts like that, Arthur locked onto the spatial coordinates where he sensed the godslayer and tore open a Cosmic Gate, diving straight into it.
◇ ◇ ◇
Sometime before Arthur arrived on Solymus, in a town on the outskirts of one of the countless countries on Solymus’ largest continent, people had gathered along the sides of the street.
Walking toward the town centre was a small procession, led by priests in white ornamental robes inscribed with holy symbols that matched the ones they carried in their hands.
Behind them was a trio of armoured knights in silver armour engraved with the same symbols, two of whom held glowing white chains connected to the restrained arms of a short, barefooted, blindfolded figure in sackcloth trailing behind them.
Their legs were chained as well, making each step difficult, but the knights barely seemed to care as they dragged the three-metre-long chains along.
Following them was another trio of armoured knights, and then a final group of priests closing the procession.
The townspeople lining both sides of the street watched with a mix of curiosity and fear, their whispers echoing through the air as the procession made its way to the town centre.
"Is that her?" one hawker asked.
"That’s the witch," another replied.
"I heard anyone who touches her dies."
"Such frightening witchcraft."
"They say anyone she looks at dies."
"What? They say she can kill people just by thinking of them!"
The whispers grew louder, the stories becoming more exaggerated as they spread through the crowd.
Just as the crowd was starting to feed on its own fear, a woman suddenly burst out from a sparse part of the gathering, her eyes bloodshot and streaked with tears as she lunged at the blindfolded figure, pulling a kitchen knife from the front pouch of her apron.
"YOU KILLED MY SON! DIE, DEVIL!!" she screamed.
"No!"
The free knight at the front of the procession immediately spun around and reached to grab the lunging woman, and though he caught her, her left hand had already brushed against the arm of the staggering, chained figure.
It was only the tips of her fingers, but that was enough to trigger a dangerous reaction.
A black mist seemed to seep into her hand, and within seconds, in front of everyone, her arm turned pale and wrinkled, as if she’d instantly aged decades.
Her brown hair began to grey, and her face went ashen as she collapsed into the knight’s arms.
