Chapter 856: The Road to Camelot
The burns on Arthur’s skin from the golem’s attack weren’t going to heal instantly because of the potent Authority within the core he now held in his hand, so he’d simply used a touch of light magic to create an illusion to deceive her.
There was no way she could see through it, given the vast difference in their strength.
Just then, the cosmic core of the golem sparked, and Arthur quickly moved his hand away from Elaine, warning her to keep clear of his left side so the residual cosmic energy wouldn’t harm her, before heading toward the other set of doors.
By the time he reached them, Celestia had already summoned her fragment into her hands, cradling the piece of metal as if it were fragile glass.
As usual, the fragment resembled a broken section of a blade, but this time, it looked as though the blade had been split down the middle, with one side broken off unevenly.
"Anything wrong with it?"
Arthur had expected Celestia to absorb the fragment immediately, but she was simply staring at it in silence, which prompted the question.
[No. I’m just trying to analyse how much of my Weapon Authority I can recover with this.]
Celestia’s answer made Arthur’s eyes widen slightly.
She, like every other Rule Breaker, possessed a Weapon Authority of her own, but even though she had said its details were meant for his ears only, Arthur still didn’t know what it was.
He was just about to ask when she turned toward him and said, [Lostvayne. Return to your original form for a bit.]
Lostvayne did as she said, and Celestia glanced at the jet-black blade in silence, her eyes focusing on the silver lines running through it before turning her gaze back to her own fragment.
[This should work.]
["What should?"]
Both Lostvayne and Arthur asked at the same time, and in response, Celestia pointed to herself as she spoke.
[My ’Boundary Existence’. I should be able to apply it to Lostvayne, or any other weapon you wield, though it’s only applicable to one weapon at a time.]
"Boundary-what now?"
Arthur was rightfully confused, and at this, Celestia took a deep breath before explaining.
[The translucent nature of my Weapon Forms is a result of me being an entity on the Boundary of—]
"Hold it, right there!"
Arthur interrupted her mid-sentence, and when she looked at him with confusion, he tapped the side of his head and spoke. "Let’s not say things that important out loud, okay? Walls have ears... literally."
Celestia’s eyes narrowed the moment Arthur said that, and she unleashed a wave of cosmic energy that swept through the room.
Seconds later, several popping sounds echoed from the walls and ceiling, and even one of the diamonds resting on a nearby pedestal exploded violently.
After breaking nearly all the listening devices and hidden cameras in the vault, Celestia turned back to Arthur and continued her explanation...telepathically, of course.
[As I was saying, the translucent nature of my Weapon Forms comes from me being an entity on the Boundary of ’Existence’ and ’Non-Existence’. Real, but not completely ’Real’.
With my Weapon Authority, I should be able to grant a similar ’state of being’ to Lostvayne, making her translucent like me and distorting her Rule Breaker signature in the process.
The point is, with this, people are far less likely to realise you’re wielding Lostvayne.
Even those familiar with her appearance and Cosmic Energy signature would struggle to recognise her unless you tell them yourself.]
Arthur’s eyes widened slightly at her explanation of what was clearly a most welcome ability, one that would prevent any Eternal Subordinate from realising he was with Lostvayne and accidentally letting that information reach Akasha, who was still after the sword to this day.
It would also serve as protection should he cross paths with powerful beings who might covet Lostvayne and attempt to kill him to claim the Rule Breaker for themselves.
There was a reason Arthur hadn’t brought out Lostvayne in front of Aleksas, after all.
[Hold your horses, Master. This ability isn’t foolproof since I haven’t completely recovered.
People with specialised Analysis Abilities may still be able to perceive Lostvayne’s true nature, especially if they’re much stronger than you are.]
’But that means the stronger I become, the stronger the concealment, right? And that applies to you, too. The more fragments you recover, the stronger it gets?’
[Yes, that’s correct,] Celestia replied.
’That’s fine by me.’
Arthur was content with that answer. Turning to Lostvayne, he asked, ’When do you think we can head to Camelot?’
From Astravalor, the Rule Breaker wielded by the Eternal of Space and Reality, Ranus, Lostvayne had learned that at least three of Celestia’s fragments were located within the Camelot Universe.
The issue, however, was that they were in the possession of one of the most powerful beings in that Universe, and Lostvayne wasn’t keen on Arthur going there until he was strong enough to pose a genuine threat to that individual should they decide to be uncooperative.
[This...]
Lostvayne hesitated for a moment before finally responding with a sigh.
[Lancelot, the one Astravalor mentioned who holds the fragments, is a Sub-Cosmic Realm existence...]
That single line was enough for Arthur to understand the length of the road ahead.
He was currently at the Intermediate Stage of the Mid-Tier Deity Realm and still had the entire High-Tier and Monarch Realms to cross before he could even begin to think about the lowest of the Sub-Cosmic Realms.
"What a pain..." he muttered under his breath, the problem of time once again pressing down on his mind.
[There’s a chance Lancelot is actively gathering the fragments, so asking him to hand them over might not sit well with him, even if we prepare something to compensate him.
After all, it’s hard to believe that three of them just happened to end up in Camelot on their own.
Even the one the Levites had was brought here from another universe, meaning Draco Sirus probably only ever had one.]
Arthur agreed with Lostvayne’s reasoning, and at that, Celestia posed a question.
[Why not tell Berlal about this? You could have her retrieve it for you.]
Berlal had shown great curiosity about Celestia’s reconstruction of her existence and had even mentioned wanting to witness the fusion of her fragments, calling it ’inspirational’.
Celestia was clearly suggesting taking advantage of that interest to have her deal with Lancelot if things became complicated, but Arthur didn’t seem entirely in favour of the idea.
’I thought about that too. But Aleksas is around now, and he seems to have a lot lined up for the Levites. Giving Altrishia to them is probably just the beginning. There’s no way he scoured the Cosmos for that alone.
If I try to have any of them make an Inter-Multiversal trip to help me with something, he might object, and there’s a chance Berlal would put her curiosity first, which would probably lead to another argument between them. They still haven’t settled their last dispute, anyway.
I’ll keep relying on the Levites as a last resort.’
After saying that, Arthur tossed the golem’s cosmic core into the air and turned around, pulling Elaine along as he headed for the hall’s exit.
He’d achieved what he came for, so there was no reason to linger any longer, especially when people would likely soon come up to investigate what had gone wrong after he destroyed the guard golem.
Arthur placed the cosmic core back into the broken golem’s chest, then tapped the side of its head before heading out of the room.
Just before stepping through the doorway, he snapped his fingers, rewinding the golem’s time to the moment before he had removed its core. As the door closed behind him, he glanced back at the golem and spoke.
"I fixed your golem. So, stop peeping, dragon."
The golem’s eyes glowed blue the instant he said that, and the doors slammed shut behind him.
◇ ◇ ◇
A few minutes later, Arthur met up with Barda, who had finished touring all the dungeons not just on the planet, but across the entire star system.
The man immediately saw through the illusions Arthur had used to fool Elaine, but tacitly kept quiet about them, turning his attention to the fragment Celestia was holding.
"Seems your senses were right. Good for you."
Celestia only nodded silently, and just as Barda was about to warp them all back to Chazat, he froze, his gaze shifting elsewhere.
Seconds later, a white line sliced through space, and Wyndella’s hand appeared, pushing aside the folds of space like a curtain as she stepped out and started speaking immediately.
"Barda, what are we doing about those mosquitoes? There’s a really loud buzzing one among them."
"Pfft...Bahahaha!! What the hell, Wyndella?"
Barda burst out laughing at his sister’s description of the Ancient Vampires he’d just silently warned, and Arthur, quickly connecting the dots, chuckled as well.
"What? Did I say something wrong?"
"Are you really asking that?" Arthur replied, eyebrows raised, and Wyndella shrugged at him.
"They’re all blood-suckers. Why bother differentiating the ones who walk on two legs from the rest?"
Her casual answer made Barda laugh even harder, pressing his fingers to his temple as he said, "Oh please, Wyndella, just don’t say that in front of them."
Wyndella deadpanned in response, "Of course I know not to say that in front of them. Jeez, what do you take me for?"
Barda silently shook his head before finally answering her earlier question. "I’m not going to do anything about them. Old man Aleksas is around anyway. If they try anything fishy, it’s their funeral."
Wyndella went quiet for a moment, then shrugged, losing interest in the topic as she turned to Arthur.
"You’re supposed to run my trial next, right? I’m kind of busy now, so I don’t think I’ll have the peace of mind to construct one properly for a while."
Just as she said that, her eyebrows lifted and her gaze went up to the skies. "Oh, Harlamagne’s here."
The instant Barda heard the name, his eyes widened in shock. "You called Harlamagne?"
"Yeah," Wyndella said casually. "The old man’s already found us, so there’s no point hiding that we’re awake anymore."
Her words made Barda nod slowly in understanding, then realisation hit him. "Wait, since you called Harlamagne...you’re reinstating your Dragonflights?"
Wyndella only nodded silently in response.
Her ’Creation Dragonflights’ were an army of dragons loyal solely to her.
From the strongest Ancient Dragons who led it down to the weakest demi-dragons at the bottom ranks, all swore loyalty to Wyndella, not the Progenitor Dragon.
If she willed it, they would defy even Aleksas’ commands.
The Ancient-Breed Dragon called ’Harlamagne’ was the Supreme Commander of those Dragonflights, which was why Barda immediately connected her calling him to her decision to restart their operations.
"Besides, I wanted to go see him anyway," Wyndella added, creating a cosmic gate and stepping through it, leaving Barda behind, who sighed wistfully and shook his head.
"Really, Wyndella... when are you going to let go of the past?"
Hearing this, Arthur quietly echoed, "Let go of the past?"
At that, Barda nodded and said, "She’s still stuck in the past, holding onto the broken foundation of a future that can never be."
The atmosphere suddenly felt heavier with his words.
Arthur, slightly puzzled, recalled Wyndella mentioning she was going to see someone, and after a moment of thought, he asked, "Who is she going to see?"
"Her first love," Barda replied as he conjured a cosmic gate.
Hearing this, Arthur frowned slightly.
’Wait...if he’s calling that a future that can never be...’
He quickly reached a conclusion, but before he could voice it, Barda continued, "He’s not dead, if that’s what you’re thinking."
"Huh? Then what happened? They broke up?"
"Pfft...broke up. Like Wyndella would ever let that happen."
As they stepped into the cosmic gate returning them to Chazat, Barda added, "Let’s just say he ’despaired.’"
