Chapter 872: A Lesson in Control
Before they began thinking of a way to convince Layla’s mother to approve her leaving Hell, Arthur had some other people he needed to meet.
The other two members of their usual five-man group are Esna and Edward.
Unfortunately, meeting Edward proved impossible since he was essentially cultivating in seclusion to make a breakthrough in one of his law comprehensions.
Esna, on the other hand, was on her home planet, Viotis, so Arthur just beamed him and Layla over there using the Cosmic Teleporter after Nicole went to her own home world to speak with her father about her intention to leave Hell.
After a quick rundown of the situation and an explanation of his plan to have her meet the godslayers in Valmone, Esna quickly agreed to join Arthur on his return trip.
"I’m honestly more curious about that Ancient-Breed girl you said can use Anti-Divinity."
It seemed Elaine was the one who held her interest the most out of everything Arthur had told her.
Arthur and Layla spent the night on Viotis, and the next day, before the time Arthur and Esna planned to start running experiments to see if they could artificially awaken Anti-Divinity in Esna, Layla decided to head back to speak with her own parents about following Arthur.
Having come to Viotis numerous times over the past two decades, there was an Eryrth Duchy spacecraft on standby on the planet’s moon for Layla’s use, and she planned to take it back to the Burning Realms.
"I can just use my Teleporter. It would be faster," Arthur said as he stepped out of Esna’s mansion with Layla, but she shook her head.
"Don’t worry. I wanted to make some stops in Peleus on the way."
"Oh. Okay, then."
Layla extended her left hand to the side and generated her portal gun, firing it into empty space to create a gate that led directly to the spaceship on Viotis’ moon.
"I’ll be back in a few days, tops."
"Get me some snacks when you’re coming back," Arthur said, turning around while Layla shook her head with a small smile and stepped into the gate.
The instant it closed behind her, a white-haired woman appeared in the spot she had vanished from, reaching into empty air, her hand disappearing from view as it stretched into a different dimensional direction.
Through it, she grabbed something and then pulled her hand out, dragging Layla back by the collar of her shirt.
"...huh?"
Layla blinked in confusion, but the woman didn’t seem to care as she lifted Layla by her collar like a cat, black slit pupils narrowing as she demanded,
"You...what did you just do?"
"!"
Layla’s body froze under the woman’s gaze, and just as her mind tried to catch up with the situation, Arthur’s voice echoed.
"Wyndella?!"
Familiar arms wrapped around Layla and pulled her out of the woman’s grip, and Arthur, the one responsible, shot the white-haired dragon a look.
"Um, we normal, non-Ultimate Realm existences don’t exactly enjoy being pulled right out of spatial channels, okay? We do that to the people we’re tryna kill, not the ones we want to ask questions."
He set Layla down on the ground as he spoke, but Wyndella didn’t even register his words, her draconic pupils focused on Layla, pressuring the devil with her gaze.
Then, looking in another direction, Wyndella commanded, |Barda, get over here for a bit.|
It took a few seconds before a portal opened and Barda poked his head out, raising an eyebrow in silence, and Wyndella turned back to Layla.
"Do what you just did again. With that gun in your hand."
"..."
This gave a bit more context as to what had caught her attention, and Arthur sighed before speaking to Layla.
"Just use the portal gun."
A little hesitant, Layla charged up the pistol in her hand and fired at empty space, and as a portal bloomed open, Barda’s eyes widened.
"Oh, wow. You really did find someone else like you!"
"Alright, guys," Arthur said, clapping loudly. "Context."
Barda raised more of his body out of the portal, pointing at Layla’s portal as he said,
"What she just created is exactly like how Wyndella’s own cosmic gates and portals work. It’s only less refined, more wasteful, unstable, has limited operating time, leaves behind too many traces, and is very prone to interference."
Mid-speech, Layla’s portal trembled and began to shrink, and Arthur immediately turned a deadpan gaze on Barda.
"Dude, really? You JUST HAD TO list all the flaws in a technique created by a less-than-50-year-old with only Low-Rank Comprehensions?"
"What? Flaws are flaws," Barda replied with a shrug.
Meanwhile, Wyndella closed the distance again, and Layla instinctively stepped back, her gaze wary.
Wyndella didn’t even bother pretending to care as she reached for her, but the dragon’s hand was intercepted by Arthur.
"Words, Wyndella. Words, please!" he said, practically pleading for an explanation.
"Hmm? I’m just curious about her law energy infusion. From what I can see, her affinity was discovered late, but it’s potent enough that she’s undergone changes from the energy infusion."
Wyndella pointed at Layla’s eyes, reminding Arthur of the gear-shaped symbol surrounding her pupils.
True, that was indeed a result of passive law energy infusion into her body, much like how Arthur’s eyes turned blue and red.
"But that’s also a sign of your insufficient control over your own power, and it’s honestly disgusting to look at," Wyndella said, her expression scrunching up immediately.
"Why is your body absorbing law energy without your command? Why is it transforming your physical characteristics without your input? Even when you’re not actively wielding your power?"
Seeing her suddenly launch into a questioning tangent, Arthur was quickly reminded which one of the Levites was the strictest about ’Power Control’.
’Surprisingly, it’s not Berlal, but Wyndella.’
He knew that well, after all, the reason his eyes weren’t constantly blue and red and only changed colour when he used an Authority or Aspect Manifestation was because she had quite literally drilled power control into him.
As far as she was concerned, having no outward changes when using one’s power was ideal. For one, it didn’t tip off an enemy about what they were about to do next.
Layla glanced between Arthur and the two dragons, a clear understanding of the situation forming in her mind as she took a deep breath and said,
"With all due respect, I’ve only had my Creation Authority for a few decades, not the millions or billions of years you’ve had yours. My focus is on immediate application over refinement.
It may be ’disgusting’ by whatever high standards you hold, but immediate potency, even if messy, is more valuable to me right now than a perfect Authority that can’t break through what I need it to."
Wyndella raised an eyebrow at Layla’s words, scoffing as she shook her head.
"That messiness isn’t potency but a glaring vulnerability you’re willingly cultivating. You leak power unnecessarily, giving any enemy worth their salt a free blueprint of your limits and flaws.
Refinement strengthens control, and that control is what separates someone who grows without limit from someone who collapses under their own excess. Your so-called ’immediate application’ will become a brittle cage the moment you face true power, and you’ll hit a wall you can’t break because your power is built on sand."
"But that brittle cage is still better than no cage at all. If I’m not mistaken, the walls you’re talking about are the ceilings of power. I’m talking about the floor of survival. I need a usable weapon to reach the point where I can afford to think about perfection."
Right after Layla said this, Barda made an impressed face, leaning toward Arthur and whispering,
"She talks well."
"Yeah. Got it from her dad," Arthur whispered back.
Wyndella shot them a sidelong glance that made them both feel like admiring the stars of the ’morning sky,’ then turned back to Layla as she said,
"Fair point. But you clearly don’t realise that the ’floor’ and ’ceiling’ are much closer than most think. You need to reinforce that cage quickly since its obvious flaws practically dangle bait before predators. Messy power is predictable power, and predictable power dies first."
Layla crossed her arms over her chest and replied,
"Then would you be interested in personally demonstrating how quickly one can reinforce a ’brittle cage’? If I’m dangling bait, it’s better to learn from the predator with the sharpest teeth."
Wyndella was silent for a moment, immediately seeing through Layla’s intent, a flicker of amusement in her eyes as she said,
"An audacious request. You accept my correction but expect my time in return. Why should I waste effort polishing a rough stone that belongs to another?"
"Because that ’rough stone’ may or may not be a glaring vulnerability to a chosen student of yours, but you’re capable of turning that weakness into a reinforced foundation that can aid him. Besides..."
Layla summoned her pistol and opened another portal as she continued,
"If my creation is just an unrefined version of your Cosmic Gates, learning from the original architect is the only logical way to achieve the control you’re talking about.
You can just think of it as civilly removing something you consider ’disgusting’ from your sight. Me getting a refinement lesson out of it is just a not-so-unintended side effect."
Wyndella burst out laughing at that last line, turning to Barda as she said, "I like this one. She’s coming with us, isn’t she?"
"That’s not guaranteed right now," Arthur replied.
Wyndella raised an eyebrow, but the brief spark of interest in the reason why quickly faded as she said, "Then guarantee it or forget it."
She glanced toward the Burning Realms and added, "I’m going to talk with Belphegor. We leave when I’m done."
With that, she vanished, leaving them with an unknown but certainly short window of time to figure things out.
"That worked out better than I expected," Layla said, a hint of surprise in her voice. Barda chuckled in response.
"Your gamble paid off, but the window is limited."
"Then would you mind helping us save time? The one who needs convincing is pretty far from here," Arthur asked.
"Okay," Barda said, snapping his fingers, and before Layla could even speak up, she vanished.
