Chapter 892: The Killing Question
"I really reached it..."
Elaine murmured the words to herself as she stared at the diaphanous board hovering within her field of view, which displayed a compiled layout of her Existential Records.
|Name- Elaine
Race- Ancient-Breed godslayer
Gender- Female
Age- 17
Level- 822
Existence Level- Sovereign (Inferior)
Titles- Death’s ’Chosen’, Loved by Mana, Loved by Death, [...]
Class- Necroshader
Health– X2+
Energy– X2+
Strength– X2
Agility– X2-
Durability– X2-
Intelligence– X2-
Condition– Lightly Exhausted.
Magic Tiers– Death Tier 5, Darkness Tier 4, Life Tier 4, Wind Tier 2.
Skills– Life and Death Manipulation, Energy Construct Creation, Energy Blast, Polearm Mastery (E), Weapon Control, Attribute Infusion, Death’s Touch, Vital Enhancement, Life Ripple, Death Ripple.
Unique Skills– Mortal Coil, ■■■■■■■ ■■■■■■■.|
She hadn’t met the Superior Stage goal Arthur truly had in mind, but she had still reached the Sovereign Realm.
Even Yujin, who’d been an Intermediate Grandmaster and a full Stage ahead of her when they entered the Secret Realm, was still a Superior Legendary.
At some point, her rate of growth had let her surpass him in power, to the extent that the spars Arthur usually arranged turned into power control sessions for Elaine, focused on testing how much she could restrain herself when it mattered.
And of course, Elaine passed those tests with flying colours, since she was someone who always held herself back from delivering any killing blows.
Indeed, even after all this time, Elaine hadn’t taken a life on purpose.
Arthur didn’t try to force her into doing so either, and aside from the small argument she’d had with Yujin over it at the beginning of their stay in the Secret Realm, the topic never came up again.
Elaine fighting her opponents while either Arthur or Yujin finished them off became the norm, a situation Berlal was most displeased with.
Thinking about that made Elaine recall a conversation between the two that she’d walked into, or more accurately, one they’d allowed her to walk into.
◇ ◇ ◇
"You’re still coddling her? Even after all this time?"
That was the first thing Elaine heard from Berlal as she approached the area.
Arthur, who’d brought some of his outside work into the Secret Realm and was busy tinkering with a 3D star map, answered without looking up. "I’m not coddling her. I’m just letting her deal with her trauma at her own pace."
Berlal crossed her arms and lifted an eyebrow at that response.
"At her own pace? Arthur, you do realise that if she can’t get over her fear of killing willingly soon, it’s going to affect her development."
Arthur’s hand stopped moving at those words, and Berlal went on, saying, "You’ve noticed it, haven’t you? Her refusal to kill is limiting her abilities."
Elaine’s eyes widened when she heard that, since the thought had never crossed her mind before.
She hadn’t considered that her fear of intentionally killing something, a fear rooted in the trauma of accidentally killing people with her uncontrolled Death’s Touch back on her home planet, was holding back the awakening of more of her abilities.
"Are you really doing this now, Berlal?" was Arthur’s next question, and in that moment, Elaine realised that Arthur already knew, didn’t want her aware of it, and was clearly unhappy with Berlal for bringing it up while knowing she was listening.
But Berlal wasn’t the kind to back down that easily.
"Yes, I am doing this now, Arthur. What happened the last time you had her use death law energy to try raising the corpses of the monsters you killed for her? Did that end well?"
Elaine remembered the incident Berlal was referring to, a time when Arthur had her try her hand at Necromancy.
That attempt hadn’t ended well, something Crim, who’d been watching, had commented on as ’odd’, without saying anything further.
Elaine’s affinity for the death attribute naturally extended to the law of death, and back then, she’d only just reached Legendary and was still learning how to handle ambient law energy.
When the death attribute was brought up, certain abilities usually came to mind first.
Severing the thread of life to cause death, like Elaine’s Death’s Touch, was the most basic.
Next came commanding the decayed and departed, raising the dead as undead under one’s control, and finally, some basic level of soul control, either the ability to see and interact with souls by default, or the ability to view their final memories or something similar.
Elaine had none of that.
At present, her Mortal Coil ability only allowed her to absorb part of the life force of any target she touched through Death’s Touch, or expand that effect into a drain field, a circular zone around her that continuously siphoned small amounts of life force from all targets within it.
She could store that energy in her Life Well to heal injuries, restore stamina, or convert it into death energy for offence. She could also convert her own life force into death energy, tripling the strength of her Death Attribute attacks.
She had her Vital Enhancement, Life Ripple, and Death Ripple skills, but for someone with such a strong affinity for Death, it was a very limited arsenal.
Arthur had noticed this, but Elaine, lacking any point of comparison, didn’t realise her arsenal was actually small for someone with her potential.
Furthermore, after Elaine’s Existential Records were computed by the universe’s Devour Class System, two words, or items, on her Unique Skill tab were completely blacked out.
They were likely abilities that should’ve reached Unique Skill level but hadn’t fully awakened, or had only awakened in part.
"Thinking about it, it’s obvious some condition has to be fulfilled to remove the restriction on those abilities and let her use them," Berlal said, and when she met Arthur’s frown, she continued.
"And that brings us to the real question. Arthur, ever since that child learned to consciously control her power, what’s the one thing she hasn’t done?"
The answer was simple.
It’d been roughly two and a half years since Elaine met Arthur, and roughly two and a half years since she learned to control her Death’s Touch and stop killing people by accident.
Since gaining control over the ability she now called Mortal Coil, the one thing Elaine hadn’t done with her power was kill another living being.
Berlal was implying that Elaine’s aversion to intentionally killing was restricting her from fully awakening her abilities, because doing so was likely a prerequisite for some of them to manifest.
◇ ◇ ◇
"Elaine, why are you just sitting there? Let’s go."
Arthur’s voice pulled Elaine back to the present, and she quickly closed her status board, hopping off the rock she’d been perched on.
Some of her overgrown hair fell across her face, and she grabbed the strands, roughly gathering them into a messy bun with one hand as she made her way toward the exit of the Secret Realm she’d effectively been confined in for over a year and a half.
They were leaving now, less because Yujin, the reason it had been opened, had met his Realm requirement, and more because Arthur had to travel to the Infernal Dimension in response to an invitation from the Supreme Infernal Devil King, Miacav.
According to the invitation, Miacav wanted to conduct business with Arthur because one of the demon merchants he’d been dealing with, who also had connections to Miacav, had informed the Infernal Devil about certain metals on Shoisan, one of Arthur’s planets.
These metals, when combined with resources from the Infernal Dimension, could produce alloys suitable for weapons to equip Miacav’s armies against a specific type of troublesome creature native to the Dimension.
Because of this, Arthur now had to make the trip to the Infernal Dimension, which, coincidentally, was where Wyndella had taken Layla and Nicole. The trip would also double as a reunion with his friend and his lover, whom he hadn’t seen in about two months.
While he was there, Arthur decided to stop by Apex World Taemia, where he had spent around three months decades ago during his first time in this universe, to check in on old acquaintances, particularly Charisse, the Priestess of Casualty, whom he had met back then.
Arriving in the Infernal Dimension’s Apex World Velapre, the planet where Miacav headquartered his intergalactic affairs, and meeting the man took roughly two weeks via spaceship and intra-dimension warp gates.
The Infernal Devils treated Arthur with the utmost respect upon his arrival, none of them being the bloodthirsty, battle-hungry type of Infernal Devil that Arthur was used to and disliked.
Having encountered that sort repeatedly over the years, Arthur had grown to dislike Infernal Devils in general, and he hadn’t exactly hidden this dislike during his time on Aramis, even though he occasionally summoned them in battle.
Whether Miacav knew this or not, Arthur couldn’t say, but it seemed the man had carefully chosen his subordinates.
Elaine had come to the Infernal Dimension with him, but while he was on Velapre meeting Miacav, she remained with Berlal.
To the godslayer’s surprise, the one who came to lead him to the reception room where Miacav waited was a full Cosmic Being, his power rivalling that of Gozon’s strongest Demon Kings.
The ’Absolute Death’ King, Miacav, was a large tan-skinned man, standing ten feet tall with a pair of curved horns on his head and two spiked tails extending from his lower back, his long pitch-black hair framing a menacing face marked with red streaks on the left side and eyes as dark as the night.
Arthur met him seated with his legs crossed, but the posture didn’t make him appear any smaller.
"Welcome. Take a seat," he said, waving for a servant to place a glass before Arthur.
Arthur sat down and leaned back, making himself comfortable as he spoke.
"Thanks for the hospitality. I doubt you go this far for every Race Lord you speak with, do you?"
"Of course not," Miacav replied bluntly.
"I don’t see eye to eye with lower-ranked Race Rulers, but you’re different. Those old coots McEnda and Malorum interact with you publicly no differently than they would with a fellow ’King’, and as an ally to them and Gozon, that attitude sets expectations for how I should treat you as well."
Miacav’s honesty earned a satisfied nod from Arthur, who shrugged and said, "Well, I suppose I should be grateful I happen to be a Progenitor of the Cosmos’ only ’Anti-Divine’ race since that’s helped me get in Gozon’s good graces."
"You should be grateful to your ancestor. Great-grandfather, was it? If the entire Gozon didn’t owe him a debt, I doubt those demons would have afforded you the level of treatment they did when you first came here."
Arthur chuckled at Miacav’s words and replied, "Don’t worry. I made sure to thank him a lot when I went back home."
While they talked, the servants placed several snacks and drinks on the table between them and stepped back.
"Still," Miacav spoke up, his eyes flashing as he scanned Arthur’s power level, "you’ve grown much more than expected, considering it’s only been about what? 80 odd years since you became a Deity. It makes me understand why Gozon values you so highly, even accounting for your godslayer abilities. In no time, you’d be in our Realm."
Arthur scoffed at the words, reaching for one of the wine bottles as he replied, "You say that like the High-Tier Deity Realm is easy to reach. I’ve only been in the Mid-Tier Deity Realm for a little over 3 decades, and I feel like I’ll be stuck here for 30 more. And that doesn’t even factor in how long I’d need to comprehend High-Rank Laws."
He poured himself a drink, and hearing him, Miacav glanced at the other Infernal Devil King standing to the side, his second-in-command, and after that silent exchange, spoke up.
"Perhaps I can help you shorten that time."
Arthur froze at the words, dropping the wine bottle as he looked up and said, "Elaborate."
Miacav glanced at the other Infernal Devil, who nodded, then turned to Arthur.
"Your current Existence Realm Stage is one that requires you to accumulate and refine raw energy in preparation for breaking into the High-Tier Deity Realm, and due to your Cosmic Superiority, gathering Cosmic Energy would be far more beneficial."
"I know that. What about it?" Arthur asked.
"I’m aware of a location within this dimension where you can access cosmic energy with a high level of purity, at least three times greater than the ambient cosmic energy concentration."
Arthur narrowed his eyes silently, suspicion clear in his expression, and noticing this, Miacav spoke.
"Consider it a gift, unrelated to what we’re about to discuss."
When Arthur looked at him, Miacav leaned forward and continued, "I also wish to partner with you. After all, those troublesome Celestials who despise my Infernal Devil race are allied with the divines Gozon’s demons want to hire you against."
"I see..."
Arthur didn’t particularly like Infernal Devils, but he found himself starting to like Miacav for being upfront about his intentions.
"Very well, I suppose I’ll accept," Arthur said, but before Miacav could respond, he added, "But..."
