Chapter 918: Planetfall
[That thing dragged your mind into a Conceptual Space. How the hell does it even have the Authority to do something like that?]
Celestia said as she turned a wary gaze towards Valkalonex, and upon hearing this, Lostvayne was silent for a moment before finally speaking.
[Probably because it is not from this universe. Master, when you appraised it, did the word ’Imperium’ appear anywhere in the result?]
At that question, Arthur recalled the appraisal he had performed when Valkalonex first appeared, and he distinctly remembered the title ’Imperium Probe’ being listed.
As he nodded without speaking, Lostvayne clicked her tongue audibly, irritation clear in the sound.
[I thought so. It really is that bastard.]
Celestia didn’t even know which part to be more shocked by. Lostvayne cursing or the fact that she seemed to know where Valkalonex really came from.
Before she could question it, Arthur spoke up.
"Wherever it came from doesn’t matter right now."
And he was right, because Valkalonex was still present and very much operational.
Just as Arthur reached for another healing flame crystal from his subspace, Valkalonex’s mechanical voice reverberated through space.
|[Detected Higher Order Conceptual Power.]|
|[Incomprehensible. ]|
|[Connection Not Found. ]|
|[Activating ’Scorched Earth’ Measures. ]|
|[Machine god Authority: Ruin Mo—]|
**BOOOOOM!!!
The Authority activation was violently interrupted as a beam of purple lightning descended from above, striking Valkalonex’s helm and engulfing its entire body in a blinding violet glow.
The sheer force of the impact knocked the colossus downward by thousands of kilometres, and when the lightning finally dispersed, arcs of electricity crawled across its damaged frame.
|[Caution: System Health Below Required Threshold To Engage Higher Order Conceptual Power.]|
|[Repairs Required.]|
The mechanical lifeform echoed those words before releasing a massive burst of cosmic energy that propagated across space faster than light itself.
Arthur immediately summoned his Ego Weapons and pulled back to avoid being caught in the blast, but the instant he did, Valkalonex rotated its upper body in the opposite direction and spoke once more.
|[Detected Suitable Repair Material.]|
Before Arthur could even begin channelling energy into his weapon, Valkalonex’s enormous body lunged forward, tearing through space in the opposite direction from him.
"Like hell I’m letting you repair yourself!" Arthur shouted as he activated his Authorities of Space, Time and Gravity, shooting forward to pursue Valkalonex at maximum speed.
Purple lightning flashed alongside him as Rishia also gave chase, and sensing their pursuit, Valkalonex naturally acted to lose them.
It generated multiple forelimbs from its elbows, replacing its destroyed palms, and with the eighteen hands formed from its two upper arms, it grabbed the fabric of space in front of it and tore open a four-pointed, star-shaped rift identical to the one it had emerged from earlier.
Simultaneously, its lower limbs manifested luminous overlapping polygons that released beams of creation and light law energy, the attacks curving unnaturally through space as they shot toward Arthur and Rishia.
Rishia slowed, drawing her bow in preparation to counter the attack, but Arthur continued moving without hesitation, a grin spreading across his face as he shouted aloud.
"Exactly what I wanted!"
He activated his Authority of Destruction, and combining it with his already active Authorities of Space, Gravity, and Time, he created a singularity within his palms.
|AGSD!!|
The gravitational singularity of destruction began tearing apart the fabric of space as it expanded rapidly, its overwhelming gravity pulling in every beam of energy fired toward Arthur and Rishia. Each attack was swallowed completely, the singularity growing larger as it consumed them, its mass quickly approaching critical density.
The moment it reached that point, Arthur condensed all of the accumulated energy into his left palm, then slammed the empty space beside him with his right hand, activating the Cosmic Teleporter and opening a short-distance gate.
He leapt through it immediately and appeared directly in front of Valkalonex’s torso, his left arm drawn back with the condensed singularity held within his fist.
Without hesitation, he thrust his fist forward, slamming the singularity into Valkalonex’s body. The condensed energies detonated on impact, releasing a blinding burst of light as the surrounding space warped, fracturing the rift Valkalonex had created and forcing it wider while hurling the colossal mechanical lifeform straight into the tear.
"Oh shit," Arthur cursed as he immediately dashed into the rift after Valkalonex, with Rishia right behind him, and the instant they emerged on the other side, both of them summoned their weapons and unleashed full-powered attacks at Valkalonex’s massive body.
Arthur used Extreme Nothingness, while Rishia released her Candescent Edict: Rain, the countless arrows of dark purple lightning surrounding Arthur’s beam of temporal destruction as they tore through space and pierced into Valkalonex’s back with another violent explosion.
The moment Arthur finished unleashing that attack, he deactivated his Authorities and Lostvayne’s Soul-Devouring Oblivion, taking a deep breath as he muttered, "Okay, yeah, I need to tap out for a bit."
His energy reserves were, unsurprisingly, dangerously low.
Rishia would have been in a similar state if not for the fact that she was a dragon, her dragon heart restoring energy at an incredible rate, so while she was also spent, her recovery was far faster than Arthur’s.
Turning toward her, Arthur asked, "Hey, Rishia. That naginata of yours, can you use that powerful lightning slash you pulled off earlier again?"
Hearing the question, Rishia, frowning slightly, replied, "I can maintain that state for a little over a minute. I can do more than a single slash."
Arthur nodded and said, "Perfect. Then I’ll create an opening for you to use it. When you see the chance, don’t hesitate to take it, alright?"
Rishia immediately turned toward him, one eyebrow raised as she asked, "What are you planning to do?"
Arthur slipped his hand into his subspace, preparing to retrieve the Scales of Balance, and replied, "You’ll know when you see it."
He cast a brief glance around the star system they had arrived in and noticed a nearby planet with several hundred spaceships orbiting it, along with its moon, and couldn’t help but notice that the ships were of the same design as the ones he had seen during his visit to the ’Supreme’ Infernal Devil King, Miacav.
However, the thought lingered for only a moment before he retrieved the Scales from his subspace.
Rishia immediately sensed the dense cosmic energy radiating from the pair of scales in his hands and recognised them as a cosmic artifact, though she had no idea what their function was.
Before she could ask, and before Arthur could ignore her and activate the Scales of Balance, a foreign True Voice echoed across the surrounding space, speaking words that left both dragon and godslayer bewildered.
|May the chains of resentment bind you and drag you down to the plane of those you oppress.|
Immediately, cracks in space-time tore open and grey chains burst from the rifts along with a flood of law energy, wrapping around Valkalonex’s massive body and restraining the 30,000 km tall colossus.
"...what?"
Arthur was shocked, not because of the chains, but because of the law energy he sensed they were made of.
"Causality??"
Just as he questioned aloud, thousands of giant chains erupted from the atmosphere of the planet he’d just glanced at, wrapping around the restrained Valkalonex, and even though it tried to resist, the chains began pulling the colossus down into the gravitational field of the massive planet, which was at least twice its size.
Before Arthur and Rishia’s eyes, the chains dragged Valkalonex deeper into the planet’s gravity, and as the colossus tried to resist with its Authorities, Arthur glanced at Rishia, only to see that she had already acted without a word.
She dashed toward Valkalonex, which was struggling against the chains, returning to her true dragon form and unleashing a full-powered breath onto the mechanical lifeform.
The beam of purple collided with Valkalonex’s lower left arm, the eighteen palms condensing energy to form a shield, but that division of focus reduced the amount of power it could put into resisting being dragged down.
Arthur, shaking his head, activated his Anti-Divine Gravity Authority and commanded the law of gravity, increasing the planet’s gravity on Valkalonex alone and dragging it down at nearly ten times its original speed.
The spaceships surrounding the planet activated, their weapons charging, and Arthur sensed the auras of a dozen Devil Lords rising from the planet’s surface, all reacting to the sudden appearance of the planet-sized machine in their skies.
The spaceships hurriedly moved aside and began attacking Valkalonex, the skies filled with streaks of bright light as cannons fired simultaneously, bombarding the mechanical giant and forcing it to expend more of its reserve energy on defence.
Between defending against the hundreds of blasts, the chains of causality, Rishia’s Stormcall lightning bolts, and Arthur increasing gravity’s effect on it, Valkalonex’s attention was split, and eventually it fell into the planet’s atmosphere, parts of its body burning as its giant hands crashed into the oceans.
From afar, it looked as though Valkalonex was trying to embrace the planet, but to prevent damage to the world of his would-be allies, Arthur reversed the effects of gravity on specific parts of Valkalonex’s body, stopping its other arms from crashing onto continents and obliterating millions of lives.
Of course, Valkalonex had its own personal gravity, and being so close to the planet caused its field to interact with the planet’s, which would have resulted in a series of natural disasters for the surface if Arthur’s Gravity Authority hadn’t been handling all the work.
’Come on, I barely have the level of comprehension required for this! I don’t even understand the half of what I’m doing!’
Arthur screamed internally, his fears becoming reality as the tides of several oceans became a mess, tsunamis raged toward the shores, and it officially became earthquake day on some of the planet’s continents.
"Tsk!"
Clicking his tongue, he dashed into the planet’s atmosphere and toward the surface, touching down in the middle of one of the earthquakes and using his Basic Rank Earth Authority to quell it.
Just as he was about to scan the planet to find the one who was chaining Valkalonex, the voice from before echoed, now speaking normally.
"A pleasure to see you again, Sir Arthur."
Arthur immediately spun around, his eyes widening as he saw a beautiful elf with long white hair tied into a single braid draped over her right shoulder.
She pinched her plain grey gown and curtsied, and at the sight of her, Arthur finally understood why this planet had seemed familiar.
It was the place he had been heading before being attacked by Valkalonex.
Standing before him was the ’Prophetess’ of the Spirits who ruled the Continent of Iohodis on Apex World Taemia, Charisse.
However, Arthur’s reaction to seeing her was one of deep suspicion.
"How...?"
"I believe I said this at the end of our last meeting 85 years ago," Charisse replied calmly, as if she had expected this reaction, repeating the words she had spoken to Arthur long ago.
"The ’Effect’ that is our future encounter, has already been ’Caused’."
