Chapter 927: The Price of Curiosity [Monthly Bonus 2]
The eyes were the window to the soul.
And Lithy had just used Arthur’s eyes as a window to enter his soul.
Her objective was simple: to extract as much information as possible about Arthur’s existence and how he had acquired Baruuk’s invitation.
She suspected that Arthur had killed Baruuk and wanted confirmation.
The method she chose was to search his memories directly, retrieving the details she required on her own.
Her vision blurred briefly, then zoomed into Arthur’s eyes, passing through every layer of cosmic energy surrounding his soul and straight into it.
Immediately, a filmstrip of images began to play in her mind, Arthur’s memories related to Baruuk that she had been seeking.
The memories unfolded from the moment Arthur recognised the being called ’Baruuk’ to the final instant when Arthur stabbed Baruuk in the chest.
But just as she saw the pillar of black cosmic energy erupting from Baruuk’s corpse, a silver light pierced the darkness and consumed her vision.
For a moment, she saw nothing, and when the light returned, she found herself floating in a vast, dark space.
"What the—?"
The unexpected event caught Lithy off guard, and she spun around, trying to understand where she was.
’Forceful spiritual body manifestation?’
The moment she realised this body was her spiritual one, she immediately turned, eyes widening as she caught sight of the structure behind her.
’A Star System?’
That was the first thought that crossed her mind when she saw the enormous grey orb surrounded by several other spherical masses of energy, but she quickly discarded it when she realised what those objects orbiting the grey orb actually were.
’Origin Cores!’
They were the sources of Authorities over universal laws, obtained through the comprehension of those laws.
Lithy counted over twenty of them, all roughly spherical and of varying sizes, and their presence made it clear exactly where she had ended up.
"His Soul Realm? But I never meant to prod that deep!"
She didn’t need to enter that far into a soul to extract memories. Entering a Soul Realm was generally considered the height of folly unless the power difference between both parties was overwhelming.
After all, she would be stepping into the deepest root of their existence, a Realm where the owner controlled everything that occurred within.
Lithy immediately tried to pull herself out of Arthur’s Soul Realm, but just as she acted, Arthur’s voice echoed all around her.
|And just where do you think you’re going?|
As his voice resounded in her head, the glow of the blue orb orbiting the giant grey soul core intensified, and the space around Lithy began to spin as everything accelerated, the distant Origin Cores blurring into streaks of light as the Soul Realm bent to Arthur’s will.
Time compressed and folded in on itself as Lithy felt ages flood into her spiritual body in an instant, billions of years passing in the span of a heartbeat, while her body withered, cracked, and crumbled into drifting dust, her awareness dragged through endless decay.
As her vision collapsed into darkness, it snapped back open just as violently, only for her to find herself being pulled toward a glowing red orb burning with pure destruction.
She tried to resist with cosmic energy, but wasn’t fast enough as the distance vanished and she was dragged down into it.
Agony consumed everything as her spiritual body burned from within, breaking down under absolute destruction until nothing of her remained, her consciousness torn apart under the overwhelming destruction.
Again, darkness reigned.
Again, awareness returned.
This time, immense gravitational pressure bore down on her from all directions without mercy, the space around her compressing as the invisible force crushed her spiritual body on every side, fractures spreading across.
She was squeezed tighter and tighter, the pressure intensifying until her spiritual body finally collapsed, her vision blanking out as the crushing force completed its work.
Silence followed as she snapped back to her senses.
This time, the space around her began to tear, rips forming everywhere.
However, the speed at which the rips appeared was far slower than the earlier gravitational pressure, giving her enough time to react, a second to activate her Unique Authority and wrench herself out of Arthur’s Soul Realm.
Her consciousness snapped back into her physical body, and as her brain processed the images her eyes captured, she realised she was still on the dance floor in the bar, still held close to Arthur while the sound of music continued to play around them.
But now, two blades pressed against her throat, coated in deep crimson and pure silver energies so dense that their actual shapes were obscured beneath the power, only their presence felt as they pressed into her skin and drew blood.
Meeting her shocked eyes, Arthur tilted his head and spoke calmly.
"What’s wrong? The orchestra decided to give us something special and play an extra song. Don’t you want to continue the dance?"
Lithy shoved herself backwards and staggered away, her eyes wide with shock and disbelief, a hint of fear in her gaze as she looked at Arthur.
Make no mistake, she was stronger than Arthur. Lithy was an entire Existence Realm above him, with both her soul and body surpassing his in raw strength.
But that was precisely why she felt fear, because despite that difference, he had dragged her into his Soul Realm, held her there even while she struggled to escape, and inflicted damage upon her.
Even if that damage was small compared to the overall health of her soul, it didn’t change the reality that Arthur had harmed the soul of a High-Tier Deity Realm existence after pulling her into his Soul Realm.
Each of the deaths she had endured had inflicted a small portion of soul damage, and she had endured several in succession.
If the fourth hadn’t unfolded more slowly, if it hadn’t given her enough time to activate her Unique Authority and escape, she could have been trapped in an endless cycle of deaths, at least until Arthur’s cosmic energy ran out, and there was no way to know how much cumulative damage her soul would have suffered by then.
"You... what the hell are you?" she muttered.
Hearing that, Arthur replied, "What the hell am I, eh?"
He stepped forward, and the world around them slowed to a crawl.
Lithy was completely caught off guard, her body straining to move under the effect of the Aspect of the Concept of Time, and in that instant of slowing, Arthur crossed the distance, grabbed her by the throat, and slammed her into the ground with immense force, enough to crater the floor beneath her.
His left hand lifted, Lostvayne appearing within it, and he gripped the blade before driving it straight down into her open mouth, deep enough for her to feel the tip press against the back of her throat.
The speed of the world returned to normal, and Lithy’s body regained its ability to move freely, cosmic energy condensing around her fingertips as she readied it to fire at him.
But just before she could fire her cosmic energy at Arthur, Lostvayne erupted with destructive power, the force burning the inside of her mouth and freezing her hand in place.
"Let’s see which is faster," Arthur said calmly. "That blast of cosmic energy you’re about to release, or my sword going further down your throat."
As he spoke, screams echoed from around them as the other patrons of the bar backed away, shocked to see the two people who had been dancing moments ago now on the floor, one holding a weapon against the other, with bloodstains spreading across the ground.
Lithy’s fingers twitched, and she slowly moved her leg, but noticing it, Arthur pressed his knee deeper into her chest and continued speaking.
"You’re durable enough that I can barely damage you with my current strength, even with my destruction energy, which ignores durability.
But that only affects the outside of your body. How durable do you think your insides are?"
His glowing crimson eyes stayed locked on hers.
"I’m very curious to see if your brain would be blown apart if I unleashed a full-powered attack right now."
Just as he said that, Celestia changed into her humanoid form, landed on the floor, and strode forward, grabbing Lostvayne’s hilt and trying to force it down further as she shouted, [What are you waiting for, Master? Just kill her already!]
Celestia was furious.
Both she and Lostvayne had sensed what happened the instant it occurred, and she had immediately dropped the magazine she was reading and returned to Arthur’s side, at the same moment that Lostvayne manifested.
’Too many eyes, Celestia,’ Arthur said, responding telepathically.
Moments earlier, he had activated his Aspect of Time to slow everything around him, which was how he had caught Lithy off guard.
Even though it lasted only a moment, it had slowed her as well, preventing her from reacting quickly enough to avoid being slammed onto the floor.
The problem was the amount of cosmic energy released by an Aspect activation, even when its range was heavily restricted, as Arthur had confined it to the bar alone.
That output was impossible to completely hide, and those with keen perception could sense it even from millions of miles away.
This planet, Athion, was currently hosting an Interstellar Tournament, and billions of beings from across the universe had their gazes on it.
Several of them present on its surface, including foreign universal Eternal Candidates, had felt Arthur’s Aspect activation and turned their eyes toward his location.
"And among those annoying gazes is that of the one this woman likely calls ’Master.’"
Arthur’s right hand on Lithy’s throat pressed harder as he activated the Cosmic Teleporter. A portal opened beneath them, and both of them fell through it, emerging in the middle of what looked like a vast treasure vault.
The ceiling, walls, and floor gleamed with gold so bright it could sting one’s eyes even from hundreds of metres away.
The moment they appeared, Lithy tried to kick Arthur away, but he used his Aspect to slow her for a second again, then forced Lostvayne deeper, the blade pressing into her flesh as she choked, nearly cutting her lips on its edges.
Arthur then looked toward the massive door of the vault, whose walls were lined with treasures, and spoke.
"You have very rude subordinates, Memoria Dragon."
Silence hung for a moment.
Then the doors opened, and a golem with the form of a Draconic Human, complete with horns, tail, and wings, stepped inside.
It was the same golem that Arthur had fought before retrieving Celestia’s second fragment in Draco Sirus, making this place the pyramid dungeon it had been in.
Before leaving last time, Arthur had realised that the Memoria Dragon had been watching through that golem’s eyes. Having seen the real Memoria Dragon when he and Barda went to speak with the Main Entities of Draco Sirus, he remembered the dragon’s energy signature and had noticed that same gaze on him after his Aspect Activation.
That was why he chose to come here, away from the majority of prying eyes.
The golem stepped forward, and instead of its mechanical voice, it spoke with a voice Lithy recognised.
[I apologise for my subordinate’s actions, disciple of the Levites. But first, please release her.]
Arthur didn’t move an inch.
"Release her?" he said. "After she forcibly peered into my memories?"
This clearly wasn’t the first time Lithy had done something like that. She had likely gone around extracting memories from others without consent, disregarding their will entirely, all in the name of ’preserving information’.
Unfortunately for her, she’d tried it on someone capable of turning the tables and who wasn’t inclined to let it slide.
Frago, the Memoria Dragon, fell silent for a moment, then spoke again after telepathically warning Lithy to stay still.
"You will be compensated. But first, please release her from your Sword of Destruction."
The man seemed to know what Lostvayne was, but Arthur didn’t care about that at the moment.
Instead, he looked down at Lithy, his eyes dead cold as he commanded.
"Erase it. Purge every memory of mine that you read from your existence. NOW."
His tone left no room for refusal, and Frago spoke quietly. "Do as he says."
By his command, Lithy silently erased the memories she’d read of Arthur, and only then did Arthur get up, pulling Lostvayne from her mouth and flicking the blood from the blade.
He then deactivated Soul-Devouring Oblivion, which had been active and was one of the reasons the sword had been able to harm her at all.
While the blade was still unsheathed and radiating potent destructive cosmic energy, he turned toward Frago and said,
"You said you’d compensate me. I’ll collect my compensation after I’m done speaking with your Progenitor."
With those words, he activated another cosmic gate, stepped through, and disappeared from the dungeon completely.
