Chapter 955: Cosmic Water Slide [Bonus 19]
When Arthur’s eyes adjusted after the light overload, the first thing he noticed was Rishia’s dark expression as she pressed her hands against his stomach.
A jolt of pain shot to his brain, and he groaned instinctively, silver blood leaking from his lips.
’Right... I got hit in the stomach with a claw-full of creation law energy...’
He forced his body upwards, and seeing this, Rishia turned to face him with an incredulous expression.
"Are you insane?! Get back down!"
She pushed him down, barely restraining her strength to avoid worsening his wounds, before using her darkness to wrap around his torso to stop blood from leaking out and his shredded organs from spilling.
The space around them was dark, with fragmented shards of reality floating in the air.
Still images of the throne hall and the castle where they had fought Harlamagne filled those shards, looking like stained-glass pictures suspended around them.
Just as Arthur took in the sight, Harlamagne’s voice echoed.
"I never thought you could pull that much power from your Aspect. Colour me surprised.
Lady Berlal informed me that you were incapable of using Selective Destruction with what she called your most powerful strike, but I suppose that information is now out of date."
The dragon’s words explained why Arthur’s last attack hadn’t harmed Rishia at all.
He had achieved what he had been unable to do for more than 40 years... fully apply Selective Destruction to Extreme Nothingness: Chaos.
"What’s more, you completely destroyed a layer of this space as well, revealing the empty layer that lay beneath it."
A loud finger snap echoed, and the broken fragments of reality began to fly around, piecing themselves together to reform the throne hall and cover the darkness around them.
"Congratulations," Harlamagne said, reappearing seated on the throne opposite the doors of the hall. "You pass. And in only two tries at that."
The unscathed ash dragon looked right at Arthur, and an ashen grey light washed over him, overwriting the state of his body to one where he wasn’t injured, and after doing the same to Rishia, he continued speaking.
"You would not have willingly taken a hit from Creation when you first came here. The conviction you held in that moment when you refused to cease your attack in favour of defence... remember it, and use it to overwrite what remains of the fear of creation within yourself."
After saying that, Harlamagne looked to the side, his gaze peering through the dimensional barriers of the Tower to see which of the Levites was closest.
"Lord Barda, they’re finished."
For a moment, there was silence, then Barda appeared beside Harlamagne, eyebrows raised in surprise.
"They beat you, Harlamagne?"
The blue-haired Continuum Dragon glanced at Arthur and Rishia, instantly seeing through everything that had happened in the Tower from the moment they first stepped in.
"Oh, they really did," he said, a light chuckle escaping his lips.
"I suppose you can say that," Harlamagne responded with a shrug.
Barda laughed shortly, ruffling Harlamagne’s hair a bit before stepping down the dais and addressing Arthur and Rishia.
"So, how do you guys feel having conquered the Tower?"
"I feel like a mess," Arthur replied instantly. "And I want to punch you in the face."
His brutal honesty made Barda burst into loud laughter, shaking his head as he responded, "Well, that’s a rather violent feeling, isn’t it?"
"Says the cause of those feelings," Arthur shot back, rising to his feet and cracking his knuckles.
Just when it seemed as though he was actually about to charge at Barda and punch him, the Levite dragon dropped a bombshell.
"You guys were faster than I thought. Only took you a little over 3 years to finish."
"3 years?" Rishia echoed, eyes wide in surprise.
"Yeah," Barda replied casually. "Around 7 months for your first run, twice that for your second, then you spent the rest of the time devising new techniques and everything.
A total of 1,142 days, 3 Years, 2 months and 2 Days."
Hearing the total amount of time they’d spent in the Tower left Rishia a bit surprised. Arthur, on the other hand, already knew this.
How he’d figured it out was by using his Temporal Authority to calculate the amount of time he’d experienced and referencing it with a previous record from before he entered the Tower.
Arthur’s age was independent of any calendar and was calculated based on the total time he’d lived, increasing by 1 for every 8,760 60-minute hours.
With some mental math, he’d been able to gauge how much time had passed after recovering his Temporal Authority on Floor 4, and from that point on, his Authority automatically tracked the time for him, so he wasn’t lost about how long he had spent anymore.
"Did you think you’d take less time?" Barda asked. "Sorry to burst your bubble."
The man shrugged as he spoke, and before either Arthur or Rishia could respond, he continued.
"Rishia, I need you to give me your honest thoughts about your experience with the Tower. I want to make some changes for future use."
The younger dragon’s expression contorted when she heard Barda’s words, her head silently shaking as she genuinely dreaded the thought of having to go through an improved version of this Tower.
Seeing the change in her expression, Barda was momentarily confused, but one future sight later, he burst into laughter.
"Don’t worry. It’s not for you guys," he said, still chuckling.
Glancing at Arthur, he continued, "As for you, Old Man Aleksas is around, so if you still want to meet him, might as well head out now."
"If I still want to meet him? Really, dude? After you threw me in a tower that made me 3 years late?"
Arthur rolled his eyes at Barda’s words, pressing his fingers to his temple with an exasperated sigh.
"Where’s the exit?" he asked with tired eyes, and Barda pointed at the ground.
"Huh?"
Arthur blinked in confusion, then looked down and saw the ground beneath him disappear before his eyes. Gravity claimed his body, and he fell into the dark hole, and before he could even think about flying out, a torrent of water followed, sending him through an unwilling water slide through spacetime.
His body was carried through the dark spatial tunnel by the pressurised water for a minute, eventually spitting him out onto a beach on an unknown world, where he tumbled across the sand a bit before finally stopping.
"That blue-haired bastard dragon!" Arthur cursed loudly, immediately getting to his feet and brushing the sand off his body.
His senses detected a few presences nearby, and he raised his gaze to meet three pairs of eyes on him, belonging to the Master of Draco Sirus, Moighor, the Memoria Dragon Frago, and the man they were kneeling before, the Progenitor of Dragons, Aleksas.
Upon seeing Aleksas, Arthur heaved a sigh and spoke, "Sorry for the interruption, it’s just Barda’s usual antics."
His voice was tired, as expected, since while his body had been restored, his mind was still exhausted. Still, he made sure to convey his intent to Aleksas as calmly as possible.
"I’ve wanted to speak to you about something since roughly three years ago, regarding a little racial evolution that I discovered that concerns both of us, though in clearly unequal measure.
But you’re clearly busy right now, so I’ll wait until you’re done. Please have someone call me over when you’ve finished with them so I can explain what I have to."
He then looked toward Frago and added, "I’m coming for my compensation after that."
With those words, he swung his right hand into empty air, opening a cosmic gate and practically falling straight through it.
After Arthur disappeared, Aleksas stared at the space where he had vanished for a few moments, his expression unchanging.
’His connection to the Concept of Destruction is stronger than before. He’s able to channel more power through that Aspect of his, and he’s reached Mid-Rank Completion.’
Aleksas instantly noticed Arthur’s increase in strength after exiting the Tower, and considering it had only been three years, the progress was substantial.
His gaze peered through dimensions, instantly locating Rishia, and after confirming that her increase in strength was satisfactory, he nodded silently before turning his gaze to Frago.
"What is this compensation he spoke about?" Aleksas asked.
At this, Frago quickly explained what had occurred three years ago during the Alpha Sirus Grand Festival, when a Herald of his Memory Palace had rudely attempted to read Arthur’s memories.
For a moment, Aleksas’ gaze on Frago turned cold, and the dragon felt a moment of existential dread, as if Aleksas was about to erase him from existence.
However, Aleksas simply looked upward and said, "Oh, I see, that mess with Vlad."
He paused for a moment before adding, "Considering that he’s been in that Tower for three years now, it’s obvious he doesn’t know, isn’t it?"
Frago nodded silently, still shivering from the dread that gripped him a few seconds earlier, and Moighor responded, "Yes, he seems unaware of what has transpired outside the Tower in the past three years."
Unbothered, Aleksas said, "Oh well, he’ll find out soon enough."
He then returned his gaze to the two dragons and continued issuing the orders he had been giving them earlier.
