Chapter 959: Starbreaker’s Pursuit
Aleksas first turned toward the Levites and issued his instructions.
"Barda, Gervod, Raikis. You three are heading to the Dark Multiverse as planned."
Turning his eyes on Raikis, he continued, "If Azi Dhaka attempts to interfere, make him regret it."
Raikis narrowed his eyes slightly before speaking. "You sure about that? Hyperion’s going to have a lot to say."
"Then tell me everything Hyperion says," Aleksas replied. "I’ll deal with him myself."
"If you say so."
Raikis lifted a shoulder in a casual shrug, choosing to leave any problems that might arise to Aleksas.
The Primordial Dragon then turned to Berlal and asked, "Can I leave Julio’s domain, the Fifth Multiverse, to you?"
The woman nodded her head without speaking, and with that, Aleksas shifted his attention to Wyndella. Before he could speak, she cut in.
"I know. I’ll take care of Dulio’s territory, and Gindry will handle Akasha."
"You all left the biggest pain in the behind for me," Gindry complained, her expression showing clear displeasure at the thought of merely existing in the same space as Akasha.
The Levites appeared to be heading to different Multiverses under Aleksas’ orders, and although Arthur had no idea what their objective was, it was likely connected to whatever discussion had been underway before he arrived.
On a side note, Barda had literally dismissed Mofil the instant Aleksas started instructing them to head to the Dark Multiverse, since their next destinations weren’t information he needed to hear.
"Here, cosmic headache medicine," Barda said as he rose and slipped a bottle of pills into the chest pocket of Gindry’s shirt.
Before she could reach for the bottle, he turned to the other two men and spoke.
"Let’s move."
With those words, the three of them disappeared, and Gindry opened the bottle and emptied its contents into her palm, her brows twitching with irritation.
"You’re so dead, Barda," she muttered, her voice low and dark.
To understand her anger, one had to know that the pills Barda had placed in that bottle were the cosmic equivalent of crystal meth, made from some of the mutated plants in Gervod’s garden.
Aleksas paid no attention to the little scene and faced Arthur instead, cosmic energy seeping from his body as he spoke.
"I’ve got things to do, so let’s make this quick."
Just as the cosmic energy encircled Arthur and the spatial channel to the Valmone Universe was established, two hands emerged from a direction in space-time that Arthur couldn’t comprehend, seeming to spawn from empty air behind him as they grabbed his shoulders.
"No, you’re not going anywhere."
"!"
Arthur flinched when the arms grabbed him firmly, and an unfamiliar voice sounded near his ears as those arms forced him back down onto the seat he’d just risen from, the power within them effortlessly nullifying Aleksas’ inter-universal teleportation.
He turned his head immediately and found himself face to face with a beautiful woman who had pitch-black eyes and vivid red hair, wearing a bright smile that seemed equal parts innocent and mischievous.
"Hello there, kid," she said in a cheerful tone. "Nice to meet ya."
Arthur blinked in confusion and surprise, and one of the Levites still present rose from her seat and called out to the woman who had appeared without warning.
"Quinn!"
The woman looked up right away, her smile widening as she opened her arms and replied, "Gindry, my dear."
She stepped forward and wrapped Gindry in a tight embrace, patting her back lightly as she continued, "Good to see you."
"Same here," Gindry answered with a bright smile.
Pulling back slightly, Quinn tilted her head to the side before lifting a hand in a small wave toward Berlal.
"Hi, Berlal."
Berlal answered with a slight nod, but that clearly didn’t satisfy her, as she repeated herself.
"Hi, Berlal."
"...."
"Hi, Berlal."
Realising this would continue until she responded, Berlal raised her hand and offered a small wave in return.
"Hi, Quinn."
That appeared to satisfy her, and she turned her hand toward Wyndella, who silently met it in a high five.
It was clear she had quite an amiable relationship with the three Levite sisters, but someone there wasn’t willing to just stand around and watch their reunion after more than a billion years of not seeing each other.
"What are you doing here?" Aleksas asked, his tone carrying faint displeasure at having his teleportation interrupted.
At this, the woman turned to him, her red hair bouncing lightly as she answered, "I came to meet you."
Then she looked toward Arthur and added, "And you as well."
She slipped out of Gindry’s embrace and stepped closer to Arthur, leaning toward him with both hands clasped behind her back.
"Hello there. Your name’s Arthur, right? I’m Quinn. Nice to meet you."
"Um... Hello..."
Arthur wasn’t entirely sure how to respond to the woman’s casual attitude.
He had been occupied with figuring out how to convince the Primordial Drifter, Nash, to clean up the mess Nash had created for reasons he didn’t yet understand, when suddenly the Primordial Devil appeared from nowhere, forced him back into his seat, and announced that she had come to meet both him and Aleksas.
Quinn reached out and lifted Arthur’s chin with her fingers, tilting his head slightly to the side as she looked into his eyes with a gaze that seemed to see straight through him.
"As expected of Lucifer’s grandkid. You’re quite skilled," she said.
"Um... Actually, it’s great-grandkid," Arthur corrected, gently moving her hand away. "Lucifer’s grandkid is my mum."
"Huh? Belphegor didn’t mention that."
"Knowing Belphegor, I’m pretty sure he corrected you on that," Arthur responded with certainty in his voice.
Quinn didn’t seem to care too much as she shrugged lightly, then conjured a chair from thin air and placed it to Arthur’s right, between him and Aleksas.
"You wouldn’t believe who I saw on my way here. And where I found them, too," she said, leaning her elbows on the table and resting her chin on her palms while her gaze focused on Aleksas.
"Let me guess, Nash," Aleksas said flatly, and Quinn nodded in confirmation.
"That much is obvious. The real surprise is where I found him."
"The Valmone universe," Aleksas interrupted before Quinn could continue.
The woman blinked lightly, caught off guard.
"You already knew?" she asked.
"I was heading there," Aleksas replied. "Now, if you’d excuse me, I’d be on my wa—"
"Anyway," Quinn spoke loudly, cutting him off, much to his displeasure.
"I was looking for him," she said, pointing a thumb at Arthur, "and I went to Hell, but Belphegor told me he went to some place called Draco Sirus in the Second Multiverse.
That sounded like a dragon universe, so I decided to come find you, thinking you might know it. On my way to you, I saw Nash in that Valmone universe we were in before, the place where Nash said Lucifer’s grandkid was—"
"Great grandkid," Arthur interrupted, correcting her once more.
"Yeah, whatever," she replied, unconcerned. "Anyway, he was in that place, not far from where that Dark Young was."
Arthur was mildly surprised by what Quinn had just said, because if he understood correctly, it meant Nash had known about his first trip to the Valmone Universe, the one he had taken as a teenager when he had just acquired the Cosmic Teleporter on his right arm.
Nash had told Quinn about it because he was Lucifer’s descendant, so she had gone there, and for some reason, Aleksas had been in Valmone as well around the same time.
’Was this after I left? Or were they there when I was still there?’
It seemed more likely that it had been after he left, but even if it had been while he was still there, there was no way Arthur could have known that higher-dimensional beings were present or that they had been observing him.
"I was wondering what Nash was doing in that place, but before I got to him, I noticed some Ancient Drifter acting sneaky in one of my universes, so I picked him up and asked him politely to explain what he was doing," Quinn said, continuing her unprompted narration.
From what she’d described, Arthur was fairly certain she hadn’t asked the drifter anything politely.
"Anyway, I ended up seeing a picture of you and him," she continued, pointing at Aleksas and Arthur, "so I decided to head over to you since finding you was simple, but locating him..."
Quinn trailed off for a moment, turning to Arthur and scanning his Existence Realm before finishing, "Well, I have a better chance of finding a needle in a haystack than locating one Mid-Tier Deity out of the couple septillion others in this universe."
Clapping her hands, she concluded, "But that’s about it, and here I am!"
She seemed satisfied with her story, even though no one had asked her to tell it, but Arthur now had a number of questions.
"May I ask why you were looking for me in the first place?"
"Hmm? Well, I haven’t met any of Lucifer’s descendants. Then Nash tells me you’ve got Lostvayne and you messed with one of Akasha’s experiments, blowing up a planet along with some kid from the future and Jamie, so I got curious."
Turning to Aleksas, Quinn added, "Wouldn’t you be curious if you were me? Especially knowing how proud Lostvayne is. After rejecting over a dozen Ultimates, it finally chose Lucifer and then his descendant."
Her words gave Arthur a little insight into just how many beings of great power had tried and failed to control Lostvayne, all completely rejected by the Rule Breaker.
"The kid wasn’t in Valmone when I got there, and then I got caught up with some other things and kind of forgot until Starbreaker reminded me recently, so I decided to go find him again."
"Starbreaker?" Arthur asked as soon as Quinn finished, and she turned back to him with a nod.
"Yeah. You’re not the only one around with a single-digit Rule Breaker, you know?"
"And may I ask where Starbreaker is?"
Since neither Lostvayne nor Celestia had said anything after Quinn arrived, Arthur assumed Starbreaker wasn’t with her, and his assumption was confirmed by Quinn’s response.
"He said he found traces of something he’d been searching for a while, so he was going to investigate. It was on this planet called Athion or something like that..."
The moment Quinn mentioned the familiar planet, Lostvayne immediately spoke in Arthur’s mind.
[Master, I need permission to head to Athion. Now.]
’Huh?’
[There’s no time, so I’ll be brief. Starbreaker’s after Lady Celestia.]
’[Ehh??’]
Both Arthur and Celestia were taken aback by Lostvayne’s sudden conclusion, which seemed to come out of nowhere.
[Explaining Starbreaker’s personality would take a while, so just know he’s the inquisitive type. He’s the perfect match for Quinn and her unending curiosity.]
