Chapter 960: A New Destination
[Quinn just said she went to Valmone after you left, and if she visited the ruins of Cruotis Prime or the planets in the Abyss Labyrinth where you, Jamie, and Evan trained, then Starbreaker likely noticed residual traces of Lady Celestia’s energy signature.]
Those ’traces’ were left behind after you used Lady Celestia in battle, and they’re something only we Rule Breakers can detect easily. I tried to obscure them as much as possible with my destruction back then, but Starbreaker is a Single Digit Rule Breaker, so there’s no doubt he saw through my attempts to hide it.
Now, upon coming to this universe, he headed straight to a planet named Athion. Considering the circumstances, the odds of this planet being a different one that coincidentally has the same name as the one where you retrieved Lady Celestia’s fragment are extremely low.]
Once Lostvayne explained this, Arthur and Celestia immediately understood why Lostvayne had concluded that Starbreaker was after Celestia.
[Starbreaker discovering Lady Celestia’s awakening isn’t the problem. The problem would be if he told others about it,] Lostvayne explained.
[The Rule Breaker hierarchy is absolute, but not all of us were content with Lady Celestia holding the Serial Number of 1 despite being the youngest of us, and I wouldn’t put it past some of them to have their wielders interfere with you just because of that.
You don’t need that extra trouble, so I want to stop Starbreaker before he can say a word to the wrong Rule Breaker.]
As soon as Lostvayne finished speaking, Arthur extended his right arm and conjured a Cosmic Gate behind him, one leading directly to Athion, and he spoke.
"Go ahead."
He said it out loud, and Lostvayne immediately appeared in her humanoid form, the sight leaving Quinn mildly surprised.
"Oh? You look like a woman now?" Her eyes flicked to Arthur as she asked. "His preferences?"
[No,] Lostvayne responded curtly. [You’re sure the planet Starbreaker went to is called Athion, right?]
"Hmm? Yeah."
[Thank you.]
With that, Lostvayne stepped into the Cosmic Gate and disappeared beyond it, leaving Quinn with question marks floating above her head.
"Where’s she going?"
"To catch up with Starbreaker, I guess," Arthur replied with a shrug, keeping his expression calm.
Right as he answered, Aleksas interrupted with a question directed at Quinn, "Are you done? I have somewhere to be now."
He immediately tried to teleport again, but Quinn blocked his attempt, sparks scattering as their cosmic energies collided.
At that moment, Gindry stood and walked over to Quinn, hugging her from behind as she said, "I’ll see you later. My slave driver boss gave me overtime work again."
"Pfftt. See you later," Quinn responded with a laugh.
With that, Gindry followed Wyndella into the door-shaped cosmic gate she had created, while Berlal tapped Arthur on the shoulder and spoke.
"I’m taking Elaine with me."
"Oh, okay," Arthur replied. He wasn’t concerned about Elaine’s safety if she was with Berlal, given how powerful the Ancient Dragon was.
As Berlal vanished into her shadow, Quinn turned back to Aleksas and asked, "You said you wanted to go see Nash earlier. About what?"
Aleksas wore an expression that seemed to question whether he needed to answer, so Arthur took it upon himself to update Quinn.
"To talk about the picture that let you know he was in the same location as I was," he said. "It’s rather inconvenient for me if my name and face become common knowledge across the multiverse and beyond."
"Inconvenient? How so?"
"The Progenitor goddess is apparently after me," Arthur responded.
A look of understanding passed over Quinn’s eyes, immediately followed by a trace of recollection as she spoke.
"She did tell me something about being upset that she hasn’t found any leads on her Slayer’s location yet."
She spoke with full knowledge that Arthur was the Progenitor godslayer, information she naturally had after going to Valmone shortly after Arthur had left for the first time.
"I can see how it would be a problem for you if any of her dogs sniff out that picture I saw," Quinn added.
Her mouth opened as if to continue, but she sensed something that made her pause, and at the same time, Aleksas frowned lightly.
"Why are all of you deciding to come here today?" he grumbled.
"Coincidence, Aleksas," Quinn replied as she rose to her feet, "Or maybe it’s all fate," she added with a chuckle, then turned to Aleksas with narrowed eyes.
"Gimme a second, and don’t leave or I’ll chase you to the ends of the Cosmos."
"Just go already," Aleksas snapped, and Quinn vanished with a light laugh.
Arthur silently shifted his gaze between Aleksas and the spot Quinn had occupied, raising an eyebrow as he asked, "Shouldn’t we be going to find Nash before he leaves Valmone?"
"It would be in your best interest not to add Quinn to your list of problems."
Aleksas’ reply made Arthur immediately understand that Quinn saying she’d chase him to the ends of the Cosmos was not a joke.
Just as he spoke, Quinn reappeared, holding onto the arm of an unwilling man as she said with a smile, "Look who I found!"
Seeing the confused man whose arm she was holding, Arthur instantly understood why Aleksas had grumbled earlier.
The person Quinn had gone to ’find’, in other words, grab and drag away from whatever important business they were handling for no reasonable reason, was someone Arthur recognised.
How could he not recognise them when his encounter with them had been the root of his current problems?
He was a man with a deathly pale complexion and slit-pupil eyes redder than blood, his face framed by wavy strands of ink-black hair parted down the middle.
The confused expression he wore was natural, as he had been in a nearby universe checking on the task he had assigned to some of his progeny when Quinn appeared, then grabbed his arm and teleported him to another universe, to a place where Aleksas and another Progenitor were seated.
Quinn lowered him onto one of the empty seats the Levites had been using before returning to her own seat beside Arthur and waving at the man.
"Hi, Vlad."
For a moment, there was silence, and then the Progenitor Vampire finally spoke through his blood clone.
"You couldn’t have said that without dragging me here?"
"Aleksas is here too, so say Hi to him as well," Quinn replied, her words in no way addressing his question.
Vlad turned his gaze toward Aleksas, who silently shook his head, and together, both men exhaled softly.
Clearly, Quinn’s randomness wasn’t anything unusual to them.
Vlad then ignored Quinn and looked at the only other person present, Arthur, who immediately spoke.
"I would normally say ’good to see you again’, but it’s not really good to see you again, Mr Primordial Vampire."
The instant Arthur spoke, Aleksas’ expression turned incredulous, Quinn’s eyes widened in surprise, and Vlad’s expression darkened with displeasure.
Naturally, Arthur immediately noticed the change.
’I guess being very obvious about not being happy to see him wasn’t a good idea...’
However, Arthur’s assumption about the reason for Vlad’s displeasure couldn’t have been more wrong.
"You..." Vlad spoke, his fist slowly curling around his armrest, "Are you mocking me?"
"...eh?"
Arthur was confused.
Sure, his words weren’t exactly polite, but they were far from being mockery in any way, shape, or form.
The one who cleared up his confusion was Celestia.
[Master, did you forget what Lostvayne said before? Vlad is the ’Origin Vampire’. Not the ’Primordial Vampire’.]
At this, Arthur’s eyes widened, and he immediately understood where the issue had come from.
"Ah! My apologies! I made a mistake. I assumed all Progenitors were Primordial Breeds of their races, so I didn’t think it through."
Hearing Arthur’s words, the other three Progenitors looked at him with incredulity at his misassumption of something that was common knowledge even to non-Progenitors.
"Why would you even make such an assumption?" Quinn asked with a laugh, though her laughter stopped the moment Arthur responded.
"Well, I didn’t have anyone but myself to use as a reference, so I just assumed what was true for me applied to every other Progenitor."
The table went silent as Quinn’s laughter faded, and for the first time since she appeared, her expression turned serious.
"Are you saying you believe you’re a Primordial Breed?" Vlad asked, a trace of displeasure still in his tone.
"Yeah," Arthur responded casually.
"And what is the basis of this belief?" Aleksas asked immediately after, his expression completely devoid of any emotion.
Arthur instantly realised there was a piece of the situation he was missing, but he answered honestly nonetheless.
"The Devour Class System in the Valmone Universe. It shows my Race as ’Primordial godslayer’."
[Wait, master. What did you just say?]
Celestia’s voice echoed loudly in his mind, and Arthur winced slightly.
’Why are you, of all people, so surprised? You’ve seen my status board many times, haven’t you?’
Indeed, Celestia had seen Arthur’s status board in the Valmone Universe, even after recovering her memories from fusing with her fragment on Chazat.
Since neither she nor Lostvayne had mentioned anything, Arthur hadn’t thought there was a problem with what his status board displayed.
[Master...when I last checked your status, it said ’Origin godslayer’, not ’Primordial godslayer’. It has always been that way.]
’...wait, what?’
Now it was Arthur’s turn to be confused, but his internal conversation with Celestia was interrupted as Quinn grabbed his arm and demanded.
"How long have you been seeing the word ’Primordial’ on your status board?"
"Huh? Oh, since the first time I went to Valmone, so...since I was 16."
Her reaction left Quinn gaping in shock, and Arthur couldn’t help but feel a little annoyed.
"Can you all stop looking at me like I’m speaking a language from the Previous Era and explain the difference between Primordial Breeds and Origin Breeds so I can understand why you’re all so shocked I’m seeing the word ’Primordial’ on my status?"
Arthur was growing frustrated at the lack of explanation, but neither Aleksas nor Quinn seemed willing to answer as they immediately began speaking between themselves.
"That thing is connected to the Concept of Knowledge," Aleksas said to Quinn. "There’s no way it wouldn’t be able to tell something as basic as the difference between a Primordial and Origin Breed."
"So for it to show him ’Primordial godslayer’ after scanning his existence, it means it’s a fact."
The moment Quinn said this, she snapped her gaze toward Vlad and called his name.
"Vlad..."
"Don’t worry. I care not for your Primordial business," he said before Quinn could continue.
With those words, his blood clone melted into a pool of blood that seeped into the ground and vanished.
Aleksas stood immediately afterwards, cosmic energy gathering around his palm as he reached out and carved a clean circular hole in reality using the power of one of his Dictums.
"Nash can wait," he said. "We’re going straight to Origin."
