Chapter 963: The Envious goddess
gods.
Even to this day, they were regarded as a superior class of existence across many universes. The word ’god’ was synonymous with power and divinity. They were worshipped by an uncountable number of beings, both Mortal and Higher Existential.
But why?
It wasn’t only because of the cosmic propaganda spread by their Progenitor since the early days of the Cosmos.
It was because they had existed since then.
The first Progenitor of the Current Era was Hyperion—such was the common belief across the Cosmos.
He had survived the end of the Previous Era and awakened in this one as the First of its Progenitors.
Since Hyperion was the Progenitor Titan, that meant Titans were the first race of beings in this iteration of the Cosmos.
The second race to emerge in this Cosmos was the god race.
It was said that Luka was born from the union of two Ancient-Breed Titans, which sparked the widespread myths of gods being born from Titans in many universes.
But even Hyperion, the ruler of those Titans, wasn’t entirely sure that story could be believed, as he had no memory of the two Ancient-Breed Titans said to be Luka’s parents.
By the time the Progenitors of Humans and Dragons were born, Luka already possessed immense power that the young Progenitors of that time could not comprehend.
The god race spread widely across the Cosmos, dominating most of the known universes alongside the Titans.
Years passed, and more races came into existence, and with the emergence of additional races, interbreeding occurred, leading to the births of more Progenitors of different races.
Soon, the Slayer Races appeared, races spawned by the Cosmos with the sole purpose of reducing the numbers of other races whose actions were deemed harmful by the majority of the Cosmos’ inhabitants.
Despite all the time that had passed, no Slayer Race had ever been born to challenge the gods.
Luka had used this to her advantage while fooling a large portion of the Cosmos into believing that gods were inherently superior, though she had never hidden her desire for a Slayer Race from those who knew her well.
When the Kelliana, the Progenitor of Dragonslayers, was born as one of Aleksas’ daughters, Luka’s reaction was the most peculiar of all, and one that Aleksas would never forget.
"To think you have an entire race crafted by the Cosmos itself just to kill you. How envious..."
She envied him.
Strangely, despite everything she had done before, it was that single reaction that made Aleksas finally conclude that Luka might have more than a few screws loose upstairs.
And that only made her even more dangerous.
When the fanfare surrounding the prophecies of Arthur’s birth arose, Aleksas paid it little attention and ordered his dragons to do the same.
Clearly, it was a mess for the gods to handle.
But when the Day of Black Sun occurred, Luka had appeared in Continuum H-0 where Aleksas was with Adam, and the look of pure, unadulterated joy on her face as she announced that the new Progenitor that they had all sensed was her ’Slayer’ became one of the things Aleksas would never forget.
The way she recounted sending out her subordinates to search for the Slayer was like a child eagerly telling their parents about a new toy they wanted.
Luka was a woman with the perfect contradictory blend of insanity, insidiousness, and impulsivity.
Who knew what she would do to Arthur if she found him?
Especially since he was the last of the Primordial Progenitors, and the only Primordial who was a Slayer Race Progenitor.
The Calculations of the End were something Aleksas was interested in as well, so he couldn’t allow Luka to do anything unusual to Arthur, at least until Arthur grew strong enough to be of use to him.
So when Luka appeared in the Hall of Origin and waved at Aleksas, he remained perfectly calm and responded to her without the slightest change in expression or demeanour.
"Hello, Luka."
Luka turned her gaze to the gate Quinn had just passed through with Arthur, a curious expression on her face as she asked, "Why did Quinn leave?"
"She lost interest in our experiment," Aleksas replied, his words curt as always.
"Huh? Explain."
Aleksas gave Luka a look that questioned whether he really needed to, but Luka ignored it and continued pressing for an explanation.
"We were running an experiment, and since it failed, Quinn lost interest," he finally said, heaving an exhausted sigh.
"Oh. Classic Quinn, I guess," Luka replied, chuckling lightly as she added, "She can be so fickle."
Aleksas raised an eyebrow at Luka’s words, then lifted a hand to his chin and muttered, "I believe Adam’s usual expression for such a situation is ’Pot calling the Kettle black.’"
"Oy! Who the hell are you calling a pot?!"
"You," he shot back. "Who else?"
Aleksas spoke with a gaze that questioned who else he could possibly mean, and reading this, Luka almost couldn’t resist punching him in the face.
’He’d just dodge it anyway.’
Just in case, she tried, and as expected, Aleksas easily avoided the hit.
"Did you come here just to bother me, or do you have an actual reason to be here?" Aleksas asked with a frown, and Luka shrugged in response.
"I was coming back from going to mess with Kelliana, and since I sensed you and Quinn in the same place, I came to take a look."
The first name she mentioned made Aleksas’ frown deepen, but he quickly controlled his expression and asked, "Where is that child? Take me there."
He activated one of the arched cosmic gates as he spoke, and as he walked toward it, Luka glanced at the gate Quinn had entered.
"Luka?"
She turned at the sound of her name, shrugged lightly, and followed Aleksas, stepping into the gate and vanishing beyond it.
◇ ◇ ◇
After passing through the special starry spatial channel, Arthur and Quinn emerged in the middle of what looked like an alleyway between two tall buildings.
"Stay here for a bit, Arthur. Luka would never come here if Adam isn’t around, and Adam isn’t around right now."
"Where is ’here’?" Arthur asked immediately, curious about this location that the same Luka Berlal had said could not be predicted would never appear unless a certain person was present.
"Here? It’s just one of the many planets in some corner of Adam’s universe, Continuum H-0," Quinn replied, letting go of Arthur’s arm and walking toward the busy street at the end of the alleyway.
Arthur followed her, and the two stepped onto the sidewalk of a city covered in snow, small white balls continuing to fall from the sky as humans moved around busily, some speaking on phones, others entering trains, and some entering buildings.
The ambient temperature was low, a few degrees below 0, so most of them wore thick coats to protect themselves from the cold.
"But I suppose you’ll know where this is if I call it by its more commonly known name."
Arthur turned his gaze to Quinn at the sound of her voice, and she met his eyes, saying calmly, "This...planet’s name is ’Earth’.
The ’Original Earth’."
