Chapter 966: A Provocative Plan
Within the booth, there was also a computer and a small TV with headphones for watching the animated adaptations of certain manga, and after ordering some food, Arthur decided to go through the list of available animations.
Scrolling through the completed shows in alphabetical order, he came across a title that caught his attention because it sounded familiar.
"A Wild Final Boss? Guess I’ll give it a watch."
Having made his choice, Arthur leaned back on the couch, resting his head on Celestia’s shoulder while she browsed some of the books on the shelves, muttering about how confusing it was to read from right to left instead of left to right.
From the first episode, Arthur quickly got a sense of what the show was about. It starred a woman who had been the most powerful being in her world but was defeated and sealed by her comrades who had faced dangers alongside her.
The story followed her being unsealed centuries later, with almost none of her memories intact, and her journey across the world to regain her memories and recover her subordinates scattered in different places.
One thing about the main character caught Arthur’s attention—the 12 powerful monsters she had subjugated and appointed as her Generals during her time as the planet’s strongest overlord.
"The Twelve Stars, huh?"
That was the name she had given her generals, and they were named according to something called the ’Zodiac’. To understand more about it, he moved his hand to the computer cursor in the booth and searched for what it was.
"Oh, so that large country with the complicated city called Chongqing has a twelve-year cycle, with each year represented by an animal sign. That’s what they call the ’Zodiac’."
Arthur read through the signs, from Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, all the way to Pig, and after going through them, he commented, "I like the concept."
He paused the anime he was watching, and at this, Celestia finally looked over at what he was doing, noticing Arthur going deeper into researching the Zodiac.
’Why is this interesting to him?’
Celestia couldn’t understand why it held so much of Arthur’s attention, but she stayed silent and watched as he uncovered more details about Zodiac.
"It seems other countries have their own Zodiac? Oh, the country of China is on the eastern side of the planet, and on the western side, they have theirs there too."
Arthur clicked the link to see the list of the Western Zodiac, and after scrolling down, he blinked lightly as a familiar name caught his attention.
"Aries? Reminds me of Evan."
The moment that thought crossed his mind, his hand, which was moving the cursor, froze.
"Celestia..." Arthur called, releasing the mouse and turning his body toward her, his hand taking hers and pulling her close enough that they could feel each other’s breath.
Celestia was stunned by Arthur’s sudden action, but her confusion turned to apprehension when she realised he was gripping her with all his strength, as if trying to prevent her from moving away.
’He wants to say something he knows I don’t want to talk about...!’
Her bad premonition turned out to be true as Arthur’s next question echoed in her ears.
"Hey...my numbers. How many were there?"
[!]
Celestia flinched, her left hand instinctively moving to cover the back of her right palm. She averted her gaze from Arthur, but she could still feel his eyes on her, and she knew they would not move away until she answered.
Biting her lips, she finally forced out a single word.
[Fourteen.]
Hearing this, Arthur raised an eyebrow. "Including, or excluding you?"
[...excluding.]
"I see."
Arthur finally released her hand and turned back to the computer screen, moving the cursor as he counted how many of the Zodiacs were listed.
"It’s going to be quite the problem fitting 14 people into 12 signs," he muttered, and Celestia’s silver eyes widened at his words.
"Oh, Gemini is usually associated with Twins, so I suppose I can have two people under that sign, which makes 13."
Celestia barely kept her expression from contorting into a deep frown, and although Arthur noticed a subtle change in her mood, he said nothing, instead picking up the TV remote and resuming the paused anime.
He watched it all the way through without skipping a single scene, and when the 13th Star of the 12 Stars appeared, Arthur frowned in confusion.
"Wait, aren’t there 12 Zodiac signs? Where did number 13 come from?"
He turned his gaze back to the computer monitor and, after a brief search, discovered the existence of the 13th Zodiac.
"So we’ve got Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces, and Ophiuchus. I can definitely fit 14 people in there."
At that statement, Celestia finally couldn’t hold herself back.
[Master... what do you mean by that?]
Her voice was slightly shaky, but Arthur acted like he didn’t notice the tremble in her voice as he responded.
"I’ve been thinking about something for a while, and this anime just gave me the inspiration," he said. "I plan to recreate my numbers. My Generals, so to speak.
Eventually, the godslayers will grow to a level where micromanagement would be a pain in the behind, so delegation is necessary. I’m already doing that with Stelan in Valmone, but now I want to give Stelan colleagues.
They’d probably all be Ancient and Elder Breeds, except for Stelan."
Arthur chuckled at that last part, imagining Stelan’s expression when he realised he’d be the only normal godslayer among them.
"I’d give them titles connected to these Zodiacs, maybe grant them some kind of power that represents each sign."
Pointing at the screen, Arthur gave an example, "Scorpio is associated with ’Death’, so I guess Elaine would be the Scorpio of the ’Zodiac godslayers’."
Celestia silently clenched her fist at his words, but Arthur continued without noticing this.
"Gemini is linked to twins, so I’ll make sure the best pair of twin godslayers I can find fills that spot. Ophiuchus would remain hidden from the public, a secret Trump Card even the other Zodiacs wouldn’t know about.
The Aries position is reserved for Evan alone."
Arthur clicked the name and looked up more on the sign, discovering that the Aries constellation visible from this planet’s surface had a subsection called ’Mesarthim’.
"And Evan’s skill is called ’Mesarthim.’ I’m definitely making Evan the Aries of the Zodiac godslayers."
He pressed the back button, returned to the original list, and continued speaking. "I’d add Esna to the list, and I plan to recruit Fenrir from Asgard, so maybe I’d give him the Leo and have Esna take Virgo or something."
The mention of Esna reminded him of another female Elder Breed godslayer, one whose feelings for him were on the complete opposite end of the spectrum from Esna’s.
If Esna was a close friend of Arthur’s, then she was a bitter enemy. Or perhaps it was more accurate to say that Arthur was her bitter enemy.
She was the human-turned-godslayer from planet Aramis of Valmone, the one Arthur had first experimented on with his Race Conversion ability.
Rachel Cassowar.
Arthur had turned her into a godslayer to punish her with the pain of the transformation process when she had tried to kill him back on Aramis.
"I’d make her the Ophiuchus."
[That wouldn’t be a good idea, Master,] Celestia immediately replied.
"I know, right? She hates me since I killed Ger in front of her, after all. But it’s been over a century, so who knows if her hatred still burns strong?"
Arthur closed the browser tab after saying that, sitting up and stretching his arms as he continued, "It’s still a plan for now. When I gather about 6 suitable people, I’ll enact the whole ’Zodiac godslayers’ plan."
The moment he said that, his expression changed, and he rubbed his chin in thought.
"It doesn’t really have a nice ring to it. I guess I’ll just call them ’Zodiacs.’ Then each individual would get a title related to their powers.
Stelan would be something like the ’Blood godslayer’ since he has vampiric factors and all. Evan would be the ’Prismatic godslayer’ because of his rainbow flames. Someone like Fenrir would be the...Wolf, maybe ’Beast godslayer’? Then Elaine would definitely be the ’Death godslayer.’"
The mention of the title Arthur planned to give Elaine made Celestia’s fists clench so tightly her nails dug into her skin.
’It’s almost as if he’s taunting me...’
Celestia couldn’t shake the feeling that Arthur was doing this on purpose, that he knew she retained more memories of the Harmonia Era than she initially let on, and was deliberately saying things to provoke a reaction from her.
That feeling became certainty the moment Arthur turned toward her, and despite knowing full well that she didn’t like Elaine’s existence one bit, asked, "What do you think? ’Death godslayer’ fits Elaine, right?"
[...]
For the first time in her existence, Celestia cursed the fact that she possessed emotions and genuinely wished to be an emotionless weapon like the majority of weapons within the Cosmos.
’Alas...I possess sentience...’
With that wistful thought, she reached out and grabbed Arthur, and before he could even ask what she was doing, she wrapped both of them in Cosmic energy and forcefully changed their spatial coordinates to an empty grassy plain.
Not far from them was a group of stone monuments as famous as the towers and statues Arthur had been seeing, but neither had time to even look at them as Celestia slammed Arthur’s back onto the ground with enough force to crater it.
[Master...how much of Harmonia do you remember?]
