Chapter 969: Lethal Count
The Most Dangerous Candidate of Time.
It was a title Arthur had heard before, and it referred to the woman standing before him.
He couldn’t deny that he had always regarded that title as an exaggeration, especially after he came to understand how many additional Realms existed beyond the Monarch Realm and how drastically power increased between each one.
There were Candidates of Time and Destruction in the Sub-Cosmic realms, Primogenials, Phantasmals, and Assimilation Realm existences.
And still, the one who held the title of Most Dangerous Candidate of Time was a High-Tier Deity who couldn’t even ascend to the Monarch Realm because of a curse of puppetry placed on her during childhood.
In a sense, he had considered that ridiculous.
But now, meeting her again after roughly 70 years, with his worldview greatly expanded, a deeper understanding of the Candidate Selection, and most importantly, having achieved full Cosmic Superiority along with the ability to accurately discern the power differences in realms below the Sub-Cosmic Realms, Arthur finally understood why Alexia held that title.
’Mum wouldn’t win,’ he thought.
He reached that conclusion with complete confidence, even knowing that his mother was already halfway to the Monarch Realm.
Pitting the Alexia who stood before him against his mother would end with Cattleya’s defeat, and it wouldn’t even be a difficult fight for Alexia.
That was simply how much stronger Alexia was.
Heck, Alexia could even contend with Monarch Realm Existences and come out on top. That was the level of danger Arthur was sensing from Alexia right now.
He remembered how his Aspect of Time had been overwhelmed by her mere presence, leaving barely any ’power’ of Time available for him to manipulate, even when she was simply standing there without doing anything.
Thinking about that, he couldn’t stop himself from asking a question.
"How many?"
"Huh?"
Alexia looked confused, and Arthur spoke again, expanding on what he meant. "How many Candidates of Time have you killed?"
Silence filled the area for a moment after the question, and Alexia exhaled with mild exhaustion.
’He’s probably heard the stories,’ she thought.
She hadn’t been trying to hide her actions, and she didn’t care whether others knew what she had done, so she answered plainly.
"2,736."
The number reached into the thousands.
2,736 other Candidates of Time had fallen by Alexia’s hand.
Hearing that, Arthur shook his head in silence, because although that figure was already immense, it didn’t match what he was sensing from her.
The power within her Aspect of Time, or rather the multiple Aspects of Time he could perceive, felt far greater.
So he adjusted his question.
"How many other Aspects of Time have you absorbed?"
This time, the number she gave aligned with what he was feeling.
"I stopped counting after 4,500."
4,500 masses of cosmic energy embodying distinct Facets of the Concept of Time.
Alexia had assimilated them into her own, and she had only stopped tracking the total after surpassing that point.
She possessed multiple Aspectual Authorities of Time, having absorbed the Facets that other existences once held, all reinforced by the cosmic temporal energy of more than 4,500 Aspects.
There were millions of Candidates of Time scattered throughout the Cosmos, but the Cosmos was incomprehensibly vast. Some Candidates could live their entire lives without ever encountering one another, much less killing another.
Alexia, however, was responsible for the deaths of over 2,700 of them and had taken the Aspects of more than 4,500.
With numbers like that attached to her name, it made complete sense why she was regarded as the Most Dangerous Candidate of Time.
Even if there were Candidates stronger than she was, while they might possess greater raw power, she was undeniably more dangerous.
As soon as that thought crossed Arthur’s mind, he raised an eyebrow and asked, "Do you also have Candidates of Destruction on your kill roster?"
"Of course not," Alexia responded immediately. "Candidates of Time aren’t allowed to kill Candidates of Destruction, and the reverse is true as well.
Also, why are we even discussing this? This isn’t why I came here."
Arthur’s curious question had derailed things, but Alexia had come here because she’d heard news about Arthur, Vlad and Aleksas.
Considering that she had a vested interest in Arthur, she had come to question him about why he was taking actions that would place a target on his back, likely wondering whether he was aware that members of the Imperium had been searching for him for years.
To Alexia, Arthur was a reckless child making too much noise in a room filled with monsters.
Just as she was about to speak again, a buzzing sound came from the earbud in her left ear, and the voice of one of her aides came through.
[My Lady, we’ve received the mining permit.]
"Very well. Proceed to the target system now. I shall join you on the way," Alexia replied.
[As you command.]
With that, the connection ended, and Alexia returned her attention to Arthur.
"Now then, I didn’t come here to question your decisions without reason. If your memory hasn’t failed you, then I’m sure you understand that I didn’t traverse multiverses to find the young you, block your existence from the perception of the Destiny Law Authorities of several rather troublesome individuals in your region of the First Multiverse, inform you of your Progenitor identity, teach you how to comprehend laws, and tell you about the existence of the Varona Realm where you acquired both Lostvayne and those artifacts on your arms for no reason, right?"
"Well, that much was obvious 72 years ago, and it isn’t any less obvious now," Arthur replied, crossing his arms in front of his chest.
He had only met Alexia for a few hours when he was a 10-year-old, and the amount of information he had gained from the woman played a major part in the level of power he possessed now.
Leaving aside the existence of the Varona Realm, where he had eventually found Lucifer’s vestige, the Stellar Guard that had saved his life many times, and the Rule Breaker #3, Lostvayne, Alexia had also been the one who told Arthur about Lucifer’s special ’Magic’.
For example, the one he had cast on himself, the ’Third Magic: Existence Acceleration’, a spell that required planet-core sized temporal law crystals, a magic circle that spanned an entire star system, and far more cosmic energy than that planet would require to function, all to inscribe a rune on Arthur’s soul that ’accelerated’ several aspects of his existence.
Existence Realm Progression speed, Regeneration speed, Energy recovery speed, Law Comprehension speed, and Thought speed.
These facets of ’Arthur Vaughn’ were all faster than they should have been, even when his natural talent was taken into account, and that was because of the rune on his soul that constantly consumed ambient temporal law energy to accelerate them.
It was something Arthur could have only used while he was a mortal, and Alexia had informed him about that valuable Magic Spell for a reason.
An exchange of favours.
She had aided his growth because she needed him to grow and use his power to accomplish something for her.
"I’d like to talk more, but I have to oversee the official reason I’m in this universe," she said. "Can we talk on my ship?"
"Your ship? And where is it?"
"Somewhere near the outskirts of this galaxy."
Alexia then looked around the planetoid they were standing on and exhaled softly. "Lostvayne filled me in on the general gist of your...adventures. I never expected you’d get involved with the Levites of all people, much less become their student."
"Coincidences do happen, I guess," Arthur replied with a light shrug.
"I suppose they do," Alexia agreed. "Now then, I believe you have the authority to create a gate out of this pocket universe, right?"
As a quick reminder, they were currently within Barda’s training pocket universe, and the individuals capable of creating entry or exit gates to it were limited to the Levites, Arthur, Rishia, Celestia, Lostvayne and Elaine.
Alexia was naturally not among them, and Lostvayne, who had brought her in, had been spirited away by Quinn.
Arthur nodded in silence and snapped his fingers, creating a portal that led out of the pocket universe and into Chazat, from where Alexia used her own cosmic energy to generate a return gate to her ship.
"Shall we?" she said, turning to Arthur while gesturing toward the gate.
"Our talk shouldn’t take long."
Arthur stared at the gate for a moment in silence before eventually deciding to follow her through it, the two of them travelling across space to the far end of the Mekiria Galaxy.
