Chapter 973: The Reversed Divine Factor [Monthly Bonus 2]
"Do you know of any Elder-Breeds who don’t have anti-divinity?" Arthur asked.
Alexia shook her head at the question, and her response made Arthur frown lightly.
"I happen to know an Elder-Breed who doesn’t, yet possesses all the other slayer racial traits intact. What makes these ones different? What makes one possess anti-divinity while another lacks it?"
He glanced toward the twelve godslayers present, and hearing his question, Alexia said, "That one must be a First-Generation then."
"First-Generation?"
The unfamiliar term made Arthur turn to Alexia with a questioning look, and she nodded before explaining, "It’s how we categorise godslayers based on their birth."
She turned and began heading toward the exit of the hangar, speaking as she moved. "Come with me for a bit. I expected you might have questions, so I brought along some results from our extensive research so you can see what we’ve discovered about your race."
"Research, you say?" Arthur teleported to her side, leaning forward slightly and narrowing his eyes as he asked, "You didn’t start cutting them open, did you?"
"I did have some cut open," Alexia responded without batting an eye. "But those were limited to the ones who reduced your already few numbers with their actions."
She was essentially saying that only those who killed other godslayers were made subjects, but Arthur highly doubted that was the only criterion.
Nevertheless, the results of the research were the higher priority at the moment.
"I’d like to see these research results you mentioned."
Alexia didn’t respond verbally, only lifting her hand silently to activate the teleportation pod beside the hangar exit, installed to allow easier travel across different sections of the massive battleship.
Before the light of teleportation enveloped her and Arthur, she addressed her subordinates in the hangar.
"Continue prepping the mining ships."
She then looked at the godslayers and added, "You all should return to your quarters and rest. I might call on you again while your Progenitor is here."
The moment she finished speaking, the two vanished in a flash of light, leaving the godslayers behind with a mixture of thoughts and emotions.
’Progenitor.’
The word echoed in their minds.
They understood what a Progenitor was. It had been one of the first things they were taught after Alexia’s forces rescued them from their unfortunate situations.
They had learned that Alexia was gathering them for the sake of a ’Progenitor’, but although they’d heard of this Progenitor before, none of them had ever seen him.
Never could they have imagined meeting that Progenitor after coming to this universe.
They had only gone out on a scouting mission to locate fellow godslayers, a task they had performed repeatedly, often returning without success.
Today had seemed no different from usual, but upon their return, they found Alexia with a man whose mere presence stirred an instinctive urge to submit within them.
He claimed to be the Progenitor they had been taught about, and Alexia, whom they had served for years, had indirectly confirmed it.
His sudden entrance and departure left them with mixed feelings, and beneath those feelings lingered numerous unanswered questions.
◇ ◇ ◇
Arthur and Alexia reappeared from a similar teleportation pad just outside a sliding door, and with a simple biometric scan of Alexia, the door slid open to reveal not a lab as Arthur had expected, but a library.
The people at the counters immediately rose when they saw Alexia and bowed their heads silently, and she acknowledged them with a nod before stepping in, heading toward one of the tables surrounding the 20-metre-tall bookshelves.
As Arthur looked around, Alexia held up her fingers and began counting down, a book flying from a shelf into her left hand with each finger she put down while muttering something quietly.
’Reminds me of how the Royal Library is back in Hell...’
The thought crossed Arthur’s mind as Alexia gathered the books she called out and set them on a desk, taking a seat on one side and sliding one of them across to the other side.
Arthur sat opposite her, picking up the flat book and reading the label, which said ’Analysis of First-Generation godslayers’.
"The godslayers we call ’First-Generation’ are the ones that seem to appear out of nowhere. For example, two humans have a child who’s suddenly a godslayer.
It seems impossible since the anti-divine factor doesn’t exist in their ancestry. So how do they appear like this?"
Alexia opened one file in front of her, turned it over, and slid it across the table toward Arthur.
He picked it up, and the biography printed on the pages made his eyes widen in surprise.
"Kelliana, the Progenitor of Dragonslayers?"
Arthur couldn’t help raising his voice slightly at the title written there. He looked up at Alexia, curious about how she came to have such a well-established Progenitor on this, and she, understanding what he wanted to ask before he could voice it, spoke.
"Due to special circumstances, she’s currently working for the Eternals as one of their ’Watchers’—my Watcher."
All legal participants of the Eternal Candidate Selection had assigned Watchers to ensure they followed the rules of the selection. Unlike Arthur, who was an unregistered Candidate, Alexia was legal, and the Watcher assigned to her was Kelliana, the Progenitor of Dragonslayers.
It was actually Kelliana who had chosen Alexia herself, but the end result was the same regardless.
"She’s the Slayer Race specialist I mentioned earlier, and using her obvious experience with Slayer Races, she guided me on where to conduct research...instead of simply telling me."
Alexia’s tone carried a hint of annoyance, making it clear she was still frustrated that Kelliana had made her invest time and effort to reach a conclusion that could have been told directly.
"Anyway, what I discovered after tracing bloodlines for years was that the First-Generation godslayers, all of whom do NOT possess anti-divinity, don’t really ’pop out of nowhere’.
The reasons they lack energy and appear to emerge spontaneously are one and the same."
Alexia pointed at the first flat book she had slid to Arthur, and he momentarily set Kelliana’s bio aside, picking up the First-Generation godslayer Analysis.
As he skimmed through its contents, Alexia asked, "Have you ever compared your blood to that of a god’s, side by side, under a microscope empowered by an Authority of Knowledge?"
"Obviously not," Arthur replied immediately. What were the odds he would have thought to do that?
"Of course, you haven’t. It normally wouldn’t occur to you," Alexia said. "But I did, and I discovered there were far more similarities than I expected."
"Huh?"
Arthur looked up from the book at that, and Alexia flipped the page he was holding to the next, each filled with complex diagrams.
"What I discovered was that the root of the anti-divine factor you godslayers possess is essentially a ’reversed’ divine factor."
Arthur’s eyes widened slightly as he examined the image on the left page, then slowly shifted his gaze to the right, noting the structural similarities.
"The First-Generation godslayers who appear to pop out of nowhere all have, at some point in their ancestry, had divine factors introduced into their bloodline.
I traced back up to seven generations, and I noticed that all of them had recessive divine factors in either one or both sides of the family. There were many whose parents were gods, divine humans, elves, or similar, and in those cases, the divine factors were dominant.
But when it came to their children, the factors in their blood became reversed."
"Reversed by what?"
"The Cosmos itself," Alexia replied.
Slayer Races were generated by the Cosmos out of necessity, so it stood to reason that the Cosmos itself would be involved in the births of the First-Generation members of that race.
"The biological laws of the Cosmos flip the ’Divine’ factors and add the ’Anti’ trait, resulting in ’Anti-Divine’ factors.
However, the reversed divine factor is still too close to the original divine factor for the godslayer who manifests it to possess anti-divinity at birth or in the early stages of life.
By the time they have children, the anti-divine factor becomes much more stable and distinct from the divine factor, so the majority are born with anti-divinity, just as the majority of gods are born with divinity."
"I see..."
Arthur nodded in understanding, cross-referencing Alexia’s explanation with the information he already possessed, and he could follow the logic of it.
’The anti-divine factor being a reversed divine factor at its core makes sense. For one, my father is a pure-blooded god, so my own anti-divine factors came from a reversal of his divine factors.
I’m certain that if I return to Hell and examine Esna’s parents, there would likely be divines somewhere in her ancestry.
In Valmone as well, all the godslayers have been discovered ONLY on planets where gods are already present. It all checks out.’
"This provides a great deal more insight into my race. This information is highly appreciated," Arthur said, flipping through the analysis book.
"You’re welcome," Alexia replied. "These are things you would have eventually figured out on your own."
As Alexia finished speaking, the space beside Arthur warped slightly, and with a dull flash of light, Lostvayne appeared in her humanoid form.
"You’re done with Quinn?" Arthur asked, his gaze still on the book in his hands.
Lostvayne nodded. [Yes. She left the universe, saying she was going to cause trouble for Lycan.]
Hearing that, Arthur offered a silent prayer for the unfortunate Werewolf Progenitor who now had Quinn on his tail.
Lostvayne continued speaking. [Before she left, I managed to extract a price for keeping me away from you longer than expected.]
"A price, you say?"
[Yes,] Lostvayne replied. [You have to return to Valmone soon, don’t you? I decided to accelerate the remaining matters keeping you here, such as collecting your compensation for the slight against you by the subordinate of this universe’s Memoria Dragon, Frago.]
It had been an incident that occurred several years ago during the Alpha Sirius Grand Festival, but Arthur hadn’t forgotten it, and he hoped Frago hadn’t either.
[I’ll skip the details and go straight to the point,] Lostvayne added. [He’s currently waiting for your arrival.]
"Well, that’s much appreciated," Arthur said, rising from his seat and lifting his gaze to meet Alexia’s.
"It was good to see you again, Alexia. Considering the past few months, which have been exceptionally turbulent for me, I was in a rather foul mood. But the information you brought and the results of your research have completely reversed that, and I’m in high spirits now.
I’m also grateful for your efforts in gathering the scattered godslayers and turning them into capable combatants."
Alexia shook her head slightly. "You don’t need to be grateful. I’m simply assisting you so that you can assist me. It’s a win-win for both of us."
"Indeed, a win-win. I would very much like for us to continue assisting each other even beyond the immediate objective."
"That would not be a problem," Alexia replied. "It depends on your attitude."
