Chapter 974: Coordinates to the Unknown
Arthur nodded lightly at Alexia’s response, raised his hand, and returned Lostvayne to weapon form. He clenched his right fist, infused it with cosmic energy to activate the Cosmic Teleporter, and after acquiring the coordinates of the Memory Palace’s location from Lostvayne, he began generating a cosmic gate leading there.
Unsummoning the sword, he said, "Well then, it was nice speaking with you again. I might stop by before I leave this universe, so we may have another chance to talk in the coming days. Until then."
Arthur stepped through the cosmic gate and emerged on a vast Apex World in the Alpha Sirus galaxy cluster.
He immediately found himself before a massive citadel with stairs that climbed into the clouds, though he only spared a passing glance at the surrounding decorations before focusing on the stairs.
Activating the Cosmic Teleporter again, he bypassed the location’s spatial movement restrictions and created another gate that led directly to the top of the staircase.
Right outside the exit point was a building that looked more like a temple than a palace in Arthur’s view. It was surrounded by wide green plains and enclosed by a short metal fence, which seemed to function as a barrier generator, as Arthur could faintly make out a dome of cosmic energy projected from it.
Given his sudden appearance from a cosmic gate in a place where spatial travel was restricted, it was natural that the guards stationed at the fence’s gate immediately pointed their spears at him.
|Halt!|
|Identify yourself!|
Arthur responded by releasing a portion of his energy, making his presence known to those inside the massive building beyond the gates. Then he spoke.
"The name’s Arthur. Tell your boss that the disciple of the Levites is here to collect his compensation."
The guards stayed alert, their spears still aimed at Arthur, whose revelation of his presence had summoned additional guards to the area.
Before the new arrivals could speak, the gates opened instantly, and a voice echoed in their minds.
’Let him pass.’
The guards recognised the voice and froze.
Arthur hadn’t heard it directly, but he saw the gates open and walked toward the two guards who had first aimed their spears at him.
"Seems like your boss wants me to enter."
Patting them on the shoulders, he added, "Good work, boys."
With that, he stepped into the Memory Palace’s compound, following the straight path toward the main entrance where a dragon awaited him.
"This way, please."
The dragon guided him to Frago’s location, a massive hall filled with millions of bubbles crafted from the energy of the universal law of knowledge. They floated throughout the chamber, gently drifting against one another.
As Arthur looked around with curiosity, Lostvayne spoke to him.
[Memory bubbles. Every one of them.]
’I suppose that makes sense, considering this place is called the Memory Palace.’
Each floating sphere appeared to contain stored memories, and if Arthur had an Authority of Knowledge, he could view the memories inside without touching a bubble.
Still, the activities of the Memory Palace weren’t his concern right now, so he ignored the bubbles and turned to Frago, who was surrounded by them.
"Greetings, Memoria Dragon," he said.
Frago nodded silently, extending his left hand and calling one of the floating bubbles toward his palm. He grabbed it and used cosmic energy to peel away its outer protective layer before pushing it toward Arthur.
When the bubble drifted to Arthur, and he caught it, Frago finally spoke.
"Inject a bit of cosmic energy into it to view the information stored inside."
It seemed to function like a memory gem, which Arthur was already familiar with, so he treated it in the same way.
As his energy flowed into the bubble, it glowed faintly, and the information within transferred directly into his mind.
The memory bubble contained a set of coordinates, an image showing what the location those coordinates led to was supposed to look like, and various other details about places around the planet the coordinates pointed to.
Arthur then looked at Frago and asked, "What’s this supposed to be?"
"The location where I found that weapon fragment you took from the dungeon on Athion."
The weapon fragment he referred to was one of Celestia’s fragments, which had been inside a dungeon used for the treasure hunts during the Alpha Sirus Grand Festival three years ago.
Before the festival, Arthur had traced Celestia’s fragment to that location and gone there to retrieve it. While he did, he noticed that Frago had been observing him through the eyes of the golem stationed just outside the doors of the treasury where the fragment had been located.
"The reason I’m giving you the location where I found that fragment is because I believe there are other fragments in that universe as well.
As you can see, those coordinates lead to another universe in the Fifth Multiverse. I ended up there years ago due to an exploration accident, and that’s where I discovered that weapon fragment.
During the entire time I stayed there after excavating it, the fragment constantly attempted to leave my grasp, as though it was being drawn toward something else. My conclusion was that it was attracted to a location where other fragments existed, trying to fuse back together with them.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t verify this idea because circumstances forced me to leave that universe shortly afterwards. However, if that fragment belongs to your Ego Weapon, I assume you’d want to go to that universe and confirm whether other fragments of the weapon truly exist there."
Arthur understood Frago’s reasoning and asked, "And what’s the name of this universe?"
In response, Frago shook his head. "Unfortunately, the location where I was restricted during my stay there was populated by existences who had no knowledge of matters on a universal level. They weren’t aware of the name of their universe."
Thus, Arthur had coordinates with no name attached to them.
He pushed the memory bubble back toward the dragon and said, "There’s a lot of probability involved in the coordinates you’ve given me."
"I understand that. If my conjecture is correct, then it’s very likely you’ll recover more fragments of your Ego Weapon there, which I assume should suffice as compensation."
"And if you’re wrong, I’ll be coming back here to let you know that, which I assume will remind you it wouldn’t suffice as compensation," Arthur replied immediately.
As Frago caught the memory bubble and restored its protective layer, Arthur asked another question.
"How long ago did you leave that universe? There’s a chance that the fragments there, if any, could’ve been moved during the time you’ve been away."
"Not long ago. About 25 years."
"Well, that’s rather recent," Arthur said. If the fragments were at that location 25 years ago, they could still be there now, though the probability was fairly low.
"Did you at least determine whether it was a Primary or Secondary universe?"
"A Primary universe," Frago answered. "That’s why I said 25 years. Their flow of time is only slightly slower than this universe, so a similar amount of time should have passed there as well."
Arthur nodded silently, raising his right arm and storing the coordinates in the Cosmic Teleporter’s database. He then slipped his hands into his pockets and said, "I suppose this will do for now."
Turning around, he walked away and added, "Let’s hope I don’t have to come back here."
With that, he stepped out of the Hall of Memories and left the planet.
◇ ◇ ◇
After leaving the Memory Palace, Arthur had originally intended to return to Chazat.
However, recalling his conversation with Alexia, the discussion on anti-divine factors, and the generations of godslayers, he altered his destination to Solymus, the planet where he had found Elaine several years ago.
He wanted to see if any other godslayers had appeared on the planet since that time and to check the condition of the town where Elaine had spent the first 15 years of her life.
Upon arriving and heading straight for the town, he was met with a rather unexpected sight.
"It’s deserted."
The town was completely abandoned. Stray animals wandered among dust-covered walls and windows, while tables and chairs lay scattered across the floors inside buildings, showing that years had passed since the place had been inhabited.
[Considering the commotion you caused when you took Elaine away, I’m not surprised the town was abandoned. They probably think this place is cursed or something.]
Arthur scoffed, shaking his head as he descended from above and landed on the ground.
Walking through the town, he passed what had once been an inn with an outdoor seating area where people had eaten their meals.
Dust coated his finger when he brushed it across one of the tables with benches on both sides, and when he flicked a finger to push the door open with a bit of wind pressure, he saw that the interior was just as empty as the rest of the buildings in the town.
"I’m not sensing any other godslayers on this planet, so I suppose there was no point in coming here."
Arthur immediately raised his right hand, reaching toward the Cosmic Teleporter to input the coordinates for Chazat, while silently thinking that he needed to stop moving so much and allow the Cosmic Teleporter time to recharge.
However, the moment his finger touched the Cosmic Teleporter, his entire body froze.
"!!"
[!!]
Arthur, Celestia, and Lostvayne all reacted simultaneously.
The individual hairs on Arthur’s skin stood upright, his heart began pounding several miles per second, and he felt sweat slide down the sides of his face.
Then a voice rang out from behind him.
"Well, well, well. I was curious about what Aleksas and Quinn were really up to, so I had this weak clone of mine do a little investigation.
However, this... this is quite the pleasant surprise."
Arthur felt a chill run down his spine at the sound of that unfamiliar voice.
The town was supposed to be deserted, completely abandoned, with no other soul inside it besides him.
But suddenly, someone was standing behind him, and all his senses did was scream DANGER at their presence.
His chest rose and fell as existential fear gripped him in that moment, and he stubbornly refused to accept the reality he had found himself in.
’No way...!
NO GODDAMN FUCKING WAY!!’
Arthur’s left hand moved to grip his right arm above the Cosmic Teleporter as he slowly turned his head to look behind him.
Standing less than 5 meters away, in the exact spot where no one had been only seconds earlier, was a woman with a bright smile on her face.
She tilted her head slightly, strands of golden-blonde hair falling across her face, and as her grey eyes sparkled with delight, the Primordial goddess raised her right hand and waved lightly.
"Hello there, my dear Slayer."
