Chapter 976: Explosive Curiosity
"...My Ancient-Breeds all told me you were a threat that needed to be nipped in the bud, trying to get me to give the order to have you killed on sight before you could kill any gods."
She moved her hands and poured some wine into the glass in front of Arthur, speaking as the liquid slowly trickled into it.
"Their actions made me curious. What would be your reaction if I said that I wouldn’t let slide the fact that you have killed numerous gods and absorbed their divine sparks to grow stronger?"
Luka raised her gaze to meet Arthur’s, her smile slowly fading as she swirled the bottle lightly, the wine coming dangerously close to spilling from the glass.
She urged him to answer with her gaze, and as he looked down at the glass filled with liquid that resembled blood, Arthur spoke.
"Then go after Aleksas."
"Huh?" Luka let out a confused sound, and at this, Arthur looked up and continued.
"Go after Quinn, too. And Syndra. Astrel, Nash, Adam. Add Vlad to that list as well."
"I’m not sure I follow..."
"They’ve all killed gods before, haven’t they?" Arthur asked, drumming his fingers on the table once.
"They’ve killed gods before, and so have their progeny. So why didn’t you go after them? Why let their actions slide and then come here acting like someone who truly cares about the deaths of every single member of your race?"
"..."
Luka blinked silently, pulling back the wine bottle before the glass could overflow.
"Pfft...hahahahaha!"
She burst into laughter, the sound echoing like a bell as she set the bottle down on the table.
"You picked up on the hypocrisy so easily," she said. "Not surprised, though. It was a sloppy attempt at best anyway."
As she corked the wine bottle and slid it to the side, she continued, "But look at you. You were shaking in fear earlier, and now you’re speaking so boldly, calling me out on being a hypocrite.
Don’t you think that’s a bad idea? My feelings are very fragile, you know. I don’t take kindly to hurtful statements."
Despite her words, Luka continued to wear a bright smile, her amusement clear as day to Arthur, which only made his expression turn even uglier.
"You’re not wrong, though," Luka said, chuckling softly. "I couldn’t care less about the deaths of some no-names from random universes.
Besides, most of them likely fell in battle, and I happen to be a strong believer in the philosophy that if you have the guts to hold a weapon in battle, then you must be prepared to die to one."
Luka then grabbed her wine glass, lifted it, and downed all of its contents in one go. She slammed the glass down on the table with a thud, pursed her lips, and then looked at the glass in front of Arthur as she asked, "You’re not gonna take that?"
Arthur silently looked at the wine but didn’t say a word, nor did he make any move to touch the glass.
Seeing that, Luka shrugged.
"Oh well."
She then reached out, picked up the glass, carefully holding it so it wouldn’t spill, and after emptying the contents, she placed it back on the table.
The woman lowered her head, running a few fingers through her hair and messing it up slightly. She exhaled softly, rose to her feet, and walked a few steps to her right, removing the hand that had been in her hair and clenching her fists silently.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, standing there for a moment while Arthur watched her with a mixture of caution and confusion.
Finally, she opened her eyes and shook her head.
"Ah, fuck, can’t hold myself back anymore."
The moment she said that, she snapped her right fingers and her sword on the table immediately flew into her hand.
Before Arthur could summon Lostvayne, she had already thrown the blade at him, the tip aimed directly at his chest.
Arthur barely managed to raise both hands in front of his chest to stop the blade, but the angle and the immense force behind it sent him flying through the air, crashing through a building as he shot upward.
He summoned all of his physical strength, along with the power of his Gravitational Authority, to push the sword away from his chest.
Just as he managed to force it back, Luka appeared, taking hold of the hilt and pushing it closer again. She leaned in dangerously close, so close that Arthur could feel her breath on his face as she spoke.
"Don’t be scared. I just want a taste. Nothing much. Just a little taste of what you’re made of."
She applied more force to the end of the blade. It slipped through his palms, tearing his skin as it stabbed toward his chest, barely giving Arthur enough time to bring his left palm in front of him to block it.
The impact sent him hurtling through the air and across space at several million miles per second, only stopping when his body slammed through the fabric of space and collided with a snow-white surface.
Dust filled the air around him as a crater formed, and as his body rolled to the side, he finally forced the sword away, sending it flying outward before digging his hand into the ground to stop from sliding further.
Arthur breathed heavily, forcing himself onto his knees as he activated his Authority of Time to rewind the wound in his palm where silver blood dripped onto the dusty ground below him.
However, no matter how much energy he poured into his Origin Core, his Authority still couldn’t undo the stab wound at the centre of his palm.
As he slowly clenched his fist, he heard footsteps and looked up to see Luka walking toward him calmly, a bit of his silver blood staining the back of her palm.
"You bleed silver, huh? Fancy. The blood also seems to have some corrosive property."
She raised her hand closer to her face as if examining it, and immediately Arthur snapped his fingers, detonating the energy within the blood in a massive explosion that filled the area with a thick plume of smoke.
However, the smoke immediately cleared to reveal a completely unharmed Luka, the only sign of the blast being her now thoroughly dishevelled hair.
"Of course, you can do that too," she said with a dry laugh.
Her lips curled into a smile, and with another snap of her fingers, her sword flew back into her hand. She gripped it, raised it, and pointed it at Arthur as she said,
"Now then, let’s see what you’re made of, Progenitor godslayer."
