Chapter 984: The Logic of Infinite Lifespans
The natural cosmic barrier of the universe, wrapped in dense clouds of dust and energy, was buried beneath multiple layers of reinforced cosmic and demonic energy that created a shell around its entirety.
Encircling it on all sides were star-sized spaceships whose weapons released continuous beams of radiant white energy that burned with a ’sacred’ glow, a fusion of cosmic energy and a special power attributed with anti-demonic factors, known across the Cosmos as ’holy energy,’ a power wielded primarily by angels, the direct antithesis of the demon race.
Each blast met the layered barriers and erupted into massive explosions that spread across the surface, cracking and breaking apart the demonic layers before they could fully restore.
The impacts connected without pause, fractures spreading across the outer shell as segments broke away and dissolved under the holy energy, while the cosmic barrier beneath trembled from the repeated collisions, sending distortions inward that rippled through the universe itself.
Around the regions of the universe that could be considered polar zones, where the curvature of the spherical cosmic body was most pronounced, repeated destruction had created vast war zones where billions of angels, demons, and celestials clashed in a brutal slugfest in open space, their energies colliding in violent waves that filled the vacuum with overlapping explosions.
Hovering in the vacuum trillions of light-years away from the universe under attack, watching everything that was unfolding, were two people: a brown-haired man with his hands crossed behind his back and a white-winged, golden-haired woman with her hands crossed in front of her chest.
"Everything seems to be going quite well," the man said. "My reserves are doing far better than I expected them to."
"When you asked to have your forces added to this, I certainly didn’t expect you to treat this as training for your reserves."
The man laughed and shrugged lightly in response to her words.
"Haha, my reserve forces in this multiverse don’t really get many chances to stretch their legs, so I figured this would be a good opportunity for them."
"Nevertheless, Astrel is going to be pretty pissed when he finds out about this," he added, picturing the Progenitor Demon’s anger once he discovered that this particular universe was under attack by both of them.
The woman beside him only scoffed, completely unbothered by that possibility.
"His anger will be meaningless after the deed is already done."
"Time is the fourth dimension, you know," the man said. "He can just go back."
"And do you really think I don’t have that option covered as well?" the woman replied immediately.
At this, the man raised his hands in mock surrender.
"Fair enough."
Then he crossed his hands behind his back again and asked, "Still, what do you think that was about? That little fluctuation in our numbers."
Naturally, the woman understood that he was referring to the phenomenon where the number of Progenitors had, for a few seconds, dropped by one, something all Progenitors across the Cosmos, including the two of them, had noticed.
"I don’t know, and I couldn’t care less," the woman said, her disinterest clear in her tone.
The life or death of some random Progenitor somewhere meant nothing to her, and she couldn’t bring herself to care about it.
It was an answer the man had already expected, so he only chuckled lightly as he shook his head.
"Who knows, maybe it was one of the younger ones experimenting with lifespan-sacrifice magic again," he said, referring to a previous incident that caused a fluctuation in the number of Progenitors.
Hearing this, the woman turned to him with a flat expression.
"We Progenitors have infinite lifespans, so it’s common sense that the balance of the Cosmos won’t allow us to use spells or techniques that require the sacrifice or consumption of lifespan itself.
The fact that some idiots can’t reach this obvious conclusion really does baffle me."
The man’s brows immediately twitched at those words, and he turned his gaze toward her.
"Oi, that was a diss at me, wasn’t it?"
The woman, however, didn’t respond, only silently averting her gaze and returning to observing the universe under attack.
This reaction only made the man repeat his earlier words. "You were dissing me right there, weren’t you?!"
"Oh, please, I did nothing of the sort. I simply stated something that is obvious. If you were incapable of reaching this obvious conclusion in the past, and had attempted and naturally failed to use magic that consumed lifespan despite knowing you possessed an infinite lifespan, then that is your fault, not mine, Zane."
"That was a youthful indiscretion, Syndra!"
"Yes, yes, youthful indiscretion," Syndra said with a nod. "That’s what we’re calling it now."
Zane’s eyebrows twitched at her response, and he released a soft sigh as he realised this back and forth would only wear him down further.
Shaking his head lightly, he said, "Still, if anyone is going to know the reason why that happened, it’s got to be Aleksas and Quinn.
Both of them rushed to the second multiverse immediately afterwards, as if they already knew the cause."
Syndra agreed with Zane on this point without hesitation.
"Nash is also in the Second Multiverse, and so is Lycan. At some point, Nash, Aleksas, and Quinn were in the same area, so they’re likely up to something," she muttered, drawing connections between them.
"And whatever that something is, it seems like it didn’t go too well," Zane added.
Just as he said that, Syndra turned around, her folded wings moving lightly at her back along with her hair.
"Regardless, whatever they’re up to, it isn’t my business, but..." She paused for a moment, then continued, "I’ll send someone to keep an eye on it, just in case it affects me."
After saying that, she was about to head back to the starship she’d arrived with when a foreign voice echoed in her ears.
|Don’t worry about it, it’s not really going to affect you anyway.|
The instant the voice rang out, a hand materialised out of empty space, reaching toward her shoulder.
On pure reflex, Syndra spun around, her right hand catching the hand reaching for her shoulder, while her left fist shot forward, infused with a Cosmic Authority so powerful that the fabric of space her hand passed through couldn’t withstand it and tore apart.
Her fist went straight for the head of the person who had attempted to touch her shoulder, but that person casually tilted their neck to the side, avoiding Syndra’s punch completely and causing her fist to strike empty space.
The power behind that punch didn’t fade into nothing, however. It continued along its path, and seeing that it would obliterate everything in its way, Zane snapped his fingers, interfering with the energy that erupted from Syndra’s fist and causing it to phase through the formations of spaceships surrounding the universe, before hitting the multi-layered defensive barriers.
The impact shattered three layers of those demonic energy barriers and reduced the universe’s defences by over 50% in one go.
Seeing this, the one whom the punch had been aimed at calmly looked back at Syndra.
"How violent," she said with a dry chuckle.
"Luka..." Syndra muttered, meeting the grey eyes of the Progenitor goddess. She pulled back her fist and released Luka’s arm, taking a metre of distance away as she asked, "What are you doing here?"
"Well, a little birdie told me that you were messing with another one of Astrel’s experiments, just like in the Valmone universe, where you dropped an entire universe foundation fragment onto a planet," Luka responded with a shrug.
"And what bird—" Syndra began, only to stop mid-sentence as she blinked in faint confusion.
"Valmone? Where have I heard that name recently?"
Her question was answered by Zane, who had just finished giving orders to his forces to continue their attack on the universe and pay no mind to Syndra’s action just now.
"Your Book of Truth replica’s destruction. The universe where that young Progenitor took what was inside was called Valmone."
Syndra’s eyes widened at Zane’s words, and she immediately turned her gaze toward Luka.
"Give me the coordinates for that universe, now!" she demanded, clearly intending to head there immediately.
Luka, however, didn’t comply. Instead, she turned to Zane with faint surprise and spoke.
"And here I thought you’d keep that a secret. To think you told Zane about it. Guess you two are a lot closer than I thought."
Her words made Syndra go silent, her eyes narrowing slightly as her gaze on Luka became suspicious.
