Chapter 988: A Soul Filled with Red
Quinn directly stated that Arthur was the one responsible for the Conceptual Manifestation he had seen, pointing to his willpower as the cause.
Thinking back, Arthur had, in that moment, not wanted to die, and was trying to squeeze out every ounce of destructive power he could from his Aspect, and he had certainly thought about drawing power from the Concept that Aspect had been sourced from.
’Yeah, I’m the one who wanted power from the Concept of Destruction, and Quinn is saying that my willpower was strong enough that the Concept actually listened to me?’
"Still, an entire Rank of a Law," Arthur muttered. "That’s centuries of Law Comprehension right there."
"Millennia for some people...hmm?" Quinn paused mid-sentence and blinked, taking a moment to study Arthur’s expression before asking,
"Arthur, exactly what power did you gain from the Concept of Destruction?"
"Huh? Didn’t I just say it? It forced comprehension of an entire High-Rank universal law into my soul. 0-100%."
Arthur replied with an expression that questioned why Quinn was even asking something she could likely tell with a glance, but despite how absurd what he’d said sounded, Quinn didn’t react at all.
"What else?"
"...what do you mean, what else?"
"Exactly what I mean. What other change did your existence undergo?"
Arthur met the woman’s vivid red eyes in silence for a moment, wondering why she was brushing aside the fact that he’d just skipped centuries to millennia worth of law comprehension as if it didn’t matter.
"What else?" she repeated, and at that, Arthur broke eye contact and took a step back.
"Um...my Existence Realm increased due to the excess cosmic energy? It pushed me straight to the—"
"That’s an unimportant side effect," Quinn said, cutting him off.
"Unimportant??"
"Yes. It’s unimportant," Quinn replied calmly, not joking in the slightest. Before Arthur could say anything else, she threw several questions at him.
"What about your Aspect? Did it get stronger? How much stronger did it get?"
"Obviously, it got stronger. I now have a High-Rank Destruction Authority, after all."
Hearing Arthur’s response, Quinn stayed silent for a moment, studying his expression before finally nodding to herself.
"I see. So your senses are scrambled as I expected. Just not how I expected."
She laughed after saying that, while Arthur looked at her in confusion, question marks practically appearing over his head.
"Why hasn’t Lostvayne told you this? She should have noticed your senses got scrambled."
Quinn turned toward the building behind them, about to forcefully summon Lostvayne, when Arthur spoke up.
"Can you explain what you mean by my senses becoming scrambled?"
At his question, Quinn paused, dispersing the cosmic energy she had gathered before turning back to him.
"It’s simple. You seem to be misunderstanding something gravely. You, through your Aspect of Destruction, connected with the Concept of Destruction, with the desire for power.
So why do you think that the power you acquired was Universal Law Comprehension?"
"...what?"
Quinn exhaled at Arthur’s confusion, then directly told him the answer.
"Arthur. You didn’t acquire Law Comprehension from the Concept of Destruction. Your comprehensions were only elevated so you could meet the requirements to wield the greater power you drew from the Concept."
Arthur frowned at Quinn’s words, his skepticism clear on his face, and before Quinn could continue, he spoke.
"So where is it? This ’greater power’ you said I drew from the Concept?"
"Within your soul, but like I said earlier, your senses are scrambled, that’s why you can’t sense the power that’s within you."
Quinn reached out and poked Arthur’s chest with her finger as she continued, "You were exposed to so much Conceptual power that your senses are scrambled and can’t properly detect similar Cosmic Destruction power.
That’s why you haven’t realised the obvious fact that when you drew power from the Concept through the Aspect you already possessed, what was empowered was that Aspect you used to link to the Concept."
"!"
Arthur’s eyes widened as realisation dawned on him, and he instantly turned his consciousness inward, delving into his Soul Realm to look at his Aspect of Destruction.
However, when he opened his eyes, all he saw was red... so much red that his head started to ache and his vision snapped back outward.
"Oh? You can delve into your Soul Realm at will? That’s impressive," Quinn said, instantly realising what he had just done.
"Let me guess," she continued. "You couldn’t see anything else in your Soul Realm because your Aspect of Destruction is occupying all the space?"
Arthur silently nodded after a moment, and at that, Quinn smiled lightly.
"Told ya."
She removed the finger she had been poking him with, then said, "The facet of Destruction your Aspect embodies, whatever it is, it’s currently so potent that it’s overshadowing all your other powers.
With how potent it is, if it wasn’t for the fact that I already knew you possess an Aspect of Time as well, I’d have thought you were a rather active Candidate of Destruction."
"How much?" Arthur said, pausing to press his fingers against his aching head before continuing. "How much stronger is it compared to before?"
He had asked Quinn, but the one who answered wasn’t Quinn, but Lostvayne, who appeared right beside him.
[It’s not a flat figure. If the average cosmic destruction energy that makes up an Aspect of Destruction is ’1’, then you had ’5’ before.
Now, you have 21.]
"..."
Arthur was speechless. Completely speechless.
Now he understood why Quinn had called his Existence Realm elevation an unimportant side effect.
That only happened because the Aspect had expanded his soul to make room for the power it was being fed, and in the process, it had pushed his soul past the limit of the Mid-Tier Deity Realm.
"...that’s fucking insane...!"
Arthur was only now realising just how much stronger he had become. If his Aspect had been empowered to that level, then forget the High-Tier Deity Realm, Monarch Realm Existences would feel cold sweat run down their backs if the current Arthur even brushed them with his destructive energy.
This was the ’power’ Celestia had said they would be taking.
Quantifying it in percentages, Arthur’s base Aspect of Destruction gave him a 100% Law Damage Bonus and Comprehension Assist, along with a 50% Law Damage Resistance and Authority Efficiency Bonus.
After killing Baruuk and taking his empowered Aspect, Arthur’s Law Damage Bonus had become 300%, an extra 50% for each of the Aspects Baruuk had possessed.
Now, he had gained the equivalent of 16 added to it.
"That’s an extra 800%...!"
Arthur ran a quick simulation in his mind, and the results of that simulation were destructive... literally.
"800%? Oh, are you talking about the damage boost? There should be a boost to your efficiency and comprehension speed, too," Quinn said casually, making Arthur turn to her with wide eyes.
"Why are you so surprised? You achieved the rare feat of having enough affinity and willpower to directly connect to a Concept. This much is expected."
Considering that Quinn was the one calling it a ’rare feat’, the scale of that ’rare’ was definitely ’cosmic’.
"Pfft... hahahahahaha!!!"
Arthur burst out laughing, throwing his head back and running a hand through his hair as he laughed loudly, like a man who had gone insane.
But the information about his actual combat power that he had just received made it only natural for him to react that way.
Encountering the existence that was the source of his current anger and the root of the force pushing him to crave power had actually made him several times stronger than before meeting them, so much so that merely twitching his finger would be enough to kill the version of himself from a little over 25 hours ago.
’If my Aspect has been empowered, then what am I waiting for?!’
Arthur immediately reached out and grabbed Quinn’s arms, a slightly manic smile on his face as he asked.
"Can you do me a favour and send me to where Alexia is right now?"
"Hmm?" Quinn raised an eyebrow at the request, then blinked as realisation dawned.
"I see. Selective Destruction, huh?"
Chuckling lightly, she waved her hand and said, "Go for it, then."
Cosmic energy wrapped around Arthur’s body and whisked him through space, sending him halfway across the Draco Sirus Universe and straight into the middle of Alexia’s spaceship, where she was receiving a briefing from her subordinates.
Naturally, Arthur’s sudden appearance inside one of the most protected sections of the ship put all her subordinates on alert, weapons drawn and launched toward him within a second.
However, Arthur released a burst of cosmic destructive energy so dense that the space their weapons and attacks were passing through became distorted, enough to delay them long enough for him to teleport right in front of Alexia.
Grabbing her shoulders with his eyes glowing bright crimson, he spoke.
"We need to talk. Now."
"..."
Alexia’s eyes widened in surprise as she sensed the immense cosmic destructive energy radiating from Arthur’s body, an amount far beyond what she had sensed from him just a day earlier.
"What ha—STAND DOWN!"
She quickly slowed time and halted her subordinates, who were already in the middle of redirecting their attacks toward Arthur’s new position.
"Everyone, take five," she added, slamming her hand onto the armrest of her chair and pressing a button on the console built into it.
The space within the room warped, and everyone inside was forcefully teleported outside, leaving only her and Arthur.
She raised her hands and pushed Arthur’s hands off hers, several thoughts crossing her mind all the while.
But in the end, before she could warn him not to attempt something as dangerous as what he had just done again, she couldn’t help but ask.
"What happened to you?"
"I died and came back to life," Arthur responded bluntly. "But that’s not important. What’s important is that I can do it now."
Before Alexia could even question what he meant by dying and coming back to life not being important, Arthur repeated himself.
"I can erase your curse now."
"!"
The words died in Alexia’s throat, and she took a moment to study the energy rolling off Arthur’s body, taking a deep breath and calming her slightly agitated emotions before speaking a single word.
"Explain."
