Chapter 995: Failed Experiment vs. Scrap Metal [Monthly Bonus 2]
"Say, Arthur... we’re not living our first lives, are we?"
That single question made Arthur remember Berlal’s description of what had happened with Elaine when he died at Luka’s hands.
’A tear in reality leading into the void layer beneath it...
Celestia said she tried to call the rest of her existence into the Cosmos, but it seems she partially succeeded. So that’s why her soul got so much stronger.
The Elaine before me is a soul fragment, but more fragments must have been drawn in and fused with her soul, giving it more mass, and with those extra fragments... memories of the Previous Era, which she now sees in her dreams.’
Arthur reached that conclusion and sat up, pushing Elaine back lightly so she was now sitting on his lap before speaking.
"Whatever it is you’re seeing in those dreams, I want you to know that it doesn’t matter right now."
"...hahhhh?!"
Elaine’s eyes went wide in shock because she had never expected Arthur to suddenly say that.
"No, wait, those dreams are clearly memo—"
"Like I said! They don’t matter," Arthur cut her off. "Whatever you saw there doesn’t matter. In fact, how about we think about it like this: It’s a previous life that’s already over.
Done and gone.
This is a new life, so don’t let your old life drag you down."
Elaine, her eyes still wide, stared at Arthur in silence, completely lost for words she could possibly respond with. She remained that way for several moments before finally bursting into loud laughter.
"You really have the worst words, don’t you?"
"Oh, please. I know I have the best words," Arthur replied confidently, and that confidence only made Elaine laugh even louder.
Cupping her face in her palms, she exhaled loudly.
"Ah, I feel like a fool for agonising over this for years."
Elaine reached out and wrapped her hands around Arthur’s neck, looking him in the eyes as she said, "Right. The worries of an old life are gone with that old life."
The instant she said that, her cross-shaped pupils seemed to glow, and an immense wave of anti-divinity erupted from her body.
’Wait, what?! She’s doing it now?!’
Elaine pulled Arthur closer with a chuckle when she saw his stunned expression, and the storm of energy intensified, unleashing shockwaves that spread in all directions.
Ambient magic power was pulled into the storm of power alongside law energies, and Arthur’s eyes widened as he sensed a different kind of power mixing into that vortex.
’Cosmic energy...!’
The cosmic energy swirled around both of them with Elaine at the centre, and before Arthur could even fully process that surprise, he began sensing another energy mixing into the vortex.
’My anti-divinity!?’
Elaine’s body was in direct contact with Arthur, and due to that contact, Elaine’s body was absorbing his anti-divinity to proceed with her exuviation.
The drawn in law energies went straight into her soul, soaking into it like water into a thick foam sponge, and were greedily devoured by her Pseudo-Origin Cores, expanding their structures into fully formed Origin Cores that granted her complete Authorities over the universal laws of Life and Death.
Those Origin Cores then cracked open like shells, the insides revealed as the life energy within the Life Well behind her heart merged into them and triggered a metamorphosis.
More and more of Arthur’s anti-divinity was drawn in, mixing with the wisps of ambient cosmic energy and transforming Elaine’s Origin Cores, manifesting her Death Reaper’s Authority and Life Stealer’s Authority.
The remaining cosmic energy flowed through her Origin Cores and transformed the rest of her soul, aiding the generation of the layered barrier around it, before flowing out into her body, through every energy circuit, every blood vessel and every cell in her flesh, transforming it.
Arthur watched this happen in silence, then looked up to glare at the godslayers who had rushed over after sensing the storm of energy, the pressure in his gaze making them all retreat.
He put up a spatial barrier to prevent any further interruptions and continued to watch the process of Elaine being transformed into a Sub-Cosmic Being until the last wisp of cosmic energy left her body.
The moment that process was complete, the energy storm around them began to die down, the concentration finally settling back to normal.
Arthur heard Elaine’s even breaths in his left ear, a small smile appearing on his face as he patted the unconscious young woman’s back.
[Why did you deny it?]
That sudden voice entered his ears, and Arthur looked up to see Celestia standing in front of him with a deep frown.
[You might as well just tell her what she is,] she continued. [She’s a Failed Experiment, after all.]
"Not now, Celestia," Arthur responded with a frown, but Celestia didn’t care about his displeasure in that moment.
[It’s not like a single word I’ve said has been a lie.]
"..."
Arthur stopped patting Elaine’s back, his fingers combing through her hair once before he asked,
"Tell me, Celestia. Exactly why do you call her that?"
[Because that’s exactly what she is,] Celestia replied instantly.
"And I’m telling you to explain what you mean by that!" Arthur snapped back.
Celestia went silent, glancing at Elaine with narrowed eyes, before clicking her tongue and speaking.
[How many years do you need to accumulate cosmic energy to use Race Creation to create an Ancient-Breed?]
"Wasn’t it 10,000 years?"
[Exactly. That means in a million years, you can only create 100 Ancient-Breeds, which may sound like a lot, but when you think about the scale of a race’s propagation across the Cosmos, then 100 doesn’t even amount to a grain of sand on a beach. That’s how little it is.]
Celestia’s words were true. It sounded like the limits of a Progenitor’s Authority of Race Creation were loose, but in reality, they were very strict.
[Every Ancient-Breed is a powerhouse. They come with a variety of innate abilities, all have extreme growth speed, amplified racial traits, and are promised the Cosmic Realms from birth. To put it bluntly, given enough time, every Ancient-Breed would eventually become a Supreme Realm Existence.
That is how valuable each one is, the result of 10,000 years of cosmic energy accumulation.]
However, there was a trade-off. A Progenitor had to forgo the chance to create Elder-Breeds with Race Creation ten times just to produce a single Ancient-Breed.
And it didn’t matter even if they waited beyond 10,000 years, the energy stopped accumulating after that point and had to be used to create one Ancient-Breed before re-accumulation could begin.
[But what if that energy could be specially stored without being used, allowing continuous accumulation for a hundred thousand, a million, ten million, a hundred million, and eventually a billion years?
The Ancient-Breed created with that artificially accumulated energy should at least have the talent, potential and overwhelming power of a hundred thousand Ancient-Breeds, right?]
"Normally, that’s what I’d assume, but the way you speak makes me think that’s not the case," Arthur responded.
At this, Celestia pointed at Elaine and said, [You’re holding in your hands the living proof of the failure of that experiment.]
What Celestia was saying was very obvious.
In the Previous Era, Arthur had tried to accumulate that specially attributed cosmic energy artificially to create a special super Ancient-Breed.
But things hadn’t gone as planned, and he didn’t get the super Ancient-Breed he wanted.
[Now you see why I call her that,] Celestia said. [Because that’s exactly what she is.]
The moment she said that, a voice that wasn’t Arthur’s spoke with a scoff.
"How ridiculous."
Arthur turned his gaze just as Elaine lifted herself off his body, wiping the sweat from her forehead as she got up and turned to face Celestia.
"You... you’re jealous of me, aren’t you?"
[...what?]
Celestia’s expression turned incredulous, and even Arthur looked confused, but Elaine didn’t wait for either of them to speak.
"Failed experiment this, failed experiment that. Acting so high and mighty like you’re better than me when you’re nothing more than a weapon created from the metal pieces left over after the Rule Breaker project was completed."
["!"]
Arthur and Celestia both widened their eyes at Elaine’s words, and Elaine stepped forward, looking Celestia directly in the eyes as she spoke in a cold tone.
"What? You’re just jealous of me because I had a much closer relationship with Arthur than you did.
Go on, try and deny it. Scrap metal."
The moment Elaine’s voice rang out, Celestia’s hands, coated in cosmic energy, shot towards her neck, but Arthur appeared between them and held her wrists in place.
"Alright. Timeout for both of you. Take a walk, Celestia."
[Master...!]
"Take a walk," Arthur repeated in a flat tone, and Celestia clicked her tongue in annoyance before pulling her arms free and disappearing.
Arthur sighed after that, then turned to Elaine and said, "And you. You just had to reciprocate, didn’t you?"
"There’s a limit to my patience, Arthur," Elaine responded with a frown. "She’s hated me from the start, even though I never did anything to her, and it all comes down to simple jealousy?!"
"And how do you know that?"
Arthur’s question made Elaine freeze, and her heightened emotions cooled as she realised she’d exposed herself with her earlier words.
Sighing in defeat, she spoke.
"The dreams I mentioned... I just had one."
Her left arm held her right tightly, and she looked away as she continued, "During my exuviation, I had this thought about not wanting to disappoint you, and somehow that reminded me of her, since she’s connected to you in a way that’s different from Lostvayne..."
Elaine paused, biting her lower lip before finally saying, "I may or may not have had this urge to understand why she always hated me. When I passed out after the process was complete, I had a dream where I saw the answer."
"So you recalled those specific memories because of what you wanted to know, huh?" Arthur muttered, earning a single nod from Elaine.
She took a deep breath, raised her hands and slapped her cheeks lightly before looking up at Arthur with a resolute gaze.
"I’m not going to let that dream drag me down. And besides, it did help me become able to do something instinctively."
"Do what?" Arthur asked with a raised eyebrow.
Elaine closed her eyes at his question, then raised her hands, took a deep breath, and exhaled while pushing her palms apart, like she was parting a pair of curtains.
"!"
Before Arthur’s eyes, the ambient cosmic energy within the plain that had gathered during Elaine’s exuviation was forcefully dispersed, and when she opened her eyes again, she smiled and answered.
"Do that."
She wore a proud expression, the kind that made it clear she was waiting for praise, and considering what she had just done, Arthur could only chuckle softly and pat her head.
