Chapter 1056: The Inhibition Filter

Many trees and weeds had grown over the giant goddess’ body, showing that she’d been there for an outrageously long time.

Arthur looked up at the Primordial goddess, who appeared to be simply asleep, with a bit of awe in his expression as he sensed the immense Cosmic Creation energy radiating from her body despite the seal.

However, the moment he stepped closer, he froze, his expression changing as he frowned lightly.

Hades immediately noticed and looked toward him in confusion, and at the same time, Lostvayne’s physical body manifested, her eyes turning in the same direction as Arthur’s.

[Master, you noticed it, didn’t you?]

Arthur immediately nodded.

"Yes. I can’t mistake this aura, even if I died and came back to life. Gaia was here, and she didn’t bother hiding her traces."

When Arthur said that, Hades blinked in confusion.

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

"Exactly what I just said. Gaia was here. She likely stood in this very spot," Arthur replied, pointing toward the ground in front of him. "I have no idea what she did here, but I do know she was here because the residual Cosmic Creation energy in this spot is far denser than all the creation energy radiating from the giant goddess in front of us."

Arthur’s reply, however, did nothing to explain the situation to Hades, who was still confused.

"Arthur, Gaia is right in front of you. What do you mean she was here and stood at that spot?" Hades asked, his expression incredulous.

At this, Arthur turned toward him with a raised eyebrow, and just before he could speak, Lostvayne spoke up.

[Master, there’s likely an inhibition filter on him.]

Hearing Lostvayne’s words, Arthur’s eyes widened as realisation dawned on him.

"Ah... I see. That makes sense."

Celestia manifested her humanoid body immediately afterwards, glancing around with narrowed eyes as she said, [There’s probably an inhibition filter over this universe.]

She paused, then shook her head and corrected herself. [No, possibly across this entire region of the multiverse. After all, it’s strange that he still hasn’t connected the dots.]

The three of them were discussing something that seemed obvious to them, but Hades still wasn’t understanding, leaving him slightly annoyed.

"Can you stop speaking in riddles and just say it already? What are you talking about? What inhibition filter?"

Arthur nodded before explaining.

"Dad, I’ve told you about the Eternals before, haven’t I? The beings who govern the Major Concepts of the Cosmos."

"Right," Hades replied.

"So I’ve also told you that the Eternal of Creation is named Gaia, right?"

Hades nodded again.

Pointing toward the giant goddess sealed before them, Arthur continued, "The Primordial goddess of Olympus is also named Gaia."

"Okay?"

From that response, Hades clearly still didn’t understand, and seeing this, Arthur scratched his head and exhaled softly before asking another question.

"The Primordial god of Space in Olympus is Uranus, right?"

Hades nodded.

"The Eternal of Space is named Ranus."

"What about it?" Hades asked, still looking thoroughly confused because he didn’t understand what the Eternals had to do with this.

Just then, another voice echoed through the cave.

"Arthur, he’s not going to understand unless you spell it out completely. That’s how the inhibition filter works. It’s something cast by an Eternal, after all."

Hades immediately turned toward the voice, his scythe appearing in his hand as he pointed it toward the speaker. However, just before the blade reached her neck, Arthur spoke.

"Alexia, you’re finally here."

Hades froze, glancing toward Arthur before looking back at the blue-haired woman with monolid eyes who’d appeared out of nowhere.

"She’s the ’Alexia’ you’ve been talking about?"

Arthur nodded.

"Yeah. A very helpful associate of mine. I called her here because I’m going to need her help concealing the cosmic energy fluctuations that are definitely going to burst out of this place the moment I do anything to Gaia’s seal."

Arthur paused before adding apologetically, "Sorry to say this, but you alone won’t be enough to conceal it. Or, to be more precise, a Sub Cosmic being isn’t capable of concealing the cosmic energy that’s going to burst out of this place."

"Is that so?" Hades asked.

"That is so," Arthur answered.

Hades nodded once before retracting his scythe. As he did, he asked, "So what’s all this about inhibition filters you’ve been talking about?"

Hearing this, Arthur clapped once before saying, "Ah, right. To put it bluntly, this Gaia, the Primordial goddess of Olympus, is actually the avatar of the Eternal of Creation, Gaia.

That’s why their names are the same.

The reason you don’t connect the dots is because there’s an inhibition filter that prevents you from reaching this very obvious conclusion, even though you know about the Primordial goddess and you know about the Eternal of Creation, so unless I spell it out to you like this, it won’t click."

"...!"

Hades’ eyes widened in shock, and then he groaned, clutching his head as he staggered lightly.

"Dad?!" Arthur called out worriedly, but before he could rush over, Alexia spoke.

"You’re making his thoughts go against the inhibition filter. This is just the bare minimum reaction."

Looking at Hades with her arms crossed over her chest, she added, "His Sub-Cosmic Superiority and continued exposure to you are minimising it, so the most he’ll get is a migraine."

Just as she said, Hades seemed fine by the time she finished speaking. He was still shocked, though.

Seeing his expression, the worry in Arthur’s eyes disappeared as he exhaled in relief.

Looking back at the sealed Gaia, he spoke.

"Dad, you told me before that when you and your brothers were fighting against Gaia, you noticed that she lost the light in her eyes, and the fight suddenly became a lot easier, and you guys were able to defeat and seal her.

What I think is that the light you saw disappearing from her eyes was actually the consciousness of the Eternal of Creation logging out of this avatar in front of us."

Hades silently glanced at the goddess sealed in stone, and Arthur continued speaking.

"The reason why the fight suddenly became a lot easier, and you guys were able to defeat and seal her is because the avatar on autopilot was basically like a baby that had just been born. It had no idea how to use the power that it possessed, and it was up against three veteran war gods and their armies. It was destined to lose, even if it possessed greater power than all of them combined.

That’s why you guys won.

"The Eternal of Creation is often known as ’Indifferent Creation,’ so if I’m to guess correctly, she likely lost interest in Olympus and judged what she and the other Eternals were doing here as a failure in that moment, which was why she logged out of her avatar in the middle of the fight."

Arthur then looked toward the ground in front of him and added, "But it seems she’s likely got some intentions toward Olympus again, considering how recently she was here."

He raised his hand, temporal energy gathering around it, and the moment Alexia saw what he was about to do, she spoke.

"Don’t even try it, unless you want your Origin Core to crack and shatter into pieces."

Arthur froze at her warning and, with a light laugh, lowered his hand as the temporal energy dispersed.

"I just wanted to see if it was possible."

At that, Alexia looked at him with a deadpan expression.

"Arthur, she’s at least a ten-dimensional existence. She doesn’t exist within the bounds of time as you know it. It’s impossible for you to perceive the actions she took in the past of a particular region of space."

Arthur raised his hands in mock surrender with a light laugh before turning his attention back to Gaia’s avatar, the Olympian Primordial goddess.

"All right, let’s get on with this, shall we?"

The Ancestral Regression Spell was a spell that awakened the physical and spiritual power sleeping within one’s blood, regressing the user into a state similar to that of their ancestor.

It was essentially a technique that reversed time, and as such, it required items that contained powers from the past.

However, Arthur didn’t need to go through the process of gathering those items because he could substitute them with his own temporal manipulation powers.

If that still wasn’t enough, Alexia was around to help.

The only items left were the blood of the ancestors and the special ink required to draw the magic circle.

Arthur had long since acquired that special magic-infused ink, and using it, he drew the magic circle across the rocky ground.

As for the blood of the ’ancestors’, there was the Energy Core that Lucifer had ripped out of his chest before his death over 12,000 years ago, the Core he had given to Diablo.

It was an orb containing some of his cosmic energy, still stained with his blood, and since Diablo had preserved that Energy Core in temporal stasis, the blood on it could still be used.

Arthur took the Core out of his subspace, having received it from Diablo over a hundred years ago when he’d come to Olympus, and placed it in one section of the magic circle.

However, just as he did, a thought crossed his mind, and he shook his head.

"No."

Dipping his finger into the magic ink bottle, he drew part of the magic circle onto his arms, connecting a part of it to his palms, before holding Lucifer’s Energy Core in his left hand.

Seeing this, Hades immediately frowned.

"That’s not how you’re supposed to use that, is it?"

Arthur turned to him with a light smile.

"Don’t worry, Dad. I know exactly what I’m doing. It’ll work."

With his right hand, he reached out and placed his palm against a section of the sealed giant goddess before him.

Compared to Gaia’s enormous size, Arthur was tiny. Because of that, he had to be careful about how much of her body he cut open so he wouldn’t drown in the blood that came pouring out.

The moment Arthur placed his hand against Gaia’s seal, pain shot through his arm, and he instinctively pulled it back.

Looking down at his palm, he saw part of his skin had begun to burn, causing him to click his tongue in irritation.

"It’s still there, isn’t it?"

[It’s inevitable, Master,] Lostvayne said. [That is the avatar of one of the purest sources of Cosmic Creation in the entirety of the Cosmos. No matter how resistant you are to Creation, you’ll still take damage simply by touching it.]

"And this is her sealed state, huh?" Arthur muttered.

Cosmic energy flowed into his hand, regenerating the wound, and he clenched his fist, taking a deep breath before muttering to himself,

"I’m fine. I’m going to be fine."

With that, he placed his hand against the sealed goddess once more, his eyes lighting up with a crimson glow as he recalled the words Harlamagne had spoken to him years ago.