Chapter 1060: Vaccinated Against Creation [Monthly Bonus 1]

"Another Eternal..." Hades muttered as he looked at the ticket in Arthur’s hand.

He recognised it as the same ticket Gaia had taken from Arthur’s subspace earlier, and Arthur, noticing the recognition in his expression, continued his explanation.

"There was no way Gaia would’ve overlooked this, and given everything that’s known about her, she wouldn’t have harmed me simply for possessing it, let alone because of whether it was valid."

He returned it to his subspace before concluding, "So, I was confident Gaia wouldn’t harm me."

"How does that give you confidence? They’re both Eternals. They’re on the same side. How can you be so sure this ’Ranus’ was actually going to keep his promise?"

Just as Hades finished speaking, a foreign voice echoed throughout the room.

"I’d rather you didn’t slander me like that. I’m a man of my word, I’ll have you know."

Hades’ eyes widened, and he immediately turned toward the source of the voice, just in time to see a suited man with triangular pupils beside Arthur’s bed.

The man looked away from Hades and toward Arthur.

"You’ve really done it this time, haven’t you, Arthur?"

Arthur simply shrugged in response.

"Well... I’m doing it all for the plot. Literally," he said.

Ranus looked at him in silence for a moment before replying, "Ah, right. That little script you’re plotting together with that Dark Multiverse refugee."

The instant those words left his mouth, Arthur’s expression changed.

"Dark Multiverse refugee, you say?"

The person he was planning ’The Script’ together with was Alkosh, and the moment Ranus referred to Alkosh as a Dark Multiverse refugee, Arthur immediately realised something.

"I see..." he muttered to himself. "That explains why he’s so confident he can get me there."

"I don’t care about whatever script you’re plotting with him. What I do care about is what you figured out a few minutes ago," Ranus said, cutting Arthur off.

He then turned his attention away from Arthur and toward Hades.

"Now then, make your choice.

Swear never to reveal even the slightest hint of what you discovered here today, or I’ll erase every memory you have of what you’ve learned."

Without waiting for a response, he continued, "Do know that I don’t normally give people the courtesy of a choice. I’m only doing it because you’re Arthur’s father. Under normal circumstances, I’d erase your memories without even asking."

Hades’ expression was still dark, his frown growing deeper at Ranus’ words. Even so, after thinking everything through, he quickly made the decision he knew was best.

"I won’t speak a word of it to anyone."

Ranus immediately snapped his fingers.

"Good. The words you just spoke have now become a binding oath. Break it, and you die. That’s how seriously I take oaths.

So, I’ll have you know that whenever I promise someone something, I keep that promise."

The man suddenly appeared directly in front of Hades, leaning closer before asking, "Is that clear?"

After a moment, Hades nodded silently, and Ranus smiled lightly in satisfaction. He then turned back toward Arthur and said, "Arthur, you can get away with a lot of things involving Gaia because of her indifference, but don’t get cocky.

The moment she takes an actual interest in you and stops not caring enough to do anything, that shield of indifference you relied on today won’t protect you anymore."

Those words were enough for Arthur to understand that Ranus knew exactly why he’d been confident Gaia wouldn’t do anything to harm him, and they also served as a warning that the same approach wouldn’t work a second time.

Seeing that Arthur understood, Ranus looked away and disappeared just as silently as he’d appeared.

From Ranus’ appearance here, Arthur guessed that Gaia had most likely gone to find him after disconnecting from her avatar.

He simply chuckled before lowering his eyes to his hand.

"Well, for starters, let’s just say the Ancestral Regression spell might’ve worked a little too well," he said.

When the other three looked at him with questioning expressions, Arthur held out his hand and spoke in his True Voice.

|Authority of Destruction.|

He activated his Monarch Rank Authority over the Universal Law of Destruction, and a tiny red dot immediately appeared in front of his outstretched finger.

The instant that tiny red dot came into existence, the eyes of Lostvayne, Celestia, and Hades widened as they sensed the immense amount of Cosmic Destruction energy condensed within it.

"The quality of my Destruction power was already ridiculously high because of my innate affinity for it.

But then I mixed Lucifer’s blood into it, and it seems my affinity for Destruction has increased so much that, with only a tiny amount of cosmic energy, I can attract this much Destruction Law energy."

Arthur drew his hand back, dismissing the tiny dot of Destruction before saying, "I suppose my destruction-law attacks are about 50% more efficient, and overall... they’re probably twice as strong as before. That’s a lot of benefits."

He leaned forward slightly before unfurling his wings and glanced back to see that all five pairs were still the same, with barely any physical changes.

"No difference there, huh? I still have to get the hang of using all 5 of them for cosmic energy control. It’d be a waste not to make use of this built-in catalyst."

He retracted his wings before raising a hand to touch the white section of his hair.

"But I suppose this is the biggest benefit I got. I successfully vaccinated myself against Creation."

Hearing those words, Hades blinked.

"That actually worked?"

Arthur nodded as he replied.

"Yeah, it worked perfectly. The white in my hair is simply a reflection of the effect Gaia’s power of Creation had on me. It was Conceptual power, after all.

Given my track record with the Aspects of Time and Destruction that I possess, it seems Conceptual powers like me quite a bit."

Arthur said that, hoping to get some kind of reaction from Celestia. However, she didn’t seem any different, so he shrugged and continued.

"Now, the amount of Creation Law energy or Conceptual power needed to actually damage me is about... let’s say three, maybe four times what could’ve easily pierced my defences before.

I have a lot of ’Creation Resistance’ now, successfully mitigating what my biggest weakness was."

Arthur took a deep breath after speaking, then pursed his lips for a few moments.

After a while, he exhaled softly before saying, "Lostvayne, Celestia, can you give us the room for a moment, please?"

The two Ego Weapons were surprised by his request, but then they looked toward Hades and quickly understood that Arthur wanted to speak with him one-on-one, without anyone else listening.

Without saying a word, they vanished, teleporting out of the room.

After they left, Arthur looked at Hades.

"Sit down for a bit, Dad," he said. "We have a fair bit to talk about."

Hades was silent for a moment, but eventually took a seat on the chair Celestia had been sitting on.

After he did, Arthur pushed the blanket covering his lower body aside before saying,

"A hundred years ago, we had this argument, didn’t we? The one where you questioned my methods."

"Rather than your methods, Arthur, what I’m questioning is what caused the change in those methods," Hades corrected immediately. "Do you understand just how much death and destruction the war has caused over the past hundred years? A war you could’ve completely avoided, but instead chose to engineer into existence?"

"Yeah. I understand exactly how much death and destruction it’s caused. My associate has given me a full status report, after all," Arthur replied calmly.

He thought about the number of universes that had been conquered and taken over during the past century, not a single one of which had fallen peacefully.

Every one of them had been won through immense battles that left galaxies devastated, Universal Barriers completely destroyed, and many people who’d had absolutely nothing to do with the conflict dead.

Even after all of that, Arthur still somehow kept that wry smile on his face.

"You know, Dad, I’ve said many times that higher existences are very predictable."

Pointing at his chest, Arthur continued,

"I included myself in that group of predictable high existences. And now... I’m about to add ’hypocritical’ to that tag."

Arthur ran his fingers through his hair as he looked up at the ceiling, thinking back to his first days outside the Hell Universe, to the time he’d spent on Planet Aramis, and everything he’d done there.