Chapter 1062: Avoiding the Light of ‘Dawn’ [Monthly Bonus 2]

After leaving Hades, Arthur returned to the place where he’d spent the greater part of the century he’d been in Olympus, the Protogenoi turned prison of the Underworld, Tartarus.

After entering Tartarus, Arthur headed straight for its deepest region, making his way to the special prison where a ginormous entity was sealed.

The Titan King of Time who’d once ruled this universe, his grandfather, Kronos.

The moment Arthur appeared, Kronos, bound all over by cosmic energy chains but still conscious, lifted his eyes, and his brows immediately furrowed.

"You..."

"Hi there, Grandpa. Long time no see."

Kronos’ expression darkened at the sight of Arthur, which was understandable considering he wasn’t exactly fond of Arthur’s maternal side.

Arthur didn’t know the full story, but Kronos seemed to hold some sort of animosity toward Lucifer.

That animosity had extended to Lucifer’s descendants, leaving him with rather complicated feelings after his own son went on to have a child with one of them.

"I’m not here to find trouble like before," Arthur said as he casually took a seat on the ground some few hundred metres in front of Kronos.

"I’m simply here to do a little introspection, I suppose."

After saying that, Arthur closed his eyes and delved deep into his soul realm.

The familiar star system-like structure greeted Arthur’s eyes as he entered his soul realm.

At its centre was his grey soul core, surrounded by his Origin Cores orbiting it and his Aspects of Time and Destruction like planets.

The number of Origin Cores hadn’t actually increased by much over the past hundred years, but the existing Origin Cores had grown tremendously in size.

His Temporal and Destruction Origin Cores were, as always, the largest of them all, both resembling giant planets within the star system. Following closely behind those two were his Spatial Origin Core and his Unique Gravity Origin Core.

Arthur had attained Monarch Rank Authorities over Time, Destruction, and Gravity, but while his comprehension of the Law of Space had reached the Monarch Rank, he hadn’t yet reached the level required for a Monarch Rank Spatial Authority.

Then again, he wasn’t far from achieving it.

Surprisingly, his next strongest Authorities weren’t his Weapon Authorities, but a pair of Authorities Arthur hadn’t used very often over a century ago.

His Authorities of Life and Death.

Arthur had comprehended both laws to the High Rank level, and he’d done the same with the Elemental laws of Fire and Lightning.

All his other Authorities, his Weapon Authorities, his other base elemental Authorities, and his Authorities over laws like Languages, Knowledge, and Extinction had all increased by at least one rank during the past hundred years.

This was immense progress that had only been possible because of the absurd comprehension speed he’d gained in exchange for giving up his ability to utilise his powers as a Higher Existence.

The reason Arthur had chosen to spend part of that time comprehending the Laws of Life and Death to the High Rank level instead of advancing his Spatial Authority into a Monarch Rank Authority, or taking his Laws of Time and Destruction to Monarch Rank Completion so he could meet the requirements for the Primogenial Realm, was because he wanted to expand his arsenal.

Just as his Temporal and Destruction Authorities served as the sources that merged to create his unique Extreme Nothingness Authority, Arthur wanted to create more combinations to see if he could either give birth to new unique Authorities the same way his Extreme Nothingness Authority had come into existence, or permanently mutate existing Origin Cores with the powers of other Authorities, just as his Gravity Origin Core had been permanently mutated by his Anti-Divinity.

If neither of those approaches worked, Arthur was perfectly fine with simply combining the powers of those Authorities to create new techniques.

His first targets were his Authority of Destruction and his Authority of Death.

The moment he activated both of them, Arthur opened his eyes, a faint look of surprise appearing on his face.

"Oh wow, she noticed me already."

Those words were exactly what Celestia heard as she teleported beside him, immediately raising an eyebrow as she asked, [Who noticed you already?]

At that, Arthur exhaled softly before muttering the one name that hadn’t left his lips in a century.

"Elaine. She knows I’m awake."

Hearing that, Lostvayne appeared on his other side before saying, [Elaine should be in another Multiverse with Berlal. How could she have noticed that you’re awake?]

"Well, probably instinct, I guess," Arthur replied, seeming unsure himself. "She did have that strange reaction when I was up against Luka, so it’s pretty obvious the two of us have some sort of special connection.

The moment I activated my Authority of Death, I instantly felt something tug on that connection. I suppose that’s the best way I can describe it.

The bottom line is that Elaine knows I’m awake, and she’s so not going to be happy with me."

Arthur chuckled after saying that, then he shook his head and continued, "After I’m done with my little trial and error session for my Authorities, I guess I’ve got to start mapping out my plan of action.

I already located the Cursed Swamps over a hundred years ago, and I already know where to go in Niflheim to find Fenrir. That just leaves Erin and Egito. I’ve got to check those places and see if there’s anything worth taking."

When he said that, Celestia moved in front of him and sat down opposite him before asking, [I thought you said you were going to use that Ancient-Breed Dragon, Altrishia.]

Hearing that, Arthur smiled wryly before shaking his head.

"I can’t use Risha. To begin with, she was only a candidate, and now that I think about it, Aleksas is so not going to be happy if I put my hands on his current favourite descendant.

So I guess I’ll just keep Risha as an ally. A fighting partner or something.

I can’t incorporate her into my numbers without pissing Aleksas off, because to do that, I’d have to use Race Conversion on her, and that’s going to be a problem."

Arthur had a plan involving Race Conversion and Risha that would’ve turned her into a Dragon-godslayer.

However, a Progenitor’s Authority of Race Conversion could be resisted and blocked by another Progenitor, and there was no way Aleksas wouldn’t notice the instant Arthur tried using Race Conversion on Rishia, since she was an Ancient-Breed Dragon with a direct connection to him.

Even more so as she was one that he was paying special attention to.

So Arthur put that plan on hold and decided to find another dragon to fill that role.

He simply needed a sufficiently powerful Ancient-Breed Dragon or Dragonkin with a high concentration of Dragon Factors to occupy a particular position within his Numbers that he wanted filled by a Dragon godslayer.

Holding up his left hand, Arthur counted as he spoke.

"I have Elaine, I have Esna, Fenrir has pretty much agreed. I’m targeting one of Echidna’s children. There’s also Stelan all the way back in Valmone, so I basically have five slots filled."

The moment he said that, Celestia looked at him in silence for a moment before speaking with a sigh.

[And you want there to be twelve.]

Arthur shook his head before replying, "Actually, fourteen. I told you I’m basing it on the zodiacs of the original Earth, so the Gemini are going to be twins, and I’m going to have a hidden thirteenth."

As soon as he said that, a look of remembrance appeared in his eyes before he continued.

"Which, if I recall correctly, I said I wanted to make Rachel the hidden thirteenth, didn’t I?"

[Are you really going to do that? That girl hates your guts, Arthur.]

Arthur shrugged before replying, "Who knows if she still hates me? It’s been over a century here and definitely around 250 years back in Valmone. Maybe her hatred has faded or something.

Then again, I don’t really care. I’m going to use her anyway."

He spoke with complete disregard for the free will of the person in question before leaning back on the floor and saying, "It’s fine to gather the people for the Numbers, but I won’t be able to actually create them until I go there, will I?"

When Arthur said that, the silent Lostvayne, returning to weapon form, responded.

[If you plan to grant Special Authorities to these Numbers, as you call them, then it’ll be impossible at your current level unless you go to the Origin Multiverse and find the godslayer Universe within it.]

The birth of every Progenitor sparked a Big Bang within the Origin Multiverse, spawning a brand-new universe with rapid, time-accelerated development, and the only one who could become the Master of that universe was the Progenitor whose birth had sparked its creation.

That meant somewhere within the Origin Multiverse, there was a godslayer Universe waiting for Arthur to claim its throne.

The current Arthur, with strength at the Superior Stage of the Monarch Realm, could take the throne as the master of the godslayer Universe the moment he found it after going there.

The only problem was getting there in the first place.

Going to the Origin Multiverse meant putting himself within proximity of Luka.

"I know I can’t run from her forever, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to be stupid and run headfirst towards her," Arthur muttered.

He pondered in silence for a few moments before forming a plan of action.

"I guess I have to find Nash. I’ll contact Larry and have him put me in touch with Nash so he can keep me updated on Luka’s location. If she leaves the Origin Multiverse for anything, I’ll head over there and find my universe as quickly as possible."

After saying that, Arthur clapped his hands together, sat up, and said, "All right, guys, time to begin my introspection session that got interrupted by Elaine realising I’m awake."

He laughed lightly after saying that, then closed his eyes once more, and cosmic energy immediately began swirling around his body.

Celestia looked at him in silence for a few moments before turning to glance at Kronos, who was watching them with a complicated expression. Shaking her head, she returned to her weapon form and vanished, leaving Arthur alone in silence.