Chapter 1065: The Progenitor’s Design

"I have an idea."

Arthur’s sudden words made Alexia, who was seated at the other end of the long conference table inside the spaceship moving through the vacuum of space, glance towards him.

While looking towards the ship’s large viewport in front of him, Arthur continued speaking.

"My Ego weapons already know this.

I want to bring together a group of remarkable godslayers under me, granting them special Authorities that will boost their strength to entirely new levels. With my Progenitor Authority, I shall grant them even more anti-divine factors than they already possess, empowering their godslayer abilities even further.

"I want them to become something more, people who would work together whenever I need them and fight battles in places that I’m unable to reach.

That’s why I want you to go to Asgard on my behalf and get Fenrir, and why I’m heading to the Swamp of Lerna to find Hydra myself.

When it’s time to deal with Zeus and Odin naturally interferes, then I’ll let the World Wolf out to play."

"Fenrir, huh," Alexia muttered, picturing the giant wolf in question. "I went to Niflheim to see that wolf you spoke of, and I have to say that if you turn that thing into a godslayer with your Progenitor Authority, it would indeed gain the potential to become a threat to gods on a Multiversal scale."

Hearing Alexia’s words, Arthur nodded before responding. "That’s exactly what I’m expecting from Fenrir."

Before he could continue speaking, Alexia then asked another question. "But are you really sure that wolf would agree to become your subordinate?"

This question made Arthur think back to his conversation with Fenrir over a hundred years ago, when Barda and Wyndella had gone over to Asgard to retrieve Nidhoggr.

"I spoke with Fenrir and explained my plans, after which Fenrir gave me a condition."

Finally looking away from the viewport and towards Alexia, Arthur revealed the condition Fenrir had given him.

"Fenrir said that I should prove that I really can, with just my individual power, without relying upon any weapons, artifacts, or armies behind me, become a genuine threat to Odin."

Tilting his head lightly, he asked, "So tell me, Alexia, as I am now, am I genuinely a threat to Odin, or am I not?"

Alexia didn’t immediately answer that question.

During the past few years, she had done some canvassing regarding the strength of the god kings who ruled the universes throughout this region of the multiverse, and being a Cosmic Being at the Primogenial realm, it was nearly impossible for any of them to conceal their Existence Realms from her, allowing her to determine exactly what level of power they actually possessed.

"Except for that one-eyed Aesir god called Odin," Alexia said.

Arthur narrowed his eyes at those words before asking, "Exactly what are you implying?"

"I’m implying that Odin is far stronger than you think, Arthur," Alexia replied calmly. "This universe’s master, Zeus, as he’s called, is strong, and I’ll give him that. However, Odin is an entirely different case altogether."

There was silence for a moment after Alexia spoke, and maintaining eye contact with Arthur, she then continued speaking.

"Your power is still unstable since it’s only been days since you became a Monarch Realm Existence.

With your unstable power as it is, I’ll be blunt and tell you that defeating Zeus at his full power is probably your limit. You cannot defeat that god who calls himself Odin."

Alexia’s voice was filled with absolute certainty that Arthur couldn’t defeat Odin.

Arthur didn’t immediately respond after hearing her conclusion, taking a second to think her words over. Then, he clicked his tongue and cursed under his breath.

"The damn one-eyed bastard has attained Cosmic Superiority, hasn’t he?"

"Yes, he has," Alexia answered immediately.

Arthur exhaled softly at that response, returning his gaze to the spaceship’s viewport as he muttered, "They say he hung himself at Mimir’s Well and sacrificed an eye for wisdom. I guess his sacrifice paid off, huh?"

The reveal that Odin was a Cosmic Superior wasn’t all that surprising to Arthur, as from the very beginning, he had always been far warier of Odin than he had been of Zeus.

From his perspective, Odin was a greater threat because Odin was a sly individual. Unlike Zeus, who was mainly a fighter, Odin was more like a strategist who also possessed ridiculous fighting power.

Those types were more of a pain to deal with than those who did things directly.

"But even if I can’t beat him, I’ll still pose a threat to him, wouldn’t I?" Arthur asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Of course you would," Alexia answered with a shrug. "You possess Anti-Divinity, and you have your innate godslayer abilities that allow you to lower the Existence Realms of those who possess Divine Factors.

It will be less effective on Odin because of the difference in Realm between the two of you, but it will definitely reduce his power substantially, enough that you can actually give him a run for his money, even if the chances of a full victory for you are low."

"Then that’s enough," Arthur replied without a change in his expression. "Fenrir’s condition was that I had to pose a genuine threat to Odin, alone as I am. If I indeed do pose a genuine threat to Odin, then the contract that I made with Fenrir will be enforced, and he will have no choice but to become my subordinate."

Arthur then got up from his seat before continuing. "That’s why I’m not worrying too much about Fenrir right now. My focus right now is on getting the Hydra and seeing if there are any creatures in nearby god-ruled universes that I can bring into my fold."

"So you want to take these creatures that the gods of the nearby universes all fear and have sealed away or imprisoned because of the threat they pose, and make them your subordinates?"

Arthur shook his head after hearing Alexia’s question before elaborating on his intentions.

"Not all of them, just a few prominent ones," he said. "If I wanted all of them, I would be going after Typhon and not the Hydra, but I don’t want all of them."

Turning towards her, he asked, "Remember that idea I just told you about right now?"

Alexia nodded silently in affirmation, and Arthur then continued speaking without taking his gaze away from her.

"Well, I plan to call them the ’Zodiac godslayers’, based on a little thing I discovered when I was on the Original Earth.

Anyway, I have particular traits that I want each of them to have. For example, I want one of them to have Draconic factors, which is why I’m going after Hydra. I want another to have the title of ’Beast godslayer’, and that’s why I want Fenrir into the mix.

You see where I’m going with this?"

Alexia nodded in understanding, and Arthur opened his mouth to continue speaking, only to stop as a particular existence that was a genuine threat to one of the stronger Masters of the god-ruled universes in this region of the multiverse came to mind.

"Hmm, what about the serpent Apophis?"

[Don’t think about it even for a second, Master,] Lostvayne suddenly interjected.

The sudden interruption had Arthur blinking in surprise.

"Why not?" he asked aloud.

Alexia raised an eyebrow at Arthur’s sudden question, but then she thought about his Ego weapons and figured that he was probably speaking to one of them.

Meanwhile, Lostvayne began explaining her reasoning behind why she had told Arthur not to even think about Apophis.

[Lucifer and I once went over to Egito roughly fifty thousand years ago because of Apophis.

It’s a long story if I were to explain all the details, but we needed the powers of an existence that could deal with a Sun god-type like Ra, which is why we went looking for Apophis. What we discovered, however, was that Apophis isn’t an existence we could mess around with.]

Arthur was surprised by Lostvayne’s words, especially because they implied that even Lucifer couldn’t simply mess around with Apophis.

’Just what the hell is Apophis?’

Lostvayne’s response to Arthur’s question was a single word.

[Avatar.]

Arthur was momentarily silent after hearing Lostvayne’s response. He thought back to what he had accomplished only a few days ago, and he couldn’t help but sigh.

’Apophis is the Avatar of an Eternal?’ he asked. ’Considering its powers, it should be—’

[No. Apophis isn’t the avatar of an Eternal,] Lostvayne interrupted, immediately correcting his assumption.

Arthur’s expression instantly darkened as the realisation dawned on him, and he understood exactly why Lostvayne had told him that he couldn’t mess around with Apophis.

"Fucking hell," he cursed aloud.

Thinking about the abilities that the ’Serpent of Chaos’, Apophis, was known to possess, a certain Aggressor who possessed those same attributes immediately came to mind.

The problem was that they were someone Arthur didn’t want to be even within a million light-years of their position.

Clapping his hands loudly, he said, "So the Apophis plan is scrapped."

Alexia’s expression turned confused at his sudden declaration, as she had absolutely no idea why Arthur had suddenly decided to scrap his plan.

However, Arthur didn’t bother giving her an explanation before continuing with his thoughts.

"Maybe I should check out the universe of Erin or make a pit stop in Oblivion?"

The mention of Oblivion brought Alexia back to a memory of when she and Lucifer had gone to that universe a few thousand years ago.

She then exhaled softly and shook her head before saying, "There isn’t any existence that fits the bill you’re looking for in Oblivion."

A moment later, a look of remembrance flashed in her eyes, and she raised a finger.

"The Dragon of Time might be a good match, but that dragon is—"

"Technically Alkosh’s property?" Arthur cut in.

Alexia nodded silently, and Arthur shrugged with a light laugh.

"I figured that was the case," he said. "There’s no way that a dragon powerful enough to disrupt the spacetime continuum of the Oblivion universe can roam around scot-free and be the menace that it is if Alkosh isn’t in full control of the situation."

Over a century ago, when Arthur had first arrived in the Underworld, he’d gone to meet with Kronos in Tartarus. He didn’t go simply to mess with Kronos, but to extract information from the Titan about certain existences that Kronos would be familiar with.

One of them was Alkosh, Oblivion’s Chief Divine.

After combining what Kronos knew about Alkosh with what he’d gleaned after Ranus’ remark several days ago, Arthur realised that he had to raise his wariness of Alkosh by at least ten new levels.

"I may be working with him right now, but that doesn’t change the fact that he’s still a potential threat. After all, he’s still working with Zeus as well."

A soft sigh escaped Arthur’s lips after he spoke those words, and just then, he sensed a change in the ambient cosmic energy, one that made him turn around and look through the ship’s viewport.