Chapter 1081: A Different Playing Field [Monthly Bonus 1]

The river of time continued flowing at its constant pace, with hours stretching into days, days flowing into weeks, and weeks gradually expanding into months.

During that period, Arthur primarily focused on stabilising his Monarch Realm power and fine-tuning his control over it, a process that required him to reveal his current level of power to his mother and the rest of his family members.

Arthur also ended up revealing to the rest of his family that this entire war had been his plan, and of course, Cattleya was far from being the only person who had problems with the actions he’d taken to start it by faking his death in Olympus.

Despite the pressure from his family, Arthur made no mention of his end goal or the real reason he’d used himself as bait to make Zeus attack him, which had ultimately forced Diablo to declare war.

All he told them was that this was the foundation of a greater plan intended to deal with Olympus.

He also explained the situation to his friends, Layla, Nicole, Esna and Edward, while extending invitations to them to follow him when he eventually left this multiverse.

Of the four, there was only one refusal, and that refusal came from Edward.

The man’s reasoning was rather simple and pragmatic.

Compared to the current Arthur, the rest of them were simply too weak. Edward felt that his strength wouldn’t be of much use to Arthur considering the level of opponents he was bound to face in the near future, and instead of helping him, he might end up either getting in Arthur’s way or being killed in the crossfire.

After refusing the offer, he explained that he intended to remain content with being the son of the Galactic Ruler in the Hell universe, and while he did seek greater heights of power, he was only going to strive towards those heights after he’d reached the bare minimum required.

He left immediately after that, leaving the other three women with Arthur.

"Well, that was... unexpected?" Arthur said, his voice carrying a questioning tone as he lightly scratched his head.

He turned toward the three women in front of him and then asked, "So, uh, well, he said his piece. What about you guys?"

Faced with his question, Nicole, leaning forward over the table between them, then asked, "What’s the real reason?"

For a moment, there was silence, and Arthur blinked in confusion, tilting his head as he asked, "The real reason for what?"

Seeing his reaction, Layla clicked her tongue before glancing toward Nicole.

"Nicole, if you phrase it like that, he’s going to act oblivious. You know how this guy behaves."

Arthur looked even more confused after hearing Layla’s words, and as she turned toward him, Layla spoke.

"Arthur, I’m going to be very frank with you right now."

Arthur had an uncomfortable premonition and tried to speak, but before he could even get a word out, Layla beat him to it.

"As things stand right now, we’ll be quite useless to you."

Her words made Arthur frown, but Layla paid no mind to his expression as she continued speaking.

"Edward was right. Compared to you right now, the addition of our power would be negligible, at best. You’re in a completely different playing field from us.

You’re busy orchestrating wars spanning entire universes, involving High-Tier Deities and Monarchs that are hundreds of thousands to millions of years old. And we..."

Pointing to herself, Layla shook her head before continuing.

"We might as well be just a bunch of kids who are only a little bit above the Mid-Tier Deity Realm. Personally, I haven’t even gone anywhere when it comes to High-Rank universal law comprehension, and I’ve been pouring virtually all my efforts into just the law of creation."

Pointing at him, she then said, "You are an anomaly, Arthur. Your rise to power, the speed with which you grow, the speed with which you comprehend laws and all that, is anomalous, and you know it. So, to begin with, us matching your level of growth was kind of impossible."

Arthur remained silent, and Layla took that as a cue to continue speaking.

"As such, if we were to follow you, honestly, we’re more likely to bring you down and make you expend effort and energy trying to protect us from danger than we are to actually be of help to you."

"What you guys lack is time, Layla," Arthur finally said. "I’ve had time accelerated for me several times. I’ve cut corners to make up for the time that those on this playing field, as you call it, have ahead of me.

Giving you guys the time you need is well within my power."

"But that’s not going to be enough," Layla immediately replied. "Even if you were to put us into some universe where time is accelerated, in the end, things are still going to boil down to our law comprehension speed, because that’s really the thing that we need to get stronger right now."

Arthur wanted to speak, but Layla, as if she already knew what he was about to suggest, shook her head and cut him off.

"Not everyone is willing to make the sacrifices you did, Arthur."

Those words silenced Arthur, and Layla laughed dryly, knowing that she had hit the mark.

"Not everyone is willing to sacrifice all their power for greater increases in comprehension speed. Not everyone is willing to sacrifice their ego, their consciousness, and everything that makes them who they are for an increased ability to gather energy for Realm Ascension, and you know that, Arthur.

You know that not everyone is willing to make those sacrifices confidently. Not everyone feels that desperation that you feel, that would make you capable of making such sacrifices without thinking twice about it."

Layla paused, taking a deep breath, and she then said, "Which is what brings me back to Nicole’s earlier question. You know all of this, Arthur. You know that if we were to follow you, we would be a liability more than an asset to you, at least for the first few decades, centuries, maybe?"

Shaking her head lightly, she then asked, "So, tell me, what is it? What is the real reason that is still driving you to want to take us with you?

Because unlike Esna, who is of the same race as you and is very necessary to whatever future plans you have, I do not see much of a logical reason to take Nicole and me with you."

"Huh?"

Arthur’s expression instantly turned incredulous.

"The hell do you mean by that?" he snapped.

Layla, wearing a flat look, replied just as quickly. "Whatever thing you have with Nicole is not enough of a reason to put both of you through the stress and danger that will come with taking her along with you.

The same thing applies to me. So there has to be some other reason, or some other purpose behind why you want us to follow you."

Right after she finished speaking, Esna raised her hand lightly and then said, "Um, this is just my two cents, but I’m of the same thought as Layla, and for a completely different reason than all she just said right now."

Arthur cast a side glance at her, and Esna, shrugging, continued, "Even though you’d asked Edward to follow you, I don’t know if it’s because you guys have grown a bit distant in the past century, and that’s not counting the decades before then when you guys hadn’t seen yourselves, or if its’s because of something else, but I felt that you weren’t really caring whether he agreed to follow or not.

You didn’t really mind that he refused to come along with you. But...!"

Esna leaned forward lightly, meeting Arthur’s eyes as she spoke.

"I can tell that you would DEFINITELY have a problem if any of the three of us were to say that we wanted to stay back in Hell. What we want to know is why."

Faced with that demand, Arthur was silent. A moment later, he chuckled lightly, pressing his fingers against his temple before sighing heavily.

"I guess knowing someone for almost all your life does have its perks."

He leaned back in his seat, staring up at the ceiling before finally giving them an answer to their question.

"Moral tethers."