Chapter 599: Old Lady

Grey chuckled at the angel lady’s worry and lifted The Virtueless in front of him, turning the pitch-black rod over in his hand. "You’re overthinking it, old lady. I don’t need to fight Kronos, I just need to find his version of this thing."

The angel lady frowned, but Grey continued before she could interrupt him. "Atlas isn’t even here right now, is he? I’m not his chosen whatever-the-fuck either, but I’ve gotten plenty out of his stuff, so don’t tell me where I can find Kronos. Tell me where I can find his weapon, his underwear, a piece of his legacy, whatever works."

The angel lady froze.

For a moment, genuine realization appeared in her eyes as she seemed to realize Grey hadn’t been suggesting that he walk up to Kronos and start swinging The Virtueless at his head. Then her expression changed so violently it was like a cat had stepped on her tail.

"Who are you calling old?!"

Grey blinked innocently. "I’m trying to be respectful. If I keep talking about your tits, won’t Atlas get mad?"

"You—"

The angel lady stopped herself and began muttering under her breath, finding it annoyingly difficult to refute the logic while simultaneously deciding she would rather be erased from existence than allow Grey to start calling her old lady.

He was absolutely doing it on purpose too, likely another form of revenge for the two times she had killed him to prove a point, and she was starting to realize Grey held grudges in the most irritating way imaginable.

The brat seemed weak toward women right up until they genuinely pissed him off, then gender stopped mattering entirely.

He would poke. Then poke again. Then keep poking until something broke.

She groaned inwardly before finally saying, "My circumstances are different from what you’re imagining. I cannot explain everything, but there is a reason I was bound to The Virtueless rather than a surviving piece of Atlas himself."

Grey’s eyes narrowed.

"Logically, Atlas should be here," she continued. "The only reason he isn’t is that I required the vessel to preserve even this fragment of myself."

Grey caught the wording immediately, especially the implication that whatever had happened to Atlas was strange even by her standards. He could pull at that thread later, though, and right now he had enough mysteries sitting around his brain collecting dust that adding another one to the pile wasn’t particularly exciting.

"So Kronos?"

The angel lady’s mouth twitched. "Any legacy powerful enough to accomplish what The Virtueless did to your Frame would contain at least a wisp of Kronos. Perhaps an imprint, perhaps an Authority, perhaps something even less complete, but there would be something of him remaining inside."

"And?"

"And a wisp of Kronos is still Kronos."

Grey frowned.

"You are thinking in terms of fractions when the starting number is beyond your comprehension," she said. "One ten-thousandth of an ocean will still drown an insect. At your present level, the distinction between facing Kronos and facing a sufficiently powerful fragment of him may not matter nearly as much as you hope."

That was considerably more annoying.

The angel lady seemed to sense she had finally gained a foothold and immediately pushed forward.

"I suggest you focus on taking Prometheus to Phase IV first. Once Prometheus regains the ability to steal Divine Abilities, there might be entirely different methods available to stabilize his Neural Frame, and even if that failed, you could be far better equipped to search for Kronos afterward."

In her opinion, thinking about Kronos before the Third Arc was idiotic.

Grey ignored that part completely. She was right about Phase IV, though.

If what she had said about Prometheus was accurate, Phase IV wouldn’t simply give Grey another ability to play with. The ability to steal from Gods could change everything, especially when Grey remembered that Ma Famille allowed him to pass portions of his strength and advantages through the growing group connected to him.

Maybe he could steal abilities that suited Brad, or Amunet, or Mauve, Xerchen, Elowen...

Grey’s thoughts began accelerating.

Prometheus had already proven that its power wasn’t restricted to Grey alone, and if Phase IV restored even a fraction of what the original Prometheus had once done, then this could become something far larger than a personal upgrade.

Forget fixing his Neural Frame, he could potentially start building an entire team of people carrying pieces of Divine abilities that should never have belonged to them in the first place.

"Alright," Grey muttered. "So what does Phase IV take?"

Almost as though Prometheus had been waiting for him to ask, a familiar chime rang through his mind.

Grey blinked.

"Oh."

A notification unfolded before him.

—

[Prometheus Evolution Quest]

[Phase IV — The Thief Rekindled]

Prometheus once stole from those who believed themselves beyond theft, carrying powers forbidden to mortals down from the heavens and placing them into lesser hands.

To awaken the next fragment of that legacy, proving your strength is no longer enough.

You must prove that you can take what should be impossible to take.

Requirements:

[1] Reach Command Class with a Vessel housing Prometheus.

[2] Personally construct a Dominus Class Mech.

[3] Defeat a true Dominus Class existence without receiving direct assistance from an Ascendant Class existence or higher.

[4] Steal and successfully retain a fragment of power, Authority, or Divine Law from an existence of Ascendant Class or higher.]

Reward: Prometheus — Phase IV

Reward: Divine Theft

Reward: ???

—

Grey stared. Then he stared some more.

The angel lady slowly leaned over as though reading alongside him, and the longer she looked, the stranger her expression became.

Grey pointed at the fourth requirement.

"Didn’t you just spend all that time telling me not to fuck with Ascendants?"

"Yes."

"And now Prometheus wants me to rob one?"

"It would appear so."

Grey looked down at the little red-gold flame flickering happily within his Frame.

"You’re a terrible influence."

Prometheus flickered brighter.

Grey couldn’t help but grin.

The angel lady realized then why the two of them were so compatible. They were both madmen.