Beatrix’s expression turned back to normal when Jamie spoke and she literally jumped over the couch and table to reach where he sat before hugging him.
Jamie silently patted her head, before looking up at the door where Artemisia walked in a mont later.
Unlike Beatrix, her reaction to Jamie’s presence was more subdued. She just slightly bowed before turning her gaze in the direction of the floating holograms above the centre table.
Thanks to Jamie’s fast reactions, in the instant Beatrix opened the door, he could erase all the images on the spell circles so none of the two goddesses had seen them.
All they saw were the stick figure holograms and the floating spell circles, with two circles crossed out.
"Whatcha doing?"
Beatrix asked with a tilt of her head when she saw the deconstructed spell circle and Arthur replied to her while shaking his head.
"We’ve been trying to figure out how and why Evan got sent back in ti, but that isn’t going well..."
Technically, he had not told a single lie.
"Oh...what’s with the stick figures."
"I was trying to recreate the scene at the ti I got sent back, too bad it’s not helping matters."
Evan spoke as he manipulated the hologram and made the stick figures begin to fight each other with swords and magic.
All eyes watched the scene of the sole blue stick figure being knocked aside, then when that one attacked again, the red figure with the spell circle pointed at them and sucked their attack into a portal before creating a portal behind them which pulled the blue figure into it.
"The end.
Starring: Blue Stick Figure as Evan. Red Stick Figures as Bad Guy 001 to 10?
How many were they again?"
Evan placed a hand on his chin as he tried to recall the number of Fallen Celestials that he was fighting.
Beatrix quickly lost interest in the holograms and focused more on Jamie, asking him why he was here.
"I kinda pissed McEnda off, so I ran so he’d cool off."
"Oh, so the usual, then?"
When she replied in such a manner, Arthur arched his brow and questioned what she ant by this.
"Uncle Jay always pisses Mum and Uncle Uvton off. Uncle Uvton is usually calm but mum always flares up and chases him across the world."
Jamie just chuckled lightly upon hearing Beatrix’s concise explanation of his usual routine with her mum and Artemisia’s father.
Speaking of Artemisia, she was over at the area where Evan dropped the Arcade Consoles that he swiped from Jamie’s penthouse on Gozon.
"Hey, Jamie. After the Summit is done, how about we go to Artemisia and Beatrix’s ho world?"
Arthur suggested casually, but the mont the words left his mouth, Beatrix’s expression darkened.
"...that might be possible for , but not Arty."
"Huh? Why?"
Arthur asked, clearly puzzled. How could it be possible to visit Beatrix’s ho world but not Artemisia’s, when they both ca from Aidos?
Beatrix shot a troubled glance at Artemisia, who was standing nearby, but before she could respond, the goddess herself spoke up, her tone as light as ever.
"It’s nothing so grand, Beatrix."
Artemisia said as she powered on the Arcade Console in front of her. Then, without a hint of emotion, she dropped a bombshell.
"The World I once called my ’ho’, no longer exists."
"??"
Arthur and Evan exchanged startled looks, blindsided by Artemisia’s words. They had both assud that, like Beatrix, Artemisia was Aidosian. Now, she had just revealed otherwise.
"How?"
That was all Arthur asked and the Artemisia’s reply was as nonchalant as before.
"Our star went Supergiant; It was an irregular situation.
Normally, stars take millions of years to go supergiant, but this one did it in just five years. In the process, it destroyed all the planets orbiting it within the habitable range."
She revealed the fate of her ho world with the sa indifference one might use when discussing the weather, her focus seemingly more on the ga she was preparing to play than the devastating story she was recounting.
"Apparently, so people bla the Spirit Empress, saying she must have done sothing since she was in our star not long before it suddenly went supergiant.
Anyway, the star eventually couldn’t support its own weight due to the abnormal situation, so it collapsed, beca a black hole, and devoured the rest of the star system."
Artemisia’s voice remained steady, as if she were reciting lines from a book, likely a result of having told this story countless tis before.
"My father and Beatrix’s mother were friends long before then, so she made space in Aidos’s Solar System for us to evacuate our entire planet.
Since Aidos was bigger and the Epsilon continent was free, my family migrated there.
As my father was already affiliated with Aidos before then, people who don’t know the story usually just assu he’s Aidosian as well; it’s a hassle having to explain every ti."
Arthur absorbed Artemisia’s words, his brow furrowing as he tried to reconcile the casual way she spoke with the gravity of what she had just revealed.
This didn’t seem like a story of before she was born, or when she was too young to rember. She was old enough to rember it at the ti it had happened.
"Enough about that. Can you teach how to use this thing?"
Artemisia broke him out of his line of thought and Arthur looked up to see ’GA OVER’ written on the screen of the Arcade Console.
"You’re not good at gas, are you?"
"Obviously."
The goddess candidly admitted it and Arthur chuckled as he went over to help her out. anwhile, Beatrix continued talking with Jamie, and their conversation quickly delved into more personal matters, the close relationship between them evident.
Evan, on the other hand, watched the interactions in silence, his gaze flicking between the two goddesses.
He remained like this until sothing in the air around him caught Jamie’s attention. Jamie’s eyes narrowed, a hint of suspicion creeping into his expression as he suddenly addressed Evan.
"Evan...what are you thinking?"
The abrupt question took Beatrix and Artemisia by surprise, but Arthur needed only a glance at Evan to understand Jamie’s concern. Evan’s response confird their suspicions.
"Nothing. I just finally understood why so people take out potential threats before that ’potential’ can turn into real power—a power that could beco a real threat."
As he spoke, Evan’s eyes began to glow with a golden light, a sign that his Unique Skill activated.
"Don’t even think about it, Evan."
Jamie’s expression turned blank as he spoke and his eyes glowed with a faint light. At the sa ti, Arthur sighed and shook his head.
"That’s a very bad idea, Evan."
"...I haven’t even said it yet."
"Co on, Evan. That’s ’basic ti traveller thought process’."
Arthur responded as he walked over to the couch and plopped down on it, his left eye glowing as he spoke.
"Ti can be a bitch sotis. Trust , I know. When it works with causality, it becos even worse.
When you tamper with ti, you’re not just interfering with your target—you’re ssing with the fates the target would have changed, the Karma they would have sown, and the destinies they would have brought.
The Causality Index of a Deity Realm existence is high enough that if you try to prevent them from becoming a Deity through ti travel while you do not possess a higher index than them yourself; the Universe itself would either stop you or just kick you back to the future and correct the change you made.
Changing the past of a being with a high Causality Index and Universal Influence is not easy, because their high Universal Influence would make the Universe itself protect their past."
Arthur advised Evan to get the thought he had in mind out of his head, and right after Arthur spoke, Jamie followed up.
"There’s what Arthur said, and then there’s my personal view.
Regardless of what happens in your ti, the current ti period is a different case.
You don’t think I’d just sit back and watch sothing bad happen to my friends and their family mbers, right?"
Jamie’s underlying ssage was clear: ’Don’t even think about altering the past to prevent future enemies—try it, and I will deal with you first.’
"Think of a way to solve your future problems, in your future. Don’t ss with another ti period, it usually doesn’t go well."
"Ah...I get. That shit always goes sideways."
Arthur concurred with Jamie’s words, and the understanding look on his face made Jamie wonder if Arthur had experience with ti travel.
Not one to hold his curiosity, Jamie asked directly.
"You’ve ti travelled before?"
"Hmm? Oh, no. It’s just I’ve had a little interference here and there. Maybe it’s the deal with Alkosh or sothing. Who knows? Not gonna follow their script though."
His response was cryptic, leaving Jamie and the others puzzled, but Arthur just shrugged and headed back to re-join Artemisia at the Arcade Console, leaving the deeper mysteries for another ti.
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