"If I told you that a future version of projected his consciousness across ti and took control of my body to make give that order," Arthur said quietly, "would you believe ?"
(Refer to Chapter 96)
Lostvayne’s eyes widened, the shock evident on her face.
[A future version of... you?] she repeated, her tone laced with disbelief.
Catching sight of her dumbfounded expression, Arthur chuckled and asked.
"You know how ridiculous my affinity for ti is. How can it surprise you that a future version of would pull sothing like that?"
He said it so casually, as if it wasn’t sothing of note.
"It was a passive alteration," he continued. "Nothing too obvious. Just enough to turn up the ruthless side a little bit. He had to make sure no one noticed, especially not . And ’I’ know how I think, so he had to get creative and think outside the box."
Exhaling lightly, he added.
"If he wanted to do what he wanted, with the least amount of interference, he had to work slowly. He’s been at it since I was 9 and did it three tis." (Chapters 18, 96, 293)
He yawned after dropping that massive revelation like it was nothing, leaving the two Ego Weapons in stunned silence.
Lostvayne blinked several tis, a sigh slipping from her lips as the pieces clicked into place.
Most likely, soone on Phirex, a planet Arthur had originally planned to leave once his objective was done, was destined to beco a threat in the future. Soone his future self had deed enough of a problem to override ti itself and force a decision.
Hence why Arthur had a squad of Transcendents erase nearly everything on the surface, and if that hadn’t already gone far enough, had Lewis nuke the entire planet.
As the horror of this slowly settled, Lostvayne asked.
[When did you realise this?]
Arthur gave his answer without hesitation.
"Before I left for Valmone, soti before you ca into my possession. That’s when I figured it out that it was my future self who’d been subtly ssing with my mind."
In other words, he’d known sothing was up before then. He just hadn’t known who was responsible.
"Since he couldn’t risk figuring it out, he used sothing that even the of back then could break. But even after I broke it, it made think... what if Phirex wasn’t an isolated case, and he only intervened then because it was just that much of a threat?
There might’ve been other, smaller but still threatening incidents caused by enemies that weren’t properly finished off."
And so, the outco of that train of thought was what had just played out monts ago.
Just as Arthur finished speaking, Celestia, having noticed sothing odd, asked,
[Wait... you said you found out thirteen years ago, and that’s because he did it again, right? But you had those two planets destroyed years before that...]
Arthur didn’t reply, and Celestia pressed on.
[If you’d already had the planets destroyed, then why did he do it again?]
To that question, Arthur responded with a strained laugh.
"Why? Well, obviously... because getting to destroy those planets wasn’t the real objective. Phirex’s destruction was just a side quest along the way."
Lostvayne narrowed her eyes. [Then what was his real intention?]
Arthur, now able to move his hand, stretched and finally replied, "I wonder. What was his real intention?"
He didn’t sound like he expected an answer.
"Either way," he continued, "he probably won’t be trying that again anyti soon. When I figured out sothing was ssing with through ti, I set a trap, and he walked right into it.
He also realised he’d fallen for my trap, so he hasn’t tried anything since then."
After speaking, Arthur slowly closed his eyes, thinking about the fragnts of information about "the script" that had been left in his mind after that last ti, a small sigh escaping his lips.
The place was silent, save for the sound of the flickering flas on his body.
Finally, Lostvayne broke the silence after a while.
[Regardless of what the future version of you did or didn’t do, this case was still only a possibility. A very slim, almost non-existent possibility.
Situations like this will likely co up again in the future, and I would prefer that you don’t attempt sothing like this again.
Even if you wanted to, I wouldn’t allow you to risk your life over a re possibility.]
After speaking, she turned her head, her crimson eyes locking onto one of the many distant galaxies, specifically, BK-759, the one Arthur and Nicole had first arrived in.
[Looks like Lucifer’s around.]
As she spoke, she released a small pulse of cosmic destruction energy, and though separated by a galactic gulf, Lucifer detected it within seconds.
Cosmic energy rapidly gathered, forming a Cosmic Gate from which the forr Devil King stepped through, raising a brow as he saw Arthur’s state.
"Nothing ever goes as planned with you, does it?"
Arthur, lying back with his head still in Lostvayne’s lap, looked up at him and promptly raised his middle finger.
Lucifer chuckled at the response and snapped his fingers, lighting up the area. Until then, the only illumination had co from the flas still burning on Arthur’s body.
"I sent you to get the Seed Engine so that you could induce the situation where you’d beco a cosmic being. So how the hell did you beco a cosmic being while trying to get it?"
Arthur clicked his tongue and replied, "Because the damn thing tried to kill , that’s how."
Lucifer blinked, mildly surprised. "It tried to kill you? Guess the defensive systems were more effective than I thought."
"And is this the result of it trying to kill you?" he asked, referring to Arthur’s current injured state. But then his gaze landed on the severed fist lying on the floor not too far away.
"I suppose it’s not," he added.
"I fought a Galactic Ruler."
Hearing this, Lucifer raised his gaze towards BK-789, then he looked back at Arthur and repeated himself.
"Nothing ever goes as planned with you, does it?"
Arthur held up the middle finger again.
Lucifer ignored it, reaching into his pocket dinsion as he said, "Lucky for you, I didn’t leave this in Hell."
He pulled out a basket filled with several shining golden apples, and at the sight, Lostvayne asked,
[Why do those things reek of that Cosmic Nexus in the Nine Realms?]
"Because they ca from that Nexus," Lucifer replied, rummaging through the apples.
After a few seconds, he selected one that radiated divinity and tossed it toward Arthur.
"There. Have at it. Idunn left her divinity in so of them as a little trick to make them unusable for .
Unfortunately for her, I happen to have a great-grandson who just so happens to possess divinity and is completely unaffected by it, as any Devil would be."
With that, he slipped the basket back into his pocket dinsion while Arthur blinked in silence, his gaze alternating between the apple and Lucifer.
"Did you just say... Idunn, as in goddess of Life, Idunn?"
Lucifer arched a brow at his question. "You know her? Surprising. Most people usually don’t."
Arthur muttered, "I know her because I was making so plans for Asgard in the future, but that’s not the point. Why do you have—"
He paused, eyes widening as realisation dawned.
"Oh... you said you went to collect a debt of life."
He looked down at the apple glowing faintly in his palm.
"You literally went to collect...a debt of life," he added after a mont.
"What did you think I was talking about?"
Lucifer shook his head silently, before creating another Cosmic Gate leading into BK-789 as he added.
"Anyway, eat that thing. It’ll make you better than new."
With that, he stepped through the gate and into the galaxy, leaving Arthur alone with his Ego Weapons.
And true to Lucifer’s words, the apple did make Arthur better than new.
Not only did it completely heal every injury he had sustained, both internal and external, but the divinity within the fruit was absorbed into his heart, increasing his internal energy and nudging him ever closer to the Superior Stage.
His vitality also increased to a whole nother level, granting him a tenacity that even cockroaches would envy.
Since Arthur was already functionally immortal, the ’lifespan’ portion of the apple’s effect was instead redirected into further enhancing his vitality.
Noticing the changes, Arthur opened his subspace and retrieved a box. It was where he’d stored the many shards of the Titan god Novak’s Divine Spark that he’d obtained in Valmone.
Naturally, the largest piece remained sealed in the special container Jamie had placed it in. Arthur had no plans to use that one just yet.
The rest, the nurous smaller shards, had been kept separately, and now, he decided to make use of them.
Activating his Progenitor Authority, he began using Divine Spark Absorption on all of them, from the smallest shards containing Sovereign-level energy to the larger fragnts brimming with energy comparable to Half-Deities.
A total of 350 fragnts were consud, and when Lucifer returned, he was t with a newly minted Superior Stage Low-Tier Deity.
With a sigh, the man repeated for the third ti.
"Nothing ever goes as planned with you, does it?"
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