[Quinn just said she went to Valmone after you left, and if she visited the ruins of Cruotis Pri or the planets in the Abyss Labyrinth where you, Jamie, and Evan trained, then Starbreaker likely noticed residual traces of Lady Celestia’s energy signature.]
Those ’traces’ were left behind after you used Lady Celestia in battle, and they’re sothing only we Rule Breakers can detect easily. I tried to obscure them as much as possible with my destruction back then, but Starbreaker is a Single Digit Rule Breaker, so there’s no doubt he saw through my attempts to hide it.
Now, upon coming to this universe, he headed straight to a planet nad Athion. Considering the circumstances, the odds of this planet being a different one that coincidentally has the sa na as the one where you retrieved Lady Celestia’s fragnt are extrely low.]
Once Lostvayne explained this, Arthur and Celestia imdiately understood why Lostvayne had concluded that Starbreaker was after Celestia.
[Starbreaker discovering Lady Celestia’s awakening isn’t the problem. The problem would be if he told others about it,] Lostvayne explained.
[The Rule Breaker hierarchy is absolute, but not all of us were content with Lady Celestia holding the Serial Number of 1 despite being the youngest of us, and I wouldn’t put it past so of them to have their wielders interfere with you just because of that.
You don’t need that extra trouble, so I want to stop Starbreaker before he can say a word to the wrong Rule Breaker.]
As soon as Lostvayne finished speaking, Arthur extended his right arm and conjured a Cosmic Gate behind him, one leading directly to Athion, and he spoke.
"Go ahead."
He said it out loud, and Lostvayne imdiately appeared in her humanoid form, the sight leaving Quinn mildly surprised.
"Oh? You look like a woman now?" Her eyes flicked to Arthur as she asked. "His preferences?"
[No,] Lostvayne responded curtly. [You’re sure the planet Starbreaker went to is called Athion, right?]
"Hmm? Yeah."
[Thank you.]
With that, Lostvayne stepped into the Cosmic Gate and disappeared beyond it, leaving Quinn with question marks floating above her head.
"Where’s she going?"
"To catch up with Starbreaker, I guess," Arthur replied with a shrug, keeping his expression calm.
Right as he answered, Aleksas interrupted with a question directed at Quinn, "Are you done? I have sowhere to be now."
He imdiately tried to teleport again, but Quinn blocked his attempt, sparks scattering as their cosmic energies collided.
At that mont, Gindry stood and walked over to Quinn, hugging her from behind as she said, "I’ll see you later. My slave driver boss gave overti work again."
"Pfftt. See you later," Quinn responded with a laugh.
With that, Gindry followed Wyndella into the door-shaped cosmic gate she had created, while Berlal tapped Arthur on the shoulder and spoke.
"I’m taking Elaine with ."
"Oh, okay," Arthur replied. He wasn’t concerned about Elaine’s safety if she was with Berlal, given how powerful the Ancient Dragon was.
As Berlal vanished into her shadow, Quinn turned back to Aleksas and asked, "You said you wanted to go see Nash earlier. About what?"
Aleksas wore an expression that seed to question whether he needed to answer, so Arthur took it upon himself to update Quinn.
"To talk about the picture that let you know he was in the sa location as I was," he said. "It’s rather inconvenient for if my na and face beco common knowledge across the multiverse and beyond."
"Inconvenient? How so?"
"The Progenitor goddess is apparently after ," Arthur responded.
A look of understanding passed over Quinn’s eyes, imdiately followed by a trace of recollection as she spoke.
"She did tell sothing about being upset that she hasn’t found any leads on her Slayer’s location yet."
She spoke with full knowledge that Arthur was the Progenitor godslayer, information she naturally had after going to Valmone shortly after Arthur had left for the first ti.
"I can see how it would be a problem for you if any of her dogs sniff out that picture I saw," Quinn added.
Her mouth opened as if to continue, but she sensed sothing that made her pause, and at the sa ti, Aleksas frowned lightly.
"Why are all of you deciding to co here today?" he grumbled.
"Coincidence, Aleksas," Quinn replied as she rose to her feet, "Or maybe it’s all fate," she added with a chuckle, then turned to Aleksas with narrowed eyes.
"Gim a second, and don’t leave or I’ll chase you to the ends of the Cosmos."
"Just go already," Aleksas snapped, and Quinn vanished with a light laugh.
Arthur silently shifted his gaze between Aleksas and the spot Quinn had occupied, raising an eyebrow as he asked, "Shouldn’t we be going to find Nash before he leaves Valmone?"
"It would be in your best interest not to add Quinn to your list of problems."
Aleksas’ reply made Arthur imdiately understand that Quinn saying she’d chase him to the ends of the Cosmos was not a joke.
Just as he spoke, Quinn reappeared, holding onto the arm of an unwilling man as she said with a smile, "Look who I found!"
Seeing the confused man whose arm she was holding, Arthur instantly understood why Aleksas had grumbled earlier.
The person Quinn had gone to ’find’, in other words, grab and drag away from whatever important business they were handling for no reasonable reason, was soone Arthur recognised.
How could he not recognise them when his encounter with them had been the root of his current problems?
He was a man with a deathly pale complexion and slit-pupil eyes redder than blood, his face frad by wavy strands of ink-black hair parted down the middle.
The confused expression he wore was natural, as he had been in a nearby universe checking on the task he had assigned to so of his progeny when Quinn appeared, then grabbed his arm and teleported him to another universe, to a place where Aleksas and another Progenitor were seated.
Quinn lowered him onto one of the empty seats the Levites had been using before returning to her own seat beside Arthur and waving at the man.
"Hi, Vlad."
For a mont, there was silence, and then the Progenitor Vampire finally spoke through his blood clone.
"You couldn’t have said that without dragging here?"
"Aleksas is here too, so say Hi to him as well," Quinn replied, her words in no way addressing his question.
Vlad turned his gaze toward Aleksas, who silently shook his head, and together, both n exhaled softly.
Clearly, Quinn’s randomness wasn’t anything unusual to them.
Vlad then ignored Quinn and looked at the only other person present, Arthur, who imdiately spoke.
"I would normally say ’good to see you again’, but it’s not really good to see you again, Mr Primordial Vampire."
The instant Arthur spoke, Aleksas’ expression turned incredulous, Quinn’s eyes widened in surprise, and Vlad’s expression darkened with displeasure.
Naturally, Arthur imdiately noticed the change.
’I guess being very obvious about not being happy to see him wasn’t a good idea...’
However, Arthur’s assumption about the reason for Vlad’s displeasure couldn’t have been more wrong.
"You..." Vlad spoke, his fist slowly curling around his armrest, "Are you mocking ?"
"...eh?"
Arthur was confused.
Sure, his words weren’t exactly polite, but they were far from being mockery in any way, shape, or form.
The one who cleared up his confusion was Celestia.
[Master, did you forget what Lostvayne said before? Vlad is the ’Origin Vampire’. Not the ’Primordial Vampire’.]
At this, Arthur’s eyes widened, and he imdiately understood where the issue had co from.
"Ah! My apologies! I made a mistake. I assud all Progenitors were Primordial Breeds of their races, so I didn’t think it through."
Hearing Arthur’s words, the other three Progenitors looked at him with incredulity at his misassumption of sothing that was common knowledge even to non-Progenitors.
"Why would you even make such an assumption?" Quinn asked with a laugh, though her laughter stopped the mont Arthur responded.
"Well, I didn’t have anyone but myself to use as a reference, so I just assud what was true for applied to every other Progenitor."
The table went silent as Quinn’s laughter faded, and for the first ti since she appeared, her expression turned serious.
"Are you saying you believe you’re a Primordial Breed?" Vlad asked, a trace of displeasure still in his tone.
"Yeah," Arthur responded casually.
"And what is the basis of this belief?" Aleksas asked imdiately after, his expression completely devoid of any emotion.
Arthur instantly realised there was a piece of the situation he was missing, but he answered honestly nonetheless.
"The Devour Class System in the Valmone Universe. It shows my Race as ’Primordial godslayer’."
[Wait, master. What did you just say?]
Celestia’s voice echoed loudly in his mind, and Arthur winced slightly.
’Why are you, of all people, so surprised? You’ve seen my status board many tis, haven’t you?’
Indeed, Celestia had seen Arthur’s status board in the Valmone Universe, even after recovering her mories from fusing with her fragnt on Chazat.
Since neither she nor Lostvayne had ntioned anything, Arthur hadn’t thought there was a problem with what his status board displayed.
[Master...when I last checked your status, it said ’Origin godslayer’, not ’Primordial godslayer’. It has always been that way.]
’...wait, what?’
Now it was Arthur’s turn to be confused, but his internal conversation with Celestia was interrupted as Quinn grabbed his arm and demanded.
"How long have you been seeing the word ’Primordial’ on your status board?"
"Huh? Oh, since the first ti I went to Valmone, so...since I was 16."
Her reaction left Quinn gaping in shock, and Arthur couldn’t help but feel a little annoyed.
"Can you all stop looking at like I’m speaking a language from the Previous Era and explain the difference between Primordial Breeds and Origin Breeds so I can understand why you’re all so shocked I’m seeing the word ’Primordial’ on my status?"
Arthur was growing frustrated at the lack of explanation, but neither Aleksas nor Quinn seed willing to answer as they imdiately began speaking between themselves.
"That thing is connected to the Concept of Knowledge," Aleksas said to Quinn. "There’s no way it wouldn’t be able to tell sothing as basic as the difference between a Primordial and Origin Breed."
"So for it to show him ’Primordial godslayer’ after scanning his existence, it ans it’s a fact."
The mont Quinn said this, she snapped her gaze toward Vlad and called his na.
"Vlad..."
"Don’t worry. I care not for your Primordial business," he said before Quinn could continue.
With those words, his blood clone lted into a pool of blood that seeped into the ground and vanished.
Aleksas stood imdiately afterwards, cosmic energy gathering around his palm as he reached out and carved a clean circular hole in reality using the power of one of his Dictums.
"Nash can wait," he said. "We’re going straight to Origin."
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