Their arrival coordinates were set to Nienope, and the mont both of them stepped out of the Cosmic Gate that opened inside the waiting area of the Cruafen Continent’s Administrative Complex’s top floor, the space in front of Arthur began to distort.
With a warp, Nicole appeared, throwing her arms around Arthur, who imdiately returned the hug, kissing her lightly before nuzzling his head against her neck like a cat.
Elaine rolled her eyes at the display of affection and walked toward the door, opening it to et Stelan, who was just about to reach for the handle.
"Oh, hello."
"Hello," Elaine echoed, responding to the stunned man’s greeting.
"Arthur’s a bit busy reuniting with his lover. Co back later," she added, walking out of the room and closing the door behind her.
Stelan nodded lightly, his gaze still on Elaine, faintly surprised at how much she had changed compared to the last ti he had seen her.
’She’s still a Transcendent, but her power... It reminds of Arthur before he beca a Deity.’
Once that thought crossed his mind, Stelan’s eyes widened as he imdiately identified the cause of that familiar feeling.
"Ultimate Seed?" he muttered, and at his words, Elaine froze, turning toward him with a raised eyebrow.
"What about it?"
"Oh, nothing. Just surprised you got one too, just like Arthur," Stelan said, waving his hands lightly.
Elaine stared at him in silence for a few seconds, then turned and walked away, deciding there was no need to tell him she didn’t have one but three Ultimate Seeds.
Netherknight hovered lightly above her shoulder in his Wraithfly mode, as she, curious about the powerful dark presence she sensed on the floor below, went down to check it out.
’Co to think of it, how did Nicole and that Stelan guy know Arthur was around? Did they put so sensor in his office or sothing?’
Elaine casually arrived at the correct conclusion as she descended the elevator, stepping out onto the other floor just as Arthur was exiting his office with Nicole.
"Stelan! Good to see you!"
Arthur greeted the man with a smile, spreading his arms wide for a hug, and Stelan, softly sighing, returned the hug lightly with a greeting of his own.
"Good to see you too, Absent Boss."
Arthur chuckled at the man’s words, slinging an arm over his shoulder and pulling him along as he said, "Get ready, Stelan, I’m about to be far more absent than I’ve ever been! At least three centuries!"
"That’s not sothing you should say with a smile on your face..."
Despite Stelan’s incredulous expression as he spoke, Arthur just kept laughing.
Stelan could only heave a sigh of exhaustion at the reaction, knowing there was very little he could do to change Arthur’s mind at this point.
They went down to the floor below, where Nicole had been a few monts earlier after receiving an alert about spatial activity in Arthur’s office, and the scene Arthur was greeted with was one that left him mildly surprised.
Seated opposite each other at a table with table clocks placed on both sides were Layla, Arthur’s childhood friend, and McEnda II, one of his strongest political and military allies in this universe.
Between them was a chessboard missing a large number of pieces, all of which had been eliminated during the match.
Layla was fully focused on the ga, so much so that she didn’t even react to Arthur’s presence as her pupils moved across the board, searching for the best piece to move into checkmate.
To the side, her maid and guard, Number Two, quietly prepared extra cups of tea for him and Elaine, who was seated on a chair nearby, looking out through the glass walls of the building toward the horizon.
"They’ve beco close over a shared interest in chess," Nicole said, offering Arthur a brief explanation for the scene in front of him.
Just then, McEnda moved one of his pieces, placing his Queen into a position where it had a direct line to Layla’s king, while his Rook and Knight also supported the threat.
"Check," he said with a faint smile.
"Damnit!"
Layla slamd her fist on the table, the magnetic chessboard vibrating lightly from the impact. Number Two imdiately placed a parfait cup in front of her, then moved around the table, clearing the chess pieces in a flash before setting tea for Arthur and Elaine.
"Hmm? Oh, Arthur, you’re back," Layla said, finally noticing his presence, and Arthur couldn’t help but chuckle.
"Yeah, I’m back," he said, before turning to McEnda, who waved lightly with a smile and added, "Is Gozon that free these days that a Demon King like you has the ti to co over here and play so chess?"
"Oh, no," he replied. "We’re very busy, in fact. So of the other factions have started to realise Jamie’s gone, after all."
The man’s words made Arthur blink in shock, and after a quick calculation, he responded.
"So it took them 97 years? Just how did Jamie manage to fool them for that long?"
"I should be asking you," McEnda shot back. "Can’t you use that cosmic energy thing too?"
Arthur silently raised his hands in mock surrender, shaking his head as he took a seat at the table.
"I’ve got no clue how he pulled that off," he said.
After taking a sip of his tea and placing the cup back down, he looked over at McEnda and asked, "So? Why’re you here playing chess during a ti like this?"
"Well, Gazer said you were gonna be coming over soon, and that you’d be bringing trouble. So I ca around to wait for you."
McEnda’s response left Arthur confused for a mont as he wondered who ’Gazer’ was, before he recalled that one of the 72 Demon Kings ruling Gozon bore that na.
"Demon King of Truth, was it?"
"Yeah," McEnda confird. "He’s been researching inter-universal transfer lately, and in the process, he picked up a powerful spatiotemporal ability that lets him see possible futures or sothing like that."
Arthur glanced around the room at the others, then back at McEnda, his gaze questioning whether the information the man had just revealed was sothing he should be sharing with non-Gozonians.
"He already told us all about it before," Layla said after noticing his expression.
"Apparently, Sir Gazer said the circumstances are bad enough that disclosing information about his secret research is trivial," Nicole added, taking a spoonful from Layla’s parfait.
Layla slid the entire cup over to her, then looked at Arthur as she spoke. "Which makes curious just what he saw in those Parallel...?"
"Paths. Parallel Paths," Arthur said, filling in the word Layla had missed.
"Right, Parallel Paths. I’m very curious what he saw you do in those possible futures."
"And there you have it," McEnda said, finishing his explanation for why he was there.
Arthur pieced together the information he’d received from them and very quickly reached a conclusion.
’Gazer seems to have seen the aftermath of whatever confrontation would happen between Alexia and Roseborn after I remove her curse.’
That was the only thing he could think of that fit the idea of ’trouble’ that had brought him to Valmone.
’I should take the ti to check the Parallel Paths after this,’ he thought.
Arthur had already planned to do so after arriving in Valmone, to see the possible outcos and figure out how to steer things toward the most favourable one, but it seed soone had already been doing that before he even got here.
"So? What are you up to this ti?" McEnda asked, pulling Arthur out of his thoughts.
"Before I explain that, I want you to answer a quick question for ," Arthur replied, picking up his teacup and using magic to warm it lightly.
"If a brand new ’Race King’ Authority is created, for a Race that’s never had a Race King-level Ruler before, would the Master of the Universe be alerted?"
McEnda thought over Arthur’s question in silence for a few seconds, then nodded once.
"Yeah. He’d definitely be alerted," he replied.
"I see..."
That was all Arthur said in response, and McEnda imdiately had a premonition.
"Wait, Arthur! Have you—"
"No, I haven’t upgraded my godslayer Lord Authority to the ’King’ level," Arthur said, cutting him off before McEnda could finish.
That was the truth, since the universe still hadn’t detected that he’d reached High-Tier Deity. Only after that would the Race Ruler Authority upgrade process be able to begin.
He finished his tea in one go and set the cup down before continuing, "Now then, about your earlier question."
Arthur took a few monts to decide which parts of his plan he could tell McEnda before speaking.
"Let’s just say I want to use the Abyss Labyrinth for sothing. But it carries the risk of drawing the attention of the creature that’s made the Labyrinth its ho."
"!"
McEnda’s expression darkened imdiately at Arthur’s words, and without hesitation, he rose from his seat.
"Let’s talk sowhere else."
With those words, McEnda condensed darkness law energy to create a spatial gate, and seeing it, Arthur shrugged and turned to Elaine.
"Stay with Layla and Nicole for a bit, okay? I’ll be back soon."
He then waved at Layla, kissed Nicole lightly, and stepped through after McEnda, the two of them moving through space to the Demon King’s ho planet, Gozon.
McEnda’s gate led straight into the planet’s Interstellar Citadel, the headquarters of their intergalactic operations, and the mont Arthur stepped out, a violent wave of cosmic energy hit him, trying to force him back into the gate he’d just co through.
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