Chapter 32 - Origin Of The Rumors

"So where do we start, how bout I just recount everything that happened from that night?"

As Arthur said that, he began speaking of what happened after the party on his birthday ended.

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After the celebration party was over, there was an after party for the higher nobles and the royalty to attend, even so it only lasted for about an hour.

After this, Arthur walked up to Hades who was trying to prevent Cattleya from taking another drink and just abruptly said.

"So, I feel like my magic blooming is not gonna happen."

At his words, all the royals left in the room, including Grand Duke Eryrth and Belphegor turned to him in shock.

"Um..I don't follow, how did you arrive at that conclusion?"

Seeing as everyone else was silent from shock, Inglis decided to address the elephant in the room.

"The magic blooming and sprouting of wings, which happens first?"

At that question, all of them replied almost immediately.

"Magic blooming."

"Good, now have any of you sensed any changes in my magic levels today?"

When Arthur asked that, they realized that they did not sense Arthur's energy being unstable like it always is before the magic blooming. Cattleya who had used detoxification magic to clear her drunkenness then answered.

"No, your energy has been the same since morning."

"And that's your answer to why I know I won't have my magic blooming."

At this point, Diablo sighed and asked,

"I don't exactly get why you think so, besides one's magic blooming can be delayed by a few days, sometimes even weeks."

The others nodded in agreement, although it was rare, it was not unheard of. However, Arthur just shook his head saying.

"It'd be better to just show you."

As he spoke, he shrugged his shoulders lightly, revealing a pair of black wings. The wingspan was about three meters and there was some sort of rune drawn on the inner parts. The color transitioned from black to silver around the edges, as for the shape of the wings, it looked like a mixture of high-speed and soaring wings.

As they saw the wings, they were all shocked, Diablo even dropped the glass he was holding. This was expected, no matter how long one's magic blooming was delayed, their wings never sprouted before it happened.

"Since when have you had them?"

"Just this morning." Arthur replied to Hades' question.

The fact that Arthur had wings now meant that his magic blooming was supposed to have already occurred, however there was not change in his energy amount and instead he found it harder to manipulate it than before.

Before this, he could his magic to cast basic level spells, even though they were weakened to the point where his fireball spell was as small as a match flame, however he could still use the magic. Right now, he couldn't use anything at all, even using artifacts that automatically absorbed energies was difficult.

This was an unprecedented situation, as such they were at a loss on what to do. Diablo immediately recomposed himself and spoke,

"Belphegor, starting tomorrow I want you to search through the libraries about similar situations like this, we need to know if this is temporary or it'd be permanent."

Belphegor nodded immediately, Diablo then turned to Arthur and asked,

"Arthur do you feel-"

"Sad? Unhappy? Far from it, I feel normal, finding out I might not be able to use it forever sure does piss me off slightly but it doesn't feel like a loss because I couldn't use it properly in the first place."

Arthur cut Diablo off before he could finish his question, Cattleya just silently hugged him, Arthur flinched and pushed her away.

"Why are you all acting all sentimental, it's me who's not gonna be able to use magic but I ain't feeling bad, also stop trying to hug me mom, it's awkward."

Hades laughed and patted Arthur's head then spoke,

"Keep trying to get stronger normally, the problem might be resolved once you get to a higher realm." He then walked over to Diablo and whispered to him.

"I think this might be because of 'that'."

Hearing this Diablo nodded in agreement. The 'that' they spoke of was none other than the fact Arthur possessed divinity alongside his magic and some other energy, probably ether like his mother. Diablo and Hades theorized that it was because these energies were struggling for supremacy in Arthur's body, as such he was unable to awaken any of them.

No one else had noticed this besides both of them, Hades noticed his divinity naturally because he's a god, as for Diablo, it was simply because he was just that strong that he could sense it.

As for the third energy he possessed, they just could not tell what it was, maybe Arthur himself knew but he's been silent about it.

"Finally, news of this matter is not to spread outside this room, am I clear?"

Everyone gave his or her consent as Diablo decided to end it there.

Arthur shook his head and walked out of the room, saying he was going to test his wings out.

Naturally, that was a lie, as Arthur actually went to one of the information guilds owned by the drifters. When it came to spreading rumors about any and everything, the drifters were the fastest. Due to Arthur's connection, he managed to come to know the Head of the Drifters in all of the Hell Universe.

He was from a Breed of drifters known as High Drifters, much like High Elves and Arch Devils. Arthur personally met with him and had him spread the information that his magic blooming failed, for a price of course. However, for Arthur money was the least of his problems. The High Drifter gave his word that the news would reach as far as Olympus faster than Hades could return there.

True to his word, word that the prophesied child of destruction's mana blooming failed, spread to various pantheons within the next few days, at this point Layla had already fallen unconscious so she never heard. The High Drifter personally contacted his colleagues in other universes and had them spread the news as fast as they could.

When Diablo found out about this, he was enraged, this was expected as he had just said for the matter to be kept under wraps, yet not more than a week later, many of his fellow Arch Devil masters were contacting him to find out if it was true.

It was at this point that Arthur waltzed right up to him during breakfast and said.

"I'm the one that spread the news, they were gonna find out anyway, I only accelerated the process."

Hearing that, Diablo flipped over the dining table in anger, that was the exact same logic that Cattleya used when she spread the news that she was the prophesied child's mother.

This time, Diablo didn't buy it, he was about to scold Arthur however Arthur's next words shocked him.

"The other pantheons have had their eyes on me lately, even to the point of sending assassins, they know you're being vigilant so they purposely sent someone weak this time, weak enough for you not to pay too much attention to but strong enough to kill the average superior-stage master, luckily I'm a little bit above average.

I don't want them to bug me anymore so I spread it out so they can let their guards down, at least for a while, torturing assassins is a harder task than it sounds you know?"

It was indeed true that Diablo had been personally intercepting most of the assassins sent to kill Arthur as some of the gods simply couldn't bear to let him live. However, they realized that Diablo could intercept the stronger ones, so they sent ones who were weak enough for him to not pay attention to, after all, Diablo is the king of the Devildom and the Master of the Pantheon, he had other things to do than to be catching assassins.

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"And that's how I successfully convinced him to let the matter go, as for the volleyball, that was simply to relive him of his anger through a sport, you should try it out sometime, humans make quite interesting games you know?"

After hearing Arthur's explanation, Layla held her head and sighed in exasperation.

'Although it's true that some of the gods would stop harassing him after this, some might not believe it, but it's not a lie and he actually can't use magic, but they might think it's a lie and- Damn it! I'm done, why am I bothering myself anyway!? It's his problem, not mine!'

She then looked up to see Arthur holding a volleyball staring at her, he smiled and asked.

"You wanna play?"

"I need to hit something to relieve my stress so yes, I wanna play."

As such, she gave up on thinking about anything and just decided to vent her frustrations on the poor volleyball.

On a side note, the ball ended up bursting afterwards. As Arthur held the deflated ball, he had one thought in his head.

'Frustrated women are scary.'