Chapter 35 - Progenitor

"The law of causality does not take too kindly to those who impersonate progenitors, if you actually weren't one, you'd be dead by now."

Alexia's words shocked Arthur to his core, as he thought about what would have happened if he wasn't actually a progenitor, he felt anger rising towards her. Alexia noticed this, ignored it and continued speaking.

"You may already know this but, a progenitor is the first of every race, and is also the lifeline of that race, upon the death of the progenitor, it is impossible for new members of that race to be born. That's how important progenitors are.

As I said before, the law of causality does not take kindly to impostors, if one were to claim being a progenitor when not actually being one, they would receive a warning of some sorts. If they did it a second time, the warning would be fiercer, they'd instinctively know that if they were to claim such again, it would spell their death.

Naturally, the third time's the charm, at that point, it doesn't matter how strong you are, the law of casuality would act to end your life."

She casually revealed important information to Arthur, information about progenitors that dwarfed his previous knowledge of them, his anger was totally forgotten as he stared at her in shock.

"Progenitors have various bonuses, one of which is that they have all the possible racial traits their race could have, another is that they do not need to be transcendents to comprehend a law, that's why I gave you that crystal."

At this point, Arthur had to stop her from speaking so he could digest the incredible information he just received. It all sounded absurd but he had no choice but to believe it, the law of casualty acting was proof enough for him.

"Is there any other mind blowing information you have to say?"

"Nope, anything else is restricted area, you should find out on your own."

Upon hearing this, he sighed in relief as he was not ready to hear acquire any more mind-blowing knowledge.

"Is this common knowledge?"

"Where I'm from it is, I suppose the masters and other bigshots over here know but they're keeping a tight lid on that information."

"I see, do you think they know I'm a progenitor?"

"I doubt that, unless you tell them yourself, they can't know, I only figured it out because I've met other progenitors before, you felt similar to them."

Arthur ordered another cold drink and downed it immediately it arrived in an attempt to cool his head. He looked at Alexia who was mixing various wines in front of him and asked,

"So, because I'm a progenitor, I can gain an authority even though I'm not a transcendent?"

"Nope, you'd be stuck right before the point where you get an authority, you'd only get the authority when you become a transcendent, not immediately though.

The only authorities progenitors can have before reaching transcendent realm is the 'authority of a progenitor'."

"What abilities does it give?"

"Find out yourself, it differs depending on the race."

After arranging all this information in his head, he finally decided to ask the main question that had been on his mind,

"Why are you telling me all this?"

"Quite straightforward huh? Oh well, it's good for me. The reason is simple; I want you to help me in the future when you're stronger so I'm helping you now."

"Help you with what?"

"I'd tell you when you're strong enough, even if I tried telling you now, you're not qualified to hear it."

"Huh?"

In response to Arthur's surprised voice, Alexia sighed and opened her mouth to speak, however Arthur could not hear a single word, it was sounded garbled to him.

"# #### ### ## #### # ######### ## ###########.

See, you didn't hear anything right?, it probably sounded all garbled to you, that's because you don't have sufficient strength or index to hear what I said.

By the way, the censoring is also part of the law of causality's job."

She then gestured to the bag containing the law crystal dispelled the barrier around them before continuing,

"When you regain your energy control, start using that, just holding the crystal would give you the knowledge inside it even if you don't have the energy to use it, I configured it that way."

Her words stunned him, there were many ways for law crystals to be created. One was when the energy of that law naturally condensed and crystalized.

Another was when a person who had comprehended the law in question, used their energy to create a crystal, this way, they could add conditions for the crystal to be used like making it so that only a certain number of people could use it or only a certain bloodline could use it.

Adding these special conditions required one to have an unbelievably high comprehension of the law in question, if she was able to configure that crystal, then her comprehension of the law of time must be at a high rank.

"Ah, come closer, I wanna check something."

She stretched out her hand as she said that, beckoning him over. Arthur however, was slightly reluctant. Seeing this, she laughed and spoke.

"If I wanted to do anything to you, this place would be a battlefield already, your guards that have covered half the restaurant won't let me."

As she said this, she gestured to the various men and women in the restaurant who had been staring at them for quite a while. They were also the source of the hostility directed at her earlier. Arthur waved them off and they nodded respectfully before acting like normal customers again.

Arthur then leaned over, allowing Alexia to touch his head. She did this and whispered a few words to herself and her eyes flashed blue. After that she let him go, satisfied at what she had seen.

As for him, he was confused at the multiple images that flashed across his mind, one of them was particularly worrying for him.

"What did you just do?"

"Took a slight peek into your future, didn't see much though, just a certain even that will happen in a few years time."

"What event?"

"Not telling, it's for your own good, you might mess it up if I tell you so I won't."

She then called a waiter and paid their bill. The both of them left the restaurant and walked back to the park where they met in silence until she suddenly spoke up.

"Try not to catch the attention of too many powerhouses, I won't be able to shield you from them for quite a while."

"I caught the attention of too many powerhouses?"

"Yep, that stunt you pulled, disclosing the fact you can't use energy made many of the ancient ones to take note of you, I just stopped an existence on my level form peeking at your destiny minutes before I spoke to you at the park."

Ignoring his surprise, she continued speaking,

"I won't be able to do so for a while, a long while, maybe a few years or decades."

"Huh? Why?"

As she was asked this, she seemed troubled on how to answer, after fidgeting for a while, she sighed in resignation and spoke.

"So I kinda beat up someone important and left them permanently disabled back at home, so I'm currently wanted, I also can't let myself get caught so I can't stay in one place for too long otherwise I'd risk being found.

I've been here for way too long so my pursuers are starting to notice."

Arthur nodded, understanding most of her plight but he still had one question,

"Why can't you just beat up your pursuers too?"

"I can't, they're people I'm close to, they're being forced to come after me, unfortunately the one sending them knows that.

Also due to certain reasons, I'm not allowed to fight the person sending them, that's why I need your help, that's also why I told you to go to Varona.

The damn bastard is stronger than me and even if we weren't prohibited from fighting each other, I can't increase my strength because that would end up causing another problem entirely."

"Your life seems quite, miserable?"

"Unfortunately, you should be happy your dad isn't tryna use you as a breeding horse to get him a kid so he can possess a new body before dying of old age."

The more she spoke, the more depressed she became. Hearing a part of the predicament Alexia was facing, Arthur patted her on the back while saying words of encouragement her.

After parting and promising to meet in again sometime in the future, Arthur returned to the castle with the bag containing the law crystal and some other things in tow.

◇　◇　◇

"... and that's the end of the report."

The head of the guards who were following Arthur around, finished giving a report of Arthur and Alexia's activities to Diablo and Cattleya. After listening to it, Cattleya frowned and said.

"Why the hell is an old hag hanging around my son? Imma go have a word with her."

She was about to leave but was stopped by Diablo, his words were shocking to say the least.

"Don't go pick a fight with her, she is most likely more powerful than you are."

Cattleya stopped upon hearing this, she looked at him and asked skeptically,

"Do you perhaps know who she is?"

"Yes, she's been hovering around here for a while now, I let her be because she was not hostile, didn't expect her to approach Arthur when I was not looking."

After replying to Cattleya, he turned to the head of that guard detail and continued speaking.

"You are misunderstanding something, when she said she was familiar with the previous king she did not mean the traitor, she meant my father."

Diablo's words shocked both Cattleya and the head guard. This was expected as anyone who knew Diablo was aware he disliked talking about his father.

Among the previous kings of the Hell universe, Diablo's father, Lucifer could be considered the most powerful. However, due to strange circumstances that Diablo refused to disclose information on, he met an untimely death.

At the time, Diablo was not strong enough to lead the Hell universe and was hunted down by the previous holder of greed, a half-step Monarch realm Arch devil. The throne of king and master of Hell was stolen from him.

He went into hiding for almost a thousand years, increasing his strength to the inferior stage of the monarch realm. He then came back for revenge, far more powerful than he was before. After killing the previous holder of greed and executing his entire family, he retook the throne of king and appointed a new family to the position of the holder of greed.

His return to power was smooth as not many acknowledged the previous holder of greed as king before, it's just that they were fearful of the power possessed by the one with the Authority of the Master. Nevertheless, even after nearly a dozen millennia had passed, many still referred to him as the 'previous king', which was the reason for the misunderstanding.

"That man never associated himself with anyone weak, besides, there were records of a light blue haired woman with power over time in his journals, her name matched the one you gave. If she really is the same person, then she is not a force to be trifled with."

"Power of time huh? Tch...It's quite annoying." Cattleya clicked her tongue in annoyance, she then spoke to the guard head. "Withdraw the personnel you sent after her."

After saying this, she walked out of the room, the head guard also teleported out to make sure her order was fulfilled leaving Diablo alone in the room. He then brought out a book from his subspace ring.

Looking at the book in his hands, he muttered three words to himself.

"Candidate for Time."

◇　◇　◇

As soon as Alexia discovered her tail was gone, she looked towards the imposing castle in the distance, thinking about the boy whom she just met not long ago.

"Good luck Arthur."

She then revealed her six pair of glistening white wings before teleporting out of the Hell Universe, into unknown territory.