Chapter 72 - Level Four Situation

"Arthurius Vaughnheim"

Arthur stiffened involuntarily, he did not even have the peace of mind to think about the barrier that was suddenly around his room.

'That- impossible!'

There were only two people in existence who knew that Arthur's full name was actually 'Arthurius'. Of those two, only one knew his last name was actually 'Vaughnheim'.

The problem however, was simple.

'She's not supposed to be in hell at the moment!'

"'She's not supposed to be in hell at the moment!' is what you're probably thinking right?"

At this point, Arthur now understood why Layla gave him her condolences as he was leaving.

'She knew!'

He also realized who the 'troublesome' person the high drifter who did not seem like one, spoke of was.

Turning around with a cramped smile on his face, he waved lightly and spoke.

"Hello mum, long time no see?"

"Hello Arthurius, it's been nearly 5 months. You seem to have been up to a lot."

Cattleya replied to Arthur's greeting with a smile that could melt the hearts of many on her face, however for Arthur, he could not see that smile at all.

'She's pissed, she's definitely pissed!'

Arthur was 110% sure she was definitely angry. After all, she called him 'Arthurius', twice!

In his 13, nearly 14 years of life, Arthur had realized a simple method to tell if his mother was angry at him. And that was by her calling him by his actual name.

It was an action she took unconsciously, the more times she called him by his name, and the more annoyed she was at him.

'She called it twice! This is a level 2 situation!'

Arthur had devised levels for gauging his mother's anger, the more times she called him by his full name, the higher the level.

"What's wrong Arthurius? You're strangely silent.

'Level three!'

"Nothing, just surprised to see you here, that's all."

"Oh really, you sure you aren't feeling guilty about anything, you're fidgeting a lot."

"Huh?"

Arthur looked at his body at her words, however he discovered he was not fidgeting as she said he was.

'Then wh-'

His thoughts were cut off when he suddenly heard her voice in his ear.

"You have a lot of explanations to give me Arthurius, a lot."

She had suddenly moved from his couch where she was seated, to right in front of him within the few seconds he looked away. Meanwhile Arthur's mind was elsewhere. 

'Level four!! I'm doomed!'

◇　◇　◇

"So let's begin shall we?"

After a few knocks to the head that felt more painful than any of Zach's attacks, yet dealt him no damage besides the light swelling on his head, Cattleya's anger finally dissipated.

Most of it however as she was still slightly pissed, her annoyance was evident in her tone.

As for Arthur, he was made to kneel on the ground and was prostrating while touching his head on the floor.

"The first of your crimes-"

"I plead not guilty!"

"Shut up Arthurius."

"Yes mother."

Arthur immediately became docile at his mother's words. Cattleya continued speaking.

"Your first crime is your stupidity."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Arthurius…"

"No no no, you can't blame me for that, there's no way I would keep calm if I was just suddenly called stupid, even by you."

"You do so when Layla does it though."

"She's special."

"More so than your mother?"

"You're a different kind of special."

Cattleya narrowed her eyes at him, after a few seconds, she asked skeptically.

"Arthur, you couldn't possibly-"

"Nope, far from it."

"I hadn't finished speaking though."

"We have similar thought processes, so trust me when I say that I know what you're thinking and you're definitely wrong."

'I definitely don't feel 'that' way about Layla.'

Arthur's thoughts were interrupted by Cattleya's next words.

"Then why did you kiss her?"

If he was having a drink right now, he would have definitely choked on it after hearing that question.

"I didn't kiss her okay?! It was just a light peck! And to her forehead at that! I just wanted to tease her a bit."

"Adolescent boys sometimes tease the girl they like though."

"Pfft…What am I? Eight? I'm older than all that bullshit."

"You're just 5 years older, it's not much of a difference."

He was about to say it was a  big difference before remembering  that his mother was a ten thousand year old Archdevil, 5 years was like a blink of an eye for her.

He sighed in exasperation at that fact, then a dangerous thought suddenly came to his head.

'Mum's actually quite o-'

"Hmmmmmm!"

Cattleya's timed glare however, killed all those thoughts that threatened to surface. 

'Scary!'

"I believe I was talking about your stupidity right?"

"We're back to this now?"

"Of course, I wonder in what universe, do 13 year old superior stage masters who supposedly can't use their energies, challenge superior stage grandmaster realm devils who've been monsterized."

"He was originally an inferior stage though?"

"Does that really matter, did you know he met the requirements to become a legendary? If you had dawdled any longer he might have actually become one."

Arthur was shocked at this revelation, however if one thought about it calmly, it was actually true.

The process of improving health, increasing longevity and growing more powerful was accomplished by increasing energy levels either by cultivating their energy within or absorbing energy cores and other energy treasures, training in martial arts or other skills and eventually gaining authorities.

Zach had met the energy requirements for the legendary realm, his skills were also not low as he was still within the top 1000 in his school year.

His soul strength was partially lacking and his body had lots of impurities as he had absorbed the runes and energies of dozens of people.

Even if he became a half-baked legendary, it did not change the fact that he was a legendary.

It was an existence that one would need to be at least a superior stage grandmaster to face properly to have even a sliver of a chance of victory.

Even Arthur who could kill superior stage grandmasters while at the superior stage of the master realm was no match for a legendary.

Of course, Lute had noticed this and would have intervened regardless of Arthur's opinion if it seemed like he was going to break through.

However this was unlikely as Zach made a stupid decision.

He left a bunch of summoning magic circles that were siphoning part of his energy as such he did not have enough left in his body to break through.

Even so, given time, he would have still become a legendary regardless of the amount of energy that was in his body at the moment as the requirement wasn't the energy currently in the body but the upper limit of the energy they could hold and how much of that energy they could use.

Breaking through was simply using one's energy to forcefully break the current upper limit and Increase it exponentially. It was faster and more efficient than waiting for the upper limit of one's energy to naturally break and increase naturally.

"So do you realize how stupid your decision was now?"

"Yes mother."

Of course, although Arthur said that, he really didn't think so, after all he had the trump card of using the power of the laws.

Especially the law of time that he had begun to comprehend slightly after using it for a while against Zach.

'Alexia did say that using the law was one way of increasing comprehension speed, but it doesn't always work though. Sometimes you just have to sit down and use your energy while accessing the power of the law to understand how the law works.'

With those cards under his belt, Arthur was 100% sure of his victory against Zach.

Cattleya looked at her son who acted like he agreed with her but actually didn't and sighed.

She then decided to address the main issues at hand.

Looking at Arthur who sat up while kneeling, she asked the question she had wanted to ask for years now.

"Arthurius, three years ago you met a woman named Alexia. Did she do anything strange to you?"

"Alexia? I'm not gonna ask why you know her name but no she did not."

Arthur was thinking that the guards he was with at the time definitely told Cattleya about it when her next question came.

"Then how can you use the power of laws?"

"Use what now?"

"Don't play dumb with me Arthurius, did you really think I wouldn't notice. The traces are everywhere around the scene of your battle."

"That was clearly Lute, come to think of it, where is he?"

"Don't try to change the subject Arthurius, I personally checked the traces of the battle scene myself. I know what laws that were used there.

I don't recall Lute having an affinity for wind or time. And he definitely doesn't have an 'Annihilation'."

With that, Cattleya effectively cut off Arthur's escape route.

As shown before, Cattleya could tell what laws were used in a certain area by tracing the residual essence left after the laws were used if they had not dissipated yet.

This was how she was sure Arthur was the one who used the laws.