Chapter 73 - Partial Truth

Cattleya's ability to read the traces of residual law essence allows her to deduce what laws were used in a certain area recently.

This was how she discovered she was being protected by the law of causality when she was pregnant with Arthur.

Arthur stared at his mother with serene eyes, she looked back at him with a similar gaze.

He was her son, and he had a similar thought process to hers, that's why he was sure.

She was not going to let him off until she got the answer she wanted, no matter how long it took.

Running away was also futile. Still, he decided to try his luck.

"Lute could have made some new advancements, just because you don't have an affinity doesn't mean you can't use it.

Besides, I'm sure he reported to you that he ended Zach himself."

"As if such a sloppy report can fool me, besides, I already scanned Lute.

There were no traces or any of the used laws in his body."

She walked over to the couch and took a seat before continuing.

"There were so many high definition videos of your fight taken you know?

Others may not notice but I noticed the domes of darkness.

I said domes in plural because there were more than one casted. One of them was obviously by Lute, the other was you."

"It could have been Layla?"

"I admit that she's quite talented, however she does not have the energy to create a veil capable of blocking out legendary realms."

Arthur stared at his mother who seemed to have prepared an answer for every possible question he could have asked to make her think he was not the one responsible.

Sighing in defeat, he decided to tell her part of the truth.

'Definitely not telling her I'm a progenitor.'

"Fine, yes I can use the power of the laws, however I don't do it consciously. It's only when I make some sort of breakthrough or master a technique that I do it involuntarily."

He stood up and walked over to his bags on the table, picking out a bottle of water, he drank half of it before continuing.

"The day I first fought against Layla, that was when I noticed it. It happened when I perfected uncle Creusery's technique.

The academy entrance exams, when I reached the peak of the superior stage of the master realm.

Lastly, against Zach, when I knocked on the door of the grandmaster realm.

None of them have been voluntarily, it just happened."

Of course, this was a lie, it was only the first time that was involuntarily. Back then he didn't even realize he used the power of a law, and it was only a little. Too little for anyone to take note of unless they had the power of time.

None of the spectators there did, so none of them noticed.

Cattleya still found it suspicious, however it was slightly more believable.

"Does it have to do with that woman?"

"Yes, she's the one who made me realize what I used was the power of a law, she also told me about my affinity for the powers of time."

'That woman', was of course, the candidate of time, Alexia.

Arthur's affinity of time can be said to be a result of his grandfather. The 'Titan of time', Kronos. 

Kronos was a high tier deity who was proficient in the law of time and ruled the then universe of Orthys, now Olympus, for tens of thousands of years.

Cattleya also thought this was why Arthur possessed the affinity for time as Arthur was naturally Kronos' descendant.

"Then your 'Annihilation', what is it?"

Annihilation.

It was the name the Devilian royal family called their bloodline ability.

It was a special ability that manifested in them at young ages and bloomed fully when they comprehended the laws of Destruction or Annihilation.

Each of their Annihilations was different, the conditions to awaken them were also different.

As Arthur did not have the ability to use his energy, or so Cattleya thought, she believed that he would not manifest his Annihilation yet.

However, she was quite surprised when she sensed traces of Annihilation coupled with the power of the law of destruction at the scene of the battle.

Arthur had manifested his Annihilation, and he could tap into its power already.

Thinking about how more than half of the estate was completely destroyed as a result of Arthur's Extreme Nothingness, Cattleya figured that his ability might be similar to her pure unrestrained destruction.

"I don't know what it is, I only got a feel for it after uncle Creusery showed it to me multiple times. 

It feels like... destroying things completely?"

Of course, the true nature of Arthur's Annihilation was far more powerful and more dangerous than that but he would only discover this later in the future.

If Diablo had gone to check the scene, he may have recognized Arthur's Annihilation, but he did not.

While thinking she was going to test out her new martial art on her brother, Cattleya asked the last question she had.

"Since when could you use your energy?"

Of course, using his Annihilation or the power of the laws was not possible without being able to use his energy in the first place.

Arthur had four energies in his body, Magic, aura, Divinity and some other negative energy which he felt was at odds with his divinity.

So far, he could only use his magic and his aura. He mostly used his aura when attacking with weapons durable enough to withstand it.

"About 3 years ago, not long after I met Alexia. It started with my energy flow slowly returning and it eventually became faster."

Cattleya sighed and looked at the ring on Arthur's finger.

'That's Creusery's concealment ring, no wonder I didn't notice it.' 

Arthur did not always wear the ring, only wearing it occasionally when he wanted to hide his energy.

Today, he wore it because of one simple reason. He didn't want anyone to know he was a half step grandmaster yet, until he could hide it like he always did.

Cattleya however, had other thoughts.

"You said you knocked on the door or the grandmaster realm right, that means you're ready to advance. However it seems to have been stalled, most likely by the fact that your energy isn't flowing currently."

"Yep"

"Good, take off the ring and circulate your energy, I'm gonna guide your break through. 

I'm guessing that your wings seem to act as the conduit for the energy circulation so open them up."

Arthur stared at his mother for a few moments before finally deciding to tell her the last thing he did not say.

"Um…if I use my energy, my body-"

"Won't be able to take it right? I guessed that was the case, I'm gonna prevent that so break through as fast as you can so your body can become stronger and can hold more of the ridiculous amount of energy that can make even Legendries jealous."

Arthur laughed at his mother's words before agreeing with her. He had absolute confidence that she would help him and prevent his energy from going berserk and destroying his body.

He took off the ring and shrugged his shoulders, revealing his black with a tinge of silver colored wings.

His wingspan had grown slightly to nearly 4 meters now and he had to move to a more spacious part of the room to let them out fully.

Seeing the chaotic state of her son's energies made Cattleya frown.

'Excessive energy built up so he could advance, if he held it back any longer it might have had adverse effects given his situation.'

Arthur's body was currently a walking energy bomb, and he didn't even know it.  If he was forced to release his energy in a dire situation, he might as well have just exploded altogether. 

He planned to fight against the mastermind of the incident tomorrow. If he did so while in this state, he would have undoubtedly lost as most of his focus would be on calming his energy as it would have been rampaging as he was in a fight.

Shaking her head at the ridiculous situation, Cattleya began using her own magic and aura to help Arthur move his energy through his energy circuits in a way that would calm them down temporarily.

'Should last long enough for him to break through before they start overflowing.'

"All right, follow my lead, you don't need all your energies to break through, just your magic and aura are enough.

Try to hold back your divinity that seems like it wants to eat me up and that other weird energy you have."

"It's a lot harder than it sounds okay?!"

"Better start now or you'd implode very soon."

Hearing that, Arthur looked up and stared at Cattleya with watery eyes.

"You won't let that happen right?"

"If you don't start now, I might actually begin to consider it." 

Her reply, shocked him to the core, he even let his hold on his energy slip a bit which earned him a knock alongside a light scolding from Cattleya.