Chapter 104 - Down To The Core

'I thought he was going to make my team do it but if it's that guy, it's definitely possible for him alone.'

Lute was a demigod, even so he hadn't reached the stage of being able to destroy an entire planet single headedly. If the other transcendents in his team helped him out then it was possible though.

However for Lewis who was at most a low tier deity, he could shatter a planet as easily as how a stone would shatter a thin piece of glass.

'This force of his, that Lewis guy seems to be the leader, there were three other demigods directly under him, about a dozen transcendents and a few tens of sovereigns.

And he sent all of them to look for a planet with crystal rain?'

Looking at the rain falling, Lute wondered if they had accomplished their goal and would move on to other tasks, probably protecting Arthur from the shadows.

"So, Lute and Tasha alone, the rest stay back."

Those were Arthur's first words after he came out form the teleportation gate.

"Your highness, are we really going down that hole?"

The hole was large, if one were to look at it from space, it would seem like an entire country got gouged out from the ground.

That was just how large it was, however Lute's concern wasn't it size, but how deep it was.

"Sure."

Looking at the Hazmat suit on Arthur, Lute realized he really intended on going to the bottom and sighed.

It was expected, after all, the hole went straight down to the core of the planet.

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The average planet, usually has three layers.

A crust, a mantle, and a core.

The core was then sub divided into the outer and inner cores.

The mantle was usually solid, but sometimes it behaves as a viscous fluid, one happened to be known as magma. As hot as this mantle is, the outer core has been found to be at a higher temperature than this.

And then we have the inner core, simply put, it's a hot dense ball with a temperature of nearly 10000 degrees Fahrenheit.

'There's no way I can survive that.'

Although Arthur was a genius grandmaster, it was simply impossible for him to survive temperatures far hotter than volcanic eruptions.

This is where the Hazmat suit comes in. Custom made with the efforts of a few of the devildom's leading alchemists and magi-tech engineers, it was a suite designed to protect him from these high temperatures.

Even if he were to swim around in the magma while wearing it, he would be unharmed.

'The demigod realm Nessie whose skin was used to make this would be proud.'

With such thoughts in mind, the four of them descended down the hole, to the core of the planet Girex.

In other news, Lute and Tasha were still confused on what Arthur wanted with the core of a planet.

"How many crystal rains has this planet experienced in the last 6 weeks?"

"Not sure the exact number but we observed at least 4-5 times a week."

Arthur put his hand on the chin of his suit after hearing Lewis's reply.

'It fits the criteria, then why can't I sense it already?'

After a few minutes, the group finally arrived on the lowest floor of the structure constructed inside the hole.

To put it simply, it was a giant elevator, designed to take one down to the bottom.

Arriving there, Arthur and the others exited the elevator and stared around in wonder, except Lewis, that is.

'I know I ordered for those to be built but after seeing it, I don't want to destroy it anymore.

But unfortunately, for me to become stronger faster, I have to do this.'

Convincing himself with that, Arthur walked over to the centre of the platform spread out over the planets core.

'This thing is made of metals expensive enough to buy out the entire planet itself, so much money used.

I might cry if this isn't a hit.'

Looking at the thermometer of the top right corner of the transparent face over of the suit, he sighed in exasperation.

'10000 degree Fahrenheit my foot! This thing is reaching nearly twice that.'

He turned around to look at Tasha and Lute who had used their energy to form a protective layer around their bodies, Tasha had two very thick ones.

Lewis had also done the same, not for protecting his body, but to prevent his clothes from melting.

Hoping to at least reach their stage faster, Arthur activated the power of the law of time.

Feeling his left eye getting hot, he guessed it had probably turned blue again. This was the first time he had allowed the power of time influence him to this extent, willingly.

'I heard about but seeing it is really surprising.'

Lewis looked at Arthur who could use a law's power with relative ease while being a grandmaster.

Arthur who was receiving a look of admiration from his subordinate, was completely concentrating on sensing what was within the core of the planet.

His magic power moved as he began to cast a spell, speaking in a language that none of those watching could understand.

'Tch...This is really hard.'

By the time it was done, there was a bright flash of light and the originally yellow core of the planet, turned a deep red colour.

The trio watching were surprised, they all had one thought.

'Did he really just cast a spell on a planet's core?!?!'

Arthur who had expended all his energy, collapsed due to exhaustion, but was quickly caught by Lute who had noticed this earlier.

"Tsk!"

Hearing Arthur audibly click his tongue, Lewis figured something must have gone wrong somewhere.

"My lord, is there a problem?"

"Lewis."

"Yes my Lord."

"Is that thing blue?"

'That thing', was none other than the planetary core they were looking at, and it was obviously not blue.

"No, my lord."

"Then it's a miss."

Arthur said with a tinge of annoyance before struggling to stand on his own.

Hearing his words, Lewis couldn't help sigh in exasperation.

Even in the crystal realm, finding a planet that had experienced the crystal rain as much as Girex had was time consuming.

They had to observe for at least 5 weeks and make sure the crystal rain fell at least 4 times a week for it to match the criteria Arthur gave them.

Arthur noticed the look of exasperation on Lewis face and decided to give him consolation.

"Well, it's not exactly a miss. It's a hit, just not the one I want right now. 

It's still useful though so, pack it up."

With those words, the look on Lewis face brightened visibly, Arthur staggered to the elevator while refusing Lute's request to aid him.

'Gotta get used to this feeling of fatigue, else in the future I'd be useless after I exhaust my energy in a fight.'

With such thoughts, the four went back up the elevator. Arriving at the top, only the demigods from Arthur's force and the transcendents in Lute's team were around.

As for the other subordinates, they had all been evacuated from Girex, after all, the planet's destruction was nigh.

The moment Arthur arrived and gave them the order, they all moved to return to the spacecraft waiting for them above.

'He even has a space craft of his own? One large enough to hold all those subordinates of his?'

Lute had to give up on being surprised about the things he didn't know about Arthur.

He was not the only one who guarded Arthur before he entered the academy so he didn't know much about his actions before then.

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Ancestral Regression.

It was a spell that let one tap into of their bloodline and gain the power of their ancestors.

The spell had many requirements, and of these was the blood of the ancestor in question.

Another was that the ancestor, must have not been dead for more than 100,000 years.

It was a spell with fairly few requirements but a high failure rate, after all, things like affinities and compatibility mattered a lot.

'I'm gonna use that spell too, the ideal target ancestor would be Lucifer but he's dead so getting his blood is impossible.

So, Grandpa it is.'

Arthur's grandfather, Diablo, was the minimum of what the spell could consider as 'ancestor'.

'I can only do it once, so I'd get Kronos' blood too, there's no way I can get the primordial goddess of Olympus, Gaia's blood after all.'

Kronos' parent, primordial goddess Gaia, was sealed hundreds of thousands of years ago, not long after Kronos was defeated by the three elder Olympians.

Unlocking the seal required the consent of all the twelve Olympians, something Arthur would definitely never get.

'I'd ask dad if he can get me Kronos' blood next time he comes over.'

With that thought, Arthur looked out of the window to the scene where those around him were currently marvelling at the result of a successful ancestral regression spell.