Chapter 148 - Reactions

"Although I have this, we'd still go out to get spares soon you know."

Lute's expression contorted at this but Arthur just grinned and took out a document from his inter spatial ring.

Tossing it over to Weinbert, he asked him to look it over which he did before revealing what was supposed to be a bright smile, but he only looked creepy due to the dark circles under his eyes.

"It's good that I did not have to go through all the stressful procedures to have my new research approved. I even got a wonderful budget!"

He folded the document and gave it to his second assistant who placed it in another case before standing up and bowing lightly towards Arthur.

"Pleasure doing business with you, your highness. I shall take my leave."

Arthur nodded and Weinbert turned around to leave but he suddenly stopped and spoke.

"Your highness, the gauntlets may be powerful but like any artifact, when it is hit by a high frequency mana pulse, it has a 90% chance of failing to operate properly."

"So in other words, it is very much susceptible to an artifact canceller?"

"Yes, to the point that the backlash may even take effect."

Arthur narrowed his eyes and glared at Weinbert however, the man simply shrugged his shoulders while still maintaining his creepy smile.

"Just get out already."

"Hahahahaha...."

Weinbert laughed loudly while being led out of the room by the duo from Lute's team who led him and his assistants in.

Arthur looked at his receding back and sighed before looking over at the gauntlets in his hand.

"Should be enough to deal with the aftermath of the Auction..."

He then stood up from his seat and tossed the gauntlets to Lute.

"I'm going to attempt comprehending some laws, i want no disturbances."

Lute bowed lightly after catching the gauntlets and placing them in their case.

◇　◇　◇

Meanwhile, in a certain backwater galaxy, out of the reach of the Devildom's influence, an unfortunate realm lord was gritting his teeth as he glared at the celestial who was seated on his throne.

However, he could do nothing about it for various reasons.

One, was that the celestial was far stronger than he was and could ever hope to be.

The second, was because of what he could see around the celestial's body. As someone who dabbled in the laws of fate and destiny, he could see the fates of various being using his authority.

He could also see the destinies and fortunes of these beings too. The celestial in front of him, was swimming in fortune.

His fortune was so thick that it formed a giant circular shaped golden cloud around him and stretched on for dozens of meters in all directions.

'A being with such fortune would succeed in almost anything they endeavor in right now, unless some great event happens to reduce their fortune.'

The celestial ignored the gaze of the realm lord in front of him and utilized his authority.

|Show me my chances of success, [Authority of Destiny]|

As he spoke, an oppressive aura poured out of his body, enough to suffocate the realm lord who was in the low tier deity realm.

His cloud of fortune seemed to shine brighter for a second, the next; its bright light dimmed and it became gray.

The shiny golden cloud of fortune suddenly dimmed and became a deep dull gray.

|Impossible!! Everything was fine for the past few days, how did it suddenly go bad?!|

He bellowed in rage as he saw his own fortune go gray, thinking of the implications, his anger increased even further as he slapped his fist on the armrest of the throne, shattering it to pieces.

|My chances of success were over 80%, now it's only 50%!! This means i have a 50% chance to fail, such a sudden decrease is obviously not natural, and someone must have caused it.|

His eyes flashed golden as he began using the laws of fate and destiny to find out the cause for the sudden decrease in his fortune.

|Who was it?

When was it?

Where was it?

Why was it?!|

He repeatedly asked himself these questions as he burnt stupendous amounts of energy to fuel his authorities that were working at full power.

However, the results he got were less than satisfactory.

|It was not the master of this universe, if he took action then my fortune would have gone black, the current me is not enough to face him after all.|

He gritted his teeth in indignation as he tried once more to discern the identity of the person who caused his drop in fortune.

|Is there really someone whose fate I cannot discern, or perhaps it's not that I cannot discern their identity through fate but I'm not allowed to.

In other words, a being with a higher causality index than I do!|

He then stood up from the throne and walked forward, kicking the half-conscious realm lord in his way, he left the room while thinking aloud.

|I should recover my strength and carry out my plan in the next year, after all these millennia, I cannot pass up the chance to see what lies above the monarch realm.|

He kicked off the ground into the air, flying out of the atmosphere of the large planet he was on and staring at the void of space in the realm he was in.

'Drastic measures are needed.'

He spread out his arms and spoke out loud.

[Authority of Decadence: Indulging Declination]

The essence of the law of decadence spread out from his body and went on to cover various other planets and star systems within this realm.

|Within a year, their excessive indulgence in pleasure should bring about a great deal of energy for me, enough to return me to the intermediate stage, nevertheless I cannot be too sure.

I would use the Authority of Death's life drain on some planets too, it won't be much but since I'm already close to the intermediate stage, it should be enough.|

He turned around and flew towards a random planet to begin putting his plans into action, sucking out the life from all the planets around him, and using that energy to boost his strength even by a little bit.

In addition, no being in this realm could stop him, after all, it's strongest existence; the realm lord, was casually stomped by him.

The celestial carried out his plans without putting too much thought into the consequences it would have on both this realm and any surrounding realms.

◇　◇　◇

As the celestial was committing mass genocide of planets in an unknown realm, the high drifter who was in charge of the drifters of the hell universe, Larry was having a meeting with his fellow high drifters.

"So you're telling me that not only is the 'lord' himself coming over, he's bringing a dozen ancients with him as well?"

"Yes."

"And some of the ancients came ahead of time to scout this universe?"

"Yes."

Another high drifter replied to him as held a hand to his head and thought about the implication of the information he just found out.

"I hate the ancients, they're so stuck up."

"A lot of them look down on us for no reason too."

"Simply because they were born earlier than us."

The other high drifters in the room were expressing their dissatisfaction at the news they had just received.

**BAM!

Until Larry slammed his hand on the table, cracking it slightly and silencing them completely. He then ruffled his hair and placed his palm on his face before speaking.

"Since the ancients are coming over, it's high time I stopped masquerading as a 'high'..."

He dropped his palm from his face and the aura around him changed, the other high drifters in the room looked up to see his eyes glowing an eerie purple and they all instinctively shivered in fear.

He paid this no mind and completed his earlier statement, this time, in his true voice.

|It's high time I resumed my role, as an 'ancient' too.|

Larry stood up and turned to the high drifter who answered his first question.

|The location for the auction is the nemo galaxy, judging from the Devil king's recent movements, the galaxy would most likely suffer a lot of damage on that day.

Make sure that none of the things our lord acquires is damaged in any way.|

He then looked out the window and narrowed his glowing eyes before continuing.

|I would handle the impatient brats who came over first.|

The moment he was done speaking, he vanished from the room. Seeing as he was gone, the high drifters in the room heaved sighs of relief as they thought about their leader who dared to call 'ancient' beings, 'brats'.

It was obvious that he was not just any drifter.

When Arthur said Larry seemed to be more than just a high drifter, he was right. The leader of the drifters of the hell universe was not a high drifter at all.

Arthur only sensed this because of his identity as a progenitor.

After all, Larry was a being closely connected to a progenitor himself.

Answering directly to the origin of all drifters, one of the oldest and most powerful drifters in existence.

Ancient Drifter, Larry the Ubiquitous.