Chapter 186 - The Hell Universe’s Consciousness

*BOOM!

Unfortunately, the upper body of the humanoid avatar was destroyed by Diablo before it could finish transforming.

"If your aim was to anger me then you were on the verge of succeeding."

[Apologies, you refuse to set a default appearance so the one set by the previous master remains the default.]

Diablo just sighed and replied.

"Anything that's not my mother."

[Accepted]

The voice replied and the body reformed itself with Kelly's appearance.

"The watcher? Oh well."

[It is an appearance of a being with no blood ties to you.]

The voice spoke through the copy of Kelly.

"Alright then Hell, tell me why you need the shard."

Diablo's words revealed the identity of the voice that had been speaking to him;

The Hell Universe.

To be more precise, its consciousness.

Universes were things that have existed for millions to billions of years.

Each universe possessed a will from the point of its birth. A will, to survive.

However, expressing its will via words was not possible until it underwent growth and gained billions of galaxies within itself.

Only then, would this 'will', develop into a full consciousness. One that made decisions with a 100% logical mind.

Something similar occurs with galaxies but that is a story for another time.

As for the name the consciousness took on, it was the name of the universe itself.

Or rather, a universe's name would not be decided unless the consciousness agreed to take that name.

"Now that you all know the background knowledge, let's get back to the actual story now shall we?"

[Background knowledge?]

"Never mind, just tell me why you want the shard."

Hell rose an eyebrow at Diablo's words but paid them no further attention. She sat on the ground and began explaining to Diablo.

[The shard, is the shard of a broken universe's core.

I can use that to strengthen myself and reduce the chances of my core being broken into shards like that one.]

Diablo nodded in affirmation upon hearing the information he was given. He felt the shard was similar to the giant core in front of him and his guess was right.

'So that fucker might have destroyed a universe's core somewhere?'

He looked to Hell who was holding her hands out for the core shard and laughed before giving it to her.

The giant shard about 1 foot long and 17 inches wide was irregularly shaped like a random piece of broken glass.

Hell took the shard and held it close to her chest, her eyes then glowed dangerously red as she spoke in a slow manner.

[Get. Out. Of. Here.]

**KYAAAA!!!

There was a short and loud wail as a white haze rose up from the shard. She then took it and put it into her actual core.

It melded in easily and she showed a bright smile at this, however, upon turning to Diablo, the smile was nowhere to be seen.

"What did you just do?"

[The universe the shard came from left a piece of its consciousness in it, I only eliminated that piece.]

Diablo nodded and laid on the ground, he ran a hand through his hair and sighed.

Hell stared at him quizzically like she did not understand the reason for his sighs, she then shrugged her shoulders and was about to dismiss her avatar but something she sensed caused her to shoot a look in a certain direction with narrowed eyes.

[There is a second.]

"A second?"

[A second one like you, a sub-cosmic existence. He just awakened.]

The moment the words left her mouth, Diablo burst out in laughter.

She turned to him and stared at him quizzically for the nth time today.

"Hahahahahahah...Haha..haha…"

He spent minutes rolling on the floor laughing before stopping and speaking out loud.

"I used to hate my father for all the bullshit he pulled but now I think I may understand a bit of his sentiments."

He stood up and patted Hell's head before turning around and walking away.

"Thanks for the update Hell, now it's time to go welcome the new sub-cosmic being in the family."

With that, he warped out of the area, leaving the confused Hell seated on the floor.

[He is even more difficult to understand than Lucifer ever was.

Oh well, on to absorbing that core shard completely.]

And like so the avatar Hell created returned to sand and the core glowed a bit.

◇ ◇ ◇

It was, an infinite darkness.

No matter how far one went, there was no end

No matter how long one waited, there was no dawn.

There was one spot, where there was light.

A throne that floated within the darkness--Only there.

A figure that had the shape of a person sat on that throne.

However, this time, the figure was not Arthur's.

He was the one seated on the ground in front of the figure.

He looked up and saw the face of the person seated on the throne.

"Myself?"

It was himself, if he was 5 years older.

[Yes, yourself.]

"Is this a dream of some sorts?. The last thing I recall is blacking out after getting shot.

It's also weird that I blacked out, just what was in those bullets?"

[Soul Poison]

The figure of the older Arthur that sat atop the throne answered.

"How do you know? And what are you anyway?"

[I am you, what else do I look like?]

Arthur stared at this futuristic-looking version of him in silence for a few moments before speaking.

"Me from the future?"

[Future? You really have a wide imagination. If time travel were that easy, a lot of problems in the cosmos would be solved.]

"So you're not from the future? Then where are you from, I don't recall ever looking like you at any point in time."

The older-looking Arthur sighed and replied.

[That is what I should be asking you.]

Arthur's face contorted slightly, he stood up and looked around a bit but was met with nothing more than darkness everywhere.

Turning around, he saw a gray orb in the distance that he remembered seeing the last time he was here.

His body was also slightly transparent like before so he understood it was not his physical body.

Attempting to summon Celestia also did not seem to work. After confirming all this, he turned back to the older version of himself on the throne.

Before he could speak, the older version stood up and walked in the opposite direction.

"I don't think you'd be able to go past 10 meters, tried it and it didn't work."

[Did you try again?]

The older-looking version of him walked past the point Arthur was previously unable to and kept going into the darkness.

Arthur hurriedly followed him and saw he could also move past that point.

[Let me tell you a story.]