CHAPTER 550

THE COSMIC STAGE

An empty stretch of darkness extended outward into the cosmos into a seeming infinity, the distant galaxies flashing ever so often with a faint flicker of light. In the midst of the cosmic nothingness, spacetime rippled outwardly like a pond of water, a creature crawling out of the ripple by force, shredding the membrane of reality in the process. Its massive skeleton was composed of the slightly curved, central body lined with shiny, black scales, extending to the side into two gargantuan wings, four limbs, and a winding, sharp-tipped tail toward the end.

A pair of sun-shining eyes burst open, the sheer energy contained within the action sending out a sphere-like shockwave, seemingly displacing the space around it. After a moment, the creature began shrinking rapidly, sounds of the bones breaking contained within until it reached the size of an ordinary person – a young-looking man with long, black hair and a pair of golden eyes.

“… hoh?” he exclaimed softly into his jaw as a strange shimmer lit up his eyes that gazed to his left, into the distance that could not be calculated. Just as his exclamation left his lips, spacetime in front of him burned out in a grand splendor of gold, a giant figure standing at nearly eight meters in height walking through. A blonde-haired man draped in a seemingly transparent robe shining with stars like gems walked through, carrying with him a halo eight times his size. The ring spun and bled golden, shining far more brightly than a star; however, the black-haired youth didn’t seem to care all that much, his attention still on the distance.

“You’re breaking the arrangement, Dragon Child.” The man spoke in a deep, unperturbed voice.

"Things must be really bad on your end of things if you're forced to send out a clone," the youth grinned faintly. "Who is it? Riva? Jupiter? Caleb? Clo’gaor?”

“Why are you here?”

“I’ve heard fiddling rumors about the new World-eater Class Human,” the youth replied honestly, shrugging. “Just wanted to confirm them.”

“You can leave, now.” The man said.

“Why? I’d much prefer to stay here and chat for a while,” the youth crackled. “Wheels really are spinning against you, fake angel. It’s like a pandemic,” he added, flipping his hair backward flamboyantly. “Once you let the root take place, it becomes harder and harder to contain it, let alone completely eradicate it.”

“There’s no need for you to spend your energy on worrying about us,” the blonde-haired man said, his strikingly blue eyes and thin lips curving up into a faint smile. “It’s a temporary distraction, at best.”

“… that’s what got you fucked in the first place, man,” the youth shrugged, shaking his head. “There’s no doubt nobody can stand up to you alone, fake angel. But, by now, I’m guessing you probably have around six to seven thousand clones running around and putting out fires. If we fought right here and now, you wouldn’t even be able to defeat me. Besides, that human boy is just like you,” the youth added, his grin stretching. “Contains the same genetic makeup. Which can mean only one thing, no?”

“…”

“Who would have thought that, after all these eons of silence, the good, ol’ Destroyer decided to come back, and choose a human of all things as his Herald. I can’t quite imagine how your mum must feel – seeing the nightmare brought back to life, yet unable to do anything about it. It is kind of poetic still, though – lovers long since torn reunited. Were I bard, this would be the perfect story to tell.”

“Don’t tell me you’re moronic enough to also give yourself over like the Lesser Ones,” the man scoffed. “Don’t make me lose what little respect I have for you.”

“… worried?” the youth grinned. “Nobody’s going to make a move just yet, I don’t think. It’s too early. However… the future is uncertain, fake angel. If you leave the human boy unchecked, he’ll sprawl, and his tentacles will eventually reach us. Just like you, we might start seeing his clones running about – but instead of putting out fires, he’ll be setting them. After all,” his grin turned devilishly sarcastic for a moment. “Isn’t that the nature of the Destroyer? To burn everything to the ground.”

“…”

“Ha ha ha ha, wipe that stupid frown off your face," the youth said, turning around. "Go. Keep fighting the infinite battles. Your life must be quite exhausting, I must admit. Despite your strength," the youth glanced back one last time, slowly beginning to vanish. "And all the infinite wisdom you possess… you'll hardly find a soul envious of your position, fake angel. That, I believe, should tell you everything."

The man watched the space close after the youth, his striking gaze shifting sideways, to his right, to the vast beyond.

“I can spare some time and effort and deal with the boy, if you’d like.” A figure much smaller than him suddenly crawled out from behind him; he was seemingly a boy yet to reach fifteen, sporting similar features save for the color of the halo that was dyed in deep-crimson.

“No,” the man shook his head. “You’re not his match.”

“Hm?” the boy frowned, glancing to his right as well. “Shouldn’t he have just become a World-eater?”

“When I first became a World-eater, I could take on tens of thousands of ordinary ones. You can’t measure the Prime Agent’s strength so linearly. After all, the largest portion of the Edifice’s Energy is allotted to us, especially in his case since he’s still the only Agent. Even with the Edifice of Destruction yet to be rebuilt, I imagine that his raw output is equal to a hundred of my clones or so.”

“… no wonder, then…” the boy sucked in a cold breath, sweating; had he stupidly went after the boy, he might have wound up like over twenty other Agents who were felled by his hand.

“We’ll deal with the boy eventually; really, he isn’t even the problem,” the man shrugged. “It will take him some time to consolidate his strength, to say nothing of the birth of new Agents that will slowly begin seeping away at his allotted Energy. Let him ride the coattails for the time being; instead, I need you to focus on finding Caleb.”

"… he must have come into a stroke of dog-shit luck to be able to evade your senses." The boy spat out hatefully, a scar on his back scalding for a moment as a painful memory ran through him.

“There’s nothing he could have found that would have allowed him to escape my senses,” the man said. “Whatever it is, he’s either built it himself or with the help of someone else. Either way, if he decides to share it with others, dealing with all this nonsense will become more and more difficult. Though, knowing him, chances that he’ll actually share it are virtually nonexistent.”

“What about that woman of his?” the boy asked. “If we locate her, maybe we can lure him out.”

“She’s also cloaked,” the man shook his head. “Honestly, she’s even a bigger problem than him. While annoying, Caleb is still reigned in by some reason and logic; she, on the other hand, is completely uninhibited. Anything can and will set her off. Half the problems I’m dealing with right now were directly or indirectly caused by her alone. Them two and the boy are a painful lesson for our ignoring of the Minor Worlds,” the man sighed, his shoulders slumping faintly. “Turns out that diluted energy doesn’t mean only weak people will appear. Rather, if a strong one does, they’ll be far stronger than the rest because they had to overcome the shortage. Find a couple of your Younger Brothers and Sisters and have them help you; start with the Byulic Universes. Their pattern of movement so far suggests they might have at least a makeshift hiding place somewhere in there. Remember, don't engage – inform me if you find them."

"Yes, Brother." The boy bowed respectfully before vanishing in a splendor of crimson, leaving the man alone. The latter fell in contemplative silence for a moment before shaking his head and disappearing the same way he came, leaving the vast stretch of the nothingness empty once more.

A few moments after, two figures appeared seemingly out of nowhere, standing side by side and looking dubiously at the place the giant man vanished. A blue-haired, black-eyed man draped in a loose, silver coat floated with hands in his pockets, the white-haired, twilight-eyed woman next to him sporting a massive, bulky armor set coated in a purplish dye.

“Hey, would you look at that,” the man’s lips curled up into a smile. “The Prime Agent isn’t an idiot, after all.”

“Of course he is,” the woman scoffed angrily. “Why did he assume you made it? Why couldn’t I have made it?”

“Because you’re too dumb.”

“… do you want me to rip you apart?” the woman growled.

“Oh, calm your tits,” the man rolled his eyes. “You’re dumb, I’m clever; you can punch a star to death, and I certainly can’t. It’s been countless years, Tal. Learn to accept your flaws, for the love of god.”

“Humph, perhaps I should have been dumb when I was saving your ass back on Noverteck,” the woman said, lifting her chin up. “That way we’d both be dead and I wouldn’t have to listen to you insulting me time and again.”

“… fine, fine,” the man shrugged, relenting. “You’re the cleverest girl in the entire universe. There, satisfied?”

“Universes.”

“Don’t push it.”

“… fine.” The woman said. “How did you know he was going to be here, by the way?”

“Because I’m smart.”

“Hey!!”

“His Energy has a rather unique indicator,” the man shrugged. “It’s not that others can’t follow him just like me, it’s that they don’t dare. It did pay off, however.”

“Oh, right. What was with that talk about the Destroyer? A new World-eater? What’s that?”

"…" the man looked at the woman helplessly; though he loved her dearly, more so than even he himself thought impossible at one point in his life, she really did lack a desire to learn anything unrelated to the act of killing and causing chaos.

“W-what’s with that look?! I swear, if you call me stupid again—”

“It just means that someone as strong as you were during the Noverteck episode is born; no, he’s probably just about as strong as you are now,” the man interrupted her, replying. “And it means that whatever little order could be found amongst the Creation is about to be flipped on its ass and set on fire.”

“—isn’t he a big deal then?!” the woman exclaimed in faint shock.

“It’s not his strength that’s the big deal,” the man shrugged. “But his affinity. Perhaps I should go and meet the lad; could be good to get a feel of him.”

“Eh? Are we finally joining a faction?! No way! If we’re joining a faction, I want to join Bluebards! That bitch only taught me the first part of their assassination techniques!”

“…” the man rubbed his finger against his temple, forcibly calming himself down. “We’re not joining a faction; we’re scouting a potential ally, or perhaps even an enemy. He’s a new player on the stage and we know nothing about him except that he’s a human. What if he’s a cannibal? Wouldn’t that be bad for us?”

“Oh, yeah. That’s true. Alright, let’s go visit him and beat him up if he’s a cannibal.”

“….”

“A-again with that look!! You do think I’m stupid, don’t you?”

“…” Ah, sweetheart, it’s not that you’re stupid… it’s just that you can’t be bothered not to be… “Whatever, let’s go visit him. We need to move our kids from Autur and, in the future, we’ll need to move even more erratically. I still can’t believe he managed to pinpoint where we live… it can wait, however. That kid’s most-likely gonna go through the hidden, Minor Worlds first.”

“He seemed kinda familiar. Who is he?” the woman asked as the two began shifting through spacetime.

“… eeeh? How can you forget about the time the two of us played with that poor sod until he literally broke out in tears and pissed himself?”

“Oh! Yeah! The Bawler!”

“Yup, yup. Do you remember how he promised he’s going to clean after us and all that? Ha ha ha ha…”

“Didn’t he pass out once I poked his dick with a sword? What a pussy…”

“Honey, there’s no man in existence that wouldn’t…”

“Tsk, you guys are so weak. You can poke me down there however much you want, and I would never pass out…”

“… yeah, but yours is designed to be poked…”

“I see you’re still a pervert…”

“… aaah…”

END OF VOLUME XXII