Godslayer's Legend

Suddenly, they sensed a powerful presence streak across the skies overhead, and Arthur immediately looked up, using his Spatial Authority to magnify the figure before it disappeared from sight.

He found someone dressed almost identically to Pheldir, wearing the same black cloak covered in runic inscriptions, and Arthur was willing to bet the individual possessed an Underworld Token as well.

Pheldir noticed the figure too, and he looked upward before speaking again.

"Other Arbiters are already responding to the summons. Please, just... I need to go. I..."

The man stumbled over his words for a moment before his eyes brightened slightly as an idea came to him.

"I can give you a way to track my location, and since it’s an emergency, every Arbiter in the area will respond. There should be dozens of us. We’ll resolve the emergency quickly, and then I can return to my original task. Just please..."

Cattleya’s expression didn’t change even while he pleaded.

"If you’re one of Hades’ Arbiters, then you should have a method of contacting him or someone capable of reaching him, correct? Then do it. Have him order you to continue your original mission."

The moment she finished speaking, Arthur immediately interrupted.

"Come on, mum, that’s too much of a stretch now. Just let the guy go."

Cattleya glanced toward Arthur from the corner of her eye before returning her attention to Pheldir.

"Get out of my sight."

Pheldir immediately bowed before turning around and flying into the sky, shooting off in the same direction as the other Arbiter.

Once he disappeared, Cattleya fully turned toward Arthur and asked, "What are you plotting?"

Arthur instantly broke into a smile at the question. Cattleya, however, wasn’t amused.

"I’m not joking, Arthur. What are you plotting? This emergency involving the Arbiters, are you behind it? Did you arrange this with the Drifters?"

Hearing that, Arthur immediately raised both hands in surrender.

"Wait, wait, wait. Hold on, mum. I did arrange something with the Drifters, but it’s definitely not this. What I actually arranged with them was something else."

"And what exactly was that?" Cattleya asked.

Arthur exhaled lightly before replying.

"I told Larry to slow our arrival down, so we ended up arriving a day later than we normally would’ve if Larry’s cosmic gate had brought us here at regular speed."

Arthur’s apparent arrangement with the Drifters was something Cattleya hadn’t expected, something fairly tame from her perspective.

She blinked in confusion before asking, "Why’d you do that?"

"It’s simple," Arthur replied. "Over the past few weeks, I’ve been doing this little thing with Parallel Paths where I looked into the possible futures of our trip here to Olympus and tried to figure out every possible danger we might run into while we’re here.

And I realised that if we’d arrived here at normal speed, then I would’ve completely missed the chance to speak to someone I wanted to meet because they arrive about a day after we leave. So I had Larry slow us down so we could arrive around the same time that person would come to this planet."

"And who is this person?" Cattleya asked, curious about who Arthur had wanted to meet badly enough to go through all that trouble.

Instead of replying immediately, Arthur stepped forward, took her hand, and teleported both of them into the middle of a random city square.

The square was heavily decorated. People hung lights across tall stands while vendors sold various items around the area, making it obvious they’d teleported into the middle of a festival.

And there was one thing Cattleya immediately noticed.

’Flowers.’

There were flowers surrounding the fountain they’d appeared beside. Flowers hung between the lights being placed overhead. Flowers decorated billboards and buildings. Some people wore flower crowns while others had flowers woven into their hair, tucked into pockets, or hanging around their necks.

There were flowers everywhere.

When Arthur noticed that she’d picked up on it, he then said, "Let’s just say the person’s very fond of flowers."

The moment Cattleya heard that, her eyes widened slightly as she immediately realised who Arthur wanted to speak to.

"Why?" Cattleya asked with a frown.

Arthur reached out and smoothed the crease between her brows as he said, "You’ve been frowning a lot lately, Mum."

"And whose fault is that?" she shot back immediately.

Arthur laughed dryly before replying, "Yeah, I know it’s my fault. I’m sorry."

He spread his arms lightly and pulled her into a hug, resting his chin against her shoulder as he continued, "Really sorry. I’d apologise a hundred times if I could."

The instant those words left his mouth, every hair on Cattleya’s body stood on end.

She immediately grabbed Arthur’s shoulder and pulled herself away from the hug, forcing him back slightly as she stared at him with narrowed eyes.

Arthur blinked in confusion, tilting his head as he asked, "Mum?"

Cattleya didn’t answer.

She didn’t even know what to say.

’Something is wrong.’

Cattleya was a woman with absurd instincts and senses that could only be described as beast-like, and right now, every single one of those instincts screamed at her that something was wrong.

’But what?’

She couldn’t tell.

It wasn’t some external danger lurking somewhere nearby. There was nothing in this galaxy capable of threatening her.

The feeling that made her instincts scream was coming from the person standing directly in front of her.

’My son.’

But Arthur had only apologised to her.

And somehow, her instincts reacted violently to hearing that apology.

"Mum, are you okay?" Arthur asked, worry slipping into his tone.

Cattleya looked away for a moment, running a hand through her hair and scratching lightly at her head before turning back toward him.

"Arthur, don’t do anything dangerous."

"Huh?" Arthur replied. "Come on, Mum, I just want to talk to her and get to know her. I’m not trying to fight her or anything. I’m not trying to fight anybody or cause problems with anybody here."

Somehow, Cattleya was certain Arthur wasn’t lying about what he’d just said, but that only left her even more confused because she still couldn’t understand why her instincts screamed at her that something about Arthur’s earlier words was terribly wrong.

"Mum, are you seriously okay? Like, you need to take a break or something?" Arthur asked, genuine concern visible on his face.

Cattleya shook her head lightly before speaking.

"No. Let’s just find somewhere to sit down."

With those words, she turned and walked away. Arthur watched her silently for a moment before exhaling softly and following after her.

◇　◇　◇

Arthur synchronised himself with the planetary time of the world they were on and found that it had been around noon when they arrived.

However, even after several hours had passed, there was still no sign of Pheldir or any of the Arbiters that had passed by earlier returning, and Cattleya was beginning to grow impatient.

"Want to go check on him?" Arthur asked.

Cattleya pulled her gaze away from the city square, which had become even more crowded over the past few hours, and looked toward Arthur before speaking.

"You just want to be alone, don’t you?"

Arthur nodded immediately.

"Yup. I don’t know whether you two have met before or what kind of reaction she’d have to meeting you, so it’s probably better if I meet her alone."

Cattleya exhaled silently and rolled her eyes before getting to her feet.

"I’ve got no bones to pick with her, and if she tries anything against me, she’ll pay for it."

Arthur chuckled softly before replying, "Better safe than sorry."

Cattleya didn’t respond. Instead, she raised a hand and summoned a small device with an antenna attached to it.

She infused magic power into it, and moments later, its display lit up with a star map of the surrounding region while a beeping sound came from one edge of the map.

"What’s that?" Arthur asked, looking at the device.

"The tracker I placed on that Arbiter," Cattleya replied.

Arthur’s eyes widened slightly at Cattleya’s words, and he immediately asked, "Tracker? When did you place a tracker on him?"

Cattleya slid the device into one of her jacket pockets before answering, "About 30 seconds after I met him."

Arthur stared at his mother silently for a moment before bursting into laughter and shaking his head.

"Seriously, Mum?"

Cattleya ignored his laughter and continued speaking.

"I’m going after him. Let me see what this emergency they’re dealing with actually is. And I already told you, Arthur, don’t do anything dangerous."

Arthur silently raised both hands in mock surrender before replying, "Don’t worry, Mum, I’m not doing anything silly."

Cattleya stared at him for a moment longer before she wrapped herself in spatial law energy and teleported away, appearing in space above the planet’s atmosphere.

She glanced down toward the planet below, her eyes peering into the city where she’d left Arthur behind.

Her gaze landed on Arthur, who was looking down at something on his phone, then she looked in another direction and spoke.

|Don’t do anything stupid, or you’ll regret it.|

Those words weren’t directed at Arthur, but the person they were meant for heard them echo inside their head and frowned lightly before looking up in Cattleya’s direction.

Cattleya, however, ignored their gaze and turned away before shooting off into the distance.

Meanwhile, Arthur opened the message Larry had sent him, a single text of just six words.

[They are close. ETA, one hour.]

After reading the message, Arthur locked his phone screen and lowered his hand.

"Looks like I’ve got just an hour to move then."

He immediately rose from his seat, raised his right hand, and activated the Cosmic Teleporter, creating a Cosmic Gate that he stepped into moments later.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!