A few hours later, Arthur floated in open space while being motionless against the endless dark expanse of space. Before him was a planet that looked as though it had survived a war meant to erase it from existence rather than conquer it.
Entire continents were scarred beyond recognition, their surfaces fractured and discolored, vast regions reduced to lifeless gray and black. Even from this distance, Arthur could see the outlines of ruined megacities and broken orbital structures scattered like debris. Whatever had happened here had not been quick, nor merciful.
He narrowed his eyes, and extended his senses towards the planet. That's when he sensed it, an overwhelmingly powerful presence, an extremely strong life force signature from the surface of the now barren planet. The pressure this powerful entity exerted was unmistakable, the presence was heavier than anything Arthur had encountered before, even stronger than what he had felt from Steve. And yet, surrounding that presence, there was… nothing, it was clear the entity had killed all life on the planet.
Together with the presence of a single person and the absence of any other unsettled him far more than the power the entity possessed.
He could still feel his connection with technology through his technopathy. And from the information he gathered from them, he found this planet had once been home to an advanced civilization, one capable of interstellar travel, and yet not a single living being remained to accompany the remnants of their creations.
"Such is fate in this world," Arthur sighed as he muttered under his breath.
Arthur shook his head, forcing the thought aside. He already knew where this path led.
He angled his body forward and shot toward the planet, accelerating until the stars stretched into thin lines behind him. The pressure of reentry wrapped around him moments later, fire blooming across his body as he tore through the atmosphere.
Unlike before, he didn't slow himself immediately. He wanted to feel the weight of this place, and act as the last beacon of hope that the people of this world never received in time. He promised in his heart to bury the thing that destroyed all life on this planet and make it its graveyard as a tribute to the lost lives of this planet.
As he descended, the presence grew clearer in his senses. He could clearly feel whoever it was they were much stronger than him.
Arthur frowned slightly, it confirmed what he had already suspected after extracting the Apostles' memories. Whoever waited below was not merely powerful by this universe's standards, they operated on an entirely different scale.
Typhon.
His last known location was pulled directly from the minds of the Apostles and it led him here, to this dead world that felt more like a desolate land than a battlefield.
Within seconds, Arthur emerged from the clouds above what had once been a metropolis. Towers lay snapped in half, streets reduced to jagged canyons, and the remains of massive structures were scattered like toys abandoned by a careless child. At the center of it all, carved into the planet's surface, lay a magic circle so vast it dwarfed the surrounding ruins. Its runes glowed faintly, etched with symbols that made Arthur's instincts tighten the moment he laid eyes on them.
Sinister, that was the only word that came to mind as he inspected the magic circle.
Arthur slowed, landing just outside the boundary of the circle. He deliberately avoided stepping onto it, studying the lines and symbols carefully. Whatever purpose it served, it wasn't benign and he felt it could also be a trap. The air above it felt heavier, as though something fundamental about reality had been bent and forced to obey rules it was never meant to follow and he could clearly feel the remnant life force surrounding the magic circle.
Only then did he look up, at the center of the circle sat the being responsible for all of this.
Even seated, Typhon was colossal. He was nearly half a kilometer tall, his body was a mass of pitch-black scales that seemed to absorb in light rather than reflect it. Each scale was scarred and worn, carrying the weight of countless battles. Massive wings rested folded behind his back, their torn membranes twitching faintly.
Arthur adjusted his stance, preparing to strike before whatever ritual Typhon was engaged in could continue.
That was when Typhon's eyes opened and it was pitch black and bottomless.
…
Typhon had sensed the intruder long before he entered the atmosphere of the planet.
He had chosen not to move, or to interrupt. Whoever this was, they had already crossed a line simply by coming here and they would only serve as fuel for his recovery.
Now, as he looked down at the tiny figure standing just beyond the magic circle, recognition settled into place, it was the person that had killed his Apostles.
When the connection to his Apostles had been severed, the final moments of their life had been transferred into Typhon's awareness. Their fear, their disbelief and the human face that had been the last thing they saw before oblivion claimed them.
Typhon's gaze hardened. "Human," he rumbled, his voice was rough like stone grinding against each other and it echoed across the ruined city like distant thunder, "you dare kill my Apostles and then appear before me!?"
His lips curled back slightly, revealing rows of jagged teeth. "Do you not fear death?"
Arthur tilted his head upward, meeting Typhon's gaze without hesitation or reverence. There was no trace of fear in his expression, only focus and a quiet intensity that made Typhon pause for half a breath longer than he intended.
"So you're Typhon," Arthur said casually. It wasn't a question, more like just a statement for himself.
That dismissal irritated Typhon more than the presence of Arthur, his Apostle's killer.
His aura flared briefly, and the pressure around him spiking but he forced it back down. Rage was inefficient, and Typhon had not survived as long as he had by indulging it blindly. He studied Arthur instead, letting his senses probe the human's form, his power, the strange way reality seemed to accommodate him rather than him just existing was unsettling, as it was for most beings.
At someone of his power level it was easy to see the affinity of a person that he just took a glance at, but seeing someone towards whom the elements were gravitation like a chick to a mother hen was surprising. He had seen people who had extremely high affinities towards various elements, but nothing like what he was seeing at the moment. And the more surprising part to him was how young Arthur was and the level of power he could sense from him.
After a moment, Typhon's tone shifted.
"Human," he said more calmly, "how did you achieve this level of strength in this godforsaken dimension?"
Arthur's eyes narrowed slightly. "Why are you interested?"
Typhon's grin widened, it became both predatory and curious all at once. "Because I can sense it," he replied. "You stand at the brink of Celestial rank, just one step away from it. I can help you ascend if you tell me how you reached your current strength."
Internally, Typhon was already weighing possibilities. This human could not exist, not with such growth at such a young age that required either a monstrous inheritance or an encounter so rare it bordered on the impossible. He had to kill him before he became an obstacle in his path, but before that he wanted to know how he got so strong so fast.
If this dimension possessed something capable of producing beings like Arthur, then it might also hold the key to Typhon's own advancement, or even resources that could help in repairing the damage left by the Throne's blade.
Arthur frowned slightly. 'Celestial rank?' he muttered inwardly.
He was a bit confused at hearing the Celestial rank, the term was new to him, but the implication didn't. From the memories he had procured, Typhon was not native to the Chimerian home world, he was someone who arrived at that world through a spatial tear. Whether he came from another galaxy or an entirely different reality didn't matter.
What mattered was that this "Celestial" realm likely corresponded to something Arthur already understood, Godhood. And Typhon must be already at the Celestial rank, it was going to be a tough fight but he has to take care of this entity before it could do more harm to the surrounding galaxies.
"I can take care of ascending by myself," Arthur replied calmly after a moment. Then his tone hardened, a faint edge of anger slipping through his usual composure. "But before that, answer me something. Why are you massacring world after world?"
The question hung in the air, heavy and deliberate.
Arthur had seen enough through the Apostles' memories to know the pattern. Typhon ordered conquests, and entire civilizations were crushed beneath his influence. And when their usefulness ended, their populations were wiped out completely. The Apostles hadn't known why, only that it was necessary for their god's power, so Arthur directly asked the person in question.
Typhon's expression darkened.
Slowly and deliberately, he rose from his seated position, the ground beneath him cracking and sinking under the shift in weight. His towering form loomed higher, shadows stretching across the ruined city as his presence intensified.
"It seems," Typhon said coldly, "that you are not aware of your place, mortal!"
The next moment, he vanished from the center of the magic circle.
Arthur's instincts screamed at him. He sensed it a fraction of a second too late, air distorted above him, as mass and momentum converged into a single catastrophic point. Arthur's eyes widened as a colossal foot descended from above, carrying enough force to pulverize the city beneath it into dust.
BOOOOOOOMMMM!!
Arthur teleported instantly, reappearing far to the side as the stomp landed where he had stood just an instant away. The impact shattered the ground, sending shockwaves racing outward and tearing the remains of the metropolis apart.
Arthur steadied himself in midair, staring at the newly formed crater.
"…Fast," he muttered, genuine surprise creeping into his voice. Typhon, even with such a big body, could move so fast.
And that realization settled heavily in his chest as the dust slowly rose around them.
***
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