Chapter 311: Arthur Algebrute (Patreon)

Arthur

Twelve Junior Sublime Soul Primal Elementals, one for each element. One Strong Soul Demigod Avenger. One Sublime Soul Apocalypse Phoenix Hatchling. One Runic Balance Chaos Dragon Hatchling. And one Spirit Guarding Fox Kit.

Arthur Algebrute, the Sinful Devourer, looked over the list of monster races chosen from the last round of the monster tutorials and smiled.

The Runic Balance Chaos Dragon Hatchling was almost certainly one of the Heavenly Spark Soul King’s subordinates, but not a powerful one, probably Raven Gale if he was going to guess. The twelve elementals were likely the Heavenly Spark Soul King himself, the man seemingly having found a way to split his soul into thirteen separate fully functional pieces. And the Strong Soul Demigod Avenger and Spirit Guarding Fox Kit had to be Diana Alvaro and Vanar Tedros, Primordius’s daughter seemingly having failed to kill even one of her progeny.

But then who was the Sublime Soul Apocalypse Phoenix Hatchling?

Given it was a sublime soul variant race, by process of elimination it had to be a clone of the Mistress of Oaths and Deception, but to what end? The generation of some kind of crafting material for an apocalyptic weapon?

This seemed to make sense. And it was a fun bit of extra information to gain.

Rising up from his cross-legged posture on the polar ice cap of Serpent’s Nest, the former capital planet of the Prime Material’s monster faction, Arthur shook his arms and legs ever so slightly, making sure no one else on the planet noticed. Then he began walking toward where his meeting with his subordinates was going to take place, moving slow due to his short little legs.

If there was one decision he regretted, it was changing his cultivator form upon advancing to become an elder god. Given his skills, he only had two forms, his true monstrous nine-headed body which would make him feared in the Prime Material and a cultivator body to better practice his control over energy. Why then had he sacrificed his old adult humanoid cultivator body for a chibi form of Primordius? He had no idea.

Yes, his new Divine Child persona definitely got under the older god’s skin, but it wasn’t worth it.

After almost a month of walking, moving at mortal speed for a little added variety, he arrived at his opulent capital, all gold and shiny, with lamppost lights forged from compressed stars; buildings made of bricks of pure darkness, a processed form of black holes covered in magical metals to actually reflect light and normalize gravity so as to not kill all the mortals; and a concentration of primal energy found nowhere else in the Prime Material. Then he slowly walked to his palace, a space even more opulent, even the most mundane parts made of A rank materials instead of pure processed matter like most of the city, and moved to his throne room before taking a seat on his throne.

The large ornate chair, an actual divine artifact designed purely to be the most comfortable seat in the entire universe, was probably his favorite of the artifacts he’d gained after helping to destroy the Prime Material’s monster god faction, but he still felt a little silly sitting in it, as it was obviously designed for the Radiant Behemoth’s human form, which had been over three meters tall.

Still, it was comfortable, and Arthur couldn’t ask for much more.

“Welcome, Lord Divine Child.” In front of him, in five rows of four on either side of the throne room’s central aisle, his 40 subordinate gods knelt.

In the very back on both sides were the twelve poop beetles he’d been raising for the last couple trillion years, the youngest of his gods, along with four weak gods who’d joined for protection from their enemies rather than any kind of loyalty.

Then in front were his eight most important subordinates. From his left to right they were Karvac Nomen’ha, the Divine Seer, a tuathan god specializing in the time element and temporal divination; Xor, an ancient swamp monster who was basically sentient sludge, Arthur’s former inside man among the Prime Material’s monster gods; Mer Ka Lin, a half-human half-elf mage god known as the Magician; and Goraline, the Radiant Beauty, a half-human half-succubus who’d been his first subordinate in the Prime Material. Then, on the other side, there were Q Wade, the Origin of Death, a human god of assassination; Q Wade’s wife Q Vora, the Origin of Life, a human healer goddess and the mother of Primordius’s divine twins; Q Farlan, the only divine child of the Q couple, the Lord of Samsara; and, last, and certainly least, the Collector, a green-skinned humanoid with three eyes and a ridiculously long tongue, a half-monster half-elf who’d never been given an actual name.

These eight were the only gods among his subordinates who were older than 45 trillion years—the only ones party to the pact between him, Primordius, Quandra, and the rest of the Prime Material’s gods, the one which resulted in him agreeing to not kill any of the other parties in exchange for all the gods of the Prime Material keeping his old identity secret—so they got to stand in front during meetings like these.

“Thank you all for coming.” Arthur bowed his head slightly, his high voice managing to contain gravitas thanks to trillions of years of work. Then he lifted his head again. “You may all rise.”

As all the gods moved to standing positions, he turned to the Divine Seer. “Karvac, you called for this meeting. What would you like to discuss?”

Karvac Nomen’ha, one of only two purely time element gods in the Prime Material, knelt down again. “My Lord, there is a period of great change ahead, my divinations not allowing me to see anything, and the origin seems to be the conflict between the Primordial Humans and the Heavenly Spark Soul King.”

“That sounds about right.” Arthur nodded once while keeping his voice casual. “Gods are about to start falling, so I wouldn’t expect divinations to work, not to mention all the mortals with shadow line uniquenesses.”

Karvac just stared at him for a second, and Arthur caught several of the other gods looking at him with shocked expressions as well. Then Karvac hit his chest again, seemingly wanting to highlight his loyalty. “What would you have us do?”

“Whatever you want.” Arthur waved his hand dismissively, still keeping his tone completely casual. “It’s not like we’re inherently antagonistic to either side of that war, so feel free to fish for benefits as you like. The Primordial Humans have resources and the Heavenly Spark Soul King is a general crafter who’ll be able to make almost anything at a divine level within less than 20,736 years, so there’s a lot we could gain from both sides.

“Just be ready to start expanding our Territory in about 5,184 years when the inter-universe portals start to open more.”

“You believe the Heavenly Spark Soul King will advance in only 5,184 years?” the Collector hissed out, having also fallen to one knee but not adding pretend loyalty on top.

“Give or take.” Arthur shrugged. “He already has everything he needs to do so. And I imagine he’ll want to advance as soon as possible, well before the end date of his deal with the messengers. So the timeline should be accurate.”

The gods in front of him, more ready this time, each faked different emotions, some respect, some awe, some fear, but it was all a game, and Arthur was growing bored. His plans had already been in place for 45 trillion years, just waiting for the runemaster truesoul to again reach B rank or higher, and this time the Primordial Humans wouldn’t be able to stop that from happening by killing the truesoul before it could even reach F rank.

Still, Arthur had to play his part, so, for the next several days while all his gods were gathered, he did.

And then he went traveling, moving to a small little E rank planet for a bit to play one of his favorite games.

He chose a cultivator baby, in this case the first child of the planet’s ruler, and then he decided on the date the boy would kill himself, 274 years and seven days later. He couldn’t meet the child in person, couldn’t directly influence him, but he could manipulate the events in the boy’s life, and, when he was done, he would move onto a new child.

If he could get twelve children in a row to commit suicide on the exact dates he’d planned, he’d keep playing the good guy role he’d settled into ever since his advancement to become an elder god. If he failed, however, he’d break his contract with the gods in the Prime Material and have some different kind of fun, killing gods of various factions and framing others for his actions.

Whatever the case, things would be ending soon, and he would finally be able to stop the multi-layered charade.