Chapter 1059: An Existential Contradiction

When Arthur regained consciousness, the first face he saw was Celestia’s.

She was seated on the chair beside the bed he was lying on, and the moment his eyes opened, she turned her eyes away from Lostvayne, who was seated on the opposite side of the bed.

[You’re finally awake,] she said.

At those words, Arthur, still lying on the bed, replied, "Hmm, I am."

He immediately sat up, staring at his right hand and seeing that it’d completely healed from the damage caused by the power of the Aspect of Creation that had been inside Gaia’s Divine Spark.

After inspecting his hand, he conjured a mirror with cosmic energy and looked at himself.

"I knew there were going to be some visual changes, but this is a bit too much of a makeover, isn’t it?"

He spoke with a light chuckle as he looked at the white highlights that now covered part of his silver hair. Shaking his head a moment later, he added, "Nope. I don’t like the white. Its presence means I have no control over this power, so I’ve got to get used to it soon."

He dismissed the mirror before turning toward Celestia, who was staring at him with a slight frown.

"All right, carry on," he said casually.

Celestia’s brow twitched at his words, which made it seem as though he was giving her permission to begin complaining or scolding him.

At that moment, Lostvayne spoke.

[Master, you do understand exactly why Lady Celestia is annoyed, right? Even I found your actions... unpleasant.]

"Well, that’s certainly a first from you, Lostvayne," Arthur replied with a light laugh, clearly not minding his Ego Weapons’ negative opinions of what he’d done.

[Master, why must you always...] Celestia grumbled under her breath, biting her lip as she rose from her chair and leaned over the bed toward Arthur.

[Why do you always have to put yourself in situations where your life is in danger, Master? Why?]

Arthur looked at Celestia in silence for a few seconds before he finally spoke.

"You knew, didn’t you? That’s why you wanted me to let go of that Aspect. You knew the Aspect of Creation inside Gaia’s Divine Spark was an Ordered Aspect of Creation."

Silence filled the room for a moment after Arthur finished speaking.

Gaia was the Eternal of Creation, and the Eternals governed the Chaotic Concepts of the Cosmos.

So why was the Aspect of Creation inside the avatar of an Eternal Ordered?

And it wasn’t only the one Arthur had happened to grab. There were other Ordered Aspects of Creation inside the Divine Spark.

’But now that I think about it, there were Chaotic Aspects of Creation as well.’

So both Chaotic and Ordered Aspects of Creation existed within Gaia’s avatar’s Divine Spark.

’Why? Is it connected to the experiment the Eternals and Aggressors had been conducting in the Olympus Universe? The reason they created the Olympus Universe?’

But there was a contradiction in that line of thought, making Arthur stop pursuing it.

"I find that a little weird. If it were really connected to the experiment, I don’t think that’s something you’d know," he said, looking up at Celestia.

Then, something from more than a century ago came back to him, and all the pieces suddenly fell into place.

"When we first met Gaia in Bracken all those years ago, you said something, Celestia."

Celestia’s expression changed as she remembered exactly what Arthur was referring to, and after noticing it, Arthur repeated her exact words from that day.

"You called Gaia an ’Existential Contradiction’."

A light smile appeared on Arthur’s face as he continued.

"You said Gaia felt like a contradiction to you. Obviously, I didn’t understand why you used that term, and neither did you at the time.

But I’m sure you understood the moment you saw Gaia’s avatar. The reason she seemed like a contradiction to you is because she is a contradiction."

Arthur then turned toward Lostvayne and asked,

"Every Eternal governs two Major Concepts of the Cosmos, and so do the Aggressors, their Ordered Conceptual counterparts. Every one of them except the Eternal and the Aggressor of Creation.

They appear to govern only the Chaotic and Ordered Concepts of Creation respectively, but from what I just discovered..."

He paused before continuing.

"Tell me, Lostvayne. Gaia doesn’t govern only one Concept, does she?

Gaia’s reaction was enough to confirm that, so there’s no point hiding it. I’ll just ask directly. The one who actually governs the Ordered Concept of Creation... it’s Gaia, isn’t it?"

Lostvayne didn’t say a word, and Arthur continued.

"Tell me if I’m wrong, but Hyperion doesn’t govern any Concept, does he?

He merely holds the title of ’Aggressor of Creation’ as a placeholder. The one who actually governs the Concept of Creation, both the Chaotic and Ordered sides, is Gaia. That’s why her avatar possessed a mixture of those Aspects, because she possesses both Chaotic and Ordered Conceptual power. Am I right, Lostvayne?"

Faced with Arthur’s question, Lostvayne exhaled softly and nodded once.

Seeing that, Arthur said, "Well, well, well. Now that’s the kind of secret about the Cosmos that can get me in trouble for simply knowing it."

Celestia snapped the moment Arthur finished speaking.

[YOU THINK THAT’S THE ONLY THING YOU CAN GET IN TROUBLE FOR JUST BY KNOWING IT?!

Master, every single thing I’ve tried to stop you from finding out, everything I’ve tried to stop you from thinking about, has been something that can get you in trouble for merely knowing it!

And it won’t be trouble on the level of things that live in the Cosmos. It’ll be trouble on the level of things whose true scale you can’t even comprehend right now!]

Celestia clicked her tongue in irritation before dropping back into her chair.

[Let me tell you a little ’secret’, Master. I really don’t give a fuck whether you know about Gaia’s true nature.

Yes, Gaia does govern the Ordered and Chaotic Concepts of Creation. She is, just as you said, like every other Eternal and actually governs two Major Concepts. And yes, Hyperion isn’t the governor of the Ordered Concept of Creation.

But I don’t care whether you know all that. What I really care about is what knowing that will make you start thinking about. Information has levels, Master. Once you know one thing, it’ll lead you to another, then another, and eventually you’ll find yourself sinking deeper into the quagmire of the Cosmic Forces.

As you are right now, you can’t do anything to influence the Cosmic Forces, so please... just stop.]

Celestia clasped her hands together as she pleaded with him.

[Just... please stop doing things that’ll make those things notice you.]

Arthur didn’t get the chance to respond to her plea because the door to the room immediately opened, and Hades barged in.

"Arthur, are you okay?"

The man quickly made his way over to his son, concern written all over his face, and Arthur responded by raising a hand and waving it dismissively.

"Don’t worry, Dad. I’m perfectly fine."

Hades didn’t accept Arthur’s words so easily. He took a moment to examine Arthur from head to toe with his cosmic energy, and only after confirming that Arthur truly was unharmed did he finally exhale in relief.

That relieved breath, however, lasted only a moment before his expression became one of annoyance.

Seeing that, Arthur rolled his eyes inwardly.

’Oh, here we go again.’

Hades immediately began scolding him.

"Arthur, why the hell were you so reckless?!"

Hearing Hades’ words, Arthur sighed before replying, "Dad, I wasn’t reckless."

"You actually have the nerve to say you weren’t?" Hades shot back, his expression filled with fury.

"Yes, Dad. I wasn’t reckless," Arthur answered calmly.

"I wasn’t reckless because I had a guarantee that, no matter what happened, Gaia wouldn’t harm me. That’s why, even though I knew my actions would draw her attention, I went ahead with them."

"You had a guarantee that Gaia wouldn’t harm you?" Hades asked, his expression full of incredulity.

At that, Arthur held out his hand, summoning a piece of paper from his subspace, the very same one Gaia had taken from his subspace earlier.

"I have this, a ticket from the Eternal of Space and Reality, Ranus himself.

It’s a one-time promise that, if I ever find myself at odds with an Existence a certain number of Realms higher than I am, he’d personally step in and defend me," he said, deliberately leaving out that ’certain number’ so Hades wouldn’t realise the ticket was currently useless against an Existence as powerful as Gaia.