Chapter 32: An Ancient Power Looks On (REWRITTEN)

Planet Uluter

Gunnthro Galaxy

Musepelheim Universe

There were flames.

Flames were everywhere, it was just a planet but it burned brighter than most stars.

The flames were a natural part of the environment, like the way sand on a beach was natural. It did not matter where, no matter how high or low, everything was in flames.

The rivers and lakes were not of water but magma, even the wide oceans were filled with magma. Hundreds of volcanoes continuously erupt every minute, increasing the amount of magma that filled the seas and oceans.

As for the continents and islands on this planet, they were not much different. There were eruptions of flames from geysers on the ground almost everywhere.

The most frightening thing about this planet, however, was its sheer size.

With a radius of over ten million kilometres, most stars could barely compare in size. That was just how big it was.

On a small rock on one of the millions of islands that existed on this planet, there was an eruption of flames with greater intensity than all those in sight.

From within these flames, a being emerged. He was a ten-meter tall man, whose body visibly seemed to be made of rocks and fire, yet also seemed organic at the same time.

On top of his head was a horned crown, and strapped to his back was a giant greatsword, one that was almost as tall as he was.

The lands of this planet have adapted to the heat of the continuous flames over the years, yet the flames emitted from this man's body were able to melt the rocks that have stood strong even after countless volcanic eruptions.

With each step he took, the ground trembled under his feet and the monsters that inhabited the land cowered in fear at his presence.

Paying this no mind, he casually walked over to the centre of this island, where a giant head larger than he was rested.

The head was that of a serpent, one that was even more ridiculously sized than the planet it was on. The length of its entire body was long enough to coil around this planet.

On its ash grey scales, were various scars made by a variety of weapons.

The flaming giant man looked towards the head of the serpent and spoke with a loud voice.

"How long are you going to sleep? It's been thousands of years, you know?

I know you can hear me so stop pretending!"

At his words, the ash-grey serpent opened its green eyes and rose its head from the ground before replying.

"Surtr, do you not know the saying that it's not wise to disturb a slumbering serpent."

The flaming man, Master of Musepelheim and King of the Fire Giants, Surtr, only laughed before responding.

"I know not of such saying. If you really wanted to slumber without any disturbance, go somewhere else.

Maybe Harmarti might let you stay in Jotunheim?"

"We both know that's not gonna happen. That guy has hated me ever since I destroyed a part of his home galaxy by accident.

By the way, what brings you here?"

"Ah, almost forgot. I came to have you look at something for me, it might interest you too."

Hearing Surtr's words, the serpent's eyes widened in surprise for a moment. The next, it began laughing boisterously.

"Despite having devoured five galaxies and slurping three rivers of stars dry in the last war, there has been nothing of interest to me in thousands of years.

Which is why I came here, shrunk myself and slumbered, so I may at least find solace in my dreams."

|And yet you tell me that there exists something worthy of my interest, worthy of me, the Galaxy Devouring Serpent, Jormungand|

**THRUMMM!!!

The ambient law energies thrummed wildly as his little speech in his true voice revealed the identity of this serpent large enough to coil around this ridiculously large world in its shrunken state.

It was none other than the middle child of Loki and the Giantess Angrboða, the Space Serpent cast out into the oceans of Midgard, Jormungand.

Surtr nodded in affirmation to Jormungand's words before proceeding to inform him of the prophecy of a child with the power to end the gods.

Surtr and Harmarti were deliberating on whether to recruit this child in the future, however, he recently heard a rumour saying that this child was unable to use even the most common of all energies, magic.

"I simply came to you to see if it is true. You can also check if you are fated with this child too, it's a win-win, at least from my point of view."

"Haha, very well then. To think such things had been happening while I slumbered."

Jormungand let out a laugh once more as his eyes glowed an iridescent light. He then spoke with a solemn voice.

[Authority of Destiny]

'I wonder why he decided to suddenly dabble in the law of destiny. At least, he did not neglect his original strengths. He claims to be slumbering but I can see his flame, space, curse, and poison control are all higher than the last time I was here.'

Surtr thought as he stared a Jormungand, who was currently seeing a myriad of things.

Using the power of his authority over the law of destiny, he could peer into the destiny of a being provided he had sufficient information about them.

There were other uses for the law of destiny's power but those are tales to be told at another time.

Jormungand tried to peer into any major events in Arthur's destiny, but to his shock, he could only see small events of up to four years in the future.

Everything else was blank.

Normally, beings with sufficient strength or causality index could prevent their destiny from being seen, the stronger ones could even attack the ones trying to peer into them.

However, Arthur was just a ten-year-old, he should not have the necessary strength or causality index to do so, and yet Jormungand could not see much.

That was when something even more unexpected happened, he felt a gaze. Not the gaze of Surtr beside him, but the gaze of someone else. A person who had interfered with his Authority and the reason he believed he could not see much about Arthur.

The owner of that gaze then sent a message to him.

|Do not overstep your bounds, Serpent.|

And with that, the connection was cut off.

Jormungand let out a hearty laugh as he remembered the first time he experienced something like this. He had once tried to peer into the Asgardian god of Thunder, Thor's destiny.

However, Thor was in his father's presence so his father detected Jormungand's actions and interfered with them, not before sending him a warning.

Turning to Surtr who was staring at him with confusion, he spoke.

"First, the rumours are true. He truly cannot use his energy, the reason, however, is unknown.

Second, tread carefully around that child. Besides the Devilian pantheon, he seems to have another protector on my level of power."

Surtr was shocked, he knew that there were beings who wished to protect Arthur from the shadows. Nevertheless, he did not expect these beings to take action personally.

At most, he expected them to send a few subordinates of vassals. However, someone on Jormungand's level of power could not be subservient to someone else, at least, as far as he knew.

"What are you going to do, Jormungand?"

"Nothing much, I shall return to slumber. Even if I went over to where the child is, there would not be a point.

He is much too young and too weak to interest me for now. As for his protector, fighting them would be nothing but a waste of time and strength.

If I fought everyone who was on my level, then I would not have survived this long. Besides, whoever they were, they were not hostile."

"In other words, you're going back to sleep?"

"Yes, wake me up when the child has become an adult. I'd see him then."

Surtr just sighed and nodded in affirmation before turning around and walking away. Just before he teleported out, he grinned mischievously and turned to look at Jormungand before saying.

"I have other things to do than to wake up a big snake like you. I'd tell your big brother to wake you up."

Hearing Surtr's words, Jormungand visibly trembled before glaring in Surtr's direction. Unfortunately, the fire giant was already long gone.

'Well, it's his loss. Fenrir isn't exactly one who would listen to such nonsense.'

Jormungand ignored Surtr's words before resting his head back on the ground and returning to his slumber.

◇ ◇ ◇

Much like Surtr and Jormungand, many other powers tried to find out if the rumour of Arthur's inability to use his energies was true. They tried various means and many of them succeeded in confirming the rumour's authenticity.

The Devilian royal family also took this chance to root out a lot of the spies of other pantheons who had come out of hiding in order to confirm the rumours.

The combinations of Cattleya's army of destruction and Duke Hollis' summons, made short work of more than 90% of the spies in the Devildom's territory.

Naturally, there were those who did not believe the rumours, however, they did not take action to confirm.

The devils, on the other hand, did indeed see a period of peace as the gods and their allies had reduced their probing actions due to the rumours.

◇ ◇ ◇

As for Arthur, he was still carrying out his weapon and martial arts training with Creusery as always. Layla sometimes joined in, alongside her female best friend, Nicole.

The trio of youngsters followed Creusery on an expedition to a desolate realm where they discovered a lost ruin filled with many artifacts and magic grimoires.

They were busy celebrating their successful finding, unaware of the fact that a certain space serpent just tried to peek into Arthur's destiny.

Afterwards, Arthur did his best to reduce the attention he drew towards himself so as to not draw the attention of the gods and their allies, at least for the time being.

This was the state of things for the next eight months until the Hell Universe's burning realms welcomed the last quarter of the year.

◇ ◇ ◇

One random October morning, Arthur was relaxing on a bench in a public park in the castle town in Aeturn.

Although the young boy liked dragging Layla around almost everywhere, he still knew to be reasonable and give her time to herself, as evidenced by the fact that he didn't go over to her family's mansion to look for her.

Much to Arthur's dislike, his mother just informed him that he would be attending the Royal Academy on Planet Kreiz, a planet next to Aeturn in the Dorcaster star system.

The Royal Academy was one of the most prestigious known schools in the Devildom. The entirety of planet Kreiz was the property of the academy and almost everything the students could possibly need for their six years there was provided.

The school was founded with the intention to teach the young nobles and lesser royals to rely on themselves and not the status and power held by their families.

Of course, it was an unspoken rule that the status of every student still mattered. As such, there were still those that bullied the students of lesser status and others who only sought to curry favour from those of higher status.

As Arthur was thinking about how to convince his mother that there was nothing the academy could teach him that he could not learn from her and Creusery, he noticed the presence of someone in front of him.

He looked up and met eyes with a young woman that had light blue hair reaching down to her waist. She gazed at Arthur with her monolid blue eyes that fit perfectly on her beautiful face as she fidgeted a bit.

"Um...I'm not exactly familiar with the castle town, and you seemed less busy so I was wondering if you could show me around a bit.

Not for free of course, um...let's say id treat you to a meal afterwards."

Arthur hid his skepticism towards her as he stared at her with a poker face for a few moments before finally nodding in agreement.

"Really?! Thanks, you seemed like you weren't gonna agree for a moment there."

She seemed visibly happy due to his agreement but Arthur poured cold water on her excitement with his next words.

"I thought you came to me on purpose, I could have sworn I'd felt your gaze before, just can't remember when."

Arthur had already gotten up from his seat and had his back facing her when he said that. That was why he didn't notice that she flinched slightly at his words, however, she recomposed herself and replied with a casual tone.

"This is our first meeting though? What's your name by the way?"

"Arthur, you?"

"Alexia, nice to meet you, Arthur."

That was Arthur's first meeting with Alexia, the one who protected him from Jormungand's Authority.