Chapter 165

Arc 16 - The Fastest Man Alive - Part 2

In a universe far far away:

“At last...” the blur held the sword above his head and pointed it up towards the heavens. “I can kill him.”

The sword flashed brightly as it dyed the dark space golden.

“Hyperspace is at the palm of my hand, I can sense the heavens and the hells, and the one beyond it… the eerie dark dimensions… so dark and cold and sinister… What could it house?”

This large Ultraverse is connected by multiple aspects. The first being the Void which houses the Ultraverse and holds the universes in its rightful place. The second being the Outflow which connects the universe with one another. And the third aspect is called 「Hyperspace」, which connects the lower dimensions with the higher, the higher planes with the lower planes, the time with space and reality, and more.

The Ultraverse was created in the Void, so it slipped through the cracks and the Supreme One made beneficial use of it by keeping the dimensions and universes in their rightful places. The Void between the universes keep each other away so they won’t collide.

The Supreme One then created the Hyperspace to create links between all there is. A link that connects the universe to hell and heaven, life with the afterlife, a link that connects the different timestreams to the main timestream of the Ultraverse. The Hyperspace also separates the lower planes and higher and holds it together. This aspect of the Ultraverse exists for one more reason; to stop the higher dimensions from collapsing on one another. The weight of those higher dimensions should have been too much for the phases to handle, but with the creation of Hyperspace, it was stabilised.

Then later, the Outflow was created by the Quantum Goddess to create links between the universes and the higher dimensions of the Third Plane of Existence - also known as 「Phases」. The Outflow allowed beings from this Plane of Existence to move freely between the Phases and their neighbouring universes.

“Ah, yes sword, it seems I can travel freely through the planes of creation. After all, the Hyperspace… Ahh, so beautiful. I...”

The blur chuckled.

“All my life, I thought death was the most beautiful thing in creation, but… Perhaps I was wrong.”

The sword flashed again.

“Yes, yes, YES! It is in the palm of my hands.”

Controlling the Hyperspace means one can freely bring down the infinities or raise it.

But there is more; controlling this aspect of the Ultraverse means one can pierce the first and second Plane without dying, thus...

“Perhaps, I shall pierce the heart of Lucifer and ignite the chain of destruction that will save us all. An existence without life or death, without power or suffering.”

The sword flashed brightly.

“What?!”

The happy, excited, and victorious tone of the blur was thrown away as he understood the words of the sword.

With an angry voice, he shouted, “WHY?!”

The sword flashed brightly once again.

“They… They don’t want this world destroyed? But why?”

The sword transmitted the answer into the blur’s mind and flashed brightly.

“I suppose that makes sense...”

The blur smiled thinly.

“As long as I can achieve my wish, nothing else matters.”

The sword flashed again.

“I see. So, not now… Sigh, I have no other choice but to follow their plans.”

The sword which he was holding up made a ‘beep’-like noise as the universes around them turned into ashes.

“God… Here, I come!”

And so, the blur moved with a thin evil smile.

“Your end is near.”

By the time he comes face-to-face with the Supreme Deity, universes will fall.

❢◥ ▬▬▬▬▬▬ ◆ ▬▬▬▬▬▬ ◤❢

Plymouth, UK:

Unaware of the new development to the Ultraverse, Nazar was sitting down in the kitchen and leisurely enjoying his food.

“So, what kind of experiment did you want to conduct on me?” Laura, who had now finished eating, leaned back in the chair, and asked.

“Give me your hand,” he reached out his left hand. And with right hand, he was holding a chicken piece.

“At least wash your hands,” she said with a disgusted look on her face.

“I did not eat with my left hand.”

“Still...”

Nazar puffed out the air loudly and groaned.

“One second then.”

He finished eating and washed his hands.

“With soap, please.”

“...”

He stared at the back of her head blankly before shaking his head.

“Fine.” In a barely audible voice, he added, “I never realised people cared this much about it… Sheesh. That’s painfully hard and long.”

He washed his hands and sat opposite her.

“Give me your hand.”

“Will it hurt?” with an anxious look on her face, she clenched and unclenched her hand slowly. She was not sure if she should extend her hand and let him experiment.

“No, of course not.”

“You sure?” with thin suspicious eyes, she wanted to confirm it once again.

“One hundred percent.”

“Al-alright, what the hell,” despite the anxiety in her heart, she extended her right arm.

He held her palm in his right hand and pinched it slightly.

In his left hand’s palm, an odd coloured energy orb slowly appeared.

“What the…?” with a complicated look on her face, she stared at the orb. Beneath the confused expression, he could see a hint of astonishment on her face.

“Ah, the [Varian] colour. It’s an odd mixture of every colour ever in existence, however, it cannot be seen by beings from lower planes without special equipment or ability.”

“Then how can I see it?”

“I have adjusted the environment of the orb so you can see it.”

“Ah,” she was expecting something like this, so she could not be overly impressed with it.

“Anyway, I have got a sample of this, so let me try something.”

The air in front of Laura glitched for a moment as if it was a television screen.

“Woah!” with her mouth gaped open, she stared at the air. However, the glitch did not appear again.

“Ah, it didn’t work,” he spoke in a disappointed manner.

“What…?”

“Oh, I went to the Eight-Dimensional Plane of Existence, trying to increase the distance between us if this energy would work, but… it did not.”

The air glitched once more and her shoulders jumped in a surprised manner.

“There it is again.”

“What’s there?” he tilted his head in a confused manner.

“The… I don’t know, a glitch?”

“Oh, that. It’s just syncing out of reality to ascend into a higher realm, but at the same time, occupying this place.”

“,,,” she let out a faint sigh. “Confusing.”

“Can I do one more thing?”

“Knock yourself out,” she spoke exasperatedly.

“I will get rid of every trace of that energy out of your body. Of course, you won’t notice it because it will go back in instantly.”

“Yeah, as long as it doesn’t hurt, go at it.”

“Yep, no worries there.”

His perception of time changed as he viewed everything like it was a picture.

He pulled the energy out of her body then extracted it from her very core.

While everything seemed frozen, he looked at the energy in the palms of his hands.

“Hm, there is no change in her emotional or mental state. And If I copy that data...”

He created a green cube of temporal energies and placed the data of her core in it.

“Now then, what if ten years past? Twenty? Thirty? Lifetime?”

He made many alterations to the data, adding various aspects of life or paths to it to see what kind of results it will yield.

He analysed the data and got his answer.

“I see,” he smiled in a relieved manner. “I was worried for nothing.”

I know Aarin said everything was fine but checking it one last time with my very own eyes - especially with all that went down recently - doesn't seem like a bad idea.

He put her energy back into her and returned to normal.

To Laura and the world, not even a fraction of a second had passed, so she did not know if he had done what he wanted to do or he hadn’t started yet.

He let go of her hand and nodded.

“Yep, all done.”

“That was fast.”

He nodded, “I do a lot of things fast.”

She placed her elbow on the table and rested her chin on her palm.

“Must get boring,” she sighed with a sympathetic look on her face.

“It does, but if it wasn’t for my speed, I would have failed most of my assignments.”

She gasped and opened her mouth widely with a hint of smile as she raised her head.

“So, that’s HOW it was,” she finally realised something. “I get it now.”

“What do you mean?”

She placed both of her palms on the table near one another and leaned forward a little.

“All this time, I wondered if you really were smart--”

“How rude!”

She ignored him and continued, “I saw you in some classes and never have I come across a lazier person. I remember that one time a teacher asked you a question and you were dead silent. But in exams, you always aced it.”

“...I have my reasons.”

“Isn’t it because you used your power to cheat?”

“...”

Nazar stared at her blankly for a while.

Then he shook his head and muttered, “Wow… I can’t believe it.”

“Hm?”

Seeing the confused yet innocent smile on her face, he let out a soft grunt.

“Do you know that nanites are a common thing in the military and rich corporations?”

She shook her head.

“Well, now you know. Anyway, guess who developed them?”

He was waiting for her to answer, but on the other side of the table, she was just waiting for Nazar to continue speaking. She thought it was a rhetorical question. So, that confusion led to a short and confusing silence.

After a few moments, Nazar gave up and continued, “Me. In the first timeline, before seeing aliens or angels, I developed nanotechnology. And distributed it through the underworld. In this world, I also developed it first - using my original schematics. Now my technology is being used across the world. Since I trademarked it, I get billions from it each year.”

Nazar spoke with immense pride, after all, he considered this one of his greatest achievements in life.

“I don’t think there is anyone on Earth who can compare to me when it comes to nano-technology and robotics.”

“Sheesh, someone’s got an ego,” Laura rested her chin on her palm again and averted her gaze ever so slightly.

“As I was saying, the only reason I did not participate in class is because it was beneath me,” he added with a smug and condescending smile befitting of a villain.

Laura raised her eyebrows at that.

A moment later, she heaved a heavy sigh once she realised how sarcastic and forced his expressions were.

“You had good teachers and wasted it. My teachers sucked ass,” she looked at him with a disappointed and infuriated look in her eyes. “I can’t believe I wasted so much time on this course...”

“But I thought you liked the course?”

“Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely loved what I chose, and I still do… but here are the problems,” she straightened her posture and spoke in a firm tone. “One, they started teaching modules which were not related to my course at all… Zero relevance.”

He nodded, agreeing with her, “Same here.”

“And then the teachers… My god, some of them were unbearable. Some of them couldn’t teach. And this is meant to be an elite university?!”

“Precisely. I had this teacher who had no idea how to read schematics… I feel like it has to do with nepotism. It’s a major problem in the field.”

“Could be… Oh, well. At least, we are done with this.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“I am glad I didn’t pay for it. If it wasn’t for scholarship, I didn’t have to work my ass off to teach myself and pay shit ton to these people,” she let out another heavy sigh.

“Well, you could always ask for my help.”

“How was I supposed to know that.”

He pursed his lips a little as he nodded, “True, I suppose I should have told you I was smart.”

She snorted and shook her head a little.

“I just realised, but you don’t have a British accent. Unlike Emma, you don't pronounce 'd' as 'j'.”

“Aren’t you slow?”

She slumped her head on the table with a soft groan.

“Ugh, why do I feel “more British” than you?!”

Nazar laughed.

After a short silence he stood up and opened a portal.

“Actually, I need to go do something really quickly. I will be back.”

“Alright,” she nodded.

“Just ten minutes, promise.”

She squinted her eyes in a confused manner and asked, “Okay…?”

“I just don’t want you to start feeling lonely.”

She scoffed and shook her head.

“What do you take me for?”

“And I will bring you a parting gift.”

She narrowed her eyes with great curiosity, “Oh?”

“I will give it to you before you leave.”

“I see… Though, I question, why?”

“I mean, yeah, I can teleport there, but still be nice to give you something.”

She nodded, extremely impressed with him, “I did not expect that from you.”

Nazar frowned, “Come on now... I do some good stuff from time to time.”

She laughed briefly.

She looked at the portal near the table and said, “This looks wonderful.”

With eyes of astonishment, she let out a sigh.

“Yeah… Although I recommend not touching it,” the portal vanished. “It’s dangerous.”

“What do you mean?”

“It leads to a higher plane and it could hurt you greatly if not worse.” In a barely audible tone, he added, “I need to stop using some of these powers at home… It could lead to a catastrophe. Mom was right.”

“Then be careful with it.”

“I should be,” he nodded.

“Can’t you just teleport? Why open a portal?”

Nazar thought about it for a moment but he produced no acceptable answer.

“Its just portals are fun to go through.”

“Weird. But I see.”

“Anyway, I will be back quickly.”

“Alright, just be back before we go out.”

“Oh, come on now, when am I late?” he frowned.

She raised her eyebrow and gestured with eyes that said, “Oh, really now?”

He averted his gaze and said, "Yes."

"Do you want me to list all the times you were late?"

“Right. I will be right back,” and so, he vanished into thin air and reached a higher dimension.

Laura scoffed with a shake of her head she slowly rose to her feet.

“Well, that’s that.”

Her eyes darted downwards towards the dirty cutlery and plates. Then she looked behind her and saw some dirty dishes.

“Oh,” she frowned a little. “I guess he will do it with his powers.”

❢◥ ▬▬▬▬▬▬ ◆ ▬▬▬▬▬▬ ◤❢

Lucifer’s dimension:

The Golden Angel, Aarin, was sitting at a large table near a child with light blue hair and purple eyes.

On the table, there were many things such as drinkware and cutlery, but in front of the two of them, there was a picture book.

“No, no, that’s not how you read it. You read from left.”

The child frowned as he looked at Aarin's kind eyes.

“I am bored,” he said in an almost whimpering sound. “I don’t want to learn.”

“But… This is not learning?” she tilted her head in a confused manner.

She then looked down at the picture book and wondered what she was doing wrong.

“When Nazar was young, he would read these books. I heard from him that it was fun. Is it not fun for you?”

The child shook his head.

“They are just talking...”

Aarin looked down at the comic in front of her again and flipped through the pages.

“Oh, you are right… It’s all just talking and… I am confused now too...”

The biggest mistake she made was choosing a random comic from Nazar’s room and thinking it will be fine to read to this child. She was not aware of how the medium worked.

No, to be precise, she did at one point, but the medium has changed greatly from back then.

“This is so confusing. So, what is this character? And who is she? Why… Wait, they were fighting earlier but are now teamed up… Huh, what even happened before it? What is this ring they keep mentioning?”

Aarin heaved a heavy sigh and looked at the child.

She smiled softly and said, “Sorry. He found it fun, so I thought the same here… Sorry.”

The child shook his head.

“Mm, I forgive you,” the child spoke with a prideful look on his face.

“Cute,” she smiled widely.

The child jerked his chin and looked away, almost angrily - or ashamed.

“I am not.”

And just like that, he got off the chair and ran out of the room.

Aarin smiled softly.

With a tired sigh, she got off the chair and ran after the child.

She could not sense him anywhere in this large castle, so she went out.

Once outside, she saw a white haired and red eyed man standing with a blonde angel who also had red eyes.

With a stiff smile and twitching eye, Aarin said, “Oh boy, these two really need to start getting along.”

လလလ

A few moments earlier, Nazar appeared in Lucifer’s dimension and he was greeted by the first angel himself.

“Why are you here?” Lucifer with angry eyes asked him.

“I am here to check up on my sister.”

“When will I be free from this nuisance,” he muttered under his breath.

“So, how is Azazel?” Nazar did not ask him as a resident of this Ultraverse, but as the Supreme Deity and the one who killed Azazel.

“...”

The look in Lucifer’s eyes did not soften, instead it became grimmer.

With clattering teeth of anger, Lucifer said, “Why do you care?”

“Hm, no reason,” Nazar shrugged. “Just wanted to see if everything is right.”

“Oh, I get it,” Lucifer nodded with a cold tone. “You are worried if the “tool” is working well or not.”

“Not what I was going for...” Nazar clicked his tongue. “But I was wondering more along the lines of; has his core been changed? Can he come close with other beings and things without harming them? And what about Esme?”

“...”

Lucifer was not expecting that from Nazar. Quite frankly, he was taken back a little.

“And for the last time, I don’t use others as tools.”

Lucifer snorted, “Fantastic delusions.”

“Fine, maybe I have done it in the past,” Nazar sounded slightly frustrated - but only at himself. “But I will have you know; it was not intentional.”

“So, are you telling me you did not make me this...” from Lucifer’s back, six wings shot out - two white, two black and two grey. Above his head, a golden halo covered with a larger black halo appeared. The mixtures of these layers created an odd coloured halo. “This thing “unintentionally”?”

“Oh… That,” Nazar felt guilty about what he did to Lucifer that day. He turned him into this because he wanted to defeat Aiht. “I am sorry about that.”

“That’s it? You use others as pawns and tools and ruin their life in the same ways as other Supreme Beings, and at the end, the only thing you say is… “Sorry”?!” Lucifer spat out in anger. “If everything was solved with a “sorry”, then why do you still hold a grudge against the Nameless One?”

“...”

Nazar sucked in a deep breath and then breathed out loudly.

“You… aren’t wrong.”

“Of course, I am not.”

“But I thought you liked power, so that’s why I never gave it a second or third thought,” he muttered to himself. “You seemed no different than the rest.”

However, Lucifer heard that.

From the body of the first angel, dark purple energies erupted in anger.

All his life, he hated this power, but everyone misunderstood him - and rightfully so. He had thought Nazar was slightly different, but he was wrong about him.

He thought Nazar was different and hopefully he will change everything, but once again, he was proven wrong.

“No different than the rest?” Lucifer forced a short burst of laughter. “Have you gazed upon your face in the mirror? If I am no different than them, then you are worse than all of us.”

“Oi, oi, now--”

“Let’s hear your reasons. Even if I liked power, even if I were a power-hungry individual like them, why must you change my body and powers without my permission?”

“I don’t know.”

In the first timeline, one day an ancient God awakened and came down to lower realms to exact his revenge against the creation of the Nameless One. The Nameless One was long gone, so the next in line was Nazar. It was a perfect opportunity for Aiht to remove the Nameless One and his legacy from the canals of history.

However, the Negative God has feasted on the dark emotions of the universe and he wanted to exact his revenge against Michael first. So, he strode forward and reached Heaven. There, he found not Michael, but Lucifer and the other angels.

From a place that transcends the lower worlds by infinity, Aiht was able to steal emotions a lot easily. So, his power grew far above that of his real self.

To defeat him, Nazar made a rash decision and used his Godly powers to change Lucifer into a being that could battle this Negative God far easily. What he did not realise at that time was; both he and Lucifer could have defeated this God without help, but for some reasons, something had washed over him, and he was thinking very differently than he should.

!!

Nazar’s body tensed as he thought back to that day again.

When time was reversed, Lucifer had the chance to be different from his old self, but Nazar changed yet again.

He did not understand why but at that time, he considered himself a God and took his rightful place in the cosmos.

When I think about it, I heard a voice back then, did I not? A faint voice which pushed me to use Absolute Wish the other day too… Nazar bit his thumb as he thought. In that case, who could it be? Who? Who?! WHO?!

Through his red eyes, Lucifer could see the anger within him.

That anger led to a torrent of dark energies being unleashed upon the universe.

Lucifer managed to deflect it before a substantial proportion of him was damaged.

“See?”

“Tch,” he clicked his tongue and forced his body to calm down and return to its original state.

“!!”

“!!”

However, before the two of them could continue to talk, golden chains slithered around them and restrained them together - back-to-back.

“These chains?!”

The halos above Lucifer’s head started to flicker out. Lucifer’s wings rolled back into his body.

My power… It’s being suppressed, Lucifer thought uneasily.

“Talk it out amongst yourselves,” Aarin, who was standing above the restrained nigh-omnipotent beings with her hands folded in front of her chest, spoke in a firm tone. “Like adults.”

Her angry look caused Nazar to nod stiffly, “Yes, my sweet sister.”

“How--” Lucifer tried to bring out his halo and break free from the chains but Nazar interfered.

“Don’t,” he warned Lucifer in an extremely low voice so Aarin won’t hear it. “The feedback from your Euphirium could cause her unprecedented damage.”

“Do I seem like the type of individual to care about that?” Lucifer replied in a muffled voice.

“That doesn’t matter,” he replied to him in a hasty tone. “This upgrade she has received… Do you know who did it?”

“No, and I do not care.”

“You will,” Nazar narrowed his eyes.

“...”

“The Dragon.”

“!!” Lucifer’s eyes widened. “It can’t be...”

With wide eyes, he looked at the Golden Angel and analysed her, however, he did not draw a conclusion similar to Nazar.

He questioned if Nazar was telling the truth or was it simply because he did not want any harm to approach this angel.

“How do you know?”

“My body can absorb information and decipher it. That’s how I was able to look beyond the veil of her usual energy and notice the real energy within her.”

Lucifer decided to look at her energy and core from a different angle.

However, the conclusion he arrived at was no different than before.

“Can you perceive and understand transcendent energies? Above the eight planes, I mean.”

Lucifer shook his head, “To a small degree, yes.”

“I see. In any case, his energies are coursing through her. He “upgraded” her.”

Lucifer could not see him, but he could tell that Nazar was angry.

“I see… So, she has been dragged into the Dragon’s game too.”

“I wonder, who is responsible for this?”

While his question was vague, Lucifer understood it too well.

“You or I?” Lucifer chuckled. “Obviously, the answer is you, God.”

Nazar clicked his tongue once he heard that accursed word.

As the annoyance left him, he shook his head.

“Sorry, but that’s not quite right. We are not very sure about that.”

“Haha,” Lucifer forced a burst of laughter.

“Laugh all you want, but in the eyes of the Dragon, she is the most important person in your life. It seems he still holds onto that “affair” thing you two had.”

Lucifer sighed.

“Non-consensual, remember?”

“Yeah, I can’t believe she did that to you… Anyway, that’s why the Dragon considers her an important figure in your life. So--”

Lucifer clicked his tongue.

“You can ignore me all you want, but the reason she was dragged here can be either of us. Fifty-fifty just to be safe, eh?” Nazar joked.

“Whatever,” Lucifer, however, did not find it as amusing.

“Hey, speak up and solve your problem right now or else...” the golden chains tightened around the two of them as Aarin clenched her fingers slowly.

Lucifer and Nazar both grunted softly.

“I will leave you two be for the time being, so fix all your issues until I find Azazel.”

With a worried look on his face, Nazar asked, “What happened to Azazel?”

He was worried another wave of mayhem was headed for their universe and he had to solve it again somehow.

Azazel is the Angel of Death and if he went missing, that would mean either someone kidnapped him, or he left Lucifer. Any of those events can lead to the death of Azazel or he will become his old self - a suicidal man. Nazar gulped. If worse comes to worse...

If worse came to worse, could he kill a child?

“Nothing like that, don’t worry,” Aarin shook her head. “Was just playing around with him.”

“Oh,” he relaxed himself.

“Mm.”

She spun around and walked away from the two of them.

“I warn you; don’t you dare get close to him again,” Lucifer’s words carried great anger and sadness. “I don’t want to do something rash in return.”

While Lucifer was not a hero who cared about the innocents, he did not want to add fuel to the fire which is Nazar.

That time, he killed a demon without a thought in the world, Lucifer thought as he remembered an event which took place a long time ago. The death of that demon could have caused unprecedented damage to the multiverse if it were not for me and Michael.

His fury is not something Lucifer or this universe needs. Not now or in the future.

This God near him was immature, unbearable and a hypocrite, but for the good of everything, he had to tolerate him.

“Don’t worry, I won’t. I hate… and I mean HATE children. They are annoying and dumb. Well… Except for Ereh,” Nazar sighed deeply. In a faint voice, he added, “I miss that guy so much. I miss that chair too. And Baros too. And Lian too. I wish I still had my empire.”

Lucifer shook his head slightly and rolled his eyes.

"You are confusing," Lucifer muttered with a soft groan.