Chapter 179

Arc 16 - The Fastest Man Alive - Part 16

Monday, 12th of July - Lucifer’s Dimension:

Nilluferite is a rare metal with otherworldly abilities. In addition to its astonishing conductive abilities with energy of any kind, it also protects the users on the deepest level possible. It protects them from attacks that cannot be seen nor parried by physical or mental means.

This rare metal is in possession of just one individual in the Ultraverse; Lucifer.

When Nazar asked Lucifer to get his hands on this rare metal, Lucifer denied him instantly.

After his request was rejected, Nazar shook his head with a faint sigh, “I suppose I could make it myself... What a pain.”

Aarin, who was standing nearby, heard him. She grew more curious by the second, so she asked him straight, “Make what?”

“Build something important.”

Aarin shook her head with a slight groan, “Don’t you have enough weapons?”

“No,” Nazar shook his head with a faint smile. “It’s for something else. Plus, you cannot use Nilluferite in weapons. I mean it might be possible, I have never tried it, but ultimately, it won’t create a unique weapon like some other forms of minerals.”

Aarin, who ignored his last few sentences, narrowed her eyes, and smiled a curious smile.

“Oh?”

“You will...” Nazar swallowed his words and grunted softly. “Fine. I will tell you what I need it for.”

There was a long silence as Nazar looked left and right as he tried to come up with a way to tell her his grand plan.

“So? Any minute now.”

“I...” Nazar shut his lips for a moment before smiling faintly. “I am thinking of doing something terrible.”

“...”

She grunted softly.

“... I am going to ask this only once, so spill it out.”

“I think...”

Nazar shyly looked away.

“I think I am going to ask Laura to marry me.”

“...”

Aarin’s world froze for a split second.

“What…?”

“Yeah,” he said slowly, still feeling somewhat unsure about what he said. “I know, I know, I was always against it, but… It’s not something which I have experienced for myself. So… You know... I thought maybe...”

“NO WAY?!” Aarin squealed excitedly. “OH MY GOD!”

She jumped up and hugged him tightly.

“I am soooo proud of you.”

“Ouch, let me breathe please.”

“Ahhhh, you have grown up so much.”

Her excited voice gradually wavered as he noticed hints of weeping in her voice.

As someone who watched over him and raised him, she never expected him to do something like this, so she couldn’t be happier.

She had this odd yet warm feeling within her chest, she did not understand it, but she could guess what it was.

“I think I finally understand how mothers feel sometimes.”

She hugged him even tighter.

“You are happier than I about this ordeal--”

She stopped hugging him and looked him straight in the eyes.

“Before you go for that, first thing first, make sure the ring is as beautiful as it gets. Don’t make it too big, but also not very tiny. Just find the perfect size. OH! And make sure it is the perfect size for her finger. If it's too big or small, it won’t look good. The colours need to match what she likes. What are her favourite colours? You can answer that later. Anyway, when proposing, make sure to kneel, it's a normal custom on Earth and as the Angel of Love, I can feel their emotions, which makes them love their significant other more, and makes the girl happier. Also, make sure that the mood is set. Don’t just pop the question out of nowhere in the middle of a dirty park. Oh, and avoid asking in front of others. She doesn’t need the extra pressure on her. Take it slow. Let her be in the zone. Also, avoid making unnecessary jokes or stupid comments. Don’t ruin it for yourself, you hear?! Also, after you are done proposing, if she accepts, it is nice to have a nice meal or something. And then you can do whatever you want.”

“...”

Nazar stared at her blankly.

Seeing how Aarin was about to open her mouth again, he thought, Even more?

“OH! And...”

Aarin stopped talking as her smile got wider and her eyes narrower.

With a tearful smile, she said, “I am so happy for you.”

Aarin placed her hands on his face and pulled him forward. She kissed him on his forehead before she said, “Do right by her.”

Nazar nodded with a soft smile on his face.

“I promise.”

"But... to think you actually would do something like this..." she still could not believe it. "Wow."

"I don't know, I thought it would be... interesting. It doesn't seem too bad after mom explained it."

"See? You were being stupid in the past."

"Eh, I will be the judge of that."

"Aww, it's going to be fine" she patted him on the shoulder. "It's going to be great."

လလလ

Not too far from them, Lucifer was looked over his younger brother when he heard something odd.

Lucifer narrowed his eyes and he looked at Nazar and Aarin from the corner of his red eyes.

"Oh?"

He was not sure how to feel about what he just heard. Obviously, he could not be feeling happy about this, he hated Nazar, and his happiness was not deserved.

But at the same time, he thought, if he gets married and form a deeper relationship with more people, he will take the survival of the universe more seriously and will want to end this war quicker than usual.

"L-Lucifer...?" his younger brother looked up at him with a slightly fearful look on his face.

"Yes, Azazel?" he looked down at his younger brother and smiled.

"Um... Uh..."

The child glanced around nervously.

"What is it?"

"Who is he?"

Hearing a question about him, sour feelings erupted within Lucifer. But he tried not to show it on his face.

"God," Lucifer replied without hesitation.

"And her..."

"His sister. And an angel of Heaven."

"Oh. Are you married to her?"

"..." Lucifer scoffed. "Heavens no. Who do you think I am?"

"Oh..." the child looked down, feeling somewhat hurt by Lucifer's words.

He did not understand that Lucifer was being sarcastic, instead, he thought Lucifer was angry with him.

"I-I am sorry," the child whimpered.

"Hm?"

He questioned if he did something wrong, but he could not produce an answer to his question.

"Sorry," the child run away and went back into the mansion.

"Children are... confusing."

❢◥ ▬▬▬▬▬▬ ◆ ▬▬▬▬▬▬ ◤❢

Wednesday, 14th of July - London, UK:

Inside Nazar’s apartment, Laura entered Nazar’s room and started looking for her some of the things she had left in this place.

“Where did I leave it...” she muttered to herself while she looked for something at great speeds.

“What are you looking for?” Nazar who was floating in the air with his legs crossed asked.

All around him, things were moving with a faint blue bubble around it. He was moving some of them out of this room and placing it inside a bag in the living room next door.

Some of that stuff belonged to Laura and it had gotten mixed in with his, so he was sorting through that.

“Why are your earrings in my comic section?” he muttered to himself slowly.

“...None of your business,” Laura replied to him.

“I mean... If I knew, you might find it easier, don’t you think?”

“Well, I don’t want you to know.”

“Rude. But fair.”

Around Nazar a few books floated. He looked at them and smiled, as if reminiscing about a simpler and fun past.

He clutched onto the books and in the next instant, they were burned with orange flames of hell.

I will begin anew when the time comes.

“Ah, found it.”

Whatever it was, she hid it in her hand and immediately left the room.

After a few moments, she came back and let out a sigh of relief.

“Well, that isn’t suspicious at all,” Nazar joked.

“You don’t need to know about my past,” she raised an eyebrow while her lips curled up to one side and formed a smile.

“Oo, mysterious.”

“No, but really, it’s nothing.”

“Hmm...” Nazar narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

"It's nothing."

"Hmmm..." he stared at her some more.

“Fine,” she groaned. “It was a...”

Her voice trailed off as she started to look embarrassed.

She looked away and continued, but he couldn’t make out her words.

“I can hear things from the other corner of the multiverse, but right now…” he spoke with a teasing smile. “I think I have become deaf.”

Laura wondered if he was faking it or if he heard it all, but she rolled her eyes and sighed heavily.

“When I was young, my p-- father gave me a watch. He said, when I meet the right man, I should gift it to him. I started to use it last summer, but as time went by, I hated it because... Well, watches are useless when you have phones. Or maybe I brought it with me for a different reason. Maybe the latter.”

Her voice gradually lowered, but he could make it out fully in the end.

“I might have been thinking of... It’s a bit embarrassing, alright?”

Nazar laughed.

“So.. Who were you planning on giving the watch to?”

“Nobody,” she replied abruptly. “Definitely not you.”

“Well, I don’t need a watch either, so you can keep it.”

For some reason, she clicked her tongue, quite disappointed in his answer.

“I just left it here a few months ago, so I won't lose it.”

At that moment, she realised something, “Ah.”

She went back to the other room and came back soon after.

“Here, this is your key,” she tossed it to him.

“Oh, right, I remember giving this to you around the time we began dating.”

“Thanks, it was useful when I had to study alone,” she nodded as she glanced around, as if taking a last look at something precious. “Also, it was warm.”

“It’s funny,” he tossed the key in the air and watched it closely as it fell into his palm. “We went to the same university, had mutual friends and you used to come to this home, yet we did not run into each other. Well, we did, but felt like strangers.”

“Well… I was studying for my PhD, and I did not want to fail, so I was focusing on that mostly. You were always distant, but I didn’t want to try and fix that. I wanted to leave you to your own space.”

Before Nazar could say anything, she quickly added, “And I also because I really needed to not fail.”

“Oh wow, not a speck of worry,” he stared at her blankly.

She pursed her lips in a confused manner.

“I just said, I needed to pass.”

He continued to stare at her, “Hm.”

Laura avoided looking at him at all costs, “...And let you have your own space.”

He continued to stare at her, “Hm.”

“Okay, shut up.”

“But what if I was dead?”

“But you weren’t. I saw you alive.”

“...” Nazar pursed his lips and nodded. He had no way to refute her. “Okay, fair enough.”

Nazar landed on the floor.

“But what if I was dead?”

“But you weren’t.”

“...” he tilted his head to the right just a little. He wanted to continue asking, but he gave up. He thought the joke had run its course. So, he changed the topic. “What time is your flight, by the way?”

“In about four hours, why?”

“Nothing, really. I just thought it would be easier to teleport there instead of sitting in a noisy five-hour trip.”

“It’s just about two hours… But I can't do that. I need to fly on a plane because of my visa and whatnot. It’s annoying.”

“I see.”

She walked out of the room, “I think I got everything I needed from here.”

“Okay.”

The room was slightly messy, so he swept his hand across the room, and in the next instant, the room was sparkling clean.

He went to the room next door and sat on the sofa.

“Stop acting tired, help me out here,” she ordered him.

“Me? Tired? Never.”

“Eh...”

Laura sat on the floor and looked at the messy clothes on the floor.

Everything she had was placed on the floor, awaiting to be sorted through.

“Why did you take them out?”

“Because I am stupid? Honestly, I wasn’t thinking at all. I thought I would remove some stuff from it, but turns out, I actually might need them…” she ruefully admitted. “Yeah, yeah, I regret it. Don’t rub it in.”

“I would never do something like that,” he shook his head as he stood up. “Siiigggghhhhhhh. Tell me, what do I have to do? Which one goes where and whatnot? It should take a few seconds.”

“I… don’t know,” she blew a raspberry as she looked around with a look that suggested she was regretting every decision in her life. “No clue at all.”

“It’s fine, if you can’t make it in time, I will pack it for you and teleport it there.”

“Thanks,” she smiled widely. “I can always count on you.”

“You’re very welcome.”

Nazar sat opposite her and looked around at the messy floor.

"You know… maybe we can tap into a quantum reality to see what you need and what you don't."

"A what now?"

"Besides "normal" realities, there exists another set of realities called the quantum realities. It's a little hard to explain by conventional means, but essentially, it can be adjusted far easier compared to this. So, if I change the "settings" of that reality, it will run "simulations", and from that, we can determine which one is more suited to our needs at the moment."

"..."

Laura just stared at him.

"What the fuck… I understood like five words from that. That doesn't even make sense."

"..."

He heaved a loud and painful sigh.

"It is hard to explain it… Maybe I can ask Vilramore to answer it for you."

"...I don't have to ask, now do I?"

"..." he sighed again. "He is basically the universe and every timeline or reality affiliated with it."

"Uhh," she continued to stare at him blankly.

"Meet him yourself, he is a nice guy."

"Uhhh..."

"Vilramore!"

He called the universe itself.

『...Yes, master?』a disembodied voice spoke.

"!!"

Laura jumped in her place as she heard an odd voice with no emotions or reason in it.

She looked around abruptly but could not find it.

"Take your human form, please."

『...Your wish is my command, master.』

The universe took a humanoid form and stood before the humans.

The outline of the universe was no different than a man, but what was within him was vastly different. Unlike humans, galaxies, and planets courses through its veins, rather than blood.

Laura gasped at the sight of this otherworldly entity.

"Is that…"

"『Yes, my queen, I am the universe you have resided in since the day of your birth. I all there is in this universe. I am you, yet I am also the air you breathe. I am your parent, and perhaps your future child.』"

"Errr…"

She was not sure how to react to this entity or what he said. She could not wrap her head around it to begin with.

"(Don't pay it too much attention,)" Nazar whispered to her.

"『I believe I have been summoned to this room and granted an audience with you for the sole reason of explaining the quantum realities to you.』"

"Just show it to her," Nazar instructed him.

"『Very well then.』"

Vilramore arched his arm, facing upwards and in it, he showed two distinct realities that were shaped similarly to bubbles.

"『On the right, you will see a regular reality, but on the left, the shapeless reality is a quantum reality. It is not material and can be changed drastically to the user's will. The decisions made within a regular reality can spawn another timeline or universe, depending on the influence of the user. Quantum realities, however, don't have such properties. They cannot spawn new worlds and timelines simply because some changes have been made to it.』"

Since the universe went out of its way to teach her, she paid awfully close attention to it.

"So… what you are telling me, it is not a proper reality, but more like a pseudo-reality?"

"『In simple terms, yes, my queen.』"

She looked at Nazar and said, "Couldn't you just say that yourself?"

"Well… that didn't cross my mind," he smiled wryly.

"You just wasted that poor guy's time on something this silly," she glanced at Vilramore with a sympathetic look in her eyes.

“『It is of no inconvenience for a being such as I. Think nothing of it, my queen.』”

"Why does he keep saying "my queen"?" she asked slowly.

“『My apologies. Perhaps I have misunderstood your relationship with my master. As far as I understood, you two are mates. I apologize once again for my misunderstanding.』”

"Oh no. That we definitely are," she felt a little bad, so she tried to clear that up with a stiff smile. "Err… you got it right. Don't worry about it. No need to apologize."

“『I see, thank you. I am not used to addressing someone as important as you with a name. Therefore, my question is; is there a different title you wish to be addressed by?』”

"No, no, no," Laura shook her hands in front of her chest in a dismissive manner. "Don't trouble yourself. It is fine. Really."

“『My gratitude.』”

She found the speech pattern of the universe cute and relaxing.

So, she leaned closer to Nazar and said with a happy smile, "I love this guy. The way he speaks is just beautiful."

"Yeah."

“『Then if your query has been answered, am I free to take my leave?』”

"Oh, yes," Laura looked in the direction of Vilramore. "Thank you, by the way."

"Before that… Is something wrong?"

Laura glanced at Nazar from the corner of her eyes. She wondered why his tone became so serious all of a sudden.

"Your voice is slightly off, is everything alright?"

She pursed her lips in a confused manner. He was not a human, and neither was his voice, so how could Nazar tell?

Laura found Nazar extremely odd at times.

“『...』” The universe hesitated to answer for a moment. “『Everything is perfectly fine. It could not be better. I thank you for your worry.』”

"Hm," Nazar nodded and Vilramore left.

“But man...” Laura stared at the empty spot where the universe’s physical manifestation stood moments earlier. “That guy is pretty cool.”

“Oh yes. There is an even cooler one called Daya, but… we don’t get along, to say the least.”

“He finds me “obnoxious” and ”irritable” and “annoying”.”

“...”

Laura burst into laughter.

“Even the universe recognises that?!”

“Wait till you find out what Lucifer thinks of me...”

“You seem awfully proud of that.”

“When you can easily piss off the entire multiverse and Ultraverse… It is quite fun.”

“Which part of it?”

“If you ever meet Lucifer, you will understand.”

“Why?”

“He is just so easy to annoy.”

“...”

Laura rolled her eyes and began putting her clothes in the bag.

“Anyway, we can talk while sorting through this.”

“Yeah, sounds good.”

All the clothes and stuff on the floor started to float near them.

“This way it's easier to tell what needs to be kept and what not.”

Before Laura could say or do anything, Nazar said, “Ooh, I have never seen this one.”

He extended his hand and took ahold of a black hoodie.

Once he looked at it, it had his university’s emblem on it.

“They were left in our rooms when we went to that island. Did you lose yours?”

“...” Nazar remembered seeing something in his room back then. “Ohhh, right. I think Solace took them all to herself.”

Usually, when he thinks of Solace, sour emotions would erupt, but that did not happen right now. Those negative emotions are dampened deep down.

“If you want, you can have mine?”

“That’s too small for my frame.”

“Maybe the muscles, yes, but not the chest. Have you seen mine?”

“Yes. Many times,” he tossed the hoodie to her. “Can you wear this, please? I want to see how it looks.”

“Sure.”

She began putting it on but struggled greatly with it.

“Ngh,” she groaned.

“Hm? Why?”

After some struggle, she put on the hoodie.

“It’s pretty tight around my chest. The rest seems fine but this place… Odd.”

Seeing how she was truly baffled, he stared at her blankly.

“What?” she asked.

He extended his hand and groped her breast.

“I wonder why.”

“I am not fat!” she refuted.

“I can see that,” he laughed. “But you know...”

“Also, that hurts.”

Hearing that, he moved his hand faster than his thoughts.

“Oh,” a look of sorrow spread over his face. “S-sorry.”

“Ha! I am just messing with you,” she laughed. “You are so predictable sometimes.”

“Predictable… I know,” he tried to forget about the sorrow he was feeling a few moments ago. “I will try to fix that one day.”

“Yeah… I wonder what will take longer to fix, your predictability or your receding hairline.”

“What?!” he touched his hair. “My hair is perfectly fine.”

“I could’ve sworn, your hairline was slightly lower before? I am 99% sure of it.”

“Hmm.”

He touched his hair again and measured its size and width.

“Hm. I went through a complete molecular change after my sleep, so maybe that’s why… But I didn’t realise how far off my hair was. Then again, I never cared for it much.”

“You should.”

“I should, but it's a pain.”

The length of his hair increased slightly as his hairline returned to its original state, which was off by a centimeter or so.

To him, this was normal, but Laura found it gross and rather uncomfortable.

Laura saw the change appear in his skin and the hair move down on its own. To an ordinary human, this was not normal.

With a disgusted look on her face, she said, “That seems like a convenient ability.”

“It is. I can’t do much with it, but Solace can do so much stuff with her hair. She can use it in an offensive manner too. I have a feeling she picked that up from Medusa.”

“Medusa? Greek Goddess? Snake lady?”

“Err… Not really.”

He pulled out his phone from his jean’s pocket and showed her an image of a comic book character with extremely long hair.

As soon as Laura saw that, she pursed her lips with a hint of confusion and dismay floating around on her face, “I have so many questions. First, why? Second, how does she even clean that hair? It takes me 30 minutes to deal with mine and it's not even half as long as hers.”

“It’s a good design.”

“Right...” she said in a flat tone.

“As for the second question, well… She is royalty, so…”

She took the phone and scrolled through the next images.

“I see… But long hair like that… Oh.”

Laura showed Nazar the phone’s screen and added, “Actually, in this one picture it looks pretty nice.”

“Yep. Let me show you how it looks in the live action adaptation of it.”

“Uh...” Laura handed him the phone, while questioning whether she should look at it or not. Laura thought it would be gross, even more so than a still image from comics, but at the same time, she was quite curious to see it.

He took the phone and played a video on it.

Nazar showed her a scene from a low budget television adaptation of the comic.

With every passing second, disgust became visible on her face.

“GROSS!”

He laughed.

“The way it wriggles...” her body shivered vigorously. “Disgusting. How do people look at that?”

“It… looks pretty good in a lot of comics.”

“No!” she denied his stance. “I can’t believe some people find that “good”. You guys have some weird fetishes, I swear.”

“That we do… That we do...”

လလလ

As the two giggled and laughed, the universe watched them closely.

Vilramore was everyone and everything in this universe, so he could see the two far clearer than they could.

He could peer into the residents of this universe and see their thoughts, as well as their emotions.

While Nazar was unbound by his rules, he could grasp what he was thinking.

The human sat around and laughed while the universe was still recovering from the attack of Death.

It could not be seen by anyone, but many worlds had fallen, and the universe was still recovering on a conceptual level.

Yet, this God, this human, he did not care.

『Has it been done?』

Suddenly, Vilramore was pulled into a higher dimension that was nothing but bright golden light.

In front of him, stood an odd being with humanoid shape, but it contained multitude of universes.

It was the humanoid shape of the multiverse itself; Daya.

『...』

Vilramore hesitated to reply.

That was different from normal, but Daya did not pay it a lot of attention. He understands that even unified beings like them need some individuality.

『Yes, my lord. It has been done.』

『Hm… Good,』 Daya was not pleased.

『I have informed our master of the coming attack, of Rewind and the God Slayer sword. It is up to him now to create countermeasure against his old friend.』

Daya is the multiverse, the third plane of existence and its thousands of higher dimensions. He can peer into the heart of his children - the universes - and its people if he wishes to.

However, he dared not enter the mind of Vilramore.

He did not want to see that anger inducing face - his face.

『A job well done. What happens next… It's above what we are capable of, Vilramore. But even then, do try to not die.』

『Collateral damage has been minimised by the Supreme One. The universe will not die, but I shall do as you say. I will make sure the damage to me, or my residents are minimal.』

『He informed me of that development. Additionally, he informed me that he will protect our very existence from similar attacks. Be it internal or external, but it seems that was wrong. It seems there are loopholes.』

『After certain conditions are met, it seems that protection falls apart...』

『Precisely. So, be careful.』

『...』 the humanoid form of the universe nodded. 『I will do as you say, my lord.』

『Good.』

『Now then… I shall take my leave.』

Vilramore left the higher dimension and returned to his “post”.

His undivided attention was aimed at the universe.

While nobody could see it, the cosmos smiled.

The stars came together and formed a smile.

A happy smile.

In anticipation, the universe awaited for the arrival of the 「Fastest Man Alive」!