Chapter 545 - 543:Imbalance.

Chapter 545: Chapter 543:Imbalance.

"Young Dante, how did we do?" Omari asked, his voice deep, dark, and extremely grating to the ears.

The darkness of space peeled back at the mere sound of his voice.

"Grandpa Omari, you guys did magnificently. I was honestly surprised; I thought Grandpa Momon here was all talk and no bite," I replied, withdrawing my protective aura from the bodies of Sana and Aunt V.

"Oii!! Who the hell do you think you’re talking about? I’ve been meaning to get my hands on that traitorous coward forever, and now, finally, I am satisfied," Momon snorted, clear ecstasy in his voice.

"So! COOOLLLL!!!!" Lucien jumped out of Aunt V’s embrace as he tumbled hopelessly through the empty region of space, trying and failing to rush toward me.

"Big... big brother!!" He panicked, his arms flailing like a helpless duck.

"Haa... at least think it through before getting all excited." I let out a long breath, stretching out a hand and pulling the kid toward me with a wave.

"WEEEEEEEEEE!!!!" Trust the kid to have absolutely no sense of danger whatsoever, laughing excitedly as he flew through empty space and landed in my hands.

"Hehehehehe! Again! Big brother, again!"

"Little man, you’re quite excitable and careless, aren’t you?"

"Hehehehehe... big brother won’t let anything hurt Lucien, he said so himself, so Lucien is free to act as he wishes, hehehehehe..."

"This kid..." Was he really taking my words as a ticket to be reckless?

"Maybe next time you’ll watch the promises you make to children, Tehehehehe." Shaia laughed as I just shook my head helplessly.

"Grandpa Momon!! Grandpa Omari!!! Soooo cooooolllll!!!!" The child finally remembered his initial agenda, hopping off me as he made a beeline for Momon and Omari.

"Little one, were you entertained?" Omari asked.

"Yes!!! You guys were all woosh! Woosh! And... and... Bam! Booom!!!" He explained, making increasingly wild gestures to showcase his excitement clearly.

"Bad man couldn’t even fight, only going ughh... nooo... me weakling... ahhhhhhh!!!! Hehehehehehehe!!!" He held his stomach, laughing up a storm, seemingly having been thoroughly excited by the display Momon and Omari had put up.

"Ahahahahahahahahah!!! Yes!! Little one! Praise your Grandpa Momon more; I’m the awesomest!!"

"YAYYYYY!!!! Grandpa Momon is the awesomest!!! YAYYYYY!!!"

I wisely decided to ignore the excited child and the showing-off death knight that had somehow gone from terrifying ender of existence to a praise-hungry maniac.

"But they were indeed impressive." To think they were actually that powerful—so much so that they could even briefly end the rejection I’d placed on the instability of the realm.

"You’re underestimating your apostles again, Dante." Shaia’s voice cut through my thoughts.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean you’re still looking at these things on a surface level. But I can’t blame you; after all, your apostles, barring the first, haven’t truly shown what they can really do yet."

"What they can really do? There’s more to it than this?"

"Of course there is. You think apostles are scary just because they can express a part of their master’s being? Express some of their master’s powers? It goes far beyond that, Dante."

Well, this was news to me.

The last time, she had only focused on how special Shulvan was—something I was still yet to actually witness—but now, she was telling me the others still had room for improvement, too?

"You need to understand something, my love: your apostles right now are only using the surface level of their dispositions. The monkey is your pride, your ego. The chipmunk is your bottomless and infinite rage. The Chronari is your mastery of time and ageless eternal nature personified, whilst your brother there is your agony induction personified. Each of them expresses a part of your being, but your being is so much more complicated than this, so right now, they’re only showing surface-level capabilities."

"I don’t understand."

"Think about it this way: you once called Malachi’s aura boundless, yet could you still place a cap on his true strength, no?"

"Indeed."

"Now, tell me this: would you ever bow your head to any being before you, ahead of you, or behind you?"

"No such being exists, my love."

"There it is. Quiet. Not loud. Just an assurance that transcends even metaphors. How do you put a limit on that? Your monkey friend should indeed be immeasurable, but right now, he still doesn’t understand what it truly means to represent the Absolute’s pride, hence his subpar display. Same as the others—they still don’t yet understand their powers."

"Then about Momon and Omari..."

"These two have been harbingers of the end for as long as they can remember. Being tied to the law of death, they’ve brought more endings than probably death itself, so the moment you made them your apostles of your end, it was like returning fish to water."

"You’re saying..."

"Yes. Barring your first apostle, as it stands, the only other being that can put down your two apostles is my shameless sister Elira."

"Damn... these two?" I spared the two death-metal figures an odd look.

Momon was busy currying praise from an overexcited Lucien, whilst Omari was busy doing whatever it was a dullahan did.

They didn’t look half as terrifying as Shaia was claiming.

"They just brought an end to literal death, that too with so much ease. Trust me when I say you’re pulling along monsters of proportions you don’t yet know."

I remained silent, digesting the new information. It was like every time my apostles got into a bout, I ended up understanding newer things about this whole apostle system, and the more I understood, the more confusing it got.

"Haaa... this is getting too complicated."

"Tehehehe... don’t worry, you’ll get used to it." Shaia laughed as I finally shifted my gaze toward the now empty region of space ahead of me.

"What are you going to do now?" Shaia asked as I directed my gaze toward the still vibrant Lifetree.

Everything else around it had been wiped out, brought to an end by the clash between Momon, Omari, and Death, yet the tree remained pristine, untouched. But—

"Something’s wrong..." I mused silently, my eyes narrowing at the millions of leaves dotting the tree’s branches.

"Dante? What’s wrong?" Aunt V asked, pulling up beside me as the others gathered around.

"The Lifetree..."

"Shaia, what’s happening?"

"This is what I was asking you about. You just killed the concept of death within the Prime universe, so now, there’s an imbalance."

"An imbalance? What does that mean?"

"It means now, there’s no more death occurring within the Prime universe. Souls lost, lives forfeited—without a harvester, a wayfarer, they have nowhere to return to other than the Lifetree. But the Lifetree isn’t meant to handle the essence of death; something toxic to its nature."

"And what would happen if I let the Lifetree do the heavy lifting?"

"It will die, and when it does, Prime will fall into pandemonium."

"Hmmm..." I fell into thought. Having the Lifetree die on me now wasn’t an option worth even considering, so—

"Why don’t I take on that burden?"

"Hmmm?"

"Why don’t I become the final resting place of the forgone souls? As a stopgap until I devour Prime whole. At least then the balance will be preserved."

"That... it should work. But you’ll have to redirect them to Samsara for that to work, and I don’t think you have the patience to do all that work."

"I may not, but I know two people who would be perfect for the job. After all, it’s their fault I’m in this dilemma."

I grinned, finally seeing a viable solution to the problem. And who better than the cause of the problem itself?

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A/N: Time to delegate tasks to two death metals, hahahaha...