Power of Runes Chapter 532: Dimensional Authority

[Arthur’s POV] - [Present]

Arthur’s consciousness remained deep within the place where Fate existed, while countless memories continued flowing through his mind and gradually settling into their rightful places, revealing more and more of the existence he had once been and the plans he had once created.

By now, he had already remembered enough to understand what was happening, enough to recognize that the problem was not simply that his memories had returned earlier than they should have.

As he compared the future he had once observed with the countless threads of Fate currently unfolding before him, the differences had become far too numerous to be dismissed as minor deviations.

The thought carried a weight that even Arthur found difficult to ignore.

He remembered the path he had once observed with absolute clarity, the countless events he had accounted for, the people who were supposed to appear at certain moments, the encounters that were meant to happen, the opportunities that had been prepared for him, and even the deaths that should have already become part of history.

Yet the more he examined the Web of Fate surrounding him, the more discrepancies he found.

People who should have died were still alive, while others who should have met had never crossed paths, certain events had occurred far earlier or later than they should have, and opportunities that had no place within the future he remembered had somehow appeared where they had never existed before.

Arthur’s gaze slowly moved through the countless golden threads as he continued comparing the present with the future contained within his memories.

Although he had experienced countless lives and accumulated an unimaginable amount of knowledge, the sheer number of deviations still made it difficult to determine where everything had begun to go wrong.

His thoughts stopped for a moment as he followed another distorted thread.

"Don’t tell me that ’that’ being found a loophole in the contract?"

His expression gradually became colder as the thought of ’that’ being surfaced in his mind.

The more memories he recovered from his prime, the more clearly he could see how many of these changes had appeared after Ash began moving through the world with the Power of the Runes in his hands.

Arthur continued tracing the threads, but there was no answer waiting for him.

The changes had already spread too far and had become too deeply connected to countless other people, beings and events, making it almost impossible to distinguish the original deviation from everything that had developed from it.

That uncertainty was what bothered him the most.

Arthur had once possessed enough confidence in his calculations to believe that almost nothing could truly escape his sight, and with his understanding of Fate, he had been able to account for countless possibilities long before they ever became reality.

Yet now he was standing within a future that had become increasingly unfamiliar, with every new memory revealing another deviation that no longer fit the path he remembered.

His thoughts turned toward the foundation of the entire plan, toward the contract that had once seemed impossible to break.

As the memories surrounding it became clearer, Arthur carefully went through every condition he had established, every restriction he had placed upon himself and the other party, and every possibility both of them had considered before agreeing to it.

He had checked the contract.

He remembered checking it more times than he could count, because he had never been foolish enough to place his existence upon a contract without first searching for every weakness hidden within it.

Even after recovering all these memories, he still couldn’t find anything that should have allowed the plan to collapse in the manner it had.

That possibility was far more troublesome than a simple mistake within his own plan.

"No matter what, the changes that have appeared can still be changed. The Runes can still be recovered. I just need to find Ash and take them from him. Although he has not collected all of them yet, it should be near ten... right? That’s more than enough. I can search for and collect them on my own, then. I have already fulfilled my part of the Contract, and my Soul should have also adjusted to the Runes...."

Releasing a small breath of relief, Arthur finally began to focus.

His consciousness began spreading through the surrounding Web of Fate as he prepared to search for the source of those deviations, intending to follow the distorted threads back toward their origin, toward Ash.

Arthur’s [Dimensional Authority] slowly spread through the Web of Fate, following the countless threads that connected every living being within its vast expanse, and with the authority of a Dimensional Ruler supporting his consciousness, the entire Web seemed to become transparent before him as countless existences appeared within his perception.

He searched for Ash.

One thread after another was examined, and every existence that carried the name Ash was quickly found within the endless Web, their identities, locations, and countless connections becoming clear to him almost immediately, yet no matter how far his consciousness spread through the Web of Fate, the person he was searching for remained nowhere to be found.

Arthur searched again, this time with even greater precision, using his Dimensional Authority to examine the countless layers of Fate surrounding every existence named Ash, but the result remained the same.

There was no Ash.

The realization slowly settled within his mind as he stared into the endless Web of Fate, and for the first time since his memories had returned, Arthur’s expression became genuinely serious.

It was not as though Ash had hidden himself particularly well, because hiding within the Web of Fate and being completely absent from it were two entirely different things.

Arthur could find anyone who existed within the Web.

No matter how powerful they were, no matter how deeply they were concealed, or how many layers of Fate had been placed between him and them, as long as their existence was bound to Fate, there would always be a thread connected to them somewhere within this endless Web.

But Ash had none.

Arthur’s thoughts suddenly stopped.

The thought immediately reminded Arthur of something he had overlooked while trying to understand the countless changes that had occurred.

All this time, he had assumed that Ash was still moving within the confines of Fate, and that the deviations appearing throughout the future were the result of him somehow using the Power of the Runes to interfere with the natural flow of Fate.

If Ash had somehow learned to use the Power of the Runes to interfere with Fate, then it would explain why events were constantly deviating from the future Arthur remembered.

It would also explain why Arthur had initially believed that another existence must have been helping him.

Arthur’s thoughts became increasingly focused as he reconsidered everything he had seen since Ash’s appearance.

But if Ash was not within the Web of Fate at all, then the situation was far more serious than he had imagined.

The countless deviations he had been struggling to understand suddenly became much easier to explain.

If Ash was still bound by Fate, then there should have been limits to what he could change, because no matter how much he interfered with individual events, those changes would still exist within the framework of Fate and could therefore be observed, calculated, and eventually accounted for.

But if he had somehow escaped that framework entirely, then everything changed.

It was understandable, though, because the possibility was shocking enough even for him to overlook.

A person outside the Web of Fate would not need to use the Power of the Runes to force every change.

His very existence would already be enough to create variables that Fate had never accounted for.

Arthur’s gaze became increasingly solemn as another thought followed.

That was the question he could not answer.

He had spent countless years studying Fate, and he knew better than almost anyone just how difficult it should be for an existence to escape its confines, because Fate was not merely a force that could be resisted; it was a vast system connecting the existence of countless beings, and escaping its observation entirely should have been almost impossible.

Yet Ash had somehow done exactly that.

Instantly, he shook his head.

"It doesn’t matter how he did it. What matters right now is, how can I find him as soon as possible?"

There was still one way for him to find Ash.

If Ash truly existed outside the Web, then ordinary methods of searching for him might no longer work, but the Rune of Fate was different.

Through its connection with the other Runes, Arthur might still be able to trace the whereabouts of the Runes Ash possessed, even if Ash himself could no longer be found through the Web.

Just as Arthur began to focus on communicating with the Will of the Rune of Fate, something unexpected happened.

"!!!"

"!!!"

***