Chapter 316 - 316: The Radiant Monarch
Gorr leaned over her obsidian slab in the isolated dimensions of the Void while watching her screen display the subterranean bedrock beneath the Tarnstead plaza. Thousands of Molekin miners carved a massive crater directly under the ancient cobblestones based on her previous commands.
"Deeper," Gorr commanded. She pressed her thumb against the Whisper icon on her interface to broadcast her voice to the mortal plane. "Seat the anchors directly into the continental bedrock."
A video feed from Brass Construct clicked into focus on the side of her screen. Brass Construct hovered over a holographic schematic inside its own sanctuary. It directed a legion of Ash-Kin engineers on the mortal plane to lower a colossal brass pillar into the excavated crater.
"Reality-Anchor alignment is at ninety-two percent," Brass Construct reported through the communication link. "Structural density is sufficient. Initiating the gravity parameters."
Brass Construct dragged a digital slider across its console. The runes etched into the metal pillar down in Tarnstead flared with violet light. Several Molekin miners dropped to their knees as the localized gravity multiplied across the cavern.
Gorr laughed and tapped her screen. "That is the stuff. If one of those feather-dusters drops from the sky to play hero, they will hit the plaza floor and turn directly into paste."
Meanwhile, within the dense canopy of her own spatial sanctuary, Sylara sat perfectly still on her throne of living wood.
She watched her interface carefully. Her consciousness fractured across millions of microscopic spores currently floating through the Tarnstead aqueducts. She felt the spores latch onto the spiritual leylines buried in the mud.
She felt the exact moment the mortal populations above fell to their knees in prayer and begged their silent gods for salvation. The spores opened their microscopic maws and consumed that faith before it could ever reach the heavens.
"It is working," Sylara whispered to the empty forest. "The leylines are rotting, and the faith is choking. They are starving."
She squeezed her eyes shut and waited for the inevitable backlash. The system mechanics demanded a reaction.
A severed faith supply caused agonizing aetheric starvation. The pain would force the gods to wake up and tear open a spatial rift to purge the infection physically. The gravity trap would crush them the moment they stepped into Tarnstead to cleanse the water.
Gorr and Brass Construct waited at their respective consoles. Down in Tarnstead, the Ash-Kin engineers backed away from the pulsing reality-anchors with their wrenches ready.
Hours passed. The mycelium consumed the faith until the leylines turned a dead gray. The Tarnstead plaza remained entirely empty. The skies over Aethelgard remained dark. The four locked dimensional spheres hovering in the server's metaphysical space did not shift or crack.
"The targets are absent," Brass Construct stated over the audio link. "Starvation metrics have reached critical levels. A physical manifestation should have been biologically mandated by the system engine forty-seven minutes ago."
Gorr kicked a loose rock across her sanctuary floor and scowled at the screen. "Cowards. They are sitting in the dark and eating their own divine reserves to avoid a fight. We choked the pipeline completely, and they still refuse to take the bait."
In his own sanctuary, Rubedo sat perfectly still on his obsidian throne. He stared at the massive crystal console. The faith metrics for the four native realms had flatlined completely. Sylara had executed the trap flawlessly to cut the gods of the Fourth Continent off from their mortal followers.
No retaliatory smite rained down. No avatars descended to break the reality-anchors. The heavens remained completely silent.
Rubedo dragged a hand through his hair and scowled.
'They are willing to let their domains die to avoid facing the Vanguard,' he thought. 'I overestimated them. They are nothing but parasites hiding in a locked vault.'
He reached out to dismiss the continental map to issue an order to breach the vaults manually.
Before his fingers touched the console, a loud chime echoed through the sanctuary.
The violet veins running through the cosmic crystal suddenly turned a brilliant gold. The map of the Fourth Continent vanished. The Social Tab forcibly expanded across the entire center monitor and locked out Rubedo's administrative controls.
[ INCOMING VIDEO TRANSMISSION... ]
[ OVERRIDE PROTOCOL ENGAGED. ]
Rubedo stiffened. He sat forward and stared as the caller identification populated across the screen in glowing letters.
[ CALLER: THE RADIANT MONARCH ]
Rubedo exhaled and adjusted his dark coat. He tapped the screen to accept the call.
"Let us see what a coward looks like," Rubedo muttered.
The video feed snapped into focus on the massive crystal console. The Radiant Monarch appeared on the screen. His form consisted entirely of a glowing vertical halo. Golden hands and legs floated completely detached around the ring of light.
As soon as the connection stabilized, the Radiant Monarch started waving his floating hands frantically. "Do you have any idea how many notifications I have been getting because of you? My device is completely glitching out. The alert chimes are driving me absolutely crazy."
Rubedo leaned back in his throne and watched the entity vent. He let the Radiant Monarch rant about flashing menus and system errors for a full minute. The glowing halo bobbed up and down on the screen as the deity complained about his flooded inbox.
The Radiant Monarch finally dropped his floating hands and looked directly at Rubedo. "I have to admit, I am genuinely impressed. But I am also extremely angry. You managed to take over the entire fourth continent in such a short amount of time. You even liberated the second and third continents from us."
Rubedo stared at the screen in complete silence. He fully expected the Radiant Monarch to curse and issue violent challenges like every other god he had encountered. The Radiant Monarch completely lacked the usual divine arrogance.
'Is this a trick?' Rubedo thought. 'He sounds like an annoyed administrator.'
Rubedo rested his elbows on the console. "What exactly have you been doing? Your followers were slaughtered. Your territories were conquered. You never intervened or offered them any help."
"I have been busy," the Radiant Monarch replied.
Rubedo chuckled and crossed his arms over his chest. "I already expected that excuse. You must have a backup population of followers hidden somewhere on another continent. That explains why you are completely unafraid of being deleted by the system."
The Radiant Monarch crossed his floating arms in front of his halo.
"Where are the other three gods of your continent?" Rubedo asked.
"They are busy as well," the Radiant Monarch answered casually.
Rubedo narrowed his eyes. "Surely, whatever you are doing cannot be more important than your followers dying and losing your entire empire."
The Radiant Monarch threw his floating hands up in exasperation. "Obviously, our lives are a lot more important to us than a game."
Rubedo frowned in complete confusion. He processed the word 'game' and tried to connect it to the ongoing apocalyptic war.
Of course, Rubedo was aware that the world he was in was seemingly a game. But that didn't change the fact that their lives were at stake and they could be deleted if they didn't take it seriously.
However, what he heard next left him completely speechless.
"We are all busy with our final exams," the Radiant Monarch explained. "We have not been able to log in to play the game for the last few months."