Chapter 50: The Empty Throne

Time soon passed, and a month had gone by since the battle of New Geneva.

Learning the Details of the battle, Crescent Moon decided to host another meeting ti discuss what happened

However, Today the day of the meeting, the atmosphere inside the meeting room was suffocatingly tense, thick with an oppressive silence that seemed to make the very air vibrate.

At the center of the room sat a massive, circular table made of dark, polished obsidian, surrounded by twelve high-backed thrones.

Each throne was engraved with the unique insignia of an Elysium hero.

But as the clock chimed, only a few of the physical seats were occupied.

The rest were filled by flickering, life-sized holographic projections of the S-Class heroes who were stationed in other sectors of the Blue Star.

Two physical thrones, however, were conspicuously empty.

One belonged to Lilith, the Blood Sovereign, who had abruptly vanished into closed-door training immediately after the cleanup.

The other belonged to Sentinel, the Iron Wall, who was still recovering from his catastrophic injuries inside a highly secure Nexus Corp medical bay.

Crescent Moon, strategist of Elysium, sat in his designated seat. His fingers were crossed beneath his chin, his sharp, silver eyes scanning the room behind his half-moon spectacles.

Standing beside him was a series of floating, translucent data streams displaying the coordinates, structural damages, and energy signatures of the Chimera Lab raid.

"Where is he?" Solaris, the Sovereign of the Sun, spat impatiently. He was physically present, leaning back in his throne with his arms crossed.

His golden hair seemed to faintly flicker with heat, and his amber eyes burned with a restless, bruised pride.

"The meeting was scheduled for ten minutes ago. Does the Imperion think our time is worthless?" he snorted

"Hey is this what they call Deja Vu?" muttered Tempest on the side as his mind wondered back to the first meeting

"Patience, Solaris," Crescent Moon replied, his voice calm, cool, and level.

"Imperion single-handedly vaporized a Level 5 threat and saved New Geneva. If anyone has earned the right to be late, it is him."

Solaris gritted his teeth, a wave of passive, suffocating heat rolling off his body, causing the air around his throne to warp.

Seeing Ethan display such terrifying, world-shaking power during the broadcast had severely bruised his ego.

He had spent the last month in a state of manic training, yet the gap between them felt wider than ever.

Before Solaris could throw out another heated retort, the heavy, double doors of the chamber slid open with a soft, hydraulic hiss.

Step.

Step.

Every eye in the room, both physical and holographic instantly locked onto the entrance.

Ethan walked into the chamber. He wore a tailored, all-black three-piece suit that fit his towering, athletic frame perfectly.

His dark hair was neatly styled, and his deep blue eyes were calm, cold, and utterly devoid of any weakness.

He didn’t look like a man who had nearly died of cellular atrophy a month ago.

Thanks to the absolute passive recovery of his Imperial Body, he looked entirely flawless.

But it wasn’t just his physical appearance that made the S-Class heroes stiffen.

It was the aura.

With his Imperion Fusion Progress now sitting at 10%, and his newly unlocked Transcended Will humming beneath his skin, Ethan passively radiated a faint, invisible pressure.

It was a supreme, spiritual authority that felt like a mountain hovering directly over their heads.

The weaker holographic projections in the room actually flickered and glitched slightly as he walked past them, their remote god particle receivers struggling to process his sheer presence.

Ethan didn’t say a word. He walked over to his grand, central throne, the one positioned directly opposite the entrance and sat down, crossing one leg over the other.

Resting his chin on his fist, he looked down at the gathered S-Class powerhouses with a faint, mocking smile.

Using his Datafication ability, Ethan silently scanned the room.

Translucent, blue data sheets rapidly hovered over each hero, displaying their current levels, heart rates, and emotional states.

’They’re terrified,’ Ethan thought, his smile widening slightly.

’Good. Let them wonder just how deep my limits go.’

"Now that our host has arrived," Crescent Moon spoke, tapping his fingers on the table to draw everyone’s attention back to the holographic displays.

"Let us begin the debrief of the Chimera Lab raid."

A detailed 3D model of the destroyed industrial facility materialized above the obsidian table.

"The raid was, by all accounts, a tactical success," Crescent Moon continued.

"Dr. Lannister’s primary production lines for the ’evolution potions’ have been dismantled."

"The Level 5 Aberrant King was eliminated, and the civilian casualty rate in New Geneva was kept under three percent, thanks to the swift intervention of Sentinel, Lilith, Tempest and Imperion."

"A success?" Solaris sneered, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Sentinel is currently lying in a medical bay with half his bones turned to powder."

"Lilith has gone completely off the grid. And New Geneva is still crawling with mutated civilian rabble. I call that a mess."

"The mess was managed, Solaris," Crescent Moon shot back, his silver eyes narrowing.

"What we should be focusing on is how this crisis began in the first place."

"My intelligence network has spent the last Month analyzing the encrypted data packets recovered from the Chimera Lab mainframe before it was vaporized."

Crescent Moon swiped his hand, and the 3D model of the factory vanished, replaced by a complex, interlocking web of encrypted communication logs and logistical routing charts.

"The Chimera Lab was not a rogue operation," Crescent Moon declared, his voice dropping to a cold, grave register.

"It was heavily funded and supplied by high-ranking officials within the United Human Federation. Dr. Lannister was utilizing Federation military routes to smuggle raw God Particle materials and human test subjects into the city."

The room remained silent. None of the S-Class heroes looked surprised. In this era, the corrupt greed of the Federation was an open secret.

"But that is not the most alarming discovery," Crescent Moon said, his gaze sweeping across the table, pausing momentarily on each face.

"I found a secondary, highly encrypted channel that was bypass-routing directly from our own Elysium secure servers."

Ethan’s eyes narrowed slightly behind his calm facade. He sat up straighter, his interest piqued.

"What are you implying, Crescent?" asked Titan, a colossal, holographic hero whose physical body was currently stationed at the southern sea borders.

"I am not implying anything, Titan. I am stating a fact," Crescent Moon said, slamming his hand onto the table.

"The encryption key used to transmit the precise tactical layout, entry points, and deployment schedules of our strike team to Dr. Lannister was an S-Class clearance code. A code that only twelve people in this world possess."

A heavy, suffocating gasp echoed through the holographic projections.

Solaris froze, his amber eyes widening in shock. "Are you saying...?"

"Yes," Crescent Moon spoke, his voice echoing like a death knell in the silent room.

"The League of Villains didn’t just stumble upon our raid. They knew our exact plans because they were handed to them on a silver platter. There is a traitor among us."

The Roundtable Chamber instantly erupted into a storm of shouting and chaotic energy.

"A traitor?! Are you insane, Crescent?!"

"Who would dare collaborate with those S-Class monsters?!"

"Search everyone’s servers! Audit our communication logs immediately!"

As the S-Class heroes began to turn on one another, shouting accusations across the obsidian table, Ethan remained completely, eerily calm.

He leaned back in his throne, his blue eyes scanning the chaotic faces of the heroes.

This time wasn’t just a hero supporting the Federation, rather someone here was colluding with the League of Villains

A situation no hero could approve of.

’A traitor among the twelve,’ Ethan thought, a dark, dangerous smile creeping onto his lips.

In the original novel, the traitor subplot had indeed existed, but because the story had been so rushed near the end, the author had never fully fleshed out the traitor’s identity before Imperion’s sudden downfall. The readers had been left guessing.

But Ethan wasn’t the original, naive Imperion. He had Unlimited Plunder, he had Datafication, and most importantly, he had his newly acquired Transcended Will.

Slowly, without drawing any physical attention, Ethan unleashed a microscopic, highly-focused thread of his Transcended Will.

He projected it as an invisible, highly-sensitive spiritual web that stretched across the obsidian table, lightly brushing against the souls of the S-Class heroes.

He didn’t need to hack their servers. He just needed to feel their spiritual reactions.

The moment the word "traitor" had left Crescent Moon’s lips, most of the heroes had reacted with genuine anger, confusion, or defensive panic.

Their spiritual signatures flared with chaotic, erratic spikes.

But as Ethan’s Transcended Will brushed against one specific holographic projection near the edge of the table, he felt a completely different reaction.

It was a cold, calculated, and perfectly suppressed wave of absolute indifference.

A soul that was entirely calm, hiding behind a mask of artificial outrage.

Ethan’s eyes locked onto the specific hero, his pupils flashing with a faint, predatory golden-blue light.

’Found you,’ Ethan thought, his heart beating with a thrill of anticipation.

He didn’t expose the traitor immediately. If he revealed them now, the Federation and the League of Villains would panic and withdraw into the shadows, making them much harder to root out.

No, it was much better to let the traitor believe they were safe.

He would let them continue their little schemes, walking right into their traps, only to turn those very traps into their graves.

Ethan slowly stood up from his throne, his towering figure instantly silencing the chaotic shouting in the chamber.

"Enough," Ethan spoke.

His voice wasn’t loud, but carrying the weight of his Transcended Will, it echoed through the room like a clap of thunder, instantly suppressing the flaring God Particles of the shouting heroes.

The temperature in the room plummeted, and even Solaris felt his flames instantly sputter out under Ethan’s dominant pressure.

Ethan adjusted his cuffs, looking down at the silent, wide-eyed S-Class heroes with an air of absolute, unbothered arrogance.

"I don’t care who the rat is," Ethan said, his voice carrying a cold, heavy indifference that chilled them to the bone.

"Let them run, let them hide, and let them scheme. But remember this..."

He walked toward the exit, pausing at the threshold. He cast a single, sidelong glance back at the roundtable, his blue eyes shining with a terrifying, absolute promise.

"The sky of this world belongs to me. And the moment I find the rat in my sky... I won’t just kill them. I will erase their entire existence."

Without waiting for a response, Ethan stepped out of the chamber, the double doors sliding shut behind him.

The remaining heroes sat in absolute, stunned silence, the phantom weight of his Transcended Will still pressing down on their chests like a physical mountain.

The game had officially begun, and he tthe Only Man in the Sky was already three steps ahead.