Chương 257: Chapter 256 - A Hopeless Diversion

The golden veins visible beneath the heavy lead seal flared into a blinding, incandescent white. The mechanical hum of the ancient gears increased rapidly until it became a heavy physical pressure in the surrounding air. The golden fluid began to rush through the exposed pipes with an audible, roaring velocity. The pressure built up rapidly within the central vault. Suddenly, a massive flood of water burst outward from the sides of the ancient engine.

The torrent carried a brilliant golden hue, surging across the cracked marble floor. Lucid reacted instantly. He manifested a thick metallic chain from his palm. He threw the heavy metal links upward with all his remaining strength. The chain wrapped securely around a jagged rock protruding from the very ceiling of the subterranean grove. He pulled his body upward, hanging high above the stone floor. He watched the ancient town below him become entirely overflooded with the golden liquid.

'The diversion is successful,' Alice declared. Her presence vibrated with divine triumph inside his mind.

'The essence is currently flooding the lower wards. Watch the surface, my chosen. Within an hour, every laborer, every beggar, and every starving soul in that city will be saturated with enough Fate Essence to rewrite their own destiny. The nobility will wake up to find their contracts worthless, their coin devalued to dust, and their subjects transformed into something far beyond their control.' Lucid watched the violet seal begin to cool under the rising tide.

The lead turned a dull, inert gray as the power shifted away from it. He felt an immense sense of relief, followed immediately by the grim realization of the chaos he had just unleashed.

"We just turned the entire city into a powder keg," Lucid said.

'We turned it into a forge,' Alice corrected him. Her voice carried an affectionate, possessive intensity.

'And now that you have proven you can handle the weight of divine management, perhaps you will stop acting like a petulant child. We have a city to rebuild, Lucid. And for the first time, we own the foundation.'

'Sure thing, boss,' Lucid thought, clinging to the cold iron chain.

'Just what I always wanted. To be the new slumlord of a glowing underground fish tank. Maybe I can charge rent in shiny rocks and bad memories.'

'Your attempts at humor are as shallow as a puddle in a drought,' Alice responded immediately, her tone laced with elegant amusement.

'You use sarcasm as a shield to deflect the gravity of your accomplishments. It is terribly transparent, Lucid.' The girl standing near the edge of the rising water looked up at him. She was Celeste. The golden fluid washed safely around her ankles. Her small hand reached out, pointing toward his dangling sleeve.

"What happens now, brave traveler?" Celeste questioned. Her voice was remarkably formal and deeply kind.

"The waters of change have arrived." Lucid looked toward the exit of the courtyard, where the dark, narrow alleys led back toward the surface. He felt the cold iron of the chain in his hand and the divine presence of Alice coiled tightly around his consciousness. The wet chill in the underground air brought back the immediate sensory memory of the purple gothic chamber. He saw the fleshy appendages reaching for his throat. He heard the wet tearing of his own organs. His stomach lurched violently.

He tightened his grip on the chain until his knuckles turned white. He started shaking uncontrollably. The sarcastic humor faded entirely, replaced by a hollow, terrifying cold. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

'You are trembling,' Alice noted. The divine superiority vanished from her voice entirely. She shed her pretense of absolute control. Her presence wrapped around his mind with genuine, soothing warmth.

'Lucid, are you alright? The corruption of that domain took a heavy toll on your physical vessel. Let me purge the lingering shock from your nervous system. I can erase the memory of those vile creatures. I can take the pain away.'

'Do not touch my memories,' Lucid thought sharply. His mental voice was ragged and defensive.

'If you take the pain away, you take the only thing keeping me grounded. I need to feel this. If I go totally numb, I lose my humanity. I become just another monster playing god in a purple room. Leave the trauma exactly where it is.' Alice hesitated. Her presence retreated slightly, respecting his firm boundary.

'As you wish, my chosen. But know that you do not have to carry the weight alone. You have endured enough horrors for one lifetime.' Lucid focused on the rising golden water to steady his erratic breathing. He looked at the architecture of the flooded buildings below him. He recalled the countless texts and historical mentions he had studied at the academy. He recognized the sharp angles, the specific marble columns, and the unique masonry techniques. He pieced the information together in his mind.

This location was a direct remnant of Celestia. Combined with Senna previously mentioning Father Commerce, the truth became obvious, she inhibited its inhabitants, Fenwick, the noblemen, Jing Xiu, Celeste and perhaps Valen? He didn't know but that suggested that she knew more than she wanted to admit. About him. The previous domain they had escaped was merely the frozen face of the town. The true root of the corruption and the rigged economy was this ancient, sunken city they currently inhabited.

"This is the source," Lucid stated aloud to Celeste, finding his voice again.

"The nobles upstairs are just siphoning off the top. We need to cut the head off the snake down here."

"Indeed," Celeste replied warmly, offering a gentle nod.

"The old ways must be washed clean so new seeds may grow in the fertile soil."

'Explain the economic plan, Alice,' Lucid thought, trying to redirect his focus to the immediate mission.

'How exactly do we fix this mess without just replacing one dictator with another?'

'We implement a decentralized flow,' Alice explained, her formal and commanding tone returning to guide him.

'By breaking the central vault, the Fate Essence now permeates the bedrock itself. The lower citizens will naturally absorb it through the groundwater and the air. We are establishing a universal baseline of vitality. The nobility can no longer hoard contracts because the currency is now ambient and free. We will mandate a new trade system based on raw labor and equitable exchange, backed entirely by my divine authority. We revive the economy by removing the artificial scarcity they used to enslave the populace.

We give the power of commerce back to the workers.'

'Sounds like a lot of paperwork,' Lucid thought.

'Remind me to hire an accountant.' He looked down into the swirling golden depths of the flooded vault. He needed to find the core of the problem. He took a deep breath. He let go of the iron chain. He dropped straight down into the rushing golden water. The impact was heavy. He was instantly swept away by the powerful current. He did not fight the flow. He allowed the water to carry him through the ruined streets. He activated his innate trait, Chain of Heart.

His senses expanded outward, cutting clearly through the dense liquid environment. He immediately sensed that Alice was hiding something in her peripheral awareness. She knew exactly who was waiting at the bottom of this deluge. Lucid pushed his senses deeper into the dark trenches of the submerged city. He noticed a potent, heavily concentrated mass of Fate Essence resting deep below the flooded marble streets. He recognized the specific magical signature instantly. It was Mercyros.

'Found him,' Lucid thought grimly. He adjusted his trajectory underwater, letting the golden current drag him directly toward the massive energy source. He was completely tired of being manipulated. He was tired of being gutted and used as a pawn. It was finally time to confront the architect of this misery. He would take control of the situation, defeat Mercyros, unfreeze the town above, and finally prove that snobby queen entirely wrong.