Chapter 106: Pathways Destabilising...
The Crown Domain’s logistical might was terrifying. In just three hours, they managed to build a fully fortified Imperial pavilion right in the middle of the Abyssal Trench. They even had the whole place locked down with elite guards and heavy siege weapons.
From his seat at the head of the obsidian command table, Zen looked around his new tent. He had managed to force them all out of the Crown Palace. Still, watching the Goddesses do their thing made reality sink in.
He hadn’t actually broken free. They had just put together a new cage for him, right in the middle of the mud.
Almost immediately, the camp was divided into tightly controlled zones.
Valeria refused to leave a ten-foot spot right outside his tent, standing guard with her broadsword and aggressively questioning every scout who came by.
Aurelia took charge of all his supplies, personally checking his food and water so nobody else could touch them.
Meanwhile, Selene kept walking around the command tent, obsessively using her holy aura to filter out the toxic air before he breathed it.
They definitely weren’t playing the part of actual generals. Instead, they acted like jealous wardens who used the chaos of a war zone as a perfect excuse to totally suffocate his personal space.
Aurelia walked into the tent and gently set a steaming cup on the tactical map. "Your tea, Emperor," she offered. She shot a quick, defensive glare at the tent opening where Valeria was lingering. Then, she turned back to him with a warning. "I made this myself, so stick to this. Don’t trust anything the others offer you. The ambient mana around here is making them pretty unpredictable."
Zen didn’t touch his cup. Instead, he looked at her and asked, with a dry edge to his voice, "Since when are you the definition of stable, Aurelia?"
Just as the Empress was about to speak, a loud, buzzing noise erupted from the main teleportation gate and filled the entire camp.
Zen got to his feet right away.
He walked out of the command tent, and the three Goddesses fell right into step behind him. Over at the edge of the camp, a dark purple light flashed from the portal. Nyx stepped through, looking absolutely flawless in her stealth suit.
Right behind her was Maya. She was shivering from head to toe in the freezing, toxic atmosphere of the Trench.
The difference between Maya and everything around her couldn’t have been bigger. There she was, looking so small and vulnerable among S-Rank warlords, towering siege engines, and the rotting corpses of Behemoths. She was just a fragile D-Rank human holding a wooden healer’s staff. It was easy to see she was completely out of her league in this apocalyptic nightmare.
The whole vibe at the camp just took a massive nosedive in an instant.
The jealousy from the Goddesses flared up instantly, and it felt incredibly heavy and suffocating. Valeria squeezed her broadsword so hard that her leather gloves actually creaked. At the same time, Aurelia’s amber eyes narrowed into a sharp, dangerous glare.
"Zen," Aurelia stepped forward, trying hard to sound polite. "This is an active Void Zone. The atmospheric pressure alone is strong enough to crush a D-Rank core. Bringing a fragile human girl here is a massive tactical liability."
Walking right past the Empress, Zen went over to stand by Maya. "She’s my personal healer," he announced. "And more than that, she’s my anchor."
From the sidelines, Selene cried out. "I can heal you perfectly." Her silver eyes were wide and filled with a frantic, desperate energy. "Emperor, please! You don’t need her! Let me prove my worth!"
Ignoring the Sanctum Goddess completely, Zen stepped toward Maya. She was visibly trembling, overwhelmed by the harsh atmosphere created by the world’s most powerful women. To comfort her, Zen placed a firm hand on her shoulder and released a gentle pulse of his High B-Rank mana, warming her up instantly.
Turning his head, he gave Valeria, Aurelia, and Selene a long, icy look that swept right over them.
"Let me make this absolutely clear," Zen declared. "Maya’s safety is the highest priority in this camp. If she so much as trips over a rock, I will hold all of you personally responsible. If anyone treats her as a liability, I will treat them as an enemy. Are we understood?"
The whole camp went completely quiet. The Goddesses were practically grinding their teeth, caught in a massive internal struggle. Their intense yandere instincts were warring directly with their deep need to follow his orders.
Aurelia finally managed to get the words out, muttering a stiff "Understood, Emperor" as she bowed. Valeria and Selene hesitated for a second, but they reluctantly followed her lead.
"Good," Zen said. He gently steered Maya toward his command tent, which was safely protected by wards. Then he called back, "Nyx, come with me."
The heavy flaps of the command tent closed, sealing the three of them inside the soundproof, warded interior.
Maya dropped straight into a chair, letting out a shaky sigh of relief. That heavy, suffocating pressure from the Goddesses was finally gone. Seeing how shaken she was, Zen poured a cup of Aurelia’s untouched tea and handed it over to help warm her freezing hands.
Nyx didn’t bother sitting down. Instead, the Spymaster slipped quietly into the darkest corner of the tent, her glowing purple eyes locking instantly onto Zen. All of her usual playful, stalker-like energy was completely gone.
"You were right to keep a shadow on her," Nyx reported, her voice dropping into a deadly whisper. "While you were fighting, I intercepted an encrypted transmission from the Sanctum Domain. It was a post-action report regarding the assassin Selene sent to the Gala."
Zen narrowed his eyes. "I already know the assassin was sent to sever Maya’s blood pact with me."
"That’s just what Selene wanted us to think," Nyx corrected, a cold smile playing on her lips. "The assassin’s Severing Seal was actually altered. It wasn’t just to break your pact with Maya... it was designed to act as a parasitic tether."
Nyx moved out of the shadows. As she did, she cast a glowing holographic stream of data from her wrist device.
"If the seal had successfully struck Maya, it would have covertly linked her life force directly to Selene’s core," Nyx explained, the terrifying reality of the trap settling heavily into the room. "Selene wasn’t just trying to remove her competition. She was building an insurance policy."
Zen gazed at the bright blue data, feeling a sudden chill wash over him.
"If I had executed Selene for her treason at the Gala..." Zen started, piecing the ruthless logic together.
"Maya would have died the second Selene’s heart stopped," Nyx added to finish the thought.
The tent was perfectly still. Maya just sat there drinking her tea, totally oblivious to the fact that she had almost been pulled into a lethal, otherworldly trap.
A chilling realization washed over Zen as he exhaled. Even though he felt like a king after crushing those ten A-Rank bosses, he knew physical power wouldn’t save him here. The war was different. The Goddesses were completely broken, and their obsessive nature made them terrifyingly smart and calculated.
He knew he couldn’t just fight his way through this. It was a mental game, and he had to be careful. One wrong move and he risked losing the very thing that kept him human.
[System Warning: Host’s internal mana pathways are destabilizing.]
Zen winced as a sharp, burning pain shot through his chest. Now that the adrenaline from the fight was wearing off, his body was really starting to feel the consequences of absorbing those ten raw monster cores.
He needed to stabilize his foundation. He needed a real piece of his soul.
Zen gritted his teeth, fighting through the sharp pain growing inside him. He turned to Nyx and ordered, "Watch the door. Whatever you do, don’t let Aurelia, Valeria, or Selene get in here."
Nyx narrowed her eyes and gave a suspicious look. "So, who exactly am I supposed to be letting in?" she asked.
"Tell Lyra," Zen breathed heavily, gripping the edge of the obsidian table. "Tell her it is time to pay the toll."