Dorothy’s Forbidden Grimoire

Chapter 795 : Selling the World

Deep within the inner realm, in a certain corner of the Divine Throne domain, inside a historical fragment reflecting an apocalyptic past, a grand conflict was beginning to unfold.

It opened with an immensely powerful explosion. Since the end of the last corporate war, this world—drifting quietly toward extinction—had never endured such destruction. A sprawling megacity, boundless in all directions, was engulfed by the annihilating force.

As the brilliance, as dazzling as the sun, finally dissipated, the city’s buildings vanished without a trace. Beneath the thick clouds of smoke and dust lay a massive crater with a flat base. Gazing into it revealed only barren desolation. Far in the distance, waves surged in from the destroyed coastline, endlessly flooding into the hollowed terrain.

This was the aftermath of a bomb far more powerful than any nuclear weapon—one of the trump cards of the White Craftsmen’s Guild. Being caught at the epicenter without divine protection meant certain death, even for a Gold-rank Beyonder. Unfortunately, divine power was indeed shielding something within that blast.

At ground zero, a seemingly ordinary pile of rubble suddenly stirred. With a faint tremor, the rubble burst apart, and an object shot out from within, soaring straight into the sky.

It was a golden scepter.

At its head was a bird-shaped ornament engraved with a wide-open eye—none other than the First Dynasty relic once stolen by Davis!

The golden scepter hovered once it reached a certain height. Then, it radiated a dazzling violet light. In response to this glow, the dark sky cracked open. A rift quickly tore wide, revealing a giant eye—horizontal across the heavens. Its sclera was a deep, shadowy black, and its pupil was a swirling violet orb emitting eerie light.

This colossal eye loomed over the firmament, casting disdain upon the world. Beneath its gaze, the purple glow from the golden scepter intensified. Where it shone, phantom threads began to appear—each line linking rapidly with the others, forming the framework of towering buildings. These frameworks swiftly transitioned from illusory to real, materializing into high-rise towers.

Under the eye’s gaze, the once-destroyed city began reconstructing at a staggering pace.

Far away, Dorothy and her companions watched in stunned disbelief.

“To recover so quickly after that level of destruction... What even is that?”

Aldrich murmured in shock.

Beside him, Setut replied gravely.

“The Revelation Scepter… a sacred artifact long held by the High Priest of the Divine Mentor. It records the state of all things. With enough power and authority, it can restore whatever state it has recorded… It’s also a ritual tool used in grand Revelation rites.”

“Record states?” Nephthys asked, visibly confused.

“I thought it was supposed to resist curses?”

Setut nodded.

“That’s certainly one use. If a medium’s mysticism links are recorded, then those links can be continuously reset during curse interference. Any pharaoh or priest of the Holy Dynasty at or above Gold-rank can use the Revelation Scepter for such purposes.”

This ability to resist curses was just one facet of the golden scepter. Long ago, Shepsuna used it to shield mystic links tied to Nephthys’s grandparents’ bloodline from Hafdar’s curse. Even a deceased Pharaoh could achieve that with the scepter. But now, the current wielder was reconstructing an entire obliterated metropolis.

“…That eye in the sky… What is it? It feels ominous…”

Vania asked uneasily, eyes fixed on the heavens.

Dorothy answered solemnly.

“That… is the purpose of our journey.

“It is the child born of the divine throne…

“…a godling, born from the gathered divinity of Revelation upon the Divine Throne.”

Only Dorothy could see beyond the visible manifestation of that eye. Behind the abyssal pupil lay a space teeming with floating, writhing letters and symbols. Within that chaotic space stood an ancient, towering throne.

The throne was constructed from solid, unadorned stone, rising like a pyramid from the sea of script. No jewels or embellishments decorated it. Its backrest was absurdly tall—hundreds or perhaps thousands of meters high—resembling an obelisk, etched all over with unrecognizable characters. On it, countless strings of text squirmed like living things.

Though called a throne, it felt more like a monument chronicling history. The actual seat seemed minuscule under the towering “backrest.” Anyone sitting on it would appear to carry the weight of that monolith on their back.

And seated upon it now was no human form—but a monster.

A monster infant.

A grotesquely malformed, massive infant. Its skin was dark purple. Its body was stunted, but its head was enormous—several times larger than its body. The skull was entirely absent, exposing a giant purplish-red brain. At the top of the brain, nestled between the hemispheres, was a massive eye darting about erratically.

Behind the throne, countless spiked iron chains stretched forth, tightly binding the infant’s body to the seat. Especially its giant head was ensnared and pierced by chains, drawing streams of blood that trickled down the throne.

This… was also the divine throne of the Heaven’s Arbiter—known as the Throne of Fate. And this… was the “godling,” a child-god birthed from Revelation’s divinity concentrated upon the throne. It was born from the Divine Throne, ruled from the Divine Throne—yet also seemed bound by it, sobbing in agony.

“Waaahhh!!!”

Suddenly, the godling let out a shrill cry. That piercing wail echoed throughout the illusory space, from the colossal eye in the sky down to the newly rebuilt city.

And with that cry, a figure manifested mid-air above the city.

A handsome face. A proper suit. Slicked-back golden hair. Empty, lifeless eyes.

It was none other than the former leader of the Dark Gold Society—the self-proclaimed Incarnation of Dark Gold—Dark Coin Noble. But now, he had become nothing more than a puppet… the godling’s puppet.

At the moment of his appearance, the Dark Coin Noble flung open his arms. At once, the world itself began to warp…

On the dense transportation grid of the re-manifested cityscape, countless dark yellow lights suddenly lit up. These dim crimson lights streaked across the roads, tracing out a massive Stone mystical array across the ultra-dense urban road network. At its center stood the headquarters tower of “True Universe,” and it encompassed the entire megacity complex—spreading outward at an incredible speed, ultimately extending across the entire fragmented-history world.

The moment the formation appeared, a world-scale ritual was instantly activated. Standing at the center, the Dark Coin Noble's eyes glowed with dark yellow light as he solemnly proclaimed to the world:

“I... as the Final Proprietor of this world... hereby declare—this world... shall be sold...”

With the Dark Coin Noble’s proclamation, the entire world began to shift. The ground trembled faintly, the light in the sky twisted and warped, and many high-rises covered by the massive formation began to break apart and vanish into nothingness. Countless "players"—those who were immersed in the virtual world and lying in various sleep pods—began to disintegrate silently, both their physical bodies and their spiritual selves vanishing without a trace.

The Dark Coin Noble's ritual was causing the world to collapse. And with this collapse, an unimaginable power converged upon him. Eyes wide open, he plummeted downward—landing atop the summit of the “True Universe” headquarters tower, on a broad platform already inscribed with another mystical array—a Revelation ritual array. A figure stood waiting for him.

It was a priestess clad in opulent First Dynasty ceremonial robes. Her skin was dark-toned, her eyes covered with a veil, and she held the golden scepter in silence. When the Dark Coin Noble landed atop the ritual, she quietly gripped the scepter and struck it against the ground. At once, the Revelation array erupted in brilliant violet light that soared skyward—shooting directly into the giant eye’s pupil in the sky.

At the edge of the reborn city cluster, Dorothy and the others were flying swiftly toward the city’s center. Because they had stayed far from the blast radius of the White Craftsmen’s Guild’s super-bomb, they were only now arriving on scene.

“What is that? A ritual of this scale... what exactly are those people doing!?”

Watching the massive beam rising from the distant tower and the buildings around her intermittently vanishing, Artcheli spoke gravely. Beside her, Dorothy analyzed seriously.

“It’s not just one ritual. It’s two... I can feel it. This world is collapsing. It’s being turned into sustenance—offered to that being on the divine throne…”

“What? You're saying the godling is devouring this world?”

Setut said in shock, and Dorothy nodded.

“Yes... I suspect this is the result of the Dark Coin Noble’s mercantile divinity. He’s somehow ‘possessed’ this world and is using a large-scale ritual to sell it—selling it directly to the infant god as food to foster its growth…”

As someone imbued with the divinity of Heaven’s Arbiter, Dorothy could clearly sense the world's disintegration and its source. Two grand rituals were at work: one hosted by the Dark Coin Noble to sell the world, and the other hosted by the priestess created by Hafdar, to sacrifice the acquired power for the godling to consume.

“Selling and devouring a world? That... is that even possible?”

Nephthys asked in disbelief, and Dorothy replied with measured seriousness.

“For them... it absolutely is. Because in a sense, this world has long been governed by out-of-control Commerce divinity…”

She continued. The catastrophe of this world stemmed from a populace that had abandoned reality for illusion. While it seemed like a Revelation disaster, it wasn’t. Even before the population drowned in virtual dreams, this world had already succumbed to despair.

This was an intensely cyberpunk world. Rampant capitalist expansion gave rise to several monstrous multinational conglomerates that dominated every facet of life, exploiting people mercilessly. Hope vanished from the world. And after the final corporate war, True Universe emerged victorious, becoming the absolute hegemon—ruling the world through virtual networks. The virtual world was only the surface; True Universe’s domination was the core.

Thus, the essence of this world’s disaster was a Stone catastrophe wrought by runaway Commerce divinity. As the one who wielded such divinity, the Dark Coin Noble could quickly seize control of True Universe upon arriving here, achieving de facto “ownership” of the world.

Fragment worlds born of historical remnants were not false—they were real segments of history from the main universe. Dorothy surmised that the main universe was shrinking in scale, primarily due to the gods growing weaker. And where had their lost power gone? Naturally, into these fragmented worlds.

Every time the universe was reset, some parts became too corrupted by depravity to be purified. Bringing them into the new universe posed great risk. Thus, Heaven’s Arbiter abandoned these parts, sealing them as fragment worlds—forever replaying their apocalyptic ends within limited seals. Meaning, the matter and power within them were real, not illusory—and could be harvested.

Now, the godling was using the Dark Coin Noble to seize control of this fragment world, having him sell it to itself for consumption. While this world was mainly dominated by corrupted Stone power, the proliferation of virtual networks also birthed many stray Revelation fragments. The unusable parts would be sold by the Dark Coin Noble to other fragment worlds in exchange for stray Revelation fragments, feeding the godling. The ritual extended beyond just this one fragment—it was a cross-fragment trade.

This was the versatile power of Commerce divinity: through forced mystical transactions, it could acquire any desired resource.

Of course, devouring Revelation fragments from previous corrupted universes came with severe risk of corruption. But for a god already born of corruption, this was no price at all.

“Damn it… We finally succeeded in the plan, and now everything’s just been undone… How humiliating…”

Nephthys grit her teeth as she watched the grand city rebuild itself.

Dorothy, flying beside her, responded bluntly.

“No. Our earlier actions weren’t in vain. In order to restore the destroyed ritual site and his minions, the godling expended a large amount of power—it’s currently in a weakened state and can’t immediately intervene with full divinity… Also, this selling ritual isn’t fully complete. They can’t complete the transaction in one go—that might be our chance…”

Dorothy analyzed seriously. She could tell that the Dark Coin Noble’s ritual was incomplete. The world couldn’t be sold all at once and had to be delivered in stages. The process was inefficient, likely falling short of ideal outcomes.

It was evident the godling had planned to wait longer, but now that Dorothy’s group had intervened, it had no choice but to act prematurely. This was their best opportunity.

At present, the godling had expended great power to recover its bombed-out ritual site and puppet forces, leaving it temporarily weakened. Dorothy could see the signs clearly—it would struggle to execute large-scale divine interference right now.

But this weakness wouldn’t last long. As the rituals progressed and the godling devoured the world, it would quickly regain strength—soon reaching the threshold for divine-scale interference. The more it consumed, the stronger it would grow.

So—

They had to move fast.

“Now… we stop the ritual!”

Toward the towering headquarters of True Universe, Dorothy’s group accelerated their assault. But just as they entered the city—

—as always, the obstructors arrived.

Countless red-glimmering threads—thousands upon thousands—began sprouting from the ground, rapidly extending toward the sky like a flood aimed straight at Dorothy and the others. Upon seeing this, the group immediately dispersed to dodge, but the red threads pursued relentlessly, writhing and twisting like serpents in the air as they continued to strike at the team.

“Ice Bind—”

At that moment, Setut raised his withered arm and released a tremendous surge of spiritual cold around himself. The freezing mist spread outward, halting the otherwise formless red threads midair and locking them in place.

“I’ll stay behind and catch up on old times…”

Having disrupted the oncoming threads, Setut called out to the others. Dorothy simply gave a silent nod and flew on, leaving Setut behind to intercept the growing tide of incoming spiritual threads.

Leaving Setut, Dorothy and the others proceeded into the city. But before long, the ground began to quake violently—buildings collapsed, and wide roads split apart with deafening roars. Amid the haunting howls of the dead, an enormous stag skull erupted from the chasm below, hurtling toward Dorothy in the sky.

Just then, the collapsing buildings around them suddenly stopped mid-fall. Countless chunks of concrete began rapidly gathering and fusing together. In the process, more buildings were absorbed into the mass, causing it to swell in size.

Finally, two giant hands—constructed from modern reinforced concrete and steel—took shape. They clasped the charging stag skull tightly, completely subduing it.

Seeing this, Dorothy turned to Aldrich in the distance, now standing steadily atop a skyscraper. He silently nodded to her. With that confirmation, Dorothy pressed on, leading the others forward.

Now, only Dorothy, Artcheli, and Vania remained. The three continued their high-speed assault toward the towering headquarters of True Universe. But, as expected, more defenses awaited them.

(T/N: Poor Neph always becomes the butt of the joke andis  now forgotten)

Around the True Tower, the city’s most formidable defense systems activated. Ground silos opened to reveal dense arrays of missiles. Rooftops split to unveil massive-caliber long-range cannons. Laser turret towers began to glow brightly. Underground airstrips launched squadrons of drones into the skies.

As the headquarters of the world’s most powerful megacorporation, such extreme self-defense systems were to be expected.

Suddenly, all of True Universe’s automated defenses opened fire. A storm of projectiles poured toward the approaching intruders. Missiles roared from silos, trailing white smoke. Cannons fired under precise fire control systems. Drones shrieked in tight formations. Laser turrets discharged thick beams toward their targets.

A storm of annihilation descended—but Dorothy’s group immediately counterattacked.

Artcheli drew her blade and unleashed a flurry of slashes, sending shadowy waves to intercept the incoming shells and missiles midair, detonating them in a series of violent bursts.

Electric arcs danced around Dorothy. Her will expanded across the battlefield as electromagnetic signals. In an instant, all aerial drone squadrons were hacked and hijacked. A number of missiles turned sharply mid-flight, redirecting their payloads toward the True Tower. The tower’s own anti-air defenses engaged to intercept them, while Dorothy repurposed the drones’ guns and missiles to strike back. Explosions filled the sky. The ground-based defenses of the True Tower were being rapidly destroyed.

As for the incoming high-energy laser beams, Vania transformed them into cleansing streams of water through prayer—gentle rain falling harmlessly to the earth.

Though True Tower’s defenses were formidable, they could not halt Dorothy and her team. Their assault was unstoppable.

Once within range, Artcheli drew her handgun between sword strikes and fired a glowing flare toward the tower. She intended to use the shadow cast by the flare to instantly teleport into the ritual site.

Unfortunately, the flare struck an invisible wall near the tower and vanished, leaving only a faint ripple behind. It was clear—a protective barrier shielded the tower from external interference.

“…Looks like we’ll need to get closer after all.”

Muttering softly, Artcheli increased her speed.

Just then—the battlefield shifted again.

From the hardened ground, dark-golden metallic spikes burst forth, stabbing skyward and speeding toward Artcheli’s group. They dodged quickly, avoiding the upward thrusts. But in the next moment, the upright spikes grew countless horizontal barbs, branching out like iron trees and spreading in all directions—attempting to turn the entire space into a deadly iron thicket.

Artcheli’s sword slashed at lightning speed. With a flash of silvery light, the iron branches shattered into a rain of fragments.

Just as she was about to advance again, something unexpected happened.

The raining metal shards abruptly transformed—each fragment turning into a slender, sharp needle. From every direction, they floated and darted toward Artcheli.

Her eyes widened. In shock, she transformed into a thin shadow, weaving through the storm of piercing needles.

She glanced over—Vania was surrounded by fewer but still dangerous needles. At once, Artcheli dashed over, intercepting and slicing through them with her blade before they could reach the startled nun.

“Haa… Th-thank you, Your Excellency… What are these things?!”

Vania exhaled in relief. But Artcheli didn’t answer right away. Her gaze had already shifted upward—serious and cold.

In the air above, the countless metal needles were converging—melting into one another like liquid. The hardened metal transformed into a fluid mass and fused completely.

That lump of liquid metal then began to reshape itself like modeling clay. Wings stretched out. Claws, fangs, a monstrous head, and a tail all began to form.

In front of Artcheli, the metal sculpted itself into a familiar shape—towering 70 to 80 meters high, with a vicious face bearing massive draconic horns. Four muscular arms with razor-sharp claws extended from its sides, and two thick legs supported its enormous body. It had two long tails and broad wings on its back. Its dark-gold skin shimmered with a metallic sheen.

This form resembled an Aurum Gargoyle—but far larger and far more ferocious.

It wasn’t some random beast. It was an upgraded form.

An Umbrum Gargoyle.

“A Gold-rank entity from the Gold-Devouring Path? But wasn’t that guy already conducting the ritual…? How…”

Artcheli muttered in confusion, quickly piecing things together.

“There was no soul in that earlier strike… So this must be… a puppet crafted from Gold-rank power?”

Indeed, what stood before her was a puppet—a being forged from the Dark Coin Noble’s mystical power.

Because he couldn’t fight while conducting the ritual, the godling devised another method—extracting all of the Dark Coin Noble’s non-divine power and commodifying it. Then, with the help of Hafdar and Taharka, they used the technology of this world to construct an autonomous puppet—this Umbrum Gargoyle, imbued with Gold-rank might.

Thus, the Dark Coin Noble became a purely divine-function tool—focused entirely on conducting the ritual—while his extracted powers were weaponized as an independent combat unit. For someone like Artcheli, it was a serious threat.

Her slashes could cut through souls—essential when dealing with high-regeneration or amorphous foes. It was one of the few ways she could threaten the Dark Coin Noble. But now, she faced a soulless construct—a living mass of liquid metal. She found herself, for the first time, at a loss.

“Tch… The tricks just don’t stop, do they…”

She let out a cold snort and gripped her sword tighter, casting a sideways glance toward the distant tower.

“I hope she can break through soon…”

With that final thought, Artcheli turned fully toward her new enemy.

…

While Artcheli and Vania were being attacked by the Umbrum Gargoyle, Dorothy faced a similar assault. Confronted by the countless incoming metallic needles, she instantly transformed into a bolt of lightning and zipped through the minuscule gaps between the needles, dashing into a nearby roadside transformer.

However, rather than staying behind to battle the Umbrum Gargoyle, Dorothy chose to press forward alone after confirming that Artcheli and Vania had survived the ambush. She made a clean getaway.

As lightning, Dorothy entered the city’s electrical grid, racing along the interconnected wires that spanned the entire urban area. Her plan was to ride the electrical current directly into True Universe’s headquarters—into the True Tower itself—and manifest there to disrupt the ritual. But things didn’t go as planned.

Dorothy quickly discovered that True Universe’s power system was completely isolated—entirely independent from the rest of the city’s grid. A buffer zone several kilometers wide, devoid of conductive material, separated the city’s electrical network from the headquarters. This meant she couldn’t invade the enemy stronghold by elemental infiltration.

That power-isolation belt had clearly been prepared by Hafdar and his allies specifically for her. The moment battle broke out, they activated a preset plan to sever the grids. Unlike previous enemies who were unfamiliar with the powers of Revelation, Hafdar and the others knew Dorothy’s capabilities all too well—and had crafted targeted countermeasures accordingly.

After several failed attempts to breach the tower through the grid, Dorothy abandoned the elemental infiltration plan. She re-manifested at the edge of the city, at a point where the defensive perimeter around the tower was relatively weak.

The moment she took form again on a rooftop, Dorothy turned her gaze toward the distant tower, preparing to make another breakthrough—yet just as her body solidified from the electric arc, a deep sense of danger surged down from the sky.

A fireball—a massive one—plummeted toward her from above!

Reacting instantly, Dorothy re-entered elemental form, leaping via electricity to the lightning rod atop another distant building, narrowly dodging the flaming projectile. The fireball slammed into the rooftop where she’d just stood, unleashing a deafening roar. The skyscraper, along with several neighboring buildings, collapsed in a fiery blaze, consumed by the blast.

Emerging from the smoke, Dorothy looked skyward toward the fireball’s origin. There, soaring through the sky, was a massive red dragon—and riding atop it was a figure she knew well.

Hafdar.

Seeing Hafdar on the dragon’s back, Dorothy relaxed her expression slightly and chuckled.

“You again… This makes our third direct confrontation, doesn’t it? Perhaps also our last. Do you really think you can defeat me this time?”

Dorothy called out calmly, and Hafdar answered with a grave tone.

“It seems my hunch was right. You wouldn’t fall for a virtual-reality trap so easily… And not only was I right—you even played me again.

“But no matter. A few hiccups aside, everything is still within the Divine Mentor’s expectations. In this world, you cannot stir any lasting waves…

“Hand over what you’ve stolen, Usurper.”

With that, Hafdar initiated his assault, commanding the red dragon—brought forth through mythic lore—to dive toward Dorothy, unleashing another fireball from its gaping maw.

The projectile hurtled toward her, but Dorothy again evaded it with elemental transformation, blinking to another rooftop in a flash of lightning. The building she'd just vacated was obliterated in a fiery blast. Hafdar chased her atop his dragon, bombarding her with fireball after fireball, but Dorothy continued dodging skillfully as streaks of thunder arced between the high-rises.

In this dense and layered metal environment, Dorothy’s elemental form could move with great fluidity. Using this advantage, she avoided the onslaught with ease—each time becoming lightning and blinking across rooftops, while one skyscraper after another collapsed under Hafdar’s relentless bombardment.

Crack!

Dorothy struck back. With a wave of her hand, she summoned a bolt of divine thunder from the sky. Alerted by the squawk of his parrot, Hafdar sensed danger and dodged in time, but the lightning struck the red dragon directly. With a pained roar, half of its body was blown apart, sending it plummeting through the air. Hafdar, touched by the dragon during the strike, was also scorched black from the electric surge.

This was divine lightning infused with divinity. It didn’t require weather conditions to be summoned and had no charge time—capable of instantaneously killing even legendary creatures.

Hafdar and his dragon were struck down. But as he fell, one of his contingency plans activated. A finely crafted glass vial manifested unconsciously on his back, shattering against the dragon’s hide. From the impact point, an immense wave of life force radiated outward, rapidly restoring the dragon’s body and shedding Hafdar’s charred flesh to reveal fresh, unscathed skin.

It was the legendary Fountain of Youth. Hafdar had used immense power to materialize an ancient version of it through mythic lore—not only reversing age but healing all injuries and even resurrecting the dead.

Hafdar recovered swiftly, but Dorothy’s divine lightning didn’t only target the body—it could strike the spirit as well. Were it not for the godling shielding Hafdar’s mind, he would’ve been mentally obliterated. With its protection, he recovered fully.

“Don’t get cocky, Usurper!”

Nearly killed by a single thunderstrike, Hafdar was now visibly enraged. He released another power—manifesting a massive golden birdcage that enveloped the entire city, trapping Dorothy within.

Next, Hafdar invoked another ancient tale, summoning a towering undead giant. Wielding a broken greatsword, the giant swung its massive blade toward Dorothy.

But Dorothy remained calm.

She summoned her divine-enhanced spiritual threads—her Fatebinding Chains. Crimson threads coiled and writhed through the air, instantly binding the undead giant in place, immobilizing it entirely.

Dorothy then raised her finger, ready to unleash another powerful lightning strike and destroy the restrained giant completely.

Seeing this, a sly grin curled on Hafdar’s lips. In his hand appeared a small, dark-golden box.

Now! She’s fallen into the trap!

Grinning with triumph, Hafdar opened the box, releasing the power sealed within—it was none other than the Dark Coin Noble’s forcible acquisition ability!

For Dorothy’s arrival in this shattered world, Hafdar and the others had prepared many tools—this box among them. The godling had intentionally withheld a sliver of its Commerce divinity from the ritual, transforming it into several compact ability boxes distributed to Hafdar and his allies for combat use.

Hafdar’s strategy hinged on Dorothy letting her guard down after seeing the Dark Coin Noble reduced to a mere ritual conduit. Without fear of her powers being acquired, she would use them freely. That’s when he would strike—using this box to steal them away.

And now, just as predicted, Dorothy was using both of her abilities at once—her thunder and chains—making it the perfect time to snatch them both. Without her core abilities, her divinity alone wouldn’t suffice in combat.

The divine lightning surged from Dorothy’s fingertip toward the bound giant. Simultaneously, Hafdar activated the box’s power to forcibly acquire her Roaring Fury and Spiritual Threads Path abilities.

But—

What happened next completely shocked him.

The acquisition failed.

Dorothy’s lightning didn’t vanish. Nor did the Fatebinding Chains. Hafdar watched, dumbfounded, as his undead giant was consumed by the brilliant thunder. A second bolt of lightning burst forth—hurtling directly toward him!

“What…

“Why didn’t it vanish…”

He stood frozen, bathed in blinding light, his face contorted with disbelief.

“Why hadn’t the acquisition worked?

“Why… had it failed?

“This was completely different from before.”

As Hafdar was struck once more by divine lightning, his unanswered confusion lingered—answers that could only be found in another world, in another realm.

…

Outside the shattered world, beyond the divine throne’s domain—

In another corner of the endless, layered expanse of inner realms, within yet another domain…

The mechanical roar of machinery filled the skies. Towering steel buildings stretched into the horizon, and thick steam misted the canyons between structures that resembled massive high-rises. The ground was made of moving metal mechanisms, and the sky was no different—colossal gears and connecting rods slowly rotated, supporting the heavens and the earth of this mechanical giant. Rivers of molten iron coursed across the steel land.

This place… was the Forge Realm—a realm of immense power and vitality among the countless inner realms. It belonged to the great God of Craftsman.

Deep within this world-factory-like realm, atop the rooftop of a towering mechanical structure, two figures stood. They appeared to be nothing more than ordinary men—common mortals.

Yet these two seemingly mundane men were engaged in something bizarre.

Each sat astride a stationary bicycle, pedaling ceaselessly. The pedals turned chains connected to the back wheels—only, the wheels weren’t normal. They were gears, meshed with larger gears embedded in the rooftop below.

Their expressions were vacant. They pedaled tirelessly, transmitting mechanical force through the gear systems, which linked in succession, extending their power far into the unknown. On one of the men’s bodies, sparks of electricity occasionally crackled. Several power cables coiled around him, channeling the electricity from his body toward some distant destination.

These two men… were both Dorothy’s marionettes. One was a living marionette controlled via spiritual threads, the other a hypnotized marionette manipulated through profiling and suggestion. Dorothy also continuously channeled her lightning through the threads into the living marionette to maintain electric output.

Both marionettes were linked to Dorothy through her omnidirectional information channel, which extended her threads and will into this distant realm. She controlled them remotely to pedal the bicycles—and the point where these bicycles were connected?

It was none other than the Radiant Core, the most crucial core of the Forge Realm.

In the absence of the God of Craftsman, the Radiant Core served as the power generator that fueled the entire realm. The bicycles beneath the two marionettes were exquisitely engineered—their back wheels connected through a long transmission system to the main energy valve of the Radiant Core, a valve which regulated the flow of power throughout the Forge Realm.

This valve’s open-or-closed state was now fully dictated by the marionettes’ activity—independent of the Forge Realm’s native power system. It could only be operated by the force generated by Dorothy’s marionettes. As long as the marionettes kept pedaling and continuously discharged electricity, the valve remained open, power flowed freely, and the Radiant Core could continue to supply energy to one-third of the entire Forge Realm.

But if either marionette stopped pedaling—or if the living marionette ceased discharging electricity—then the valve would close, and that entire third of the realm would shut down.

These marionettes were powered and maintained by Dorothy’s three foundational abilities: spiritual threads, hypnosis/profiling, and lightning. That meant, if Dorothy lost access to even one of these abilities, she would be unable to sustain the marionettes' operation. One would go inert; the other would stop discharging electricity. And with either condition met, the energy valve would shut.

That would mean: one-third of the Forge Realm would come to a complete halt.

In other words, Dorothy’s foundational abilities had now become directly tied to the operational status of a vast portion of the Forge Realm—and the result of this link was a dramatic surge in the “value” of her basic powers.

By establishing this strange connection, the value of Dorothy’s core abilities had become equivalent to the productive capacity of one-third of the Forge Realm.

And that portion of the Forge Realm’s output?

It far surpassed the combined output of the entire current-world human civilization. It even exceeded the total productive capabilities of most interstellar civilizations.

So… what was the value of that staggering level of production?

Could Hafdar—or the godling—possibly afford it?

If they couldn’t bear the cost… then the so-called “forcible acquisition” was nothing but empty talk.

Put simply, Dorothy’s foundational abilities… were now something Hafdar absolutely could not afford to buy.