Supreme Harem God System

Chapter 2258: Sanctum Aurelios.

RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE

THUNDER THUNDER THUNDER

The Universe trembled in unfiltered rage again.

And that was the cue.

Cue to all the beings in the entire Universe.

Cue to the mortals who stopped thinking about it after mere five years.

Cue to the world leaders who would be directly or indirectly involved in this mess in the future.

This was not over.

This was... far from over.

And the Anomaly—

He was back.

And this time, he did not start small.

He did not attack a Lowest or a Low-Level world, nor did he target a forgotten corner that no being drifted to.

He targeted a High-Level World under the Light’s faction.

A world so important that even saying its name carried weight, especially after everything that happened in Gracevale—the High-Level World that the Anomaly attacked before.

A world built like a fortress.

A world filled with Light’s most loyal.

A world that served as a symbol.

Sanctum Aurelios.

It was called the Lantern of Light.

A place where Light’s doctrine was taught to millions.

One of the only places in the entire Universe where the Light Borns visited often as instructors.

A place where "justice" was written into law and carved into stone.

A world that was seen as proof that Light protected its people.

And in a single moment, without anyone even realizing what had happened—

Sanctum Aurelios vanished.

Devoured out of existence, so cleanly that it looked like it had never existed in the first place.

The only reason the rest of the Universe was even alerted was because the Universe’s Will reacted in anger, pointing at the place where Sanctum Aurelios once stood.

And the first to react to the Universe’s reaction was obviously the faction who lost the most—

The Light Faction.

A battalion of Light-born elites arrived in an instant, together with multiple artifacts and relics that might help them investigate, read the traces left in space.

The elites expected to find residue, to find... even a trace of energies—energies that should have spread after the battle that might have happened between Sanctum Aurelios’s Progenitors and the Anomaly’s Immortal Army.

But...

They found nothing.

Only silence and... emptiness.

The commander, a tall Light-born with a halo shaped like a thin ring of glass, raised his hand.

"Scan the edges.

Find the intrusion point."

He ordered, and the rest of the Light Borns spread out and released threads of Light—threads that were supposed to react to even the slightest change in air.

But...

The threads did not react.

At all.

"This is... clean.

Too clean."

One of the Light Borns whispered with a frown.

But then finally—

Her thread reacted.

The Light Born moved toward that thread and there, she noticed an extremely small, almost negligible-sized floating crystal.

An object none of them recognized, but one that reacted perfectly nonetheless.

Their formations tightened, collective shields appeared, weapons rose.

Yes, the Light Borns were on edge.

How could they not be?

Even Auren, the strongest Child of Light, had fallen at the hands of the Anomaly.

None of them wanted to take a chance.

"Approach carefully."

The commander ordered, and the entire unit moved forward as carefully as possible, staring at the crystal as if it might explode at any moment.

It was almost comical to see these beings—who could make almost any world kneel—being so careful in front of an object they didn’t even notice at first.

And what was even more comical was the fact that the crystal did not react.

The Light Borns stared at each other, confused.

Then, the first Light Born reached it with hesitation, his hand hovering near it.

Then, as if the crystal sensed him—

It shined.

In an instant, the Light Born and his entire unit shifted back with a flinch, their shields up.

And then—

The void lit up.

Not with an explosion, but with a screen.

Yes, it was not a weapon, nor a bomb meant to explode.

It was merely a recording.

A recording the Anomaly had prepared for them.

A message.

And the Light Borns—

Who had been almost comically careful around it—

Felt their faces burn.

They felt the Anomaly looking and laughing right at them.

But before they could react or do anything about the silent humiliation they were subjected to—

The recording began with a sound.

The sound of a crowd screaming and... crying as the scene formed.

The first image showed a city.

A golden city.

Light banners hung from towers like flowing rivers.

Statues of angels and saints stood on every bridge.

Above the city floated a massive temple, like a second moon made of white stone.

A voice spoke—calm and proud.

"This is Sanctum Aurelios,"

The voice said.

"The Lantern of Light."

Then the recording shifted.

It moved like a memory being dragged forward.

A grand hall appeared.

A courtroom.

Rows of kneeling people lined the floor.

Chains glowed on their wrists.

They looked thin, as if they were starved, and in their eyes, there was terror—sheer terror and dread of what was about to come.

At the far end of the hall sat a throne made of pale gold, and on this throne sat a man.

His hair was white-gold, his eyes were bright—almost holy.

A halo floated behind his head like a crown.

The camera angle moved closer.

Words appeared at the bottom of the recording in cold, neat script:

AUREN LIGHT — THE STRONGEST CHILD OF LIGHT.

The Light-born soldiers watching the recording stiffened.

Some looked proud at the title.

Some looked uneasy.

Auren smiled gently.

Then, he lifted a hand.

"Light sees your suffering,"

He said in a smooth, calm, kind voice.

The chained people began to cry harder.

Some bowed their heads like they had been forgiven.

Auren’s gaze moved over them like a kind father looking at children.

Then his tone changed.

"You have been accused of hiding darkness in your homes."

He spoke.

"No! No! We didn’t—"

A woman in chains shook her head violently.

Auren raised a finger.

She froze.

Not from fear.

From force.

Her body locked in place like stone.

"I hope you understand that I do not enjoy this."

Auren smiled again.

The denizens of Sanctum Aurelios present in the hall nodded solemnly, as if they shared the same pain.

Auren leaned forward.

"But if darkness exists... it must be burned away."

He snapped his fingers and—

"AAAGGGHHHHHH—"

The woman screamed.

Light erupted inside her chest like a white flame.

Yes, not around her—inside her.

She convulsed.

Her eyes went wide.

Her mouth opened as she screamed in agony.

And then she fell still, smoke coming out of her body that no longer had any active, or even complete, organs.

She was dead.

A child in the line screamed.

"Mama!"

Auren’s expression did not change.

He looked at the child.

"See? Darkness always kills."

And in a voice as gentle as always, he spoke.

The people from Sanctum Aurelios standing behind Auren began murmuring prayers.

The chained people were terrified, the children crying from the sheer fear they felt.

And Auren leaned back, seemingly... satisfied.

Just then—

The recording shifted again.

This time it showed a street.

A narrow alley in a poor district.

Beings wearing banners of Light marched through, knocking on doors, dragging families out into the open.

A man fell to his knees.

"We paid the Faith tax!"

He cried.

"We paid everything!"

A soldier kicked him in the face.

"Then pay again,"

The soldier said.

The man coughed blood.

Behind him, his wife held a small baby wrapped in cloth.

The baby wailed.

A soldier reached for the baby.

The wife screamed and pulled back.

"Please! Please—"

And then, amidst all the chaos—

A voice cut through the street.

"Stop."

It was Auren.

The soldiers froze instantly, bowing the moment their eyes fell on him.

Auren walked forward, hands behind his back, his robes so clean that it looked like the filth around had no effect on him.

The street went silent.

People trembled.

Some bowed their heads, as if his presence alone was salvation.

Auren stopped in front of the crying woman and, with a kind expression, he crouched.

"You’re frightened,"

He said.

The woman nodded desperately.

"Yes! Yes, my lord! We are faithful! We are—"

Auren gently touched the baby’s forehead.

The baby stopped crying.

The woman’s eyes filled with hope.

Auren smiled.

Then he whispered, almost lovingly:

"Faith is proven through sacrifice."

He lifted his hand.

The baby rose into the air, floating, still wrapped in cloth.

The woman screamed and reached for it.

"NO—!"

She screamed, but it was already too late.

Auren’s finger twitched.

The baby’s cloth unraveled in midair like a flower opening.

The tiny and helpless baby now floated naked.

Auren looked up at it like it was an object.

Then he turned to the crowd.

"Let this be a lesson,"

He said calmly.

"You do not question Light’s demand."

Then he closed his fist.

The baby vanished.

Forever.

"AAAGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!"

The woman’s scream broke into something ugly and animal-like.

She clawed at the ground, sobbing until her throat tore.

Auren looked at her, then at the light soldiers.

He nodded at them and walked away, not caring about the wailing woman in the slightest.

Behind him, two Light soldiers dragged the woman away, while the rest moved to the rest of the families as crying and screaming continued.