Free Web NovelChapter 96: The Show Must Go On...
[CRITICAL WARNING: World structural integrity heavily degraded.]
[CRITICAL WARNING: Foundation pillars buckling.]
[Anomaly detected: Accelerated extraction of ’Body’ and ’Shadow’ fragments has further destabilized the planetary anchor.]
[Reality collapse imminent.]
Zen stared at the red warnings layered over his vision and flashing aggressively.
By aggressively siphoning back Valeria’s ’Body’ fragment and pulling a massive chunk of Nyx’s ’Shadow’ fragment in such a short window, Zen had further weakened the cosmic band-aid holding the Void Singularity in place.
He had known this would be the repercussion of siphoning his fragments back from his pillars. And that the more he takes from them, the worse this was going to grt as the planet’s anchor was buckling under the sudden power vacuum.
Before Zen could fully process the catastrophic implications of the system warning, a heavy, metallic crash echoed from the main doors of Maya’s guest suite.
The reinforced wood groaned as the magical wards hissed under extreme physical pressure.
"Zen!" Valeria’s voice roared from the hallway, sounding panicked and furious. "Open this door right now!"
Zen immediately dropped his internal system interface and unlocked the door.
Valeria practically broke through the frame the second the latch clicked. Her red eyes were wide, and her Vanguard armour was covered in a faint sheen of dust. Her golden broadsword was already drawn, humming with unstable, jagged mana.
She didn’t even look at Maya; she slammed her hand against Zen’s chest, her eyes frantically roaming over his face and shoulders to check him for injuries.
"Are you hurt?!" she demanded amidst her ragged breathing. "I felt the spatial tear from across the palace! I felt the world shake! I’ve been tearing apart the entire eastern wing looking for you, but Aurelia’s elite guards kept trying to redirect me to the training grounds! Why haven’t you come to find me in this hostile domain?"
Her Vanguard instincts were entirely in overdrive.
She was the Emperor’s Guard Dog, and the sudden reality quake combined with Zen’s temporary disappearance had triggered every single protective urge she possessed.
"I’m completely fine, Val," Zen said firmly, gripping her armoured wrists to steady her.
He noticed a distinct, violent tremor in her arms... a subtle but dangerous fluctuation in her usually limitless physical strength.
She was feeling the aftershocks of her missing fragment, even if her mind hadn’t figured it out yet. "I was just securing Maya. Someone tried to grab her in the corridor."
Valeria’s gaze snapped to Maya, then to the open doorway. "Where are they? I’ll flay them alive."
"They’re gone. I handled it," Zen said, his voice dropping to a low whisper as he pulled Valeria fully into the room. He closed the door behind her, ensuring total privacy. "But we have a larger problem. The palace is locked down, and I need eyes on the inside." freewёbnoνel.com
Zen closed his eyes for a brief second, intentionally tapping into the digital, cold frequency of the ’Shadow’ link he had established with Nyx in his bedroom hours earlier.
"Nyx. Can you hear me?" he thought, projecting his intent through the spatial network.
A crisp, static-laced sigh echoed directly in his mind. "Crystal clear, Emperor. I’m currently watching the palace staff run around like headless chickens. The reality quake just erased three city blocks in the lower sectors. What do you need?"
"Someone just tried to abduct Maya in the eastern wing," Zen briefed her rapidly. "She inverted her Vitality mana in a panic and completely hollowed him out. I dropped the body into a pocket dimension to erase the evidence, but his armour was completely melted. I need to know who sent him."
"An inverted core erasure? Impressive for a little healer," Nyx murmured, her digital thoughts whirring. "The capital’s physical security logs will be a mess after that quake, but I can infiltrate the central mainframe. If it was a rogue noble or a faction within the Crown, they would have had to override the sector’s patrol schedule to let an assassin slip through. I’ll dig into the deep archives."
"Do it quietly," Zen commanded. "Aurelia is going to be hyper-vigilant tonight."
"Understood," Nyx replied before the connection cleanly severed.
Before Zen could turn back to Valeria, a loud knock hit the suite door. A squad of elite Crown guards stood in a perfect line outside, their golden armour clanking urgently.
"Your Majesty," the captain said, bowing so low his helmet nearly touched his knees. "The Empress requests your presence in the high solar immediately. It is an emergency."
Zen wanted to ask how they knew where he was but decided that wasn’t necessary.
So, he nodded and gestured for them to take him to Aurelia.
—
Zen found Aurelia pacing frantically across the obsidian floor of her private solar.
The usually composed, hyper-calculating Empress looked entirely manic. Her perfect golden hair was slightly dishevelled, and her blue eyes darted constantly toward the massive skylight, watching the purple chaos of the Void bleed through the atmosphere like spilled ink.
"It is returning," Aurelia breathed, rushing toward Zen the second he entered. She grabbed his hands tightly. "The Void Singularity. We are out of time, Zen!"
She didn’t suspect him for a second.
Her mind hadn’t connected the reality quakes to his fragment siphoning; instead, she genuinely believed the world’s five-hundred-year borrowed time had simply expired.
"We cannot wait for your core to heal," she pleaded desperately as she pulled him closer to her chest. "We must accelerate the wedding. We have to initiate the permanent mental bind right now! If we merge our remaining power, if I pour my Divine-Rank core into yours, we can stabilise the Domain before the Void swallows us completely!"
"Aurelia, stop," Zen commanded, channeling the crushing weight of the First Mortal Ruler.
He gripped her chin, forcing her to look directly into his eyes. He had to shut down her panic before she forcefully slapped a slave collar on his mind in the name of saving the planet. freёwebnovel.com
"A rushed bind in a panic won’t work," Zen told her. "Even if you poured your energy into me, it still won’t be enough. I had all my powers five centuries ago but still failed to shut down the Void. And if you drag me to an altar while the sky falls, your nobles will realise you are terrified. The other Domains will smell blood in the water and attack. We do not panic."
Aurelia swallowed hard, her chest heaving as the ’Mind’ fragment within her core immediately responded to his sheer dominance. "Then what do we do? Look at the sky, Zen!"
"We proceed with the grand engagement Gala tomorrow evening exactly as planned," Zen declared flawlessly, constructing the perfect lie. "You will dress in your finest gown. I will stand by your side. We will smile, we will drink, and we will project strength to the aristocrats. Let them see that the Emperor does not fear a glitching sky. It buys us the time we need."
Aurelia stared at him in bewilderment. "But..."
"No buts, Aurelia."
Aurelia nodded almost immediately, completely intoxicated by his confidence. The manic terror in her eyes slowly melted back into a deep obsession. "You are right," she whispered, leaning her forehead against his shoulder. "The show must go on."
