Chapter 96: An Interesting Discovery

Up in the Void, Red watched the feed closely.

He absorbed that specific detail as the pieces instantly clicked into place in his mind. The glass-ash storms were absolutely not random weather events. And the System itself was fighting back.

The game engine was generating extreme environmental hazards as an automated antivirus protocol. The base code could not outright delete the Void-Eater’s glitch from the server, so it was throwing localized wipe-mechanics at the infected mobs to quarantine the spread.

The world was actively trying to heal itself. Or so Red thought.

“I could be wrong. I don’t know anything about the game or its lore, but the other gods surely do. However, they are also unaware of the origin of the void-eater. They said it didn’t exist in the game.”

Red pondered for a while, staring at the empty expanse of his domain.

“Could it be another god or an ability of some kind? But if that was the case, the system itself would have taken care of that. We didn’t find any information about it at the conclave meeting either, so holding another conference about it is just a waste of time.”

Red closed the diagnostic window and pushed the theories aside. The mystery of the Void-Eater would have to wait. Right now, his empire needed raw materials to build the continental highway.

Down in the physical realm, the expeditionary force marched out of the quarry. The Crag-Goliaths led the way. The ash plains gradually sloped downward into a massive, basin-like crater.

At the center of the depression rested the Fossilized Leviathan.

It was a breathtaking nightmare of ancient biology. Colossal, bleached ribs arched hundreds of feet into the gray sky, forming a cathedral of dead bone. A single vertebra was the size of a fortress. The sheer density of the fossilized skeleton radiated a heavy, oppressive aura across the crater.

Gorak signaled the halt.

The massive Shell-Kin dropped to their bellies and released the hauling chains. The exhausted Troglodytes and Kobolds immediately unlashed the heavy equipment from the sleds.

“Bring up the saws!” Gorak roared, his deep voice echoing through the massive ribcage.

Two towering Crag-Goliaths stepped forward. They hoisted the massive star-iron rock saws forged back at Onyx Hall. These were industrial beasts of machinery, built with thick teeth and heavy rotational gears powered by pure kinetic force.

Gorak walked up to the largest saw. He grabbed the primary starting crank, drove his bone-plated boots into the dirt, and pulled with his entire strength. The engine caught as the massive star-iron teeth spun to life with a deafening, metallic scream.

Iron-Scale took up a position on the perimeter. The Inquisitor held his perfectly scythe at the ready. His glowing yellow eyes scanned the surrounding ash dunes for any lingering feral pilgrims while the workers focused on the harvest.

Gorak directed the Goliaths toward the base of a towering rib.

The stone giants pressed the roaring star-iron saw against the fossil. Sparks erupted in a blinding, golden shower. The dense, ancient bone violently resisted the metal. Slowly, the sheer brute force of the Goliaths and the superior craftsmanship of Onyx Hall won the battle.

The star-iron saws chewed through the outer layer of the colossal rib. White dust rained down over the excavation site like snow.

Gorak wiped the sweat from his eyes and looked up at the towering arch of bone. The sheer scale of the skeleton was suffocating.

“If this is just a dead rib,” Gorak rumbled, his deep voice barely cutting through the noise of the machinery, “imagine the sheer terror of this thing actually drawing breath.”

Iron-Scale stood a few paces away. The blade of his scythe reflected the shower of golden sparks. “And imagine the absolute strength of the ancient gods who ruled alongside it,” the Inquisitor hissed.

The Goliath Chief crossed his massive stone arms and nodded slowly. “They were titans. We are just scavenging in their graveyard.”

Suddenly, a loud, metallic screech suddenly interrupted the conversation.

The massive star-iron saw violently seized. The Goliath operating the heavy crank was thrown backward into the ash. The rotating metal teeth sparked wildly against an immovable object before grinding to a complete, dead halt.

Gorak immediately stepped forward. He raised his gauntlet, ordering the workers to pull the heavy machinery back.

Deep inside the hollowed marrow of the Leviathan rib, something was resting in the dust. It was a broken slab of dark stone. It actively absorbed the ambient light of the crater, casting a supernatural shadow over the white bone. Its surface was covered in chaotic, spiraling scratches.

Iron-Scale took a sudden step back as a low-frequency psychic hum began to radiate from the object, vibrating directly into the minds of everyone standing nearby.

Up in the Void, Red’s terminal violently flashed. A highly classified, blaring red alert hijacked his main monitor.

Red shot out of his throne while eating.

He slammed his hands down on the console, his eyes locking onto the live feed. He had mapped this exact coordinate during the Conclave war. He had run a deep diagnostic scan on the entire Leviathan. The System had registered absolutely nothing but dead calcium and dirt.

The System interface struggled, throwing familiar errors across the screen.

[ OBJECT DETECTED: ??? ]

[ SCANNING… ]

[ ERROR: DIVINE SIGNATURE UNRECOGNIZED ]

[ ERA: PRE-CALAMITY ]

Red recognized it instantly. It was the exact same material as the anomaly Fin-Bar had dragged out of the lunar spring.

It was the second piece.

“System,” Red commanded quickly. “Sync the data. Link it with the artifact buried under the Bastion temple.”

[ PROCESSING… ]

The moment his divine perception linked the two pieces, the dormant code triggered. The fragment in the Leviathan resonated with the fragment trapped in the Hydra-scale box miles away.

The System finally recognized the combined data. A massive, encrypted lore window expanded across Red’s screen, flooding his terminal with new translations.

[ ITEM: FRAGMENT OF THE FORGOTTEN (2/???) ]

[ TRANSLATION MATRIX: UPDATED ]

[ …THE HUNGER… THE VOID BETWEEN STARS… HE WHO EATS THE LIGHT… ]

[ …THE BEASTS OF THE EARTH WERE FED THE SHARDS TO CONTAIN THE PLAGUE… ]

[ …THE LEVIATHAN SWALLOWED THE SECOND LOCK… ]

[ …THE HYDRA GUARDED THE FIRST… ]

Red stared at the glowing text.

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