Chapter 140: The Empire Awakens

Themis, the controversial author whose popularity soared overnight, did not just tell a story.

She resurrected a lost empire.

Page after page, she brought lost wonders back to life with terrifying clarity — places so vivid they felt less like fiction and more like classified memories someone had accidentally published.

Helias Manor — Lara’s legendary residence — rose from the pages like a forbidden paradise. A sprawling estate of white marble and sunlit courtyards, hiding secrets beneath its beauty.

Within the estate lay Eos Haven, headquarters of the Gabriella Guild. A place where discarded women stopped being victims and became something far more dangerous: bankers, spies, merchants, assassins… kingmakers.

Then came Heavenfort Palace — a citadel so colossal it seemed to pierce the sky. Suspended terraces. Blade-lined walls. A throne room said to be large enough to swallow an army whole. It was the beating heart of imperial power, home to Alaric, Lara, and their bloodline.

And the capital — Calma — jewel of Azuverda at its golden peak. A city of obscene beauty and terrifying wealth. Gold-tiled roofs that turned sunrise into a sheet of fire. The river Praya choked with trade ships. Markets where a single necklace could bankrupt a province. Its colossal gates were watched by the twin towers Argus and Panoptes, sentinels that had never fallen to siege.

Until the empire did.

But according to the book’s epilogue… those places were never destroyed.

They simply vanished.

Erased.

Forgotten.

Then the internet did what it does best.

Readers began posting side-by-side comparisons between passages from the novel and leaked drone images of Isla.

The similarities were… uncomfortable.

Comment sections detonated overnight.

Digital shouting matches. Amateur historians. Conspiracy threads spawning faster than moderators could kill them.

What if the mausoleum wasn’t the only thing buried there?

What if Heavenfort Palace had been hidden, not destroyed?

What if Helias Manor still existed underground — sealed, intact, waiting?

Speculation spread like wildfire in dry season.

Someone posted photos of two ruined towers, swallowed by moss at the shores of Calma Lake — their silhouettes eerily similar to Argus and Panoptes described in the novel.

The images went viral.

Millions of shares. Reaction videos. Livestream breakdowns. Influencers crying on camera. Self-proclaimed experts mapping the island pixel by pixel.

Within hours, hashtags demanding a full excavation dominated every platform.

Not requests.

Demands.

Because if even a fraction of Themis’s story was real…

Isla wasn’t just an archaeological site.

It was the heart of an empire itself.

And possibly a vault containing everything it had taken with it when it vanished — gold, weapons, secrets… history…power.

The kind of power people kill nations for.

…

A netizen under the handle Enigma went further than anyone else.

While everyone argued in comment sections, he came back with screenshots, archive links, translated passages, and dusty scans from university libraries and museum databases across half a dozen countries.

Buried in foreign chronicles, trade logs, and diplomatic records were scattered references to an empire called Azurverda — always described as distant, impossibly wealthy, and strangely advanced.

They were not myths nor legends but official documents.

One record from a northern kingdom complained about “unfair trade practices” because Azurverdan merchants sold steel that never rusted and fabrics so fine they could pass through a ring.

A desert empire’s tax ledger listed imports of “sun-glass lamps that burned without oil.”

A maritime republic recorded purchasing navigational instruments “that charted the stars even when clouds obscured the sky and a vehicle that floated in the air.”

None of it made sense for the supposed time period. Products too advanced for the era.

All of it was marked with the same origin:

Azurverda.

Then came the post that broke the internet.

“I initially thought what Themis wrote was pure fiction,” Enigma wrote. “But multiple independent historical archives reference Azurverda during the same era. These documents predate the novel by centuries. The Rise of an Empire by Themis may not be a fantasy. It may be reconstruction of a lost empire.”

The thread detonated.

Within minutes, historians, conspiracy theorists, engineers, and armchair detectives flooded the replies. Some tried to debunk the sources. Others dug deeper. More fragments surfaced — mentions of diplomats who returned home with gifts that couldn’t be replicated, soldiers wearing armor that arrows couldn’t pierce, coins made of an unknown alloy that never tarnished.

One chilling entry from a monastery archive simply read:

“They came from the west, dressed as mortals but bearing the works of gods.”

Governments began quietly restricting access to certain digital collections.

That only made things worse.

Because nothing fuels the internet like being told no.

Then Enigma posted another finding.

A partially damaged trade map recovered from a private Eurasian collection.

Most of the ink had faded with time.

Except for one region.

A city at the center of Azurverda, circled repeatedly in dark pigment — as if whoever drew it wanted to make absolutely certain it wouldn’t be overlooked.

Next to it, barely legible, was a single word:

Calma.

And beneath that, in smaller script:

“A treasure hub of the West.”

Then it was overlaid with the map of Isla.

The post hit ten million views in under an hour.

Then twenty.

Then fifty.

News outlets picked it up. Governments issued statements. Archaeologists from all over the world demanded access to Isla. Conspiracy forums declared it proof of a buried super-civilization.

And then—

Enigma uploaded one final file.

A short video.

Shaky. Grainy. Clearly recorded secretly.

The camera swept across the excavation and then the ruins… broken columns… massive stone blocks half-swallowed by earth and roots.

Then it stopped.

Centered on a colossal structure protruding from the ground, behind the ruined tower.

A door.

Smooth. Black. Untouched by time.

No cracks. No erosion. No roots choking it.

As if it had been sealed yesterday.

Ancient symbols covered its surface, faintly glowing beneath layers of dirt.

The person filming whispered, voice trembling:

“Someone found an entrance, and they found a mechanism to open it.”

A low sound rumbled through the recording.

It was not wind but something mechanical.

Dust drifted from the door’s seams.

The stone groaned.

The symbols flared brighter.

The ground began to shake.

The camera jerked violently as the filmer stumbled backward.

And just before the video cut to static—

A thin line of darkness appeared as the door began to open from the inside.

…

Enigma went offline immediately after posting.

His account was deleted within minutes.

Authorities denied any knowledge of the video.

Search engines stopped returning results for the username.

But millions had already downloaded the clip.

Because if the door was opening…

Something on the other side had just woken up.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep