The inner section of the mansion was far larger than the outer shape allowed.
They entered what looked like a private chamber and found an entire hidden observatory.
Water panels floated everywhere.
Hundreds of them.
So as large as walls, others as small as mirrors. Every one of them displayed a different part of the world.
The entire small world was reflected in water.
Lucien stopped in place and looked around.
"So this is how you watch everything."
The girl reford properly now, though she still kept a little distance.
She scratched her cheek.
"I get bored."
Lucien glanced at one panel, then another.
"You monitor people because you get bored?"
She coughed lightly.
"When you say it like that, it sounds unhealthy."
"It is unhealthy," Lucien said.
She looked offended for exactly half a second, then gave up and sat in a chair made of condensed water.
Then she turned serious.
"My Prince," she said, and Lucien already regretted letting that phrase survive, "I do not know how you plan to take this world with you."
Lucien opened his mouth.
She lifted one finger.
"But I believe you."
That part silenced him.
She drew in a breath and looked toward the panels.
"I should tell them first."
Lucien nodded imdiately.
"That would be best."
The girl closed her eyes.
For the first ti since he t her, her whole deanor changed.
The playful awkwardness faded.
The water around the room began to vibrate in low, perfect harmony. The panels brightened one by one, until the mansion looked as if it were floating inside a palace of liquid screens.
When she focused like this, the softness of her strange habits fell away.
She beca precise.
Beautiful in the way calm oceans were beautiful just before storms obeyed them.
Lucien watched without interrupting.
The panels resonated to the sa frequency.
Then her voice spread through them all.
It was no longer the uncertain voice of a shut-in girl.
It was the voice of a goddess who had ruled unseen for years.
"My people," she said.
Across every panel, the world paused.
Sailors lifted their heads.
Children stopped running.
Priests froze in prayer.
Soldiers on towers straightened instinctively.
The ocean itself seed to listen.
"A change is coming," she said. "Do not fear it. You will not be abandoned. You will be moved, protected, and carried into a wider world."
Lucien expected confusion.
Instead, what he saw through the water screens was astonishing.
The people rejoiced.
They bowed.
Many simply placed hands over their hearts and knelt.
Not one face showed resistance.
They trusted her completely.
Lucien narrowed his eyes.
"That level of faith is dangerous. No wonder I felt a familiar feeling earlier." he murmured.
•••
When the announcent ended, Lucien turned to her.
"There is sothing I want to ask."
She floated a little closer in her chair.
Lucien studied her.
"Why did you trust the sli?" he asked. "And why do you trust , even a little, if you are so afraid of people? I could be a bad person."
She did not answer imdiately.
Instead, she looked at the water in her palm.
It ford a tiny circle. Then another. Then a small ripple moved through it.
"My cheat was related to water," she said. "Perception, sensitivity, flow-reading."
Lucien listened.
"After talking to the sli, the Will of this World entered and rged with my system. After that..." She lifted her eyes. "Everything sharpened."
She touched her chest.
"I feel lies the way water feels disturbance. I feel killing intent the way lakes feel stones. A threat to my life creates a ripple. Malice has texture."
Lucien’s expression shifted slightly.
That was... useful.
And troubleso.
She smiled faintly.
"When I first saw you, you were genuine. Careful. Confused, but genuine."
Lucien coughed.
Then her expression softened.
"The real reason I never wanted to et my people face to face," she said, "is because I was indeed afraid."
Lucien stayed quiet.
"What if they saw and found out their goddess was just..." She gestured vaguely at herself. "An ordinary girl who likes novels, hates crowds, and lives like a shut-in? And I would hate it if the people I protect were the very ones I sensed malice from."
Lucien’s eyes drifted over appearance.
"Yes," he said. "I can see why that would ruin the myth."
She pouted.
Then her gaze turned sly.
"And if soone dangerous did appear, I could always just escape."
Lucien raised a brow.
"Practical."
She grinned.
"And you," she said, leaning forward slightly, "should act better when you copy domineering CEOs."
Lucien stared.
"You noticed?"
"Hehe." Her smile widened. "I still fell for it anyway."
Lucien rubbed the back of his neck and looked away.
She had noticed.
And still went along with it.
That made the whole thing worse sohow.
He sighed internally.
She was not as simple as he first thought.
Still weird but not simple.
•••
After that, the conversation beca more practical.
Lucien explained his plan.
She listened carefully.
At so point, she finally gave him her na.
"My na is Marina," she said.
Lucien nodded.
"I’m Luc."
As they continued, Lucien learned more about this world.
It was indeed small.
Even compared to his own previous small world, this one was more compact in usable land.
But there were still many people.
A lot.
Roughly ten million.
Lucien’s eyes sharpened when he heard the number.
That was enough to shape trade, labor, agriculture, military production, and future cultivation systems on a serious scale.
If properly raised, trained, and integrated...
Ten million people could tilt wars.
Lucien’s mind was already calculating.
Marina noticed his expression and narrowed her eyes.
"You are thinking of using them."
Lucien did not bother lying.
"I am thinking of making them stronger," he said. "And giving them a world where strength actually matters."
She considered that.
Then nodded.
"That is acceptable."
•••
When her people had fully cald and preparations were complete, Lucien left the mansion with Marina beside him.
Lucien entered the submarine again.
Then, they crossed the waters beneath the firmant, returned through the channel, and erged into the outer cosmic sea.
Marina hovered outside for a mont, staring into the endless water-universe with visible excitent before slipping in through a liquid seam she casually made in the vessel wall.
Lucien chose not to comnt on that.
Soon, Lucien stepped out of the submarine and into the pressure beyond.
The water outside bore imnse force, enough to crush ordinary beings instantly.
It did nothing to him.
Marina floated a short distance away, eyes bright, like an excited spectator at a performance she had been promised for years.
Lucien shook his head once.
Then he began.
Divine energy poured outward from him in controlled waves.
He spread it carefully across the world, allowing his power to wrap around the mbrane’s surface the way a skilled hand wrapped silk around glass.
The process was easier than the Lithren worlds.
This place has weaker Laws. Its resistance was thinner.
Lucien felt the whole world respond.
He enveloped it completely.
Then he drew in a breath.
And pulled.
The world trembled.
Then, in one smooth motion—
Lucien brought the world inside himself.
Marina’s eyes widened so much they nearly beca circles.
She turned to him in complete disbelief.
Her lips parted.
Nothing ca out.
Lucien just smiled back at her.
One that said:
We’re leaving.
Then the shift ca.
A disturbance. Several, in fact.
Lucien’s gaze lifted.
Monsters were approaching.
He smiled.
That was precisely why he had not let Marina simply tear open the door to the Big World.
The world had already been found.
Already marked.
That ant the monsters would keep coming here no matter what.
And if the world was gone...
Then every resource they sent, every soldier they deployed, every calculation they made—
Would be wasted.
They would co to invade a prize that no longer existed.
Lucien had not just taken the world.
He had created a dead target.
A trap made of absence.
He did not waste ti.
He and Marina re-entered the submarine, then moved toward the mbrane boundary.
They then entered the Obsidian Tower.
The transit was smooth.
The mbrane accepted them again, and soon they erged back into the gray interplanar layer.
This ti, however, they were not alone.
Several Monster Lords had already arrived near one of the earlier rifts.
They turned sharply the mont they sensed the Obsidian Tower.
Their expressions twisted at once.
To them, the sight was obvious.
The goblins were one-upping them.
Stealing a world.
Advancing a conquest without permission.
Their fury rose instantly.
Marina stood at the top platform of the tower, watching the panels with glowing interest.
Lucien did not give the monsters ti to speak.
He activated Origin Rewrite, copying the appearance of a Goblin Monster Lord.
Lucien stepped out first.
Space folded once.
His hand flashed forward, cutting cleanly through the first Lord’s neck before its eyes had even finished widening.
The body dropped. The drop was collected.
Lucien did not stay.
He returned to the Obsidian Tower imdiately.
Above, Marina watched through the viewing panels, her eyes shining with excitent.
Lucien dismissed Origin Rewrite and resud his true form without a word.
Soon after, he directed the tower away from the rift.
Behind them, the remaining monsters erupted into furious confusion.
Lucien smiled faintly.
It felt satisfying to leave a little chaos among the monsters.
He could already imagine the monsters demanding an explanation from the goblins.
•••
Soon the Obsidian Tower returned to the coordinates through which Lucien had entered this layered plane.
Then, with the sa precise sequence as before, it phased back toward the Big World.
The gray sea dimd.
Reality folded.
And Lucien returned.
Not alone.
And sowhere behind him, in a place monsters would soon co to conquer, there was now only nothing.
Which, Lucien thought, was the funniest answer they deserved.
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