Want to read ahead? Join my Patreon for just $7 to get early access to all upcoming chapters!
> Patreon/NegativeTranslations
─────
The thod used to birth Balor and the creation of the Djinn Equip were fundantally distinct concepts. The latter heavily leaned toward a specialized form of Magecraft. While Hephaestus still categorized it as sothing achievable through pure forging, she had to admit that its execution leaned much closer to an esoteric magical ritual.
Simply put, it was an extre form of body modification. Etching magical runes directly into Balor's form elevated the entire process into a highly obscure discipline: Life Forging. If isolated completely, it was fully capable of spinning off into a distinct, independent thesis completely detached from traditional blacksmithing, much like the rigid divide between dical science and theoretical biology. Hephaestus was a traditionalist at heart. Coupled with her prestigious title as the 'Goddess of Forging', this cold, fla-less thodology was ultimately exiled into her ntal category of 'Heretical' forging.
"By the way, I've brought back the Spring of Life. Go ahead and see how it fits."
Hephaestus spoke up. Over the last few days, she had successfully managed to forge a perfect replica of the sacred spring. The group made their way to the center of the Divine Court, where a chanical device currently sat. This chanism was the beating heart of a Divine Weapon—a grand apparatus designed to siphon raw energy from the planet's leylines, condense it into concentrated mana, and purify it directly into the waters of life.
"We can convert this central area into a fountain plaza. From there, we'll carve aqueducts leading outward, allowing the Spring of Life to freely circulate throughout the entire Divine Court." Lucian mused before continuing, "We'll flood the outer periters of the Divine Court with the spring water, artificially constructing a sprawling Sea of Life."
True to his word, Lucian instantly activated his editing rights, effortlessly etching pristine waterways directly into the marble foundations of the Divine Court. These aqueducts weren't carved blindly; they followed a ticulously calculated geotric pattern. Viewed directly from above, the labyrinthine trenches perfectly aligned to form a colossal magical matrix. The sole purpose of this matrix was to process and refine external energy sources—such as divine power—breaking them down and converting them into the most fundantal state of mana.
If they ever felt the need to construct buildings in the future, the foundation blocks would be set directly above these waterways. This sprawling aqueduct network was essentially the physical manifestation of a 'water vein', designed specifically to establish a self-sustaining, internal energy loop. The mont the network was finalized, Lucian engaged the sacred spring.
Greedily absorbing the rich ambient mana suffusing the space, crystal-clear water erupted violently from the spring's eye. The surging currents rapidly flooded every branch of the aqueduct, weaving together into a unified, pulsating network before finally spilling over the far edges of the marble platform, cascading freely off the map. In blatant defiance of all known physical laws, the torrential waters plumting into the void hung suspended in mid-air, steadily accumulating until they coalesced into a vast ocean entirely encircling the suspended landmass.
[Divine Court Waterways: Construction Complete.]
Lucian referred to the Reality Marble housing his inner ntal world as a 'World Bubble'. The internal frawork adhered strictly to the ancient cosmological model of a round sky and a square earth. Every single foundational rule within this realm, including gravity, had been painstakingly constructed from scratch by him and Hephaestus. Because the physical laws governing his ntal landscape operated on an entirely different axis compared to the reality of the cosmos, the gravity present wasn't a natural phenonon. It was an artificial force explicitly hard-coded into existence via [Rule Creation].
The sheer void beyond the World Bubble was completely devoid of physical laws. Sustaining a flat, square-earth topology didn't forcefully demand a spherical containnt field. This held especially true considering the actual universe was chained by the rigid laws of thermodynamics. Lucian, on the other hand, had achieved total self-sufficiency through a perpetual internal loop. The two concepts were fundantally incompatible on a baseline level. As a direct consequence, Lucian had thoroughly hashed out the logistics with Hephaestus during the initial forging process.
As a brief aside, Lucian's baseline knowledge regarding planets and cosmic structures was a given. Considering the gods themselves were entirely capable of physically flying out of the atmosphere, they naturally knew the planet was spherical. In fact, during the events of the original tiline, Hera had casually ntioned this exact trivia while chatting with Alfia. This was a piece of lore Lucian had fully absorbed prior to his transmigration.
"I am so imnsely satisfied."
Bheara stared in pure awe at the violently overhauled Divine Court, viewing the majestic transformation simultaneously through her physical eyes and the top-down map interface. An expression of sheer contentnt washed over her face. Frankly speaking, if push ca to shove, Bheara would quite literally beg to have her sacred spring permanently installed here. The overwhelming sense of accomplishnt derived from the spectacle was just too intoxicating.
"By the way, it's still early. I think I'll go ahead and cure Beltane's terminal illness right now," Lucian suddenly piped up.
Truthfully, the terminal curse ravaging Talvi's body had long since been neutralized by him. He had been drowning in an absurd amount of work lately. Fortunately, after Bheara learned of the situation, she graciously stepped in to lighten the load, drafting an absolutely flawless treatnt plan. By forcibly inverting the foundational logic governing the negative skills afflicting Talvi and her kin, the debilitating penalties spawned by the curse were abruptly overwritten into potent buffs.
Because this overhaul was executed at a rule-tier level, it permanently rewrote their genetic sequence. Any future offspring would naturally inherit these powerful buffs, completely eradicating the congenital illness plaguing the people of Beltane once and for all.
"Perfect. I'll head out and gather the children right now." Bheara bead with renewed vigor, eagerly rushing off to organize the masses.
"Thank you so much, Lord Lucian." A look of profound gratitude washed over Talvi's face.
"You're my person. What else was I supposed to do?" Lucian chuckled warmly, gently patting Talvi's head. "Your problems are my problems. There's no need to thank ."
"You really are a hopeless romantic, aren't you," Hephaestus noted, her tone dripping with blatant jealousy.
"The exact sa logic applies to you, Hephaestus." Lucian smiled softly, pulling Hephaestus into a gentle embrace. "Thank you for everything you've given . I will rember it for the rest of my life."
Being held by Lucian—especially with Talvi standing right there—sent a furious blush erupting across Hephaestus's face. Despite the overwhelming wave of embarrassnt screaming at her to break free, a deep, yearning affection pinned her firmly in place. She simply couldn't bring herself to pull away.
What an absolutely infuriating man. He always knows exactly how to pluck at my heartstrings.
Hephaestus grumbled internally. Shortly after, Lucian made a trip directly to Beltane, effortlessly purging the congenital plague terrorizing the populace. Before departing, he established a permanent World Teleportation Gate linking Beltane directly to the Hephaestus Familia's headquarters.
The citizens of Beltane spent their entire lives weathering extre danger. Aside from the glaring lack of access to high-tier Excelia, they were thoroughly hardened veterans of constant slaughter. Uskali, the Captain, had already broken into Level 4. The blind swordsman was a high-tier adventurer who housed an obscenely high ceiling for martial potential. If they simply allowed their blades to dull just because their living conditions improved, it would be an absolute tragedy.
The structural blueprints for the portal were mostly finished. Only a few minor diagnostics and tweaks remained. Activating the World Teleportation Gate strictly mandated an enormous stockpile of mana. Ironically, Lucian later discovered that raw mana wasn't even the primary bottleneck plaguing the gate's activation. Because the portal was a rule-tier construct, the energy tax required to teleport within a localized map versus jumping between entirely different dinsions was mildly different, but generally comparable.
The true massive drain lay in locking down the coordinates. Executing a dinsional ping to retrieve a targeted coordinate drained an astronomical volu of energy. However, for standard, intra-world teleportation gates like this, directly hooking the power grid into Hephaestus's replicated sacred spring was more than sufficient. If Lucian really wanted to, he could engineer the gate to behave exactly like the spring itself—passively siphoning ambient mana from the environnt or localized leylines to sustain a perpetual operation.
Having wrapped up his errands, Lucian shifted his full focus toward constructing his Colosseum World Bubble. To completely preempt any future issues with overcrowding, Lucian engineered the Colosseum to be disgustingly massive right from the start. He designated one hundred distinct sectors. Although he didn't explicitly erect physical barriers to segregate them, he dropped a dedicated Boss Room directly into the heart of each sector, scattering internal teleportation pads across the entire map.
Slaughtering the Boss allowed the challenger to utilize the internal portal to descend to the next floor. The foundational structure of the world expanded downward in endlessly overlapping tiers. Aside from the teleportation matrix, a massive physical thoroughfare was entrenched squarely at the center. The total surface area of every floor remained identical. However, while the first floor housed a sprawling one hundred sectors, the second floor featured significantly less, and the third floor even fewer. This compression continued straight down to the tenth floor, which consisted of a single, colossal arena occupied exclusively by a gauntlet of apex-tier Boss monsters.
Currently, Lucian had only finalized the base topological map. The agonizing tedium of cataloging monster types, programming behavioral paraters, and balancing internal trics all required ticulous, one-by-one configuration. It was worth noting that both the Divine Court and the Colosseum were permanently hard-coded with the 'Indestructible' trait. In that specific regard, it genuinely mirrored the unyielding chanics of a virtual reality ga.
Barring the sudden intrusion of an overwhelming entity capable of violently shattering his ntal landscape—and completely crushing Lucian on a strictly conceptual level—the fundantal chanics he established were totally immutable. And so, the night vanished in the blink of an eye.
. . .
─────
Support this fanfict by leaving Positive Review, Comnts, and Power Stones.
For Advance Chapters:
> Patreon/NegativeTranslations
User Comments
0 comments from readers