Ethan nodded slowly, his gaze steady as he t Ryogu’s eyes.
"Yes. I would like to go there," he said. "I want to understand your race better."
Ryogu smiled, a calm and genuine expression that carried neither suspicion nor calculation.
"Of course," he replied. "When do we leave?"
"Seven days from now," Ethan said after a brief pause. "I still have so matters to settle here."
"Seven days," Ryogu repeated, a hint of genuine warmth in his voice.
"We shall prepare a welco befitting a man of your stature, Ethan Hunt. Our lands are... different. I think you will find the atmosphere stimulating."
"I’m looking forward to it," Ethan said, nodding.
"But for now, enjoy the Tower. My staff will ensure you have everything you need."
As Ryogu waved to his guardian, who was currently shouting in triumph after beating a high-score on the Whack-a-Mole machine, Ethan stood up.
He walked toward the massive floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked the spiraling expanse of the Tower’s interior.
His mind was already moving toward the logistics of the next week.
He had trillions of Origin coins to collect, techniques to modify for the Dragons and Phoenixes, and a growing empire to manage.
But just as he took a step forward, a sudden, violent tug pulled at his mind.
It was a sensation like being yanked through a straw.
His vision blurred, the neon lights of the café stretching into long ribbons of color.
The clone.
Ethan had sent the clone into the Neutral Plane.
He had instructed the clone to find Erebus and report back.
But the clone wasn’t sending a ssage.
It was forcibly pulling Ethan’s primary consciousness across the void.
Ethan opened his eyes and gasped.
The air hit his lungs like a tonic. It was sweet, crisp, and vibrantly alive.
He wasn’t in a dark, war-torn wasteland.
He wasn’t in a sterile void.
He was standing on a grassy knoll that felt softer than the finest velvet.
Around him, the Neutral Plane stretched out in a breathtaking display of natural beauty.
Massive mountains with peaks made of translucent crystal pierced the sky, which was a soft, shifting shade of violet and gold.
Forests of erald-green trees swayed in a breeze that carried the scent of blooming jasmine and ancient earth.
Strange animals, glowing with a soft internal light, wandered peacefully through the valleys.
There was no sound of war.
No sll of blood.
"What is this place, Yumiko?" Ethan asked internally.
His voice felt small in the vastness of this paradise.
The voice of his System, Yumiko, responded imdiately, but her tone lacked its usual chanical cheer.
It was somber.
[Master, you are currently witnessing the Neutral Plane.
But its beauty is a mask.
This is the realm between the lower planes and the Plane of the Gods.]
[Occasionally, children from the God Races co here to play.
Their re presence, the leakage of their divine essence, turned this barren rock into a paradise.]
Ethan felt a chill that had nothing to do with the temperature.
"Children from the God Race?
Are you talking about the ones who built the ’Cage’?"
[Yes, Master.]
[The creators of this entire reality belong to a specific clan of the God Race.
To their people, they are not particularly powerful or prestigious.]
[They are entrepreneurs.]
[They created this ’Cage’, this entire universe, simply to conduct business.]
Ethan’s hands began to shake.
He looked at the beautiful mountains and the peaceful animals, and suddenly they looked like decorations in a lobby.
"Business?
What kind of business?"
[The God Races are the elite of the creation.]
[High-ranking mbers of their clans co here as if this were an amusent park.]
[The 100 Supre Original Races, the ones you think are the peak of power, are actually just the staff.]
[They are here to entertain the visitors.]
[As for the other races... the humans, the vampires, the dragons in the lower planes... they are livestocks.]
Ethan felt a wave of nausea.
"Livestock?"
[Yes.]
[When a God Race mber visits, they choose from a nu.]
[The Original Races then ’harvest’ the specific bloodlines or souls requested and bring them here.]
[They brought Lady Zara here not to nurture her potential, but because she is a rare delicacy.]
[Hybrid races who awaken supre bloodlines are like vintage wine to them.]
The silence of the paradise suddenly felt deafening.
Ethan’s eyes turned cold, a sharp, icy fury bubbling in his chest.
"Why didn’t you tell this earlier?
You let think I was just fighting local rulers."
[Because you would have died, Master.]
[Had you known the scale of the opposition, you would have tried to oppose the Apocalypse Emissary directly.]
[You were not ready.]
[Lady Zara is not in imdiate danger.]
[The God Race mbers only visit once every thousand years.]
[According to the current cycle, you have approximately five years before the next ’harvest’ begins.]
[With your current growth speed, that is enough ti to beco strong enough to protect her.]
Ethan took a deep breath, forcing his heart rate to slow down.
He needed to understand the power scale of the real world.
"Tell about them.
How do they fight?
What is their power?"
[Every god race mber is born with a thread of law, similar to what you possess now. Their entire existence revolves around growing this thread.]
"How?"
[Through creation, conflict, manipulation, and accumulation. So create races to lengthen their law thread. So wage wars. So perform acts you would consider vile. But creation is the safest and most efficient thod.]
"There are no realms?" Ethan asked.
[Not in the way you understand them.]
[Power among the god race is asured solely by the length of their law thread. The longer it is, the greater their authority and existence.]
Ethan listened in silence.
[So god race mbers have opened pantheons. They rule over multiple multiverses. They possess countless races under their na.]
"The elite gods," Ethan murmured.
[Yes. Those beings can create multiple races using a single law thread.]
Ethan felt a deep sense of pressure.
"And this amusent park?"
[The races under elite gods possess god level beings of their own. That alone demonstrates the gap.]
[The creators of this cage, however, have their strongest mbers at Absolute Continuum Grade Five. They are nothing compared to the true elites of god races]
Ethan’s eyes darkened.
"So this is how they survive."
[Correct. God race mbers purchase access using divinity. Divinity directly increases the length of a law thread.]
Ethan drew in a sharp breath.
"How many realms exist above Absolute Continuum?"
[Four.]
Yumiko listed them one by one.
[Eternal Singularity Realm.]
[Transcended Logos Realm.]
[Supre Archetype Realm.]
[Proto Deity Ascended Realm.]
[After that cos the God Realm.]
Ethan felt a cold shiver run through his spine.
He had finally glimpsed the peak.
And that peak was rely the starting line of a single race.
"Are the god race the only rulers of the upper plane?" he asked.
[No.]
[There are four other races equal to them.]
"Their nas?"
[The Noble Race.]
[The Elder Race.]
[The Protose Race.]
[The Null Race.]
Ethan absorbed the information slowly.
[They exist in a balance of power that spans multiverses.]
Ethan sat down on the soft grass, rubbing his temples.
The scale was staggering.
He had spent his ti worrying about trillions of coins and local wars, while the "owners" of the park were deciding which "livestock" to eat for dinner in five years.
"Everything," Ethan whispered.
"The laws of physics, the wars, the bloodlines... it’s all just code for their entertainnt."
[Correct, Master.]
[They pay for their tickets to co here with ’Divinity.’]
[That Divinity is the only currency that can directly increase the length of a Law Thread.]
Ethan was now pondering about the power scale. He had already found the peak of evolution, but that peak was just the beginning of another race.
But even so, Ethan knew where he need to go from here.
Now that he had known about them, he would prepare him slowly.
He needed to stablished his law of infinity inside the human race and make the powerful, the more they would grow, the more his law thread would increase and one day he would ascend to the higher plane.
This cage just beca very small for his taste. But even so, the paradise was really a beautiful place.
"Let’s enjoy the views. I am going to take over this paradise soon."
Ethan then started walking in the green field.
So he contacted Erebus. He had ca here a while ago.
"Erebus, co here."
With that command, Erebus appeared infront of him.
"My lord, when have you arrived here?", he asked.
" A while ago. Now tell , do you know this place is just an amusent park for the god race?"
Erebus had a confused look on his face.
"God race? What are they? I haven’t the na of this race before.", he looked at Ethan.
" Okay never mind. Where is the Apocalypse race. Take there."
User Comments
0 comments from readers