"Heh heh heh. The Wormholes Realm and energy crystals are just the treasures you can see. The real prize—the very foundation holding up this world—is a massive world fragnt."
"My foolish, insignificant master. Your shallow knowledge couldn't possibly support your ambitions of conquest."
"Just be a good little puppet. When I ascend to the realm of demigods once more, perhaps I'll satisfy those worldly desires of yours."
Broodmother Laito kept her head buried in the energy crystals, her beady eyes rolling up occasionally to steal a glance at Rommath. Behind those deceptively adorable eyes lay a deep, treacherous cunning.
…
Sowhere in an uncharted domain, the ocean boiled.
Guided by divine power, the sea was whipped into an unnatural, furious frenzy. A colossal tsunami surged forth, a breathtaking display of raw, churning devastation. Waves towered like mountain peaks, rolling toward the continent with the unstoppable montum of a charging cavalry.
Rumble. Rumble.
Under the crushing impact of the water, coastal cities shuddered and groaned. In a matter of seconds, they collapsed entirely, reduced to sunken ruins beneath the deluge.
The tsunami swept inland, devouring all life in its path. Panic-stricken masses scattered in every direction, but there was no outrunning the tide. It was a localized apocalypse. Complete annihilation.
"Boss, aren't we taking this a bit too far? Pushing it this hard might trigger public outrage, or worse, get us jumped by a mob."
Kraken, Leonidas, and Orion stood shoulder-to-shoulder atop the crest of a mountainous wave. Watching the tsunami ravage the earth and swallow countless lives left Kraken with a lingering sense of dread. He wasn't bleeding-heart enough to pity the commoners; he was simply terrified that a disaster of this magnitude would draw out a swarm of hostile demigods.
Leonidas chuckled darkly. "Squiddy, in the eyes of a demigod, mortals are no different from weeds, insects, or livestock. They are nothing but sheep waiting for the slaughter—crops ant to be harvested."
"A loss like this doesn't even register on their radar. If they truly gave a damn about the people, they would have intercepted us out at sea long before this wave hit the shoreline."
Leonidas spoke with a chilling detachnt, his words dripping with apathy toward mortal life. It wasn't that Leonidas was inherently evil; he had simply borne witness to far worse. He rembered the Goddess Agaman, who had casually culled the followers of an entire world without batting an eye. Next to Agaman's thods, this tsunami was child's play.
"I think they're letting us vent," Orion mused, his gaze fixed on the distant horizon. "By the ti we flood Lionheart City, our anger and resentnt will have naturally cooled. That will be the pri mont for them to step out and negotiate."
It was the most logical explanation. Ever since the tsunami made landfall, they hadn't encountered a single demigod attempting to stop them. Even the High Lords were conspicuously absent. The only resistance ca from a few Legendary champions desperately throwing their lives away to protect their hos and citadels.
Predictably, those Legendary defenders had been entirely swept away by the crushing waves and the countless sea creatures riding the tide.
"Squiddy, while we've still got so ti, you should start thinking about what kind of reparations you want." Leonidas turned to Kraken, a teasing smirk playing at the corners of his mouth.
"? Boss, I don't have the standing to demand anything. Whatever you two decide is good enough for ," Kraken replied, shaking his head. The thought of extorting a demigod to their face required a kind of nerve he just didn't possess yet.
"I think claiming this stretch of ocean and the ruined coastal cities sounds about right. Force them to cede the territory," Orion suggested. It was the most practical move.
Their entire goal in driving this tsunami toward Lionheart City and clashing with the Divine Sigil family was to build Kraken's reputation. They wanted to demand compensation while simultaneously intimidating any rival demigods in the region. As for the Divine Sigil demigods themselves, their survival entirely depended on their attitude.
If the Divine Sigil family played hardball, Orion was more than willing to orchestrate the fall of a few demigods just to send a shockwave through the world.
Leonidas and Orion exchanged a aningful look, then turned back to Kraken to see his reaction.
"Cede territory?" Kraken's eyes lit up. "The coastal cities and the sea?"
If they actually pulled this off, his domain would expand massively. For soone desperate to break into the demigod ranks, there was no sweeter deal.
"That would be perfect!" Kraken looked eagerly between Leonidas and Orion.
Both n offered enigmatic smiles. Leonidas, in particular, understood Kraken's impatience. But sheer power wasn't enough. The fundantal requirent for ascending to a demigod was comprehending one's own Lord's Stone. Right now, Kraken was exactly where Leonidas and Arthas used to be—overflowing with raw power but entirely lacking the crucial catalyst. Beyond that, Kraken still had a long way to go in accumulating enough territory and faith.
…
anwhile, on the continent, within Lionheart City.
The city wasn't actually the main seat of power for the Divine Sigil family; it was rely the personal fiefdom of one of their descendants, Tyrus. Tyrus was the Governor here, the absolute lord of this land. When the tsunami struck, it would be the local residents—his subjects—who suffered the consequences.
To the Divine Sigil family and their demigod ancestors, however, this was largely irrelevant. This apathy was exactly why the demigods had allowed Orion and Leonidas to tear through the continent unchecked. Sacrificing a few insignificant pawns to pacify a powerful enemy's wrath was, to a demigod, a wildly profitable trade.
"They will reach Lionheart City in two days, at most."
In the grand reception hall at the highest peak of the Governor's manor, Governor Tyrus stood by the floor-to-ceiling windows alongside two of his family's ancestral demigods, Gotaition and Yalennu, peering out at the storm-blackened horizon.
"They plundered our family's rare resources, and they annihilated the demigod avatars that Fang and I manifested," Yalennu said smoothly. "So, what is the ultimate goal of riding this tsunami to our doorstep?"
Every demigod was a creature of imnse pride, but also of profound intellect. They might harbor dark vices or strange quirks, but they were never fools. Logically, the one at fault in this entire ordeal was that leviathan. It should be the overgrown octopus coming forward to beg forgiveness. But the creature had powerful backers and an uncompromising attitude.
And when the enemy was uncompromising, the weaker party had no choice but to swallow their pride.
"We only destroyed a few of its tentacle avatars," Yalennu continued. "There is no deep-seated blood feud between us. When entities of our caliber retaliate, it is generally for fa, to vent frustrations, or to make a very bloody example out of soone."
Fa and frustration didn't matter to Gotaition and Yalennu; those motivations didn't fit the two mysterious demigods backing the beast.
Yalennu's words left Gotaition deep in thought.
"Making an example out of soone?" Gotaition muttered. "Who are they trying to warn by threatening Lionheart City? The leviathan's rivals in the ocean?"
Gotaition's gaze drifted outward, his mind piecing together a truth that was rapidly coming into focus.
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