I walked back from the Abyss, my boots tracking dust across the now‑mundane plains. The landscape was quiet, the massive regional Fold's Nest annihilated. My Echo Mapping confirmed a single, terrible truth: the frequencies of every Supreme Divisor and combatant deployed to the area were permanently, utterly silent.
The formula was complete.
The CDA immediately recalled me. The atmosphere in the Assembly Chamber was no longer one of fear, but of profound, existential dread.
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I. The Weaponized Inevitability
The Arch‑Demon who had granted me the title of High Supreme Divisor could not look me in the eye. He looked instead at Fenrir Alistair Blivixis, who stood by my side, radiating the smug satisfaction of a mathematical certainty proven correct.
"The Nest is destroyed," the Arch‑Demon stated, his voice a low monotone. "But the cost—the loss of the entire strike force—is catastrophic. We cannot comprehend the nature of this dimensional backlash. Explain the means of victory."
"The means of victory," I stated, my voice echoing the detached logic of the Blivixis Gradient, "was the Inversion of the regional Genesis Law. It required an energy input that necessitated the collapse of any non‑local Order structure within the boundary. The lives were the necessary, calculated output of the successful formula."
The CDA understood: it was not negligence; it was premeditation.
They could not prosecute the High Supreme Divisor for achieving a goal through the most efficient means—even if that means was mass sacrifice.
Fenrir smoothly inserted the next phase of the plan.
"The current crisis is not over. The Resonance Cascade requires a systemic stabilization—a process that must begin at the foundational weakness of the Old Gods' architecture."
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II. The Mandate for Aethelgard
The Arch‑Demon, knowing the fate of the entire realm now hinged on Fenrir's terrifying logic, could only submit.
He spoke the words that signed the death warrant of the most sacred city of Order.
"The Assembly, under emergency wartime directive, sanctions the immediate deployment of the High Supreme Divisor to Aethelgard."
Aethelgard was the true heart of Order—a fortress city built directly atop the ruins of the Old Gods' initial creation point. Its very foundations were anchored by a complex, ancient Genesis Law, making it the most stable, most ordered, and most protected city in Astra'vhel.
Fenrir had ordered me to the perfect place to introduce the largest, most destabilizing wave of chaos yet.
My mission was now officially sanctioned by the very institution it was designed to destroy:
I was ordered to destroy the concept of Order at its source, under the guise of stabilization.
---
III. The Final Anchor Check
Before leaving, I phased to the Inverted Phenomena Observation Wing.
Elysa was there, working in grim, exhausted silence. The high‑frequency panic in her pulse had been replaced by a deep, cold, sustained thrum of terror—the terror of mathematical certainty.
She looked up as I approached, her eyes meeting my blindfolded face.
She didn't ask about the sacrifice. She already knew the answer.
"Your analysis is complete," I stated.
"Yes, High Divisor," she replied, her voice steady but hollow. "The dimensional backlash was not random. It perfectly inverted the foundational frequencies of the deployment zone. It was a required step in the equation of collapse."
She understood that I had calculated the price and paid it without remorse.
She did not flee or condemn me.
She accepted the cold utility, strengthening the terrifying terms of our bond.
"Where are you going now?" she asked.
"Aethelgard," I replied. "The heart of the Genesis Law. The formula requires the ultimate variable."
I turned, my mind already calculating the complex layers of ancient Order I was about to thread into non‑existence.
The journey to Aethelgard began, leading me to the ultimate confrontation with the very Law that governed the Old Gods' universe.