Another came to his life. Death could only laugh at weakness.Nicolas moved through the mansion’s kitchen with quiet efficiency. The space was large, well-stocked from the supplies he had brought, and still mostly empty of personal history. Mia sat at the long wooden table, shoulders still tight from the attack, watching him with cautious eyes.
He cooked without flourish, simple, filling food. Seared dungeon meat seasoned with elemental herbs, roasted root vegetables from the countryside markets, and a clear broth that carried the faint warmth of flame-fruit. The smell filled the high-ceilinged room. When he set the plate in front of her, Mia stared at it for a long moment before picking up the utensils.
“You didn’t have to,” she said quietly.
“Eat,” Nicolas answered. “You’ll need strength.”
She ate. The Common Light spirit in her flickered faintly as the food settled, a small stubborn glow against the bruises on her neck and arms. Nicolas ate across from her in silence, already turning the next problem over in his mind.
Daniel.
The mocking voice from the academy, the laughter after the failed awakening, the call that had called him a loser while his father cried—those debts had not been forgotten. Nicolas finished his meal, cleaned the kitchen, and made a single call.
The number belonged to the branch mayor of Ragnar’s mid-level district, an Epic-ranked hunter whose spirit was an Epic Gorgon. The man answered on the second ring. Nicolas spoke briefly, calmly, and requested a meeting. Money changed hands electronically before the call ended—enough to make the request worth the mayor’s time.
They met at a private pavilion overlooking one of the great branch roads. The mayor was broad-shouldered, dark-haired, and carried the coiled pressure of a high Epic. Behind him the spectral outline of a Gorgon flickered once, serpentine hair, stone-gray eyes, the promise of petrification. The man’s gaze swept over Nicolas, taking in the changed height, the denser presence, the complete absence of a traditional martial spirit, and the quiet certainty that did not match a recently expelled academy student.
“You’re the Sinclair boy, HAHAHA. I wonder why you came for. HAHA. You could not live with you failure” the mayor said. “The one who failed the temple and then somehow walked out of the hunter test as Heroic. Talk.”
Nicolas did not waste words. He laid out the request in clean lines: Daniel’s father held a mid-level administrative post in the district’s resource allocation office. That post would end. Quietly. Permanently. No public scandal, no open accusations—just the sudden loss of position, income, and standing. In exchange, the mayor would receive a generous private donation and the knowledge that a rising Heroic hunter remembered favors.
The mayor studied him for a long moment. Questions followed, about the source of Nicolas’s power, about the lack of a martial spirit, about how a boy dismissed from Luminas could already move money and influence at this level. Nicolas answered only what was necessary and let the rest hang. In the end the mayor accepted. The transfer of funds was confirmed. By the next morning Daniel’s father would be without a job, and the family’s comfortable place on the mid-branches would begin to crack.
Nicolas returned to the mansion as evening settled over the countryside. Mia had cleaned the kitchen and was sitting near a window, the faint light of her spirit keeping the worst of the shadows away. He left her there and stepped into the secure cellar, where the gate to the Dragon Emperor Domain waited. Read the latest chapters at novelping.com.
Inside the Domain he sat beneath the Summoning Tree and opened the deeper records of his own bloodline. Sun Elf radiance. Vampiric hunger. The layered Daos of Fire, Prime Earth, Darkness, and Supreme Water. The evolving presence of Ember, Victoria, Lola, Nera, and Lisa. Two new lives already growing. The system answered every query with cold precision.
Then he asked the question that had been circling since his father’s words about Jormungandr and the old gods.
“If Zeus himself came to this planet—right now—and decided to kill me… how many times would I die?”
The system’s reply was immediate and absolute.
Simulation initiated.
Opponent: Zeus (Olympian primary, divine-tier authority over sky, lightning, order, and sovereignty).
Host current status:
No traditional martial spirit.
Bonded dragons: two Mythic (Ember : True Ultimate Flames; Victoria Prime Earth), one Heroic Volcanic Foundation (Lola), one Heroic Dark Eternal Fire + Legend (Nera), one Heroic Supreme Water + Primal/Legend/Darkness (Lisa).
Highest dragon rank achieved: Mythic.
No Divine-rank dragon present.
Host bloodline: evolved Sun Elf Dhampir with multi-Dao synchronization. Physical and elemental output currently at high Heroic to low Legendary equivalent through dragon channeling.
Projected outcome:
Zeus’s authority operates on a scale that exceeds current host parameters by several orders of magnitude. A single serious expression of divine lightning or sovereign will would annihilate the host’s physical body, Domain link, and current dragon bonds simultaneously.
Estimated deaths before permanent cessation of host consciousness: 1.
Additional note:
Even with full Domain time dilation and all current dragons deployed, the gap remains absolute. Divine-rank existence is not a matter of cumulative strength at the Heroic or Mythic level. It is a different category of being. Zeus would not need to “fight.” He would simply end the host.
He would basically would fuck you up so bad that there would be no reason to fight you.
The system continued, quieter.
Current strength assessment for host reference:
You are no longer the empty-handed boy on the temple altar. You command Mythic and Heroic dragons, multiple completed Daos, a growing Domain, and a bloodline that continues to evolve. In the Snake Galaxy, on Jupiter, among hunters and vigilantes and academy graduates, you are already a rising anomaly.
You are not ready for Olympians.
Remember the distance.
Nicolas closed the interface. Ember’s distant warmth, Victoria’s grounded presence, the others’ steady bonds all remained at the edge of his awareness. He was stronger than he had ever been. He was still nowhere near the height of the old gods who had once contested the hyperverse.
He opened his eyes back in the real-world cellar, rose, and climbed the stairs to the mansion above. Mia looked up as he entered the main hall. Outside, the countryside branches swayed under the night canopy of Jupiter.
Daniel’s family would wake to a different reality.
A forsaken girl with a Common Light spirit had a roof and food.
And the Dragon Emperor still had a very long way to climb before the names of Zeus or Thor or any of the old powers became anything other than distant thunder.
Well, well, this boy shall know his place. BOY DOES NOT THE SINGUALRITY.
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