Below, the Naga hissed in terror, “Lord! Danger!”
Aaron did not respond.
The moment his consciousness touched the black speck of light, a searing pain over a hundred times more intense than before swept through his entire soul.
It was not a physical pain, but one at the very level of existence.
It felt as though his soul were being dismantled, forced to accommodate a foreign part while its very structure twisted, warped, and reorganized.
Aaron gritted his teeth and did not back down.
Wrapping his consciousness tightly around the black speck of light, he guided it deep into his soul.
Past the river of faith.
Past the barrier of the Divine Kingdom.
Past the outermost layer of his soul.
Until…
The Creator Godhead.
The thumb-sized crystal hovered in the deepest depths of Aaron’s soul, its surface luster significantly dimmed by the violent impact.
The black speck of light collided with it.
There was no thunderous crash.
On the contrary, the moment they touched, everything fell silent.
The cracks in the sky stopped widening.
The ground stopped shaking.
The prayers of his believers ground to a sudden halt.
The entire Divine Kingdom seemed as if a pause button had been pressed.
Then…
they fused.
The black speck of light dissolved into a layer of flowing dark light, adhering to the surface of the Creator Godhead.
On the crystal’s originally smooth outer shell lay an extremely tiny groove, nearly invisible to the naked eye.
The shape of the groove matched the disc perfectly.
The dark light filled the groove.
*Click.*
A crisp sound, like gears interlocking perfectly, echoed from the depths of his soul.
In that instant, the light of the Creator Godhead flared tenfold.
The originally faint, milky-white luster turned into a blinding gold.
The golden light radiated outward from the center of the crystal, piercing Aaron’s soul, the barriers of the Divine Kingdom, and the cracked vault overhead.
The cracks were filled with golden light.
It was not a mere repair, but a recasting.
The broken edges of the vault were re-forged and reinforced inch by inch by the golden light, creating a new vault that was higher, thicker, and far sturdier than before.
The originally pale blue sky turned into a deep, glazed color—like the night sky just before dawn, with faint golden veins flowing across a dark blue canvas.
Then, the ground split open.
It was not a destructive rupture.
The ground in the very center of the Divine Kingdom split along a perfect cross, and golden light welled up from the fissures.
The four cracks extended in four directions, bending at twenty meters from the center to form a perfect square.
Within the square, the ground began to rise.
Stone grew in the golden light, sculpted inch by inch as if by an invisible giant hand.
Bases, steps, pillars, and a platform took shape.
A grand white altar rose from the flat ground.
The altar stood about five meters high with seven steps, each carved with runes Aaron could not read but found strangely familiar.
At the top was a circular platform.
In the center of the platform stood a two-meter-tall white stone pillar, its top crowned with an eternal golden flame.
The fire of faith.
[Resonator returned to position]
[Core Component: Resonator. Activated]
[Effect: Altar generated. All Power of Faith provided by believers will be purified and concentrated through the altar. Conversion efficiency permanently increased by 10 times]
[Current Divine Kingdom Space: Radius 500 meters -> 1500 meters (Faith overflow triggered passive expansion)]
Aaron hovered above the altar, looking down at everything.
The Naga prostrated herself before the bottom step of the altar, her golden slit pupils reflecting the flame atop the pillar.
Her entire serpentine body trembled slightly—not in fear, but in ecstasy.
The Demiguise trotted over from afar, circled the altar three times, and sat down hard on the steps, tilting its head up to watch the golden flame as it let out a series of purrs.
Over three hundred insects lined up in a neat phalanx, densely packing the open ground in front of the altar.
Aaron’s consciousness withdrew from the Divine Kingdom.
He opened his eyes.
The white light in the stone chamber had faded.
The black disc had vanished from the stone platform, leaving the groove empty.
Aaron looked down at his hands.
The golden-white vein on the inside of his wrist was more than twice as bright as before; a faint glow could be seen radiating from beneath his skin even in the dim stone chamber.
His aura had also changed.
It was hard to put a finger on what exactly had shifted, but if anyone were standing before him right now, they would feel it.
This ten-year-old boy’s eyes were too deep.
Not in color, but a bottomless depth.
It felt as though, through those grayish-blue eyes, one could catch a glimpse of an entire world.
Aaron turned and walked out of the stone chamber.
Griphook was still cowering behind the corner of the steps.
The moment Aaron stepped over the threshold of the stone chamber, Griphook saw him from behind the corner.
Then, Griphook fell flat. This chapter was copied from g.com without permission.
He did not bow; he prostrated his entire body on the stone steps.
With his forehead pressed against the stone slab and his limbs splayed out, his posture was ten thousand times more devout than any formal goblin etiquette.
He had not done it on purpose.
His body had reacted on its own.
After merging with the Resonator, the extent of Aaron’s overflowing divine majesty far surpassed what it had been.
When they were in Gringotts’ main lobby on the surface, the goblins had merely felt respect and dread.
But now, on these narrow underground stone steps, facing his full-power divine majesty at close range…
Griphook’s soul screamed.
His mind was filled with white light.
His thoughts were washed completely clean, leaving only a single impulse: prostrate.
“Griphook,” Aaron’s voice called out, calm and gentle.
But to Griphook, those two words were heavier than any command in the world.
“Rise.”
Griphook’s body moved.
First his arms pushed up his upper body, then his knees left the ground, and finally he managed to stand straight.
The entire process was like a rusted machine slowly groaning to life.
His face was pale and his lips trembled, but besides fear, there was something far more complex in his eyes.
Reverence—Awe.
To the goblin race, power was everything.
Gringotts goblins worshiped the strong and despised the weak; it was a law etched into their DNA.
The pressure radiating from the ten-year-old child before him exceeded that of all the wizards Griphook had ever met in his life combined.
“Mr. Klein…” Griphook’s voice was dry.
“The things in the inner chamber…”
“It’s been dealt with.” Aaron reined in his overflowing divine majesty.
The oppressive weight in the air lessened by more than half, and Griphook could finally breathe a bit easier.
“There won’t be any more fluctuations in the future.”
Griphook nodded vigorously, bobbing his head repeatedly like a chicken pecking at grain.
Aaron stepped past him and headed up the steps.
After two steps, he paused.
“Griphook.”
“Yes, sir!”
“Use the remaining Gold Galleons in my vault to find a black-market merchant in Knockturn Alley. I have a cargo of goods to purchase.”
Griphook hesitated for a fraction of a second, but then without any hesitation, he said, “Please, give me your orders.”
“I want two fire salamanders. Alive.”