Chapter 852: The Augustus Family’s Little Secret

For centuries, the Sleepless Ones who lay dormant beneath the ancient capital of Typhon had been trying to decipher the secrets of the gods through an ancient device. They once believed this device, which held immense binding power, was a prison designed to trap fragments of a god. What they never expected was that it was actually a container and altar built specifically for a god—it bore the god’s eye.

This was, without a doubt, a cruel irony… and a terrifying one at that.

The only luck the Sleepless Ones had was that the ancient binding device malfunctioned. The “Eye of God” it contained was effectively shielded, unable to return to the divine realm. It was trapped like a true prisoner on the throne made for it, preventing a catastrophe on the scale of the “Upper Narrator Incident” from erupting back then.

The Sleepless Ones faced only two choices: either completely destroy the “Eye of God” within the binding field, or find a way to permanently sever its connection to the divine realm, ensuring that even if the device failed one day, the eye would never “tell” the gods what it saw.

Gawain frowned, staring at the starry aggregation floating opposite him. “The Great Collapse of Orlandel—was that triggered during your attempt to destroy or seal the Eye of God?”

“That was one cause, but not the only one,” Megal III’s tone shifted oddly, tinged with a bitter resignation to fate. “We ultimately decided to destroy the Eye and devised a plan. After centuries of research, we had gained a certain understanding of the ancient binding device and could manipulate and adjust it. We discovered that if we shut down the inner ring’s stabilizing structure at the right moment, it would generate a powerful energy shockwave within the containment field. And if we charged the outer ring to its maximum, that shockwave could completely annihilate the divine power at the center…

“After thorough discussion and calculations, we prepared to execute the plan. But to do so, we needed time to charge the outer ring.

“That’s when the accident happened—you remember, the entire ancient ruin lies beneath the old capital of the Typhon Empire, Orlandel.

“As we began adjusting the binding device, the Augustus family suddenly decided to renovate the city’s drainage system. Looking back, it seems too coincidental, but no one noticed at the time. The city’s drainage was primitive—two centuries ago, Typhon was no different from old Ansu. The so-called sewers were just an underground river running through Orlandel, where all the waste water was dumped. Aside from that river and a few ditches, most of the city had no proper sewage system. Yet, the royal family suddenly wanted to build an artificial sewer outside the main district, so they started digging down…

“They dug deep, but initially didn’t reach the ‘dome layer’ of the underground palace. Still, strange things began to happen: the workers started experiencing hallucinations underground. As more earth and stone were removed, their mental states deteriorated. At first, the nobles dismissed it as laziness and forced the workers to keep digging longer. But soon, the hallucinations spread to the overseers and even the knights stationed nearby…

“While the surface showed signs of abnormality, we focused most of our attention underground. It wasn’t until more and more diggers lost control, and the Typhon royal family sent elemental mages to tear through the rock, that we realized something:

“The binding device had weakened without our knowledge. The Eye of God had its own consciousness and was secretly spreading its influence. Over years of infiltration and corruption, it had affected the residents of Orlandel—even the royal family ruling the city.”

Amber, standing nearby, swallowed nervously. “A-And then?”

“The situation spiraled out of control. Some royal family members, along with many workers, overseers, and nobles involved in the digging, became corrupted. They began digging frantically. The mages loyal to the crown joined in. Despite our protective wards, they failed to hold back the onslaught of magic. Soon, a massive hole was torn open in the city center, exposing the dome of the underground palace. The dome was breached, and royal knights and mages swarmed inside.

“Orlandel was shrouded in an eerie atmosphere of fear and tension. The common folk had no idea what was happening. Minor nobles and merchants were terrified by the madness of the digging. Rumors spread like wildfire, and some high nobles claimed treasures had been found underground, only adding to the chaos…

“The Sleepless Ones were powerless to stop it. More importantly… the Eye of God began to awaken.

“It knew what we intended. It resisted. The Sleepless Ones were powerful psychomancers, with a firm resistance to gods. Under the binding device’s suppression, it couldn’t defeat us directly, so it turned the defenseless surface dwellers into its tools. As the royal knights entered the palace and destroyed energy stations, the Eye assaulted the magnetic prison of the binding device. Our energy for annihilation wasn’t ready yet. If we triggered the plan prematurely, the Eye might break free and return to the divine realm…

“My only choice was to stop the out-of-control, frenzied diggers and prevent the Typhon royal family from sending more knights.

“A few archbishops and I risked coming to the surface through other passages and infiltrated the Augustus family’s castle. To our shock, half the nobles and many royal members were still fighting the Eye’s corruption. Even the emperor himself barely held onto his sanity.

“Most of the diggers and knights flooding the palace weren’t sent by them. No one knew who ordered the relentless digging and invasion. A small number were rational personnel sent by the emperor to investigate, but they too went mad after entering the palace and lost contact with the castle. With no news and confusion reigning, the castle kept sending more investigation teams, swelling the number of people inside.

“Fortunately, after erecting strong mental barriers, we freed the emperor and some ministers from the Eye’s influence. Surrounded by the royal guard, I revealed the truth beneath the surface to the emperor.

“Of course, I didn’t tell him the Eye was a ‘true god’ as the masses imagine. Normal people’s views of gods differ greatly from ours. I told him it was a mad, evil god, awakened by our research and the surface digging.

“We—the people underground and those on the surface—had made a colossal mistake. But there was no time to assign blame. After assessing the palace’s situation, the emperor ordered the city’s evacuation, moving all uncorrupted people out and creating a no-man’s land around the city. Meanwhile, we initiated the underground annihilation plan to destroy the Eye once and for all.”

Gawain nodded slightly. “Evacuate civilians, create a mental quarantine zone to prevent psychic contamination, destroy the source of corruption… the logic is sound. Then what?”

Megal III fell silent for a moment, a sigh in his voice. “Under the knights’ and noble soldiers’ pressure, the evacuation was swift. A few archbishops and I sealed all inner passages of the palace to block the mad knights and diggers who had entered. This bought us some time. When the energy was finally sufficient, we triggered the binding device’s energy shockwave. The Eye of God was obliterated in a powerful blast—we began to cheer, until the Wrath of the Earth and the Wound of Annihilation rained down on our dome one after another.”

Amber blinked and shrugged. “…Just like I thought.”

“We didn’t expect,” Megal III said with a self-mocking tone, “that we were just… researchers. Maybe extreme ones. We were a dark cult, fallen priests, paranoid and ruthless, walking a terrible path. But beneath it all, we were still researchers—including myself.

“Researchers aren’t good at predicting the wrath of the earth and wounds of annihilation falling on their heads.”

“The Typhon emperor two centuries ago made a cold decision. But do you want to hear my opinion?” Gawain said slowly, his gaze fixed on the starry aggregation.

“…I suppose it makes sense?”

“It does,” Gawain nodded gently. “If you hadn’t destroyed the Eye, Orlandel would have been ground zero for disaster. The region’s destruction might not have stopped the ‘evil god’ from descending, but it could have bought others more time to evacuate. If you had succeeded, the emperor wouldn’t have let you live—after all, you were a dark cult, growing under the imperial capital’s nose for centuries. To some extent, you had the power to destabilize the entire empire, something no ruler could tolerate.

“So no matter the outcome, you had to die in Orlandel.”

“I realized that later,” Megal III chuckled softly. “Many of us did.”

“But you couldn’t seek revenge on the empire—especially after being so badly wounded,” Gawain continued calmly. “More importantly, as time passed, new generations of cultists joined. The Sleepless Ones would eventually forget what happened in Orlandel. The Augustus family would assume no survivors remained after the city’s collapse. Given the technology and chaos after the capital’s relocation, they had no means to investigate the depths thoroughly. This terrible event, which could have stained the royal family’s name, would be buried and forgotten. Even if some remembered, it would never be acknowledged.

“On the other hand, history proved the Typhon emperor’s judgment was accurate—just two hundred years later, you ‘researchers,’ unbound by law or morality, caused a second divine disaster. This time, the god was one you created yourselves.

“If I hadn’t appeared, how great would the disaster caused by the Upper Narrator have been?

“I believe it would have been so severe that the Typhon royal family would have sent their mages to obliterate the entire Orlandel region—and all of you—once again.”

Megal III’s starry form contracted, his voice heavy with helplessness. “…The ultimate irony. No argument.”

“So, to sum it up in one word—” Gawain sighed softly, “deserved.”

Megal III: “…”

“We’re not going to discuss that topic anymore,” Gawain said, shaking his head as he skipped past that part. “There’s now evidence suggesting that your initial attempt to destroy the God’s Eye wasn’t entirely successful—the spiritual corruption of the deity lingered on. The curse on the Augustus family is proof of that.”

“We suspect that the God’s Eye escaped at the very last moment of its destruction,” replied Melgor III, “but it was severely weakened and unable to return to the deity itself. Instead, it took refuge within the bloodline of the Augustus family. For two hundred years, this curse has persisted—neither growing stronger nor fading away. Some archbishops who have lived long enough to witness those events even believe it’s the price the Augustus family pays for their ‘betrayal’… Of course, after the ‘Upper Narrator’ incident, the mindset of those archbishops has likely shifted. The blow was just too great.”

Gawain now understood why the archbishopric of the Sleepless Ones was so unwavering in their loyalty to Cecil—his status as an “extramundane wanderer” was only part of it. The rest clearly had to do with the disaster that struck Orlandel two centuries ago.

Beyond that, his main concern at the moment was the curse on the Augustus family.

“Do you think there’s any chance the God’s Eye could recover or escape after embedding itself in the Augustus bloodline?” he asked, frowning, his tone grave.

“The chances are slim,” Melgor III answered. “We’ve been monitoring the curse closely. It’s clearly become a purely residual spiritual contamination, and as the bloodline dilutes and transforms over generations, the ‘divine element’ within the curse grows weaker and weaker. After all, mortal souls are far inferior in rank to gods. The divine power, parasitizing a mortal soul for so long, is bound to decline. Of course, it’s only the ‘divinity’ within the curse that fades—the curse’s overall strength hasn’t shown any sign of weakening in these two hundred years.”

“Is that so…” Gawain murmured, stroking his chin thoughtfully, as if speaking to himself. “Do things related to gods really just vanish that easily…”

(End of chapter)