*RATTLE-RATTLE—!*
A group of guards quickly surrounded the area, sealing off the nearby streets and leaving no obvious path of escape.
Seeing the approaching chaos, Lygus had no intention of wasting any more time or energy here, so he immediately slipped away before they could fully close the encirclement.
"Tch, the blasphemer got away! Notify Captain Khaslana immediately!"
Seeing Lygus vanish, the guards immediately sounded the alarm, their voices carrying through the surrounding streets.
It was only natural, since their superiors had already told them that whenever he reappeared, it would mean that chaos was about to descend upon Okhema once more.
===
At Kephale Plaza, Lygus reappeared among the crowds, relying on the sheer number of people around him to conceal his presence. With so many pedestrians moving about in every direction, his clone avatar could easily blend into the chaotic flow of the plaza.
He had no idea whether the mastermind behind everything was watching him at this very moment, so he had to remain extremely cautious and avoid exposing himself unnecessarily.
More importantly, he was worried that the Scepter might be damaged again. It was Irontomb's body, after all, and it was supposed to be used to house Nous's head, so he absolutely could not allow it to be destroyed.
Back then, he had released an antivirus program, only to be toyed with in return, but this time, he had learned his lesson. He would never expose himself so easily again. Instead, he would patiently wait for the right opportunity to strike back and reclaim the initiative.
Just like the walls of Dawncloud, the bulletin boards surrounding the plaza were plastered with all kinds of notices, announcements, and public decrees.
When Lygus glanced over them, the most conspicuous—and by far the most numerous—was still that yellowed 'Highest Wanted Notice' bearing his face and name, which had clearly been displayed for a very long time but was nevertheless still being carefully maintained. Despite its age, there was not even a hint that anyone intended to take it down.
Lygus instinctively glanced around and saw that the 'information field' here felt almost unnaturally pure, saturated with an extreme degree of worship and anticipation toward a particular individual.
In fact, the intensity of those emotions was so obvious that even he could perceive the distortion they had created in the surrounding atmosphere.
Just then, however, a little girl standing nearby noticed the strange-looking intellitron and immediately pointed at him.
"BLASPHEMER! LYCURGUS IS HERE! SOMEBODY COME QUICK!"
Her clear, piercing voice instantly rang out across the entire plaza, drawing the attention of everyone nearby.
In the blink of an eye, hundreds upon hundreds of people turned their gazes toward Lygus's avatar as though they had received the same command at once.
In the next moment, the old man selling flowers abandoned his basket, the young man enjoying a cup of coffee set his drink down, and the patrolling guards tightened their grips around their spears. Even the stray dog dozing beside the road perked up its ears and bared its teeth in Lygus's direction.
"Get him!"
"He's the mastermind behind the black tide!"
"We will never be your slaves! FOR OKHEMAAA—!!!"
All of a sudden, the crowd roared like madmen as people surged toward Lygus from every direction, rapidly surrounding his position and cutting off his possible routes of retreat.
Seeing the ridiculous scene, Lygus was so angry that he could not help laughing.
In his eyes, the absurdity of the situation had reached a point where anger itself almost seemed pointless.
'Fine... Fine... Very good...'
Only two hundred years had passed, yet these test subjects had already achieved such an astonishing degree of ideological unity. Every single one of them had apparently decided to regard him as the villain while placing their faith in the Deliverer from beyond the sky.
It was utterly ridiculous.
Still, there was one thing he had to admit.
'Tch, this world is actually so united, but this is extremely unfavorable to Irontomb's birth.'
Lygus felt that his true body might have to descend personally and carry out a thorough purge.
Even if doing so put the Scepter at risk of being damaged, it would still be preferable to stand by and watch that fellow named 'Lucian' quietly bury his hooks throughout this world and gradually tighten his control over everything.
Just then, a familiar voice suddenly came from above.
"Lygus, you finally came."
Hearing the voice, Lygus quickly looked up and saw the greatsword known as 'Dawnmaker' descending directly toward his head, its shadow rapidly expanding across his field of vision as the blade approached with terrifying speed.
*SWISH!*
Because the strike was so fast, precise, and utterly ruthless, Lygus's clone avatar had no time to react.
*CRACK!*
In an instant, the blade cleaved him cleanly in two like tofu, splitting him vertically down the middle.
*Biririri—*
Electricity crackled from the wires exposed within the two perfectly symmetrical halves of his body, accompanied by a faint sizzling sound.
Lygus's mouth opened and closed silently twice, as though he still wanted to say something despite already having been cut in half.
"You... have all become this savage and unreasonable now? Can't you at least say a word when you meet someone before splitting them in half vertically? No matter... We'll meet again..."
Right after saying that, Lygus's avatar swayed unsteadily for a moment before its lights finally went out, leaving nothing behind but two pieces of scrap metal.
"Reason with you?" Khaslana kicked one of Lygus's severed halves aside and sneered. "Get up, and then talk. If you can't even get up, then don't talk."
He was now the captain of Okhema's enforcement unit.
After finally enjoying two hundred years of peaceful life and witnessing the emergence of hope for salvation, there was no way he would allow a villain to stand in the middle of the city and waste everyone's time with empty words.
Seeing Lygus's remains, the surrounding crowd immediately erupted into deafening cheers.
"Lord Khaslana is mighty!"
"May the Deliverer bless us!"
"Evil will ultimately be judged!"
Khaslana gave a slight nod to the crowd before ordering several guards to collect Lygus's remains and take them to Aglaea at the Marmoreal Palace.
===
In the Marmoreal Palace, Aglaea had already witnessed everything that had happened in Kephale Plaza through her golden threads.
"Dux Gladiorum, Lygus has returned, which means the next war is about to begin. We need to make preparations."
Her expression remained calm as she spoke to Hysilens standing beside her.
"Yes, we should prepare in advance." Hysilens nodded in agreement. "My suggestion is that the moment we discover Lygus's true body has entered the battlefield, we immediately borrow an ability from Lucian. Otherwise, none of us will be his match."
"As long as we have the invincible BGM, it should be fine..." Aglaea replied calmly, then sighed softly. "But the biggest problem is, when exactly will he come to Amphoreus?"
"I don't know..." Hysilens shook her head. "Anyway, he has his own plans. We only need to trust him."
Aglaea studied her for a moment before smiling.
"You've changed, Hysilens. Now, the look of loyalty in your eyes is exactly the same as it was back then. Except it isn't for the Imperator anymore. It's for Mr. Lucian. If you could only choose one between Imperator and him, who would you choose?"
At the question, Hysilens did not hesitate for even a moment.
"Lucian."
One was her sovereign, while the other was both her husband and her sovereign.
Lucian simply had one more title to his name, so naturally, he was the obvious choice.
"Fufufu!" Aglaea burst into laughter, wiping the tears from her eyes. "If the Imperator heard you say that, she'd definitely crawl out of a pile of corpses and say, 'Dux Gladiorum, you betrayed me! Death penalty! Death penalty!'"
Aglaea imitated Cerydra's tone from her memories so convincingly that even she could not help laughing again afterward.
Recalling Cerydra, the corners of Hysilens's lips lifted slightly. Even though she found Aglaea's antics troublesome, there was something amusing about them as well.
"Let's talk about that after she's alive. Of course, by then, if our relationship is still nothing more than that of a sovereign and her subject..."
Hearing Hysilens's words, Aglaea immediately understood what she meant and merely smiled without saying anything.
By this point, Aglaea and the others knew that every woman Lucian resurrected would inevitably become his wife. If Cerydra were to return as well, just imagining the scene was almost too much to bear.
"Alright, enough with the small talk." Hysilens patted Aglaea on the shoulder and brought the conversation back to the matter at hand. "Hurry up and arrange our defenses. Lygus will be here soon."
===
At the same time, within the Scepter's administrator space, Lygus watched the final scene transmitted back by his clone avatar.
For Lygus, the chaotic image of himself being cleaved in two was already irritating enough, but that final line from Khaslana, 'Get up and then talk,' had struck directly at his core.
A data life form had actually become that good at mocking him?
Was it that person named Lucian who had given them the courage to behave like that?
Such a humiliation was unbearable, an absolute disgrace.
He was still Zandar One Kuwabara, the first seat of the Genius Society, the 'father' of Nous, Aeon of Erudition!
Yet here he was, on his own turf, being chased around and hacked apart by his own creations.
Fortunately, Lygus's reaction was not particularly intense on the surface since he was simply uncomfortable and deeply annoyed.
Regardless, the variable known as Lucian seemed to be far more troublesome than he had initially imagined.
"Lucian... Lucian... Which faction does he belong to? Abundance or Elation?"
Lygus pondered for a while, yet he still could not determine the answer.
In any case, Lucian couldn't belong to Destruction. Destruction was, after all, on the same side as him, so they would never come here merely to cause trouble and interfere with the birth of Irontomb.
===
At the same time, while Lygus racked his brains trying to uncover the truth, the true instigator behind all of this, Lucian, was leisurely wandering around inside the script world as though none of his troubles had anything to do with him.
Now, he was in Cerydra's script world.
As the scenery within his field of vision gradually became clear, the first thing he saw was an endless world of ice and snow, with white snow covering the ground as bitterly cold winds swept through the landscape.
"System, were you too lazy to make a world and just copy Belobog?"
Seeing his white surroundings, Lucian couldn't help but ask.
===
[A bonus chapter for reaching 400 Power Stones]
[Support and get early access to upcoming chapters at: patreon.com/VALRRR]