Time continued to pass.

And strangely enough, the enemies remained quiet.

That should have been a relief.

It was not.

Lucien had learned long ago that silence from dangerous things was rarely kindness. Sometimes it meant recovery. Sometimes preparation. Sometimes patience. And sometimes, worst of all, it meant that the enemy had found something more important than attacking immediately.

The Primordial Incarnations had not moved openly.

Aurelia, Seran’s wife and the Diviner, had already identified the general area where their activity was strongest.

The continental seas.

The seas between continents had always been dangerous, but now they carried a deeper uncertainty.

He had read reports that people who tried to cross between continents vanished.

Some of those who disappeared were not weak.

There were Eternals among them.

Seran sent his thoughts through the communication artifact one night.

[They are breaking out of seals.]

Lucien stared at the words.

[How many?]

[More than before. Aurelia says the number continues to rise.]

Lucien’s fingers tapped once against the table.

That was bad.

The Primordial Incarnations had been sealed for a reason. If more of them were waking, then the seas were becoming less like travel routes and more like territories contested by things that should have remained buried.

[Can we strike first?] Lucien asked.

Seran’s reply took longer.

[Bad idea.]

Lucien did not like that answer.

He liked it less because he agreed.

They did not know what the Incarnations had prepared beneath the waters. They did not know whether the disappearances were caused by traps, awakened bodies, servants, territorial seals, or something tied to the Origin Core itself. The seas were too wide, too old, and too poorly mapped.

To stir that nest recklessly would be idiotic.

Lucien leaned back.

"So we wait."

But waiting did not mean doing nothing.

...

Meanwhile, the Black Mass monsters had also grown quiet.

There were fewer reports of them emerging from the Black Mass.

Again, that did not comfort Lucien.

Because he remembered the goblins.

The goblins were experimenting. They were genetically modifying their own species, mixing themselves with void monsters.

Lucien did not know what kind of horror would crawl out of those experiments in the future.

That ignorance bothered him.

A monster that had already been seen could be recorded, simulated, studied, and countered.

But a monster that existed only in an enemy’s laboratory was a blade hidden behind tomorrow.

Lucien could only prepare the world for the possibility.

That had become the shape of his life.

Prepare before the enemy arrived.

Strengthen before weakness was tested.

Connect before isolation killed.

Teach people how to survive monsters they had not yet imagined.

And above even those threats, the Abyss remained distant.

For now.

Alanthuriel had bought time.

The Abyssal Entities had not yet awakened the timelines.

Lucien did not know how many years Alanthuriel had truly given him.

A few.

Perhaps more.

Perhaps less.

But a few years were enough to change history if spent properly.

By then, perhaps he could connect all five continents.

So Lucien used the peaceful years well.

•••

The Origin Core fragment campaign in the Middle Continent took longer than Lucien expected.

At first, he thought the West had already shown him the pattern.

Find holders. Offer benefits. Influence.

But the Middle Continent was different.

It had more holders.

Far more.

That realization came slowly, then all at once.

The more the Shadow Information Network investigated, the more the list grew.

Still, the work continued.

Through negotiation, alliance, diplomacy, patience, and the occasional theft from powers too rotten to deserve formal treatment, Lucien gathered thirty more fragments from the Middle Continent over time.

And when the hundredth fragment merged, the shrine changed.

The pulse that followed was not loud.

It was deep.

Lucien stood before the shrine when it happened.

The merged mass of fragments glowed like an unfinished star trapped inside the memory of a broken world.

Then the pulse spread.

The signal did not merely reach farther now.

It wrapped around the Big World.

And beyond.

The Lunarians in the moon felt it too.

The network had become planetary.

Or close enough to be terrifying.

Lucien looked back at the shrine.

His expression grew serious.

Fragments could sense fragments.

He had known that.

And with one hundred merged together, it became something else.

A map waiting to be drawn.

•••

One morning, Lucien returned to the Origin Core Shrine.

He carried two maps.

The West Continent.

The Middle Continent.

Both had been produced by the Shadow Information Network after months of hidden work. They were the most accurate maps Lootwell possessed.

Lucien placed the maps before the shrine.

Then he looked at the hundred merged fragments.

The incomplete core pulsed slowly.

He reached out.

This time, he touched it.

The moment his fingers met the surface, the world shifted.

Lucien’s senses stretched.

The shrine vanished from his immediate awareness.

He felt the Origin Core fragments as points of beginning scattered across the world.

Lucien inhaled slowly.

He started with the West.

He had believed the West was nearly emptied.

It was not.

That made his eyes narrow.

There were eight more Origin Core fragments in the West.

Two belonged to hidden factions.

Small, old, buried powers that did not use communication devices and had deliberately kept themselves outside modern routes.

Three belonged to individuals.

Hermits, most likely.

People who had withdrawn so thoroughly from public life that even rumor had forgotten how to pronounce their names.

And the last three...

Lucien’s gaze stopped.

The pulse led toward a familiar place.

Sareth Region.

More precisely, toward the Red Dragon.

Lucien’s expression changed.

He remembered that beast from the Stillness Expedition.

The Red Dragon had stood out even among the ancient beings.

Not because it was the strongest. Because it was crafty.

A beast from the Millennia War on humanity’s side, but one whose mind bent toward schemes, survival, hoarding, and deeply suspicious habits.

Lucien stared at the map.

Three Origin Core fragments.

It had been hidden beneath layered arrays and Abyssal materials, concealed so thoroughly that if the Origin Core’s authority had been any weaker, Lucien would never have found it.

That alone proved how formidable the Red Dragon truly was.

It was not held by the Nephralis Sect publicly. Likely not even known by the sect itself.

Lucien’s mouth curved faintly.

"Crafty bastard."

The Red Dragon had a private hoard.

Of course he did.

A dragon remaining without a secret hoard would have been more suspicious.

Lucien tapped the marked location once.

Then began observing.

•••

For days, Lucien studied the Red Dragon through the faint resonance of the Origin Core fragments with it.

He watched patterns, movement, return intervals, how often the Red Dragon checked the hoard, how long he stayed, how many false trails he used, and how many times he circled back to ensure he had not been followed.

The answer was irritating.

A lot.

The Red Dragon trusted nothing.

He did not use communication devices.

He did not rely on sect messengers.

He rarely allowed anyone close.

He visited his hidden treasure cove at irregular intervals, but not truly random ones. There was a paranoia-pattern beneath it. A rhythm built around suspicion, lunar phases, sect activity, and the movement of certain old guards in Nephralis territory.

Lucien sat in his office one night, looking at the pattern map.

Vivian entered and looked at the projection.

"Is that a movement route?"

"Yes."

"Why are there so many loops?"

"Trust issues."

She stared at the ridiculous spiral of paths.

"That is anxiety given geography."

Lucien almost laughed.

"That is accurate."

After a week, he had enough.

He summoned Astraea, Condoriano, and Saber.

The three ancient beasts arrived expecting battle.

Lucien showed them the map.

"This is the location of the Red Dragon’s treasure cove."

The air changed.

Condoriano’s eyes sharpened.

Saber leaned forward.

Astraea smiled very slowly.

Lucien continued, "There are three Origin Core fragments inside. Likely many other treasures as well."

Condoriano’s wings twitched once.

"Are we fighting him?"

"No."

The three looked almost disappointed.

Lucien tapped the route pattern.

"He checks the cove personally. Often. But I have mapped his habits for the past week. There will be a window."

Saber’s smile became predatory.

"You want us to rob him."

"I want the Origin Core fragments retrieved," Lucien said calmly. "If other dangerous items are there, secure them. And you can take the other things..."

Astraea’s smile deepened.

"Understood."

Condoriano laughed softly.

Saber cracked his knuckles.

"This is petty."

Lucien did not deny it quickly enough.

That made all three ancient beasts laugh.

When he explained the Red Dragon’s habits and handed them the mapped access route, their delight became almost childlike.

Condoriano said, "He will be furious."

Astraea replied, "Only if he notices."

Saber smiled. "He will notice."

They laughed together.

Lucien watched them go and wondered briefly whether he had just solved a problem or created a future complaint from the Red Dragon.

Then he decided that if the Red Dragon had hidden three Origin Core fragments from everyone for who knew how long, he did not get to complain about theft with a straight face.

•••

Lucien returned to the mapping.

The Middle Continent came next.

He expected many remaining fragments.

Even so, the result stunned him.

He had already taken around forty fragments from the Middle Continent through all methods combined.

And still, dozens remained.

The lights appeared across the map like buried stars.

A few were inside places the Shadow Information Network had already marked as dangerous.

Lucien’s expression grew heavier.

The Middle Continent truly had the highest density of Origin Core fragment holders.

It made sense in hindsight.

The Middle Continent had always been a gathering place.

Of course more fragments would have gathered there too.

Then Lucien noticed several signals within or near the Liberator Main Headquarters.

True Liberators.

Some of them still held Origin Core fragments.

Lucien did not immediately worry.

He contacted Seran.

[Some of your people hold fragments.]

The reply came immediately.

[They will hand them to you naturally.]

Lucien frowned.

[Why?]

This time, Seran took longer.

[After they go to their special locations.]

Lucien leaned back slightly.

His mind moved at once.

The special locations again.

Each special location seemed prepared not only to help the Liberator, but also to reveal something that eventually benefited Lucien’s larger road.

Lucien looked back at the map.

The lights across the Middle Continent pulsed quietly.

Lucien marked the Liberator-held fragments as delayed acquisition.

He trusted Seran enough for that.

Then he looked at the other lights.

The remaining holders did not yet know the hundred-merged Origin Core had revealed them.

Lucien’s eyes cooled.

He would not move recklessly.

The West had eight hidden fragments.

The Middle had dozens more.

Evil sects held others.

Hermits slept on theirs.

Hidden factions clutched theirs and hoped history would forget them.

Lucien placed his hand once more near the Origin Core.

The pulse answered.

"Good," he whispered. "Let us see who still thinks they can hide."