Chapter 91: Law of Fire
[Royal Capital — Royal Palace Meeting Hall]
More than a week had passed since BranLeaf was erased from the map. And while the efforts of all six kingdoms had worked to keep the situation from spiraling completely out of control, small tremors of unrest were still surfacing here and there.
People were afraid. Afraid that what had happened in the past would happen again, so they wanted reassurance. They wanted answers, answers to questions that had none, or at least none that would put their minds at ease.
The palace meeting hall, which ordinarily housed a full complement of ministers deliberating over the kingdom’s future, held only seven figures today: the six rulers of the human kingdoms, and a woman with green hair dressed in a healer’s robes, currently examining the condition of the fire woman.
"Iris, how are your injuries? You should have recovered most of your strength by now," said the king of Solren, seated at one of the chairs surrounding the great round table.
The fire woman, Iris, hearing the king’s words, opened her eyes and fixed him with an irritated look.
"I was fine until you decided to call this pointless meeting. Stop wasting our time and get to the point," he said, her fiery temperament still as present as ever.
None of the others seemed particularly surprised. To them, this was simply how she was. If this woman went even a single day without cursing someone out, that would be cause for genuine concern.
Rowan, the king of Solren, took her words as confirmation that she was well enough, and moved on without comment.
"Everyone, there’s no point beating around the bush. You all know why we’re here," he said, his expression turning serious.
"Our predecessors had already predicted that the Abyss would return in the future, and considering the number of incidents that have happened over the past year, I think we can confirm that the Abyss is returning." He raised a finger and pressed it against the surface of the round table.
The moment he did, the table began to glow. Strange lines appeared from several points across its surface, converging at the center and forming a runic formation. The formation then released blue particles that rose and gathered together, forming a sphere nearly five meters in diameter, large enough to be seen clearly by everyone present.
It floated upward and held itself still.
The surface of the sphere remained calm for a few seconds before shifting, and soon an image of a forest appeared within it.
On the surface, there was nothing obviously remarkable about it. But everyone in the room tensed the moment they saw it.
"Given the current situation, I sent some of my most capable men to investigate the southern region of the kingdom. After several days of going through villages and surrounding areas, this is what they found," said Rowan, gesturing toward the image.
Iris, who had been wondering why they had been called to this meeting, seemed to lose herself in thought for a moment upon seeing it.
The King of Solren noticed this but paid it little attention and continued.
"As you all know, due to our border with the Fallen Lands, our southern boundary is lined with magical barriers designed to contain the anomalies of those territories and prevent them from crossing into our lands. This location is one of the central anchor points of those barriers," he said, knowing full well that everyone present had already recognized it.
If there was one thing all six kingdoms were exceptionally good at, it was keeping a close eye on one another. Despite the apparent truce, quiet and hidden conflicts continued to simmer beneath the surface.
These were sovereigns, each with their own agenda, none of them content to sit within their own borders and wait for a neighbor to grow stronger and come knocking. Outside of exceptional circumstances, the six of them would never be gathered peacefully in the same room.
The other rulers knew that this forest housed one of the crucial points of the barrier formation that kept what was in the Fallen Lands within the Fallen Lands.
But now, looking at the projection inside the sphere, they could all see that the formation had been compromised.
It was strange. The formation in question was one of the oldest in existence, built with runic technology far more advanced than anything currently achievable. No sane individual would tamper with it, let alone destroy it entirely.
And yet that was exactly what had happened.
"I don’t need to tell you this is a problem," said Rowan, his expression darkening further, "not only because repairing it will be a challenge in itself, but because of what destroyed it."
There was no need to say it aloud. Everyone in the room already knew. They had seen it with their own eyes just a week ago.
"So that madwoman was there?" one of the others said.
"Not anymore. After we discovered it, she remained there for a certain period of time, but recently she disappeared once again. We believe that whatever she came there to do, she already accomplished it and left," Rowan said, his voice clearly filled with exhaustion and helplessness.
The figure they were discussing was none other than the Calamity Dragon.
Every one of them had seen that attack, the one that closed the rift above BranLeaf, and every one of them could identify the direction it had come from. It had come from exactly where that forest stood. There was no question about who was responsible.
The fact that the Dragon of Calamity had gone there and caused this meant that she had a reason to be there after awakening, a reason none of them fully understood. The runic formation and that barrier were not something a being of her caliber should care about, and with her strength, destroying every location that sustained the barrier would only take seconds.
It was clearly a side effect of whatever she had actually been doing there.
That absence of information was weighing heavily on every mind in the room, for obvious reasons.
The threat of the Abyss was returning, and now a legendary being that every kingdom feared had made her official reappearance. Everyone present could feel that something terrible was coming, something none of them felt ready for.
Iris, who had been lost in thought for much of the exchange, seemed to reach some kind of conclusion, and spoke.
"There is something else we need to discuss," she said, her tone grave in a way that immediately drew the attention of everyone present.
They could tell that whatever she was about to say would only make an already complicated situation worse.
They waited. And Iris didn’t make them wait long.
"The Law of Fire no longer has a divine fragment."
The moment those words left her mouth, every expression in the room changed.
An uproar broke out immediately. Even those who had remained composed until this point visibly reacted to the news.
The Law of Fire was the foundation of everything related to the concept of fire. It was the fundamental law governing that element, and it was naturally bound to a divine fragment.
Every law had a divine fragment. It was what Awakened at the apex of the SS-rank sought to perceive and eventually command. If one successfully formed a connection with the divine fragment of a law, they officially became a Demigod, the first step toward ascending to the level of a true God.
When a person fully assimilated a divine fragment, they became the ruler of that law, in other words, the deity of that concept. So if the fragment of a law was no longer present, it could only mean one thing.
Someone had already assimilated it entirely.
"This... shouldn’t be possible. How can you be certain of this?" the king of Solren asked immediately, clearly grasping the full implications of what she had just said.
Hearing him, Iris could only sigh in exhaustion. She remembered how shocked she had been when she discovered it. Especially for someone like her who cultivated the concept of fire. If the fragment of divinity was gone, then her path toward divinity had been completely cut off.
"I don’t know how it’s possible, but I can assure you the fragment of the Law of Fire is no longer there. At my current stage I’m very close to reaching the Advanced Stage, which gives me the ability to sense whether a fragment is still present or not."
"A month ago I stopped sensing it, but I didn’t think much of it at the time. Then during the battle, when I used the formation to elevate my strength, I reached the peak of my current Rank and was able to perceive the Law of Fire more clearly, enough to sense the Fragment of Fire Divinity itself with great clarity, but I found nothing. Not even the slightest trace of it," she said.
Hearing those words, every person in the room felt a chill move through them.
They all knew that at the peak of their current rank, the fragment could be perceived with far greater clarity. And if Iris, pushed to her absolute limit, had felt nothing, then the fragment was gone. And if it was gone, that could only mean one thing.
A God of Fire had been born.
