He looked around in quick succession and saw both the towering figure and the writhing purple form he had just confronted moments before. The purple thing pulsed with something that resembled organic tissue, veins visible beneath translucent skin stretched too thin over whatever structure supported it.
"You would go against me?" the purple figure hissed, its voice carrying wet, guttural undertones. "After everything we have done for you. Everything we have sacrificed."
Lucid walked forward, chains rattling against the cold marble stone beneath his boots.
Alice's voice cut through his focus. "Careful. I sense genuine malice radiating from her."
Lucid stopped mid-step.
"She is Enlightened," he stated flatly.
Pilt stared at the woman, his eyes widening with visible disbelief, some recognition passing across his features despite the horror of the scene before him.
Alice continued within Lucid's mind, her tone shifting toward something more clinical. "However, she appears frail. Like a single thread stretched thin."
She gasped suddenly.
Lucid tilted his head, waiting for her to elaborate.
"It is as though multiple threads have been attached to a singular body," Alice continued. "She is a copy of a copy."
'A copy,' Lucid thought internally. 'Meaning what exactly?'
"Regardless," Alice added, "she remains Enlightened at the Ascendant rank. Not something to dismiss casually."
"Lucid," Pilt whispered beside him, "you are a god."
Suddenly a voice spoke from above them both, carrying weight that pressed down through the air itself.
"Mortal. Have you forgotten our long overdue transaction?"
Lucid shifted his attention toward the figure standing before him, holding a person by their side who was clearly exhibiting signs of severe distress.
His eyes widened.
The purple entity was exposing someone directly to corrosive fate essence, the toxin visibly spreading through their system, slowly claiming them with the Withering.
Lucid moved immediately, closing the distance without hesitation.
"I will demonstrate my true capability," he announced.
With a flick of his wrist, chains coiled tightly around his forearm. He threw them toward a nearby pillar, shattering the stone structure instantly upon impact.
A shockwave rippled outward from the point of collision, energy pulsing through the surrounding space.
"I remind you that physical harm is forbidden within this domain," Mercyros stated, his voice carrying calm authority despite the destruction. "As is the direct use of one's Illuminated status against domain occupants."
Lucid looked up toward Mercyros, who towered above him with imposing presence.
His chains disintegrated instantly, dissolving into particles that scattered across the marble floor.
The woman, previously supported by the worm-like appendage extending from the purple figure, collapsed to the ground. An audible crack accompanied her fall, the sound suggesting something had given way internally, perhaps bone fracturing under sudden stress. She looked up with an expression that carried something unsettling, almost feral in its intensity.
Lucid stood firm, planting his feet solidly, facing Mercyros directly despite the significant height difference between them.
"I revoke your rules," Lucid stated. "Your domain is structurally collapsing, leaking into my jurisdiction."
Mercyros's eyes widened slightly, genuine surprise crossing his otherwise composed features.
"Very well," the Monolith said after a pause. "You may purchase something of your choosing."
Lucid considered his options carefully.
"I will buy a rule," he announced.
Pilt looked toward Lucid, then toward the deranged woman still struggling on the ground, confusion evident in his expression.
The unconscious person beside the purple figure had begun stirring, showing faint signs of returning consciousness.
"I purchase the first mandate," Lucid continued. "Restriction of currency."
"I purchase the second mandate," he added immediately after. "Circulation of fate essence."
Mercyros brushed his hand across his face, studying Lucid with evident fascination.
"Hmm," he murmured, a silent moment stretching between them.
"Why not purchase my authority instead?" Mercyros asked.
The entire space fell silent at the suggestion.
Authority represented something that governed multiple mandates simultaneously. A mandate itself constituted a specific rule, formally recognized and acknowledged by the specter that tracked such things. Anyone could theoretically possess a mandate, though most Awakened individuals remained unaware they held any at all. Authority emerged when multiple mandates crystallized together into singular, unified control. Authority governed entire concepts, domains like guidance, trickery, ingenuity, or commerce itself.
Lucid understood precisely what such a purchase would entail.
Alice spoke within his mind, her tone carrying persuasive warmth. "Lucid, why not purchase his authority over commerce? It would grant you the capability to reinstate all of Port Vexis. You are far better suited for godhood than he currently proves himself to be."
"Tsk, tsk, tsk," Lucid muttered aloud, waving his finger dismissively.
A white shadow materialized in the air before him, text forming from darkness as letters arranged themselves into visible words.
[ Proceed to buy Yes / No ]
[ Cost: None ]
Lucid tapped through the white mist as dark letters framed his index finger, the interface parting to reveal additional options.
"I am not taking the place of that sorrowful, lonely, miserable fool," Lucid declared clearly.
Everyone present looked toward him in evident shock.
"You believed yourself clever," Lucid continued, addressing Mercyros directly. "Authority comes ranked in multiple tiers, and you likely possess something classified at Divine rank. By purchasing that from you, I would essentially be condemning myself to the same hell you already occupy."
Mercyros sighed, the sound carrying genuine weariness.
For the first time since their encounter began, a faint hint of smile appeared at the edges of his teeth, barely visible but unmistakably present.
Pilt stared at him in complete disbelief.
"Very well," Mercyros said quietly. "Forgive me, Senna."
Both Lucid and Pilt turned to look at him with sudden attention.
"Forgive me, Aurelia," Mercyros continued, his voice carrying something that resembled genuine grief. "I could not stop her from reincarnating you into mortal flesh."
Silence followed his words completely.
The girl with the cap he had encountered earlier in the town, and this young girl currently struggling on the marble floor, apparently shared some connection neither Lucid nor Pilt had previously understood.
Pilt stomped his foot against the ground suddenly.
"I want to make a final transaction!" he announced.
"Chrono stasis," Mercyros stated calmly.
Pilt froze instantly, his body locked in place mid-motion, unable to complete whatever action he had intended.
"Today," Mercyros continued, his voice carrying weight that seemed to press against the very air surrounding them, "is the day the concept of wealth and money disappears entirely."
"I have grown long fatigued acting as its wheel," he added, looking upward toward whatever passed for sky within this collapsing domain.
"Oh, Mother Fate," he continued, his voice carrying genuine anguish now. "Why would you take the ones I love and play with them, crafting such a cruel destiny meant to persist for eternity?"
He extended his hand forward.
The ground shook violently.
Not merely the ground itself, but the very foundation supporting reality within this space seemed to tremble, ripples spreading outward in patterns that defied normal physics.
Lucid looked toward Pilt, recognizing immediately that his companion remained frozen and vulnerable, caught directly within whatever destructive event Mercyros appeared to be initiating.
Danger.
Lucid moved to intervene, his body already responding to protect his ally.
But he stopped himself after a moment of consideration, some instinct suggesting that interrupting this particular moment might prove more costly than allowing it to unfold naturally.
He gritted his teeth, watching, waiting, uncertain whether his restraint represented wisdom or catastrophic miscalculation.
Suddenly as the ground shook and dust rose everywhere, Pilt lost sight of the one person who had any choice or any agency in this chaos. Golden particles swirled around him like a shroud, obscuring everything beyond arm's reach.
Suddenly something shattered the form restraining him completely. Two chains emerged from the dust where Lucid and Pilt had been standing, their links gleaming with light that seemed to originate from within rather than reflecting off the golden sky above.
They shot forward.
A red aura encircled the pierced luminescent chains, giving them dangerous vibrance as they sliced and hissed through the air. Mercyros looked down, his golden eyes carrying the weight of centuries, clearly expecting the attack to disintegrate harmlessly against whatever barrier he maintained.
He was wrong.