svetikya Chapter 153 The Price of Submission
Chapter 153 The Price of Submission
Chapter 153 The Price of Submission
The Holy Lord's voice was not raised, nor did it use any extra force, but it passed through every metal partition and every energy pipe of Olympia, reaching the ears of every Eternal in the square.
"I have no interest in killing you. The shadows of my things are embedded in your energy circuits, which I can take back at any time. But I give you a choice: pledge allegiance to me, and your power will remain unchanged. Resist, and I will turn you back into ordinary people."
No one spoke in the square.
This wasn't the kind of silence born of being stunned; it was the silence where everyone was frantically calculating a question—whether there was a third possibility among the two options in this multiple-choice question.
Makari spoke first, quickly: "Do you mean 'ordinary people' literally? Do you mean completely severing our connection with cosmic energy, or—"
"The literal meaning," the Holy Lord said calmly.
Makari shut up.
Jinger withdrew his hand from the wreckage and stood up straight. His matter conversion ability had recovered to 30%, and he had weighed the options. 30% wasn't enough to defeat the person in front of him, and even with the combined strength of everyone in the square, it wouldn't be enough. This conclusion made him very uncomfortable, but he wasn't the type to do anything foolish just because he felt uncomfortable.
"What exactly does this pledge of allegiance entail?" Jingle asked, lowering his voice by an octave. "What do you want us to do?"
The Holy Lord glanced at him. This time, there was no pressure that would pin someone to the spot; it was just a normal glance.
"It's not confirmed yet."
Jingge: "—"
Wanda stood behind Shendu, quietly spinning the magic between her fingertips. She noticed the expression on Ginger's face—a mixture of absurdity and anger, like someone about to open their mouth but then holding it back—and thought it was kind of beautiful.
Selcy gently tugged at Ginger's wrist. Ginger turned around, and Selcy shook her head slightly, the meaning clear: Stop talking.
Jingge swallowed back what she wanted to say; this was the third time she had done so today.
"You said it's not confirmed yet." Fastos took the question, his tone highly professional and devoid of any emotion: "So, besides negotiations, what other purpose do you have in coming to Olympia?"
"The engine's bugs need to be fixed," the Holy Lord said.
Fastos thought he'd misheard. "Now?"
"No rush, but it needs to be repaired." The Holy Lord paused for a moment: "You just said you needed the Tiger Talisman as a reference. I can provide it, but I need to supervise the entire process."
Now it was Phantos's turn to fall silent. Overseeing the entire process meant that the Holy Lord would be staying on Olympia for some time. He quickly scanned the surrounding Eternals; their expressions were all quite interesting, but no one dared to object. The consequences of objection had already been demonstrated, and no one wanted to see it a second time.
"Okay," Fastos said. "I need to do a full basal scan first, which will take about three days."
"Two days."
"Two and a half days."
The Holy Lord did not haggle further, which was considered an admission of agreement.
Faustos sighed inwardly. He knew very well that he had just been bargaining with a being who could easily cripple the abilities of fourteen Eternals for two and a half days—a situation that was absurd in itself. But he had indeed managed to secure an extra twelve hours, which, from a professional standpoint, he thought was acceptable.
Icarus remained silent. He stood there, his armor still dark, his eyes following the Holy Lord. In the time it took for the Holy Lord to speak with Phantos, he scrutinized the man from head to toe once more.
Last time on Earth, he charged at Shendu with all cosmic rays at full power, but Shendu only took a half-step to the side, and then he remembered nothing. When he opened his eyes again, he was lying on the ground. He spent a considerable amount of time thinking about this, and finally concluded that this was not an opponent that could be resolved through direct confrontation.
This is not admitting defeat, it is an assessment.
The Holy Lord turned and glanced at him, but Icarus did not look away.
"What are you thinking about?" the Holy Lord asked.
"I was wondering how you did that last time," Icarus replied directly.
Have you thought it through?
"no."
The Holy Lord offered no explanation, but Icarus didn't expect one. Some things are simply incomprehensible, and Icarus understood this better than anyone.
Macari quietly took half a step closer to Celsi and whispered, "What are they talking about?"
Selcy didn't answer, but Druid whispered, "I don't know either, but the atmosphere is much better than before."
Makari nodded in agreement; the assessment made sense, after all, just five minutes ago none of them could stand steadily, but now they could at least talk normally.
The Holy Lord withdrew his gaze from Icarus and swept it over the remaining Eternals in the square.
"I have only one condition," the Holy Lord said calmly. "Don't touch my things, don't try to decipher the Tiger Talisman, and don't do anything underhanded. Until the engine is repaired, your energy levels will remain at the current level."
Jingle gritted his teeth but didn't say anything. Cersei's hand was still on his wrist, not heavy, but he could feel it.
This wasn't a fair negotiation. The conditions proposed by the Holy Lord weren't even conditions; the consequences of their refusal were already outweighed by what they could afford. Interestingly, even setting all that aside, the Holy Lord's first act upon appearing today was to point out the engine's technical flaw, the second was to propose a repair plan, and only then did he begin negotiating terms. This order is rather strange.
Selcy went through the sequence in his mind and came to a conclusion that he could not yet verify: the Holy Lord cared more about the survival of Olympia than he showed.
She didn't say it aloud. Keep it for later use.
Wanda stood quietly behind Shendu, the magic gone, her hands hanging at her sides. Her gaze lingered briefly on Shendu's back before shifting away to continue surveying her surroundings.
None of the Eternals in the square attacked her, making today's work easier than she had expected.
Fastos pulled out his equipment and started the initial scan preparation, muttering to himself, "This kind of low-level reconstruction project—two and a half days is really rushed—"
"Do you want help?" the Holy Lord asked.
Pharstus paused for a moment. He looked up at the Holy Lord and took about three seconds to confirm that the other was serious.
"—Do you understand engine architecture?"
"I understand the code of the Celestials."
Fastos fastened the device in his hand, thought for a moment, and said, "That might really be able to reduce it to two days."
His expression was complex when he said this; it was the look of an engineer caught between despair and excitement when faced with the prospect of "an omniscient and omnipotent being coming to debug your code together."
Macari nudged Cersi's arm again.
"Is this... a recruitment drive for our engineers?"
Cerci did not answer immediately.
She looked at the center of the square, watching the Holy Lord and Phastos begin to discuss the order of dismantling the underlying framework—neither of them mentioned "loyalty" or "rebellion" again, as if that multiple-choice question had been temporarily shelved and replaced with a more specific technical question.
"I'm not sure," Cerci finally said.
But she has begun to wonder if this situation really only has two possible outcomes.