Chapter 145: Ch 145 : Rewriting a Rule
"If he wishes to speak with you, he will. If he does not, then he will not. It is not for me to decide," Ragnok said, his voice a pillar of unwavering loyalty. He had opened the door; it was up to the gods to walk through it.
Medusa looked at the half-orc king, a strange mix of respect and frustration in her golden, reptilian eyes.
She parted her lips to speak, to perhaps bargain or threaten, but the words died in her throat. The very air around them began to shimmer, the particles of reality itself seeming to vibrate with an unseen energy.
From these countless points of light, a figure coalesced; a being cloaked in the cosmos, his face a mask of infinite night, his eyes two swirling galaxies of absolute authority.
Ragnok’s breath caught. He fell to his knees without a conscious thought, his head bowed low. He had stood before a demigod without flinching, but this was different. This was the presence of a true God, a being whose aura was the very fabric of the universe.
"Did you call me?" Sunny’s voice was calm, yet it carried a dignity that resonated in their very souls.
He nodded once at the kneeling Ragnok.
Before addressing the demigod, he turned his attention to his faithful champion. He placed a hand on Ragnok’s head, and Ragnok felt a wave of energy, not of raw power, but of pure, crystalline clarity, wash over him.
It was as if a thousand locked doors in his mind had been blown open at once, revealing pathways of thought and understanding he never knew existed.
[Ding! Congratulations, Host! You have received the blessing of God Cosmos]
[Blessing Name: Comprehension (SS-Grade)]
Sunny’s own Divine Growth talent had already elevated his comprehension to the SS-Grade, and now, he shared a fragment of that power.
"Thank you, oh great God Cosmos," Ragnok whispered, his reverence now absolute.
Sunny left his kneeling champion and turned his cosmic gaze toward the dark cavern. "Are you not coming out to meet me, Medusa?" he asked, his voice echoing with a gentle calm. "It was you who wished for this meeting, was it not?"
The ground trembled. A brilliant pillar of emerald light erupted from the depths of the cave, and from within it, she emerged.
If her psychic presence was intimidating, her physical form was breathtaking. A beauty so profound it could make angels weep, crowned by a living halo of writhing, hissing serpents. She was a paradox of divine perfection and monstrous terror.
"Greetings, God Cosmos," Medusa said, bowing her head gracefully. She knew that even as a projection, this being held the power to decide the fate of her entire race.
Sunny nodded, getting straight to the point. His time was precious; his clones were tirelessly working to comprehend the Law of Manifestation, and he had no desire to waste a moment on pleasantries. "What did you want to talk about?"
Medusa’s heart hammered against her ribs. This was the moment that would define the future for her people. "I... I wish for my people to join the Cosmic Empire," she said, her voice steady despite the storm of hope and fear within her.
"Of course," Sunny replied simply. "In time, I will send a new demigod to be the protector of your race. For now, you may join the Kingdom of Solara, or if you wish, create a kingdom of your own. The choice is yours."
His reasoning was simple yet calculatd. He needed the leaders of his races to be his own creations, beings bound by the absolute loyalty of a Divine Embryo.
Medusa was a powerful, pre-existing piece on the board, but she was not one he had crafted himself.
He could bless her, but he could not fundamentally alter or upgrade her talents without an exorbitant cost of divine command. She could be a powerful ally, but not a core part of his inner circle.
Still, a gift was in order. "As this is our first meeting, you shall not leave empty-handed," Sunny declared. He focused his God’s Eye, and the very code of Medusa’s being became clear to him. He saw her power, her history, and the shackle that had defined her entire existence.
[Talent Name: Petrification (SS-Grade)]
[Description: Anyone other than the Gorgon race will be petrified upon seeing you.]
A powerful curse disguised as a talent. It was this that had forced her and her people into a life of bitter seclusion, their every interaction with the outside world was a potential act of murder.
This was why she sent warning letters instead of waging war; she did not wish to turn undeserving souls into stone statues.
Sunny thought for a second, a plan forming in his mind. Then, he raised a hand, and it felt as if the entire universe went silent, leaning in to hear his next word.
His voice was not a shout, but a decree that resonated through the very fabric of reality. "Let this curse be a weapon, not a cage. Let it be a choice, not a passive affliction. From this moment on, a Gorgon’s gaze will harm only those they choose to harm."
The cosmos shook. A tremor ran through the foundations of the multiverse, the sound of a universal law being broken, erased, and rewritten by a will powerful enough to command it.
Ragnok, still kneeling, looked up in absolute awe.
All this time, Sunny had been shielding him, showing him a mere image of Medusa through Thea’s particles. Had he seen her true form, he would have been turned to stone instantly.
For Medusa, the change was immediate and profound. For the first time in five hundred thousand years of her life, she felt... light.
The constant, heavy weight of her deadly aura, a power she had to suppress every second of her life, was simply gone.
The snakes on her head, once symbols of her deadly nature, felt... calm.
Her composure shattered. She fell to her knees, not out of reverence this time, but out of sheer, overwhelming relief.
Tears streamed down her perfect face, washing away thousands of years of isolation and sorrow. Her race, who had been a prisoner of their own power since birth, were finally free.
Sunny felt the one trillion faith points drain from his reserves. It was an astronomical price. But as he watched the weeping demigod pledge her eternal, tear-filled loyalty, he knew it was the best bargain he had ever made. A new, powerful, and utterly devoted ally had just been added to the list of Demigods under him.