Chapter 140: Ch 140 : The price of Power
The Pantheon’s private God Chat was a storm of panicked messages and frantic strategizing. The sudden, universe wide mana drain had thrown billions of worlds into chaos.
Zir: "Thea confirmed it. The Boss is breaking through to the next grade!" Zir’s message landed like a thunderclap, bringing a moment of stunned silence to the chat.
Asura: "Thea?" he questioned, the name unfamiliar to him as a newcomer.
Reflection: "It’s the name of the system we all use," Reflection clarified patiently.
Apolo: "What kind of breakthrough causes a cataclysm of this scale?!" Apolo asked, his mind reeling. He couldn’t imagine a power so vast it could suffocate a billion worlds just by a breakthrough.
Zir: "It’s the Boss, breaking through from A-Grade to S-Grade Mage." As one of Sunny’s closest associates, Zir spoke with an air of authority and inside knowledge.
Asura: "Just from A-Grade to S-Grade can cause such a disaster?" Asura typed, his tone a mix of awe and dark humor. "Then what happens when he reaches SS-Grade? Will he absorb the mana from the entire multiverse?" He meant it as a joke, but as he reread his own words, a chilling thought settled in his mind: it was entirely possible.
Zir: "My demigods are already working on containing the beast tides on my worlds. What about you all?"
The chat flooded with stories of struggle.
Herem: "I have only a single demigod, and she’s overwhelmed. My world is a world with a lots of floating islands, and the flying monsters are crashing into them like living meteors. But just as a city was about to fall, five heroes appeared from a portal. They said they were believers of the Boss, sent to help."
Maya: "Same here! My world is subterranean, a network of glowing crystal caverns. The beast tide is a swarm of giant burrowing insects, and they caused a cave-in, trapping thousands of my people. I was about to spend my own faith to save them, but these heroes arrived just in time."
Roman: "I was also thinking of using my faith, but I guess I will wait for these heroes to arrive. I need to save what I have for my next demigod."
As tales of heroism and relief filled the chat, a single message cut through the cooperative spirit like a splash of cold, cynical acid.
Joker: "Can’t even handle this much trouble? And you all call yourselves Gods?"
The chat fell silent. In his private, isolated solar system, Joker felt it. It wasn’t a trickle of faith; it was a tsunami. A trillion points of divine energy, harvested from the frustration and indignation of the million Gods he had just mocked, crashed into his soul.
"A trillion?" Joker whispered, a grin spreading across his face. He looked out at his single, lonely planet. "Will those million Gods try to kill me by invading my territory now?" This was precisely why he had demanded an isolated system when joining the Pantheon; his talent was a magnet for enemies.
Roman: "@Raven, is your petition to remove Joker still active? I’m signing it right now. This big mouth should be removed!"
But Joker had already closed the chat. His mind was consumed by the intoxicating rush of his newfound fortune. He would create more demigods, powerful warriors to send into the Realm of Advancement, and he would do it with the faith of the very people he had just insulted.
While the chosen ones battled across billions of worlds, and the demigods held the beasts down in the planets marked with red color, their creator finally stirred.
Sunny opened his eyes. The universe seemed to snap into a new, sharper focus. The raw, untamed power of an S-Grade Mage now hummed in his veins, a deep and resonant chord.
In the same instant, the memories of his three watcher clones flooded his mind, a perfect, instant replay of the chaos his breakthrough had unleashed.
He was shocked for a second, a flicker of his old human self taken aback by the sheer scale of the disruption. Then, a slow, responsible smile spread across his face.
"Thea," he commanded, his voice calm and absolute, "I am transferring five trillion faith points to you. Use them. For every world they protected, gift each of the chosen ones an SS-Grade artifact of their own choice. For the demigods of Veridia, give them one billion merits for every world they personally saved. I will take care of the Gods myself."
[Yes, Master.] Thea replied, and like a perfect machine, her consciousness began executing the complex web of transactions.
Sunny opened the Pantheon chat.
Cosmos: "I am sorry for the disturbance my breakthrough caused to your worlds."
His simple apology immediately quelled the lingering chaos.
Asura: "It was not a big thing, Boss. The demons have caused us far more disturbance than this. At least, apart from some beasts and monsters, no other lifeform lost their life in my world."
Ester: "Yes, Boss. My world suffered a few casualties, but it is nothing we cannot handle. We will give them a good place in the afterlife." Two more Gods quickly shared their stories. One, a God whose world was a vast desert, explained how his scorpion-like people had bravely defended their oasis cities.
Another, whose world was a single, planet-spanning ocean, described how her aquatic lifeforms had fought off enraged sea leviathans. The sentiment was the same: they had suffered, but they had endured.
Cosmos: "Thea will calculate all of your losses and offer you discounts in the Cosmic Shop accordingly for the entire next day. As for the lifeforms who perished, they will be given the chance to be reborn. They can even choose to become an apostle under a demigod, if the demigod is willing."
He typed his final message and closed the chat. The group once again erupted, not with panic, but with joyous praise. The petition to remove Joker was lost in a sea of gratitude. The benefits of their leader’s grace far outweighed the sting of a single god’s mockery.
Sunny leaned back on his throne. He had compensated the Gods and the fallen lifeforms. But a final thought nagged at him. ’What about the beasts and monsters that suffered the most during all this?’ They were his creations too. With a quiet sigh and a simple wave of his hand, he unleashed ten trillion of his faith points.
It was not a violent surge, but a gentle, divine rain that fell across Veridia and the 5.5 billion worlds of his Pantheon. It was a wave of pure life energy that refilled the mana of every planet, soothed every panicked heart, and healed the very worlds themselves.
This was the price of Power, a price that Sunny paid without any second thoughts.