CAIUS: Crown of Threads and Shadows

Caius did not bother taking residence within the palace walls. Instead, he remained in the blood-slicked courtyard before the grand gates. At a subtle wave of his hand, two humanoid Arachne servants emerged from the spatial domain, carrying a carved obsidian table and two woven silk chairs.

Setting the furniture down amidst the carnage, the multi-limbed servants poured steaming brew from a silver kettle into fine porcelain cups. Caius sat casually, taking a slow sip, while Old Bones pulled out a chair opposite him, holding his cup with the refined, dark-skinned fingers of his prime dark elf physique. To the terrified citizens watching from their windows and the five hundred kneeling divine prisoners, the sight was horrifyingly surreal, two terrifying martial masters enjoying morning tea as if sitting in a peaceful garden, entirely unbothered by the stench of copper and smoke.

Behind them, the Arachne Cleaners and Drones swarmed the plain like a clockwork hive. With mechanical, terrifying efficiency, the spider-beasts systematically stripped the fallen deities of their enchanted armor, sorted weapons into categorized piles, and dragged the corpses away for biomass conversion. Surrounding the perimeter, the living mainline stood in flawless, silent ranks, their spears held high as they guarded the prisoners with cold discipline.

A few hours into the wait, a shimmering procession descended from the high ridges. The leaders of Mount Caelus, the Eastern Peak, approached the city gates with heads bowed low. Recognizing the absolute destruction of Lysander’s forces, the supreme patriarchs threw down their golden scepters and pressed their faces into the dirt before Caius, surrendering their entire pantheon without firing a single bolt.

Mount Olympha, however, remained silent.

Old Bones set his tea cup down with a faint clink. Without waiting for a cue or an explicit order from Caius, the prime middle-aged dark elf melted back into the shadows, taking two Vel’xul Stalkers with him into the void.

Exactly one hour later, a spatial tear rippled beside the tea table. Old Bones stepped out, dark blood dripping from his dark-silk sleeves. In his hands and held by the spatial threads of the two Stalkers were five severed, crown-wearing heads, the supreme high council of Mount Olympha.

”They were debating whether to negotiate, Sovereign,” Old Bones rasped softly, dropping the heads onto the stone. ”I simplified their decision.”

At Caius’s indifferent nod, the Heavy Vanguard Infantry took the five severed heads and impaled them upon iron pikes, lining them prominently along the grand arches of the imperial city gates.

Not thirty minutes after the bloody display was set, the remaining gods of Mount Olympha came sprinting down the mountain paths in sheer, hysterical panic. Stumbling over the rocks, they threw themselves onto the cobblestones beside the Caelus faction, weeping and screaming for mercy before the young man sitting quietly with his tea.

”Mercy! Have mercy upon us, Sovereign!” the divine council wept, weeping and banging their foreheads against the stone. ”We bow to your sovereign decree! Do not slaughter our homes!”

”Enough with your cries,” Caius said, his cold voice instantly cutting through their hysterical wailing.

The courtyard fell dead silent. The surviving leaders of both Mount Olympha and Mount Caelus remained pressed to the ground, trembling uncontrollably as Caius casually set his tea cup onto the obsidian table.

Caius reached into his cloak and pulled out a glowing, dark spatial crystal. Tapping its surface, a shimmering three-dimensional projection flared to life above the table.

The illusion depicted a creature born of absolute darkness: a Mordrakh. It possessed a powerful humanoid frame covered in void-black scales, a majestic drake-like head, curved horns, sharp claws, and a heavy reptilian tail. Though smaller than a true dragon, its ancient, reptilian features radiated an innate, terrifying attunement to void energy.

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”Look at this image,” Caius commanded, his eyes narrowing. ”Have any of these beings passed through this realm?”

One of the patriarchs of Mount Caelus lifted his head slightly, his eyes widening in sheer recognition. ”My Lord! Yes! We have seen them!”

Caius’s gaze locked onto the god like a vise. ”When? Speak.”

”It was... it was months ago, My Lord,” the patriarch stammered, his voice shaking. ”A small group entered our realm through a spatial rift. Only twenty of them... but when they returned, they carried a female captive with them.”

Caius’s expression turned utterly unreadable, a terrifying chill saturating the air around him. ”Twenty of them took a female?”

”Yes, My Lord!” a high priest of Olympha chimed in desperately, eager to offer information to save his neck. ”When they first arrived, our combined host of five thousand divine warriors tried to halt their advance. But... but just twenty of those dark monsters slaughtered all five thousand of our troops in a matter of minutes! They didn’t even tell us their names or what species they were. They simply harvested the corpses and laughed.”

The high priest swallowed hard, shuddering at the memory. ”We begged them for mercy. The leader of those draconic beasts laughed at us and said, ’Give us one thousand of your strongest warriors as tribute, and we will spare the rest of your pathetic realm.’ We had no choice... we gave them the tribute.”

Old Bones stood stiffly behind Caius, his poised, athletic dark elf frame visibly recoiling. Twenty of them wiped out five thousand core-bearers without taking a loss?

Caius’s mind raced, analyzing the sheer discrepancy in power. Twenty Mordrakhs dismantled five thousand of these local gods...

”Did they exit through the same gate they entered?” Caius asked, his voice deathly quiet.

”No, My Lord,” the Caelus patriarch replied quickly. ”There are three Veyuun Gates in this world. One was destroyed centuries ago beneath the southern ocean.”

”And the other two?” Caius pressed.

”One is locked, which is the one the draconic monsters used when they fled with the female,” the patriarch explained. ”It is sealed by ancient void runes that none of our magic can pierce. But the second gate remains completely open and stable. It leads to the same destination realm, though it takes a far longer, more treacherous route through the spatial void.”

Caius sat in silence for a moment, processing every piece of intel. His mother was alive, and she was being transported through the gate network by a warband of Mordrakhs.

”Very well,” Caius said, rising smoothly from his seat. ”I will take these five hundred divine prisoners as your payment for offending me.”

Before the kneeling gods could comprehend his words, Caius tapped the dark obsidian studs on his brow. A wave of violet spatial energy washed over the five hundred bound core-bearers. In a single breath, all five hundred vanished from the courtyard, sealed away securely inside a vacant dimension stud within his Crown Core lattice.

”Furthermore,” Caius added, looking down at the trembling patriarchs, ”you will provide me with food supplies, enough to sustain an army for at least a year.”

”Right away! Immediately, My Lord!” the Caelus patriarch cried out, scrambling to pull a high-tier spatial storage ring from his finger.

Caius turned his back on the pantheons. ”I will leave you all to your petty god games now.”

With a silent, mental command sent to his force, Old Bones stepped forward, his resonant voice echoing over the radio-link: ”All units, return to the sanctuary and rest.”

In a flawless, synchronized motion, the 1,351 living troops, the Vanguard Constructs, and the Stalkers dissolved back into the Crown Core spatial rifts, clearing the courtyard in less than a minute.

An hour later, a terrified divine messenger ran back to the gate, bowing deeply as he handed Caius a heavy, silver storage ring brimming with grain, preserved meats, and clean water. Caius caught it and casually tossed it over his shoulder to Old Bones, who stowed it away.

Without another word, the remaining leaders of Olympha and Caelus personally escorted Caius and Old Bones through the grand capital and across the eastern plains, guiding them directly to the open Veyuun Gate.

Standing before the towering stone archway, Caius didn’t spare the gods a second glance. He stepped straight through the swirling spatial membrane, Old Bones trailing right behind him like a steadfast shadow.

As the gate’s light faded, a long, collective gasp of relief echoed across the plains. The remaining deities collapsed onto the grass, drenched in cold sweat, feeling as if a mountain had finally been lifted off their chests.

”They’re gone...” a divine commander whispered, his hands still trembling. ”The monsters are finally gone.”

A high priest of Olympha stood up slowly, looking back toward the mountain peaks that had once been their sacred homes. ”I don’t care about Mount Olympha anymore,” he muttered, his voice hollowed out by fear. ”I am packing my belongings and leaving this continent forever.”

”I am coming with you,” another god agreed without hesitation, shuddering as he looked back at the city gates where the heads of their leaders still sat impaled on pikes. ”This world belongs to real monsters now.”