SSS Awakening: I Can Devour Gods to Evolve My Goddesses

Chapter 13: First Place Still Has Only Two Hands

Cassian wrapped both arms around the long black-gold case and tried to lift one end.

The bottom rose a finger’s width before his right shoulder began to tremble.

An instant later, the case slipped from his arms. One corner scraped across the edge of the first relay and slid half an inch toward the drop.

Cassian’s stomach clenched. He threw himself forward and pinned it in place again.

If it actually fell, he would not jump after it.

But for that one instant, his hands had moved faster than his mind.

The Bell-Keeper had used all three underground dawn tides and still retreated with an empty shoulder. Now Cassian possessed Third Formation’s entire main roll of the fallen, yet he could not even bring it home.

He had won more than his own body could carry.

The fact left a sour look on his face.

Cassian did not try lifting it again.

The Bell-Keeper had already loosened the rock bolt at the first relay. He pulled the bent bolt free and tossed it beside the wall, then unfastened the coarse steel cable and wrapped it tightly around the closed case.

He could not cross the plate while carrying the roll.

Then the roll would cross without him.

Cassian walked across the black-gold plate over the first span empty-handed and took hold of the manual winch on the near side.

The coarse cable tightened inch by inch. The long case slid off the first relay and onto the plate.

It skewed once midway across. The right corner nearly slipped over the edge. Cassian locked both hands around the winch and held on until the taut cable dragged it straight again.

Then the entire roll crept toward him.

The black-gold case cleared the edge of the plate and dropped heavily onto the stone on the near side.

Cassian leaned against the winch and laughed.

He did not try lifting it again. He kept the bottom against the ground and dragged it back through the east corridor one stretch at a time.

The sound of metal scraping over stone grew deeper.

Then the case crossed the Chain Gate and crashed down on the Shrine floor.

Cassian pressed a hand against the lid and felt the heavy silence beneath his palm.

The Bell-Keeper had failed to carry it away through three underground dawn tides.

Now a Lord whose territory was still only F-tier had dragged Third Formation’s entire roll of the fallen into his own domain by hand.

It was no longer a prize left beside the gap, waiting to be lost.

It had come home.

The Eclipse Chains around Veyra’s wrist snapped taut.

She stared at the long black-gold case for a long time without speaking.

”You brought them home.”

From a former goddess of war, those words pleased Cassian more than any ranking notice could have.

He did not pretend otherwise. He had taken this roll back himself.

He liked having Veyra see it with her own eyes. He liked even more that she had to acknowledge the truth: in the end, the Bell-Keeper had failed to carry Third Formation’s names beyond the Eclipse War Banner scar.

He dragged the roll within Veyra’s reach.

Her hand moved slowly across the lid until it reached the empty slot Orin had left behind. Her fingers stopped there for one beat, then another.

As though she were waiting for the second answer that should always have followed his name at roll call.

Nothing answered inside the Shrine.

”The Bell-Keeper took Orin,” Cassian said. ”It’s still alive.”

Veyra withdrew her hand.

”Don’t open it yet.”

”I didn’t take it back just to stare at the lid forever.”

”You recovered the case.” Veyra looked at him. ”The people inside are not merchandise.”

Cassian did not like anyone drawing boundaries around something he had won.

But the empty slot lay between them.

”Outsiders stop at the Chain Gate. The roll stays covered,” he said. ”Everything else can wait until Orin comes back.”

Veyra nodded.

At that moment, a proposal from Rowan arrived through the Newcomer Divine Essence Ranking.

It was simple.

Rowan had already paid to reserve most of the people in Ashen March capable of moving heavy loads. He was willing to release one of them—if Cassian agreed to speak with him first the next time he discovered a hostile divine target.

Cassian looked at the sender’s name and slowly began to smile.

Back at Crownspire Awakening Square, Rowan had awakened the A-rank Thunder-Spear Apostle. Guilds and newcomers had crowded around him. At the time, he had offered Cassian a place as a vassal, as though leaving one path to survival for an F-tier Lord who would not last through his first night.

Now that same A-rank genius was spending his own resources to obstruct an F-tier Lord’s growth in advance.

Rowan was not helping him.

Rowan was guarding against him.

This was not pity for an F-tier territory. It was not another condescending rescue contract. Rowan was using real money to admit that Cassian’s next move was worth stopping before it happened.

He was guarding against Cassian Vale, whose territory remained F-tier even as his name stood at the top of the ranking.

The pleasure of being formally treated as a threat rolled through Cassian’s chest.

Envy and irritation followed close behind.

Rowan had enough money to buy up that many hands—and now he wanted to put a price on Cassian’s next quarry as well.

One carrier in exchange for a door into the value of his future enemies?

Too cheap.

Cassian rejected the proposal and contacted the only independent carrier Rowan had not reserved.

Marek Sorn.

Cassian’s first set of instructions was simple: follow every step exactly and make no changes. As for the real terrain and risks involved, he refused to reveal a word.

Marek sent back one line.

”You give me nothing I need to make a judgment, then expect me to bear the consequences for you. Not interested.”

Cassian stared at the refusal. His first thought was that the man was not obedient enough.

It took several breaths for the heat in his chest to fade—and for him to admit something uglier.

He wanted another man to bear the risk while refusing to surrender any part of the method.

That was not buying Marek’s skill.

It was only trying to borrow a cheaper pair of hands.

Cassian sent a new commission.

The price rose by twenty percent.

Cassian would decide the forbidden boundaries and the result that had to come back. Marek would decide how to achieve it.

This time, Marek quickly accepted his next two external jobs.

There was no oath of loyalty. No master and servant.

But for the first time, two pieces of another man’s future time now carried Cassian’s name, waiting to produce results for him.

That feeling was worth more than the twenty percent he could have saved.

Rowan could buy up the labor already on the market, but he could not buy every capable person. Nor could he stop them from working for a better price.

Cassian did not need to ask Rowan to clear a path for him.

He was opening one of his own.

The first job was already waiting.

”Find someone outside who can inspect and repair rock bolts and winches,” Cassian wrote. ”Bring back their quotes. No one crosses the Chain Gate.”

He would start with that useless bent bolt and build a fixed transport line.

Next time, the things he won would not be left waiting on his two hands alone.

Rowan could buy today’s labor.

Cassian would make capable people compete for his commissions tomorrow.