Chapter 738: The Lord Needs the Ring

“Oh, wait, Luke. We need to do something first.” She came back over, suddenly serious. “Say, ‘Artemis, you are my beautiful goddess.’”

“Why?”

“Just say it, man. I need to test something. Say something like, ‘You’re the only woman I’ll ever call a goddess.’”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Charlie’s my goddess too. She’s the woman who took my virginity, after all.”

“You’re an idiot. I’m serious.”

“So am I.”

She drew in a slow breath. “Fine. Just say the first line. I need to check our connection.”

Luke sighed. “Artemis, you are my beautiful goddess.”

The instant the words left his mouth, something vibrated deep inside him. For a split second, the world flooded with color, as if someone had cranked reality’s saturation all the way up.

Then everything returned to normal.

“What the hell was that?”

“It worked.” Artemis smiled, satisfied. “It’s our divine phone, man. You’re my Apostle. We need that connection. But don’t forget, I need something physical. A statue people worship, a temple, whatever. It helps me save divine credits.”

“Right. I’ll figure something out.”

“It has to be physical and stationary. You can’t build a miniature temple and carry it around in your pocket.”

Luke fell silent. “How did you know I was thinking about that?”

“I know you.”

“It’s a good idea.”

“It doesn’t work. Plenty of people have tried to cheat the temple requirement. It has to be a real, stationary place. No loopholes.”

“Okay, got it. Statue, temple, all that.”

“Offerings are welcome too.”

“Offerings?”

“I get credits, man. I’m broke. I need credits.”

Artemis led him to the door. Before letting him leave, she pulled him into a hug.

“Until next time, my first and only believer.” She started kissing the top of his head.

“Artemis...”

“What? I’m just saying goodbye.” She squeezed him tight, her embrace warm and affectionate. “Your Goddess loves you. Don’t forget that. And take care of yourself.”

“Right... See you next time, Artemis.”

“Now that inter-universal travel has opened up for you Earthlings, come visit me sometime.”

“I will. Once I figure out how.”

“It’s simple. Become a king or get permission from one.”

“That doesn’t sound simple.”

“Of course it isn’t.”

She remained in the doorway as Luke headed down the hall toward the elevator.

As he walked, Luke raised his hand and studied the silver ring on his finger. There was no denying it. The Relic was beautiful. It wasn’t the only ring he wore. There was also the [Basilisk Bone Ring], purchased from the Sunken Realms event shop, and the old [Mantis Eye Ring ] he had received during the tutorial. Its mana bonus was almost meaningless now, but Luke still wore it out of pure nostalgia.

His gaze settled on the Relic.

[Dark Lord’s Relic]

Sins Absorbed: 1/7

Soul Energy: 0/1000

Relic Skills: [Soul Reservoir], [Living Relic], [Sinbound Will], [Relic-Borne Authority], [Dark Lord’s Bond]

Sin Manifestation: [Wrath of the Usurper]

Sin Curses: [Protection of Wrath]

Luke already understood the Relic Skills. They had awakened with the Relic itself. The [Sin Manifestation] and [Sin Curses], however, came from the [Tree of Knowledge].

One gives me power. The other punishes anyone who tries to take the Relic from me.

He opened the descriptions.

[Sin Manifestation]: Each Fruit of Sin absorbed by the Relic awakens a unique manifestation for the Dark Lord. These manifestations are not ordinary skills. Through the Relic, sin itself is transformed into power, granting its true master new ways to dominate, corrupt, usurp, or expand his authority.

[Sin Curses]: If the Relic loses direct contact with the Dark Lord, the Sin Curses will activate. Any individual who attempts to wield the Relic’s power will be identified as a False Bearer and corrupted by the awakened curses.

The Relic could even transform a False Bearer into a living beacon, guiding Luke back to its location. It was alive, possessed a will of its own, and would use the curses however it deemed necessary.

Luke reread the descriptions. Charlie and Angie couldn’t touch the damn thing. The Relic would mark them as False Bearers, and Luke had no idea what the curse might do to them. The safest place for it was exactly where it was: on his finger. As long as it remained in contact with him, the [Sin Curses] would stay dormant. He couldn’t afford a single mistake.

Luke couldn’t simply return to the Baumanns’ house, take off the ring, and leave it on the bedroom table. Something that mundane could put the entire family at risk. He opened the curse that had already awakened.

[Protection of Wrath]: Wrath awakens against anyone who attempts to take, destroy, remove, or convince the False Bearer to abandon the Relic. The closer the threat draws to the artifact, the more the anger grows, until protecting the Relic feels natural, personal, and inevitable.

Yeah. No chance I’m taking this thing off.

For now, the Relic had only one curse. Every new Fruit of Sin would probably make it worse.

His attention shifted to the manifestation. In theory, it’s supposed to help me. Some kind of power.

[Wrath of the Usurper]: Required conditions must be fulfilled before this power can be used.

Luke frowned. Which probably meant the conditions were going to be a problem.

I’ll focus on it when I get back to Earth.

When he reached the designated area, he found a massive auditorium. Each seat was marked with a participant number, and Luke made his way to his assigned place.

A voice echoed through the hall. “Greetings, all 1,238 participants. Our meeting is about to begin. You will now receive privileged information regarding how your world will function. We will begin with the first topic: Kingdom Cores.”

The meeting dragged on, but Luke listened to every word. He learned how territories worked, how the System influenced them, and even how noble titles functioned. They weren’t ceremonial decorations handed out to stroke someone’s ego. They carried real power.

“Remember,” the voice continued, “a Kingdom Core may only be claimed by someone who possesses a title of High Nobility.”

Luke smiled.

He held the title of Lord.

He qualified.

“This is how a true kingdom is founded and recognized by the System. Whoever claims a Kingdom Core becomes a King.”

Eventually, the lecture came to an end. The participants were instructed to proceed into an adjoining room. Glowing circles covered the floor, each one a teleportation array.

“Choose any circle. They are not numbered. All of you will return to your home planet.”

Luke entered the room and spotted Participant 404 near one of the circles. He didn’t recognize the face. That didn’t matter. Grimoire in hand, Luke moved closer and activated [Message].

Elizabeth Moon.

He sent the name mentally. The connection locked into place.

The woman froze.

I spent a lot of points getting permission to use this skill, Mom.

Luke stopped a few feet away. “That god isn’t here anymore. Lying won’t help. Neither will that face.”

The connection between them held.

“You really are Elizabeth Moon.”

The woman sighed and lowered her gaze. “Why... Luke? Why did you have to come looking for me?”

He went still.

It was her.

It was really her.

The woman raised a hand to her face and, with a precise motion, peeled away a mask made of skin.

The face beneath it made Luke’s stomach drop. “Mom...”

The word barely came out. “Why did you run?”

Elizabeth said nothing.

“Why did you abandon me?”

“This wasn’t supposed to happen,” she said. “You were never supposed to accept the System.”

“You have no idea what I went through to get here.”

“I can imagine, Luke, but you weren’t supposed to—”

“It doesn’t matter.” His voice cracked. “I found you. So why? Why the hell did you disappear for sixteen years?”

“Things are... complicated.”

“Complicated?”

A hollow laugh escaped him. “I thought you were fucking dead.”

Elizabeth flinched.

“All you had to do was show up. Tell me you were alive. Send one goddamn letter.”

“I couldn’t...”

“You couldn’t? It was sixteen years, Mom. And it would’ve been longer if I hadn’t gone through hell to get here.”

“Is there a problem, Elizabeth?”

The voice came from directly behind Luke.

He turned.

The Reaper King stood beside the next teleportation circle, his gaze fixed on them.

“You...” Luke stared at him. “Why the fuck do you know my mother?”

“Your... mother?” The Reaper King looked genuinely confused. Then he glanced at her. “Elizabeth...?”

She remained motionless and silent.

“I have no idea what’s going on here,” he said. “But of course I know one of my twelve Reapers.”

“Reaper...?” Luke slowly turned toward her. “You’re a wanted criminal?”

“Your son doesn’t know?” the Reaper King asked, studying Elizabeth. “He knows nothing about you or your debt?”

“Debt?”

The word struck Luke like a blade. Then the pieces started falling into place. None of them were good.

“I don’t know what the fuck she owes you,” Luke said, his voice low and dangerous. “But I’m the one who stopped the coup in Lagras.”

The Reaper King’s expression shifted.

“And by now, your Reaper Tobias is probably dead.” Luke took a step closer. “You can put that on my tab too.”

For the first time, the amusement vanished from the Reaper King’s face.

“What did you say?”

“You heard me.”

“You killed one of my Reapers?”

“Damn right I did, you piece of shit. And I’m coming for the rest. Then I’m coming for you too, if that’s what it takes to get my mother back.”

“Luke—” Elizabeth tried to cut in, but the Reaper King’s laughter drowned her out.

“You’ve misunderstood,” he said. “She doesn’t owe me anything. Elizabeth is my associate. But I’ll admit, you’ve got balls. The person she owes could make everyone in this room shit themselves just by hearing his name. I’d love to watch you go after him.”

“Who?”

“Lucius!” Elizabeth snapped.

The Reaper King adjusted his suit. “My apologies, Elizabeth. I got carried away.”

Then he turned his attention back to Luke.

Lucius held out his hand. “If Tobias is dead, his seat is yours.”

Luke stared at him.

“Welcome to the Reaper Court.”

“No!” Elizabeth said at once.

Before Luke could answer, a deep voice thundered through the hall.

“Mass teleportation will begin momentarily. End your conversations and move to your designated circles!”

It was the elderly hotel manager.

“Well...” Lucius stepped fully onto the circle beside them. “Looks like our conversation is over.”

“Mom.”

Elizabeth looked at him.

“You were never supposed to know I was alive.” She backed toward another circle. “You need to forget you ever saw me.”

Luke tried to follow, but the moment he stepped onto the nearest teleportation array, light wrapped around his foot.

He couldn’t move.

“Commencing mass teleportation,” the manager announced.

“Wait, Mom!” Luke watched her stop near another circle. “Tell me why. Who do you owe? How do I pay it off?”

“Forget me, Luke. This is goodbye.”

Elizabeth placed a black mask over her face. Then she turned her back on him and stepped onto the circle.

“Fuck!”

A quiet cough sounded beside him.

“In a few months, the System will summon a grand gathering of our planet’s kings,” Lucius said. “As you learned during the lecture.”

Luke said nothing.

“Find out where it will be and meet me there. The seat is yours, assuming you really did what you claim. And, of course...” Lucius smiled. “Your mother will be there too.”

“I’ll be there. Even if I have to break in.”

“You’ve caught my interest, Luke Moon.”

Light flared beneath the circles. A moment later, the entire hall vanished beneath an almost blinding radiance.

“Good luck with the New Earth,” the manager’s voice said. “You’ll need it.”

The world disappeared. For one instant, Luke was freezing, burning, and suffocating all at once. Dozens of landscapes flashed around him at impossible speed, snapshots of Earth changing too fast to follow. The climate shifted with every image. So did the air pressure. The atmosphere itself.

[Location found!]

[Teleporting Luke Moon to...]

Without warning, everything flashed red.

“What?”

Then it stopped.

When Luke came to, he was lying on the ground.

“My fucking head...” he muttered, still dazed.

He wanted to go after Elizabeth Moon immediately. He wanted to drag the truth out of her, learn who held her debt, and understand why his mother had chosen to become a ghost for sixteen years. But Elizabeth wasn’t the only person he had to worry about.

“Charlie?”

Luke blinked several times and finally realized where he was. On the forest floor.

“Right,” he said, forcing himself upright. “According to Samael and Asmodeus, I should’ve appeared near the place where I was originally taken from Earth.”

He needed to see the Baumanns. He needed to make sure they were okay.

[Your Familiar has been teleported near your location]

The same notification he’d seen at the hotel now floated between the trees.

“Franky?”

Luke called his name several times. No answer.

He started moving.

“There definitely weren’t trees this big on my street.”

The trunks around him were enormous, and the canopy blocked out most of the sky. There were no houses, no roads, no utility poles.

“Did the System change everything that much?”

Earth’s ecosystem was supposed to change, but not this much.

“Charlie!” he shouted.

Of all of them, Charlie had the best hearing. She hadn’t known exactly when he would return, so maybe she was distracted.

Luke ran through the trees, calling her name again, but there was still no answer. No human voices. No ruins. Nothing to suggest a city had ever existed anywhere nearby. Something was wrong. He stopped beside an enormous tree and looked up. He had wandered around blindly long enough.

Luke started climbing, moving quickly and using the thick branches as platforms until he reached the top. When he finally broke through the canopy, the sight before him brought him to a complete stop.

Mountains and valleys stretched across the horizon, surrounded by a colossal forest that seemed to go on forever.

Luke stared in silence.

“What the fuck is this?”

A cold wind swept past him.

“I don’t think I’m in Maine.”

And that’s the end of the first arc of the volume. Hope you guys enjoyed it.

I finally got to do a few things I’d been wanting to do for a while, especially giving Luke and Artemis some real time together. I was a little nervous about this arc, though. We were coming straight off the end of Sunken Realms, and then everything suddenly slows down. Luke basically goes from the chaos of the event to... well, the chaos of Artemis.

I’ve really enjoyed reading the comments on this one. Some of you loved it, some of you didn’t, which is fair. I’m just glad I finally got to write this part of the story. And seriously, thanks for the reviews too. The story had gone a while without getting any new ones, and then suddenly a bunch started showing up. I read all of them. Some made me laugh, and a few even had nice things to say about Artemis, so that was a nice bonus for me.

It’s also a pretty big week over on Patreon. They’re at the end of Volume 5 now, and Volume 6 starts there this week. So while you guys are moving into the next part of Volume 5 here, they’re about to start the next volume over there. I’ve got a lot going on this week.

Anyway, back to that ending.

Where the hell did our unlucky, dense boy end up this time?