Chapter 184: Project Eden

Khaybar was retaken.

Malik had fulfilled his promise.

He had shown his might to the world a million times over, and for that, he was rewarded many times over.

Now he sat on the Golden Throne, the cold metal pressing against his back, and stared at his system.

—

[First Main Quest: End Corruption’s Reign — 0 → 8 % Complete]

[Second Main Quest: Drive Out The Invaders — 93 → 95 % Complete]

[Sub-Quest: Annihilate Khaybar — 100 % Complete]

—

He had completed a quest.

Sure, it was only a sub-quest, but it was a quest nevertheless.

Ding!

—

[Sub-Quest Reward: 10000 Fear Points]

—

Ten thousand.

It was a fortune by any measure.

And still, it wasn’t enough to keep his recent streak of Ascension going.

—

╔════════╗

║Fear System║

╚════════╝

{Class: 6 (Great Demon)}

{Unlocking Class 5 (Balancer of Scales): 0 / 52490}

{Fear Points: 27998 → 40000}

{Soul Glyphs: Ember’s Touch (Peak) x 0, Shifting Ground (Single) x 1, Goliath’s Fall (Peak) x 1, Scorpion’s Sting (Peak) x 1, Devil’s Footsteps (Single) x 0}

{Invaders Fear}

[Order (Class One) — 51 → 53 % Increasing!]

{Items}

[Holy Relic — Stranger’s Ring]

[Holy Relic — Golden Throne]

[Holy Relic — Spine Splitter]

[Holy Relic — Stranger’s Necklace]

[Holy Relic — Old Cane]

[Holy Relic — Holy Armaments]

{Runes}

[Ember’s Touch (Rank 3) — 0/400]

[Goliath’s Fall (Rank 3) — 0/400]

[Scorpion’s Sting (Rank 3) — 0/400]

[Devil’s Footsteps (Rank 4) — 0/600]

[Zephyr’s Kiss (Rank 5) — 0/300]

[Shifting Ground (Rank 5) — 0/300]

{Quests}

[First Main Quest: End Corruption’s Reign — 8 % Complete]

[Second Main Quest: Drive Out The Invaders — 97 % Complete]

{Shop}

[Soul Glyphs]

[Ember’s Touch — 64 → 128 FP (Single) | 128 → 256 FP (Peak)]

[Goliath’s Fall — 32 FP (Single) | 64 FP (Peak)]

[Scorpion’s Sting — 16 FP (Single) | 132 FP (Peak)]

[Devil’s Footsteps — 16 FP (Single) | 32 FP (Peak)]

[Zephyr’s Kiss — 16 FP (Single) | 32 FP (Peak)]

[Shifting Ground — 32 FP (Single) | 64 FP (Peak)]

[Eternal Life — 64 FP (Single) | 128 FP (Peak)]

[Thirst’s Quench — 128 FP (Single) | 256 FP (Peak)]

[Dust to Stone — 256 FP (Single) | 512 FP (Peak)]

{Wheel Of Fortune}

[One Roll — 18 FP]

[Fate Points: None]

—

Malik needed more than 52000.

He had only just passed 40000.

Thankfully, judging by everything that had happened lately, he wouldn’t have to wait long to close the gap.

The Invaders were collapsing, the factions were falling one after another, and every fresh wave of fear rolled back to him like a tide that had finally learned his name.

Soon, he would be only two classes away from his actual Class.

That was all Malik needed.

Time.

Unfortunately, time was the one thing his enemies refused to give him.

"Hee!"

The cute little sound came from directly behind the Golden Throne, and Malik didn’t need to turn around to know who had made it.

Dunya stepped out from the shadows of the throne’s tall back, her purple eyes wide in a way he hadn’t seen since the day she’d hugged him at the docks.

She raised a hand and words formed across the space between them.

[The Order resumed their attack.]

Malik’s fingers closed around the armrests of the throne.

Hard enough to make the metal tremble.

This was a very real possibility.

One he had expected, planned around, and quietly hoped would take a little longer to arrive.

He had survived the first wave because they hadn’t known what he was.

Now they did.

The Order knew how he fought.

They knew what he used.

And the Holy Armaments, the weapon that had erased an army of Angels in a single minute, couldn’t be fired a second time. Not without a long and costly refill, and not with Scheherazade’s power still recovering within it.

He had known all of this.

Knowing it changed nothing.

’They’re afraid of me now.’

Fear was exactly what the system had been feeding him on. But a frightened animal wasn’t a gentle animal.

A wounded beast with its pride in tatters would lash out harder than any calm predator ever could, and whatever the Order sent next would be larger, angrier, and far better prepared.

Malik drew in a slow breath and let the armrests go.

"Begin Project Eden."

Dunya flinched at the words, then nodded fast.

Of course, Malik hadn’t been idle while the war was being won.

He had prepared for this eventuality in the quiet hours between battles, in rooms where no recording orb was ever allowed to float.

And judging by how close Dunya was to crying, the preparation had been necessary.

...

Across the Last City, every projection crystal flickered.

The ones that had shown Malik floating above the clouds and carried his voice to every corner of Devil’s Maw, all of them shifted at once.

People in the streets stopped mid-step. Soldiers in the barracks lowered their cups.

In every home with a crystal on the wall, heads lifted toward the glow.

They expected their Sultan.

What appeared instead was a woman in a deep black dress, purple and white hair swept up in a simple twist, her face pale but composed.

Layla.

She stood in the Sultan’s Hall with her hands folded before her, her daughter nowhere in sight, and for a moment she said nothing at all.

She only looked out at the faces she could not see, the way a mother looks across a dinner table before delivering news she doesn’t want to deliver.

"Peace be upon you."

Her voice was steady yet soft.

"I am Layla. Many of you know me as your Queen. Some of you have called me the mother of Devil’s Maw, and I have never deserved that name more than I do tonight, because tonight I come to you with news a mother should never have to bring."

The streets had gone quiet.

"The Order has resumed its attack."

A broken murmur rose from somewhere beyond the crystal’s view, a low and Layla let it pass before she continued.

"Our Sultan has shown you what he can do. You saw it with your own eyes. You shouted his Title from the walls. He will fight for us again, and he will keep fighting for us for as long as he draws breath. But the Order has learned from what it saw, and what comes next will be greater than what came before."

She lifted her chin.

"So he has made a decision. A decision I wanted to be able to tell you was unnecessary."

Her hands tightened around each other.

"Long before the Order’s first wave, our Sultan began preparing a sanctuary. A place beyond the reach of Angels, beyond the reach of invaders, beyond the reach of anything that hunts us. He built it quietly, and he did not build it alone."

Her eyes softened.

"He built it with the help of those who once knew the worst of what the Invaders could do. The men and women who were chained in the Demon Heart plantations. The ones who were bought and sold and worked until there was nothing left in them to take. They are the ones who dug its foundations. They are the ones who raised its walls. They asked for nothing in return, because they knew better than anyone what it means to need a place to run."

Someone in a distant street began to cry.

"That sanctuary has a name."

Layla let the silence hold for a heartbeat.

"Eden."

The word spread through the city like a ripple across still water.

"I will tell you what you must do, and I ask that you listen carefully. Do not panic. Do not run in every direction. Look for the officers of the Faraja. They have been placed under the direct command of the Guard of the Fifth, and the Guard of the Fifth answers to Kabir."

She smiled faintly.

"You know him. The ever-calm giant who has stood behind our Sultan since the very beginning. If you see him, you will know that you are safe. If you see his officers, follow them. They know the way. They know the roads, the hours, the order in which each district will move. They will not leave anyone behind."

Elders. Children. The wounded. The sick.

She named each of them slowly, one at a time, laying stones along a path.

"Take only what you can carry. Take your families, your neighbors, the people who have no one else."

Her voice cracked on the last word.

She stopped, closed her eyes, and drew herself together.

When she spoke again, it was quieter, and it carried more weight than all the rest:

"I am sorry."

The projection trembled in the hands of whoever was holding the crystal steady.

"I am sorry that I could not give you a quiet life. I am sorry that I could not keep this war from your doors. I am sorry that I stand here asking you to leave the homes your parents built, and the streets your children learned to walk on. We should have been stronger. I should have been stronger."

A single tear slipped down her cheek, and she did not wipe it away.

"I failed you."

No one in the city made a sound.

"But this is the only option we have left. And if we must leave everything behind to live, then we will live. We will return. I promise you that, as your Queen and as your mother."

She lifted her head, her purple eyes bright, and spoke the final words:

"This is Project Eden."