Chapter 587: Bad News

Grey still couldn’t quite believe he had been unconscious for two full weeks, but the more important question was what the hell had happened while he was out.

The good news was that he couldn’t hear explosions, screaming, or the distant sound of the city collapsing, and the even better news was that his Neural Frame wasn’t radiating the same tearing agony it had before.

Brad watched him flex his fingers and roll his shoulders. "You done checking if everything still works?"

"Almost. Need a pretty girl for the most important diagnostic."

Brad scoffed. "Yeah, speaking of that, you know you passed out immediately after Elowen kissed you, right?"

Grey’s face twisted.

Brad grinned. "Low-level performer. If you’re not gonna play, pass the controller."

"Fuck off."

"I’m just saying, some of us could have made better use of the opportunity."

"Keep talking and I’ll make sure your muscles disappear again. Can you just explain what the hell happened please."

Brad laughed, but after a moment his expression grew a little more serious. "After you went down, everything was chaos for a while. Between me, Mauve, Xerchen, and Elowen being the last legitimate heir to the throne, though, we managed to stop everyone from immediately tearing the city apart."

That was actually better than Grey expected. Between Xerchen’s newly gained strength and Brad’s hammer, they had more than enough raw power to discourage most stupid ideas, while Mauve had apparently stepped into the leadership role quickly enough that nobody could take advantage of the vacuum.

Elowen’s name probably did the rest, because even if her family was mostly dead, the Imperial Bloodline still meant something to the people who had spent their entire lives bowing to it.

"We found the Mech Soul on you afterward," Brad continued. "None of us knew what the hell it was supposed to do, but your angel friend finally showed herself and explained the formation."

Grey slowly turned his head. "And?"

"Mauve puppeteered your unconscious body and had you put it where it needed to go."

Grey’s lip twitched. "Why the fuck did she need to Weekend at Bernie’s me through the Palace?"

Brad shrugged. "Because if we did it ourselves, apparently the credit could’ve been split. Your angel lady said it was better if everything stayed concentrated on one person, especially going into the second Arc."

That got Grey’s attention.

Brad explained that apparently Arc progression wasn’t only about whether a Territory survived, but also about who carried the accomplishments that built it.

If Chapter One belonged to one person, Chapter Two to another, and the final clear to someone else entirely, the resulting authority and power became fractured between them, which created all sorts of problems when Territories tried to consolidate later.

Grey had spearheaded all three Chapters personally, so even though they had taken a pretty fucking strange route to reach the end, their foundation wasn’t actually any worse than everyone else’s.

Grey slowly nodded. "Okay, that’s less stupid than I expected. What happened with the Representation thing?"

Brad winced.

Grey frowned. "Why’d you make that face?"

"That’s where things got complicated."

Apparently, once Mauve had effectively taken charge and the Territory began settling, the same Representation warning Grey had seen was broadcast to the others.

The surviving rulers of the surrounding Alliance Territories immediately realized they had leverage, and they weren’t particularly subtle about using it. If Melix wanted their unanimous recognition, they demanded that the Holy Energy Grey had stolen during the Culling be divided between the Territories again.

Grey’s expression went flat.

"Of course they did."

"They basically told Mauve she could share it or wait the three days and watch Melix lose its protection."

Grey was already wondering how many hours it would take him to fly from one Territory to another and start killing people before Brad continued.

"Mauve told them sure."

Grey blinked.

Brad grinned. "She said they were perfectly free to refuse recognizing her, but if they did, then the entire Melix Territory would lose its Holy Energy protection when the deadline passed. If they accepted her instead, she’d let their people move here."

Grey’s eyebrow rose. "Oh yeah?"

"The Imperial Clans would be recognized as Dukes, the Dukes would become Marquises, then everything below that shifted down with them. They’d lose status, but they’d keep their people, wealth, and most of their authority under Melix."

Grey slowly smiled.

"That’s actually pretty fucking good."

"Yeah, well, they hated it."

Of course they did. Every Emperor and Empress involved had spent their entire lives sitting at the top of their own little mountain, and Mauve was effectively telling them they could either step down several ranks or gamble their entire populations against a Territory without Holy protection.

They apparently spent almost the entire three-day deadline assuming she would panic first.

She didn’t.

"At the end of the third day, Mauve still hadn’t moved an inch," Brad said. "So they folded."

Grey laughed.

After that, the migration started almost immediately. Entire noble families, Church branches, military units, craftsmen, and civilians began moving toward Melix, and once the other Territories formally accepted Mauve’s Representation, the Genesis System finally acknowledged the consolidation.

That was when the first Arc officially ended.

"We were eighth," Brad added.

Grey shrugged. "Were the rewards better for being first?"

"Probably."

"Then I don’t wanna know."

Brad gave him a strange look, because what Grey didn’t realize was how enormous that result had been outside the Genesis Games. There hadn’t been one recap episode since the clear, but two, and both had been almost entirely dedicated to the same impossible story.

For the first time anyone knew of, a Cracked World had cleared the first Arc.

Grey was still processing what that might mean when Brad’s expression changed.

"There is one other thing."

Grey looked over.

Brad hesitated.

"On the eighth day, Amunet came back."

Grey immediately caught the phrasing.

"Why do I feel like I’m not going to like the rest of this?"

Brad’s jaw tightened.

"She was badly injured, and she brought bad news."