Chapter 385: Sophia
In a dense forest hundreds of kilometers away from the Iron Fortress Territory,
Sophia, the Goddess of Time, was sprawled across the roots of an ancient oak
tree. Her entire being radiated the disheveled misery of someone who had just
been dragged from the bottom of an ocean.
Her consciousness was a blurred mess.
More accurately, her awareness had been a flickering, indistinct signal for the
last… she couldn't calculate the duration. For a terminal span of time, she had
existed in a state of static.
It was as if she had endured an infinitely long dream—a dream where everything
manifested yet nothing could be grasped. Now that she had finally initialized
her "Awakening Protocol," she found herself lying in a completely unrecognizable
sector, draped in rags of unknown origin, with a persistent hum vibrating in her
skull.
Sophia braced herself against the roots and sat up.
She currently occupied a human female avatar, appearing to be in her
mid-twenties. Her long, silver-white hair was a chaotic tangle of dead leaves
and soil.
She looked down at her physical frame.
Bare feet. Soil beneath her nails. The material wrapped around her body could
barely be categorized as "clothing"; it was more like plant fibers that had
naturally entwined themselves into a crude garment.
"..."
Sophia closed her eyes, attempting to initialize her Authority.
Result: Statistical Zero.
No, that wasn't entirely accurate. There was a spark—a microscopic, incredibly
faint thread of divinity, like a single candle struggling against a terminal
blizzard.
She had relied on that singular candle to claw her way back to consciousness.
Ragnarok.
The term surged from the depths of her archives, carrying the acrid scent of
scorched reality. She remembered the war. All the Gods had simultaneously lost
their Faith-supply. The Divine Realms collapsed, Godheads fractured, and the
World Protocols were forcibly rewritten.
Some Gods were liquidated on the spot. Others had expended their final reserve
of Od to seal their consciousness into the deepest layers of the Planar Core,
awaiting a day of reboot.
Sophia belonged to the latter.
As the Goddess of Time, she understood the parameters of "Waiting" better than
any entity. But she had never simulated a scenario where her awakening would
look this… pathetic.
She attempted to stand, but her legs possessed the structural integrity of wet
noodles. She had to grip the tree trunk just to prevent a total physical
collapse.
"I am a God, yet I can barely maintain a standing posture," she muttered to
herself, her tone carrying a hint of cynical self-deprecation.
Once she stabilized her frame, she initiated a sensory sweep of the environment.
Forest. A standard biological sector. Oaks, pines, shrubs. Mushrooms on the
ground, squirrels in the canopy.
But one parameter was fundamentally wrong.
Mana Concentration.
Sophia's brow furrowed. The atmospheric Mana density in this forest was absurdly
high. Before her slumber, the average density of the Lostarn Realm was
approximately one-third of the current reading.
"What has happened to the world-logic...?"
She released her grip on the tree and began to stagger out of the forest. After
approximately thirty minutes of travel, she stopped.
Not due to exhaustion. But because she had encountered a Road.
It was a smooth, flat path paved with an unfamiliar black material, extending in
a straight line from the forest edge until it vanished into the horizon. White
markings were painted on the surface, dividing the road into two perfect lanes.
Sophia stood at the edge, auditing the path for a long time.
The Lostarn Realm possessed no such infrastructure. She had seen cobblestones,
dirt tracks, and vine-paths woven by Elven magic. But this sleek, engineered
black surface was a total Logic Error.
Then, she received an audio signal.
A low, rhythmic rumble approached from the distance, growing louder by the
second. Sophia instinctively retreated, entering stealth mode behind a large
tree.
Then, she saw the object.
It possessed four wheels and a chassis composed entirely of metal. It moved
faster than any biological mount she had ever recorded. It roared past her,
kicking up a gust of wind that nearly compromised her balance.
Sophia gripped the trunk, her processors frozen for five seconds. "What was that
construct...?"
Before she could process the data, a similar metal entity approached from the
opposite vector. This one was moving slower, allowing her to see the interior.
There was a human inside.
A human, sitting within the metal construct, hands gripping a circular
interface, looking remarkably relaxed.
Then, trailing twenty meters behind the metal object, came a horse-drawn
carriage. A traditional, archaic carriage she recognized.
A Dwarf sat atop the carriage, gripping the reins and humming a tune. When he
saw a puff of smoke manifest from the rear of the metal object in front of him,
the Dwarf shouted a curse.
"Slow down, you idiot! You're venting exhaust directly into my face!"
A hand extended from the metal construct, manifesting a casual gesture. The
Dwarf cursed again but didn't seem genuinely aggressive; he flicked the reins
and steered his carriage onto a side-path.
Sophia stood behind the tree, her jaw unhinged.
Dwarves and Humans. Before her slumber, these two races were in a state of total
Planar War. Why were they now engaging in casual traffic disputes?
She took a deep breath. Once the road was clear, she emerged from cover.
Standing at the edge, she looked in the direction the road extended. In the
distance, something rose from the horizon.
It was massive. Colossal.
Sophia squinted, verifying the visual data. It was architecture. A structure
taller than any castle she had ever seen, its surface reflecting the sky,
piercing directly into the cloud layer.
She looked at her tattered rags and her muddy, bare feet. "...I require a
'Clothing' asset before I proceed."
She walked approximately two kilometers along the shoulder of the road until she
reached an intersection. There stood a pillar capped with a glowing orb,
emitting a soft, white light.
Sophia leaned in to audit the object. A line of text was etched into the sphere:
[EVERNIGHT LIGHT]
Beside it was a directional signpost with several arrows:
- ORLANDO TOWN: 12KM
- IRON FORTRESS TERRITORY: 87KM
- EVERNIGHT TRANSIT HUB (AERIAL): PROCEED TO NEAREST TELEPORTATION NODE
Sophia read the lines three times.
Evernight.
The term had zero matches in her memory. Where was Lostarn? Where was the
Theocracy? The Elven Forest? The Audery Empire? None of those names appeared on
the signpost.
She stood at the crossroads, her silver hair fluttering in the wind. A strange
sensation welled up within her. It wasn't fear, nor was it rage. It was pure,
unadulterated Confusion.
It was as if she had taken a nap and woken up to find the entire world speaking
a language she didn't recognize—and she didn't even know how to initialize a
"Hello" protocol.
"How long was my 'Sleep' duration?"
She looked up at the sky. It was grey, but not the grey of an overcast day. It
was a grey with a faint, ethereal luster, as if something was illuminating the
world from above the clouds. In her tens of thousands of years of existence, she
had never seen a sky with those parameters.
A horse-drawn carriage approached. A human woman sat at the front with two
children. Sophia hesitated, then stepped to the roadside and waved a hand.
The carriage came to a halt. The woman audited Sophia's appearance, scanning her
from head to toe.
"Are you… a traveler?"
"Mhm," Sophia nodded. "I have encountered a 'Pathfinding Error'."
The woman looked at Sophia's rags, then at her bare feet, her brow furrowing.
"Origin?"
"A very distant sector."
The woman thought for a moment, then gestured toward the back of the carriage.
"Climb in. We're heading to Orlando Town. You can find a resolution there."
Sophia climbed up, sitting between the two children who were staring at her with
maximum curiosity. One small boy tugged at her sleeve.
"Sister, your hair is so white. Are you an Elf?"
"Negative."
"Then what is your classification?"
Sophia opened her mouth but failed to manifest a response. I am a God. One of
the ones you used to worship. But she didn't say it.
"I am a traveler," she finally replied.
The boy offered an "Oh" and went back to poking his sister.
The carriage wobbled along the black road. Sophia sat in silence, auditing the
scenery as it blurred past. Fields, farmhouses, irrigation channels, and various
metal apparatuses she didn't recognize.
And people. So many people.
Humans, Dwarves, Orcs, and the occasional Elf. They were working together,
conversing, manifesting laughter and social synchronization. Sophia saw an Orc
crouching by a stone pedestal at the roadside, drinking water. Above the
pedestal was a dragon-shaped spout with a steady flow of water.
"What is that construct?" she asked the driver.
"A Public Water Point," the woman replied casually. "Built by the Empire. Free
of charge. They're manifesting in every sector now."
The Empire. Sophia archived the term.
"Which Empire?"
The woman looked back at her with an expression usually reserved for seeing a
wild animal emerge from the bush.
"The Evernight Empire, obviously. Is there any other Empire in this world?"
☆☆☆
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