Deployment to BoarahenThe Royal Order authorizing the Portal Stability Inspection Team was Rina's gold standard of protection. Alexander had signed off on the team's composition: Rina, the Technical Analyst; Hedle, the Structural Integrity Specialist; and Edam, the Environmental and Bio-Aetheric Monitor. Their official mandate, funneled through Counselor Mordi Chernyi, was to provide Alexander with an uncompromised assessment of whether the Northern Transport Nexus was failing due to natural decay or deliberate sabotage.Three days after the court’s blood reckoning, the team, traveling under the protection of a small, loyal detachment of Royal Guards, arrived in Boarahen Territory.Lord Boarahen's fortress sat strategically above the major dimensional hub, a massive, imposing stone structure that reflected the family's long history as the Kingdom’s "gatekeepers." The Northern Transport Nexus itself was a colossal, humming circular platform where the raw, high-density Aether from the

The Silence of the GhostThe air in Rina’s study room in the Royal Academy was now unnaturally quiet, sealed by the invisible perfection of her own Null-Rune technology. The month of external chaos—the brutal, necessary purging of Lord Boarahen, the stabilization of the Northern Nexus, and the continuous feigned exhaustion of Mordi and Davina in the court—had bought Rina this precious, essential silence. Balthazar’s Mercenary Guild, finding only a flood of meaningless static and the isolated tragedy of a Xenobotany lab explosion in the Academy’s surveillance logs, had finally pulled back its most intensive sweeps. The ghost had proven that the machine was, indeed, blind.Rina stood at the center of the room, her attention fixed on the crystalline structure of the Star Charts. She had waited for this moment, suppressing the core of her Space Mage abilities for fear of a detection surge. Now, she could unleash her full concentration.She slowly channeled her Aether into the antique dev

Descent into the AnchorThe air within the Grand Central Anchor complex was heavy, vibrating with the silent, immense power contained within. Rina, Hedle, and Edam moved through the upper levels with the quiet confidence of people who understood the machinery better than its custodians. Counselor Mordi Chernyi, his face pale beneath the harsh, sterile lighting, escorted them past the final Royal Guard checkpoint."This is the deepest access point," Mordi whispered, indicating a fortified maintenance shaft descending into the bedrock. "It leads directly to the auxiliary manifold. The guards are Alexander's loyalists, but they are only here to prevent unauthorized entry, not to monitor the Calibration Drill approved by Protocol Gamma-7."He handed Rina the key card and a tightly rolled scroll bearing Alexander’s signature and the Tier-1 Override stamp. "I will monitor the surface logs. You have until sunrise—roughly twenty-four hours—to complete the procedure. If the override fails or

The Marble GuillotineThe Palace was not simply tense after the restoration of House Chernyi; it was psychologically fractured. The remaining ancient nobility moved through the halls like ghosts, pale and profoundly aware that their world had ended. They were the houses who had been clean enough, or subtle enough, to survive the purges of the Brights, the Varricks, and Boarahen, but the Royal Edict restoring the Chernyis terrified them more than any execution.The Edict did not just grant wealth; it validated the Chernyis' truth. It confirmed that Alexander was not merely purging corruption, but dismantling the very historical narrative upon which their own power was built. The new Grand Duchess Davina Chernyi and Royal Counselor Mordi Chernyi were not parvenus; they were ancient blood, proven victims of a conspiracy, and now they held the reins of the Kingdom’s entire financial, legal, and Aetheric system.This was intolerable. A final, desperate plot was forged in the deep, shadow-

The Unburdening of the KingThree weeks after the eradication of the Mercenary Guild, the Grand Central Anchor hummed with the steady, reliable power of the Star Network Connector. The political seismic shifts had subsided, leaving Alexander in unquestioned command, supported by the terrifyingly efficient House Chernyi and the quiet genius of Rina’s scientific team.The culmination of this transition arrived not in a flash of swords, but in the subdued silence of the Royal Throne Room.The old King, withered and exhausted by a lifetime of complicity and the recent, violent cleansing of his own court, stood before his son, the counselors, and the nobility. He was a shell of the man who had once ruled.“The Crown of Bohemia has always been a heavy burden,” the King’s voice was thin, brittle. “A burden forged in secrecy and sustained by necessary cruelty. I have watched my Kingdom tear itself apart under that weight. Now, a new era has begun—an era built not on fear, but on absolute, un