All Chapters of DEVOUR THE GODS: They had all the power. He took it: Chapter 21
- Chapter 30
41 chapters
Chapter 21: The First Month
Peace felt strange.No attacks. No resistance raids. No desperate battles where I had to choose between draining enemies or letting them kill people I'd promised to protect.Just governance. Administration. The boring, difficult work of making a functioning society. Turned out war was easier.The council met daily now. Not because of crisis. Because of normal problems. Resource allocation. Dispute resolution. Infrastructure maintenance. All the mundane details that kept communities alive.I attended every meeting. Mostly silent. Letting representatives debate and decide. Only speaking when asked directly. Trying to prove I could participate without dominating.It was harder than fighting had been."The western district wants more healers," Sarah reported. Industrial representative. Four weeks into the new peace. "They've got three. Need at least six to handle workplace injuries. But we don't have six healers to spare.""Train more," David suggested. Merchant Quarter. Always practical.
Chapter 22: The Flood
They came in waves.Ten the first week. Twenty the second. By the third week, fifty refugees arrived daily. All talentless. All from Council territories. All seeking the magic they'd been denied their entire lives.The Dregs couldn't handle it.Housing filled immediately. Then overflowed. People sleeping in the plaza. In alleys. Anywhere with shelter. Mrs. Chen's garden couldn't feed everyone. Rationing got stricter. Portions smaller. Hunger became common again.The council met constantly. Emergency sessions. Crisis management. Trying to build infrastructure faster than population grew.It wasn't working."We need to stop accepting refugees," David said. Week three. His voice was strained. Exhausted. "We're at capacity. Beyond capacity. We can't help people if we're collapsing ourselves.""We can't turn away people seeking asylum," Mrs. Chen countered. "That makes us the same as the Council. Deciding who deserves help based on convenience.""It's not about deserving. It's about capabi
Chapter 23: The Sickness
The first person died on day forty-three.A refugee. Woman maybe fifty. She'd arrived two weeks ago. Received minor telekinesis. Started working in the gardens. Contributing. Building a new life.Then she collapsed. Fever. Convulsions. Skin turning grey. Dead within hours.Mrs. Chen found her. Called for healers immediately. But by the time they arrived, nothing could be done."What killed her?" I asked. Standing over the body. Trying to understand how someone healthy yesterday could be dead today."I don't know." The healer looked frightened. Young man. Maybe twenty-five. One of the refugees I'd given healing magic to supplement our medical capacity. "I've never seen anything like this. It's not natural disease. It's magical. Something in her power itself.""That's impossible. I gave her stable magic. Tested. Integrated. Not corrupted.""Then test again. Because something went wrong."Three more died the next day. Same symptoms. Fever. Convulsions. Grey skin. All refugees. All people
Chapter 24: The Partnership
The council debated the Confederacy's terms for three days.Not because the terms were unreasonable. Because accepting them meant admitting we couldn't succeed alone. That external oversight was necessary. That our experiment required supervision.Pride made acceptance difficult."They're asking for quarterly audits," David said. Reading through the document for the fifth time. "Full financial transparency. Resource allocation reviews. Population assessments. They want to see everything.""That's standard for partnerships," Mrs. Chen countered. "They're investing resources. They deserve accountability. We should welcome oversight. Prevents us from making mistakes we don't see.""Or it undermines our sovereignty. Makes us dependent on external approval. What happens if they disagree with our policies? If they threaten to withdraw support unless we change governance?""Then we negotiate. Compromise. Find middle ground." She looked at me. "Unless you think we're perfect? Think we don't n
Chapter 25: The Anniversary
Three months.Ninety days since I'd drained the Council. Ninety days since I'd started redistributing power. Ninety days of building something that might be democracy or might be elaborate self-deception.The city had changed. The Dregs no longer looked like the Dregs. Buildings repaired. Streets clean. Gardens everywhere. People with purpose. With agency. With the belief that their lives mattered.Three hundred people now carried power I'd distributed. Two hundred seventeen original residents. Eighty-three refugees who'd passed medical screening and integration protocols. All of them contributing. Working. Building.Only five more deaths from power rejection. The Confederacy protocols worked. Five percent mortality instead of thirty. Still tragic. Still permanent. But manageable. Acceptable according to cold calculations that measured lives against outcomes.I hated those calculations. Used them anyway. Because governing required accepting that not everyone could be saved. That optim
Chapter 26: The Quiet Before
Preparation consumed the next two months.Every able person trained. Combat magic. Defensive positioning. Emergency procedures. The city transformed from community into fortress. Gardens became fallback positions. Plazas became rally points. Every structure reinforced with enchantments the Confederacy provided.It felt wrong. Militarizing something built on peace. But survival required adaptation. Required accepting that ideals needed protection. That philosophy without defense was just pretty words waiting to be silenced.I watched from the command center. Observing. Coordinating. Resisting the urge to take direct control. Let the council manage. Let the Confederacy advisors lead. Let the system function without my constant interference.Harder than fighting had ever been."Northern barricades are complete," reported Commander Wei. Confederacy military advisor. Woman maybe fifty. Scarred face. Competent hands. She'd seen war. Survived it. Knew what worked and what got people killed.
Chapter 27: The First Wave
They came at dawn.Fifteen hundred combat mages. Six Council banners. Unified force marching through the streets toward our fortified districts. No subtlety. No stealth. Just overwhelming power moving with military precision.I watched from the command center. Enhanced vision let me see them from miles away. Let me count abilities. Identify specializations. Assess threats.The locket sang. So much power. So many abilities. So close. All I had to do was reach out. Take. Drain. Add to the collection.I pushed it down. Focused on the defensive plan. On the positions we'd prepared. On the people I'd promised to protect without becoming monster."They're splitting into three groups," Commander Wei observed. Studying the approach through enchanted scopes. "Main force coming directly up central avenue. Secondary force flanking east. Tertiary force flanking west. Standard pincer movement. They'll hit us from three sides simultaneously.""Our positions?" I asked."Ready. Defenders assigned. Ba
Chapter 28: The Siege
Night fell on a burning city.The enemy held the outer districts. We held the core. A quarter of what we'd started with. Maybe less. Buildings burning at the edges. Barriers failing. Defenders exhausted.Seventy-three dead. Twice that many wounded. Population huddled in the center. Scared. Hungry. Questioning whether resistance was worth the cost.The command center was silent. No one spoke. No one had words for what had happened. For what we'd lost. For what would come next.I sat staring at maps that no longer matched reality. Defensive positions marked that didn't exist anymore. Resources calculated that had burned. Plans made that circumstances had invalidated.Elena sat in the corner. Not documenting. Just sitting. She'd watched the child die. Recorded it. Captured the moment for history. Now she had nothing left to document except defeat.Jin stood by the window. Looking out at the burning districts. At the enemy forces that surrounded us. At the siege beginning. He'd made no no
Chapter 29: The Breaking Point
Dawn came grey and cold.Twenty-four hours remaining. Maybe less. The enemy had pulled back during the night. Not retreating. Regrouping. Preparing for final assault that would crush us completely.I hadn't slept. Couldn't sleep. Spent the night walking defensive positions. Talking to defenders. Seeing exhaustion. Seeing acceptance. Seeing people who'd made peace with dying.Mrs. Chen found me at sunrise. She looked older. Worn. Like the past three months had aged her decades."We recovered his body," she said. "During the night. Small team. They brought him back."The child. She meant the child. They'd risked themselves to retrieve his corpse. To bring him home. To let him rest somewhere other than burned street."Where is he?""The garden. We buried him under the fruit trees. Where it's peaceful. Where things grow." She paused. "He would have liked that. Being part of the garden. Feeding the trees. Contributing even in death."We walked to the garden together. The memorial had grown
Chapter 30: The Intervention
The first line fell within minutes.Fifty defenders. Gone. Overwhelmed. Crushed by sheer force. Their deaths bought nothing except seconds. Seconds we couldn't use. Seconds that just delayed the inevitable.The second line held longer. Ten minutes. Fifteen. Defenders fighting with desperation that bordered on madness. Knowing they'd lose. Fighting anyway. Proving they could.I watched from the command center. Enhanced vision capturing every death. Every moment. Every person who died defending what I'd built.The locket screamed. Not pulsing. Screaming. The voices unified in singular demand. Take them. Save them. Become what you were always meant to be.But I stood frozen. Paralyzed by choice. By commitment. By promises that cost everything.Elena grabbed my arm. "Kael. Look at me."I couldn't. Couldn't look away from the battle. From the dying. From the consequence of every choice I'd made."Kael!" She forced my face toward hers. "You need to decide. Right now. Are you keeping promise