All Chapters of THE THRONE OF THE NINE HEAVENS : Chapter 111
- Chapter 120
199 chapters
CHAPTER 111: THE DEPT- COLLECTOR
The rain in Oakhaven didn't just fall; it eroded. It washed the silver off the spires and dumped the grime into the Warrens, where it pooled in stinking, black lagoons. I sat in a pile of wet refuse, my stomach a void of gnawing hunger, staring at the rusted iron ring on my finger.It didn't pulse with the divine light of the Sovereign. It didn't hum with the system’s prompts. It just sat there—heavy, cold, and stubbornly physical.**[Item Found: The Debt-Collector's Omen.]****[Status: Rusted.]****[Current Balance: 0.]**"Faceslap of a homecoming," I whispered. My voice was a dry rasp. I was a Level 0 nobody in a world where children could snap their fingers and cook me from the inside out."Eli! Get up!" A small, frantic hand grabbed my tattered sleeve. It was Miri, the girl from the alley. Her face was smeared with soot, her eyes wide with terror. "The Iron-Order is at the Southern Gate. They’re doing a 'Siphon'! If they find you here without a Spark, they’ll toss you in the mana-
CHAPTER 112: THE JANITORS AUDIT
The foyer of the Oakhaven Academy was a masterpiece of architectural arrogance. Ribbed vaults of white marble stretched toward a ceiling painted with the constellations of the Higher Realms—constellations I had once owned. Now, I was just a stain on the polished floor."A janitor?" The Registrar, a man named Haman whose neck was swallowed by a stiff, lace collar, didn't even look up from his ledger. "We don't hire Mundanes for the interior. We have specialized Golems to sweep the mana-dust. They don't have... odors.""Your Golems are the reason the West Wing smells like ozone and burnt hair," I said, leaning casually against a pillar of lapis lazuli. "Faceslap of efficiency, Haman. A Golem follows a script. It doesn't notice when a Mana-Vent is clogged with residue. It just pushes harder until the pipes burst."Haman finally looked up, his spectacles sliding down a narrow, greasy nose. "You speak as if you understand the internal mechanics of a Tier-4 Arcane Institution. You’re a begg
CHAPTER 113: THE SAGE OF THE LOWLY
The "cellar" was a damp stone cavity that smelled of wet slate and the slow decay of centuries. I didn't mind. I had slept in the Trash Folder of the universe; a cold floor in Oakhaven was a luxury suite by comparison. I woke before the first bell, my mortal muscles screaming, but my mind sharp as a razor.The iron ring was now a dull, brushed silver.**[Current Ownership of Academy Infrastructure: 5.2%]****[Status: The Sage of the Lowly is active.]**I didn't start my day with a broom. I started it with a ledger I’d "borrowed" from Haman’s desk. By the time the apprentices were dragging their hungover bodies to the Great Hall for breakfast, I was already in the kitchens."Get out, Mundane!" the Head Cook, a massive man named Bruiser with forearms like hams, barked at me. "The Mages want their sun-fruit crepes, and the fire-elementals are acting up! We’re behind schedule!""The elementals aren't acting up, Bruiser. They’re starving," I said, walking toward the massive iron stove wher
CHAPTER 114: THE DUEL OF PRINCIPLES
The blackout wasn't just a loss of light; it was a loss of face. In Oakhaven, a Mage without light is a king without a crown. As the "Gilded" elite stumbled in the sudden, absolute dark of the courtyard, I stood perfectly still. My mortal eyes had already adjusted. I had lived in the grey static of the Trash Folder; I didn't need mana to see the fear on Karsus’s face."Restore the light, Mundane!" Karsus’s voice cracked, the resonance spell failing without the steady hum of the Academy’s core. "This is treason! This is high heresy!""Faceslap of a power dynamic, Professor," I said, my voice carrying through the silence. "It’s not treason to stop a leak. You called my coils sabotage. I simply disconnected them to prove they were actually the only thing keeping your 'Golden Age' from flickering out. You want the light? Earn it.""I will take it from your corpse!" Karsus roared. He reached into his robes, pulling out a backup mana-gem—a high-density Sapphire of the Void. He crushed it in
CHAPTER 115: THE PRESSURE POINT
The cellar was no longer a refuge; it was a bunker at the end of the world. Above us, the Academy groaned like a dying beast, the "Permanent Sleep" protocol sending ripples of violet lethargy through the stone walls. My "Lowly" army was shivering, their breaths coming in shallow puffs of frost as the Arch-Mage began to drain the thermal energy from the entire district."Sixty minutes, Eli," Leo whispered, his hands shaking as he held a magnifying glass over a pile of raw mana-crystals. "The 'Sleep' is already hitting the Warrens. My mother... she messaged me through the stone. People are just lying down in the streets and not getting up.""Faceslap of a forced retirement," I gritted out, my fingers blurring as I stripped the insulation from a salvaged copper cable. My mortal body was screaming for rest, but the silver ring on my finger was a cold, sharp needle of adrenaline. "The Arch-Mage isn't killing them. He’s liquidating their consciousness to power his own ascension. He thinks h
CHAPTER 116: THE HOSTILE MERGE
The cellar didn’t just go dark; it ceased to exist. One moment I was standing on damp stone, the next I was suspended in a viscous, ink-black vacuum. My mortal body felt like it was being stretched across a wire rack. Selene—or the thing wearing her skin—stood before me, her silhouette bleeding into the shadows until she was less a woman and more a tear in the fabric of the room."Faceslap of a betrayal, Elias," the Arch-Mage’s voice rumbled, vibrating from within my own ribcage. "You thought you could ground the Void? You didn't ground it. You just gave it a tour of the plumbing. And now, I’ve found the master switch.""Get out of her, Marcus!" I roared. I tried to lunged forward, but my legs felt like they were made of leaden slag. My silver ring was no longer glowing; it was weeping a thick, black ichor that felt like freezing needles.**[Warning: Hostile Takeover Detected.]****[Status: Consciousness Integrity at 82%.]****[Objective: Prevent the 'Void-Merge'.]**"Selene is gone,
CHAPTER 117: THE GALACTIC LEASE
Oakhaven was dissolving. The marble towers didn’t fall; they un-existed, turning into a fine grey mist that smelled of static and forgotten dreams. Above us, the ultraviolet eye of the Outer God filled the sky, its gaze a trillion-ton weight pressing the city into the dirt."Faceslap of a final notice, Elias!" Aethel’s voice echoed—not from the room, but from the Void-Shard ring on my finger. The merge had unlocked the echoes of my old life. "The God isn't here to play. It’s here to delete the save file!""I know!" I roared, sprinting toward the epicenter of the High Tower’s ruins. Every step felt like running through wet concrete. The ground was no longer stone; it was the raw, unrendered data of a dying world."Eli, wait!" Selene screamed from the cellar entrance. She was clutching Miri and Leo, their faces pale in the sickly purple light. "The city is gone! There’s nothing left to save!""There’s the ledger!" I shouted back, not stopping. "Faceslap of a desperate gamble: I’m not sa
CHAPTER 118: THE CANCER OF LIGHT
Aethelgard wasn't a world; it was a flashbang. The glare from the golden sky was so intense it felt like the sun was trying to colonize my retinas. The air was thick with the scent of jasmine and ionized mana, a suffocatingly sweet aroma that coated the back of my throat. Everywhere I looked, the architecture was a fever dream of opulence: spires of translucent ivory, bridges made of solidified rainbows, and gardens where the flowers were literally forged from rubies. "Faceslap of a headache," I muttered, shielding my eyes. The obsidian ring on my finger was vibrating with a low, aggressive hum, like a hornet trapped in a glass jar. **[Sector: Aethelgard]** **[Status: Infinite Growth Protocol Active]** **[Warning: Reality Density is at 0.02%. The universe is a hollow shell.]** "Welcome, Auditor," the man in the white silk suit said, his voice a smooth, melodic tenor that set my teeth on edge. He stood on a dais of floating amber, his arms spread wide as if he were trying to e
CHAPTER 119: THE MEDIATOR
The ruins of Aethelgard were a graveyard of broken glass and grey ash. The golden sun had been replaced by a flat, sterile white light that cast no shadows. Standing in the center of the wreckage, Sarah—or the entity wearing her face—brushed a speck of golden dust from her grey blazer. She looked terrifyingly corporate."Faceslap of a psychological haunting," I whispered, my hand tightening around the obsidian ring. My heart was a drum in my ears, beating against the cold logic of the Auditor. "What are you, Marcus's latest prank? Or is the Void just running out of original ideas?""Performance review, Elias," she said, her voice a perfect replica of the woman who had shared a cubicle with me in 2084. She opened her briefcase, pulling out a tablet made of polished obsidian. "You’ve liquidated two sectors in record time. Aethelgard was a high-value asset. The Board is... concerned about your aggressive amortization of their portfolio.""Aggressive?" I stepped forward, my boots crunchin
CHAPTER 120: THE FINAL TALLY
The Maw of Mercy was a cathedral made of stagnant time. The air didn’t move; it suffocated. Millions of faceless worshippers drifted toward me, their collective silence a psychic hammer beating against my skull. They weren't an army; they were a mountain of unspent life, a colossal debt of existence that refused to be settled."Faceslap of a stalemate," I hissed, my boots sinking into the bone-white floor. The obsidian ring on my finger was no longer humming; it was screaming in a frequency only the dead could hear.**[Sector: Maw of Mercy]****[Time Remaining: 59 Minutes]****[Status: Audit Incomplete. Oakhaven Escrow: PENDING DELETION.]**"One hour, Elias," the Mediator’s voice echoed in the white vault of the ceiling. I could see her projection hovering above the faceless masses, tapping her obsidian tablet with clinical indifference. "The Board is already warming up the deletion sub-routines. Every second you spend arguing with the 'Mercy' is a second stolen from your friends in t