100\% DROP RATE : Why is My Inventory Always so Full? Chapter 815 - Departure

A few more days passed.

The five continents were almost together.

From several coasts, there was barely enough sea left to make the word distant feel appropriate. Mountains that had once belonged to another horizon now stood clearly beneath the same sky, while the last stretches of water between ancient continental shelves continued shrinking under the controlled spatial adjustments.

Lucien watched the final stages from Lootwell.

He did not intervene.

Lilith handled the restoration of the remaining shelves with the teams already assigned to her.

Nobody asked Lucien what to do.

That felt strange.

For years, whenever something this large happened, some portion of the work eventually reached him.

Now reports reached Vivian instead.

Requests moved through established command channels.

Problems were handled before Lucien even heard about them.

The rhythm he had spent weeks trying to create was finally working without him standing at the center of every part.

At first, the realization left him uncomfortable.

Then it became strangely satisfying.

Lucien stood above Lootwell one afternoon and watched formations activate in the distance without receiving a single request for assistance.

He smiled.

So this was what success looked like.

Apparently, it involved becoming less necessary.

He could live with that.

•••

The people had adapted as well.

The approaching continents no longer caused crowds to gather every time another adjustment occurred.

Children had begun treating the distant land across the narrowing waters as something that had always belonged there.

Merchants were preparing warehouses near crossings.

Road planners were already arguing over routes that did not physically exist yet.

The military exercises Lucien had ordered continued without him.

Entire armies practiced moving through projected versions of the future supercontinent, learning how quickly neighboring regions could reinforce one another once oceans no longer divided them.

The five continents had not fully joined.

In people’s minds, however, the separation was already disappearing.

Lucien found that reassuring.

There was one sight that was considerably less reassuring.

The Black Mass.

It had condensed until almost nothing remained of the enormous darkness that had dominated that side of the world for ages.

From extreme distances, it resembled a tiny point against the horizon, but its size was deceptive.

Lucien could feel its pressure from Lootwell.

Something inside that concentration was becoming denser every day.

The scattered corruption that had once covered an entire supercontinent seemed to be gathering into one structure, folding inward until even the surrounding Laws reacted to its presence.

Lucien occasionally focused on it with his perception.

He never found an answer.

The thing refused to reveal what it was becoming.

Aurelia’s divinations remained equally unhelpful.

The closer the Black Mass came to completing its transformation, the less the future around it seemed willing to settle.

Lucien stopped trying to guess.

Whatever emerged would be unpleasant.

That much required no divination.

•••

Alanthuriel arrived one morning.

Lucien sensed the distortion in Space before the Abyssal Being appeared.

The moment he saw Alanthuriel’s expression, he knew.

There was no introductory warning this time.

"They’ve begun."

Lucien’s face became serious.

"The Arch-Lords?"

Alanthuriel nodded.

"The conditions are being assembled now. Once the passage reaches the necessary point, their vessel will move."

Lucien remained silent for a moment.

After weeks of preparing for those words, hearing them felt strangely simple.

"When?"

"Soon enough that you should assume you have no more time."

Lucien nodded.

That was all he needed.

He had already prepared for this.

•••

The transfer began immediately.

The recovered small worlds were ready.

The Liberators assigned to each world had been warned that the relocation could happen without much notice, so there was no panic when Lucien finally activated the prepared sequence.

One world disappeared from its place inside him.

Then another.

Each crossed through the route Lucien had prepared and emerged within its designated position in the Makeshift Universe.

The transfers were enormous.

They were also remarkably quiet.

Lucien had spent days calculating every destination beforehand.

There was no need to improvise.

The first world settled into the prepared spatial structure.

Its movement stabilized.

The surrounding Laws accepted it.

Lucien checked the transition once.

Then he moved the next.

The Makeshift Universe gradually filled.

Recovered civilizations that had spent years sheltered inside Lucien now existed in the adjacent plane Lootwell had prepared for them.

Their own gates activated.

Emergency routes connected.

Communication resumed through the structures Lucien had established.

The Liberators confirmed stability from each transferred world.

Lucien continued until every recovered world meant to remain in the present had left him.

The empty spaces they left inside his universe felt surprisingly large.

He had known they were leaving.

He had planned it himself.

Still, seeing those regions vacant was different.

Lucien did not linger.

There was more to move.

Researchers completed their final work inside the accelerated regions.

Soldiers returned through the secured gates.

Ancient beasts assigned to present-day defense exited according to the rotations Lucien had already established.

The Eternal monster forces that Vivian and the others might need followed.

Equipment came afterward.

Then the gates were checked one final time.

Lucien looked over the enormous training regions that had once been constantly occupied.

They were quiet now.

For the first time in years, many of them contained nobody at all.

The acceleration remained.

There was simply no one left to use it.

Lucien deactivated the unnecessary flows.

The worlds native to his universe remained.

The Aevan world stayed exactly where it was.

Lucien sensed the young civilization continuing its day without any knowledge of what was happening beyond its sky.

They belonged here.

He left them undisturbed.

•••

He met the others soon afterward.

There were more people Lucien cared about than could reasonably fit into one farewell.

He did not try.

The people closest to him were enough.

Luke and Cienna stood together.

Virel and Aniel had come as well.

Vivian remained beside them.

Seraphine, Eirene, and Lilith were there.

Marie had brought Kaia, Sylra, and Marina.

Clara stood nearby with an unusual amount of restraint.

Others who had shared too much of Lucien’s journey to be absent joined them quietly.

Nobody made a speech.

Lucien appreciated that.

They still did not know where he was going.

They knew he might be gone for a long time.

They knew the mission was dangerous.

That was enough.

Cienna hugged him first.

She did not ask him to stay.

Luke placed a hand on Lucien’s shoulder afterward.

His father looked as though he wanted to say several things, then apparently decided none of them were necessary.

"Come back."

Lucien smiled.

"I will."

Virel and Aniel offered their own farewells.

Marie tried to look composed.

Kaia failed entirely.

Sylra stayed quieter than usual.

Marina watched Lucien with an expression that made it obvious she expected him to keep his promise.

Clara bowed.

For once, there was no elaborate declaration about her Lord’s inevitable triumph.

Lucien almost missed it.

Seraphine hugged him without caring who was watching.

When she stepped away, Lilith looked as if she wanted to say something sarcastic and reconsidered.

Eirene simply met Lucien’s eyes.

"Don’t take too long."

"I’ll try."

Vivian waited until the end.

Lucien had already given her everything she needed.

Authority.

Resources.

The Origin Core.

The decisions he could prepare in advance.

There was nothing more to hand her.

So he hugged his sister.

Vivian held him more tightly than usual.

Then she stepped back.

"I’ll take care of things here."

Lucien nodded.

"I know."

That was the last thing he needed to hear.

•••

Alanthuriel waited outside Lootwell.

Lucien joined him after the farewells ended.

The Abyssal Being looked toward him.

"Ready?"

Lucien glanced over the city.

Lootwell continued moving.

Nobody had stopped working because he was leaving.

Formation lights moved through the distant districts.

The great structures he had built over the years continued operating.

Beyond them, the five continents were close enough to feel like pieces of one unfinished whole.

Lucien looked back toward Alanthuriel.

"Yes."

Alanthuriel studied him briefly.

"Once we cross, we will enter the Abyss."

Lucien nodded.

That part did not concern him.

He had the Nihility Body, and his Omnigenesis Vessel had evolved far beyond what it had been then.

The Abyss itself was dangerous.

Simply existing there was no longer enough to kill Lucien.

"What happens after that?"

"We approach the region where the Arch-Lords are constructing the temporal path."

Alanthuriel’s expression sharpened.

"You do not engage them. I will keep their attention where it belongs."

Alanthuriel looked toward the empty air ahead.

"When the path opens, the Incarnations will enter first."

Lucien listened carefully.

"The passage will be unstable for a short interval afterward. That is when you follow."

Lucien understood the logic immediately.

If they approached too early, the Arch-Lords might detect what Alanthuriel intended and alter the route.

They needed the enemy to commit.

Once the Primordial Incarnations entered, the path could no longer be abandoned casually.

That would be Lucien’s opening.

"You will have very little time," Alanthuriel continued.

"How little?"

"I will tell you when I know."

Lucien sighed.

Alanthuriel ignored it.

"Once you enter the passage, focus only on the Incarnations. I will prevent the Arch-Lords from following freely."

Finally, Alanthuriel raised one hand.

Darkness gathered.

Space folded inward until a narrow fracture appeared in front of them.

It did not resemble Lucien’s normal spatial gates.

There was no destination visible beyond it.

Only depth.

A darkness that seemed to continue much farther than the distance between two points should allow.

Lucien immediately recognized the pressure leaking through.

The Abyss.

Alanthuriel stepped toward the rift.

"Follow me."

Then he entered.

Lucien remained where he was for one more moment.

He looked back.

At Lootwell.

At the world he had spent years building.

At the continents nearing their reunion.

At the sky beneath which everyone he cared about would continue living while he was gone.

Everything was ready.

Not perfect.

It would never be perfect.

But ready.

Lucien turned toward the rift.

He took a step.

The darkness touched him.

That’s when the entire Big World trembled.

Lucien stopped halfway through.

The vibration was enormous.

It passed through land, sea, and Space itself.

Formation lights across Lootwell flickered.

Far in the distance, the air distorted.

Lucien’s head snapped toward the source.

The Black Mass Continent.

His perception crossed the world.

The tiny point of darkness that had been condensing there for months had changed.

The pressure vanished for one impossible instant.

Then something vast moved beneath it.

Lucien’s expression changed.

"The Black Mass..."

It had finished its transformation.

The thought had barely formed when the Abyssal rift tightened around him.

The route had already taken hold.

Lucien tried to focus through the narrowing connection.

He caught only one final impression.

The darkness above the supercontinent was opening.

Something was emerging from where the Black Mass had been.

Then the Big World disappeared.

•••

Darkness swallowed Lucien.

The pressure arrived immediately.

It pressed against his body, his soul, and the Laws surrounding his existence.

His Omnigenesis Vessel reacted naturally.

The hostile environment failed to penetrate deeply enough to matter.

Lucien barely noticed.

His thoughts remained in the Big World.

The Black Mass had completed its transformation at the exact moment he left.

Of course it had.

Lucien almost laughed.

The universe had an impressive sense of timing.

The amusement lasted less than a second.

He had no idea what had emerged.

He did not know whether the tremor had damaged anything.

He did not know whether the transformation marked the beginning of the war everyone had spent years preparing for.

For several moments, every instinct told him to turn around.

The rift behind him was already closing.

Lucien watched the final trace of the Big World disappear.

His chest tightened.

Then he remembered Vivian.

Lilith.

Eirene.

The Grandmaster.

Seran.

Seraphine.

Clara.

The ancient beasts.

The armies he had strengthened.

The Thousand Races that had learned how to defend themselves without waiting for Lootwell to save them.

He had spent years preparing them for exactly this possibility.

If he turned back now because he was afraid to trust them, then all of that preparation had meant nothing.

Lucien slowly exhaled.

They trusted him so he would trust them too.

His attention shifted forward.

Alanthuriel was already moving through the Abyss.

Far beyond him, something enormous disturbed the darkness.

Lucien followed.

Whatever had just awakened in the Big World was no longer his battlefield.

For now.

His battlefield lay somewhere much stranger.

It lay behind history itself.