The Guardian gods Chapter 929

As the heavy shock rippled through the theater, Tide’s booming voice cut through the whispers.

"You won’t be getting a complete tower, as shown by the scale... but," Tide rumbled, a sharp glint in his eye.

Before the paragon could process the disappointment, a brilliant ray of light shot directly from Tide’s hand, striking the floating figure. With clenched fists and a racing heart, the paragon willingly opened his mind to the stream of data.

"A trade can be made," Tide finished smoothly.

The paragon fought desperately to maintain a neutral mask, tightening his jaw to keep a victorious smile from breaking across his face. He tried to lock down every outward expression of joy, but he was standing in a theater filled with paragons who lived for reading micro-expressions.

As he turned and flew back down to his cloud-seat, dozens of narrowed, calculating eyes tracked his movement.

Though he posture-checked and forced himself to look composed, the subtle way his shoulders dropped and his tension evaporated gave him away completely. Whatever Tide had whispered through that ray of light, it was clear he had walked away with something game-changing.

The spark quickly ignited a wildfire. Seeing the success of the first, other paragons holding precious law shards scrambled from their cloud-seats, rushing anxiously toward the floating scale.

Yet, reality proved brutally unforgiving. Only a rare few could produce a double shard matching the first offering, and even then, none were guaranteed the coveted half-tier of vital components. Those who possessed only a single shard watched the heavy pan drop far short, they could secure enough base materials and blueprints to construct a tower of their own, but the crucial, ten vital components required for a complete tower remained frustratingly out of reach.

None of the paragons possessed the full picture. They knew nothing of the specific hidden components; all Tide’s transaction gave them was the harsh truth that while their offerings lacked the raw worth for a fully functioning spire, the raw construction materials were within their grasp.

Desperate to avoid missing out entirely, some paragons without shards decided to press their luck. Leaders from the Sun Kingdom stepped forward, tossing a magnificent ring laden with their entire pooled national treasury onto the scale.

The ring clinked against the metal pan, but it failed to create even the slightest tremor or budge in the balance.

A crushing wave of defeat washed over the assembly. Slumped deep into their cloud-seats, the remaining mortals and unprepared paragons cast hollow, despairing glances across the theater. They could only pray that this wouldn’t be their final chance, vowing silently that should another opportunity ever arise, they would shed all hesitation and do whatever it took to harvest a law shard.

As the final, rejected paragon trudged slowly back to their stand, a heavy, confused hush blanketed the theater. Most expected the golden gates to fly open and the proceedings to end, as it was blindingly obvious no one else possessed the wealth required.

Yet, the sky remained open, the cloud-seats stayed fixed in place, and they found themselves strangely un-ejected from the sacred space.

Tide’s gaze swept past the sea of trembling, dejected paragons and the triumphant few who looked forward to acquiring their raw materials. With a casual flick of his wrist, the floating scale dissolved into sparkling golden mist, and the heavy, suffocating atmosphere in the hall shifted completely.

His eyes locked onto the distant cloud-stands occupied by the delegations of the high mortal kingdoms and the godlings, factions that had sat in calculated, watchful silence throughout the entire proceeding, holding their cards close to their chests.

A thin, knowing smirk touched the edge of Tide’s lips.

"Now, since we are all one done here, the true purpose of this auction will finally be made clear to you," Tide announced, his words instantly recapturing the strained attention of every paragon in the theater.

"Look around you."

Tide’s voice boomed, carrying a resonance that instantly silenced every murmur across the amphitheater. In response to his command, the residual golden mist from the dissolved scale shifted and billowed outward, stretching across the vast dome of the hall until it painted a shimmering, panoramic map.

It was a sprawling, hyper-detailed projection of their homeworld, Nana.

"It is to my knowledge that as paragons, upon your ascension to your status, certain truths of the cosmic workings are made clear to you," Tide continued, his voice echoing smoothly across the amphitheater. "You all gain foundational knowledge about Order, the ancient judges who preserve the law."

He paused, casting a meaningful glance toward the paragons who had successfully traded their law shards moments before.

"And with the recent, bloody happenings, many of you now know of the Hegemons, who stand as the absolute opposite of Order."

Tide leaned forward, resting his massive arms on his knees as his gaze swept over the entire gathering.

"But what do you actually know about our world, or the worlds beyond?"

Silence settled over the theater as the assembled powers weighed the question, reluctant to speak carelessly before a god.

Before the tension could stretch too thin, a clear, authoritative voice cut through the quiet. It was Nwadimma, standing tall upon her kingdom’s cloud-stand, drawing every eye in the amphitheater toward her.

"Much isn’t known about our world beyond the territories we actively rule," Nwadimma spoke, her tone steady and measured. "The godlings are far more privy to the deep history of our world, but they have always been tight-lipped, unwilling to share what they know."

She gestured toward the shimmering panoramic map of Nana floating above them.

"As for other worlds, experience has long since proven to everyone here that there are worlds out there beside our own. The vast majority of our magical knowledge and system frameworks didn’t originate from our world, instead they came to us as a result of what we learned from the shattered pieces of a broken world that fell onto our soil like a meteor eons ago."

"Well answered," Tide spoke, offering an approving nod toward Nwadimma. "As for the godlings unwillingness to share, I can only say that not all knowledge is meant to be shared. The fewer who know, the safer it is for everyone."

He let his gaze drift across the sea of tense, expectant faces.

"But you are all paragons now. Your extended lifespans guarantee that such profound truths will eventually find you when the time is right."

Tide’s voice dropped to a heavy, resonant hum, cutting cleanly through the cloud-theater. "And today, there is no better time for you to acquire some of this knowledge."

At his words, every paragon stiffened, straining their ears to catch every syllable. Even the high-ranking godlings, usually shrouded in absolute aloofness, leaned forward, their expressions tightening.

"You all know about worlds," Tide continued, sweeping a hand toward the glowing, panoramic projection of Nana. "But have you ever considered the actual importance of a world to yourselves?"

A heavy pause hung in the air before he delivered the crushing reality.

"Do you know that a world needs to grow in both origin and strength? A world that never progresses, that stays stagnant, is ultimately doomed to meet its end. It will either collapse under its own stagnation or be harvested."

Tide pointed a massive finger toward the twenty-four grey monoliths standing silently before the assembly.

"Knowledge of how to become a paragon didn’t just appear out of nowhere," Tide said, his voice dropping to a low, reverent rumble. "It came directly from the ancient civilization that had knowledge on how to build these very towers."

A hush fell over the cloud-theater as the magnitude of his words began to sink in.

"A civilization so vast, so unfathomably advanced, that its mages were granted a world-sized vessel filled with these exact mage towers for outer-world expeditions, experimentation, and total conquest."

Tide watched as a sudden, sharp light of realization and fierce ambition ignited in the eyes of the gathered paragons.

"A civilization with known strength far exceeding that of a paragon, with limits completely unknown."

One of the independent paragons couldn’t help themselves, raising a trembling hand as they spoke up:

"Where did this knowledge come from, your grace?"

Tide turned his gaze toward the speaker, a slow, knowing smile touching his lips.

"This knowledge, of course, came directly from the Origin Gods.

The moment those words left Tide’s mouth, every single person present froze.

It wasn’t a sound or a visual cue that triggered their terror, but a sudden, crushing weight that descended upon their souls. Across the amphitheater, all five vast, primordial presence entities that had remained entirely silent and hidden throughout the entire auction suddenly made themselves known.

The air in the theater turned heavy. The sheer, overwhelming pressure of the Origin Gods pressed down on the cloud-stands, making breathing feel like an impossible chore.

Every paragon went rigid, muscles locking up in instinctive self-preservation. Yet, as the seconds ticked by, nothing destructive happened. The ancient presences did not strike or lash out, they merely let their boundless, terrifying existence be felt, a quiet reminder that they were watching, listening, and fully aware of every heartbeat in the room.