The Guardian gods Chapter 931

"The paragons here today are numbered in the hundreds, yet the mage towers before you are twenty-four in number," Tide stated, his voice ringing clearly through the absolute silence. "That is to say, out of the forty sets of mage tower materials the world can ever sustain, twenty-four have already been consumed to craft the very spires you see right now. Towers that you all couldn’t even afford to purchase, even if you emptied your national treasuries to the last coin."

The heavy, suffocating truth settled over the cloud-stands. The frantic anger and righteous indignation of moments before evaporated, replaced by a cold, stomach-churning realization.

Out of hundreds of paragon beings who had fought, climbed, and sacrificed to reach the summit of mortal power, only forty would ever hold the foundation of true dominion. And twenty-four of those seats were before them ready to be claimed even then they can’t afford it. And it seems Tide already has a plan for these towers.

Only sixteen spots remained. Sixteen chances to secure a foothold before Nana’s well ran permanently dry, locking the rest of the world out of the race for a very long time.

A lone paragon in the lower tiers swallowed hard, his throat dry as dust, breaking the silence with a trembling question.

"Then... what happens to the rest of us?"

Tide did not immediately answer. Instead, a slow, calculated smile spread across his face as he turned his gaze back toward the sprawling, shimmering map of Nana hovering above the dome.

"That," Tide whispered, his voice echoing in the minds of every living soul in the amphitheater, "is why the auction has only just begun."

"You misunderstand the grander design. You think of invasion as mere destruction, as bloodshed for the sake of survival. But that is the narrow view of mortals."

Tide spread his arms wide, gesturing to the sprawling holographic map of Nana that pulsed before them.

"An invasion of a world, a true expansion is not about laying waste to what is foreign. It is about reaping."

A collective murmur rippled through the cloud-stands as the paragons strained to catch his meaning.

"When we project our reach outward and conquer a foreign world, we do not simply plunder it and leave its corpse to rot in the void," Tide explained, his voice ringing with absolute authority. "We connect it. We anchor its core, its veins, and its very landscape to our world."

He pointed a towering finger directly at the glowing roots of the holographic map, where golden ley lines began to weave outward into the dark empty space surrounding Nana.

"A world that invades and successfully subjugates another absorbs its essence. The conquered realm’s natural wealth, its dormant Origin, and its unspent potential are systematically siphoned and fed directly back into Nana."

"Every foreign world we conquer breaks our world’s limits wide open," Tide declared, his eyes flashing with fierce, undeniable ambition. "The towers are merely the key to unlock the door. But once we begin our outward expansion, the resources brought home will flood our lands with rivers of raw energy."

Tide locked his gaze onto the sea of stunned paragons, letting the true, intoxicating promise finally settle into their minds.

"More resources mean more fuel for the future. Expansion means the ceiling of our world is shattered, granting infinite room for growth, breakthrough, and power beyond your wildest imaginations."

He lowered his arms, his voice dropping to a smooth, persuasive hum that echoed in the heart of every single being present.

"We do not invade out of mere fear of being hunted. We invade because it is the only path to transcendence. It brings new resources, new blood, and limitless expansion to our home and with it, a boundless ocean of power for every paragon wise enough to seize it."

Pointing at the towering spires piercing through the clouds, Tide spoke, his voice carrying effortlessly over the murmur of the crowd as he regarded the paragons gathered in the lower stands.

"These towers were never meant for you," Tide declared, his tone cold and absolute. "You cannot buy a ready-made Mage Tower with gold, nor can you scavenge enough law shards to match a planet’s worth of value."

His gaze shifted, piercing straight through the trembling masses and ascending upward to the gilded balconies of the high kingdoms and the godlings who watched from above.

"As a merchant, I deal in inventory," Tide continued, a sharp, calculating smile touching his lips. "And as the master of this domain, I have provisions for those who lack a shard, yet possess something I deem of true value, an empire, an army, and an insatiable hunger for expansion."

At that moment, Krogan who had remained silent the whole time finally took action. With a snap of his fingers, thick parchments emerged from from his grip only to unfurl into the air, projecting shimmering, translucent contracts across the vast space for everyone to witness.

The crowd stared in collective realization. Everyone saw and understood instantly that these were binding contracts, yet not a single soul in the lower stand could read the fine print, no matter how hard they strained their eyes or poured their spiritual sight into the glowing text.

Worse still, a creeping terror took hold, while they could clearly see Tide’s mouth moving, articulating the terms of the grand bargain, not a single sound reached their ears. Absolute, suffocating silence enveloped the lower stands.

Fear and unease rose like a cold tide in the hearts of those below. In that dreadful stillness, a bitter realization dawned upon them, from Tide word’s the lords of the high kingdoms possessed something they fundamentally lacked "Order and cooperation".

These were the very virtues they had forsaken long ago in the frantic, cutthroat pursuit of their own isolated growth and raw power. They had long deemed alliances and obedience as worthless burdens compared to individual strength. But now, as Tide offered them the keys to dominion, he claimed those very forsaken virtues as currency of immeasurable value, a currency they had long thrown away.

Meanwhile, while absolute silence locked out the lower stands, Tide’s true words rang clear and unmuted for the high kingdoms and godlings seated above.

"The Origin Gods have set the wheels in motion. A world-clash is not a localized skirmish, but a total planetary war of conceptual colonization," Tide announced, his voice ringing with absolute finality. "And every single entity in this room, from the lone paragons, high mortal kingdom to the godlings, has a designated role to play in this machinery."

His gaze swept over the grand lords and divine heirs "The minor Paragons may scavenge for raw materials and seek their own path to a mage tower, but these finished Mage Towers, the true anchors of planetary supremacy, will not go to solitary champions who will hide when the blood starts to spill. They will go to those who hold the imperial weight to drive the front lines forward."

Pausing, Tide let his eyes drift downward to the restless, silenced masses below, before returning his focus entirely to the upper balconies so that every leader understood the subtext.

"We all have seen it these past few months," Tide stated, his voice filled with contempt. "How easily they gave up order for their own selfish goals, changing sides to the hegemons just to slip past the consequences of their actions. As leaders, you all should be aware how detrimental such people are to the masses."

The high lords shifted uncomfortably, the truth of his words striking uncomfortably close to home.

"Now imagine that on a worldwide scale," Tide challenged, leaning forward. "Where your comrades would, without a shadow of a doubt, turn their backs on you to save their own skin."

His words were universally understood by everyone in attendance. As the high kingdoms and godlings glanced down at those in the lower stands.

If a true world war resembled the brutal conflicts they all recognized from history, then having such treacherous, self-serving cowards on one’s own side was worse than having no allies at all, it was a fatal vulnerability, especially when individual life, sovereignty, and freedom hung in the balance.

Tide gestured broadly toward the shimmering contracts suspended like burning constellations above the majestic spires.

"You want these towers?" Tide challenged, his voice cutting through the heavy air with the weight of an executioner’s axe. "You do not buy them with gold or scattered shards. You buy them with conquest. You will sign the binding of expansion. You will march your armies, secure the land your Paragon erodes, and pay your installments in the living, rewritten soil of conquered empires."

A heavy silence settled over the high balconies as the rulers and godlings took in the sheer audacity of the demand.

Krogan finally broke his silence, his voice a rumble that vibrated directly inside the minds of everyone present.

"Listen well," Krogan spoke with a bored gaze. "If you take these towers, you become a debtor to the world. And the ledger is balanced through blood and soil."