[SYSTEM]
You exchanged: Taint-Corrupted Godhood Shard
Godhood Fusion Progress +200
Current Godhood Fusion Progress: 500/1000
Congratulations. Player Level 3 Godhood Fusion complete.
Divine Power unlocked: Phase 2—Contract
[/SYSTEM]
October 2. Dusk. Cycle 14—Player World.
The last light bled out behind the skyline, turning the city’s windows into a field of embers. After dealing with the Split Serpent, Ethan and Xueyu finally made it back from New Star.
Xueyu curled up and fell asleep almost immediately.
Ethan didn’t.
He lay there staring at the ceiling, replaying Silvermoon’s words until they stopped sounding like advice and started sounding like a countdown.
Key media.
Lava Lords.
The Fate Sea Chart.
And a world that couldn’t be freed until something monstrous died—four times over.
“Four Lava Lords left…” he murmured.
Godhood Fusion Progress: 500/1000.
He needed another five hundred points.
Silvermoon had already told him the math: a Lava Lord’s corpse was worth two hundred fusion points.
Four corpses meant eight hundred points.
But the System didn’t care about “overkill.” It cared about thresholds.
Ethan did the calculation again anyway, slow and brutal.
If he could kill and fish three of the remaining Lava Lords, he’d gain six hundred fusion points. That would push him over the one-thousand mark and take him into Tier 4.
And because he’d already squeezed an extra hundred fusion points out of Panglos Fell earlier…
Three Lava Lords would be enough.
He’d even have a margin of error—one corpse he could fail to claim.
But only one.
Ethan closed his eyes.
Tier 4.
If he got there, he’d gain permissions like Silvermoon’s: independent instances, System-level leverage, the kind of control that stopped him from being a pawn every time a demigod decided to blink.
The problem was obvious.
He didn’t know where the Lava Lords were.
Even the Seven Gods couldn’t point at them directly.
They could only follow the hooks—those key media—like fishermen tracking ripples across black water.
Ethan sat up, rubbed his face once, and pulled up his status.
[PANEL]
Name: Ethan Vale (Rhine)
World: αK49 World
Player Level: 3
Seven Gods’ Favor: Unique (Miracle Awakening)
Godhood: Complete (Fusion 50%)
Godhood Fusion Progress: 500/1000
Divine Power
– Phase 1: Threat Sense (Detection / Interference)
– Phase 2: Contract
Contribution Points: 13
Identity Cover: Eastern Isles scholar, shipwreck survivor (sole survivor of the Explorer)
Class Rank: Fifth-Order Hunter / Second-Order Infiltrator
[/PANEL]
Phase Two: Contract.
The word felt heavy in his mouth.
A divine contract wasn’t a pinky promise. In the Endless Sea, words could be chains—and chains could drown you.
Ethan stared at the panel for a long second, then let it fade.
He needed information, not a new trick he didn’t understand yet.
His hand slid into his inventory and came back out with a rolled chart.
The Fate Sea Chart.
He hesitated, then reached in again.
Blue light flickered, and Xueyu appeared on the bed like a piece of the ocean cut loose.
Still groggy, she blinked at him. “Huh…? Did something happen?”
Ethan held the chart out. “Take a look at this.”
Xueyu’s pupils sharpened, her irises brightening into a cold, deep blue.
She took the Fate Sea Chart in both hands.
Under the Player World’s warm lights, the parchment looked ordinary—old, salted, and stubbornly quiet.
But the moment Xueyu touched it, her expression changed.
She stared at it, completely awake now.
Ethan watched her face, waiting for the first crack in the silence.