The exchange itself was clean. Helena produced a storage artifact containing the Divine Crystals. Haru handed over the hammer without ceremony.
"Your Majesty is quite generous."
Haru accepted the compliment with a neutral expression, which was perhaps the most he could manage. The hammer had been taken from her father, along with one of his arms, by Celestia. Obrys's representatives had come here, hat in hand, and paid two hundred million Divine Crystals to get it back. Being called generous for returning stolen property felt ironic enough to sting slightly.
Still. Varkath had aligned himself with the Evil Pantheon and moved against the Great Aetherium first. Declining to declare war on the Titans entirely was already a huge concession. The Divine Crystals were simply the price of peace.
He glanced toward Celestia.
Helena followed his glance, and immediately offered a deep bow, "It's an honor to meet Your Holiness Celestia. Just as I heard, your radiance is unmatched."
Celestia looked at her flatly, "Tell your father there won't be a next time. That beam of light saved him once. It won't save him again."
Helena didn't flinch, "I will convey your words exactly."
Celestia's expression shifted. Not much, but enough. She'd expected fire, "You're composed." She said, "I'll remember that. When the battle for the God King's Throne begins, and if you've reached the Supreme God Tier, I'll come for you first."
Helena opened her mouth, closed it and said nothing.
…
The Titan delegation left without lingering.
It wasn't until they'd crossed deep into the Void, with Obrys visible ahead, that one of the Thunder Titans finally voiced what had been nagging at all of them.
"Your Highness… why? Why were you willing to stay there as a hostage?"
None of them had understood it when it happened. The Titan high command had no plans to forge any alliance with the Great Aetherium. There was no precedent, no mandate, no instruction from the Titan Lord. Whatever Helena had done, she'd done alone.
Helena looked out at the expanse.
"I saw a tower."
Silence.
"A… tower?"
"The white structure, the tallest building in their capital." She paused, "In the Ancient Era, I saw something exactly like that. It's a God-level construction of the Dimensional Demons: the Myriad Starfall Tower. Although its appearance is different, and the faction has changed, the internal structure, the demonic runes woven through it, they're unmistakable. That is undoubtedly the Myriad Starfall Tower."
The name landed differently depending on who heard it. Some showed confusion. Others went rigid.
"During the Ancient Era, our forces once destroyed a demonic stronghold and recovered one such tower." Helena continued, "Our researchers spent decades on it but we never replicated it. And now the Great Aetherium has one, that too running."
A younger Titan God who hadn't fought in the Ancient Era leaned forward, "What does it do?"
"It scans the Void." Helena said, "Anything existing in the void, Divine Kingdoms, hidden objects, concealed realms, the Myriad Starfall Tower finds them. All of them."
The younger God didn't understand why that mattered until he watched the older ones react.
Kronforge. The planet where the Ancient Titan Ancestors had lived. The source of the Throneveil Shrine itself. For hundreds of thousands of years, the Thunder Titan lineage had searched the Void for it to 'return' to their homeland. Their inherited relic, the Prometheus Ark, had never been able to detect it.
But the Myriad Starfall Tower could.
"Then we should declare war on the—"
"No." The rebuke came from three directions at once.
"Six Supreme Gods. Two at the peak. Anyone suggesting war should go sleep it off."
"The battle of planets is nearly here. We cannot afford casualties."
"The Throneveil Shrine and the God King's Throne come before everything else."
The young God fell quiet.
"That's why I wanted the alliance and not war." Helena said, "The Tower is in their possession, and a working relationship was the only path to it." She shook her head slowly, "But he refused. And I don't think my father's personal visit would change that. He's already decided we're enemies."
She fell silent.
"Let's return."
Then she paused, frowning faintly at the Obrys ahead.
"I'm sensing something strange. Like an unfamiliar presence entered Obrys while we were gone."
She scanned the void.
"It's probably nothing."
But she didn't sound convinced.
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