The location of the Secret Stone was finally uncovered two days later.
That said, I can take little of the credit. The discovery was the result of the tireless efforts of the Elven Clan led by Logan and the network of spies under Luciana’s command.
Logan was the first to make a breakthrough. He conducted a wide-scale search using Spirit Magic. The Secret Stone contains the Great Spirit’s power, and concealing such a thing completely is difficult—no, nearly impossible. While magic power alone might be masked, the spirit-derived energy it radiates is impossible to fully suppress with standard spells or magic tools. Thus, we concluded that Logan, with his mastery of Spirit Magic, would be the only one capable of detecting it.
However, Logan's innate perception range was far too small. No matter how he strained himself, he could only cover an area roughly the size of the Royal Capital. Searching the entire world at that pace would have taken far longer than the three-day deadline the Great Spirit had imposed. My own aptitude for sensing spirit-derived power was nonexistent—a matter of racial biology rather than technique. I could have studied similar spells if I had the time, but seventy-two hours was not enough.
Taking these factors into account, I resigned myself to acting as a mana battery for Logan. I funneled pure, harmless magic power into him, taking meticulous care not to let a single trace of miasma slip through. This surge increased his output exponentially, expanding his perception range hundreds of times over. We also mobilized a hundred elves skilled in perception magic to search in shifts, allowing for a constant, high-intensity sweep.
Finally, last night, we succeeded in pinpointing the stone's location.
The trail led to the Technomagic Kingdom.
It was a significant distance from the Empire’s borders—too far for a single teleportation jump. Based on the geography, the thieves must have crossed through the Demon King’s Domain and the Holy Staff Kingdom. The Great Spirit had failed to track them, likely because her avatar’s perception range and precision were limited.
The modern concealment magic used on the stone played a role as well. It belongs to a lineage of sorcery developed in the current era—a foreign concept to an ancient entity like her. She was simply outmaneuvered by modern innovation. Furthermore, an entity of her magnitude rarely encounters situations requiring surgical precision; she was struggling with a task she was never meant to perform. Her weakness was laid bare, which proved to be a stroke of luck for the nobles.
Once the general location was known, the rest moved quickly. I left it to Luciana and her spies to determine who was involved by analyzing travel routes and timelines. The report reached me this morning.
The culprits were a group of Imperial nobles. They had fled toward the Technomagic Kingdom with their families and private guards in tow, meticulously scrubbing their trail as they went. According to Luciana’s spies, they had successfully defected.
This wasn't a spur-of-the-moment decision. They had likely been planning this for some time, having seen the writing on the wall for the declining Empire. They had abandoned their homeland and offered the Secret Stone to the Technomagic Kingdom as the price for asylum. Given that nation's advanced engineering, they would undoubtedly find countless ways to exploit such a unique and powerful artifact.
Once the truth came to light, the sequence of events was simple. The nobles stole the stone from a ruin in their territory, brought it to the Imperial Capital to apply concealment magic, and escaped just before the Great Spirit annihilated the city. Their escape from her pursuit was likely a stroke of sheer fortune. Personally, I wish she had caught them before they made it across the border; now, I am the one stuck cleaning up their mess.
I intend to abduct these defecting nobles and hand them over to the Great Spirit. I feel no sympathy for them. If their lives can appease her fury, it is a small price to pay. Remorse or reflection is irrelevant at this stage.
Notably, the Emperor was not among the defectors. This was a rogue operation by a subset of the aristocracy. It is a tragedy for those caught in the fallout, but with the capital gone, there is no one left to hold the traitors accountable. The Great Spirit’s retaliation was a death blow. Losing the central government and the Emperor in one stroke is a catastrophe far exceeding the damage I caused during my invasion. The Empire is beyond reconstruction. Its vast lands and remaining cities will likely be carved up by neighboring nations or fragment into independent city-states. The superpower of old is gone forever.
"What do you make of the report?" Luciana asked, leaning casually against the throne.
I handed back the documents and shook my head. "It was sheer idiocy. Incurring the wrath of the Great Spirit is something even I, as I am now, would never dream of doing."
This wasn't just a crime; it was an insult to a being that exists beyond human comprehension. I can understand the desperation to survive, but the cost of their survival was far too high. If I still possessed a living body, I would have let out a long sigh. If I had not stepped in to negotiate, the Great Spirit would have become an even greater calamity. By now, the entire Empire might have been wiped from the map. Even in avatar form, she is an extraordinary existence that no human could hope to stop.
Why did it have to be her Secret Stone? I cannot fathom the logic of those nobles. Did they not realize that taking such a thing would eventually provoke her? Was their own status so precious that they would risk global ruin? Perhaps the lives of others simply aren't part of their equations.
But then, that is the nature of humanity. They are the same creatures who gleefully executed the Hero and the Sage after we saved them. My inability to empathize with their hearts is nothing new. Humans are fundamentally, incurably foolish. And as someone who became the Demon King in a desperate bid for peace, I suppose I am no different.
"About the Empire's territory... since it's up for grabs, why don't we snatch some? I think we've earned a little piece of the pie," Luciana suggested provocatively.
"Agreed. Once this is settled, we will push our borders outward."
Reclaiming the stone is the priority, but the power vacuum left by the Empire cannot be ignored. They share a border with the Demon King's Domain. I could watch the other nations pick the carcass clean, but we might as well take our share to fuel our own development.
But first, we march on the Technomagic Kingdom. Regardless of their reasons, their role in harboring the thieves and the stone is a taboo I cannot overlook. We must retrieve it immediately.
Under the Great Spirit’s shadow, the world’s balance was shifting irrevocably.