"Your Majesty, why... why is this happening? The rising and setting of the sun is an eternal law of the world. How could it be so easily altered?"
"It is truly inconceivable."
Trump looked up toward the sky as well, his expression grave.
As an archmage, the ogre could sense the disturbances in the Weave and the shifting of cosmic laws far more acutely than most.
Just moments ago, he had felt the ambient elemental energies grow wildly unstable, surging and ebbing like turbulent tides. Immediately following that, all magic associated with light and heat had suffered a discernible decay.
"No, the laws you perceive are not eternal. Even gods... have their days of decline."
"Rest assured."
"This will not last long."
"Once that deity enters deep slumber, everything will return to normal. The sun will rise as usual—it will simply be slightly dimmer."
So spoke Cassius.
In Elezerg, the sun was not a burning star, but the embodiment of divine authority, a projection of cosmic order. Sigil, for instance, possessed no celestial body resembling a sun, yet underwent daily shifts in direct illumination all the same.
Upon the "suns" of certain Material Planes, elemental beings even made their dwelling.
Amaunator was the deity who held authority over the sun. If something went awry with his divine power and sanity, the "sun" of the Material Plane would fluctuate in response.
Yet the laws of the cosmos were fundamentally resilient; even deities were bound by their divine portfolios and could hardly overturn them at whim.
According to his memories, this "Calamity of the Solar Order" would conclude after seven days.
"Amaunator."
"Truly a terrifying power," Cassius mused, gazing up at the celestial sphere as it sank toward oblivion, leaving only a rim of crimson behind.
*The Holy Fadlan Empire...*
*I must claim their entire legacy and uncover the secrets left behind by the old emperor—wealth precious enough to achieve godhood.*
So Cassius thought.
Memories of his past life stirred anew.
In his previous life, the truth behind the death of the "Sun Emperor," Aragorn I, had been deliberately concealed by the three kingdoms, buried deep beneath the dust of history.
The three kingdoms, normally bitter rivals, had acted in unison on this matter: virtually anyone who knew the truth was slaughtered, and all relevant historical records were reduced to ashes.
Yet several years later, the players still managed to unearth the long-buried secret and piece together several plausible answers.
One hundred and fifty years ago, Aragorn I used a mysterious artifact to conduct a renowned ritual of sacrifice.
On that day, the sun blazed with unprecedented intensity.
Through this, he caught Amaunator's eye and received the Sun God's grace, transforming hundreds of his vassals into god-blooded beings and founding the famed Blazing Sun Legion.
Aragorn I himself was personally bestowed with a blessing by Amaunator.
He became the immortal "Son of the Sun," leaping to the status of a near-demigod in a single bound.
Leading the Blazing Sun Legion on campaigns in every direction, Aragorn I conquered in succession the northern barbarians' Kingdom of Gunther, the southern Kingdom of Lotito, and the western Kingdom of Manasseh, driving the high elves back into their forests.
In a mere twenty years, he forged an empire that spanned the Feanso Continent—Holy Fadlan.
Aragorn I had accomplished a grand undertaking never before achieved by his forebears.
Yet his ambition knew no end.
The emperor even led his armies across planes such as the Gray Waste, the Plain of Infinite Portals, and Gehenna, doing battle with devils, demons, and even celestials, and constructed several fortresses in the Astral Plane to serve as staging grounds.
A century of rapid expansion followed.
The world prostrated itself at the empire's feet.
The glory of the Holy Fadlan Empire spread throughout the multiverse, and all the empire's people grew proud, confident, and arrogant beyond precedent.
Yet over that century, Aragorn I's ambitions continued to swell. No longer content with merely being an emperor, he conceived a far more audacious idea—one that could only be regarded as blasphemy:
He intended to supplant Amaunator and become a true god.
And so, he erected the Tower of the Eternal Sun God and once more held a grand sacrificial ceremony, praying for Amaunator to descend.
But this time, Aragorn I had uncovered a blasphemous twelfth-circle spell from forgotten ancient ruins—*Apotheosis*. He had even employed some esoteric method to shield the world from sensing the spell.
When Amaunator descended, Aragorn I unleashed that magic, transforming the Eternal Pyramid originally meant for worship into a cage to bind a god.
The avatar of the Sun God roared in fury.
The entire pyramid shuddered.
The world's divine authorities shifted.
In that instant, Aragorn I attained the divine portfolio of the Sun God he had dreamed of, yet he lacked the divine power required to master the sun's authority.
Endless light and heat surged within him, like a volcano poised to erupt.
In the very next moment, the erupting sun incinerated Aragorn I to ashes.
That obstinate, conceited, and fiercely ambitious emperor had indeed fulfilled his desire, becoming the true Sun God.
Yet it was for only a single instant.
After this farcical disaster, Amaunator reclaimed his divine throne. But the ordeal left him grievously wounded and profoundly weakened; his solar divine power turned volatile, throwing the order of dawn and dusk into disarray.
Now, he had only one choice: to enter a deep slumber lasting several centuries to recover.
And before falling into slumber, Amaunator, enraged by the mortals' blasphemy, withdrew his divine favor from Holy Fadlan.
The sacred sunlight no longer shone upon Fadlan, and the so-called "god-blooded" of the empire steadily lost their power.
Having desecrated a deity, the empire had lost its protection at last, undone by mortal ambition and ignorance.
The sun dimmed.
Flames of war swept across Feanso.
The colossal Holy Fadlan crumbled in an instant.
Tiamat, abyssal demons, hellish devils, and factions of every stripe seized the opportunity to pour into the Material Plane. In the wake of the empire's glory and splendor, a tumultuous, chaotic new era had begun.
...
The sun had already set. A lingering streak of twilight clung to the horizon, and the curtain of night fell heavy and dark.
Cassius could almost hear the wails and laments of the people caught in the fires of war to the south, and the tremors shaking the earth on the battlefields.
In the opening years of the conflict, the afterglow of Fadlan had not yet faded, and the three kingdoms that inherited the empire's legacy remained at the zenith of their strength.
Over a hundred legendary god-blooded, thousands of Sun Warriors, and nearly a million mortal soldiers clashed across central Feanso, fighting until the skies darkened and the earth cracked open, reducing the region to little more than a bloody ruin.
The corpse of Holy Fadlan was thus being trampled and torn apart by its own offspring.
Cassius narrowed his eyes, a glint flashing deep within his golden slit pupils. He slowly extended a claw, a blazing flame erupting from his palm.
"What a brutal age."
"And yet... it suits me perfectly."
"The glory of Holy Fadlan has faded, and a new dawn is about to rise... The old king is dead, and a new king shall rise."
Chapter 385