novelraw Chapter 77: Gilded Dungeon
Chapter 77: Gilded Dungeon
The shimmering green water of the Transition Sea grew heavy. As the Kashima Maru crossed the invisible border into the Astral Realm of the God of Gold, the atmosphere underwent a chemical shift. The oxygen seemed to bind with ions, making every breath taste of copper and cold iron. This was the buffer zone, the final cage guarding the entrance to Aureum-Primus, the true sanctum of the God of Wealth.
Ren Hanshin stood at the prow, the Severance of Destiny held loosely at his side. The amber-red glow of the scythe’s blade cast long, jagged shadows across the deck, shadows that did not move with the swaying of the ship.
[Synchronization: 62.1%]
[Level: 109]
[Location: The Gilded Dungeon - Astral Realm]
Ahead of them, the horizon was no longer a line of water and sky. It was a vertical wall of solid, pulsating gold. It looked like a mountain range that had been melted and poured into the sea, forming a labyrinth of narrow canyons. This was the Gilded Dungeon, a sprawling, sentient maze that served as the primary defense for the God of Wealth. To reach the Sovereign, one had to navigate a path where the very walls were hungry for the value of the traveler.
"The rudders aren’t responding!" Kaito’s voice crackled over the intercom, his tone bordering on panic. "Ren! The water... it’s turning into a slurry. We’re being pulled into the canyons!"
Ren looked down. The green water was indeed thickening, turning into a river of molten brass. The current was not natural, a magnetic pull generated by the Golden God to draw intruders into the heart of the maze.
"Do not fight the current, Kaito," Ren commanded, his dual-tone voice vibrating the ship’s glass. "Lower the anchors. Not to stop us, but to act as lightning rods. The gold wants our mana, not our steel. Give it a path of least resistance."
HUSHH!
Ren stepped off the ship before the first anchor hit the brass slush. He dropped like a stone, the Severance of Destiny cutting a crimson arc through the heavy air. He landed on the shore of the Gilded Dungeon, a pier made of solid, polished bullion.
[Weaver watching in absolute silence.]
Weaver’s presence was a cold, sharp pressure against his spine. She was agitated. The scent of gold was an insult to her silk.
[Weaver]: This place is a trap of stagnation, Ren. The God of Gold is a hoarder of threads. Look at the walls. They are full of the valuable ones who came before us.
Ren looked. Within the translucent golden walls of the canyon, he could see the silhouettes of ancient warriors, kings, and even minor deities. They were preserved, their bodies turned into statues of high-carat gold, their final expressions of greed or terror frozen for eternity. They were the assets of the God of Gold.
"Abyssal Circle," Ren whispered.
He didn’t manifest it to fight. He manifested it to perceive.
The synchronization allowed his intent to ripple outward, bouncing off the metallic surfaces. He saw the maze for what it truly looked like a giant digestive system. The God of Gold was the guardian of the God of Wealth’s gate, and his job was to refine the intruders. He would strip away their humanity, their memories, and their magic, leaving behind only the pure, valuable mana to be stored in the vaults of Aureum-Primus.
"Ren! Gold! It’s climbing the ship!" Haru’s scream pierced the silence. Ren turned to see the Kashima Maru entering the mouth of the canyon. The brass slush was rising up the hull, turning the rusted iron of the ship into a beautiful, but brittle, gold. It was a conceptual infection. If it reached the survivors, they would become statues before they could even scream.
Ren’s obsidian eyes flared with a lethal, crimson starlight. "Second Form - Thread of Guillotine."
He swung the scythe in a massive, horizontal sweep. He didn’t hit the gold. He hit the value of the gold.
Millions of microscopic red threads erupted from the scythe, lacing through the brass slush. Ren pulled back on the handle, and the concept of the gold was unraveled.
The brass turned back into common, muddy water. The gilded hull of the
Kashima Maru reverted to rusted iron.
The God of Gold did not take the insult lightly. From the walls of the canyon, a figure began to emerge. It was a titan, thirty feet tall, made of a patchwork of different precious metals like platinum, gold, and silver. It had no face, only a giant, circular coin where a head should be. In its hand, it carried a massive hammer that looked like a royal scepter.
The Mint-Master - Astral Guardian of Gold.
"Everything has a price, Executioner," the Mint-Master spoke, the sound like a mountain of coins collapsing. "You bring the Weaver’s silk into my vault. Do you know how much a yard of divine starlight is worth? I shall peel it from your bones and add it to my Sovereign’s treasury."
The Mint-Master lunged. The hammer came down with the force of a plane crash, the air itself becoming heavy with the weight of conceptual debt.
Ren didn’t dodge. He moved into the strike. "Shinen-ryu Style: Yata-no-Kagami!"
Ren spun the scythe. The curved blade caught the head of the Mint-Master’s hammer. Usually, this technique involved eight strikes to deflect, but Ren used the scythe’s hook to redirect. He channeled the gravity of his domain into the point of contact.
The Mint-Master’s hammer was pulled into the golden floor, the sheer weight of the intent making the titan stumble.
Ren didn’t waste a microsecond. He stepped onto the Mint-Master’s arm, his boots leaving glittering amber prints on the platinum surface.
"You talk of prices," Ren said, his voice a cold, dual-tone harmonic. "But you’ve forgotten the one thing that has no value."
"And what is that, little brat?" the Mint-Master roared, trying to shake Ren off.
"The Dirt," Ren whispered.
He plunged the blade of the scythe into the center of the Mint-Master’s coin-head.
He didn’t use a divine skill. He channeled the weight into the heart of the Golden Guardian.
The Mint-Master let out a sound of absolute, metallic agony. The value of his body was being corrupted. The platinum and gold began to turn back into raw ore, then into common stone, and finally into grey, worthless dust.
[Consumption of Astral Guardian in progress...]
[Synchronization: 62.1% -> 62.5%]
The Mint-Master dissolved, his conceptual mass being fed into Ren’s scythe. The golden walls of the canyon began to groan and crack, the Gilded Dungeon losing its structural integrity as its heart was harvested.
Ren stood in the middle of the crumbling maze, his starlight hair drifting in the mana-storm. He felt the Weaver’s joy, a warm, possessive heat in his mind. But he also felt the fatigue returning. The synchronisation was pushing his human heart to the limit.
He looked back at the fleet. The survivors were staring at him through the bridge windows. They weren’t cheering. They were terrified. They saw a man who had just turned a mountain of gold into dust with a single touch.
"Ren... your hands," Haru whispered over the comms.
Ren looked down. His left human hand was no longer pale. It was encased in a thin, translucent layer of gold. He hadn’t been fast enough to avoid the conceptual spray of the Mint-Master’s death.
[Condition: Midas-Infection (Stage 1)]
[Alert: Humanity is being Encased]
The God of Wealth was already buying him.
"I’m fine," Ren lied, his voice sounding more like the Weaver’s than his own.
He gripped the scythe, and the light of the blade burned away the gold on his hand, but the skin beneath remained cold and numb. He realized that in the realm of Wealth, every victory had a cost.
"Kaito, move the ships through the gap!" Ren commanded. "The maze is falling. We have to reach the gate of Aureum-Primus before the walls solidify again!"
The Kashima Maru surged forward, the engines roaring as the brass slush turned back into water. Ren ran along the crumbling golden piers, his scythe carving a path through the falling debris.
They reached the end of the canyon.
Ahead of them, the Astral Realm ended. The bruised violet sky was replaced by a sky of blinding gold. The sea was a vast expanse of shimmering coins that stretched for thousands of miles. And in the center of that golden sea, rising higher than any mountain Ren had ever seen, was the city of Aureum-Primus.
It was a city of skyscrapers made of diamonds, streets paved with liquid sun, and air that tasted of pure greed.
Ren stood at the border of the Sovereign’s realm. He felt the Weaver’s thread tighten around his throat, a reminder of the contract. He felt the pulse in his marrow.
He looked at the golden city and felt a profound thirst. He was thirsty for the one thing the God of Wealth couldn’t buy.
"I’m coming for the crown," Ren whispered to the golden sky.
As the Kashima Maru sailed into the sea, Ren Hanshin realized that he had already paid the first installment for his sister’s life. He had forgotten how it felt to be warm.