Buying a World Cataclysm as a slave may take a few years. but it's doable. Securing a Nexus Being, though? That's an entirely different nightmare. Decades of Theo's covert work in the underworld - using shadow swords and hidden agents - had yielded just one rental. A rental. And every major syndicate or hidden order that possessed a Nexus Being as a slave had the same response to offers of purchase: absolute refusal. Theo's anger at their reactions burned in his chest, but. deep down, he understood. A Nexus Being - this kind of existence - might have once been a planetary emperor, or a general serving a Millennial Emperor, or even a formidable nomadic warlord whose very name once sent systems trembling. These people don't go quietly. They kill themselves rather than be captured. And if one does get captured? Finding a ritual or enchantment to keep them obedient is near impossible. So if someone actually managed to enslave one. there's no way in hell they'd sell them. Ever. The mounting frustration - and the crushing, constant pressure on the First Army - was grinding Theo down day by day. Caesar was now on the verge of launching a major campaign against the Iron Boar Empire, but they lacked the strength to dethrone the planetary emperor ruling it. And worse. there were whispers - rumors - that this emperor may not be standing alone. That allies, hidden in the folds of space, could appear at the worst possible moment. And on the other front? Renara and her sister had begun suffocating the campaign with chains of bureaucracy. They insisted every planet the army intended to conquer be reviewed, inspected, and assigned supervisors, slowing the engine of war to a crawl. It got so maddening that Caesar himself told Theo in private, "I'd rather strike the Nine Paths Empire before we're done with the Iron Boar fools!" The pressure kept building. So Theo returned to his search again - desperate to find another Nexus Being, or two, even if just for short-term contracts. He found one. For sale. Finally. The slave was held by a branch of that infamous syndicate. But. there was a problem. They wanted seven billion energy crystals. Theo laughed bitterly when he heard the number. He even asked if they'd misunderstood - were they offering him a Crowned Monarch, not a Nexus Being?
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