Ch.296The Empire’s Last Stand. Arius Underground City (2)

[…therefore. I need your help. Send personnel and materials promptly.]

[Understood, my lord. We’ve already built enough structures to fill an entire mountain range. Building one city should be no challenge at all.]

[Thank you for saying so.]

[No need for thanks. Considering how much we’re paid in orichalcon, this level of service is practically free.]

Viktor moved quickly. He had requested help from Turianic Industries under his command to assist with Arius’s surface development.

If one were to ask why he went to such lengths, it was because he was the God of the Sun. What god would abandon their followers and leave for somewhere else?

Well, technically he did abandon the sun, but that’s a bit different, isn’t it?

After Viktor became half a god, communication with Saburo became impossible, but that wasn’t particularly disadvantageous. When one is part of the sun itself, is there really any need to communicate with another part?

From far away, rockets from the ancient empire began arriving to deliver necessary resources, and in a few days, workers and engineers from Turianic Industries’ construction division would be deployed to build the city.

And until then, the people of Arius would have to build their own living space.

“Listen, people! We bring you glorious news: the God of the Sun walks among us in this world. Earn the sun’s favor through honorable labor and be reborn as more sublime beings. The lazy and idle will be reborn as true workers through merciful corporal punishment.”

“The Sun has given us everything! Flowing water, high skies, and clouds. The fertile earth and vast oceans are all His grace! Only the faithful shall enjoy the blessing of walking this world! Close your mouths and move your legs and hands to lead His body and soul through hardship and trials! The Sun sets His gaze upon those who fight!”

And naturally, the military couldn’t be left out of such an undertaking.

All manner of surface monsters and bandit groups were being relegated to the past tense by the power of the armored division. The subjects of Arius, now able to safely gather resources from the secured surroundings, trembled at the abundance of surface resources and reaffirmed their loyalty to Viktor.

“Viktor Walker is the God of the Sun!!!”

The 1.3 million citizens of Arius, who uttered this obvious truth at every mealtime, devoted themselves to building the surface city through diligent labor, even giving up their holidays.

It was as if they were trying to compensate for having lived their entire lives in the damp, dark underground.

A week passed like that. Then a month.

“By order of the CEO, we’ve come to see the God of the Sun. What would you have us do?”

“You shall build the water supply, greywater system, sewage system, power facilities, and heating facilities. Can you do it?”

“Of course. Leave it to us.”

The technicians who arrived from Turianic Industries began constructing essential social infrastructure—what we commonly call “infrastructure”—under Viktor’s command.

Next came the need for administrative power.

Viktor entrusted this matter to Simon, who began gathering those who had been in charge of administration in Arius to form the city’s government.

“The most urgent matter is securing resources to maintain the city’s functions. We need coal and oil to run the generators, and fortunately, there’s a coal deposit nearby. You will lead the technicians to build a mine at the coal deposit and supply coal to the city.”

“Understood.”

“Next are building materials… We need iron, limestone, gravel, and sand. Fortunately, Viktor has provided satellite images showing where these resources are located. Soldiers will accompany you, so you needn’t worry about safety.”

With those words, Simon began sending people to extract resources needed to build and maintain the city.

Iron is the rice of industry, and concrete is the wheat of construction.

Unlike other cities, Arius had a hollow underground, so to erect high-rise buildings, they needed to fill in the underground again. All 1.3 million citizens, from children to the elderly, were utilized as labor to bring their past heritage into the sunlight of the surface.

“Soon a museum will be built. All these will become relics of the past.”

“Things we were using just days ago are now relics… Is this the power of a god?”

With each passing day, buildings were erected, roads were paved, and water and electricity were connected.

It was a sight they could never have seen in the cramped underground, so the citizens, moved by the green nature and vast world of the surface, brought all resources from below to develop the surface city.

In just a few days, the museum was completed, and everyday items people had used in the underground city met the glorious fate of being preserved as relics inside.

Some donated diaries and dolls, others donated lanterns that had illuminated the underground.

And some donated pickaxes and shovels used to dig underground. The museum’s spacious capacity was filled to the brim in just three days, and requests for expansion began pouring in even before the city hall was built.

After multiple expansions, the museum was established as a building even larger than the city hall, which reflected Viktor’s intentions as well.

There was an opinion that to maintain Arius’s position as a historical landmark in the future, as many historical materials as possible should be preserved.

Thus, the museum, which set the unprecedented record of being built before the city hall, instantly became the city’s landmark, and citizens exhausted from hard labor visited the museum whenever they had time to reminisce about the past.

Though less than three months had passed, returning to their birthplace, which was being filled with concrete, had become forever impossible, so their memories would now gain eternal life in the museum, under the gaze of all.

*

April 8, 1203.

Three days had passed since Raisha’s grand birthday party.

“Soon we’ll have electricity and running water. How much time has passed? It’s already April.”

“At least a month has gone by. But it’s been fun in its own way, hasn’t it?”

“Yes, that’s true.”

Though they were in the midst of building the city, the Iron Walker Party enjoyed adventures under the pretext of identifying potential threats.

Since Arius had only lived underground until now, they were unfamiliar with the surrounding terrain, and creating maps by exploring the area with satellite images was the adventure Viktor had dreamed of before his awakening as the God of the Sun.

“Ah… truly beautiful…. If the surroundings of Arius are like this, how beautiful must the Pale Forest be!”

Viktor said this as he looked around at the surrounding forest.

Moss full of moisture, towering trees with deep roots, and sunlight filtering through dense leaves… all of this was possible thanks to the sun’s blessing.

“Am I trying to bring down the one who built this magnificent world… It will be difficult.”

Looking at young plants beginning to sprout in the spring warmth after overcoming winter’s chill, Viktor muttered those words.

Is it really possible to extinguish the sun?

Even if the lighthouse were completed after tens of thousands of years of grand construction, if the world doesn’t let go of the sun, wouldn’t it all be in vain? Could Viktor, born not as someone extraordinary but rather as a lowly street orphan, truly have the ability to lead this great plan?

He can build cities. He can save villages. He can rule continents and guide people.

But the world?

Can he handle this world that encompasses villages, cities, people, and continents?

He briefly created a small sun in his hand and held it near a sprouting seedling.

The seedling immediately burned to death, and Viktor withdrew the sun.

“Is life so fragile…”

“How hot is that sun thing?”

“About 5000 degrees Celsius, I think?”

“Hey, even iron melts at 1400 degrees.”

Lucia thought that if he’s going to call it “life’s fragility” after killing something with something much hotter than a flamethrower, then perhaps no one in this world is fragile.

Of course, Viktor is immune to light and heat, but that’s because Viktor is light and heat, and furthermore, Viktor is no longer human, for better or worse.

“But they say even thermite white phosphorus can’t burn the World Tree.”

“A seedling isn’t the World Tree…”

For the first time in a very long while, Lucia found a precious opportunity to lecture Viktor.