Urban Plundering: I Corrupted The System!-Chapter 404: Anchor: The Nyxlith Palace

"This is the second gift, I guess," Parker muttered, exhaling through his nose, eyes flicking up toward the shimmering dome overhead like it was watching him back. The damn thing glowed like the aurora and felt heavier than fate itself.

Then—whoosh—Nyxavere shot into the sky like a silver bullet wrapped in chaos. She didn't even announce it. Typical her. A flash of violet, a gust of wind, and she was hovering right above the dome, arms back, fist glowing.

"Oh fuck, here we go," Parker whispered.

Boom.

She punched the dome straight on, her power blazing like she was trying to crack the heavens open. The dome didn't crack. It didn't even shake. It just... bent. Slightly. Like a soap bubble trying to decide whether or not to take her seriously. Then it swallowed the force, folded it into itself like it was munching on god-power for breakfast.

Nyxavere landed a second later, her boots sparking as she touched down.

"Okay yeah," she said, brushing nonexistent dust off her shoulder, "Even if Zeus called down the entire heavenly thunder squad to strike this thing, it wouldn't even blink. Nada. That dome's built different. Tía really doesn't fuck around."

Parker chuckled. "Thank you Nyxavere~" He knew that already but thanked her anyways.

He turned back to the gathering of Origin Families now standing along the palace terrace like it was some mythical courtroom. Leaders. Elders. Heirs. All watching him. Waiting. The air still crackling with fresh power.

He took a breath.

"Alright," he said, voice even but honest. "This is a big change. Huge, actually. And I get that not everyone's gonna be instantly cool with it. So let me be real."

He looked around at all of them, scanning every face like flipping through pages of a history book he'd written himself. He knew them—not just by name or bloodline, but deep. He'd lived with their ancestors before, fought beside them, they'd bled for him. Some he'd saved. Some he'd scared shitless. And these? These were the descendants of his first-generation creations. Kids of the originals.

Just like their ancestors, if he told them to jump, they'd probably leap off a cliff with a smile and a salute without even asking how high.

But even with that kind of authority—even as their creator, their fucking overlord—Parker never liked playing dictator. Not with the ones close to him.

He always gave his people—especially the ones in his inner circle—a little something extra: free will.

Because that's the thing about loyalty. Real loyalty? You don't need to chain it. Even though they trusted him as their creator, he didn't exploit that way too much.

'I guess, I'm not as emotionally damaged as I had thought.' perhaps the presence of everyone and punishing those who wronged him the most had eased him.

"If any of you aren't comfortable being a part of the Nyxlith Palace right now... no hard feelings. Seriously. I'll personally buy you a mansion—hell, something better than what you had before. Outside this zone. Anywhere you want. Paris, Tokyo, Dubai, even fuckin' Tulum. Off-grid, with full security. Your comfort matters."

They could tell he meant it too.

He wasn't flexing. Wasn't posturing. Just being real. This whole Existence Royal Family palace upgrade had dropped on them fast, and just because it was gifted by El, didn't mean it was gonna sit well with everybody. Truth was, yeah—every mansion had been upgraded into something no mortal architect could even dream of building—better than their previous mansions, but Parker didn't want that to be the reason they stayed.

He wanted them to want it.

It might've looked like he was soft—too calm, too damn chill for someone who could bend reality with a thought—but anyone who really knew Parker understood it was the exact opposite. This wasn't softness.

This was control. A kind of control only a monster with self-awareness could pull off.

Yeah, he was cold as fuck to his enemies—merciless, cruel, surgical with his wrath. And sure, he had full authority over every person standing in front of him. They knew that. They felt it. But the wild thing? He wasn't the type to flex that authority just because he could.

Parker wasn't the kind of overlord who controlled people who'd done nothing to deserve it. He didn't move like that.

If you hadn't crossed him, he wasn't going to play god over your choices. That wasn't his vibe.

Even kings—mundane, mortal kings—understood the importance of giving their councils and inner circles a little space, a little breathing room. So what about a creator, a primordial-level, no, Existential-level being like him? He frёewebηovel.cѳm

would understand that ten times deeper.

He didn't make them to be puppets.

He made them to be helpers. Allies. Trusted soldiers. But most of all?

They were his inner circle. His familia. His originals.

And then—light chuckles.

From all of them.

Parker blinked. "Uh... what's funny?"

That's when Shadowmire stepped forward, the man moved with the kind of slow grace that made time feel optional. He bowed, deep and full of purpose.

"Prince," he said, voice steady like a drumbeat under calm water. "You were long overdue."

Another pause, and then he smiled faintly. "Every one of us... we've been waiting for this day. Legends have whispered it. The return. The unification. The rise of the Nyxlith Palace. None of us doubted it would come. We just didn't know when. And we didn't want to miss it."

Parker's brows lifted a bit.

The others all nodded in agreement, some even chuckling again like they were trying to hold back the wave of relief they'd buried for generations.

"Meaning?"

Then the Zhangs stepped forward, bold and sharp as always, their presence slicing clean through the moment.

"Only in the presence of the Original," one of them said, bowing slightly, "can the Origin Families unlock their full potential."

Another voice joined in—Zhang Ruoyun's fathe, "The prince misunderstood us. We were never comfortable in separate homes. We endured it because the place we're supposed to be in as one wasn't there yet, not yet built as you hadn't awakened; The Palace. But the palace is here now... this palace connects us."

They all turned to the dome, the magic, the throne of it all.

"We came here to stay not to go back later..."

"The palace connects them to their Creator," Zhang Ruoyun added quietly. "To the anchor of their bloodlines. And to the reason they even exist."

Parker swallowed hard.

No more words came out.

Not because he was speechless, but because for once... he didn't need to say anything.

The Palace said it all.