Logout Error: My NPCs Now Worship Me

The panicked words of the dwarven sentry echoed in the mountain pass, painting a grim picture. "The Deep Roads have awakened." "The Crawlers have returned." "There is only death in Khaz'Modan."

Sir Kaelan's face was pale. "Crawlers? What are they? I've never heard of such a creature in any bestiary."

"Nor have I," Lilliana admitted, her mind racing. "Which means they are a subterranean threat, something the surface world has either never encountered or has long forgotten. This is why the gates are sealed. They are under siege from within their own mountain."

She turned away from the silent, monolithic gate, her expression no longer one of mere diplomacy, but of keen, predatory opportunity. "This changes everything. Our problem is no longer a lack of metal. It is a lack of access. The Dwarves are facing an enemy they cannot defeat, otherwise they would not be hiding. They are proud. For them to admit there is 'only death' means the situation is utterly hopeless."

"So we leave them to their fate?" Sir Kaelan asked. "Find another source of metal?"

"Absolutely not," Lilliana said, her grey eyes sharp as flint. "A dead kingdom of dwarves is of no use to us. A kingdom of dwarves indebted to us for their very existence? That is an asset of incalculable value. We are not here to trade for ore anymore, Kaelan. We are here to acquire the entire mountain."

Her ambition was breathtaking. She saw not a disaster, but a fire sale.

"Your Highness," Sir Kaelan cautioned, "even if we could help them, how do we even speak to them? They have shut us out."

"Fear is a lock, but desperation is the key," Lilliana stated. "They will speak to us. They just need to be more afraid of their current predicament than they are of us." She turned to her stoic guardian. "Force. One more knock. Not a request this time. A promise. Let them feel the power that waits outside their door."

Force nodded. He stepped before the Great Gate once more. This time, he did not use one hand. He drew both fists back, his stance widening, anchoring him to the very bedrock of the mountain. The runic tattoos all over his torso and arms began to glow with a blinding, golden intensity. The air itself seemed to crackle around him.

[Ultimate Skill: World-Shaker Fist]

He unleashed a single, devastating punch aimed at the center of the gate.

This time, there was a sound. It was not a 'dong'. It was a sound like the birth of a thunderstorm, a cataclysmic BOOM that ripped through the valley. The Great Gate of Khaz'Modan, a marvel of engineering that had stood unyielding for a millennium, visibly buckled inwards. A spiderweb of glowing orange cracks spread from the point of impact, and the massive adamantine bands groaned, bent and warped from the impossible force.

The gate did not break. But it screamed in agony. The message was now unequivocal. This door will fall whenever we wish it to.

Inside the mountain, the effect would have been apocalyptic. The shockwave would have thrown dwarves from their feet, shattered stone, and sent a tremor through the very heart of the citadel.

Lilliana waited for the echoes to fade. Then, she stepped forward, her voice projected with all the authority she could muster. "King Thrain Ironhand! This is Queen Lilliana of the Dominion of Nexus! Your enemy is within, but your salvation is without! My master, the Silent Sovereign, has the power to crush your 'Crawlers' as easily as his champion just buckled your 'unbreakable' gate! Open this door and accept our aid, or we will leave you to your fate! You have one hour to decide!"

She had laid her cards on the table. A threat, a promise, and a deadline. Now, all they could do was wait.

The Great Tomb of Nexus…

The events at the mountain gate were being displayed on the scrying mirror for Kaelus and the assembled Guardians. The mood was electric.

"She is... impressive," Gravity admitted, her voice laced with a grudging respect. "I had assumed her a mere political parasite, but her strategic thinking is sound. She correctly analyzed the situation and has maneuvered the Dwarves into a position of absolute desperation. She is creating an opportunity for you to gain new, indebted vassals."

Spidy chuckled, lounging on her customary perch. "She's got venom, that one. Cornering them, making them beg. I like her style. Still, I wonder how she'd fare against a real poison."

"The 'Crawlers'..." Kaelus's voice rumbled, drawing all attention. He was accessing the deep lore database of Yggdrasil Nova that was now integrated into his memory. "The name is not in the primary bestiary." He delved deeper, into the game's cut content and unfinished questlines. And then he found it.

A chill, even for a being like him, went down his spine.

"Ah," he said, a note of genuine gravity in his tone.

The Guardians all leaned forward, sensing the shift in their master's mood.

"The Crawlers are not a standard monster race," Kaelus explained, the forgotten lore flowing into his consciousness. "They were a planned 'world-ending event' for a high-level server expansion that was never released. They are a subterranean, insectoid hive-mind race. They do not conquer; they consume. They burrow through planets, devouring stone, metal, and life, converting it all into more of their own kind. They are led by a Hive Queen who alone possesses true sentience. According to the data... a single mature Hive Queen is a raid boss on par with a lower-tier Guardian."

A stunned silence fell over the throne room.

"On par with... us?" Boom grunted, his bravado fading for the first time. He was confident he could smash any monster, but a being with the power of a Guardian? That was a true fight.

"This explains the lockdown," Rose deduced, her face serious. "The Dwarves, in their deep excavations for ore, must have accidentally broken into a dormant hive. They have awakened a world-ending threat."

"And the little human Queen is standing right on their doorstep," Spidy mused. "This just got a lot more interesting."

The implications were dire. This wasn't a simple pest control problem. This was a potential planetary extinction event, a plague of locusts that could devour the entire world from the inside out.

"My Lord," Gravity said, her voice urgent, "we must act. If this Hive Queen is allowed to fully awaken and reproduce, the consequences would be catastrophic. I can teleport to the mountain and collapse the entire citadel into a singularity. It is the only way to be certain."

"No," Kaelus said, his voice firm. He looked at the scrying image of Lilliana, standing resolute before the sealed dwarven gate. His new Queen had put herself in the lair of a world-ending threat, and in doing so, had presented him with the perfect stage.

"To destroy the mountain would be to use a sledgehammer to perform surgery," he stated. "This is not a disaster. It is, as the Queen correctly identified, an opportunity."

He looked at his assembled Guardians. Their expressions were a mixture of excitement, bloodlust, and deadly seriousness.

"Lilliana has opened the door for us. The Dwarves will accept her offer. They have no other choice," he decreed. "When they do, we will make our entrance. This is not a task for a single Guardian. This will be a full-scale subjugation."

His silver eyes glowed, and a palpable wave of power washed through the room.

"You have all been eager to demonstrate your worth. You shall have your chance. We will descend into the heart of the mountain. We will face this Hive Queen and her brood. We will eradicate this 'world-ending threat' as if it were a common sewer rat."

He stood from his throne, his voice resonating with absolute, divine authority.

"The Dwarves sought to hide from the darkness below. We will show them true darkness. We will show them the power of Nexus. This world is not being devoured by some mindless insect. This world is mine. And I do not share my property."

He issued a series of telepathic commands. Alarms began to ring through the lower levels of the Tomb. His personal guard, the immortal, skeletal Doom Knights, began to assemble. His elite arcane assassins, the Shadow Weavers, began to sharpen their soul-blades. The entire military might of the Great Tomb of Nexus, which had lain dormant for so long, was beginning to awaken.

The Dwarves had a world-ender in their basement. But a god had just knocked on their front door.