Chapter 188: EXPANDING SANCTUARY
Iron Jaw remained on his knees, his massive frame bowed in reverence before Aaron, his loyalty absolute after being shattered and reformed by the overwhelming display of power. The icy chamber, its walls glistening with frost under the dim glow of mana crystals, seemed to hold its breath, the air thick with the weight of Aaron’s dominion.
"Good. Now, the rest of your people. I want their loyalty as well," Aaron commanded, his voice steady and unyielding, seated upon his throne of swirling shadows, his presence an unshakable monolith in the frozen expanse.
"I will see to it," Iron Jaw replied solemnly, rising to his feet and departing the chamber with purpose, his heavy footsteps crunching against the icy floor, leaving faint cracks in their wake.
Aaron, uninterested in waiting idly for Iron Jaw to rally his people, exerted his mastery over time. With a subtle gesture, he accelerated the flow of time around him, compressing an entire day into a fleeting instant, the world blurring momentarily as the icy winds stilled and the light from the mana crystals flickered in rapid succession.
Iron Jaw returned, unaware of the temporal manipulation, believing a full day had passed. To him, the effort to sway his people had been arduous, but to Aaron, not even a minute had elapsed. The troll knelt once more, his massive form trembling slightly, his voice heavy with regret. "Forgive me, my lord. I have failed in convincing everyone to be loyal to you. Led by my second-in-command, who has always coveted my position, two-thirds of my people have chosen to rebel against the decision."
"A third chose to surrender, huh? That’s a better number than I expected. There’s no need to beat yourself. Their loyalty is all I need," Aaron replied calmly, his expression unreadable, his fingers tapping rhythmically on the arm of his shadow throne, exuding an air of indifference that belied his absolute control.
"Then what should we do with those who refuse to pledge their allegiance?" Iron Jaw asked, his icy brow furrowing as he struggled to anticipate Aaron’s intentions, his voice tinged with unease.
"You’ve been with me for a while. What do you think I’ll do?" Aaron directed the question to Garganth, his gaze shifting to the frostmaw troll standing obediently behind him, the air growing colder as the weight of his attention settled.
Garganth straightened abruptly, his massive frame tensing under Aaron’s scrutiny, fear flickering in his glowing eyes as he hurried to respond, wary of wasting his master’s time. "You will kill them all," he answered swiftly, his voice steady despite the tremor in his limbs, drawing from his firsthand knowledge of Aaron’s ruthless efficiency.
"Ha. Just like me. That will work, my lord. Perhaps if they witness your strength, they’ll swear their loyalty to you," Iron Jaw nodded, his tone approving as he saw the logic in intimidation, having been subdued by Aaron’s power himself. He believed it could sway even the most defiant of his kin.
"You’re getting it wrong, Sir Iron Jaw," Garganth interjected, shaking his head, his voice low and cautious, aware that the troll leader still hadn’t grasped the full extent of Aaron’s nature.
"Huh?" Iron Jaw grunted, confusion etching his rugged features as he turned to his fellow troll.
"They won’t be resurrected. They will be dead for good," Garganth clarified, his words heavy with the certainty born from witnessing Aaron’s unrelenting decisiveness.
"Good," Aaron acknowledged, nodding in approval at Garganth’s insight, his expression as impassive as ever, the chamber’s chill seeming to deepen in response to his quiet authority.
Aaron didn’t have the luxury or the inclination to coerce every individual into loyalty. Only those who caught his interest, like Iron Jaw, warranted such effort. In his view, the trolls stood to gain far more from serving him than he did from their allegiance, so why beg for their submission?
"My lord, if you’ll please give me one last chance to convince as many as I can," Iron Jaw pleaded, his voice thick with discomfort. Despite his submission, the thought of losing over half his people gnawed at him, compelling him to seek a reprieve for his kin.
"You have two hours," Aaron granted with a nod, his tone indifferent. If more could be swayed, it served his purposes; if not, their loss was inconsequential. His true interest lay in the planet’s core. The trolls were merely a bonus to ease his conscience.
Iron Jaw departed once more, and Aaron again manipulated time, compressing the two hours into an instant. The troll returned, his shoulders slumped, having convinced only half of the remaining dissenters. "I’ve done all I could, my lord," he reported, kneeling once more, his voice heavy with resignation.
"Guess that’s it, then," Aaron said with a faint, cold smile, raising a hand as hellfire flames erupted across the planet, a crimson and black inferno programmed with surgical precision to consume only those trolls lacking any shred of loyalty to him, leaving the faithful unharmed.
The disloyal were incinerated instantly, their screams swallowed by the roaring flames as they crumbled to ash, the icy landscape scorched black in patches where the fire touched. The survivors stood frozen in awe and terror, the air thick with the acrid scent of charred remains.
Aaron opened a rift with a gesture, a shimmering vortex of shadow and light that pulsed with otherworldly energy. Through it, he sent the surviving frostmaw trolls to the Sanctuary, his personal dimension. His parents, acting as temporary stewards, organized a settlement for the trolls within the Sanctuary’s expanding confines until its infrastructure could be fully developed.
With the planet now devoid of its inhabitants, Aaron turned his attention to its core. He bored through the icy crust, his form sinking effortlessly through layers of frost and stone, the temperature plummeting as he descended into the planet’s heart, the air growing heavy with the raw mana emanating from its core.
Reaching the glowing, crystalline core. A pulsating orb of condensed planetary energy. Aaron placed his hand upon it, initiating the devouring process. What should have taken a day was completed in an instant, Aaron accelerating time around himself, the core’s light dimming as its essence flowed into him, drained completely in a matter of moments.
With its core depleted, the planet began to fold inward, its structure collapsing as it imploded with a low, resonant groan, the ice cracking and shattering under the strain. Aaron paused time just as the collapse began, the planet frozen in mid-destruction, its jagged fragments suspended in a silent tableau.
Stepping through a rift, Aaron allowed the planet to complete its implosion, the cataclysmic event unfolding in a muted spectacle as he observed the changes in the Sanctuary from afar.