The people in the Throne Hall waited a long time, but that group never came.
They gradually realized what had happened. Soon, every project was halted, and every "Theus" put down their work and went to support their companions in Gem Bay.
How many clones had there been? Fifty? A hundred?
Even Theus could not remember, but with everyone working together, the city-state of Gem Bay developed at a staggering pace.
Every clone was an almost omnipotent engineer or administrator. They were utterly loyal, incorruptible, and selfless. Just a few of them could build an entire factory from the ground up.
The city-state here had practically leaped straight from tribal society into the steam age.
The clones possessed only intelligence and no combat power, but the Named Ones had gathered as well. Every one of them was a seasoned Transcendent, having fought alongside the clones through who knew how many civilizations they had built.
With all these people together, they had no enemies left but the gods.
That was how it should have been.
"Damn it, we still failed!"
"We were so close!!"
"I told you, we can't trust those Fishmen!"
"What else can we do if we don't trust them? Which one of us can dive to the ocean floor and mine?"
The clones in the Throne Room fell silent.
They had indeed found a way to deal with the gods, but the strange Blackstone existed only beneath the sea. As a result, the entire city-state was completely at the mercy of the Fishmen.
And the Fishmen... were believers of the Sea God.
"There are also the Banshees. If we could win their help, perhaps..."
"What if they turn out just like the Fishmen?"
"Then we should build machines capable of operating underwater. The Mechanical Cathedral seems to have