Nighttime neon lights came on, and news spread as if on wings through the brightly lit city.
The power behind Cooper District had finally relented and was willing to speak with the influential figures at the pinnacle of the city's power.
In a discreetly furnished office in a building over forty stories tall, a gentleman wearing a monocle laughed heartily.
"Wonderful, my friend! We can finally control all of Voltoles and pay our highest respects to the great god!"
On the sofa before him, a wealthy merchant whose name resounded throughout the empire's southwest tapped the pocket watch in his hand, an eerie, cold gleam reflecting in his azure eyes.
"Heh, fools who don't know what's good for them will eventually lose everything beneath the gaze of the divine being."
His voice was still echoing when both men vanished.
Similar scenes played out across the city. Gang bosses, city administrators, financial titans, heads of ancient families... extraordinary figures whose stature ordinary people could scarcely imagine were all stirred into action.
Ever since faith in the divine being had descended, they had gained complete control over most of the city.
Only Cooper District had eluded them. Believers who entered it had repeatedly disappeared without explanation, as though someone behind the scenes was resisting the god's arrival.
In terms of influence and strength alone, the divine being's believers were confident they could crush anything.
But their opponent was like a rat, never confronting them directly, only hunting the divine being's believers in secret. This had kept them from completing the task the God Envoy had assigned them: to control the entire city, down to the smallest detail!
In southeastern Cooper District, an old residence over two hundred years old stood on private grounds. The material of its courtyard walls still hinted