Aetherios System [Slow Build OP MC, Isekai LitRPG/Cultivation] Chapter 107: Book 2: Chapter 24: Gala Politics

Read chapter 107 of Aetherios System [Slow Build OP MC, Isekai LitRPG/Cultivation] by TTReynolds on NovelPedia.

Book 2: Chapter 24: Gala Politics Book 2: Chapter 24: Gala Politics They made their way down the hallway toward the ballroom together, as a single unit. As they walked, Alex couldn’t help but notice this area of the Palace was a little bit more lavish then the rest. The magic taken up a notch in the decoration’s department. Not just polished and pretty, alive . Lights were embedded in the vaulted ceiling, their illumination pulsed eerily in sync with the team's footfalls as they walked. Subtle color-shifts bloomed outward over the walls in reaction with each emotional ripple that they gave off, like a they walked through the inside of a mood ring. Garret’s nervous laugh sent a blush of amber crawling up the walls on one side. Zach’s low, humming silence painted them deep blue on the other. Devon kept glancing at his sleeves. “They’re monitoring our pulse,” he murmured, brushing his fingers down the velvet-lined cuff of his coat. “Probably enchantments in the thread. Maybe the seams. I swear that if this starts glowing out of nowhere, I’m going to set it on fire.” “You’ll look great doing it,” Allie reassured him as she adjusted his collar, ensuring it sat straight. “Try to wait until after appetizers, though.” Devon smiled happily at her compliment, but the smile quickly faded. His face turned into an anxious grimace as he scratched at a section of embroidery, acting as if he had never noticed it before. Allie simply slapped his hand away, forcing him to stop. They walked in two columns, flanked by palace staff whose faces never cracked, every one of them unnervingly symmetrical, softly smiling, and moved with such precision that Alex felt like they were walking through a stage play. Like every servant was an enchanted puppet programmed knowing only how to bow, how to turn, how to act visible just long enough to leave an impression. It was an eerie visual. Even the guards weren’t holding weapons. Not outwordly, anyway. No blades, no bows, only perfectly fitted dress armor and the kind of posture that said “ we don’t need to draw weapons, you’ve already lost if we do .” Alex scanned the gilded walls. Illusion-cast paintings shifted subtly as they passed, each brushstroke bending like memory caught in motion. One showed what he guessed was the founding of Terraxum; a crowned mage standing atop a leyline-engraved cliff. Another flickered between images of the capital city in different time periods, sunlit one second, storm-wrapped the next. Watching eyes in painted windows followed them. Every painting alive with quiet scrutiny. The corridor narrowed slightly, and ahead, twin doors loomed up at them. The doors were each a carved midnight black wood, their surfaces veined with silver rune-filaments, and hummed softly. A pair of Arcanuum attendants in storm-grey armor and white cloaks stepped forward without a word. They placed their hands on the seal and runes unfurled like scrolls made of light, then the doors opened, and the world changed. The ballroom of Terraxum Palace was less a room and more a wild dream made of architecture. A glass dome arched high above, refracting the starlight from the city’s floating ring. Suspended chandeliers danced and turned slowly in the air. To Alex, thy gave impression of a galactic constellation, with floating gems and light-crystals orbiting around invisible cores. The floor was a polished mirror that reflected the ceiling’s cosmic display, making every guest seem as if they danced on the vast universe itself. And there were so many guests. Hundreds of people, maybe more, filtered in tiers inside the room. There were elegant nobles leaned across marble-railed balconies, their faces half-lit by drifting globes of aether-light. There were merchant-kings and church-cardinals whom whispered in dark corners and by buffet tables alike. Sect warriors in ceremonial armor prowled the perimeter, watching. On the highest tiers, the furthest balconies among the stars, bore the crests of Terraxum’s Twelve: