Chapter 7 - The Gilded Cage
Julian stepped slowly toward the massive window.
Outside, the city spread out for miles—a sparkling metropolis of towering glass needles, suspended sky-bridges, and glowing blue energy grids. Vehicles hovered silently through defined sky-lanes. The sky was clear, dominated by a magnificent silver moon that cast a tranquil, blue hue over the sprawling urban paradise.
It was everything the world had been before the Extraction War. It was everything Julian had dreamed of while freezing on his straw mat in the mud.
"This city is yours," God announced, standing beside him. "The estate, the wealth, the health of your body—it is all tethered to your life now. You will never hunger. You will never thirst. You will never feel the bite of the black rain."
Julian stared at his reflection in the glass, then at the glowing city below. A wave of profound relief washed over him, so intense it made his shoulders drop. He was safe. The nightmare was over. He had survived the war, he had survived the wilderness, and now he had been elevated above it all.
"Thank you," Julian breathed again, turning to bow. "I will spend every day honoring your name."
"Will you?" God asked.
The tone of the question was so flat, so curiously clinical, that Julian stopped midway through his bow.
God was looking at him with a calm, unreadable expression.
"To honor my name is easy when your feet are on marble and your cup is filled with wine," God said softly. "But remember the command I gave you when the light tore through your cabin."
Julian remembered. The voice booming in his mind as the planks turned to dust: Never stop helping others.
"I won't," Julian said quickly, his heart fluttering with a sudden, anxious pulse. "I will build shelters. I will share this wealth with the people in the sector below! I will—"
"There is no sector below," God interrupted gently.
Julian blinked. "What?"
God pointed down at the glittering metropolis. "This realm is complete. It is a closed circuit. There are no beggars here. There are no starving children. There are no rusted cabins in the rain. Everyone in this city is whole, wealthy, and satisfied. There is no suffering here for you to alleviate."
May you like
Julian stared at God, his mind struggling to process the words. "No... no suffering?"
"None," God said. "You have been lifted out of the mud, Julian. You are in the upper kingdom now. Here, kindness is obsolete, because no one needs anything."
