With his dissertation submitted, Norman had a few free weeks before the panel allotted him a date for the final in-person defense. And, interestingly, L had delivered.

The treatise on Saan mycelia that he was now looking at was humongous. And it was clearly a collection of several works derived from multiple sources. Not surprisingly, a lot of them were authored by the Yaskh scribe Nazaar.

The Yaskh had incredible memory that they passed on through generations, genetically. So the concept of written communication was something they adopted at a much later stage, only when they established contact with other civilizations. Nazaar was one of the fewest scholars who had transcribed the accomplishments of the Yaskh in a format that was accessible to other races. And he had been prolific. Even after the centuries during which his works had been plundered, ravaged and lost, what remained was massive in terms of both volume and significance.

The compendium correctly confirmed that the Saan were an evolved race - sentient. The interesting aspect was that the way the Saan were described was very similar to the nightwyrms. They were a hive mind. Was the concept of individuals operating independently a recent phenomenon in the history of the cosmos?

Norman soon realized that exploring the compendium sequentially was going to be a daunting task due to myriad cross references among the articles that had been written at different points of time, with different audiences in mind. Instead he used an indexer to generate a knowledge graph that presented him with a three dimensional view of the topics that connected all the articles in the treatise.

The focus areas of a lot of the articles were aspects Norman had expected - including communication, the mycelial contract system and concepts around authority and hierarchy. However there quite a few surprising aspects too which were covered at length by many articles. One was the concept of time.

Apparently the Saan did not perceive time the same way as the Yaskh did. The timescales around which they orchestrated their plans were inconceivable to even the Yaskh who lived for centuries. Entire civilizations rose and fell in the time spans that cover even a single stage of their cosmic experiments. Norman could not even begin to fathom what kind of opinions a race that operated that magnitude would form about humans.

The other area of exploration that surprised Norman was the concept of Ascension. The realm in which the Yaskh and humans lived, had been labeled as the Zeroth realm. In the ages past, the Zeroth realm had been the birthing ground for civilizations. Once the civilizations demonstrated a level of progress, they could ascend to other realms. There was some debate on what qualified a race as ready of Ascension, but the details around them were either sketchy or missing. Norman knew for a fact that the Yaskh had Ascended, and not been eradicated. So it was likely they chose not to reveal the specifics. It was also unclear who enforced the criteria for Ascension. But there were hints that the Saan were at least involved in the process.

The articles that were relatively closer to the present era indicated that humanity was apparently the first of the civilizations that had stayed in the Zeroth realm for so long. And the God king was apparently the primary reason.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

The details were not entirely unclear but there had been some discontentment around this between the Saan and the God King, and that disagreement had been millions of years in the making. Apparently even though human lives were inconsequentially ephemeral in the scheme of the Saan's plans, the God King's rise had impacted at least some of them in a meaningful manner.

After hours of poring over the documents, Norman was in equal parts baffled and surprised. While this had definitely been a real step forward towards making sense of the galactic power balance, it had also left him many more open questions than he had started with.

Suddenly one of the news subscriptions he had configured, alerted him of a high severity event. The notification was linked to a news footage of a refinery being set on fire. Norman recognized the compound Kyrothratix, which the refinery was responsible for manufacturing, immediately. It was a critical part of all mainstream processes for manufacturing Zythramine.

Norman had actually explored the architecture of this refinery, owned by Emerald Crust, when he was trying to manufacture Zythramine. However, the refinery, as it had been depicted in the articles Norman had studied, was vastly different from the monstrous silhouette bathed in an eerie glow of orange and red that the news footage presented. With a few gestures, Norman panned the three dimensional footage around. It was indeed the same structure, but the numerous explosions that had torn apart the compound had transformed it into an unrecognizable desolate landscape.

Gaping, Norman wound back the footage to an earlier point in time. The recording had captured the demolition as it unfolded over the span of an hour.

As the footage moved forward, three separate explosions ripped apart the silence of the night. The dark cloudy sky was illuminated by the fiery dance of the inferno, casting long, grotesque shadows that twisted and contorted across the massive compound as people screamed and fled.

The once calm waters of the nearby bay, churned and frothed with the heat, reflecting the apocalyptic scene like a mirror to the horrified onlookers. He saw the colossal complex of steel and machinery transform into a ravenous inferno, its heart consumed by the relentless flames.

The cacophony of sounds filled the air - the hissing and roaring of the flames, the deafening cracks and booms of the explosions, and the shrill wails of sirens in the distance.

In the far north, the silhouettes of emergency responders could be seen, the lights from their voyagers cutting through the darkness, casting beams of hope against the backdrop of destruction. But their efforts were in vain as the flames seemed to taunt them, growing stronger and more relentless with each passing moment.

Norman exited the exploration mode, and the camera panned out, revealing the vast expanse of the burning refinery, its once-pristine structures reduced to twisted, molten ruins. The flames seemed to consume everything in their path, an unstoppable force of nature that left the onlookers powerless in its wake.

The journalist's voice, steady and calm, narrated the unfolding tragedy, his words a stark contrast to the chaos around him. "This is a developing story, and we will bring you updates as more information becomes available. The cause of the fire is currently unknown, but emergency services are on the scene and working to contain the situation."

As the journalist continued his report, the scene around him was a testament to the raw, untamed power of destruction. The once-thriving refinery, a symbol of industry and progress, now lay in ruins, a grim reminder of the fragile balance between human creation and the elements.

Within minutes, he received a meeting invite from Rothford. “Discussion on plans for Zythramine production”

Norman didn’t have a shred of doubt that the two events were linked.