World Keeper

Chapter 776: In The Forest Of Night

I blinked as the scene shifted to show Elisae, the undisputed holder of the ‘greatest karma’ throughout any of my worlds. Moreover, the way that she had chosen to develop her divinity. “I… don’t think that there’s been anyone else aiming for anything like this, has there?” I asked, glancing over at Aurivy, as well as Accalia who had recently joined us.

Accalia shook her head. “The closest would have to be Jonas. His domain of Community was also a domain established to help others rather than himself. Though, his situation was not to the extreme that he was incapable of using his divinity without the wishes of another.”

I gave a small nod at that, thinking aloud. “How is Jonas doing? The last I remember, he flew off in his divine city with his community.”

Aurivy smirked playfully. “He’s still in the solar system. However, he left the planet a long time ago. Every now and then, he’ll drop by Earth to look for people to add to his community, or visit Sanctum. He actually tried to recruit Philia once, since her domain would have made managing his city quite a bit easier.”

“Ahh.” I nodded my head again. It wasn’t surprising to hear that he was doing well. With the way he established his community, it’d be rather difficult for trouble to find him unless he went looking for it.

I did feel a little bad for Scarlet, whose advice had been misconstrued without being given any chance to correct the misunderstanding. Even now, the Goddess of Ki was sulking back in her palace, knowing that it’d be useless to try to convince Elisae that she wasn’t trying to get her on the path of ‘wishes’.

Part of me was curious how this Goddess of Wishes would develop once she reached her ascension. Given her character and the restrictions that she placed on herself, I couldn’t really see Accalia denying her the domain that she was aiming for. “How is she going to make a divine artifact, if she isn’t even able to use her divinity for herself?”

Accalia and Aurivy both blinked at that, looking at each other. Ultimately, it was Accalia who spoke in an awkward tone. “I suppose she’ll have to convince someone else to wish for it on her behalf? Though, knowing her, I doubt she’d go to that extent. It’s entirely possible that she won’t have an artifact for quite some time.”

Unfortunately, that was the truth. Elisae was the type of person that could choose to reunite with her parents at any time and enter the Golden Palace of the afterlife merely due to her overflowing karma. Instead, she chooses to remain bound to the mortal world, all to make it a better place for the people that had been entrusted to her.

As I thought about that, I saw Elisae tracking down yet another person, all in order to get them to make a wish. Well, at least she didn’t make the restriction one where she was forced to grant all wishes that come her way.

Petra flew high above the ground, eyes scanning down over the dark forest of the twenty-eighth floor, named as the Dark Forest for its skewed day/night cycle. Her level had once again reached a bottleneck, unable to proceed as long as the level cap of the world remained where it was. Sadly, the orbs for all previous levels had already been found, so the only way to allow her to advance again would be to go through the next layer of Fyor and find its orb.

Naturally, she was aware of the location of the gate to the next layer, having found it long ago through the use of her shadow. She even revealed this information to the guild, though she did so while only saying she knew the general area. After all, if she revealed that she could accurately map an entire world through its shadows, that might bring more harm than good.

Regardless, the guild had granted her the task of finding the exact location of the gate and establishing a forward base. For this mission, she had been given a single-use portal deployment kit, to be activated upon securing the area around the gate.

I know I said that I had it down to a radius of ten thousand kilometers, but I teleported right to the spot, didn’t I? She asked the shadow on the underside of her wings, looking over the ground in confusion. This is the right place… right?

There was a moment of silence before a gruff voice spoke back to her. This is the place, Lady Petra. However, the terrain seems different from what we have on our side.

The reports of the scout confused Petra more than anything else. How could the terrain be different when it was a complete copy, updated in real time? What… what’s different about it?

The ground appears to be roughly two kilometers higher than we have. Additionally, there should be a vast clearing in this area, with the gate located at its center. Petra had a sinking feeling when she listened to that report.

There was only one thing that was not copied between the shadow world and the world of Fyor. This one thing was… wildlife. Monsters and beasts would not appear within the shadow world, but everything else would remain the same.

So… we either have a massive swarm of plant monsters below us… or one foliage titan. I’m leaning towards a foliage titan. Petra gulped at that idea, as it meant that there was a monster whose body was two kilometers thick while it was likely to be lying down. If that were the case, how tall would it be standing up? No, more importantly, was it even a monster that was able to move its entire body like that in the first place?

Well, I leveled up my druid class for dealing with things like this. Petra stopped her forward momentum, simply flapping her wings to keep herself hovering in the air. The gravity of this floor was enough that there was a limit to what she could do with only her wings, but thankfully she was able to make up the rest with her ki and mana.

Petra took a deep breath, spreading her arms out to either side and connecting with the natural energy of the world. Spirit of Fyor, I’m going to need to borrow a bit of power from you. She whispered in her mind, allowing the natural energy around her to carry her words.

Despite saying that, though, she knew that there was no way to handle a monster or a swarm of this scale merely with natural energy. Not before it had the chance to react to her presence. With that thought in mind, her ki began to flow, a bloody mist wrapping over her body. Darkness swept in from beneath her wing, forming armor that latched onto her form.

The power of a druid was the ability to mobilize natural energy, which permeated the entire world. The shape that energy took was dependent upon the will of the user, and which element they were calling forth. Many preferred to use the classical four elements such as fire, wind, water, or earth. However, there existed many elements beyond simply these four.

The element which Petra was most skilled at wielding was the element of darkness. That which existed where light could not reach, and which permeated the entire twenty-seventh floor of Fyor for the vast majority of the time. This natural darkness twisted, strands of black energy flowing through the air to wrap around Petra.

As the armor of the World’s Shadow served as a medium, her ki began to pump faster and faster, her eyes forming lantern-like flames of bloody light. Tucking her wings in, her body entered a sudden free-fall, plummeting towards the ground below. The darkness flowing in from all around seemed to make her body increase in size, a veritable giant of darkness growing as it fell.

This was the technique that Petra had created to serve as her ‘ultimate ability’ after training both the Berserker and Druid classes to the highest level she could manage. She called it her Shadow of a Colossus. Her vast reserves of ki allowed her to move the armor of the World’s Shadow, which connected with the body of the dark giant.

As the dark giant fell, it adjusted its posture, thick claws stretching out from its hands. Soon, its body landed heavily on the ground, tearing at the vines and roots beneath it.

Sure enough, a health bar suddenly appeared, hovering in the air as if to confirm Petra’s previous suspicions. The red, flaming eyes of the giant seemed to be sneering as they saw the single health bar. However, at the same time, the ground beneath its feet began to shift.

Vines up to a full meter thick lashed out from below, aiming to wrap around the body of the giant while the forest around it squirmed. Judging by this reaction, Petra confirmed that the monster did not seem to be one capable of mobility. Most likely, it was just grown at this location and happened to cover the gate. Though, that made Petra wonder how much more of the ground covering the twenty-seventh floor was similarly composed of these slumbering lumber-giants.

The giant appeared to be struggling, tearing at the ground as it was continuously pulled under by the thick vines. Despite this, Petra did not panic, merely controlling the giant to continue fighting. Only once the entire body of the giant had been submerged did Petra act.

Petra herself was created from the divine power of Ashley, the Goddess of Darkness. And although it had been primarily this domain that gave birth to her, it could not be denied that Ashley possessed another elemental domain as well. This domain became a secondary talent for Petra, one that she did her best to never neglect.

Not long after the giant, formed from highly condensed natural energy, was pulled underground, Petra’s figure silently disappeared into the shadow world. As she did, she left a single command for the energy left behind. Burn.

From above, a red spot could be seen appearing on the ground, gradually beginning to grow wider and brighter while the health bar in the air decreased. Soon, flames licked up from between the vines, illuminating the area while rising into the air. After that, the roar of an inferno could be heard from the shuddering forest.

Something similar to the crunching of bark marked the cry of the giant monster, its body ravaged by the release of the condensed flames. Due to its size, it was unable to move beyond commanding its vestigial vines, dragging prey inside of itself to slowly consume. Now that it had devoured something harmful to itself, the creature was struck with pain that it had never known.

High above the blazing fire, Petra appeared from the darkness once again, a small smile on her face. “This won’t be enough to kill it, so let’s speed things along.” She took another deep breath after saying that, connecting with the natural energy of the world again. A breeze began to pick up in the area, an incredibly dry wind.

This wind picked up the fire while also drying out the plants that it came into contact with, allowing the inferno to spread rapidly. The night of the forest saw an unexpected dawn, accompanied by the cry of a mighty behemoth.

During all of this, Petra watched impassively from above. She did not take pleasure in killing monsters like this. However, if the creature was not slain, the progress of Fyor would forever halt at this floor, unable to progress to greater heights. Besides… sometimes, you just want to watch the world burn.

“... There are several things that I feel should be said about this scene.” I commented, watching Petra burning down a massive stretch of forest. “But more than that… just how much of the layer really is covered by those giants?”

“Oh, about ten percent.” Aurivy said with a light shrug of her shoulders. “They usually don’t do any harm, and just grab either big monsters that spawn, or devour nearby plants.”

“I somehow feel that the twenty-seventh floor just became a lot more dangerous.”

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