World Keeper

Chapter 851: Attack

“Chelsea is here, my Keeper.” A silver-haired Tsubaki spoke up, interrupting my training within my study. Unlike the original avatar that Tsubaki made from her new Servant Force, the mass-produced ones that she used now had varying numbers of tails depending on the importance of their work

Single-tailed ones like the one before me served as messengers or handled basic chores. Those with two tails were in charge of more important tasks such as maintaining key systems of the Sky Citadel. And finally, the rare three-tailed Tsubaki avatar was in charge of coordinating with Gerard to handle communications with the rest of the world.

The difference in the number of tails largely detailed the amount of energy that each avatar contained, as each of their tails served as an energy core for Servant Force. Although they could not hold any other energy, Tsubaki had borrowed the evolutionary idea from James to use multiple tails as energy cores, assembling her avatars with that function in mind.

“I understand. I’ll be right along. Have Geoff and Hanya arrived yet?” I asked, slowly rising to my feet. The time had finally come to send off these two Fallen Gods that we had trained, and teach them the true meaning of their mission. It still left a bitter taste in my mouth, knowing that we were sending them to a certain death, but at least they were being allowed to keep their Virtual selves on the servers permanently.

If there ever came a time when the Virtual world evolved to become a true world, taking its place within the void, it would be akin to offering the two of them a true resurrection. Until then, they would simply have to live normal lives. After all, without a connection to the void, Fallen Gods like themselves could not exercise their full power. They would only have access to their other abilities until that time came.

“Not yet, my Keeper. Lady Leowynn reports that they will be along shortly.” As Tsubaki answered, I moved to walk past her while patting her shoulder.

“Thanks.” I smiled, Tsubaki nodding her head quickly. Once I left the room, she immediately entered it to begin cleaning. Meanwhile, I began making my way out towards the courtyard, passing the various Tsubaki’s, Dana’s, and Lifre’s along the way. Funny enough, once they learned about the pact and the avatar ability of the Maid class, both of the other two immediately began training it themselves.

At this point, Tsubaki was still the highest level maid, not only in the Citadel but in the entire world. That said, I was certain that there were other extremely diligent maids or butlers out there that wouldn’t be far behind her. Probably a fair few from the ninja clans, especially after learning about the avatar abilities.

Once I exited out into the courtyard, I could see Chel waiting for me, sitting on an old stone bench and looking at the flowers. “I don’t think I’ve seen this species before.” She said as she admired the garden.

I let out a faint chuckle, shaking my head. “You can thank Tsubaki for that. She’s been tending the garden here since she first joined. Before her, the flowerbed was barren. Those might be extinct in the rest of the world by now.”

After I said that, I felt a faint ripple in the air. Glancing over, I saw a void portal opening just outside of the citadel’s barrier. Emerging from it was an elven woman and a human man, who I was able to recognize from the reports as the two Fallen Gods.

They walked up to the barrier, placing their hands on it. As soon as they did so, Gerard appeared from thin air before them, seeming to assess them with his eyes. Once he had done so, the barrier opened for the pair, and they entered. I could tell as soon as they appeared that they were both wearing their Virtual synchronizers. However, the watch-like devices had been broken beyond repair, signifying that they had no intention of synchronizing with their avatars again.

This was something that I had personally requested, that they synchronize before coming here, and that their devices were destroyed before they received the critical intelligence. I didn’t want to risk the off chance that they decided to do so before leaving, and accidentally passed sensitive information off to their Virtual selves.

“Thank you both for joining me.” I said with a respectful nod, the pair bowing. “I’m sure you must be curious about the mission that I’m sending you on. Why I haven’t said anything about it until now, and why I insisted that you be trained so far in advance.”

The two didn’t say anything, but I could tell from their expressions that I wasn’t far off. “As you have been told… this mission is one that you are guaranteed not to return from. Whether you succeed or fail, there will be no way back. The first reason that I needed you trained so far in advance was to make sure that you understood and accepted this fact.”

“The second reason was because I am only sending the two of you on this dangerous mission. I had to be sure that your skills were as polished as possible. If I could, I would have liked to have waited another ten years to send you off, but that is not feasible.”

“As for why this mission has been so secretive… It is because the technique that you are about to receive for the mission could potentially destroy all of creation. Chelsea, if you would?”

Chelsea nodded her head, standing up from the bench and walking over to Geoff. “What I’m about to give you is an extremely powerful void script. With your fallen domain of Starlight, you will be able to install this script onto a star. Once you do so, you’ll need to immediately leave the area. Head back into the void, and look for other universes to install the script in.”

Chelsea held her hand out, focusing. A void gate opened above her palm, dark energy falling down to create a single black coin. And then two white coins. “Both of you, take these white coins and break them immediately. That will grant you both the anti-meme to resist the initial effects of what I am about to give you. Geoff, once you have done so, break the black coin. That will give you the knowledge of the memetic effect and how to implement it.”

The two nodded their heads, taking the coins and snapping them between their fingers. When they did so, information seemed to rush into their minds, causing them to gasp. Geoff’s eyes went wide. “This is… so destructive. An effect that is meant to end all life…”

“That’s right.” I nodded my head. “This is something a friend of mine refers to as the Death Star. Those who see this light will seek a way to end their own lives, with the effect far surpassing the speed of light. Furthermore, it will infect other stars, spreading the effect. Also…” I glanced at Chel.

“The script has a low mutation rate. One in every ten million stars will develop a mutation of some variety, with the most malicious and deadly effects being the ones that carry over. Within one month of initial infection, half of the stars had gained the ability to vaporize all matter that their light touched. The other half maintained the initial effect, but mutated into giant eyeball-like monsters that roamed the cosmos, consuming entire planets.”

Chel shuddered at that. “One in ten million is naturally low… but when you are operating on the scale of trillions, it means that you are guaranteed thousands of different mutations. And if the method of determining the dominant infection is what you described… this is going to get very dangerous.”

“Exactly.” I nodded, before turning to face the other two. “That is why, unless you are installing this script onto a star, you must absolutely remain in the void at all times. Additionally… there is a high likelihood that the enemy you are facing possesses civilized cultures. Yes, these are largely innocent beings. However, there is no way for us to save them. The enemy will be merely using them as farms to train their creations. While it sounds cruel, death would be a mercy.”

“What… what sort of monsters would take such lengths to eradicate, that we need to destroy all that exists?” Hanya asked, her voice shaking. I let out a small sigh, clearing my thoughts to explain.

“The entity you are attacking is known as BloodBrother. Like myself, he is a Keeper of another world system. However, he does not seek to raise peaceful beings or prosperous civilizations. Instead, his goal is to cultivate disease. Every monster that is known to exist within his world has some method of deploying a devastating plague. Their gods turn death itself into a disease.”

“Others like myself have tried to defeat BloodBrother in the past, but all ended in failure. They tried entities immune to biological disease, powerful armies, even world-shattering bombs. The only weakness that we can perceive from these attempts is that he likely does not possess any form of defense against memetic effects like the one that we have given you. If it were possible, I would much prefer to keep the innocents in his realm alive… but the odds are almost certain that those innocents are themselves carrying some horrific plague. And after BloodBrother is defeated, his universe will be beyond salvation. It is for that reason that we are going with this tactic.”

“To prevent him from harming an endless number of lives in the future, we have to commit an unspeakable atrocity now. That, Hanya, is why we required a Fallen God of Immunity like yourself. Only someone with your power would be able to protect the two of you from any diseases you may encounter at the moment of arrival.”

Hanya bit her lip, but ultimately nodded her head. “I… I understand, sir. And thank you for not letting this information be carried to our Virtual selves… I wouldn’t want her to know what we’re about to do.”

Geoff clenched his fists, knowing that it would be him that pulled the trigger to end every life in the universe. “I… will follow your wishes, sir. This is what we have trained for. If the enemy we face is truly this fearsome, we have no choice.”

I nodded, glad that they were accepting, albeit reluctantly. “There is one last thing. The enemy you face this time must absolutely not be allowed to gather information from you, under any means. If you are captured and have no method of escape, or if you are about to die… you must detonate your own souls.” Their faces went pale when I said that, but I continued. “If you are captured, or if the enemy has a chance to extract your soul, they will be able to gather information about this world. Information about our strengths, defenses, our weaknesses.”

“This information will undoubtedly be passed on to other enemies, who will use it to attack us. I do not like having to say this, but that information could easily spell the downfall of everything. In fact, it is almost certain to. BloodBrother possesses an item that will allow him to attack a target of his choice.”

“If we inflict significant damage upon him, and he receives any information from the two of you, he will certainly use this item to send a wave of nigh-unstoppable plagues back at us. Thus, as the caretaker of this world system, I must ask that you understand my position when I say that this must be done.” I gave a deep bow, both of respect and apology, which seemed to surprise the two.

“We understand.” Hanya said hurriedly, looking uncomfortable at receiving my bow. “Like you said… it’s for the sake of everyone. We know what we have to do, sir.”

She reached down, gripping Geoff’s hand with her own and turning her head to look at him. “We’ve been prepared to spend the rest of our lives together for years, and we knew that we may not have much time left. That’s why… our only request is that you look after our Virtual selves. Let them live the lives we couldn’t.”

I nodded my head. “I swear on my name as Keeper. No… on the name Dale Mitchell, my true name.” I told them, causing the two to look at me in surprise again. “I’ll make sure that your Virtual selves receive every support imaginable. The two of you are unquestionably heroes to the world, and I will make sure that they receive the proper treatment to reflect this.”

The two of them smiled when they heard that, nodding their heads. As I rose, I saw that there were only a few seconds before the time of departure. I thought I had more time to see if they needed anything else, but they arrived later than I had expected. “It’s time.” I said gently, choosing the two of them as my invading force. A pitch black door opened behind them, causing them to look back to face it.

When the door slowly began to open, the two clenched their hands together, steeling their resolve. They walked forward, past the door which closed behind them. And thus, the invasion was sent. Whatever happened from this point on was outside of my control.

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