World Keeper

Chapter 860: Defensive Measures

Once the battle was over, I released the various Fallen Gods and other helpers that had come to assist with the slaying of the Guardian, sending them on their way. Leowynn took the Terra twins and teleported away, seemingly knowing where they lived. Once I was alone, I sent myself back to the Citadel, but only long enough to close my eyes and ascend back to the Admin Room. The last thing I wanted was to leave my body defenseless in the void.

Once I arrived, Terra seemed to already be waiting for me, as if having expected this visit. “So, what did you think?” She asked with a knowing smile.

“Well, for one… totally broken. Can anyone’s fate be sealed like that?” Naturally, I was referring to how the combined Origin form of the twins had managed to seal the fate of the Guardian. After doing so, people just seemed not to notice things that were inconvenient for that fate to play out.They were so caught up in their battle frenzy that they ignored even the deaths of their allies, while the Guardian’s responses were similarly strange.

“Not… quite.” Terra shook her head. “It’s powerful, I’ll give you that. But, it’s not without its limits. For one, it is only closing off the fates that could happen, not creating an entirely new one. So, if there was absolutely no possibility for the Guardian to have fallen there, then even the Origin of Fate wouldn’t be able to change that. Not without considerably more power.”

“To use another example… Let's say that she flipped a coin. Each toss has a fifty percent chance to come up heads, and fifty percent chance to come up tails. She can flip that coin a million times, and get heads every single time. This is because there is still a chance, however remote, that the outcome she wants is possible. On the other hand, she can’t flip a silver coin and suddenly have it become gold, because silver just doesn’t do that.”

I gave a small nod at that, as it wasn’t all that difficult to explain. “So really, she’s just manipulating what could happen, right?”

“Exactly!” Terra smiled wide, leaning back on the couch. “But the more remote the chances are, the bigger the energy cost. As the Goddess of Fate, let me tell you… the odds of the Guardian dying there were only about thirty percent. That’s why I sent those two there in the first place.”

“Once the Origin of Fate was unleashed, she sealed off every eventuality that didn’t lead to the Guardian’s death. That’s why it was so scared of her, because it sensed a power of a higher order than itself.”

“Then…” I started, before shaking my head. “It used up all of their power to do just that?” Having kept my senses trained on the fight, I knew that the twins weren’t merely sleeping. They were drained of the vast majority of their energy, everything that they had naturally built up on their own over time. Obviously, they still had access to the reserves that came with being the incarnation of Terra, but what came purely from themselves was long gone.

“That’s right.” Terra nodded her head, sighing. “The power of an Origin is incredibly vast, but that means that the energy required to use it on any kind of large scale is similarly costly. Typically, they get away without too much trouble because they’re only looking at fate, not changing it. It’s a lot easier to look at something through a window than it is to smash that window and grab the item.”

That made sense, though it also seemed like there were things that she was holding back. For one, I still didn’t know how someone could naturally cultivate to the Origin level. Although I knew that it involved both divinity and the void, she had explained what would happen if the two were recklessly mixed. Even if I managed to succeed, it would shoot my rank up beyond what I was ready for. Speaking of…

I looked over at Terra after thinking about something. “I couldn’t activate the powers of a Fallen God. As the keeper, all powers of my world should be mine to wield, but that one was unavailable to me… why?”

Terra gave a small grin, her head shaking. “I was wondering when you’d notice. Honestly, it’s not that the power is blocked from you, but rather that you need an extra step to use it. I’ve mentioned how gods and fallen gods don’t easily mix, right? Well, you’re currently a God. In order to use the powers of a Fallen, you need to entirely suppress your divinity.”

“I’ve never brought it up to you before because it would be a bit of a waste to suppress your divinity and all of the domains that you receive as Keeper, only to get the domains of the Fallen. It’s the same logic as why you only have the spirit-exclusive classes when you’re a spirit.”

That… unfortunately made sense. There were far more gods in my world than there were Fallen, so I can’t honestly say that I would make that trade myself. “Got it. Either way, shall we see how it’s going on Tsubaki’s end?” Terra smiled at that, handing me the remote.

“Incoming fox in three, two, one…” Chel muttered, causing Thea to glance over at her in confusion before the door to the lab was suddenly opened. Thea jumped, turning to face the newcomer, only to see that it was none other than Tsubaki herself. “And called it.” Chel grinned, turning to face her.

“We need your help.” Tsubaki said as she entered the lab, looking around. However, the only ones present at the moment were Chel and Thea. “Where… is the researcher?”

“James is off in the construction lab. That one we were given in the void way back? He wants to make the new Perfection Chamber there without any disruption. I’m guessing that I need to call him back?” Chel asked with that same smile on her face, to which Tsubaki nodded her head.

“That’s right. We have a serious issue that concerns the fates of all worlds.” Tsubaki explained, before going over what had happened with the Guardian. As she listened, Chel’s face became more and more serious, taking in the details.

‘Right… you guys need proper void shielding. I’ll pass the message along. I was wondering why they had started appearing around here again.” She muttered, Tsubaki’s eyebrow lifting slightly.

“Have there been any hazardous void entities attacking Deckan, as well?”

Chel nodded her head. “Nothing world ending, but there are a lot more haunted house stories spreading around now. That’s usually a good indicator of void beasts. Oh, and I can’t for the life of me picture the color orange. I know what it is, and I can identify it if I see it, but I can’t visualize it. Again, nothing earth-shattering, well at least not that one.”

“Right…” Tsubaki nodded her head slowly. “Regardless. How long do you think it will take to get proper defenses established?”

Chel hummed to herself for a few moments, as if going over some calculations. “You’re talking about building a defensive structure in the void itself. We have all the tech that we need for it, so it’s just a matter of implementing it. If you have a Fallen God related to construction, we could push it out in one afternoon. Otherwise… give us a week… yeah, a week per world should be good.”

Tsubaki’s brow furrowed at that. She knew that this deadline wasn’t beyond expectations, and would already be pushing them to complete on time. “Is there some way to defend the worlds who are further back in the queue? I believe we would all prefer it if the storm shark incident was not repeated.” There were countless worlds connected to Desbar, not to mention all of the different worlds discovered through planar travel. If each one took a week, it may be years before every world had their proper defenses.

“Just have the Fallen Gods hunt the ones attaching themselves to different worlds.” Chel said with a shrug of her shoulders. “Oh, and if they can, tell them to build a void wall between the other worlds and Fyor. It won’t stop the beasts that are there, but it’ll at least prove enough of an inconvenience that we won’t need to worry about them for a while longer.”

“Fyor?” Tsubaki blinked in confusion, only for Chel to nod again.

“That’s right. Given Fyor’s size and the likely state of its uppermost layer, it should be host to some of the most dangerous void beasts imaginable, having evolved by consuming countless creatures. They just can’t breach the outermost layer because of the special black rocks dividing each layer.”

“But if one of those highly evolved void beasts decided it wanted a vacation, and came to one of the other worlds… well, we’re talking about an apocalyptic event. Turning water into acid, making entire planets into ghost towns, that kind of thing.”

“Like I said, the wall wouldn’t stop it, just like a wall wouldn’t stop a monster determined to get into a home. But some security is better than no security, and it will give us a warning for when something like that is on its way.”

Tsubaki thought about it for a moment, before agreeing. “I’ll pass the word on to the Fallen Gods. I assume that this wall is simply erected from void energy?”

“That’s right. They just need to imbue it with the concept of being a wall. Since the Void is all about information, it reacts incredibly well to input like that from Fallen Gods.” Chel smiled after finishing her explanation. “Once that’s done, we can begin construction of the void barriers. I’ll throw in memetic defenses as an added bonus to increase the security of the barriers.”

Tsubaki let out a relieved sigh when she heard that. “In that case, I should pass on the message and return to my Keeper. To confirm, there is no void entity that will attempt to prevent me from doing so, is there?”

“Let’s check!” Chel exclaimed, her eyes going pitch black as she stared at Tsubaki. “I developed a kind of void-sight energy once the haunting rumors began. There are two threads attached to you. One of them looks familiar, so it probably came from Leowynn… the other one…”

Chel blinked for a moment, before falling silent. Tsubaki’s worries increased by the moment, thinking that she had some horrible beast bound to kill her if she uttered a specific word. “It looks like the second void entity affecting you has made you lactose intolerant. I’m not sure how that works on an energy being, so… try not to consume any energy milk until you have it taken care of?”

Tsubaki blinked… and again. She shook her head, regretting her brief anxiety over the void monster that had latched onto her. “You are… sure that it has done nothing else?”

“That’s right.” Chel gave a confident nod at that, her eyes returning to normal. “I’d like to consider myself an expert on matters of the void. Using this new void sight, I can identify the core qualities of a void beast by deciphering their energy pattern. That’s why I knew that Leowynn’s was familiar. There’s nothing on you that you need to worry about right now.”

Tsubaki gave one last nod, before turning to leave. Thea kept her eyes on the door, waiting until Tsubaki was gone before looking down at Chel. “How did you know she was coming if you didn’t know what she wanted to talk about?”

Chel chuckled, shaking her head. “Goddess of Security, remember? I have eyes all over this facility. I just don’t usually have a good excuse to show off.” Thea’s eyes went wide at that, realization dawning on her. Chel was the very first being to have her divinity forged, and she had even done the forging process herself. With how long ago that was, her ascension had been completed for quite some time, though she rarely displayed any of her divine abilities.

“Couldn’t you use the Security domain to protect the worlds from void beasts, instead of the barriers?” Thea questioned, but Chel immediately shot down the idea.

“I’ve only got so much energy as James’s assistant. The most I can do is set up an early warning system. Even then, I’d be draining myself to the extreme, just so that I could do something that we have the technology to achieve without divine powers.”

“I suppose…” Thea agreed without too much trouble.

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