World Keeper-Chapter 1226: Reunion

Sure enough, when Dana brought her conjecture to Chelsea, the kitsune researcher confirmed her thoughts without hesitation. “While we have the ability to create worlds of larger sizes, the energy consumption is exponentially greater. That’s why I’ve been having you make worlds of this size for the time being when creating Origins. It is also far more complicated to do so, meaning that we would have to take a lot longer to create the customized world laws that we want to design for each Origin, assuming that we were able to get it built at all.”

Reluctantly, Dana nodded her head. It wasn’t easy to enhance a world after it was built. Arguably, the easiest method would be to create more Origins of Darkness, and then ‘feed’ them to Dana. This would provide a gradual increase in the amount of energy her internal universe could hold, but this was a cruel method that only increased energy slowly. If she wanted a substantial increase, she could only rely on herself.

Regardless, she was no longer needed to monitor Desbar and supply it with constant energy. For the first time in over half a century, the energy needs of Desbar could be fully handled by themselves. This also meant that she was free to return to regular practice with Lena and the others, and that Chelsea could return to working on the development of the various items requested by the Keeper.

Terra, Irena, Ryone, and I all sat together on the couch in the Admin Room as the movie came to a close. I had already received the alert from the system that the alarm I had set had been triggered, and that time had begun moving at a normal pace again.

As such, I gave Terra’s hand a small squeeze. “Has there been enough time for your new incarnation to make her way to Olympus?” I asked, not sure how much time had passed before the alarms were triggered this time.

Terra simply chuckled, nodding her head. “Oh, more than enough. She’s already ascended to godhood. I just haven’t had her go to Olympus yet, because I wanted you to be there to welcome her.”

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I gave a small nod as well, looking at her curiously. “Is there anything I should know about this one?”

Terra seemed to consider that for a moment. “She doesn’t use the same type of prophecy abilities that the twins did. I tried to train this one in a different direction, though it led to her having a rather… interesting personality develop.”

“...Interesting how?” I asked, not wanting to be surprised by anything too incredibly eccentric when I descended.

“Nothing like that. She’s more of a recluse. Think similar to Udona when she was first created, but without the trauma. My incarnation this time turned out to be an author that likes to keep to herself. There are times that she has difficulty seeing the difference between other people and the characters that she has written into a story. I tried to base her training off of Lifre, and… well, it went a bit weird.”

I couldn’t help but blink at that, nodding my head. “Huh… well, I’ll have to see how that goes myself, then.” I said, leaning over and giving her a small kiss on the cheek, and then another to the other two. “I’ll see you all later.”

After that, I focused on descending to the mortal world. When I arrived, I saw both Lena’s, Dana, Lifre, Tsubaki, Julia, Philia, and… Priscilla? What was she doing there? They were all kneeling respectfully, awaiting my arrival.

The first thing that I noticed was Priscilla’s energy signature. She had clearly ascended, and not just once. Her energy reading was closer to Dana’s now, indicating that she had become an Origin during this period. “How long was I gone?” I couldn’t help asking.

“Ninety-four years, eight months, six days.” Tsubaki responded without the slightest hesitation, causing me to open my eyes wide in shock.

“It took almost a century to complete those technologies?” I asked, astounded. I had expected maybe ten, twenty years at most. Not nearly a hundred.

“Well…” Lifre chuckled, glancing off to the side. “There were a few hiccups here and there along the way. If you haven’t checked it out yet, you should really go to the void and see for yourself.”

Hearing her insistence, I arched a brow, looking at the others. Seeing them nod their head in agreement, I closed my eyes, sending an avatar of myself into the void. What I saw there was… to call it a surprise would apparently be the understatement of the century.

“Why do we have a void tree now?” I asked, opening my eyes to look at those present.

“Priscilla discovered an energy crisis that was sweeping through multiple worlds.” Tsubaki explained calmly. “The tree was a long-term project that Julia created in order to resolve this crisis, supplementing the amount of energy that each world is able to naturally produce.”

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“Oh yeah, on that note.” Dana lifted her head, smiling. “We swapped out the power source of Olympus. There were a few problems with the previous void core, so we brought a branch of the world tree to the core of Olympus, and it will continuously feed power to the systems.”

I gave a small nod when I heard that, turning to look at Priscilla. “I see… though, I hesitate to ask what led to you becoming an Origin after all this time.”

Priscilla looked up at me, as if not quite knowing what to say. She looked over at Tsubaki, who nodded her head, and took a deep breath. “I have resolved myself to join them in their upcoming invasion. As the Origin of Names, I have prepared numerous abilities that will be of substantial help in this time.”

One surprise after another… I thought to myself, bringing a hand up to my forehead. “I see… given how you made it this far, I can assume that they all agreed to your plans.”

Tsubaki nodded her head in agreement. “That is correct, my Keeper. When she first announced her intentions, I was skeptical. However, after seeing the abilities that she has developed, I must admit that she has become an incredibly versatile figure.”

Nodding my head, I then began to ask them about the items that I had Chelsea develop for them. Among these items, the only one that they had not yet had the ability to test yet was the map, which Chelsea messaged me saying that she would need my assistance testing it. Though, given that I had already gotten the prompt that the technology was completed, I could be sure that it worked, even if there might be improvements that they could make to it.

When they went over their training method, and the way that they planned to infiltrate Sanction’s world, I looked at them in surprise yet again. This lot had mastered a new way of communication via memes.

Put simply, this method required them to draw a very specific leaf pattern on a flat surface. Then, they traced one or more veins along this leaf pattern, which represented the person that they wanted to contact. While tracing those lines, they focused on the information that they wanted to send.

After that, the person with the corresponding identity would receive the message via a tattoo on their body. This was the secret communication method of the World Tree Guild. And, since they had memorized the pattern necessary to call either the Monarch or other key members of the guild, they were confident that they would be able to get in touch without alerting others.

This was, admittedly, a risky maneuver. There was every chance that they could be betrayed by the World Tree Guild, or enough time may have passed in Sanction’s world that the previous leadership had all been replaced. There were too many variables to know for sure.

That said, I knew that this was their most reliable method of entry at this time. As I was thinking that, there was a quiet knock on the door to the throne room.

Looking up, I saw a head of red hair and cat ears poking through the doorway, looking at all of us. “I was asked to come here…” She said in a quiet voice. “My name is Terra, the current incarnation of the Goddess of Fate, Inspiration, and Stories.”

Wow, you weren’t kidding. I thought to myself. This Terra really was different. Although, physically, she looked just like the Terra I knew. However, there was a stark contrast when it came to her personality.

I put on a gentle smile, nodding towards the redheaded felyn. “Please, make yourself at home. My name is Dale. It’s nice to meet you.”

Terra gave the tiniest nod of her head, and then pulled her head back. Given what I had said, it seemed that she was planning to go and find her own palace. Why do I feel like she and Lifre will get along… as long as Lifre can pull her out of her shell.

Speaking of, I turned to look at Lifre. “Are you still doing your livestreams?” I asked, and she nodded her head with a wide smile.

“Of course! No amount of near world-ending catastrophes will keep this slime down! I’ve even started doing collaborative livestreams with Lena and Lena! It’s always interesting to see what kind of shenanigans the viewers put us up to.”

Well, at least some things never get old. I thought to myself with a sigh. “Okay… is there anything else that I should know about?”

Tsubaki thought about it for a moment. “It should be noted that other research teams have made substantial progress into making their own universes. Perhaps in the near future, there will be Origins created outside of the Another World Research Group.”

My brow twitched slightly when I heard that, but I could only accept it. It wasn’t like I could simply forbid anyone else from studying this technology in order to prevent people from being able to ascend to the status of Origin. “Has there been any word from Chelsea on being able to promote an individual with more than one domain?” I asked, looking towards Tsubaki. I could sense that she was still a regular goddess, but I thought that this was worth asking, at the very least.

Unsurprisingly, Tsubaki shook her head. “No, my Keeper. Their group has been focused primarily on the tasks you assigned them, aside from the period when they were dealing with the energy crisis.”

“Noted. In that case, everyone can get back to their normal work. Assuming nothing major comes up that requires me to leave again, the attack should begin in three more months.”

The expressions of the gathered group turned serious. After having nearly a century to prepare thus far, three months no doubt felt incredibly soon. Of course, the same did not apply to Tsubaki, who was the most used to how I experienced the flow of time. She had been with me since I first revealed myself to the mortal races, after all.

“Understood, my Keeper. We will go through our final preparations, and make sure that we are ready to depart when you need us.” She said with a polite bow, her and the rest of the group rising from where they had been kneeling.