World Keeper-Chapter 1224: The Root of the Problem

After leaving Olympus, Priscilla returned to her temporary base camp within Fyor’s hidden dungeon. This was where she had spent her time training recently, aside from when she was called for important business in other areas. Of course, before she came, she made sure to message her contacts to let them know that she would be busy for the foreseeable future, breaking through to obtain her own divinity.

When Priscilla told Dana that she would ascend immediately, she meant it. For years, Priscilla had been forcing her divinity down, choosing to remain as a ‘mortal’ priestess of the Keeper. She did this for two reasons. First, she felt that it would look better for the chosen priestess of the Keeper to have a more humble appearance. It would make her appear more relatable to others, and help her spread the Keeper’s words.

Secondly, she did not strictly need the combat boost of being a goddess herself in normal times. In fact, it would have likely gotten in her way, given that her main combat method involved combining with the various Holy Knights that she commanded.

Now, however, neither of these were important. In order to achieve her goal of combating the Keeper’s enemies, she had to take this step and obtain a new level of power, one completely independent from that which the Keeper had granted her.

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As for how to ascend, she was all too familiar with the various methods. Perhaps under normal conditions, the easiest method would be to find a divine stone from Fyor’s main world, but Priscilla didn’t need that. Due to her overflowing divine energy, she was able to use a more direct method, one that would not have been available to her if she were still within a body of flesh and blood.

This method was first reported by none other than Tower, the dungeon god. Priscilla closed her eyes, taking a deep breath and allowing her divinity to infuse itself with every part of her being. Her body released a bright, golden light, and the nearby Holy Knights immediately moved to take defensive positions around her.

A moment later, she found the core of her divinity, and focused everything she had on it. Her divinity turned into a blinding pillar of light that stretched into the sky, Her divinity felt as if it were on fire, remodeling her entire being in a matter of seconds. Throughout the entire process, Priscilla simply focused on the concept of ‘names’.

From Dana’s explanation, she knew that the initial domain she had wasn’t incredibly important, but it would offer a small synergistic bonus with her final Origin power. Thus, she wanted to do everything she could to squeeze out every last drop of her potential.

In total, this transformation lasted for no more than a few minutes, but the sky was already starting to darken above them. Priscilla could sense that a rather large monster had noticed her evolution, and had come to investigate. Though this creature was too large for her to fully perceive from the ground, she could immediately identify it.

I’d like to use you to test my power, but… my divinity is too unstable from having just ascended. She thought to herself, calling out. “Knight of Doors, take us to Site B.” She said, and a stone door appeared beside the camp. As it opened, she could sense the force of a gigantic fist descending towards her position.

Given that the speed of these creatures was entirely disproportionate with their size, Priscilla didn’t wait for that fist to strike. She flew through the door as soon as it was barely cracked open, feeling the weight of a dozen planets crashing down on the ground behind her. The door immediately shattered, and she knew that the knights that had been left behind were slain. Of course, they could just be easily respawned, so Priscilla wasn’t too worried.

Dana, I have finished ascending to become the Goddess of Names. When should I prepare myself for Origin ascension? She asked, messaging the Keeper’s servant.

That was fast… we’ll still need time to set up the framework of your inner world. However, Chelsea’s really busy right now, so I can’t give you a specific date. I’ll let you know when she’s freed up enough to help.

While that was unfortunate, Priscilla understood that there was no reason to question this answer. She herself was the one that presented the most recent disaster to Chelsea, so she could only wait for the moment when she would be allowed to take the next step in power.

The priestess is insisting on joining you? Chelsea responded in surprise as Dana filled her in on what had transpired when Priscilla went to visit Olympus. Right… unfortunately, I don’t think that we can safely do another Origin ascension for a little while.

Is it that bad? Dana asked in concern, and Chelsea nodded her head seriously.

Yeah. I’ve been checking with the High Mother, and you guys are right. A lot of species within their Network have had their birth rates sharply reduced in the last few years. Some races are struggling to recover their natural energy, and various large-scale devices have been malfunctioning at seemingly random intervals.

The High Mother said that she thought that the matters were initially unrelated. For instance, the birthrate and sluggish energy were perceived as unknown illnesses that they were working to study, while the devices were being investigated as faulty manufacturing.

A small sigh came from Dana as she listened to Chelsea’s report. So that’s two universes that have hit their limits.

Three, actually. Chelsea corrected in a grim tone. Deckan’s not doing so well, either. The background dimensium has shown slight fluctuations over the last few months that had been attributed to interference, and magic cards are taking up to twice as long to charge as normal.

After saying that, she continued with a shake of her head. Although the cards and the generators aren’t enough to cause damage to the world’s core, the same isn’t true of an Origin Ascension. We can’t take the risk of doing it in any world that is at or near its energy limit. Additionally, we can’t use Lorek or Spica, because we don’t have the data to know how to modify the project for their world laws. Meanwhile, the black stone of Fyor could potentially interfere with the process, so it’s not safe to do so there.

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Do you have any idea how close Earth is to its limit? Dana asked, but Chelsea simply shook her head.

I’m not sure. I can’t accurately measure how much energy is left in the world core yet. However, it shouldn’t be far behind Deckan. There’s a good chance that the Origin ascension would break the limits and cause permanent damage to the world core.

Hearing Chelsea’s response, Dana let out a brief grunt. In other words, we can only hold off on the ascension until we have fixed our energy crisis?

That’s right. I’ve got a few ideas for how to do it, I’m just trying to weigh the pros and cons. Whatever we decide, we need to make it a decision that will last well into the future. Priscilla’s idea wasn’t really bad, there were just too many downsides to use it as it was.

As she was saying this, she was still going over the various solutions in her own mind. For the time being, issue a directive under the name of Olympus. Any gods wishing to ascend within this law system must do so within Fyor. Those caught violating this agreement will be subjected to severe penalties.

Chelsea already knew that they would need some type of secondary core to handle the surplus energy requirements. Potentially, they may require more than one. However, it was not easy to create these cores. Blank had done so with the Virtual Reality cores by basing them off of the Underworld core and VR systems.

Unfortunately, there was no such convenient system for gathering large amounts of energy, other than the Digital Conversion system. However, if Chelsea were to use that as the basis of this core, it would relentlessly draw in more energy to meet every demand, creating instability within the void itself. I can’t just create three more problems by solving one.

For now, she had to take steps to prevent the problem from escalating further. After all, she had no idea how long it would take to create the new cores. Until she had done so, she would even need to put the projects from the Keeper on hold. While the Keeper’s orders were important, preventing the destruction of every universe was slightly more so.

The Monarch sat before a wooden table, a small cup of tea sitting before him. Across from him was a golden Sylvan, a gentle smile on her face. “Please, drink.” She insisted, and the Monarch nodded his head.

“Thank you for your hospitality.” He said with a nod, having come to settle in this grove after the destruction of his guild. He was aware of the plans being made by the Keeper’s servants, but it almost felt as if that no longer had anything to do with him. After extracting the information that they needed to prepare, they had allowed him to leave and make a home for himself.

The golden Sylvan, Janet of Legends, smiled wider as she watched him drink the tea. “I hope that the tea is to your liking. There are not many ingredients here, but we do what we can.”

The Monarch simply chuckled, nodding his head. He was well aware of the state of this grove, and its precarious nature. The grove he had chosen to live in was a relatively newer one, established on an uninhabited planet within the depths of space. There was barely an atmosphere, let alone plant life outside of the grove itself. He could only assume that the tea leaves came from the trees making up the forest.

“It’s delicious, thank you. Is there anything that I can do to help around here? I don’t wish to simply be a freeloader.” He said, and Janet tilted her head, blinking innocently.

“Freeloader? Oh! I understand. If you would like to assist with the spreading of the grove, or its development, I would appreciate the assistance!”

Hearing that, the Monarch nodded gratefully, glad to have something to keep him busy. He opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off as the familiar voice of Tsubaki appeared in his mind. Is this a bad time? I would like to ask a question.

The Monarch hesitated, but soon responded. Of course. Though, I thought I already gave you all of the information on Hal Tua that I had?

The question I want to ask is more directly related to your own guild. Tsubaki said, confusing the Monarch slightly. What was the purpose of the giant tree that existed within the void, holding your various worlds? We had originally assumed that it was a defensive structure, but it did not seem to provide any practical protection against the Thousand Eyes assault.

That’s right. The Monarch confirmed readily. The World Tree doesn’t have advanced defensive abilities, only providing a basic warding against void beasts. It was an ancient relic from the time when we were an independent realm, and the method of its construction was long lost. However, it primarily has two uses. The first is to allow easy travel to any other realm within the tree’s branches.

The second is to nurture those worlds. It absorbs energy from the void through the branches and roots, storing them within the trunk. Then, as needed, it infuses that energy into various universes.

There was a long pause after the Monarch gave that answer. And you have no clues as to how it was created..?

No, that was many centuries before I was born. All I know is that a Master, or rather, an Origin was the one to create it.

After speaking with the Monarch, Tsubaki relayed this information to Chelsea, as well as the rest of Olympus. “In other words.” Dana said with a long sigh. “We need a method that would replicate the effects of that tree, but we don’t have any experience with such large-scale void construction.”

Julia pursed her lips. “If it’s related to trees, that should be my field of expertise. But… I wouldn’t know where to begin with that. I can’t design a tree for the void, not when the only things that I can manifest are effects within a single universe.”

Aurivy crossed her arms thoughtfully, before shaking her head. “That’s not necessarily the case. If you combine various effects from within a universe, you could theoretically create something meant to exist within the void. It will just take a fair amount of practice to find the right combination.”

Julia looked over at Aurivy, but then slowly nodded in agreement. “I… suppose. Is this what we want to focus on, then? Or are we going to try to make our own method?”

Tsubaki thought about it, before shaking her head. “For the time being, we will continue practicing our invasion strategies per normal. Julia, when it’s not your turn, and you aren’t busy practicing the memetic communication method of the World Tree Guild, you should try to work on this void tree in your spare time.

Julia’s brow twitched, and she looked at Aurivy regretfully, knowing that meant that they would have far less time to spend together until she managed to make this work. Aurivy, however, simply smiled. “Hey, I can help you practice.” She said in a reassuring tone, and Julia agreed.

“Alright. Hopefully, Chelsea is able to create something soon herself. I’m not exactly a research genius, you know… if you ask me to trailblaze an entire new branch of engineering, there’s no telling how long it will take.”

Aurivy smirked, lightly punching Julia’s arm. “It’ll take as long as it takes. For now, let’s just take things one step at a time.”