“I’ve got it!” Lilith exclaimed, bolting upright in bed.
“Whazzat?” Kali said sleepily, shifting the covers as she sat up.
“Well, I’ve still been thinking hard about the whole ‘one gender system’ thing, and I think I know what we’re missing. Really, we’ve been looking at it wrong the entire time; the problem is that we’ve been taking Amelia’s words at face value, and just assuming that that’s how it is, that having one gender is the only optimization we can make in that regard, but we’ve been disregarding a few crucial things.
“Most importantly, we’ve been disregarding the fact that this information comes from Amelia. She may be incredibly talented when it comes to systems, but she’s very immature as a person. She said that Mana flows differently based on a person’s gender, and that’s true, Pandora’s tested it. But, even though that’s true, we didn’t properly consider other options.
“Yes, Amelia has already optimized a monogender system, but I’m willing to bet she hasn’t even tried optimizing anything else. Mana flows differently based on gender, sure, but that’s not necessarily something that we can’t use to our advantage. We’re just using raw Mana output and efficiency as our only metric, and that’s a gross oversimplification of how the world works.”
“Mm…yeah, you’re right.” Eve said. “I suppose we should go tell everyone again. I’m glad that you at least made sure everyone knew that we hadn’t finalized it, but it’s still gonna be awkward to go to everyone and tell them we figured out a better way literally the day after we told them.”
“Well, as much as I hate to admit it, this is still contingent upon us actually landing upon a solution that’s worth the tradeoff in efficiency.” Lilith said. “And admittedly it’ll be rather hard to make a system that’s fair and doesn’t promote gender-based discrimination if we attempt to minmax the way Mana flows, but I think it’s doable for sure.”
“Let’s discuss it more in the morning.” Kali yawned. “We’ll have Jerry and Amelia there to weigh in on it too, so it’ll probably a bit more productive. I’m gonna go back to sleep now, though. G’night.”
“I’m too awake now.” Lilith said, teleporting herself out of bed. “I’m going to go take a walk and think about this.”
Kali and Eve didn’t protest. As she was now, Lilith didn’t actually need that much sleep, and it was really more to heal mental fatigue than it was physically necessary. Likewise, eating, drinking, and even breathing was sort of optional as well; thanks to her eldritch abilities, all she had to do was absorb biomass from somewhere and she could break it into nutrients or use it to oxidize her blood, though using it to oxidize blood was incredibly inefficient.
She had lost track of how much mass she had stored up, but it was a lot, easily in the millions of kilograms, potentially pushing even tens or hundreds of millions. With the dungeon able to spawn enormous monsters that would just sit still and let themselves be killed, it had become trivial to farm up mass. Mae would often spend time using the spare avatar simply sitting in that room and farming monsters over and over again to increase their biomass.
And in a sense, that truly did make her a classic eldritch abomination. The bodies she had walking around were linked to this horrifying mass of every conceivable material that a living being could be made of, and killing one of those bodies was only a temporary setback. With the leaps and bounds in understanding that Pandora was making with their abilities, they reckoned that in a pinch they could transfer their consciousness to said horrifying mass, and with the aid of a little Worship rebuild their destroyed bodies. Pandora had even puppeted a body made entirely from the mass and not an Avatar, though she wasn’t able to do so with any particular skill yet.
But, regardless of whether or not it was required, she forced herself to stick to regular human behaviors like eating and sleeping even when it was inconvenient. It was one thing to go without food in an emergency situation, it was another to eschew it altogether in favor of just absorbing mass through her fingertips. It was just a way to keep herself grounded, remind herself that she was not like the Elder Gods. She was, at her core, human. Or…demon, and then a human. Reincarnation was weird like that. Regardless, whatever the core of her being was, it was “normal”, and she would be keeping it that way.
As she rounded a corner, heading to one of the kitchens, she was surprised to see Levia walking sleepily towards the same kitchen Lilith was headed to. Lilith walked up to her daughter, scooping her into her arms and hugging her tight. “Can’t sleep?” She asked.
“Mhm.” Levia replied, snuggling up to Lilith. “I was having a nightmare about the time when Aria and I fought while I was still Levi. Ma didn’t teleport Errus away as he was falling, and then he turned into Aria and I ate her. It was awful.”
“It’s okay.” Lilith soothed, stroking Levia’s hair gently. “I’ll never let anything like that happen again.”
“But…what if I get really hungry, and then Levi comes out and I can’t control him, and I hurt someone?” Levia asked in a small voice.
“You’re the strongest girl I know, Levia.” Lilith replied. “I’m sure that you’d be able to handle it, no matter what. And even if the impossible happens and you can’t control your hunger, I’ll be there to make sure you don’t hurt anyone. So, you don’t need to worry about it, okay?”
“I know, I just…can’t help it.” Levia said.
“That’s fine, we all get like that sometimes. But, whenever that happens, come tell one of your mothers, okay? We’d like to be there for you.”
“Okay.” Levia said. “Thanks, Mom.”
“Anytime. Now, why don’t we go get you some food?”
----------------------------------------
“So, what’s going on?” Anala asked curiously, looking around the room. “It’s been a while since all four of us met up like this.” Currently, she was in Bruce and Ava’s home, sitting in the living room with them and Raesn. The four of them were all the “heroes”, people that had been picked by the High Arbiter to fight against the threat of the Queen of Monsters.
Of course, now she knew that it had all been a sham. The High Arbiter and the Queen of Monsters were more or less the same person, and the whole thing had been some infuriating way to “boost confidence” and “get people stronger”, totally ignoring the fact that hundreds had died and thousands more had their lives uprooted by the capture of the frontier villages.
And that wasn’t even getting into all the trauma, fear, and other damages the incident had caused. And yet they still had the gall to claim that it had been for the betterment of people, that, in the long run, more lives were saved by the incident than they had taken.
Bruce waved a hand, and the front door locked, followed shortly by the feeling of an anti-magic field settling over the area. Anala’s eyes narrowed, her hand straying to the sword at her side. “Explain, now.”
“We need to have a serious talk, Anala.” Ava said. “About you and Lilith. And we didn’t want you just leaving because you don’t want to deal with it.”
Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
“We’ve been over this.” Anala said tersely. “I refuse to associate with her, not after what she’s done.”
“Things have changed, Anala.” Raesn said, an unusual sharpness in his voice. “It’s time to put your pride away and settle your differences.”
“And what’s so different now? Is it because they’ve cooked up some other hairbrained scheme that will kill thousands?” Anala said sarcastically. “I don’t see why we can’t just stay apart and let each other live in peace.”
“There’s going to be war, Anala.” Raesn said. “War between the factions of Administrators. The Elder Gods have decided that they want to make a game of this war, and there’s going to be no avoiding it.”
“And how do we know Lilith isn’t just making this up again?” Anala accused. “It wouldn’t be the first time she’s lied to us about something like this.”
“You don’t know her like we do, Anala,” Bruce said, “she’s genuinely worried about this. And even if you claim it’s just her acting, then she’s lying to all the other residents of the dungeon, her parents, her daughters, everyone. She made a new Parallel for the express purpose of figuring out the eldritch, too. And it’s not just her, Higher Beings and Administrators from other factions are constantly visiting to prepare for this. She’s even in the process of readying a new plane and making a new system. It’s serious.”
Anala hesitated for a moment. “What proof do we have that these other people aren’t just random people Lilith and Kali picked up, and that she hasn’t –”
“Shut up, Anala.” Ava snapped. “I’ve had it up to here with your digs at her. You have to admit that she was right, that the death toll around the frontier towns has taken a nosedive since the incident, and that the people of Haven are expanding beyond the three cities. If you credit the incident for that, then the lives saved have already surpassed the incident’s death count. She also gave people ample time to evacuate, so the ones who died did so knowing full well the risks they were taking.”
“Ava’s right, even if she is being a touch too harsh.” Raesn said. “It seems to me that you’ve refused to let yourself see any of the good the incident has caused because you’re blinded by the bad. The world isn’t black and white, and people in power have to make tough decisions. This is exactly the kind of scenario that the incident was supposed to prepare us for. Can you put aside your feelings this one time and look at the situation logically?”
“They could have done all of that without the convoluted Queen of Monsters nonsense.” Anala argued. “They didn’t have to do it in a way that would leave people dead.”
“And what about independence, huh?” Ava asked. “Do you want the solution to everyone’s problems to be pleading with them to do something about it?”
“No, but this problem is their fault in the first place.” Anala replied. “If they just made Haven so it didn’t have monsters that strong, then there wouldn’t be a need for this.”
“That’s not how it works, Anala.” Raesn replied. “The strength of the monsters on a plane is a function of the plane’s average Mana, which itself is a function of size and if it is connected to larger planes in any meaningful capacity.”
“Then how do they keep the monsters around the frontier towns so weak, huh? Explain that.”
“Eve does it.” Ava replied. “She spends a large portion of her working time culling any stronger monsters that generate from the ambient Mana. The only reason the weak ones keep appearing is that they’re breeding naturally. That’s why she’s not a higher ranked adventurer than she is now; most of her work is off the books.”
Anala paused for a moment. “And she didn’t tell me this why?”
“Because you made it clear you had no desire to speak with her, and she respected your wishes.” Bruce said. “Even now, she didn’t ask us to contact you or anything. She has said she wants to make up with you, but she hasn’t done anything because you told her you didn’t want that, and because she knew it would make things worse if she tried. You and her may not see eye to eye on everything, but that doesn’t make her a bad person, and at the end of the day you both want what’s best for the people.”
“I suppose.” Anala said. “That doesn’t make me a fan of her methods.”
“And you don’t have to be.” Raesn replied. “But we would appreciate it if you would at least be willing to work with her on things like this, where it’s clearly bigger than all of us.”
“And what am I supposed to be doing, then?” Anala asked. “If war is an inevitability, how am I supposed to help? I’m not even a Higher Being.”
Raesn shrugged. “I’m sure Lilith would have use for strong people like us in getting the new plane up and running, and if not, you can probably just help on training the people of our planes so we aren’t at a massive disadvantage if the fight comes here. We are, apparently, among the weakest planes, so we would have little recourse if we were attacked in our current state. Honestly, though, just talk with her, I’m sure she’d have something for you to do.”
“Fine. I’ll go talk with her tomorrow, happy?” Anala said testily. “But I’ll decide myself whether this is actually real or if you all are being duped.”
“We’ll be with you.” Raesn said firmly. “I don’t want there to be any misunderstandings or anything, this is too important.”
“I’m not that unreasonable, but if you insist.” Anala replied, rolling her eyes.
“Good.” Ava said. “And…sorry for snapping at you; I just hate seeing my friends fight and not even try to reconcile.”
Anala raised an eyebrow. “Was she actually serious about being friends? I thought she was just trying to mess with us.”
Ava sighed. “No, she was absolutely serious. She’s…lonely is perhaps a strong word, but she has precious few people she can interact with normally, so she cherishes every person that she can connect with. Why did you think she was trying to mess with us?”
“Are you kidding? She dropped that on us right after telling us our entire quest was a lie. You’ll have to forgive me for being wary.”
“That’s…actually not the worst point.” Bruce admitted. “But, yes, she and the other Parallels really are genuinely happy to spend time with us.”
“You know, we could just go talk with her now.” Ava suggested. “Unless you have a specific reason for wanting to do it tomorrow.”
“Wouldn’t you need to let her know first?” Anala asked. “We can’t exactly waltz in uninvited.”
“That’s exactly what we do, actually.” Raesn said. “We have full license to enter whenever we want.”
“And if she’s in the middle of something?”
“Then one of the Parallels will talk to us. She’s usually free around this time, though; it’s right around when she wakes up.”
“Alright, fine.” Anala said. “Let’s go.”
Bruce nodded, then stood up and sketched a magic circle on the floor. Once he was finished, everyone got inside and he activated the circle, and suddenly they were in a sort of featureless room, empty save for a couple of doors. Bruce led the group through one of them, and soon they were in a hallway that was built similarly to the room Anala had been in after they had defeated Eve.
Oh, hey guys…wait, Anala?! A voice rang out in Anala’s mind. Okay hold on one sec, I think I see what’s going on here. Uh, just head to the nearest living room, Lilith will meet you there.
“Got it. Thanks, Nuwa.” Ava said.
Yeah, anytime. And…it’s good to see you again, Anala.
“Uh, yeah.” Anala said awkwardly. “Where’s this living room?”
“It’s just around the corner.” Ava said. “There are a bunch around here.”
The group rounded the corner and emerged into a fairly normal, if large, living room. As they were sitting down, Lilith entered the room from another hallway, dressed in what seemed to be pajamas. “Anala, it’s good to see you again! To what do I owe the pleasure?”
Anala fumbled for a moment, caught off-guard by the sheer incongruity of seeing one of the world’s most powerful and supposedly serious people in such casual attire. Then, she rallied herself, and looked Lilith in the eyes. “I hear you’re claiming that there’s going to be some big war or something? I came to see for myself if you’re just baiting us again.”
Lilith’s face fell somewhat. “Unfortunately, there isn’t much concrete evidence at the moment that doesn’t amount to basically being my word. I can show you the vision I was given, but I know that could easily be fabricated. Our faction has been given a head start because we’re the one that needs it the most in order to make this sick ‘game’ fair, so most of what we’re doing is preparing.
“The best I can really offer is to have you wait until the people I’m working with show up later. Specifically, it’ll be the pioneer of magic systems and her…protégé is the wrong word, but someone who’s made a breakthrough in system tech. I’m helping them engineer a new system for a new plane, and if all goes well then we’re going to port it over to Earth and Haven when we integrate them with the new plane, which should mean a marked jump in power for people. The current system is…less than optimal, to say the least.”
Anala sighed. “Let’s see this vision, then.” She said.
Lilith nodded, and a DVD appeared in her hand. “We have copies of this because some people wanted to rewatch it and look for anything they could.” She explained. “They’re straight copies from my memory, though, so don’t be put off by the way we’re storing them. This is just convenient for us.”
Anala nodded, and Lilith inserted the DVD into a player connected to one of the TVs. As the DVD began to play, Anala studied it intently, looking for anything incongruent. It began with Lilith in a featureless void…