Celeste was woken up by the crackling of a portal. She was about to murder her husband if he didn't keep the noise level down. Seeing Jasper fall through it raised some concerns. Seeing that his arm was missing made her panic. For a moment she completely forgot that this was all virtual, that Jasper's arm wasn't really missing. Her thoughts spiralled, and she wondered if he would be able to program with the arm, she thanked her lucky stars that he had decided to go with a more direct approach where he went into the game, and then she remembered that it was, in fact, where they currently were. She slapped him. "Idiot," She said sternly. Jasper groaned. He didn't feel pain as such, but rather as if he was bone tired, and his entire being was slowly wasting away. He looked up at his wife and coughed. "Wife, is that you? Please come closer. I fear that my days might be numbered." Jasper's voice was weak and raspy, and Celeste didn't need to know that he was hamming it up. As she leaned closer, Jasper quickly scooted up a little and kissed her. She really wanted to stay mad at him, but he was such an idiot. She kissed him back and before long they had snuggled up in the middle of the massive magical circle.

Jasper found some of his arm returning as dawn rolled around and he got his energy back. He didn't really feel good, but he felt better. He was still missing a ton of Hit points, and he decided that accessing his Endurance Domain to get the regeneration power, Amaranth Vitality, and spending a single Energy for the day on it, he quickly started to feel the restorative powers. By the time the others had woken up, Jasper's arm was back, and the only sign that he had been doing something he shouldn't was his clothes, which Celeste quickly mended. The Scribe looked his master over with a suspicious look as he stepped out of the quarters Celeste had created. "You still live?" He asked, seemingly with more disbelief than Jasper thought necessary. "Oh ye of little faith, of course I survived, I am part of Armandos, and we cannot be killed." He said, Celeste was doing her best to be supportive and tone down her snark, and she managed to control herself. "Though I did have to access the third level of the Ur-spells." He explained, which made The Scribe shake his head. "You are a terrible liar, even for a god. There are only two levels of Ur-spells. Lower Ur-spells and Greater Ur-spells." The old man said. "I have spent a lifetime studying these spells, and while powerful, and something that can and will kill gods, they are not as omnipotent as some would claim." The Scribe continued. Jasper had that smug smirk on his face that made the old-timer pause in his explanation. "You would think that, but in actuality, there are three steps on the path of the Ur-mage." Jasper started to explain the theory of these spells, and before long The Scribe was taking notes in his thick tome. Celeste quickly left to take care of her own things, though Jasmine stayed by the old man's side, looking bored the entire time. "So, yeah. That is about it. In essence, not even a god can use the final step without taking some heavy damage, and Ewen is really the only one that can access it beyond me, though I am fairly sure that he will get absolutely destroyed if he tries. I don't think he has access to the Endurance Domain, which is honestly the only reason I was able to survive." Jasper said. "Even so, this is fairly high level of magic, and we should probably gate it in some way. Though, I am unsure of how to do that. I did notice that I got full Energy from the trip to Kelllwan's plane, though didn't get it on the way back. I am assuming that it is a side effect of breaking your version of the barrier?" Jasper asked, wondering if The Scribe had an explanation for this. "Yes, I have essentially used your power to create the barrier, so when you break it the barrier tries to attack to you, which is flooding you with energy... your energy." The old man said. This was quite interesting, and he would have to start making some visits to the various gods during the evenings to get things done. "So, I am going to try and find a candidate for a scoundrel god, and I am assuming the best option for that would be looking for the leader of the Thieves Guild. Longknife wasn't any help, but he might still have a use. I just need to be a lot sneakier than I was before." Jasper said, mulling things over, well he was mulling things over until Jasmine threw a pebble at him. "I AM BORED!" She shouted and the god of knowledge had to admire her courage. He had quite literally just defeated a god in combat, and yet a small child was still brave enough to try and fight him. "Well, you are in luck. How would you like to become a criminal?" Jasper said with a broad smile.

Celeste had decided to track down her forge. It hadn't been stolen, but the power level of items that it was cranking out was something that would need to be curbed. It did help that in her vision a small pop-up message was hovering around.

Worship gain [https://i.postimg.cc/0Nh5hDMk/image.png]

Jasper had gotten the same amount of Worship based on what she had been talking with him about this morning. She had practically doubled her Worship, gaining quite a bit of power in the process. She was debating on how to best go about reclaiming the smithy, though she did have an idea of what to do. It wouldn't be easy though, and she would split up from Jasper, which she didn't enjoy. Even so, they would be covering a lot more ground when working separately.

Celest focused herself, she felt the harmony between her Domains. She could not teleport, even with her Journeying word travel was still travel. She might have to make that one of her rules, that people could not invent teleporting. However, she could spend a miracle to effectively Teleport, though, she felt that was like her Death Domain being able to resurrect someone. It would be a bit of trickery and the world would probably try and prevent her from doing so. She found a doorway to a house. There was nothing fancy about the house, simply built, and barely standing. She could repair it to peak condition, however, what would that do? There was something broken in the very heart of the building and she realized that it had never been in peak condition. It had always been crooked and broken. Celeste ignored the symptoms of a city in decay. Instead, she pushed her will against the door. She was the mistress of any reality. She was the one behind the veil. She controlled time and space, and she wanted access to her smithy. Pushing energy into the world around her, every Domain she had seemed to work as a greater whole. Then, it clicked. She pushed against the door, and without any effort she stepped through the doorway, but instead of finding herself in the slanting house, she was standing in the middle of her forge.

The Architect of Creation hadn't expected to be alone, so when she saw someone working at the forge, she wasn't surprised. He was a drow, his greyish skin on full display along with his muscles as he worked. His torso was naked, and a pair of loose red pants was all that preserved his modesty. Celeste wasn't impressed by him, even as his short white hair took on a shine in the forge. He turned around, and the goddess could see multiple scars all over his torso. Most of them were made by blades, but some had definitely been caused by something bigger. Something heavier. Celeste looked him over, though before she could say anything, he spoke. "Rivvil. My brother told me to expect you, though your presence does come as a surprise since I did not hear any fighting outside." He said, looking her over. Celeste shook her head. "Let me guess. You are another Ilsher? I am assuming Red House?" She asked, pointing to his pants as evidence. "You do your kin proud. I am Ira, the warrior of the Ilshers, and I have been given the title slayer of gods." He explained, slowly breathing in and then breathing out. "I am to understand that you are the one to thank for this smithy. It takes a warrior to appreciate a good forge, for what other profession is so dependent on the quality of their equipment that they wager their life?" He asked, setting aside a heavy hammer and walking over to the quenching troth and using the water to wash himself. At least, Celeste hoped that it was water and not oil. The drow put on a shirt that had been tossed to the side. She noted that it was black and red. "I will not make the same mistake as my brother. Underestimating you and having to crawl back to my sister is a fate that I will not have weighing me down." He said, taking a combat stance, clearly assuming that Celeste was here for a fight. She saw the future in that split second, as a drow hidden among the various equipment in the forge sprung out, aiming a poisoned dagger at her body. Celeste remained cool, simply pointing at the poor man and letting time decay him to pieces. It was a quick process and in an instant, it was like he had never existed.

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"Why do you think I am here?" she asked, curiosity entering her voice. "You think that I have come to reclaim the forge? To some degree, I have. You cannot be allowed to create any divine artefacts in this place. The process is simply too... dangerous. The balance of the world is threatened by the destruction caused by this place." She explained, though before she could explain further, Ira had closed the gap. His hand-to-hand combat quickly moved to make short work of Celeste. However, the Goddess of Time was not to be trifled with. She could sense his blows coming and with minimal movements, she simply moved out of the way. Her power, Immediate Foresight, doing a lot of the heavy lifting to ensure that she could look cool and collected. She was hardly expending any stamina dodging the attacks, but she could also tell that Ira wasn't using any divine powers. He was testing her, seeing if she could stand up to him in combat alone. "I get the feeling that you and your brothers might be considered spoiled brats." She commented, and the next punch Ira threw was much harder and more focused, though she dodged it all the same, she had to actually take a step back. "I mean, you take my shrine as your own. You produce weapons against my will, and yet you do not know my name." Celeste said, managing to talk in a calm and steady voice as attacks rained around her. "I know who you are. You are the first god. You are Armandos. You are the forgotten one." Ira said, adding a roundhouse kick to the barrage of attacks. Celeste smirked. "Good, then you should know that what you are doing has no impact on what is going to happen next. I am going to tear down this smithy. There is nothing you can do about this. Then I will leave this place, and you will hope that I never come back. That last part is the thing you have control over." She explained patiently, feeling the hits start to intensify. "Or maybe you would like me to gift this smithy to Kelllwan?" She asked, knowing that it would taunt the demi-god.

She felt the flash of power from Ira. And she realized that taunting him might not have been the best idea. A hit kick to her side that she couldn't dodge in time sent her flying, and while the game didn't allow for traditional pain, the discomfort was intense and overpowering. Looking at her health, Celeste could see that she had lost 6 hitpoints just from that hit. She was sure Ira had used multiple abilities to get past her defences, and he was clearly using some kind of power to make his attacks beyond lethal. It seemed like playtime was over. Celeste didn't really have time to play around, with only 4 energy left she would have to ensure that she didn't go about wasting the energy. She had fought against Mordecai, but she wasn't sure that Ira would be the same kind of challenge. He was much more combat-focused. Celeste would probably have to spend Energy on using her Reaping word, however, she wasn't sure how that would interact with everything else. After all, Mordecai had probably ensured that his siblings couldn't be killed. Celeste would have to try something else. She would have to use one of her other Domains if she wanted to win this. Pouring her will into the Time Domain she anchored it against Ira. The warrior Ilsher was getting ready for another follow-up attack. Celeste did everything in her power to try and manifest the desired outcome, and she felt her Energy start to drain as she tried to lock Ira in a time stasis. Mid stride, the Red Ilsher stopped. A look of surprise on his face as his own personal time slowed to a crawl. Instantly everything seemed to warp around him and the sound of chains rang through the smithy. Celeste sighed, feeling quite a bit of relief. She instinctively knew that he wouldn't be able to move for the next 24 hours, though nothing would be able to affect him either. He was in perfect stasis, locked in place, not even perceiving time. She probably couldn't kill him without committing a lot more effort, and removing a valuable player from the game seemed like a bad idea. She instead focused on tearing down the smithy, dismantling it thoroughly. To her dismay, she didn't get the Worship back she had spent on it. It seemed like once allocated the worship would be lost if it was ever pulled back.

As she tore down the structure she could see that she was in the middle of a cave. However, as she removed more of the building she felt a strange pressure on her very being. It seemed to build rapidly as more and more of the Smithy was removed. Celeste's actions were coming to a crawl as the world itself seemed to fight her presence. As she removed the last stone of the smithy everything turned white, and the pressure was absolutely too much. The god was thrown back and to her surprise, she found herself back in Marcusburg. She could feel her powers vein rapidly. Her entire being felt like it was burning up. Apparently, she had tried to circumvent the whole idea of Teleporting. She knew instinctively that she couldn't do it, but thanks to her divine status she had been allowed to step into a space that she had created, however, trying to leave the space would probably have booted her back to Marcusburg. Deconstruction on the other hand would under normal circumstances have left her in the cavern where the smithy had been standing, and she found herself kicked back through the dimension gate that she had created in the first place, as the AI tried to prevent her from cheating.

Celeste slowly got up and looked around the place, hoping that she would find a way to recover she headed towards the warehouse.