Celeste could feel the change in the world. She knew deep down that she might have made a mistake, the Whirlpool of Souls was essentially the ultimate weapon. Anchored outside of all of reality it was unlike any other force, and incredibly difficult to bring into any plane. Even then, it was the embodiment of non-existence. It wasn't just death, it was entropy, the lack of anything. If the Whirlpool of Souls was ever used against a god it could and would kill them. She rubbed her eyes, trying not to think about it. She decided to think of it as a 'lore making'-object. She was sure that it would be part of the world's lore.
The Architect of Reality heard something move and she readied her time-based powers for a fight, only to see a bald man with a slightly oval shape, though still with prominent cheekbones. His skin tone had a slightly olive hue, making him look overall Asian, though Celeste couldn't place where. She wondered if this world had an Asian-like country, or if it was all based on medieval fantasy with Nordic inspirations.
"Who are you and what were you doing down there?" She asked, not wanting to attack someone based on her suspicion alone.
The man smiled and gave a wave. "Don't worry, I believe that I am one of your husband's creations." He answered in a calm and melodious voice.
Celeste should have guessed as much, Jasper was probably spending his Worship as well, which would make sense. She gave a nod and let a hand run through her hair trying to correct it, but she didn't succeed. She could see that they had one maybe two days left before they needed to get out of the game, thanks to the travel they had been doing to get here. She was exhausted and was considering logging out before the hard time limit, though there was one thing she needed to fix.
Stepping outside the orphanage she saw the unnaturally tall buildings. She was sure that as the god of tinkering, she could ensure that mithril wasn't used in construction. The only question was how to do that. She couldn't just tear everything down, since that would lead to everything being built back in much the same way. She didn't have the worship to divinely enforce a new aspect to the world, meaning there was no easy way around this.
With no obvious solution, Celeste started to wander around Salezstadt. The place seemed overcrowded, and she knew, for a fact, that her tools had already been stolen. She didn't blame the people around here, they were poor even among the poor, having little to give and much less to lose. She knew there was an emperor, which would likely mean the presence of nobility.
An idea struck Celeste as she made her way through the din of people. She had been teaching some of her students earlier this year about how French and Prussian nobility had tricked its citizens into farming potatoes. They had shown off that they had used potatoes not only for eating but for decoration as well. However, the difference was that potatoes could be cultivated, but mithril couldn't. If she could convince the nobility to start using Mithril, then they would probably end up consuming most of it, which would lead to people starting to rip it out of the walls. Or at least she assumed so, after all, people would pull copper out of the walls and ground in the real world.
With her plan in mind, she started to head much more directly towards the noble district. It was hard to do, but she made sure to try and dodge as many people as possible on her way there.
The noble district was beyond anything that she had ever expected. The houses stretching far into the sky were still very prominent, but they had small balconies overlooking the streets, and most of them were sporting blue and white banners with the golden crown emblazed on them. She recognized the symbol as being that of Kelllwan. Some plants had been placed along the balconies, though the plants were mostly ferns and other greens that didn't require a huge amount of light.
The people around Celeste didn't seem to have the same kind of rush to their gait, which was in stark contrast to the poor district. Their movements were much more measured, which was helped by the fact that people weren't densely packed.
Their clothing style had changed quite a bit as well, giving them a much more noble bearing. Instead of rags or well-used outfits, the people around Celeste were sporting some incredibly fine silks in bold and striking colours. The dresses were clearly meant to show off wealth as they were wandering around, having multiple layers in what Celeste would describe as a Victorian style. A corset, which didn't appear tight, collecting the dress and giving the rich women wandering the streets a shapely look, which was highlighted by the large hats and jewellery they were wearing.
The men, on the other hand, wore long jackets with prominent tailcoats to the point of it looking ridiculous, she could see that some of the less well-fitted jackets had tailcoats dragging along the ground. Each jacket had a floral, or at least patterned, inner lining. While the outside was colours that seemed easy to clean and maintain. On their heads, they wore wide flat-brimmed hats. Though they weren't missing any jewellery either, with heavy-looking golden necklaces, rings and chains, which were highlighted by the prominent swords and scabbards at their side.
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Celeste couldn't help but wonder why none of the poor had made their way into the noble district, and she had barely had the thought when she saw five fully armoured guards walking down the street. Two of them were sporting swords and shields, while the other three had some of the largest crossbows that Celeste had ever seen. She was sure that those things could punch through a person and the wall behind them.
There weren't any alleys that Celeste could move to, so instead she moved to one of the shops nearby. Walking closer she could see that each of the buildings was themed, ensuring that every floor on the buildings was either living spaces or shops, whereas in the poor district, it had been much more randomized in what was placed where.
Stepping inside an elderly shopkeeper gave her a look, but Celeste disappeared to the back of the shop, finding a changing room. Quickly she started to weave objects, deciding that she might as well use some of the mithril she had gotten from Marcusburg, she made a dress in the same style as the women around the city. The white metal tinted with blue seemed to reflect the sunlight even in the changing room, giving the Goddess an almost astral look, even if it was slightly uncomfortable and incredibly heavy. Had it not been for her divine powers of tinkering, she would probably have been unable to get the mithril so thin that it could be worn at all, but by the end of things, she felt she looked respectable.
Celeste was affirmed in her choice of attire when she walked out of the store and nobody seemed to give her a second glance. Even though she had to politely inform the owner of the shop that it was her own dress.
The Royal Palace was surprisingly easy to find, since there was some kind of zoning restriction in place, as the massive buildings became smaller and smaller until they tapered out to single-story buildings.
Around the Royal Palace a large plaza had been placed, ensuring that there would be space for people gathering to celebrate the royals, but also to ensure that the towers around the palace had a clear view of people approaching.
The palace itself was surprisingly bland. The thick walls were made from grey stone, while the building was made from what Celeste would assume to be some kind of concrete. The overall impression of the Royal Palace was that it was created by a depressed architect who had nothing but government buildings as their reference material. Being a teacher, Celeste wasn't sure what else to call it but an inspiration to the brutalist movement.
The walls around the palace had small towers along them, even with the white and blue colours from the banners they were sporting, they didn't manage to cheer up the overall feeling of the structure.
Celeste now needed to figure out how to get in. She could try and lie her way through the gates, though she didn't really know much about etiquette, or what land she could pretend to be from. With her current dress, she couldn't really sneak her way inside. As such she decided that she might as well play to her strengths.
The gate at the wall was manned by four guards, though that was only the visible ones, the towers around the iron gate probably hid more people that Celeste couldn't see. The goddess didn't mind, simply walking up to guards and doing her best noble woman impression.
The voice from the guards seemed to ring a little as he spoke through the helmet. "Halt, citizen. What is your business at the palace?" He hadn't drawn his weapons and neither had any of the other guards, but Celeste's divine power to dodge attacks told her to expect a ballista bolt from one of the towers if she made a wrong move.
"I am the Goddess of Reality. I am the Cosmic Architect. Please, be so kind as to let me through so that I may speak with your Emperor." Her voice was calm and soft. Celeste didn't have the best charisma stat, and she could practically hear the dice rolling from the game. It didn't go any worse than she had expected, as the guard just scoffed at her, clearly not believing her words.
Celeste wasn't the goddess of fools, and she had fully expected her charisma to fail her when she tried to get through the gate, though she would have loved to save her Energy for a time when it actually mattered.
Her body lit up with power and she took a step back dodging the two ballistas that hammered heavy bolts into the ground where she had been standing. She was honestly surprised by how easy it suddenly was to dodge the attacks. The Ranks she had gained hadn't felt like an improvement against Raffael Moordet, but against mortals, she felt like she was pretty much untouchable.
She suddenly got a better idea on how to approach this, with speed she unleashed her time powers, making guards crumble and the ballista fail, as they aged a hundred years in the blink of an eye. All around them, death reigned something that Celeste could feel as her Death Domain ensured that nobody died without her permission.
Walls were crumbling, bells were ringing, and guards were storming to her position in the hopes of taking down the goddess. She looked down at the guard that had stopped her and smiled, before pulling both of their consciousness back through time.
"I said: I am the Goddess of Reality. I am the Cosmic Architect. Please, be so kind as to let me through so that I may speak with your Emperor." Celeste repeated herself the guard in front of her clearly shaken, and was trying to make heads and tails of how he had ended up standing at his post once more.
Celeste was surprised too, though only by the fact that the entire spectacle had only cost her a single Energy, leaving her with 4 in reserves. The jump back in time had been the culprit for her Energy consumption, though she would have thought that it would have cost her at least 2 if not 3 Energy. Apparently, the game hadn't even considered her to be in combat with how little threat the mortals had posed to her, and it was simply counting her jump back in time as a miracle.
"Y-yes, your divine worship. Please, I will advise the Emperor of your arrival." The guard managed to say, deciding that he wasn't interested in repeating the performance.
While the other guards didn't outwardly question the keeper of the gate, their helmeted faces did turn to him, though he didn't say a word, simply allowing Celeste through.