When Celeste woke again, it was midday. The sun was doing its darndest to keep her from snoozing any more, and it was winning.

The goddess slowly sat up and sighed, looking at Jasmine, still sleeping. Celeste couldn't help but wonder when Erik had passed away. She knew that The Scribe was a heredical title, but she had honestly expected Erik to be the one who showed up.

The Architect of Reality had a lot to process, but she would have plenty of time to rationalize things when she got out of the game. Everything was too real here. It was like she couldn't distinguish between who was a player and who was just a program.

She stood up, dusting herself off for a moment, before realizing that reconstructing her entire outfit was easier than trying to get clean. With a quick flash of divine power, Celeste cleaned up and decided to check if Jasmine was still alive.

The Scribe was absolutely alive, after all, Celeste could feel it if she wasn't, but the woman still looked like she had been hit by a bus. She was tired beyond tired, but she didn't look harmed. Jasmine slowly opened her eyes when she felt Celeste's gaze on her. It seemed that she had been awake for some time, trying to fall back asleep, but the sun ensured that the Prismatic Initiate wouldn't be getting any more rest.

Beyond that, Jasmine's hair wasn't on fire anymore, which Celeste considered a positive. The mana in the dust had clearly burned out.

"We don't have to talk if you don't want to talk. But I am sorry that we left you." Celeste said, taking a moment to think through her words.

Jasmine didn't respond, but she clearly heard what Celeste had said. The goddess decided to continue.

"We won't be around for much longer. A day or two at most. I broke my own rules to bring you here, and I am not sure how I feel about that, but you saved the world... again. For that, I am thankful. For now, I need to send you back." Celeste said.

Standing over Jasmine, Celeste offered her hand to help The Scribe to get up. Jasmine paused momentarily, looking at the hand, before getting up on her own.

Celeste nodded and decided that if Jasmine wasn't in the mood for talking, then there was nothing else to say. She invoked her Journey and Time domains, trying to perform a minor miracle of teleportation. The goddess could feel the world strain against her power. She was just teleporting a single person, a person who did not resist, and yet, she had to spend 3 Energy just to perform this minor miracle.

It was interesting that despite her rules, she could still teleport people. It made sense to some degree. Gods were expected to break the natural laws, and Celeste implementing a teleportation ban through the world, would simply mean it would be expensive.

That being the case, teleportation was extraordinarily hard to perform. Celeste was sure no mortal would ever achieve it, especially not for large groups.

However, having 3 Energy to spare, The Ruler of Entropy still managed it. In a flash of bright multicoloured light, Jasmine disappeared, sent back to wherever she had been when she had been called.

With an empty feeling inside her, Celeste turned her attention to the Tree of Life.

She wanted to lay out a timeline, then paused. She didn't need to do that. She had the Time domain. She could actually relive what had happened here.

A quick look through her menus and she found the relevant power.

Echoes of the past [https://i.postimg.cc/HWwgVkKd/image.png]

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Echoes of the Past

Type: Activated Ability

Energy usage: Until next loading screen.

Full effect: Choose a particular time or known event in the past that occurred at this location and witness it as if you were present.

She smiled, dedicating 1 Energy for the day to access the ability and 1 Energy until the next loading screen to use it.

Energy 0/7

The world swirled around her as she suddenly stood over herself, looking down at a version of herself, quickly sealing Orlek in the spirit plane. For a moment, it was like her past self met her own eyes before passing out, unconscious.

It was clearly this that had triggered everything in some way, and as her old self slept, the world fast-forwarded. Celeste considered that she might have to apologize to Jasper. Apparently, she did snore. She decided that it was a bug in the game.

She watched herself wake up, give the goblins instructions, and move the closed rift in the world into the tree before heading out.

Less than an hour later, something happened. The world seemed to shutter as thick mana started to pour into the tree from nowhere. With nothing but a thought, Celeste paused the moment. After all, this was just a vision, and she could pause, reverse and speed it up as she wished.

She closely examined the flow, and her initial hunch that this was due to the rift she had anchored in the tree was wrong. No mana was coming from the rift, nor was it going into the rift. This was an outside force.

For someone to do something like this would require divine levels of power. This was not something a mortal could ever hope to perform. That boiled the list down quite a bit. In all actuality, there were only two real options for who could have done something like this: Ewen and her husband.

This was manipulation of pure magic, and that was well within the domain of a god of magic. Why Ewen would do this was... unknown, and as such Ewen was likely not the culprit. However, her husband had probably just vented a ton of magic from some project he was doing and dismissed it. That would mean that the AI would have to find a good spot for it, and it had clearly sensed an opportunity to fix the pantheon in some way. The magic had been dumped here, creating an actual Tree of Life.

This was at least Celeste's assumption. She would have to check once she got out of the game.

When the tree had been created, she felt a slight ping of power run through the forest, clearly alerting anyone sensitive to nature's harmony of the trees arrival.

She saw the dragons in the distance, nothing more than a couple of dots in the sky, as Esselaia entered the clearing.

The elf seemed to move with an eerie grace that defied all logic. It was like she was floating over the ground as her soft movements never got caught in the underbrush.

On closer inspection, Celeste realized that the plants were moving out of her way and bending slightly so as not to touch her. Ewen had the same grace to some degree when he had been mortal. Apparently, elves were just in complete harmony with nature.

Esselaia moved over to the tree, and with a gasp, she started to sing. Her song was soft and kind, and it was only now that Celeste realized the tree had not been unharmed by the influx of mana. The mana had been focused on the tree's crown and roots, essentially creating a massive mana magnet.

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That also meant the tree was tearing itself apart, leaving thin cracks in the trunk. Esselaia seemed to be healing these cracks, drawing the connections between crown and root, ensuring that the tree could live.

The goddess of time could feel how thankful the tree was, how grateful it was, and as Esselaia had healed it, it gave her power.

It didn't take long before Esselaia sat down, slowly exchanging her own power with the tree's power. Soon, the elf's long hair billowed in an invisible wind, and it became clear that she was heightening her power.

The tree was happy to provide from its new power source, and had it not been for the intervention of the dragons, the elf would have ascended then and there.

Four of the dragons landed around Esselaia, ready to attack, however one held them back, asking her what she planned to do with this power.

From there, it was as the dragons had told. Esselaia claimed she wanted peace in this realm, and the dragons seemed... happy. They offered to help her, in exchange for making a soul oath that she would always stand for peace. Esselaia did so, and they started to contain the power seeping off the elf, and keep her on this plane as she started to achieve godhood.

Celeste saw herself, Marcel and Ülwrick arrive at the clearing, and she stopped the vision. She had been here for this part.

Things weren't as clear as she would have liked. She would have to ask Jasper why Esselaia had been able to get power from the tree. Was that what druids did? How was it different from Elementalism. She couldn't tell. She wasn't even sure if it really mattered. Whatever the case, she had work to do here.

Shaking her head as if she had just woken up from a dream, Celeste groaned a little and moved around the area to try and find Orlek's axe.

She spotted it not that far away. The beastly weapon was still sharp beyond belief, but its divine properties were dormant. With a soft swing, she let it bite into the trunk of the Tree of Life and then spent another Energy to heal the plant. Apparently the vision counted as a loading screen, which was a little misleading, since it essentially made the the power free. She might have to get that one.

Energy 0/7

There was so much to do, and she didn't have enough resources. She was already low on Energy.

Celeste poured her will into binding the axe to the tree and Worship slowly coalesced around her, emulating her wish for it to be stuck in the wood.

The Axe in the Tree [https://i.postimg.cc/V5QXzQNf/image.png]

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The Axe in the Tree

Only those worthy will be able to pull the axe from the tree. A person is worthy if they adhere to all the following criteria:

* They have been chosen by three or more of the gods.

* They are not divine themselves.

* They have chosen to fight against a threat to the world.

Cost: 2 Worship

Celeste nodded. She was happy with her work. And she made sure to dedicate her Worship.

Total Worship 69 Spent Worship 59 Remaining Worship 10

Celeste still had a good amount of Worship left. She would still have resources for the next miracle. She needed to ensure that this place had a guardian... or two.

The Architect of Reality made her way down to the ork den. The orks must have scattered when they heard the noise up top. Not only that, but Orlek's attack had killed a lot of orks, literally ripping their spirits from their bodies. Something that not even Celeste could have stopped.

In the centre of the amphitheatre, the goddess could see a small shrine. She hadn't noticed it the first time around because it was an Orkish shrine with a mess of various offerings. However, the two crossed triangles above the small surface showed that it was a shrine for Orlek.

Celeste was surprised to see writing around the shrine. It took her a moment to realise that what she was reading was Orlek's dogma.

> 𝙻𝚒𝚟𝚎 𝚕𝚒𝚏𝚎, 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚜𝚘𝚘𝚗 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚋𝚎 𝚍𝚎𝚊𝚍. 𝚈𝚘𝚞 𝚜𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍 𝚍𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚔 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚌𝚎𝚕𝚎𝚋𝚛𝚊𝚝𝚎, 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚝𝚊𝚔𝚎 𝚠𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚍𝚎𝚜𝚒𝚛𝚎. 𝙰 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚝𝚑𝚢 𝚍𝚎𝚊𝚝𝚑 𝚒𝚜 𝚊 𝚍𝚎𝚊𝚝𝚑 𝚒𝚗 𝚋𝚊𝚝𝚝𝚕𝚎 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚊 𝚐𝚛𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚖𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝𝚢 𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚛. 𝙰 𝚠𝚎𝚊𝚔 𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚛 𝚒𝚜 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚊 𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚛, 𝚋𝚞𝚝 𝚙𝚛𝚎𝚢.

>

> 𝙻𝚎𝚝 𝚘𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚜 𝚏𝚎𝚊𝚛 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚗𝚊𝚖𝚎 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚠𝚎𝚊𝚙𝚘𝚗, 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚋𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚜𝚑𝚊𝚖𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚝𝚑𝚘𝚜𝚎 𝚠𝚑𝚘 𝚊𝚟𝚘𝚒𝚍 𝚊 𝚏𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝.

>

> 𝙳𝚘 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚔, 𝚓𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝚊𝚌𝚝, 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚗 𝚠𝚎𝚊𝚔𝚗𝚎𝚜𝚜 𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚗𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛 𝚝𝚛𝚒𝚞𝚖𝚙𝚑 𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚛 𝚢𝚘𝚞.

>

> 𝚂𝚑𝚘𝚠 𝚑𝚘𝚗𝚘𝚛 𝚝𝚘 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚘𝚛𝚜, 𝚝𝚑𝚘𝚜𝚎 𝚠𝚑𝚘 𝚌𝚊𝚖𝚎 𝚋𝚎𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞. 𝚃𝚑𝚛𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚒𝚛 𝚜𝚝𝚛𝚞𝚐𝚐𝚕𝚎 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚋𝚕𝚘𝚘𝚍, 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚎𝚡𝚒𝚜𝚝.

Yeah. That seemed in line with what she had seen from the orks. Celeste should probably take the time to read the dogma for every god, just to know their attitudes to the world. Orlek didn't seem outright evil. It was simply the 'Might makes right'-mentality taken to a logical and extreme conclusion.

It did diminish Celeste's hope that they might talk things out. After all, Celeste had defeated Orlek... or at least in his perception, she had, and that meant that to not be seen as a weak leader, Celeste had to be defeated in turn.

She sighed and finally spotted the goblins she was looking for. They were exceptionally quiet, which should have been her first warning. Like with children, you only really knew if something was wrong if they weren't making noise.

Spif and Spaf were trying to choke each other out. Their hands wrapped around each other's throats as they groaned. The two of them were obviously testing if they really could die, but judging from the look on their faces, they would pass out at the same time, collapsing on the dirt before getting up and trying again. They were identical, even down to how long they could hold their breath.

Celeste just watched as the goblins groaned and collapsed on the floor from trying to choke each other. She wondered if she should say something, but she decided against it. Instead, she focused on genuinely making the two goblins immortal, wanting the guardians of the tree to stick around.

Immortal guardian [https://i.postimg.cc/5249r45x/image.png]

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Immortal guardian

E̵R̶R̶O̷R̷!̷ ̷ 1 Entity found, 2 Entities targeted. Elevating to admin bugfixing list.

Effect: You wish to apply the following effects to the creature: Spof.

* Immortality - If killed, the creature will revive at the Tree of Life at dawn.

* Eternal youth - The creature will not die of old age and will always be in peak condition.

* Disease immunity - The creature will die of any illness within 1 day or not be affected at all.

* Sterile - The creature will not be able to reproduce.

Cost: 4 Worship

Celeste paused. There was something weird going on with the two goblins. They were, without a doubt, a bug in some way. For one, neither of them were named Spof. Celeste sighed and still spent the Worship. She had thought of the sterility feature at the last moment. If they were supposed to be immortal, she couldn't have them replicating. Especially not since she wasn't sure how goblins replicated. Maybe they grew from fungus or something like that, and she would have essentially created infinite goblins. That wouldn't do.

With that done, she started to make her way back to Marcusburg, aware that it was time for her to pack things up and head out of the game. Even so, she wanted to ensure that she could leave this zone without worrying if everything she had built would collapse.

Celeste took her time getting back to Marcusburg. She could have made the trip in an hour or two, but she enjoyed travelling since it counted as a meal and sleep. All thanks to the neat passive feature of her Journeying Domain. It was evening when she reached the town, but she felt much better than when she had woken up.

The goddess could hear people with raised voices and arguments flying. Apparently, the citizens of Marcusburg weren't happy about the drow army invading their city.

Walking inside, the Architect of Reality saw that a lot of postings had been created on the noticeboard. Most of the quests were fairly simple: 'Collect 5 boar meat.' or 'Gather 10 herbs'. The normal quest stuff that she would expect from a starting zone. Since the citizens were hungry and desperate, they had created the perfect starting zone.

Selma was arguing with Marcel, and it was clear that the mayor of the town was trying not just to command the drow out and force him to apologise by using the crown. Celeste smiled. Things were perfect. Conflict was brewing, and no matter what, the starting zone would be an interesting experience for any new player.

Seeing that her work was done, she logged out. Happy to leave things like this for another 100 years.