These days, it felt like there were fewer and fewer ways for me to personally get involved in the development of my world. As Tsubaki had implied before, we were now in an age where one man, no matter how strong or important, was ultimately less valuable than a large, well-trained force. Although my decisions could ultimately change the direction of the world’s development, I did not want to take such overarching control.

Doing so would be no better than depriving my people of their own freedom to choose their paths. Even if the title of Keeper became more a decoration than anything else, that was fine. There were still certain things that only I could do, though the path the system wanted the world to develop seemed to be allowing mortals to acquire more and more of those abilities themselves, including the creation of a world.

I doubted that the title of Keeper would ever become wholly irrelevant, but it was certainly becoming less significant. For now, I was the equivalent of the highest authority of government, as opposed to the original concept of an absolute deity.

Closing my eyes, I sat back in my office. My mind raced with ideas of what the future could hold, and how my role would adapt to those changes. Depending on what happened, I may need to prepare early on, as new developments could give rise to new threats that I would have to face.

After a few moments, I stood up, glancing back at Tsubaki, or rather the clone that she left with me while she worked on distributing the materials that I had given her previously. “I have a project that I want to work on. Please let your main body know that I’ll be in the dungeon instance that Aurivy gave me.”

“Understood, my Keeper.” Tsubaki’s avatar gave a deep, respectful bow as I pulled the dungeon sphere from my inventory, activating it to enter an isolated space.

There was something that I had always wanted to try, deep in the back of my mind. I had built up all of the skills necessary to accomplish it at this point, all that it required now was taking the final step to combine these skills.

I calmly walked out of the instanced version of Olympus, holding my hand out. Perhaps because this was a big moment for me, and I wanted to get it right, but I didn’t use the divine circuits to handle this skill. Instead, I resorted to the old method, infusing my words with divinity.

“Emerge, soldiers both lifeless and formless. Rise to assume your roles as the vanguards of the future.” I muttered, my Illusion domain kicking in and creating an array of armor suits, twenty rows of fifty in total. This part was simple, barely consuming any of my divinity. Even the second step was relatively minor for me.

“I bestow upon you all souls, so that you may carry out my commands.” With this, my Soul domain activated, and silver-white eyes emerged in the helmets of each suit of armor. At this point, they were sentient illusions, fully capable of possessing their own thoughts, though their souls were rather simple. I was looking for soldiers, not generals.

Now… this was where things started to take a toll on me. Normal soldiers, even ones born of my illusions, would not be powerful enough to stand against future threats. If I were to send one of them out beyond the Hyperlane Network wall, it would be destroyed in moments. Granted, they may have been created by my divinity, but their thoughts were not connected to my own. This was a safety mechanism to prevent memetic effects from infecting me through them.

My shadow stirred beneath me, stretching out and to the right as a great tower began to emerge. Once it had fully risen, its door opened, spewing out hundreds of books. My hand waved, a gust of wind gathering the books in midair and beginning to distribute them. As each book landed on an armored knight, it began to sink into their bodies, merging with their souls.

I could still feel the presence of the books, and new abilities could likewise be written on their pages. “By my authority, I bind these tomes of divine power to this new form. Should any of you be slain, this book shall return, giving birth to a new Holy Knight, mirroring this creation.” Once more, I activated both my Souls and Illusion domain, even throwing in the Mirrors domain to create a trinity.

I had to be very careful in the creation of these knights, ensuring that any connection between us only went one direction, which was me supplying power for them. There was no feedback, no mental communication that could be used against me. From the depths of their souls, they were created to be loyal to the title of Keeper, possessing enough intelligence to use the powers that had been bestowed upon them. Furthermore, because I set up the method to be recycled, they had little in the way of self-preservation instincts. They would willingly battle to the death to carry out their mission.

“You two.” I pointed to two of the knights in the front row, who had respectively been given the tomes of Light and Wood. “Fight each other to the best of your abilities.”

As soon as I said that, the two stepped forward. The Holy Knight of Light created a blade of light in his hand, while the Holy Knight of Wood stretched out his arms, creating a forest to obscure the surroundings. Regardless of this, I scanned the area with World Sight to make sure that I was able to continue monitoring the battle.

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Or at least… I would have, had the battle lasted long enough. No sooner had my senses swept over the area before a burst of light cut down the forest, splitting the Holy Knight of Wood in half. To my surprise, a health bar even appeared over its head, showing that these constructs were recognized as lifeforms by the system.

The health bar was quickly diminishing as the Holy Knight of Wood rushed in at literally lightspeed, slicing apart its opponent thousands of times in under a second. Its soul was destroyed, and I felt something stir within my divinity, both the drain of the powers used as well as my previous trinity being activated. A book rose from the shadows, silver light surrounding it and forming a new Holy Knight of Wood.

I nodded my head as I observed this process. “Excellent. You may stand down.” I instructed the Holy Knight of Light, who seemed ready to continue the fight against the new knight.

Next, I traced a finger through the air, drawing the outline of a large mirror. “Upon my call, all of you shall return to my side.” In order to make sure that this was not a two-way link that could be traced back to me, I focused on embedding a small mirror in each of their souls, altering the previous trinity to account for this. This way, they would only be able to establish this connection when I created the matching mirror to summon them.

Now, there was just one problem left, and that was the individual abilities that each knight possessed. As seen in the previous fight, they were only able to use abilities that were already programmed into their tomes. However, there was a way to deal with this as well. And I knew just the person to rely on.

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Priscilla was on a pilgrimage, traveling by foot to the various cities and villages of Deckan. After her last mission, the Keeper had fallen silent, so she decided to take the time to inspect the land. With access to the abilities that he had already given her, she worried not for food or shelter, or for the dangers of the monsters that lurked within the world. At any point she wanted, she could immediately return to the temple.

Priscilla. The Keeper’s voice suddenly spoke to her as she was sitting down, roasting a chunk of meat over a campfire that she made on the side of the road. Priscilla’s eyes widened, and she jumped to her feet, extinguishing the fire so as not to distract herself from the coming conversation.

I am at your service, Lord Keeper. What would you have me do? She asked in a devout tone, placing one hand over her heart to show her fealty.

I have another task for you, one that I can only feel safe entrusting to you, among all the mortals of the world. Priscilla’s smile grew as she heard these words, the sign of faith that the Keeper had in her. I have created a regiment of Holy Knights from my divine power, each of which possess an immature domain. These domains are tied to the same tomes that you and the other priests have access to.

Priscilla’s eyes widened, already anticipating the words that were coming. I would leave these soldiers under your command for training. Their minds are simple, and they can be considered golems. If one dies, it is reborn by my power. Thus, they require a competent commander. Someone familiar enough with how my power works to grant them what they would need in times of crisis.

As part of this assignment, I am granting you unlimited access to bestow abilities upon these knights. Are you willing?

When the Keeper asked that, Priscilla immediately nodded her head. Of course, Lord Keeper. She thought back fervently. As soon as she sent her confirmation, a glistening mirror appeared before her, widening until it was nearly fifty meters wide. She could hear the sounds of marching as rows of knights emerged from the mirror, all wearing shimmering, silver armor. Despite the sounds that came from their march, the grass was not disturbed by their passage.

Immediately, Priscilla was able to discern that the bodies of these creations were mere illusions, as were the sounds produced by their movements. The real substance, the force behind these knights, should come from the divine powers that the Keeper had mentioned.

Once one thousand knights emerged from the giant mirror, it shattered, and the knights all knelt before her. These are my Holy Knights. As my Priestess, you should be able to differentiate which one has which domain.

Priscilla nodded her head, focusing on her connection with the Keeper, with the books that she had previously written powers in. Following that connection, she was able to sense a single book within each of the knights, and make out which knight possessed which book.

I will do my best to carry out your assignment and live up to your expectations, Lord Keeper. She responded firmly, already thinking of ways to improve the abilities of the knights. Although she herself could still only use the single power that she inscribed in each tome, she could read the abilities present in all of them. Some were currently not suited for combat, while some were not suited for anything but combat.

In order to properly carry out her assignment, Priscilla felt the need to bestow each and every knight with abilities that could let it carry out a variety of missions. They would still be specialized, but that did not mean that they had to give up all else in the face of their specialization.

“All of you, rise.” She commanded, and all thousand knights rose to their feet in perfect unison. She walked down the line, moving until she had reached the Holy Knight of Fire. “We’ll start with you.” She said, placing a hand on the knight’s chest and focusing. Although her pilgrimage wasn’t completely over, it would appear that she would need to put it on hold for the moment. At least until she was confident that these knights would not disappoint the Keeper in battle.