With my newest test in mind, I made my way to my quarters within the Sky Citadel. It was not often that I was able to make use of this room, as my World Host spent the majority of the time sitting motionlessly on the throne. Yet despite that, the room was spotless, with not a single sign of dust to be seen. As there was no self-cleaning or preservation enchantment on the room, it was obvious that Tsubaki came in here to clean on a regular basis.
I gave a small chuckle at that realization, moving to sit at the desk, which was a near identical copy to the one that I possessed within the Admin Room. Once seated, I closed my eyes in thought, ideas streaming through my mind about how I would achieve this effect. Surely, writing each word out by hand would be far too time-consuming and impractical. Even typing on a keyboard was several times faster than manually writing each sentence.
However, using a keyboard was also too slow. I did not wish to spend the next four months in this room, working on a single story to test a theory. Thus, I had to come up with a faster way to transcribe my imagination into words.
Thankfully, I had access to the Words domain. Originally, I had imagined myself writing the words of the story while infusing them with divine power. But at the same time, it should be entirely possible to use the domain to write the words itself.
As Tsubaki had suggested before, I could use the Paper domain to create the actual body of the book, which just left the Stage and Adventure domains to make the story. Thus, I planned to do just that. With the Words and Papers domain, I focused on transcribing my imagination into a book. At the same time, I used the Adventure and Stage domain to imagine a world that could quite literally ensnare its audience and force them to take the role of the hero.
This proved… more difficult than I imagined. Not because I was lacking in ideas, but rather the combination of domains itself. It felt as if there was something hindering me, like I was pushing through a quagmire.
Such a situation was something I’d never felt before. It should be easy for me to use the powers of my world as the Keeper. At least, that was how it had always been. The Adventure domain should be even easier, as it was a domain belonging to my subordinate deity, Lifre. Yet when I tried to use all four domains at once, it felt as if the power was weakened.
As a test, I attempted to perform the same feat while removing the Stage domain from the equation. Originally, it was there to help ease the transition for this power to trap others. The previous combination could still potentially perform this action, so I wanted to see how the efficiency fared.
The result was… actually easier than when I was trying to channel four domains at once. I could easily imagine a world of darkness and magical flame, where the hero of the story was suddenly transported into this strange land. In order to escape, they would have to face the Demon King, who grew stronger to match his challengers.
Since this book was supposed to grow with the person sent into it, I only wrote the prologue of the story. This way, I could establish the foundation of the world and the future plot direction, leaving the rest of the book blank. Given that this prologue only occupied the first five out of hundreds of pages, I was quite excited to see what would happen when someone was actually trapped within it.
Shaking my head, I decided that that wasn’t important right now. I’d have Tsubaki find someone for me to test the power on later. First, I wanted to figure out why my initial plan had failed. By any reasonable assumption, I should have had an easier time making this book with the power of a fourth domain. It should have been an even more powerful creation, as well.
As a test, I tried to create another four-domain combination. This combination would use the Blades, Archery, Storms, and Tracking domains to fire a single arrow into the air and release a torrent of bladed projectiles that homed in on a target. I felt that this could be a rather powerful attack in its own right, but was frustrated to find that same mental block when I tried to perform the feat atop the Sky Citadel.
With my brows furrowed, I activated my World Sight to scan through my own body, and only then did I realize the cause of this blockage. Whenever I activated a domain with my Keeper authority, my own domains disappeared briefly, unless I was focusing on them as well. This in itself was unimportant, but what was important was what came when I focused more and more domains on myself.
For the first, second, and third domain, there were no obvious issues. The domains were able to exist in perfect harmony with one another. Once I added the fourth domain, it appeared as if the domains had become… cramped. Like they were struggling to find their balance and each was trying to fight for control.
As a test, I created a divine avatar, and had it focus on more and more domains at once. Five, six, all the way to eight the imbalance grew further and further. But strangely, the moment I used a ninth domain, they once again entered a state of harmony, the domains grouping up in sets of threes.
I wanted to try adding more, seeing if the same thing would happen at twenty-seven domains, but… the moment I added a tenth domain to the avatar, it suddenly exploded. All that was left behind was a crater in the roof of the citadel where it had been standing. In the brief period before its destruction, I saw the domains wildly clashing against one another, falling apart and gushing outwards.
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So… there is a rule of threes… Three domains forms a trinity, and is the first level of balance. Nine forms the limit, and is the second level of balance. But to get from three to nine, one has to deal with the turbulence in between. For the sake of efficiency, let’s consider the trinity as the optimum arrangement of domains for now.
With that in mind, I sent a message to Tsubaki, informing her of my discovery. After I did so, I added an instruction to what I had told her before. “Try to work in abilities that have a synergy of three domains.”
“Of course, my Keeper.” She responded right away, clearly having her own ideas. From my observation of my own divine energy, I had found that an assortment of three domains was far more stable than simply two. They resonated with each other on a deeper level. If my hunch was correct, the concept of a trinity would enhance the abilities used by all three domains.
Thinking of my own abilities, I knew that I was just one domain shy from reaching such a trinity. I already had Mirrors and Illusions, and merely needed one more domain to reach that state. Of course, I could temporarily borrow the power from one of my subordinates, but I had never felt the true power of a trinity before… it was likely that simply using the subordinate relationship would not reach that state.
This meant that I needed to find a way to cultivate a third form of divinity. Only upon doing so would I enter that state on a permanent basis. Of course, I’d need to find a domain that synergized well with my other two before I could make such a decision.
As I thought about that, I couldn’t help but feel regretful of some of the domain choices for my deities. For instance, Aurivy… the power of Love, Dungeons, and Travel offered very few combinations to use her full power. In the end, she managed to create the Traveler, but that was the first true instance of her using all three for a single purpose that I was aware of.
Ashley was no doubt facing a similar issue. She had managed to combine Fire and Darkness to create her signature Dark Flame, but I had not seen any examples of her being able to integrate her third domain into those abilities. Ashley and Aurivy seemed like the two who would have the hardest time finding ways to fully utilize their powers.
If it were possible, I’d like to simply reassign their domains to give them something more convenient. Unfortunately… those domains had become iconic for them. To change them would be a culture shock that would confuse the entire world. That’s assuming that it was even possible to change them in the first place.
I let out a long sigh, before realizing that Lifre was standing near me, her eyes fixated on the hole that I created. “Something wrong, boss?” She asked once she noticed me looking in her direction.
“No, just a failed experiment.” I shook my head, to which she let out a sound of realization.
“Ah! I heard the citadel shake, so I wanted to come check what was going on. Thought Fafnir might have gotten hungry or something.”
I started shaking my head at that, before blinking. “Where is Fafnir, by the way? I haven’t seen him for a while.” Admittedly, there were other things for me to worry about, but still.
“He said that he was going to go fight the storm beasts that had invaded the skies.” Lifre said with a shrug. “I didn’t really understand what he meant, but he seemed determined.”
It took me a moment to process what she was referring to. The storms that had been influenced by the void shark, flying through the skies of Earth. Fafnir likely saw them as a challenge to his authority as the God of the Sky. “He should be back soon, then.”
That said, I hadn’t noticed him when I was looking at the map of the world and saw those storms. It was possible that his body was simply too small to see on a world map, but… no, I still had access to the Sky domain, and I had not received any messages about him perishing. As his ‘tamer’, that should have been an important prompt for me to receive.
“Huh? Well, that’s good, then! Dana just finished making the body for his next divine artifact!” Lifre said with a wide smile, causing me to raise a brow.
“Oh? Does he go through those often?”
“Oh, no! Nothing like that! She said that it’s been so long since he upgraded that she needed to make him a new one. I’m working on my next one, too.” She had a pensive look on her face as she said that, making me curious.
“What about the sword you had before? You got rid of the flaws in that one already, didn’t you?”
Hearing my question, Lifre blinked. “Well yeah, but I want something even cooler! The Hero’s Sword is awesome and all, but I can’t just be a one trick mimic. I also made a pair of guns, a suit of armor, and a plot device!”
“...A plot device?” My eye twitched when I heard that, though Lifre just nodded her head energetically.
“Right! I couldn’t figure out what I wanted for my last one, so I just made it a plot device. Whenever I pull it out, it’ll be a random item that can help me in whatever danger I’m in. The item can only be enchanted up to the third tier, and has to be made with techniques that I know. But, otherwise, it can turn into any random item to suit the situation.”
“How do you even… you know what, nevermind. If you’re looking for a good artifact to go with the Adventure domain, why not visit a library, or spend some time in the Theaters of Udona? You should be able to use your domain to recreate fictional adventures, right?”
Lifre’s eyes began to shine when she heard that, and she immediately leapt up to wrap her arms around me. “Oh, that’s great! Can I go do that, then!? That sounds like it’d make an amazing relic! An entire library of fictional stories that I can summon! Oh, I should visit Julia and ask her to make it for me. An entire building-type divine artifact holding countless smaller artifacts inside of it!”
I blinked, shocked at her sudden enthusiasm. Her skin was even starting to liquify, revealing a cool blue substance. “Uhm… sure, go ahead. It shouldn’t be a problem, as long as you’re not busy with something else.” I had barely finished my words before she left the roof, sprinting to the nearby stairs. No, wait… she skipped the stairs and jumped straight off of the roof itself..