I sat down on the couch in the living room, Tsubaki seated in a chair not far away. Though she had come to the Admin Room, it was clear that she was still having a bit of trouble relaxing. To be honest, I wasn’t surprised. Given how long she had been in the citadel, it was entirely normal for it to take time for her to adjust. Aurivy had worked for years just to get her to open up to her in Vision Expanse back in the day.
“Tsubaki, I’d like to try another experiment now that we’re both here.” I offered a small smile to her, and Tsubaki quickly nodded her head.
“Of course, whatever you need.” She replied simply. “If there’s anything that I can do to help, please just let me know.”
I couldn’t help but chuckle lightly at that. “First, are you still able to connect with the servants you have down in the Citadel, or are they in ‘autonomous’ mode?”
Tsubaki blinked, closing her eyes and focusing. After a moment, she shook her head. “I’m sorry, it appears that I cannot directly contact any of them at this time, so they should be operating on their own for the moment.”
“Hmm…” I nodded my head, thinking that through. It made sense, but it was also regretful at the same time. “Okay, I assume that the same is true for your Virtual Self. Next up, I want you to head back to the mortal world for a brief moment to connect with your Virtual Self. I need to know whether she is still operating normally, or if she froze like I did when I come here.”
Tsubaki’s eyes went wide, quickly nodding her head. “Of course.” She said, her body wrapped in a familiar blue light, before simply vanishing.
I began counting down in my head, knowing that it would take at least thirty seconds for her to activate the Heaven’s Gate again to return to the Admin Room. Once she had returned, I looked over at her to await her response. Her lips were pursed slightly, so I could already guess the answer.
“It appears that our Virtual selves have indeed been frozen.” She informed me, which caused me to sink into thought.
Obviously, the Goddesses like Aurivy could freely come and go without concern, but that was due to the fact that they had an incarnation. Unfortunately, mortals brought up with the Heaven’s Gate system couldn’t create incarnations like that.
Now that they have been elevated by the Heaven’s Gate, they must have been made unique entities similar to myself. If I tried to clone them by using their Virtual self as a reference, I would either get a clone not supported by the Heaven’s Gate, or the system may entirely fail like it did when trying to clone myself in the same way.
“I see.” I said with a simple nod. “I was considering whether or not I should fast forward the world again, now that the invasion is over. The world will need time to adjust to all of the changes that we have just given it, and that may take some time. If you would like, we would be more than happy to have you up here with us for the duration.”
“However, to do so, you would first need to return to the citadel and reorganize your avatars. There needs to be some action for them to take if the world needs to resume the normal flow of time for any reason. For instance, if there is some situation that either requires my attention, or yours, or one of the others. I can configure it so that the flow of time will immediately restore to normal as soon as that action is performed.”
Tsubaki hesitated for a moment, before giving a firm nod. Once again, her body was wrapped in blue lights, disappearing from the Admin Room. Clearly, she had made the decision to prepare her avatars.
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Thelsa stood within the world of shadows, watching as Ashley stepped out and into the open. The demonic goddess smiled at her, nodding her head. “I was told that you would be expecting me.”
Thelsa gave a small nod in response. “That’s right. I apologize for the inconvenience, Lady Ashley.”
“It’s not a problem at all.” Ashley shook her head, walking closer. “Please, sit down. This is a lot easier to handle when you’re not standing up. I’d normally have you go unconscious to prevent any energy clashes, but I imagine that you’d rather see this through to the end.”
When Thelsa gave another nod, Ashley created a chair behind the human woman for her to sit in. “Is Petra somewhere safe?” Ashley asked curiously. “If this goes how I think it will, it’s likely that she will immediately ascend, as well.”
“That’s right. I sent her home, just in case.” Thelsa had considered that possibility herself, so she wanted to make sure that this would not cause any accidents. Thankfully, Petra was the only one of her shadows to be a natural demigod, so she wasn’t as worried about the others.
“Good. In that case, let’s get started.” After saying so, Ashley brought her hand up, a stream of divinity surging from her body and into Thelsa’s. “We’ll have to do this in stages. First, I will upgrade your soul, and then have you absorb a black gold coin. After that, I will take care of your body, and you will absorb ten more. The coins generated by this system don’t have any traces of the god that created them, so you will be able to absorb the power without concern.”
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“Depending on how quickly you can finish each stage, we should have this done in just an hour or two.” As Ashley spoke, Thelsa grit her teeth, focusing on opening herself up and not resisting Ashley’s power.
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The world of Fyor underwent an overnight upheaval. The news of the Keeper personally commissioning Petra to explore the later floors was sent back to the guild, along with a dozen announcements of increased level caps. At first, the guild was in a panic, worrying about how they would secure each of the gates that had now been unlocked before monsters came in to occupy the territory.
Security teams were set up to guard a construction crew as they waited for Petra to come out of closed door training. According to what she had said, she needed some time to completely process the special reward that the Keeper had given her for the mission. Afterwards, she would begin taking people to the different gates to set up supply lines.
After roughly two days, when the guild was becoming more and more nervous, Petra emerged from her isolation. However, when she did so, the guild was shocked to discover that she had suddenly ascended to become a fully fledged deity. Clearly, this must have been the reward promised to her.
At the same time, Petra saw the construction crew that had been gathered, as well as the security team prepared to escort them through the floors. There was an almost awkward pause before she cleared her throat. “Ahem, Guildmaster, just to make sure I understand what’s going on?”
“Ah, right, yes.” The halfling guildmaster spoke up, rushing over to stand in front of Petra. Thanks to her own smaller stature, the two were roughly at eye level with one another. “You said that you were going to lead a team to secure the gates that the Keeper and yourself uncovered. This is the team that I have prepared for you, and they should be able to establish a few temporary branches before needing to resupply.”
Petra scanned over the group for a moment, before shaking her head. “Guildmaster, I think you misunderstood when I said that I’d be taking people… it will be easier if I just show you.” She knew that there was no point in explaining something that seemed unexplainable, at least without the evidence to back it up.
She closed her eyes, focusing on creating a portal to the thirty-ninth floor through Aurivy’s blessing. “This is the highest floor that the Keeper took me to, the thirty-ninth. Due to some special circumstances, he wasn’t able to have me accompany him to the fortieth. If you could, please join me for a moment, and I think that you will understand.”
Petra turned, stepping through the portal that had been created. The guildmaster hesitated, before ordering half of the security team to follow him as he moved through. At the very least, this would give him the ability to come and go from this floor as he wished, making it more convenient to send the construction team later.
After arriving on the other side of the portal, though, the guildmaster let out a shocked gasp. “There was a civilization built around the gate?” He asked in worry, as such matters usually led to a conflict with the local race.
“No.” Petra denied his suspicions with a shake of her head. “This was created by the Keeper. He wanted to make the cities livable right away, and so he used his power to create this.”
Not far from the gate was a large building, featuring the iconic sign of the Adventurer’s Guild. The guildmaster furrowed his brow, rushing into the building and inspecting it. There were stacks of blank paper behind the counter and in every desk, with working power and internet cables seemingly already connected and ready to go. Whether it was the plumbing or the temporary lodgings, everything seemed to be ready for them to simply move in. The guildmaster could even feel that the burden of the layer’s gravity had been lessened in the city, making it only marginally stronger than the twenty-eighth floor.
“This… what about security?” He asked when he emerged again, looking at Petra. “Is he not worried that the city he built would be overrun by monsters before we could properly occupy it?”
Petra shook her head again, leading him to the outer gates of the city. She walked through a narrow path, up a series of stairs within the outer wall. Soon, she arrived in a long hallway, where a number of folded turrets could be seen, evenly spaced every few dozen meters. “Each city he created has its own security system. I don’t know if it’s permanent, but I believe that it will be more than enough to last until we have finished settling.”
The guildmaster stared at the turrets, unable to properly judge their power. Like the rest of the world around him, he could sense a strong divinity coming from the weapons. “If the Keeper created them, I am sure that they must be strong enough… Wait, you said cities?”
Petra glanced back at the guildmaster in surprise. “That’s right, sir? There is one city surrounding each gate. That’s why I want to lead a team of priests to establish a supply line. If we get more priests that can help transport people, we will easily be able to occupy the cities. From there, we can spread our activity to the newly unlocked floors.”
The guildmaster’s eyes shook as he processed the information from Petra. It was normal for them to move only one layer every few years, sometimes taking anywhere from a decade to a century to advance a single floor. However, they had now advanced more than ten floors in an instant, and did not have to worry about creating the initial infrastructure to stabilize those floors. The houses had been prepared, all they needed was to move in.
“I-I see. Yes, it seems that I got a bit ahead of myself. I’ll need to talk to the other guildmasters about this.” Originally, it would be his responsibility to oversee the new branches as they were being constructed. He had prepared himself for the drastically increased workload, and secured several secretaries that would be able to work as intermediaries. Now that the branches were fully built and ready for use, they had to hire proper guildmasters to occupy them.
As he thought about that, he glanced over to Petra. “I don’t suppose you’d be interested in taking over a branch?” He asked, though he was pretty sure that he already knew the answer.
Sure enough, Petra shook her head. “Sorry, I want to keep climbing the floors. Besides, there seems to be a lot of gods in this one. According to the Keeper, every creature on this floor is a god. I’ll need to train here for a while to adjust to my new powers.” It didn’t even take her a moment to refuse his offer, having no intention of settling down in one place like that.