World Keeper - Chapter 1252: Let’s Make a Deal
The meeting between the Masters carried on for nearly an hour, everyone trying to figure out what they should do in their situation. After their disastrous defeat this time, it was unlikely that they would be able to convince the other guilds to charge into battle for them again. If they were going to fight, they would have to do so with their own power.
This fact alone caused many Masters to pause. They were already at odds with the new Administrator after the last stunt, but this would put them in an irreconcilable position. Of course, this was exactly what the Masters of Death and Mysteries were hoping for, and they encouraged a full assault more than anyone.
In the end, nothing was decided for sure. They decided to convene in the future, and the Master of Travel prepared to send them all home. For each Master, a portal opened up, causing them to grimace. Everyone knew that the Master of Travel had the ability to bypass travel restrictions, even the privacy barriers of their own worlds. This was one of the reasons why he was chosen to lead the assault against the Administrator, as he could easily get in and out without any impediment.
However, having this breach of security flaunted in front of their faces like this certainly caused them no small amount of annoyance. “I-I’m just trying to ensure that everyone reaches home safely, without being intercepted by the Administrator’s forces.” The Master of Travel said, sensing the hostility from the numerous Masters.
Whether they liked it or not, they knew that he was right. They were still under the assumption that the Master of Beast’s words were a bluff, and that the Administrator wasn’t able to get through their privacy protection. Thus, with a huff, they each walked towards their own designated portals.
Are you ready? Aurivy’s voice echoed in Julia’s mind, looking at the three portals that appeared in front of her. Julia nodded her head, manifesting three wooden swords. The portals seemed to shudder from their proximity, but Julia didn’t pay it any attention. She was just making sure that she would be able to strike before the opponent knew what was happening.
This was the plan that Aurivy devised after everyone returned from the last battle. Although the others who went on the invasion all had their own methods of eradicating Origins, none of them were as reliable as Julia’s swords. Giving an Origin even a second to adapt to their ambush would lead to their inevitable escape, so Julia was ultimately chosen as the one to carry out this assassination.
The moment that Julia started to see figures appear within the portals, she launched her swords without hesitation. No sooner had their heads emerged than they were pierced by the wooden blades. Their eyes widened in shock from the unexpected betrayal, before their bodies burst into torrents of black energy.
With one swift move, Julia had eliminated the three most problematic Origins of the enemy team. Whether it was the Origin of Death, Mysteries, or Frost, all of them would have inevitably pushed for a continuation to the fighting. The Origin of Frost may have been more subtle about it, but there was no doubt that she wouldn’t allow the other Origins to accept peace.
Now that they’re out of the way, things should be able to proceed more smoothly. Aurivy spoke up in a cheerful tone, as if she hadn’t just watched her beloved slaughter three people.
Is it safe to let the Keeper back into the mortal world? Julia asked curiously. He’ll need to reestablish Olympus’s planet, and get his Illusion domain back.
Aurivy simply giggled. Don’t worry about Olympus. Tubrock had an idea regarding that. As for the domain… that’ll happen soon enough. For now, we need to make sure none of Sanction’s other Origins decide to lash out.
The Master of Gems sat on her diamond throne, arms crossed in front of her chest. She had only just returned from the meeting with the other Masters, and felt far more comfortable remaining within her crystal palace.
However, not long after she sat down, her eyes widened in surprise. She felt a fluctuation from within the void. Three Masters had died all at once, causing her to jump to her feet. “What happened?” She shouted, as if expecting one of her golem guards to answer her.
Naturally, the only response she received was silence. The Master of Gems bit her lip, focusing to sense which three resonances had disappeared. It didn’t take long for her to identify them. It was Mysteries, Death, and… Frost? She could understand the first two, but not the latter. “Is the Administrator sweeping through the new Masters and eliminating us, just like the Master of Beasts said?” She asked herself.
This time, a voice did respond to her. “No, it’s nothing like that.” The Master of Gems looked up quickly, her eyes widening as she caught sight of an elven woman standing only a few feet in front of her. The Master of Gems recognized this as one of the participants at the end of the last battle.
“Guards!” She shouted, but her golems weren’t moving. In fact, nothing was moving. “What’s going on?” She questioned, and the elven woman smiled.
“I’ve frozen time for a little while. It will be so much easier to talk without needing to worry about any interruptions.” The woman said, before introducing herself. “My name is Ryone, the Goddess of Magic, Merchants, and Wealth. I am a member of the Greater Pantheon, a leading deity of the realm that has existed since the dawn of creation.”
The Master of Gems widened her eyes, finally understanding the identity of the group that had fought at the end of that battle. Many cultures in different worlds had religions that involved deities as old as time itself. Hal Tua had no such thing, only the Administrator. However, in other dungeon worlds that the Master of Gems had visited, there were talks of such beings that actually existed within the world.
The Master of Gems found it weird that such figures never stepped forward when their worlds were in true danger, and dismissed it as just religious fanaticism. Now, however, she was starting to understand just what happened when those fellows did get involved. “What do you want?”
“I have an offer to make you.” Ryone spoke in a calm tone, arms behind her back as she smiled. “Out of the remaining Origins, you have the most to gain by allying yourself with us.”
“How do you figure that?” The Master of Gems asked, her brow furrowed. “What could I gain by joining your administration?”
Ryone snapped her fingers, and two crystals appeared in front of her. One was red, and the other blue, but both seemed to hold innate power. “These are special products of our world. I believe that, with these, you will be able to create more powerful abilities for yourself, would you not?”
The Master of Gems blinked as she looked at the two energy crystals. She had naturally seen crystals made of condensed energy before, and even naturally-occurring ones. However, she felt something strange coming from these. “There’s a system attached to them?”
Ryone nodded her head. “These are Mage Heart and Blood Heart. Specifically, they are the cores of their respective veins. Each of these stones has a respawn system attached to them, which fully regrows their crystal veins every week. As the Master of Gems, I am sure that you can see multiple uses for this?”
The Master of Gems nodded slowly, already imagining a few possibilities. If she modified the respawn timer down to milliseconds, she could create instantly regrowing crystal formations. Combine this with her defensive crystals, and she could potentially create impenetrable physical barriers.
However, to do that, she needed Ryone to hand the crystals over for her to study. She glanced at the elf warily. “What are you wanting?”
Ryone’s smile grew at that question. “A cessation of hostilities, and your help in convincing the other Masters to do the same. In fact, the Keeper already proposed a plan that you all might like, and I am here to deliver it.”
The Master of Gems sighed, moving to sit on her throne. “I’m listening…” She said, though she had the feeling that refusal was not an option.
“Continued self-governance, and joint control of Hal Tua.” Ryone spoke up with a smile. “This joint control isn’t between the ‘administration’ as you call it and you, but rather between all Masters of Hal Tua. You will form a council, just as you have in the past, but this one will be the leading power of Hal Tua, composed of all Masters of this realm.”
The Master of Gems blinked in confusion. “You’re not going to try to take over?” She asked, but Ryone shook her head.
“We’ll still be watching, and will intervene if certain boundaries are crossed. Additionally, you must allow anyone who wants to escape your rule to come to our side. And, finally, we will be sending researchers to Hal Tua to study its world laws and special techniques. Once our understanding of those laws are at a high enough level, we plan to perform an integration, wherein Hal Tua’s laws and those of our realm will change to more closely match one another.”
“However, aside from that, you can continue to govern your own people, and hold a shared leadership role over the main Hal Tua universe. In exchange, it will be up to your council to protect this side of things. We don’t really have enough manpower at the moment to do so in addition to our own universes.”
“What do you mean?” The Master of Gems asked. “What more protection could our people need?”
Ryone gave a mysterious smile, snapping her fingers. “For instance, this.” She said, a circular window appearing in the air between them. It showed a massive creature shaped like a shark, with mountains of sapphires and rubies covering its body. The creature was just outside of a planet, its jaws open and ready to consume a huge chunk of it.
The Master of Gems gasped in surprise, seeing such a creature for the first time. “What is this?”
“This is a recent danger that has begun to appear in our universes, and has now started to emerge in yours as well, after you appeared. In our realms, we face no shortage of resources, food, space, or people. We have eliminated the higher levels of crime that could threaten a global population. Whether it is disease or memetic hazards, we have essentially mastered them all.”
“Thus, the world challenges us in the only way it has left. Monsters that are so immense, only someone at the level of what you call an Extreme God can deal with them in single combat. They fly through space at thousands of times the speed of light, able to appear and annihilate a planet in the blink of an eye. They strike so quickly that many planets aren’t even capable of sending a call for help.”
“Even with our scant few universes, and few inhabited worlds within them, we are stretched thin to keep these beasts at bay. Each of you Masters have multiple of your own universes, all of which have countless inhabited worlds. You have bigger things to worry about than whether or not we have the time to care about you.” She explained with that same smile. “In this sense, Lyrica may be the best off of all of you. As the Master of Beasts, she can control these monsters within her own universes.”
The Master of Gems widened her eyes yet again. There was no reason for Ryone to lie about this. As soon as she left, she would be able to find that planet and see for herself. “How often do these attacks take place…?”
“They start small, as the creatures are spawned in deep space. However, their spawning is continuous, so the rate of attacks will increase over time as they approach inhabited worlds.” Ryone explained, and the Master of Gems nodded her head reluctantly.
“I’ll… talk to the others. If this is the case, it shouldn’t be hard for everyone to come to an understanding. However, we don’t have the power to convince all of the lower-ranked guilds. Especially after that last battle.”
“That’s fine!” Ryone said in a cheerful tone. “If they want to continue fighting, we’ll accompany them. As long as the Masters don’t get involved, we have no reason to hold back our strongest powers.”
The Master of Gems shuddered when she heard that, recalling how three Masters had simultaneously died just before Ryone’s arrival…
