Back on the planet where the ninjas had settled, there was a pitch black house, seemingly wrapped in an omnipresent, shifting fog. Unlike the manor of the Golden Shadow, there were no traps leading to this house. There were no patrols. Nobody dared to approach, for risk of being added to the property’s eerie landscape of oddly shaped hedges.
Inside the house, a figure wrapped in a black cloak muttered to himself, opening the terminal on his desk. “It should be about time for the news to spread now.” He said to himself, a manic look in his eyes.
He had recently sent a package to a distant world, one of the less populated outer colonies, after careful arrangements. This package, consisting of four boxes, contained his latest experiment, inspired by none other than Tubrock of the Greater Pantheon. “If he can do it, why can’t I?”
His goal had been the creation of a fully sentient memetic entity, which he would then send into the void to become a ‘void god’. If he managed this, it would prove him to be the foremost expert when it came to harnessing the void’s memetic properties. All he needed was enough ‘information’ for the monster to devour in order to gain that sentience.
When Tubrock performed a similar feat, he sent his golems into the void, letting them feed off of other void monsters to get the information that they were lacking. The Black Shadow found this method to be too inefficient. The information on sentience was already present in trillions of lifeforms across the various universes. If one, insignificant planet had to be used as the fodder to create a more perfect entity, they should have been honored to make that sacrifice.
And so, he set up this memetic entity with the ability to consume and alter information, releasing it onto this unsuspecting world. He opened the news, eagerly looking for any information from the planet that he had sent it to. And, sure enough, there was a report. An extremely dangerous memetic monster had appeared on Oranii Seven.
A smile tugged at the Black Shadow’s lips, before that smile froze. “It was… defeated? Was there a patrolling deity in the area?” He muttered, reading through more of the article.
‘An eight year old boy, named Nelson Kirsche, orphaned together with his older sister Brianna, saved the day when the shadow of the memetic creature fell over him. Because of this, in a miraculous twist of fate, his late-stage Stone Rot was cured, and he immediately awakened as the Fallen God of Order.’
‘Due to the extraordinary nature of this development, two subordinate deities of Terra, Keenan Criar and Jace Laran, have made the journey to Oranii Seven. These two have made a statement that they wish to resolve any lingering damages plaguing the community where this beast emerged. More than that, however, they wish to take in these two orphans, offering them the best treatment that can be afforded by the church.’
The Black Shadow’s fist slammed down against his desk, his eyes dark. “An eight year old boy?” He asked with a hiss in his tone. He couldn’t accept the fact that his perfect entity had been bested by a child. Even more ridiculous was that this child’s power came from none other than the entity that he had created.
The odds of this were… all but impossible. His monster could have consumed every creature in existence, but the odds that it created a Fallen God would be next to nothing. The Black Shadow felt as if something was amiss, as if some hidden hand had guided matters, but knew better than to pursue it.
If something had truly influenced the random results of his creation’s power, then there were very few options. The most noteworthy among them, and the first that immediately came to mind, was none other than the goddess Terra, whose subordinates reacted immediately in response to this event. If she released her power, it made complete sense how the random selection could turn out this way.
I thought I had gone to enough lengths to ensure that it wasn’t noticed that quickly… He thought to himself, before shaking his head. The limits of the Greater Pantheon had not been fully understood, even until now. It was known that they could not see everything all at once, but the true extent of what they could see, or what drew their attention to certain things, these factors were unknown.
Back on Olympus, Lena’s clone stood together with Tsubaki, the two of them having finished furnishing Lena’s new palace within Olympus. There were paintings and various pieces of furniture, all hand-crafted by Tsubaki herself. One painting showed an image of Lena playing together with Lifre, another of her just standing proudly together with the others of Olympus.
Almost everything in the room, in one way or another, served to confirm Lena’s identity. There were even fox tails carved into the bedposts. Everything was meticulously crafted with Lena’s identity in mind.
“Do you think she’ll like this?” Tsubaki asked, Lena’s eyes wide as she looked into the room. She had helped design several pieces of the furniture, but seeing it all in person felt completely different.
“Y-Yeah.” Lena nodded her head. “Though… isn’t the bed bigger than we agreed?”
Tsubaki arched her brow, glancing down towards Lena. The latter had been wearing a maid uniform that Tsubaki made for her, to reinforce that she belonged in Olympus. “Why? I think it’s just right for the both of you.”
At that point, something seemed to click in Lena’s mind. She wasn’t just helping to design a room for the other Lena, but also for herself. “But… but we don’t even need to sleep, right?” She asked, seeming almost shy as she looked away, but Tsubaki could feel the smile tugging at Lena’s lips.
“Maybe not, but I’m sure that it will still be appreciated. If I only made what was physically necessary, this place would be completely unfurnished. Remember, this isn’t just somewhere for you to stay between missions, but your home.”
Lena offered a small nod at that, before Hermes’s voice spoke up over the intercom. “I hope I’m not interrupting. You wanted me to let you know whenever Lifre and Lena returned from their adventures.”
“Already?” Tsubaki blinked, having expected them to be gone for at least a month. “Send her over, please.”
“Do you want me to hide?” Lena asked, looking up at Tsubaki who shook her head.
It didn’t take long for the original Lena and Lifre to arrive, the two of them laughing together as they walked through the halls. “Yo, senior! You called for me?” Lena asked, though… she paused when she saw the figure standing next to Tsubaki, turning somewhat cautious. “You uh… you brought her here?”
Tsubaki nodded her head. “If possible, I would like the two of you to exchange your recent memories.” She said, the two Lenas looking at one another at that request. “I think that it would make this conversation much shorter than it would otherwise need to be.”
The Lena in a maid dress nodded her agreement, though she could be seen fidgeting with her hands. The other Lena let out a sigh, nodding her head. “Alright, let’s do it.”
Lifre looked on in confusion as the two Lenas locked gazes with one another. Soon, both were trembling. The one who had gone with her to adventure widened her eyes, looking at the door behind Tsubaki and her clone.
“Is the agreement that I made with her acceptable?” Tsubaki asked with a calm smile. Lena simply gulped, nodding her head.
“Y-Yeah, I think we can work with it. You guys really did all of that?”
“All of what?!” Lifre flailed her arms. “Why am I being left out of the conversation?”
One Lena grabbed Lifre’s right arm, the other walking over to grab her left arm as both pulled her towards the room. Even if the Lena that was usually kept in hiding had never directly met her before, the exchange of memories had helped to form an emotional bond.
“Well, long story short…” The Lena that had just returned with her began. “There are two of us… and we’ll be taking turns to hang out with you from now on. Just to make things less confusing, and keep one of us here if needed.”
As she explained that, they came to the door, which had Lena’s name carved into it. Tsubaki simply smiled at the reactions of the smaller kitsune, pleased to see her accept it so readily. Although Lena got along more easily with Lifre, Tsubaki personally saw her as closer to Dana. Both of them had a fragmented sense of self, needing something to pull them together and give them a home. In her eyes, both of them appeared to be lost children in need of a family, whereas Lifre was a completely free spirit.
“Lady Tsubaki, a news report has been flagged for your attention.” Hermes called out, Tsubaki arching her brow. She nodded, turning to leave the three alone as she made her way back to her own palace to review the information.
Every now and then, there would be reports sent to her, typically about disasters striking different areas. Most of the ones meant for her attention were man-made in some way, so she was able to keep up with the more dangerous aspects of society and decide when she needed to interfere.
When she reached her office and the report came up, she widened her eyes in surprise. “Someone released such a strong memetic entity in a populated area?” She asked, eyes narrowing. Memetic creations were extremely hazardous. One wrong mutation, and it could become something all but impossible to contain.
“It was probably Black.” Lena’s voice spoke up over Tsubaki’s shoulder, and Tsubaki turned in surprise to see her standing there. Not the maid Lena, but the original. “Sorry, thought I’d give those two some time to get to know each other.”
“That’s fine… what makes you sure that this was the Black Shadow?” She asked, Lena giving a sad smile.
“It’s just how he operates. He doesn’t care if anyone gets involved. Plus, he’s been setting up shipping routes to the outer colonies for weeks now. I thought that he was creating escape routes for himself if things went wrong, so I kept an eye on them. Oranii Seven was one of the locations that I tracked. Watch, you trace back shipments that arrived in that area within one week of this disaster, and I guarantee you’ll find the path he used. He won’t leave anything too open, but I know the companies he uses.”
Tsubaki nodded her head slowly at that. “Did his activities evade your detection ability?” She questioned, and Lena hesitated slightly before nodding.
“The way I did it, I can only identify criminal groups that operate within the same solar system. So, if he had ten or more co-conspirators in one place, I could identify the group. But Black’s always keeping his contacts spread out, only using one person that he can control in any given area, and making sure that they never talk to each other. Most of them are probably threatened into obedience, or outright controlled via memetic scripts.”
After saying that, Lena looked over at Tsubaki. “Do you want me to deal with him? The two of us already have a history, so…”
Tsubaki paused for a moment, closing her eyes to think. “No. If you get involved, the elders of your council will only see this as an act of rebellion on your part. I’ll ask someone else to get involved.”
