The rest of the meeting passed without much fanfare, having managed to secure at least the add-on that we wanted to get, even though we wouldn’t get any royalties from the main system. It’d be nice if we did, given that it was technically Lifre’s creation, but another Keeper had beaten us to the punch.
By the end of the meeting, I was able to get a look at the points that everyone had accrued through their various activities. For the most part, there wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. James and Chelsea didn’t play too seriously, and were just relaxing, though I was surprised to find that Chelsea had won a defense ticket, while Lena had won the attack ticket.
Almost everyone that I had brought with me was highly skilled in one way or another, so the average earnings per person was around twelve thousand points. That was better than most meetings that I had been in.If there was one thing that surprised me, aside from the tickets, it was that Lifre’s earnings were surprisingly low, only around seven thousand points.
I guess that’s the downside to starting a new streaming service. Maybe it will be better next time. I thought to myself. Despite earning on the lower end of the spectrum, Lifre seemed really happy with her time conducting the live stream.
With a deep breath, I prepared myself for my return to my world. The moment I was back in my Admin Room, I was immediately thrown out, ejected into the body of my host. Tsubaki, Lena, Dana, and Lifre all appeared in front of me, with solemn expressions on their faces.
“I suppose it has already begun?” Tsubaki asked, gripping her fists.
“I’ll take my post in the void, then.” Dana nodded her head, a serious expression on her face. As arguably one of our strongest Fallen Gods, she had been placed in charge of watching for any monsters aiming to devour universes from within the void itself.
I gave a small nod, looking at the window that appeared with the invasion. According to the information that I had obtained from Sarah, I would be dealing with a force of just over two and a half thousand monsters, though each one was powerful on a cosmic scale.
However, my eyes widened when I saw the number that was presented to me. Seeing my expression, the four in front of me tensed. “I know that look!” Lifre said, pointing at my face. “Either things are about to get really fun, or really scary! There is zero in between!”
“My Keeper?” Tsubaki asked, taking a step forward.
“There are… a lot more enemies than we expected.” I muttered, and Tsubaki tilted her head. “According to a friend, this enemy has always been consistent, sending two thousand, six hundred, and eleven monsters. However, the system is showing… three… trillion opponents?”
The eyes of the four in front of me widened slightly, with Lena’s brow furrowing a moment later. “Didn’t you tell us that the weakest of these monsters would be able to devour entire planets whole? If there are trillions of them…”
“I think that you are looking at it wrong.” Dana shook her head. “It is highly unlikely that the enemy Keeper decided to send a billion times more enemies than normal to attack the boss. Regardless of whether or not he had that many troops, consider the alternative.”
“Go on.” I gestured towards Dana, who gave a small smile.
“We know that the enemies are at least planet-sized themselves, going by the information you previously obtained. It is possible that some of these enemies have life-forms growing on their bodies, and these life-forms are being registered as additional enemies by the system.”
I blinked at that, considering the possibility. I hadn’t thought of that, if only because Sarah had told me that DarkestNight had never shown evidence of nurturing a civilization, and that was why he was stuck as a Rank Four Keeper.
“Maybe he has adopted the civilizations of a Keeper he defeated in the past, or is trying to come up with ways of breaking his bottleneck.” I muttered. “Either way, this is going to make things tricky. If your guess is correct, we won’t have an accurate way to track the number of true threats anymore. We’ll also need to consider the possibility that the civilizations are aiding the monsters that they live on, and outfitted them with beneficial devices.”
“If the civilizations are so new that none of the other Keepers knew about them, they couldn’t be that advanced, right?” Lifre asked with a tilt of her head, but Lena quickly refuted that.
“Don’t forget that the Keeper can alter the flow of time. Whether it is adapting a captured civilization or growing a knew one, they could have had hundreds of thousands of years to advance over the course of one or two months.”
Lifre’s eyes widened at that, and Dana nodded her head. “I’ll head to the void immediately. If there are more advanced creatures, that makes it even more likely that some of them will emerge within the void.” She said, before turning to leave the throne room.
“Lena, you go with her.” I said, looking towards our newest recruit. “You can replicate Dana’s abilities, so that is the best place for us to put you.”
Lena nodded her head in understanding, turning to follow Dana out side. I let out a long sigh, looking towards Lifre and Tsubaki. “Lifre, do you have any characters that you can bring to life to help us in this situation?”
Lifre blinked, before crossing her arms in front of herself. “Hmm… most of my powerhouses are on the villain team, because it’s easier to handle their motives. The heroes are typically set against a specific type of villain. Furthermore, I typically try to avoid making characters with power on that scale. Don’t want one to get angry and blow up a planet, right?”
“Got it…” I said with a nod, before sighing. “For now, you and Tsubaki will be on standby. I want you two to keep in contact with Gerard and listen for any reports that could indicate the presence of enemy forces.”
The two of them both bowed briefly, before turning to leave. With that, I closed my eyes, focusing on contacting James
Naturally, James had returned to his lab when the meeting ended, together with Chelsea’s worldly incarnation. Although James was able to participate during the invasion, the same could not be said for those that are truly companions like Chelsea was.
James was just sitting down for work when the Keeper’s voice spoke into his mind. Hey, James. Got an update on the invasion that you all should be aware of. The enemy forces that have appeared this time are measured at over three trillion, according to the system. That’s currently all the confirmed information that we have, though we suspect that the number is inflated, due to civilizations residing on the main forces.
James nodded his head when he heard that. Got it, I’ll pass the message along to the others. He promised, before turning his head and calling out. “Yo, Chel!” He shouted, and Chelsea came running over, her hands clenched in front of her chest.
“Y-Yes, James?” She asked, not quite the confident researcher that she was when Chelsea inhabited her body. She was still brilliant, having learned a lot over the years, but her social experiences with others were limited, given how often the main body was in control.
James reached over, petting her head. “Got an update from the Keeper. He said that we’ve got more enemies to deal with than we expected.”
“More?” Chelsea’s eyes widened. “Uhm… are we talking hundreds extra, or thousands? Or… a lot more?”
“Boss says in the range of trillions.” James said, surprised when Chelsea didn’t seem to react as strongly as he had expected. Her eyes did widen, but instead of entering any kind of a panic, she began to pull books out of her inventory, reading through them.
“Trillions, trillions… no, this is the wrong one… this is for the millions range… ah! Found it!” She smiled, finally retrieving one of the books. “The uh… the other me wrote a few journals with backup plans and additional contingencies, depending on information that we got during the invasion.”
Chelsea opened the book, flipping through it. “Have there been any immediate reports of monsters appearing in the void, or loss of contact with significant worlds?” She asked.
James arched a brow, turning to his terminal and checking for any new reports. “Nothing has come in yet.”
Chelsea nodded her head quickly. “If no news, reference book T-3-A.” She said, setting that book aside and pulling another one out of her inventory. “Can you ask the Keeper if the number has dropped by at least twenty thousand since the start of the invasion?” She asked, looking at the time.
James simply blinked, passing the message along. After getting a response, he shook his head. “He said that the decrease is only in the tens, as far as he can tell.”
“Tens… that is the normal range for natural deaths. Okay! The enemies with the power to sustain life won’t appear in Lorek or Spica. According to Chelsea’s notes, a monster on a cosmic scale, capable of supporting life, would need to have an immense amount of personal energy. In the aforementioned worlds, this level of energy would create immense heat that would almost immediately begin killing the population. If the population was highly resistant to heat, the number could be as low as ten thousand deaths per minute.”
“There could still be monsters spread out on those worlds that do not fit the aforementioned criteria. However, Chelsea listed two possibilities that we need to be wary of.”
“The first possibility is that the life-forms living on these monsters is an advanced civilization, one which could potentially match our own in complexity. Given the fact that they live on planet-devouring creatures, they are either a highly warlike race, or a religious one which reveres the monster that they live on as a deity. If it is the latter, they will have created numerous weapons of war to enhance the ability of the monster in question.”
“If the civilization is the former, then it has likely inspired the Keeper to activate a faith-based ascension system, allowing these monsters to truly become gods based on the faith of those living on their bodies.”
“Between these scenarios, the worst-case outcome that Chelsea listed would be if all additional life-forms lived on a single monster, the one with the greatest natural size and strength. If this were to occur, then the faith of all of these life-forms would be centered directly on that monster.”
James widened his eyes as he listened to that explanation. He knew that Chelsea would have created some additional plans, but he didn’t think it would turn into something like this. “I don’t suppose that she listed any other clues that we could use to narrow things down?”
Chelsea blinked, and flipped back to the front of the book, where a list of indicators were given. “To determine whether or not we are in the worst-case scenario, with a religious civilization centered on a single monster, either Lena or the Keeper must replicate Ryone’s power, and use the domain of Wealth to find entities with a level of divinity akin to a member of the Greater Pantheon. If such an unknown entity is found, the Avenger system must be immediately deployed to their location. Engaging in combat through the use of deities should be a last resort.”
James nodded his head, immediately sending the message to the Keeper, together with the other notes that Chelsea had left in her journals.
