Tsubaki’s avatar sat within her palace of light, staring almost blankly into the distance. Aside from when there were guests, she only devoted a small portion of her mental capacity to maintaining this avatar, the rest focused on her more active clones. Only when she detected someone entering her palace did her eyes gain focus, glancing down to look at her intruder through the layers of light that composed her sanctuary.
The guest appeared to be a lycan male with pitch black hair and a slim figure. Otherwise, his face and build seemed quite average, while he wore simple, loose-fitting clothes. However, what was truly strange about him was that Tsubaki could not feel the presence of divinity within his body.
This was a world created by the divine energies of multiple members of the Greater Pantheon. In order to access it, one must have already reached divinity. Furthermore, only divinity could impact this world. The only way for a mortal to have arrived here is if they were brought by someone with a domain related to transportation. However, that was unlikely, as there was little work that could be done in this world without a godly power.
Even if someone did bring him here merely to use him as a messenger, she would be able to detect the fluctuations of divine power lingering on their body, and use that to trace back to the one who brought them. Yet, she felt nothing of the sort. Thus, she assumed that this was not truly a mortal.
Rather, it should be someone that possessed a domain similar to the Keeper, one that was able to hide its divine properties. Tsubaki herself used this power in order to conceal the traces of the Keeper’s true domains, and had taught both Scarlet and Lifre how to do the same. While the Keeper was known as the God of Mirrors, very few realized that he also had the domain of illusions.
“Why have you come here under such a disguise?” Tsubaki asked, her eyes narrowing as she controlled the palace around her. Within a moment, the guest had appeared in her throne room, where she sat and awaited her answer.
The lycan simply smiled, offering a graceful bow towards Tsubaki. “Forgive me. In truth, it has become something of a habit. Thank you for granting me the honor of meeting you, Lady Tsubaki. I have heard your legends since before I can even remember.”
“Who are you, really?” Tsubaki asked, staring straight at the lycan, who maintained his calm facade.
“I have yet to be granted my name. My Lord thought it unfitting.” Tsubaki understood as soon as he said that. There were very few cultures in the world where names were granted by someone other than the person’s legal guardians. Even fewer that allowed someone to grow to adulthood without receiving a name. As for those who had their name granted by a lord who they served… Tsubaki only knew of one.
“You’re a Servant. Then, who do you serve?” She rephrased her question, intrigued by why a Servant would walk into her palace without their liege. Though, given the nature of the ninja clans, it had suddenly become possible that he really was a mortal. Doubtful, but it was no longer completely out of the question.
“Lyra Norm, currently the acting owner of Visionary Law. For the purpose of the discussion, you may refer to me by my codename, Hiden.” The man said, crossing his arms behind his back. In truth, Tsubaki knew that there was a chance he had given a fake name for his superior in order to protect them. At the same time, she was familiar with the patterns of the ninja clans, and knew that Visionary Law was very likely to be one of their organizations.
“And what is it that brought you here, Hiden?” Tsubaki asked, using her main body to look up the information on this organization. What she found was a webpage with their business logo, an opened eye resting behind a large set of ancient scales. The body of the scales split the eye evenly down the center, the typical trademark for a ninja organization.
“This is how it is, Lady Tsubaki. A person of interest that has been under our watch for some time has shown a particular connection with the void outside of the world. Through our investigation, he seems to have some form of power related to agreements.”
“This alone would not have warranted my presence here, as it would merely be another power for us to study and understand. However, he has been disseminating this power through the use of legal agreements, embedding the power of the void within his words. From what we can tell, he has already made deals with thousands of individuals, and it is impossible to tell how many of these people have been subjected to his power.”
Clearing his throat, the man continued to explain. “Recently, he has sent out a number of legal agreements to beta testers, among which our own members were included. He wishes to launch a new game, but the Non-Disclosure Agreement included with the game itself contains his power.”
Tsubaki nodded her head at that, recalling the prophecy that had been given by Terra’s incarnation. It seemed to match up all too well with what she was hearing now. “Then, what was it that caused you to first begin watching him?”
Hiden simply smiled. “He ascended to godhood. It has been a very long time since you left us, Lady Tsubaki. Our practices have changed over the many years. As it is now, we keep our eye on anyone who ascends to godhood, or obtains an equivalent power. I must admit, the existence of Sanctum both simplified and complicated our goal. For now, we are focusing on those who remain in the mortal realm, as they are the ones who most influence society.”
Tsubaki offered another nod at that. “I suppose many things would have changed after you left the forests. There is too little of Earth left untouched, so your training must have similarly been affected.”
The man’s face remained calm, though he shook his head. “Perhaps until recently. However, we have once again been able to establish the trials of old. How could we ignore the training that created the greatest Servant in history?” Tsubaki kept her face passive at that, despite the memories of Ashe once again rising to the surface.
“Regardless, that’s not why you’re here.” She said simply, staring at Hiden. “What is the name of this game developer you’ve been investigating?”
Realizing that he had overspoken, the man gave another bow. “Apologies. The man in question is Julius Kyles. If you wish, we can eliminate him at a moment’s notice, or we can leave the matter to you and yours.”
Tsubaki knew what he meant by that. There was someone close to this developer who was one of their operatives. Furthermore, it was someone capable of evading his notice while also having the confidence to kill a god. “You’ve already developed anti-divinity weapons, haven’t you?”
Hiden did not attempt to hide it, as Tsubaki was the highest authority among mortals, and one that originated from their clans. “That’s right. We’ve created weapons that are able to inflict mortal wounds on a god. If you’d like, I can ask my Lord to have some delivered to the citadel for you to study.”
Tsubaki gave a small nod of agreement. This was not a field that she and Dana had worked on specifically, as both of them had the power to destroy gods without something like a special weapon. Nonetheless, it was a good idea to understand their creation and composition, in case there turned out to be a case involving them in the future.
“I understand. I shall let my Lord know of your decision upon my return. Is there anything else you need of me?” Hiden asked, looking unwaveringly at the goddess seated before him.
“Out of curiosity, how many Servants have become gods now?” She wondered, recalling the steps she had taken to reach perfection in the past, before such a thing was even known. While she had been aided in her path of divinity, she fully understood a Servant’s willingness to sacrifice themselves to be of better assistance to their liege.
The man merely offered a knowing smile. “For the last sixteen years, there has been a special class among Servants. The elite among the true elite. Their training is even harsher than in your time, lasting until their twentieth year. Their final exam is to ascend to godhood under their own power. Prior to that… there are definitely more that chose to ascend on their own. Naturally, those unprepared fell in the process, but I think you understand.”
Tsubaki’s eye faintly twitched when she heard that. Sixteen years would normally not have produced many candidates in the Servant program, at least when she was in it. However, she was unsure how large the program had expanded to. Especially given the fact that Hiden said they brought back the Trial of Blood. There shouldn’t be a proper, unexplored location within Earth to handle that, which left only a few options.
One, they were performing their trials in Lorek, where there was an ample amount of unexplored terrain. However, this would cause the Servants to have an incompatible skillset with Earth, leading to them being less useful to their eventual lieges. Thus, Tsubaki considered this to be extremely unlikely.
Another possibility was that they were using one of the floors of Fyor, where people often focused more on advancing from one floor to the other as opposed to fully mapping out each floor. This would provide a suitable training ground with high level monsters. In Tsubaki’s mind, this was the most likely possibility.
However, there was a third option that she could think of. And, given how they operated, they very well could have used this one. By performing planar travel research like the centaurs of Sher Dien, they could have potentially found a new world that met their requirements. If that was the case, then they would have a private world all to themselves, and all the space they needed to grow a large population.
However, the ninjas do not truly answer to Tsubaki, so she could not demand the answers to these questions. If she wanted them, she would need to find out for herself, which would not be an easy task. That, or to consult one of the Greater Gods. While Tsubaki had no way of personally verifying which method they were using, it would be a simple matter for the Greater Pantheon to see through them.
“Very well. If that is all, then you’re dismissed.” She said, Hiden nodding as his body began to disperse into golden smoke. As he was vanishing, Tsubaki managed to catch a flicker within his divine power, having been watching to see if he let his guard down. For the barest moment, she saw that his domain was manifested as Disguise.
Back in the Citadel, Tsubaki’s main body had also received the report from Terra’s incarnation, along with a list of over one hundred people that could correlate with her previous prophecy. Unsurprisingly, Julius Kyles was on this list as well. Having this confirmed by Terra gave Tsubaki a bit more confidence in what Hiden had told her.
With a thought, she sent a prayer towards Terra. Lady Terra, I would like to ask you to convey to your incarnation that we would like any information they can provide on Julius Kyle.
Normally, Tsubaki was reluctant to ask the Greater Pantheon to directly intervene in a matter. However, this was a case first brought forward by Terra in the first place, so she felt it only appropriate to go to the source. Of course, at the same time she would be doing her own investigation into his identity. Better safe than sorry, after all.
