“She has arrived, my Keeper.” Tsubaki said, causing me to nod and rise from the couch. It had been a long time since anyone else had been brought to the Sky Citadel like this, so I wanted to go and greet her in the throne room.
Once I got out to the throne room, I saw Laura standing in the middle of the floor, her head looking around as if she were confused. Granted, what I had seen of her revealed to me that confusion was a far more natural state for her. But, that was one of the things that we were here to fix. “Miss Bowley.” I spoke up, immediately causing her to jump and turn in my direction.
“Keeper, sir…” Laura said as she gave a small bow. It had to be said that she was at least not delirious enough to try to take my name. I could sense Tsubaki and the others all ready to attack if she had tried something like that. “May I ask… why have you called me here today?”
“I noticed your problem in your previous match.” I answered simply, causing her to flinch. “Don’t worry, I’m not trying to punish your for pursuing too much power, or anything of the sort. Rather, I think you have a great deal of potential, so long as you are helped to be put back on the right path.”
“Right… path?” She asked in confusion, causing me to nod.
“Currently, you have five domains. I do not seek to condemn you for pursuing power in this way, but you have done so without the proper precautions. Of your domains, three of them came from what I call primordial relics. These are not domains that you achieved through your own training, and thus you were unable to properly control their power, leading to your current state.”
Laura lowered her head, clearly aware of what I was talking about. “Y-Yes… you are right. That’s… why I was in this tournament. I wanted an answer from you… how can I control myself?”
I gave a small smile in response to that. “It’s quite easy. If you like, I can temporarily seal two of the domains you obtained from these relics. Then, once you have reached a point that you have fully made the power your own, you can unseal one additional domain.”
“Be warned, however, that the path you walk is a long and dangerous one. Every additional domain you unlock beyond the third will cause instability within your divinity. You will only be free of this when you receive your ninth domain, at which point you will reach the final level of balance. Should you attempt to receive a tenth… even I would not be able to save you.”
Laura’s eyes went wide at that, and she slowly nodded her head. It looked as if some of the confusion plaguing her mind was momentarily cured, but then her eyes started to gloss over again, her divinity rampaging within her very soul. “Then, I would appreciate the support, sir Keeper.” She said with her head lowered again.
I nodded my head, closing my eyes and focusing on the domains that I had chosen. My hand lifted, and nine glowing rings of golden light appeared, split into three groups of three. Name, Distortion, and Trickery for the first. Words, Strength, and Sealing for the second. Then finally, there was Magic, Darkness, and Trials for the third.
“Laura Bowley, I seal the power of your Darkness behind a trial. When you have mastered the power of Distortion, you shall be awarded with the power of Darkness once again. The power of Strength, I seal behind a name. When you believe yourself ready for this power once again, name yourself the Goddess of Strength and the power shall be returned.”
I could have easily sealed both powers behind the same style of ‘trial’. However, I believed that doing so would be dangerous, and wanted to leave her a method to unseal one of her domains on her own, just in case she encountered a situation where she would need it.
Once I was done, it was clear that Laura didn’t feel any different, the confusion on her face only growing worse. She looked at me as if not sure if I had really done anything to try to help her. However, I had expected something like this. “Dana.” I said softly, Dana stepping forward. “Dana here will help you recover from the damage that’s already been caused. Right now, your soul is in a state of utter disrepair. If I had to guess, it would have collapsed entirely within a few more years.”
Laura hesitated for a moment, her trust seeming to waver after the lack of any real effect from the previous ‘treatment’. However, in the end she nodded her head, turning to follow Dana out of the room. Once she was gone, I turned to look at Tsubaki, a small smile on her face. “Let her stay until the recovery is complete. Like I said, she shows a lot of promise if she is able to properly master her path.”
“As you wish, my Keeper.” Tsubaki nodded her head, keeping her expression neutral. It was hard to tell how long Dana’s treatment of Laura would take. It could be anywhere from a couple of hours to a few weeks, all depending on how extensive the damage was.
“For now… shall we get back to the event?” I asked, Tsubaki perking up slightly at that.
It was now the fourth round of battle, and most contestants were starting to feel the drain on their energies. Those with lower reserves began dropping out one after another, while those with greater reserves of power started to fight more conservatively.
For most, it was no longer a battle of showing off their strongest moves to effortlessly dominate the competition. Instead, they now had to be aware of their own power levels. Once their divinity reached the bottom, they were sure to be defeated.
Thankfully, this tournament was being held in Virtual to preserve the lives of those involved, as well as their true levels of power. The Virtual selves of those deities were only simulated copies based on the scans taken by the devices they wore, so it was easy to replace them for events like this. At the same time, because the virtual world was not at the level of a ‘true’ world, and these were not true avatars, the divinity of the real self was not spent in this event.
Those competing were naturally aware of these circumstances, as they had been fully researched by Darkflame Technologies over the years since the release of the Virtual world. Thanks to this, the Virtual world became the favored place in order to test new divine abilities, before sharing the memories of those abilities with the real self.
Aznod was not unlike the other contestants, his reserves starting to suffer from the repeated battles. Unlike other combatants, he was able to harvest the divinity of his opponent in order to create a ‘meal’, but he hardly had the time to eat and prepare his meal during the battle. If not for the action being banned during the tournament, he would have already synchronized himself with his real world self in order to restore his spent divinity.
Instead, he looked over at his opponent, who had just appeared, and knew that this was going to be a difficult battle. His opponent was one that Aznod recognized, another triple deity like himself. A heroc male wearing a soft blue robe and carrying a wooden rod in his hand. “Libris.” Aznod said in greeting, the other party smiling.
“Ah, Aznod. It’s been a while.” The God of Water, Mist, and Wind responded. Although he was a being who did not seek out combat, possessing three elemental domains made him an extremely terrifying foe.
Aznod had encountered Libris during his travels years ago, and had become acquainted with the other god. Because of that, he was extremely wary of the other party’s abilities. His eyes glanced towards the countdown, and he could only hope that his opponent had been as drained as he was. “Sorry, but I would like to see what sort of enhancement the Keeper can provide to my artifact.” Libris said sincerely, tapping his rod against the ground.
Aznod’s eyes went wide as a torrent of water rose up around Libris, rushing towards him. “You even had your artifacts crafted virtually.” Aznod said in astonishment, to which Libris simply chuckled.
Aznod lifted his hands, summoning a black wall of flame. This was his special energy, one which he could only use because it fell within the realm of his divinity. However, he had been reserving it as his trump card, knowing that he’d need to be more careful once his opponents were aware of this power.
Libris watched in fascination as his wave of water was devoured by the wall of flame. “So you had some tricks as well…” He said, before his eye twitched as Aznod extended his own hand into the flame.
Aznod retrieved a small cone of shaved ice from the wall of black flame, and grit his teeth before opening wide to consume the entire thing in merely two mouthfuls. Normally, as a god he would be immune to something like brain freeze. However, this was a treat made with divine energy itself, so he was out of luck in that regard.
“Is… everything alright?” Libris asked in concern, Aznod nodding his head. He wasn’t able to gain much divine energy from that attack, but it was better than nothing.
“My turn.” He said, enduring the stabbing pain in his head as he rushed forward, forming a knife in either hand. Libris was briefly taken aback by the scene, before tapping his rod on the ground once again.
This time, it seemed as if Aznod was prepared for the attack, diving straight into it while wrapping his body with the black flames. Libris had no idea how much of this energy Aznod possessed, but it was likely more than enough to act as a shield for a short while.
When Aznod emerged on the other end of the torrent, he was already directly in front of Libris. His right hand slashed out at the heroc deity, whose body seemed to dissolve into vapor. “You should know that slashing attacks won’t work against my body of mist.”
Hearing Libris’s words, Aznod simply grinned. “I am aware.” He said, activating the power of his Cooking domain. “I just needed you to disperse for a moment.”
Flames were a natural tool in cooking, and so Aznod was capable of wielding a certain degree of fire with his domain. However, this flame was far from enough to injure most gods, which was why he had not used it in any of his earlier matches. In order for it to be effective, he had to ensure that his opponent was in a state where they would be susceptible to flames.
Thus, Aznod summoned his fire to engulf the area where Libris’s mist was, using the flames to attack his misty body. Under this assault, Libris was forced to materialize again, subjecting himself to the assault of Aznod’s knives while he used his Water domain to extinguish the flames. “That was a dirty trick.” Libris protested, clearly having lost a lot of his energy to Aznod’s flames.
“You have your reason to win, and so do I.” Aznod said simply, stabbing his knife directly into Libris’s torso. Before Libris had the chance to dematerialize, he released a burst of blackk flames from his knife, consuming the majority of Libris’s body in the process.
With that, Aznod released a deep breath of relief, mentally taking stock of his remaining energy. Only enough for three or four more fights, if I’m lucky. He thought to himself, brow furrowing. It would make sense if the majority of his opponents from now on were equipped with their divine artifacts, just as Libris had been. Those who had not taken the extra effort to have their artifacts crafted for their Virtual selves would lose out on quite a lot of combat power. I’ll need to find a way to replenish my divinity in the coming battles, or else I won’t make it to the end.
