“I see…” Tower muttered after Lenner had left his office, transported directly back to Earth. He himself was not very skilled with portals, or else he would have never taken the starship to this world in the first place. Thankfully, portals were a specialty of dungeons like Tower, so it was incredibly easy to return him.
During their conversation, Tower had learned about the secondary methods of ascension, whether it was the forging of divinity or cultivation of Lorek. When he questioned the dungeons he was connected to, he learned that there was even a rumor that a certain god could produce domains for other gods in the form of a dish.
Upon further questioning, the reason that the dungeons did not tell him about these methods was that they were unlikely to be able to use them. A dungeon core could not even enter Lorek, or it would explode in a flaming conflagration that destroyed itself and everything around it. The divine forging was even more unlikely to work, because they were a Unity God instead of a normal one. Their divinity was the combination of ten thousand dungeon cores all working together, and would have too many impurities to forge.
That left the unconfirmed cuisine ascension, or the method that monster gods used to ascend. Unfortunately, Tower had no way to find those primordial relics, unless he used the monsters working for him as bloodhounds. Even then, there was no guarantee that he could find one that he wanted. As such, he had to find an alternative method.
Atraxi, Pietra. Tower whispered through his mana, communicating to the other two gods. He quickly explained the contents of the conversation that he had with Lenner. The two of you should pay a trip to Earth and have your divinities forged, and then make a trip to Lorek. Either leave behind avatars, or I will watch over your world while you are gone.
He knew that it was a simple matter for the two of them to control numerous avatars, having had little else to do for a very long time but train themselves. What about you? Atraxi asked curiously, Tower shaking his head.
These methods will not work on myself. If possible, you might be able to trigger an evolution within my divinity once you have achieved your third domain, depending on what domains you go for. That is the power I see in your Evolution domain.
I understand. Then, we shall leave behind a pair of avatars. If you have anything you want to communicate to us, you can let us know through them.
Tower thought about it for a moment, before nodding. There is one thing. We are all Mother’s children. Please pass a message along to Earth to inform them that they should not be making any attempts on our two worlds. Apparently, they have had the same thought as I, to use the divinity of a species to fuel themselves. However, instead of making their own worlds, they seek to grab existing worlds.
There was a brief pause as the two slimes regarded his words. Eventually, Pietra spoke up to confirm. We will do as you say. We would also prefer not to have these invaders become a regular event. It is not easy to withstand the energy waves of your ‘end boss’.
Tower chuckled at that, shaking his head. In truth, he had been overly cautious when he summoned that dragon. Looking at the power level of the two gods, the horde of other gods would have been more than enough. In fact, he might have lost even less of his monsters if he had simply commanded the horde to attack than from the collateral damage of the dragon.
However, the only Triple God that he had encountered before was Aurivy herself, making him immediately pull out the strongest power under his control to contend against them. The dragon slumbering at the heart of the world, meant to be the ultimate boss for the central dungeon, but also kept there as a form of imprisonment. If Tower were to let him free, it would spell the end for any world that drew its eye. Thus, he could only keep the beast within his dungeon until the day that adventurers were powerful enough to kill it.
“While they’re gone, I suppose that I should begin capturing some replacements.” He muttered to himself. With half of his monsters slain, a great vacancy had opened within his dungeon. As they were the weakest of his monster gods, this meant that the difficulty for the central challengers would be drastically increased until he managed to fill that vacancy.
Tower closed his eyes, tapping into his Monster domain to search for new monster gods. His mental energy rumbled when he saw just how many there were flying around in space. Originally, he had thought that his dungeon would be enough to keep them in check, but such a thing was obviously no longer possible.
He long knew that the primordial relics were not unique. There were multiple monster gods of Fire, Wind, or Water within his dungeon. Or… well, there were. Either way, it meant that the relics themselves were merely shattered fragments off the original whole, and there was no telling how many fragments there could be out there.
Tower shook his head, but also wondered if there might be too many monster gods to be explained by the scattered relics. Perhaps they had found an additional method to ascend? He was intrigued by that concept, and decided to interrogate the ones that he had found for answers.
Atraxi and Pietra quickly made their way to Earth, sent over by one of Tower’s portals. When they appeared, they could immediately sense the changes in the air from the last time they were there. For one, there was far more ambient energy, but they could also sense numerous local gods.
“We should hurry.” Pietra said, Atraxi nodding as they flew off from the island where they had been deposited, making their way rapidly to the mainland. Neither of them knew exactly where to go to report the status of their world, but they knew how to find the temples of Aurivy. They originally thought about praying to her directly, but did not wish to interrupt her if she was busy with other matters.
Once they reached the mainland, they arrived at the first city that they saw, sprawling with people of various races. Aside from the rare golem or Rainbow-Eyes, the two were familiar with all of the races that they witnessed. They nodded their heads in satisfaction, glad that the races themselves had not changed drastically, though there were quite a few beastkin with multiple tails.
Spreading their senses out, they immediately located a temple with a statue of Aurivy, making their way towards it. When they arrived, they saw a steady stream of people coming and going, paying different types of coins and asking for transportation to unfamiliar locations.
The two looked at each other in confusion, moving to enter the back of the line. They drew a few unusual looks, but did not pay it any mind. Once it was their turn, the halfling handling the queue smiled warmly to the two. “Ah, a couple of slime friends, is it? Where would the two of you like to go?”
The halfling did not seem put off by their race, which made the two give mental sighs of relief. Ultimately, it was Pietra that spoke. “We are Pietra and Atraxi, subordinate gods of Aurivy. We have something important that we need to discuss with the church.”
The clamor from the line froze at Pietra’s words. Finding a god in a crowd was common in this day and age. Well, perhaps slightly less common now that they had mostly left to find new worlds. However, finding a Subordinate God of the Greater Pantheon was incredibly rare. They were the eyes and ears of the greatest authorities within the myriad worlds.
The halfling’s eyes went wide, gulping slightly at that. “Then, pardon me, but I need to confirm your words.” She said, offering a small prayer in the presence of the two. It was even rarer than finding a true Subordinate God, but there were those who were foolish enough to falsely claim the title.
Once she felt the resonation between her prayer and the energy of the two slimes, she let out a deep breath. “Please, follow me and I can take you to the head of this church. Minny! Can you handle the transportation queue for just a minute?” She called out, a lycan girl rushing over to replace her.
Once Minny had taken her place, the halfling quickly backed out of the queue, gesturing for the two slimes to follow her. Naturally, seeing that they were being led away, the two had no problems complying. The halfling led them back to a large office, in which a human male sat wearing a white suit.
“Ah, Lorane, good of you to arrive. May I ask to what I owe this pleasure?” He asked, gesturing a hand towards the flustered halfling.
“Sir Cardinal, these are two Subordinate Gods of the Lady. They say that they have something important to discuss with the church.” Lorane said, gesturing to the two slimes.
“Oh? Is that so?” He asked, looking at the two. “Yes, I can see the Lady of Love’s grace upon you. Please, come in and take a seat.” With that, Lorane made her escape, the two slimes sitting in the offered chairs. “So, what pray tell is the important topic that you have to discuss?”
The two slimes looked at one another, Atraxi speaking once more. “Long ago, our Mother established a world for us, and another for another of her children. Today, two individuals arrived claiming to remove us from these worlds granted by Mother.”
The cardinal nodded his head, stroking his smooth chin. “I see… and you wish to use the church to return control of these worlds? I admit, if it was a world directly created by the Lady, then it is truly a special case.”
“There is no need for that. One of the intruders was slain, and the other sent fleeing.” Atraxi said, Pietra offering a nod of confirmation.
“What we wish for is to make this matter known, so that others do not follow in this folly.” Pietra said, the cardinal furrowing his brow. It was still rare to hear about the death of a god, but these two discussed it almost casually.
“Then, if I were to show you a star chart, would you be able to tell me which system is the one in which your worlds rest?” The cardinal asked, pulling out his personal terminal.
The two looked at one another, too unfamiliar with the stars in the sky to answer him. Thus, they used their avatars to communicate with Tower, who in turn retrieved the information from his many dungeon selves. It took a few moments of awkward silence, but Pietra eventually nodded his head. “I have the information now, I apologize.”
“No need, no need.” The man said, having been able to tell that the two were in some form of silent conversation. It was a necessary skill to be able to read the body language of others in this day, especially now that the private messaging system was released. It was no longer possible to simply read the flow of mana or divinity to see when one was talking privately. Of course, the body language of a slime was incredibly difficult to understand at a glance.
The cardinal activated his terminal, pulling up the official star chart of Earth, and gesturing for it to float over to Pietra. The slime held his arm out, manipulating the chart and causing it to repeatedly zoom on one specific sector of space. “This is it.” He said, pointing towards an otherwise unremarkable star.
The cardinal tapped on the star, and the special note about two active planets having appeared on long distance scanners for traveling ships appeared. “I see… so those were worlds created by the Lady. I understand, I will inform everyone that these two planets are not to be targeted.”
“We would appreciate that.” The slime nodded. “Additionally, please do not allow tourists to visit, as well. Our planets are not hospitable to normal races, and you would either freeze or dissolve to nothing within minutes of landing on either one.”
The cardinal’s brow twitched, having been already thinking about spreading the word that the two planets were places created specifically by the Lady of Love and advertising them as must-see destinations. “I see… I will keep this in mind, then. Is there anything else that I can do for the two of you?”
Pietra gave another nod. “Please direct us to where we may have our divinity forged. It has been a long time since we were last in this world, and such a thing was not possible at that time. Now that we are here, we should have it taken care of.”
