It had only been a few minutes since giving the order to rest, but already Kruz’s brow was furrowed. The door to his hut swung open quickly, Lana walking in with a grave expression. “Krus, this is bad–”
“I know, Mara’s gone.” He said with a nod. He was thinking over the possibilities of what had happened, coupled together with the information he knew. “If she died a week after entering Sanctum, there is likely some hidden trap within the divine realm that she triggered. Something that only gods would know about, like needing to return there on a regular basis to ‘maintain their divinity’. It would explain why your information packet didn’t contain anything like that.”
Lana bit her lip, nodding her head. It was unthinkable that Mara had turned traitor. After all, she had no way to defect to the enemy side without Kruz activating the kill command as guild master. Furthermore, there was no sign of anyone entering her temporary shelter.
After a moment, Kruz spoke up again. “Have you detected anyone prying against the obfuscation field lately?” He asked, looking sharply at Lana, who shook her head.
“No, not ever since we left the civilized areas. There hasn’t been any signs that we’re being followed, either.” Kruz gave a nod when he heard that, trusting Lana’s abilities.
“Just to be safe, do an information sweep of the camp. Make sure that there’s nobody here hiding that shouldn’t be.” When she received that order, Lana gave a sharp nod, focusing her divinity.
After a few moments, she shook her head again. “The only people here are ours. I extended the range, and the closest sapient life is more than fifty kilometers away.”
Kruz let out a small sigh when he heard that. The evidence continued to support the theory that there was a trap within Sanctum. He could certainly confirm it if he had Lana go there to investigate herself, but… if there truly was a trap, there was the chance that she would fall for it as well. Mara was an important combat asset, but she wasn’t close to the level of importance Kruz placed on Lana.
“Let the others know. Tell Klaus to use his divinity to speed up the ship’s construction. The enemy might be able to gain some knowledge from Mara’s death, so we’ll need to leave immediately. And… tell him to add a cloaking device to the ship.” Normally, it would have been Mara’s job to hide the ship while they were traveling, but that task now had to be delegated to the ship itself.
Lana nodded her head, immediately turning and leaving the small hut. As she did, Kruz looked down to focus on his hands. A small, geometric pattern appeared, a spell formation that was similar, but not entirely the same as what Kruz knew. “Her illusion is still in place… did she take into account that she might die, and set it as a permanent pattern replacement?” This was a raid, so there was the chance that any member of the guild could die at a moment’s notice. As such, it wasn’t unreasonable to assume that Mara might have made such a decision.
Mara was currently seated with Aurivy, shivering as she leaned against the halfling goddess for support. The realization that everyone thought she was dead… that she’d need to watch them all die herself, had begun setting in. While she didn’t seem to have any regrets about her decision, it was still a lot for her to process.
At the same time, I was able to conclude that they really had hidden a number of their domains. For example, Mara was not simply the Goddess of Illusions, Trickery, and Transformation. Once she had been released from her old system, the domains Identity and Substitution had appeared within her divinity.
“Mara.” I spoke up, the girl turning her head to face me. “What will happen if Kruz dies? In terms of the guild rules, I mean.”
Mara bit her lip, clearly thinking over the implications. “There is an automatic transfer of leadership. Starting from the Guild Master, it will go to the next highest rank with the longest history in the guild.”
“So it won’t dissolve the guild or automatically trigger the kill switches.” I nodded my head. “In that case… What about when an invasion doesn’t return? What happens to the guild members left behind.”
That one took some thought. “If… if guild members are left behind during a raid, they are automatically treated as a sub-branch of the guild, the leadership of that branch transferred to the highest ranking member left behind.”
I gave another nod. Unfortunately, I wouldn’t be able to sell information on UpperLevel to the Gilded Branch even though I had a willing convert like Mara. The fact that I had been able to get her so easily likely meant that her situation was somewhat prevalent in UpperLevel’s world, making it easier for defending Keepers to find one or two members of a guild that would be willing to leave it.
Doing so required that they would be able to get past his security measures, in this case the kill command. Not entirely impossible, as we proved, but it is still a difficult step to take if someone isn’t prepared. “I see… in that case, I know that this is a lot to ask of you. However, I need to know who I should watch out for in your guild when the battle starts.”
Mara gave a small gulp, looking at the illusion of Kruz being projected. “Kruz is… a support role. He leads from the front, but he’s not the strongest. His sealed domains right now should be War, Territory, Loyalty, and Law.”
My eyes went wide, recognizing that there were some incredibly dangerous powers within those domains. “And he’s not the strongest?”
Surprisingly, Mara shook her head. “N-No sir, the strongest is Jordan. He is only a four-domain god, but he is one of the top two combat powers of the guild. His domains are Death, Ruin, Darkness, and Ice.”
I gave a small nod at that. Certainly, it was hard to beat a deity of death when it came to combat power. “You said one of the top two… but I thought he was the strongest? Then, who is the other one?”
Mara had an almost bashful smile on her face as she raised her hand. “M-Me, sir… when I enter a fight, I turn my opponents into illusions, while making it so that they take any damage I would have taken. Jordan can’t beat me unless he kills all of the illusions under my control, but by that time I would have already turned him into one… Anyone my divinity touches, I can turn into an illusion, and then anyone they touch becomes one, too. I can make my enemies fight for me to spread the effects.”
My brow twitched at that. In truth, Mara was an utterly terrifying opponent. If not for me having the Illusion domain myself, I don’t know if I would be able to beat her in a one-on-one confrontation. “In that case, if you were the strongest combat power of the guild, why didn’t the guild master use his Loyalty domain to make you loyal to the guild?”
Mara shook her head. “B-Because of my Trickery domain. If someone uses a mind control effect on me, that domain is set to automatically attack that power. It’s something I can’t stop even if I want to, a rule I put up before I can remember. Even if he used the domain on me, it would wear off as soon as my divinity finished attacking it.”
My eyes turned a bit softer when I heard that. If it was before she could remember, I was certain that it was one of her earlier experiments to counteract the coin she held. However, it obviously didn’t register the coin’s power as a mind control effect, or else she would be able to recall the event. Or perhaps it simply didn’t work if the power used against her was her own?
Either way, I turned my attention back to the illusion. Kruz was standing up and getting ready to leave, a sign that their construction deity had forcibly sped up their ship’s progress. It won’t be long now before they get here. I thought to myself, before I was interrupted by Mara’s voice.
“U-Uhm, Keeper sir?” She spoke up, looking timidly at me.
“What is it?” I asked, surprised that she had taken the initiative to speak.
“I don’t really know how to ask this, but… aren’t you all wasting too much divinity with your powers?” She looked around at that. “I… I noticed it when my game system was removed. And I’ve been watching you since. It’s a really crude way of using your domains, and it causes a lot of the power to be lost.”
Not just myself, everyone in the room turned to look at Mara at that. “Crude?” Aurivy asked in confusion. “Okay, I get it for Dale. He hasn’t had quite as much training as the rest in controlling our powers. But even Ash?”
Mara nodded her head slightly. “T-That’s right. Do you not use divine circuits?”
Hearing the term, Ashley seemed to simply manifest in front of Mara, her eyes wide. “Explain.” She spoke up in an eager tone, Mara yipping and backing up in her seat. Clearly, if circuits were involved, Ashley appeared to believe that it would be related to her domain of Technology.
“D-Divine circuits. They’re… kind of like ki paths? But for divinity. They’re paths that you run throughout your body, and you can program in abilities you want to use to minimize your energy cost.”
When I heard her explanation, my brows furrowed. My World Sight focused entirely on Mara, piercing beneath the surface. I had avoided doing something like this because I thought that they might notice, and the information is hard to read. However, now that I was using it on her, I could see that there were five primary ‘nodes’ within her divinity, with sharp lines leading off in multiple directions. Each line seemed to carry another aspect of a particular power.
For instance, there was one line from the Illusion node that carried the meaning of creating an illusion, another for dispelling, one for sensing, and so on. I wasn’t able to recognize the meanings behind the lines of other nodes, likely because I myself didn’t have those domains. When the lines crossed with the lines of another node, they formed a smaller secondary node, likely indicating a ‘programmed’ power.
“So that’s how you do it.” I muttered, looking at Mara in awe. “I was wondering how you could so easily stabilize after having five domains. Could you do me a favor, and activate a simple invisibility effect?”
Mara nodded her head, and I could see her Illusion and Trickery nodes lighting up, two lines shooting off to one of the many secondary nodes. Once that secondary node lit up, her body became completely invisible. If not for my World Sight, I wouldn’t have been able to sense her.
“Is it difficult to establish a divine circuit?” I asked once Mara revealed herself. This technique would not only allow us to use our divine powers more efficiently, but also stabilize deities with more than three domains. Otherwise, someone like Kruz with seven domains would have trouble using any of his divine abilities without backlash.
She tilted her head in thought, clearly trying to compare her own experiences with that of an unfamiliar world. “Maybe at first? After you set up your first circuit, the rest are easy. It’s just a matter of practice, I guess?”
I gave a small nod, thinking it over. Most likely, those who had experience cultivating the Profound Star Laws would have the easiest time setting up those circuits. After all, they would have already learned how to study each individual part of a given domain. Maybe this was what I needed to finally push myself to the fourth rank… I’d have to give it a try once the invasion was over.
