The ship carrying Kruz and the others was really quite impressive to behold. That said, it was somewhat easy to get an idea of their civilization level going by the design that they had used. Once it started moving, it was able to erect a field around itself that propelled it to one thousand times the speed of light. After that, it ceased accelerating, simply coasting at that speed while moving in my direction.
One thousand times light speed sounded impressive, but in reality it was incredibly slow for an interstellar vehicle. The nearest star to Earth was roughly five light years away, which would take them over forty hours to reach that destination in a straight line. More importantly, I wasn’t on the nearest star to Earth. Rather, I was on a star roughly two hundred light years away, to ensure that there was no chance of the fallout reaching any of my inhabited worlds.
If I wanted to wait for them to arrive at this location, I would need to wait over two months. That was… entirely unacceptable. I could likely master the concept of divine circuits in that time if I wanted, but I would rather wait until I was back in the Admin Room to practice that, so that I would be able to ensure a safe training environment.
So, I waited, but not for two months. Instead, I allowed the projected illusion to pass while maintaining my vigilance. After roughly an hour, they had managed to accurately determine which star they were flying towards, and estimated how long it would take them to reach it.
At this point, I expected one of them to come forward and open a portal to shorten the distance. Instead, they announced the travel duration to their entire crew, and told them to settle in for a long journey…
“Seriously?” I looked over at Mara in confusion. “Do you not have a Travel deity in your group?”
Mara dipped her head slightly at that, before shaking it. “T-There used to be one. However, he was killed by a Class Seven monster while out exploring. He always liked to go off on his own, and said it was no fun to travel with a group.”
I brought a hand up to massage my forehead. “And you don’t have any ships faster than this?” At the current speed of the enemy vessel, we could make a dozen round trips in one of my world’s basic ships before they managed to reach this place.
“We don’t really travel to the stars much in our world.” Mara explained gently. “Instead, there are parallel planes that can be established if too many people occupy a single area. Our space travel is mostly to neighboring stars for special resources.”
I couldn’t help but let out a long sigh at that. “Ashley, how much damage could you cause to the gods if you made their reactor go critical?” Naturally, destroying their ship would kill all of the normal mortals, but the vacuum of space had little danger to a god.
Ashley blinked, thinking it over before shaking her head. “One of the shields around their ship prevents divine power from entering from the outside. As long as that shield is up, I won’t be able to influence their ship with my divinity. Not without expending a massive amount of energy.”
Mara seemed to perk up at that, though I could tell from her surface thoughts that she was simply happy that she found something to be proud of with her world’s technology. The fact that I could even read her surface thoughts meant that she had fully accepted being brought into my world. “Kel?”
The ursa girl looked over, blinking before she grinned. “I just have to smash the shield, right?” She asked, to which I nodded my head. “Is it fine if I smash the ship along with it?”
“If you can take out both with a single strike, that would be even better.” At the very least, it would stop Ashley from needing to use any of her own energy.
Keliope nodded her head eagerly, taking a deep breath. “Alright, can you show me the exterior of their ship? I need a real time update if I want my strike to connect.”
I arched my brow, creating a second illusion that showed their ship flying through space, the stars visibly moving in the background. Keliope lowered her stance, holding one hand forward with her fingers curled, circulating her ki. I recognized the stance, my eyes going wide. This was a move that I myself had practiced.
Keliope’s eyes began to glow. “Aurivy, mind helping me with the aim assist? This is going to be a tough one.” As she asked that, the three domains of Strength, Defense, and Fortitude began to circle around her hands.
Aurivy quickly nodded her head, creating a portal in front of Keliope. Unlike her usual misty portals, this one appeared incredibly solid, a ring of gold waiting for Keliope’s strike. Keliope gave a small grin, taking half a step forward as her hand thrust into the ring.
“Eleventh Hand, God Shattering!” She called out, her ki pouring through her arm and into her hand. This was one of the final attacks of the Twelve Shattering Hands, backed by the power of her trinity.
The portal that Aurivy created shook, cracks forming along it as she focused on transmitting the attack across space. In the illusion I had created of the ship’s exterior, I could see a tiny golden dot just above the outer layer of the shield. A moment later, the shield shattered, the entire ship caving inward before exploding.
The attack had happened too fast for them to properly protect their guild members, so I scanned through and did a quick head count. “The mortals are all dead. As for the gods… it looks like fifteen of them died.”
“Only fifteen!?” Keliope asked with wide eyes. “I knew I should have gone for the final strike… I just didn’t think Aurivy’s portal could handle it.”
“Either way, let’s get going.” I said, slowly rising to my feet. “Mara… stay here.” I told her in a gentle tone as everyone gathered their armaments. I didn’t want her to have to fight her old friends.
Mara’s eyes went wide as Aurivy’s mist wrapped around us. A moment later, we were standing in the depths of space, our eyes trained on the exploding ship ahead. Roughly ninety flashes of light exited the explosion, each belonging to one of the guild’s gods.
I mark the adventure begun, let our heroes overcome adversity. Lifre’s voice echoed out in the space around us, her divinity flowing through us.
Udona clasped her hands together, a gentle light wrapping around our bodies. Let the glory of life overcome the harsh rule of death. With her blessing, Jordan wouldn’t be able to simply kill us unless he could overcome Udona’s power.
Dana gave a small grin, flicking her wrist. Her whip extended with a crack that seemed audible even in the void of space. All around us, the stars seemed to go out one by one, a true darkness consuming the battlefield until even the ship that they emerged from vanished.
The last to handle their preparations were the Terra twins, who brought themselves together to form the Origin of Fate. This would be her first debut in a Keeper battle, so I was quite looking forward to the results.
Once our enemies saw who they were facing, they immediately unsealed their own divinity. It was clear to all that this would be the final battle of their raid.
Already? This is too soon! Kruz grit his teeth, looking around at the other gods. They hadn’t been able to escape the ship without damage, but they still outnumbered the Keeper’s forces five to one.
At the earliest, Kruz expected that they would be fighting the Keeper after traveling one quarter of the journey. That seemed to be the best estimate that they could come up with. However, barely an hour and a half after leaving Earth, not long after determining their destination, they were already being attacked?
They’ve been watching us from the start… Kruz couldn’t imagine how they had managed to observe them for so long without Lana noticing, but it was obvious from the swift attack that they had been prepared. The only thing he could come up with was that they truly had gotten information from Mara’s death.
Everyone, full power! Kruz called out, immediately unsealing his domains. Lana and the others all did the same, and Kruz was glad to see that Jordan hadn’t died. Even without Mara, as long as we have this lineup, it should be fine
Kruz heard a faint crack in the space around him, the world plunged into total darkness. All that existed within this empty void were his own forces and those of the enemy. Kruz flew back to the rear of his troops, spreading his arms out as he activated his divine buffs. The black landscape shifted, solid ground appearing beneath his feet as it fought back against the darkness.
Unlike the gods of this world, who used chants to focus their divinity, those with divine circuits merely needed to activate the saved power. If the power they wished for was not saved, they would have to follow the lines of their divinity to create it, which was typically a simple task if practiced properly.
On the enemy team, there was a black-haired girl holding a whip, whose eyes went wide in surprise when part of her darkness was overtaken. Clearly, this darkness was one of her own abilities, though Kruz merely smirked at that. Jordan, you go–
Before he could finish his command, he saw that Jordan was already being engaged by one of the enemies, a woman with nine fox tails. Each tail had a jewel floating over it, shooting out multiple beams of different colored light. Nine domains…? No, that must just be a special artifact.
Kruz was aware of the types of artifacts which could be acquired from Fragments of Acidia, as that was a game popular in his own world as well. While they hadn’t been able to reproduce the game’s technology, getting their artifact production methods weren’t as difficult.
Thinking that, Kruz reached into his inventory, retrieving an ornately decorated longsword. This was the weapon that he received from that very game, reproduced in the real world. He planned to use this sword to sweep away the enemy forces.
He held his weapon, the Sword of Law, high into the air, focusing his divinity into it. As his divinity poured into the sword, characters began to appear along the blade. ‘New Law: Strength in Numbers’.
However, before he could swing his sword, he felt a gaze landing on him from the distance. Of the enemy units, there was only one being that was not currently engaged in battle. She had long black hair and feline features. Her eyes seemed to be bottomless abysses. The moment her gaze locked with Kruz’s, Kruz felt as if he couldn’t swing his sword. As if the moment he did, everyone there would die.
His hands trembled, and he sent out a mental command. Anyone! Go get that girl in the back! He shouted mentally, though they didn’t seem to hear him. His forces were all wrapped up in their own combat, multiple gods teaming up against a single enemy.
Seeing this, Kruz felt confused, but also realized that the Sword of Law might not be needed to win this battle. With the exception of the Keeper and the girl holding the whip, the other gods all appeared to be getting pushed back by his forces. It was hard to say who was truly winning, but the greater variety in domains looked like it was pressuring the enemy.
