After leaving Leowynn’s room, I found Terra standing outside, a knowing smile on her face. She brought her hands from behind her back, presenting me with a thick book with a black cover. “I heard the whole thing, naturally. I thought you’d be needing this.”
I nodded my head, a thankful smile on my face as I led Terra towards the living room. “Right… did Tsubaki miss anything in her report, by the way? I know you’ll have a clearer picture of what happened.”
Terra put on a thoughtful expression. “She covered the important points. However, there is one thing that she failed to notice.” When Terra saw me looking over at her in caution, she shook her head. “We’ll need to reboot the servers for World Seed, Fragments of Acidia, and Vision Expanse. The apocalypse that struck Desbar manifested as a total shutdown of anything that required any form of energy to function. However, its true nature was a collapse of any advancement. All data was wiped from servers hosted in Desbar, including the major games released by Darkflame Technologies.”
My brow twitched when I heard that. “And that was when it was nerfed by the layers of defense? Dare I ask what it would have been like otherwise?”
“Stagnation.” Terra answered simply. “No form of movement would be allowed in the universe. The longer it lasted, the stronger the beast would have become, until it had the power to devour the entire realm.”
I sucked in a breath, before nodding my head. “Does that mean that the Virtual worlds are all gone?”
“Only the ones hosted in Desbar. Your own Virtual self was there, but many were hosted in the Spica servers or the other backups.”
“Right…” I let out a faint sigh. “We’ll need to set up a universal backup in Fyor going forward. Obviously, those worlds aren’t very protected in Desbar.”
After saying that, I turned to face her again. “So, there’s nothing that we can salvage from those two worlds?”
Terra hesitated for a moment, before shaking her head. “Vivi, Chiho, and Fifi are still alive, because they retreated to Fyor’s servers when the evacuation order went out. Additionally, we still have the files for the games themselves, due to having bought them through the market.”
I let out a long sigh of resignation. “For those people that scanned their last seed with Digital Conversion, will they still be able to take it out to replant their old trees?”
Terra smiled slightly at that. “That’s right. Digital Conversion is a multi-world system. In other words, it is integrated into the void itself, in a way. Unless we choose to remove it, that system won’t be damaged. However… with everyone needing to start fresh characters, they won’t have the ki or mana to create a seed like that.”
“Got it… ask Chiho if there’s anything she can do as a one-time event with her authorization. Otherwise, it’s fine to restart from the beginning.” It was disappointing for the survivors of this incident to lose their entire life’s work in the games, but that was just another truth that came with this incident. “And… keep an eye out for public outrage. I’m sure that there will be plenty of people trying to pin the blame on us for not giving them a proper warning before this.”
Terra groaned, but nodded in agreement. “We warned them to the best of our abilities, working up to it over decades to try to get them to understand. Still, they’re suffering, so they will look for anyone that they can blame to vent. Do you want me to do anything about it?”
“No… just make sure that they don’t get violent with those that evacuated. People shouldn’t be blamed for taking our advice. There’s going to be chaos for a while, especially in Deckan, but we can work through it.”
After I said that, we started walking again, soon making our way into the living room. Leowynn seemed to have teleported ahead of us, changing into her black, star-patterned dress that Ryone made her long ago. She was clearly trying to look professional, clenching her fists in front of her.
I smiled towards the silver-haired elf, before closing my eyes. “Did Leowynn tell you all what we’re about to do?” I asked, turning to address everyone. They nodded their heads firmly. “There is only one thing that I’d like to ask you all. I’ve been thinking it through. We have the points. If we want to, we could create a rule so that exceptional deities and fallen deities will be preserved after their death in the same way.”
“If we do this, I plan to create more buildings like Ashley’s offices. Everyone we bring up like this will get their own home. I don’t want people to believe that they will be entitled to eternity simply because they sacrificed. Rather, their sacrifice must have significant meaning. Lyra died because she led the charge against an unknown foe of unimaginable power.”
“If we didn’t have Fyor, I would have been forced to flee to the void as soon as the invasion began, trying to end the fight immediately. If I did so, and encountered that void god, I would have died. I have absolutely no doubts about this. If anyone other than Dana had stepped forward, they would have likely died. Without Lyra’s sacrifice, everything could have been lost. That’s why I am offering this choice. Those who make similar sacrifices in the line of duty, their sacrifices overturning a grim fate for one or more world, can be brought to the Admin Room.”
“I won’t be giving them the same authority as all of you. They won’t be running their own worlds, or anything like that. Instead, they will be residents of the Admin Room with the right to use the Heavenly Incarnation system.”
Terra and the others all looked at me in surprise, this suggestion no doubt seeming to come out of nowhere. However… it was true. We earned nearly two hundred thousand points by fighting back against this invasion. Coupled with what we already had, this was not only possible, but could be considered an investment. Anyone we brought up would be able to retain their domains, and could then be reborn in the world when their mortal selves died again.
Since we would only consider those who performed important sacrifices, we were far less likely to get anyone with a wicked heart. And, if we did, there was always the option of simply rejection them from the start.
“I like it.” Aurivy said with a grin. “We’ll finally start getting some more faces around here.”
Accalia had a somewhat weak smile, seeming to still be thinking about the earlier invasion. “However… who is going to be in charge of choosing whose sacrifice was worth honoring?”
I looked at Accalia, who seemed to flinch back. “Don’t worry, it’s not you. I’ve already put enough on your plate choosing the domains of those that ascend through the three-step method. Instead… I know the perfect person for this job. In my opinion, it’s the only real choice, as only they could judge whose sacrifice brought meaningful change while preserving the individual’s identity.”
After I said that, I turned towards the individual in mind. “Terra… would you be willing to do this task for me? You are not interfering in the functions of the world directly, and your changes would be limited solely to the Admin Room. With this in mind, I do not believe that the system would stop you from doing so.”
Terra’s eyes went wide when she realized that I was talking about her, her ears standing up straight in alarm. Because of her restrictions as a System Companion, her interactions with the world had been highly limited from the very beginning. The more we learned how to take care of things ourselves, the less she found herself needing, or even able to do. Most of her time was spent simply lounging while watching the world like the biggest soap opera imaginable.
“You… want me to handle it?” She asked, to which I nodded my head.
“Is there any reason for the system to prevent it?” I responded, and she seemed to seriously consider the question. “I would allocate you a budget, exclusively for this purpose. When you identify someone you deem worthy committing such a sacrifice, you will use your ability to reproduce their personality as a Companion, and assign them a place to live in the Admin Room. If they are a god or a fallen, you will provide them with their domains they had in life.”
“I… I don’t think so.” Terra shook her head, a wide smile forming on her face. “If you’re sure that this is something that you want me to do, I’d be more than happy to.”
I nodded my head, handing Lyra’s profile book back to Terra. “In that case…” I smiled, stepping aside and mentally assigning her a budget of twenty thousand points while defining the restrictions of using those points within the system. That should be more than enough to last her for quite a while.
Terra held the book, seeming more nervous than I had seen her in quite a while. After she calmed herself, she focused, the book shattering. As it did, an elven figure took shape in front of her, her silver hair a close match for Leowynn’s. She wore tight leather armor, and had her eyes closed, as if embracing the death that she had previously suffered.
It was a full thirty seconds before her eyes slowly opened, looking around. At this point, Leowynn’s shoulders were trembling, and she quickly walked over to wrap her arms around Lyra’s shoulders. “Welcome back.” She said in a soft tone.
“Eh?” Lyra bllinked. “What happened? Didn’t I die to…” Her eyes widened, quickly closing her mouth.
“It’s fine.” I spoke up, hands behind my back and a smile on my face. “He’s already dead. The battle was won, thanks to your sacrifice.”
Terra nodded her head, clearing her throat and speaking in a more official tone. “Thanks to that very sacrifice, we have taken it upon ourselves to offer you a place in this eternity. This is the realm where the Greater Pantheon resides, and you are the third mortal to ever reach it. As with others here, you shall have the ability to be reborn in the mortal realm, living a new life and regaining your old powers.”
“If you reject this, I’m going to be very disappointed.” Leowynn said quietly, causing my lips to tug up.
“Huh?” Lyra blinked rapidly again. “I… uh… well, I accept? I don’t know what else to say here. What do I say here?!”
Seeing her fall into a state of near panic, Leowynn, Aurivy, and the others let out a light laugh, Leowynn wiping her face. “You say that you accept.” She said simply. “Now… let’s get you a house. There’s not much to see here yet, but that should be changing over time.”
Lyra nodded slowly, still having clear trouble processing what had happened. Leowynn grabbed her by the hand, turning to lead her out the door. Once they were gone, I turned to look at the others. “Obviously, Lyra will be helping Leowynn with the void as we discussed before. If any of you take an interest in the future residents that Terra brings us, you may recruit them into your individual teams for whatever purpose you feel that they are suitable for.”
Several of the gods around the room perked up at that, causing me to chuckle. “If they’re going to be here, and you need people anyways, there is no reason not to ask them for help. Isn’t that right?”
“I won’t say no to extra hands if we get more people with travel-related domains in the future.” Aurivy grinned, nodding her head excitedly.
