The kitsune goddess was surprised by the sudden question, and didn’t seem to know who to go to for advice. She alternated between looking at Aurivy, Terra, even more or Tryval. Though, I could see why Aurivy was doing this. For this entire time, Terra’s been her unofficial sister. Now, a real sister for Terra showed up. And not just one, but three of them! Even if she herself had been one of the ones to suggest it, I’m sure that Aurivy couldn’t avoid being afraid that she would be abandoned from the little family they were creating.
After a little while, Udona let out a soft sigh, seemingly able to read the mood from looking at Terra. Kneeling down, she put herself at eye level with Aurivy, and did her best to give a soft smile. “Okay… we can be sisters, too. But… give me some time, okay? This is all just so much.”
Aurivy nodded, a smile breaking out on her face as well. Without saying anything, she walked over to my right side, grabbing my hand and holding it gently. The next to arrive was Bihena, who looked around the gathered audience. Her gaze stopped on the kitsune goddess with some surprise, but she chose not to say anything that might frighten her. Instead, she gave a simple greeting as she went to stand between Tryval and Terra.
After Bihena, Irena appeared, stepping through the doorway. Her expression seemed to have improved slightly since I saw her, and she gave me a slight smile and a nod. While Aurivy was on my right, Irena went to stand at my left. Although she didn’t grab my hand like the halfling goddess, her wing flexed slightly, the lower feathers rubbing my back. Honestly, the feeling sent shivers down my spine. Not bad shivers… just the kind of shivers you normally get one someone runs a finger down your spine.
Finally, the last two arrived. Ryone and Tubrock walked in together, excitedly talking. I wasn’t able to make out the exact topic of their discussion because they stopped talking as soon as they noticed they had arrived. But, if I had to guess, they were talking about enchanted weapons and artifacts.
“Finally the last one, huh?” Ryone asked with a grin. She looked at Terra and Udona standing together, and her smile faltered for a moment. Then, she moved to stand next to Aurivy. “Is she alright to be out here?” Ryone asked me in a voice barely above a whisper.
I could only nod in response. “This was her request.”
“Really?” Tubrock spoke up, moving to stand between Ryone and Tryval. “Lass didn’t strike me as the type to be making requests of people so quickly. Maybe Terra had an impact on her after all.” He nodded to himself, obviously deciding on his own that his assumption was correct.
“Can we begin now?” Udona asked, looking at me hesitantly.
“Right.” I closed my eyes, focusing as I called up both Accalia and Keliope from the ‘storage room’. I guess from now on, we’ll be able to use that room to store artifacts or something. Anyways, soon the two of them appeared in front of us, standing like motionless puppets on the stage.
Udona covered her mouth with a gasp as she saw them, and I could see her eyes watering. Rather than being happy to see them, she appeared hurt by their current state. Accalia was slim, just a few inches under six foot. Her hair was black and unkempt, going all the way down to the small of her back. Her chest was modest, small enough that it would not interfere with her movements. Just below the bottom of her hair was a bushy tail that came out from her lower back, hanging limply behind her legs. Finally, atop her head were a pair of long, floppy ears that hung off of either side of her skull. For her outfit, she was dressed in a black shirt that hung over her body loosely, and matching pants that seemed to be held up by magic and fairy dust.
Keliope, on the other hand, was practically a toned amazon! Her body was firm, yet slim, standing even a bit taller than me. Her chest was much larger than Accalia’s, and contained within a tight leather armor. Like the lycan goddess, her hair was black, but it was much shorter, only going to her shoulders. The only obvious characteristic that Keliope had to distinguish her from a human were the small, semi-circular ears atop her head. I knew that she also had a tiny black tail at the base of her back, but with her armor on that was almost impossible to determine.
Holding my hand out, I called the notes Terra had made to myself. Carefully, I entered the information from the pages into the system for how to grant these two their personalities. Afraid that I’d mess something up, I made sure to include every detail, repeatedly going back and making sure that I didn’t miss anything.
The entire process took over ten minutes to complete, by which point Udona had her head buried in Terra’s shoulder, unable to watch her sisters standing on the stage. Once I confirmed the purchase of the two personalities, forty points vanished from the balance. At this point, the familiar golden light descended from the ceiling, seeming to mix with the ambient lighting I had set up to make the entire stage appear to glow.
This glow easily attracted Udona’s attention. Looking up, she watched as her sisters slowly opened their eyes for the first time. Accalia’s hazel eyes and Keliope’s deep blue eyes shook slightly as they looked around the room. For some reason, the light that normally took a while to finish on a single goddess only took a moment to completely awaken the two of them.
I was worried that something had gone wrong, that they might freak out. Or that how their ages were set would cause them to regress to being children. Thankfully, none of that happened. Once they had looked around to see everyone gathered, their eyes landed on Udona and Terra.
Keliope was the first to act, jumping down from the stage in a single motion to appear before the other beastkin goddesses. “Udona? Are you okay?” She saw the teary-eyed kitsune, and asked in a worried voice. “Are you hurt somewhere?”
Accalia saw what was going on and quickly ran down the stairs to stand next to the ursa goddess, inspecting Udona. However, before she could say anything, Udona spoke up with a somewhat broken voice. “N-no. I’m just… really happy. I finally get to be with everyone.”
Saying that, she threw open her arms, wrapping one around each of the girls, and finally broke down. Her sobs loudly echoed through the large room, making the rest of the audience feel awkward for seeing this moment. Accalia began patting Udona on the back gently, trying to comfort her. “It’s okay, Udona. We’re here. We’re all here together now. But, uhm… could we maybe do this somewhere else? I think we’re attracting a bit of attention.” She smiled bitterly, looking around at the different people trying their hardest not to pay attention to the reunion.
Udona sniffled, nodding her head. “O-okay… can we go to my room? I just… want to stay with you guys for a little bit. Is that alright?” The two new goddesses quickly nodded their heads, as if looking for some excuse to get out of the room. Seeing that, Udona’s lips curled up in a slight smile. Looking back, she asked Terra. “Can you join us later? I’d… like us to all be together for a little while. I understand if you can’t right away…”
“I’ll be there soon, sis.” Terra said, a warm, gentle smile on her face as she looked to the kitsune goddess.
There was a coughing noise, and I turned to see a rather embarrassed looking Tryval slowly backing up to the door. As soon as he saw me, as if afraid I would ask him to stay behind after that touching scene, he vanished into thin air. This caused a small laugh to rise up through the rest of the gods, even Udona finding it amusing. The three beastkin sisters walked out the door, sharing a small smile as Keliope and Accalia each held one of Udona’s hands.
“Well, I think the show’s over.” Ryone said with a knowing smile. “Time for us to get back to work. Though, it is nice to know that we are all awake now.” After she said that, she walked to the doorway, Tubrock following shortly behind her.
“Ah, lass! Wait for me!” He called out desperately, not wanting to be left behind.
Bihena simply shook her head with a small smile. Looking to Terra, she spoke up before excusing herself. “If you get the time, I’d like you to show me some of those martial arts. I’ll probably be in my room if you need me.” And with that, she too left
, leaving only myself, Aurivy, Terra, and Irena.
Terra gave a nod to Bihena, before turning to Irena. “You should talk with him.” She gave a glance towards me, obviously pointing out who she needed to chat with. “You don’t have to spend all of your time in the Underworld, you know?” After saying that, she walked off, heading towards the same direction that the other beastkin goddesses left in.
Irena smiled bitterly, noticing my gaze had shifted to her. “It’s… Okay, let me explain. It’s not as bad as you think.” Well, that certainly made me think it was even worse. I was a bit unsure of what she needed to talk to me about so much that she didn’t feel like she could say when I visited her, but I guess I was about to find out.
Chapter 61
“Listen, it really isn’t as bad as you are thinking.” Irena said with an awkward smile while I quickly set the living room back to the way it used to be. “It’s honestly a little embarrassing that Terra brought it up. But, well, I can’t think of anything else she could be talking about.” It was honestly refreshing to see the normally businesslike Irena flustered like this.
Once a couch existed in the room, she immediately went over to sit on it, and I sat down next to her, causing her to direct a soft smile at me. Naturally, Aurivy decided to sit in my lap, leaning her back against me and closing her eyes. I wasn’t sure how, but she managed to fall asleep like that almost immediately.“You know how most of the gods live in the Admin Room, but I don’t, right?”
I gave a brief nod at Irena’s question. “Yeah, because you need to be in the afterlife in order to properly manage things, right?”
“Right…” Irena agreed. “However, there are certain problems that come up with doing so. Problems that the people in the Admin Room don’t really need to face.” Seeing the confused expression on my face, she continued explaining. “Primarily, the passage of time. From my understanding, the gods here split a portion of their consciousness in order to track the prayers and events of the world in real time, so that they aren’t strained too much when you fast forward. But me…”
Suddenly, it hit me. “You’re not in the Admin Room… So you don’t fast forward with the rest of us…?”
Irena nodded her head. “Right… I’ve been going by the world’s time since the Underworld was created. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not bad or anything!” She waved her hand quickly, as if to dismiss that notion. “It’s a bit lonely at times, but I’m kept pretty busy, you know?”
I couldn’t help but sigh when I heard that, reaching over and patting her hand on the couch gently. “You know, you could have told me sooner. We can work out a way for you to stay in the Admin Room without causing the work to stop in the Underworld… can’t we?”
Irena gave a bitter smile when I asked that. “I’ve thought about it a bunch, believe me. I was actually planning to tell you all about this later, after I settled the faction issue. I’ve got a plan, I think.”
I raised an eyebrow at that ‘I think’... “Explain, please.”
She nodded obediently, and began telling me the plan. “I want to create an illusion. A great castle in the sky of the Underworld, where I will ‘live’. At least, that’s what everyone will think. At the same time, I’ll set up a system for someone to take over the day to day jobs in the Underworld, so I can come live here. But, there are some requirements before this plan can be put in place.”
Irena took a deep breath, returning to her typical business mode. “First, the Underworld has to be united. We can’t be on the brink of a civil war when I install what is essentially a new system of government. Second, we need to have enough patrols to regularly monitor the living world and prevent an overflow. If I am staying in the Admin Room, then I can’t hop down to the world every day to collect souls during a fast forward.”
“The second part of that we have just about covered, as long as we play it right. By my estimation, a soul should have no problem staying a week or so in the living world before it is brought over. Even a newborn’s soul could last that long. So, after the civil disputes are settled, I am going to set up a program to patrol the world in shifts. Every day, one of two groups will patrol a section of the world, and then spend the next day resting while the other group patrols the other section. Like this, it’ll be pretty thin coverage for the first few years, but will steadily grow as the population increases.”
Hearing that Irena already had a plan to address the issue, my worries were relieved, for the most part. “Well, now I kinda feel like a jerk for only visiting you twice in over all those years.” I said with a self-deprecating smile.
“No, not at all.” Irena shook her head. “You had a lot on your own plate, and were realistically unable to visit me more than you had. Due to the advancement of the world, there was a need for skipping ahead. Honestly, I believe we are due for another one. It would help greatly if the world was able to advance further than it already had.”
I gave a nod to that. I had been planning to do a fast forward for a little bit now, but I wanted to get these things out of the way first. “By the way, on the topic of putting someone in charge of the Underworld… Why aren’t the spirits able to become Priests?” It was something that I had noticed back when I first became a daeva, that my class levels for that class had not transferred. I could understand most of the other classes, but that one didn’t make so much sense.
Irena pursed her lips when I asked that. “It took me a little while to understand it as well. From what I believe, almost none of the classes gained in the living world can be taken to the afterlife directly. This is because the bodies and energies used in the afterlife are completely different than what they would when alive. Everything is handled with spiritual energy, rather than mana, or even their muscles.”
“When their entire body is essentially made of mist, they can’t apply the same muscle control techniques they had in the living world. Naturally, if they don’t have mana, then they can’t use that either. The same thing applies to Priests, and I am guessing Clerics. Priests use mana in order to channel the divine energy of a god. For Clerics… maybe spiritual energy isn’t compatible with raw divine energy. As for purely mental classes like Leader or Scholar… I’m not entirely sure what stops those from transferring. Maybe something about the brain itself?”
It did make sense to a degree. Ever since I made chakra, I knew that the base energies would often repel each other unless they were mixed in the proper amount. It would only be reasonable then, if raw divine energy and raw spiritual energy couldn’t coexist in the same body. Though, that made me wonder if there might be a mix that would allow that.
“I see. How long do you think that it will take to finish dealing with the factions?” I asked, believing it would be best if I set my fast forward to match her predictions. That way, she could move right into the Admin Room as soon as she was done getting stuff ready.
Irena sank into thought at my question, going silent for quite a while. “Thirty… no, give me fifty years. That should give me time to train the army, deal with the factions to a satisfactory degree, and then appoint an intermediary leader.”
I couldn’t help but wince when I imagined her living another fifty years alone. However, this fifty years was nothing compared to what she had already been through. And from what I could tell, just the talk of being able to live with the rest of us has brightened her mood, bringing her out of ‘business’ mode for a little while.
“Okay. You go take care of your business. I’ll set a room up for you so that you can move in once everything is taken care of. If you get done while the fast forward is still going through, feel free to go ahead and come in.” After I said that, Irena gave a small nod, slowly fading into mist. With her smile the last thing to disappear, it reminded me of a certain cat from a certain fairy tail.
“Well…” I spoke to Aurivy, still leaning back against my chest while sitting on my lap. “Are you actually asleep, or are you just having fun.” I couldn’t be sure, but I thought I saw her lip
s twitching when I asked that. Reaching up, I pinched her cheeks, causing her to immediately start flailing her arms. “Nobody sleeps that peacefully while people talk around them.”
“Heeey!” She cried out, tried to pull her head away from my hand. “That’s cheating, you know! You’re supposed to wake me up nice, right? Like gently shaking my shoulders, or telling me dinner is ready. Or even just carrying me back to bed. Why’d you have to go and ruin it like that?”
“What… are you even talking about?” In my confusion, my fingers loosened their hold of her cheek, letting her pull away from me. Quickly, she jumped forward to her feet in front of me, spinning around on one ankle before pointing a finger at me.
“It’s in the rules, the rules, you know!?” She held up her other hand, and a thick blue book materialized in it. On its cover, in big red letters, ‘Big Brother Rules’ was written. Quickly, she opened it up to the first page, which had a crudely drawn Aurivy sitting in an equally crudely drawn me’s lap.
Next to the picture was the words ‘Thou shalt not pinch the sleeping sister. Absolutely never, ever!’ As if this proved everything, she pointed at the line, and looked at me. “See, the rules!” Her head nodded heavily as she closed the book, causing it to vanish again.
“You’ve been spending a bit too much time watching anime, I think… Maybe I should have Terra cut you off for a while…” Although I said it under my breath, Aurivy’s eyes went wide in pure terror. She immediately lowered herself to her knees, wrapping her arms around my legs while looking up at me with watery eyes.
“No, please! Not that! I’ll be good! You don’t have any idea how boring it is with nothing to do but listen to prayers all the time. I need my anime, and my manga, and my movies, and my stuffed toys, and my tea set, and..” She began listing off, well… basically everything she had, and then some. I’m pretty sure some of the items she made up purely to list as things that she needed.
World Keeper: Birth of a World Page 46
