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Chapter 866: Story Of The Stars

After their moment of relaxation, there was simply silence. Ashley sat back in the chair she had been seated in, typing out a command on the console. “There… I’ve set it to automatic mode. Once we leave, it’ll start its passive collection of energy, and automatically target any threats that the people of Sanctum recognize. I doubt it will have much use, but… it’s here if we need it.”

“That, and Sanctum has needed a moon for a long time.” Kiria said with a smile. “The nights are a bit empty without one.”

“Sanctum could do with a bit more than this.” Aurivy said, pursing her lips. “It’s meant to be a sanctuary for the gods, an inviolable paradise. Today, that paradise was almost destroyed by something that didn’t even have a mind of its own. Imagine if that planet had really been capable of thought, how much harder that would be. Even as it was, we only barely made it in time.”

“What are you suggesting?” Ashley asked, raising her brow.

“I want to make Sanctum un-trackable.” She said simply, Keliope’s eyes lighting up.

“Did you finally manage to finish your Nowhere research?”

However, Aurivy shook her head. “Yes and no. I’ve figured out how to do it, but I need Leowynn’s help to achieve it. For now, Leo, let’s just stop Sanctum here. It’ll be best if the place is stationary while we do this.”

Leowynn blinked, but nodded her head, working with Aurivy to cancel out the momentum of Sanctum’s system without sending everything careening off in all directions. “What do you need me to do?” She asked curiously, but Aurivy simply chuckled.

“I need your Star and Void domains. If I’m doing this, it has to be done as a trinity. I’m going to surround this entire solar system with a power similar to Nothing that I’ve been studying. The problem is that Nothing requires access to the void, and divine powers don’t mix well with void. That’s why I haven’t been able to do this until now, because I was waiting for a Fallen God of Travel to appear. Sadly, I haven’t spotted one until now.”

“If you’re doing this with my abilities, won’t you still face that issue?” Leowynn asked in confusion, but Aurivy shook her head again.

“I don’t want you to really use the void. I’m going to use your Void domain to allow this divine power to take on properties reminiscent of a void power. Imagine what they just did to make this place. I need you to channel the power of your domains to me with complete faith, and allow me to control them. If you resist or try to alter the pattern… well, Sanctum’s star will likely explode, so please don’t?” She gave a somewhere awkward smile as she made that request, but Leowynn simply chuckled.

“So, I just need to trust you?” She asked as if it were simple. “Let’s get started, then. After all, you were the one who first went forward to avenge me when I died last time. I have complete faith that you can do what you say.”

Aurivy’s eyes widened briefly, before growing slightly misty. “Alright… let’s go. We have to do this from the star.” She said, golden mist wrapping around the bodies of the two goddesses and transporting them to the surface of the divine star.

Normal matter would be reduced to nothing upon coming this close to the celestial body, but the two deities seemed to be perfectly fine. Aurivy simply closed her eyes, waiting for Leowynn. As soon as she felt the two domains flooding into her with Leowynn’s divinity, she focused on the more than decade of research that she had done.

A place that can’t be found, save by those who know where it is. Within this realm, all is lost. Upon this earth, naught is found. A land of unknowns, a location that cannot be. Deep within this starry sky, the sanctuary of those lost souls shall come to rest. Only knowledge can clear doubt, only fact can prove belief. With this star as the heart, I declare this system as Nowhere.

Aurivy’s words seemed to radiate out from the star, touching the minds of all of those on Sanctum. From now on, Sanctum will be almost unreachable without the command I built previously. Even if you know its location, a portal cannot open to a place the world does not recognize.

The only other way to find Sanctum is to manually fly here from at least one light year away, while having witnessed Sanctum before with your own eyes. If you bring someone who has never been here, they will simply pass through the area, having no knowledge that there was anything here.

Naturally, Aurivy knew that there would be other ways around her barrier, but this was an additional layer of defense that only she could provide. There were bound to be void powers that could see through her little ruse, or special technologies that could detect unique energies. Those concerns were for far in the future, when both them and their enemies had progressed in power.

For now, an intangible field wrapped around the star system. For monsters or those that had never been to Sanctum, the space simply became empty. Anyone that had been there before, however, would see the Blood Moon, Sanctum, and its new star. This was the solar system that Aurivy had just named, Nowhere.

It had been weeks now since I sent Hanya and Geoff off to fight against BloodBrother. Given that Aerial told me it only took less than a week for every star in one realm to be infected, I assumed that this meant that BloodBrother either had more systems that made them hunt him down, or he had some resistance that we didn’t know about.

Either way, the fact that the invasion hadn’t been lost yet meant that the two were still alive and fighting. Moreover, I had already looked at the next opponent I had. Once again, the random deities of the system determined that I would be on the offensive. However, this time my target was someone I was already familiar with. Which is amusing, because the last time I saw him, he literally killed me.

MissTery was a peaceful Keeper that I had battled in a tournament long ago, back when I was only a first Rank Keeper. He had shown me a technique at the time that allowed him to collapse the space around me, similar to the upper limit of third-tier ki. More importantly, he had done all of this with the power of a first Rank Keeper, purely using his immense experience.

I could easily perform the same trick with my current power, but if you were to put me back in the body I used for that battle, I do not think that would be the case. In terms of raw skill and creating his own techniques, I had no doubt that he was far ahead of me. That’s why it wasn’t really a surprise to find that he was in the same tier that I was now.

Given the fact that he hadn’t contacted me about a trade, I found it unlikely that he would do so before it was time to send my forces. Regardless, I had no desire to wage an all-out battle with him, as he wasn’t really a bad guy.

As I was thinking about this, a message suddenly appeared in front of me, causing me to jolt upright.

“I’ll be back soon.” I said aloud, knowing that Tsubaki’s silver avatars would hear me. After saying so, I transported myself to the Admin Room. Once there, I saw Aurivy and a few others huddled in the living room, looking incredibly relieved.

“You already heard?” I asked in surprise, seeing how they seemed to be aware of the situation. However, they just looked over at me in confusion. “Okay… what happened?”

“No no, you first.” Accalia spoke up, holding her hand to stop me. “Our situation’s dealt with. What’s up?”

“Geoff and Hanya just won.” I told them, the gathered deities opening their eyes wide at the news. “Now it’s your turn. What happened?”

“A giant god-planet almost ate Sanctum. What do you mean ‘won’? BloodBrother’s gone? We did it?” Aurivy asked in shock. Clearly, she thought our chances were still rather slim.

“That’s right. What do you mean Sanctum almost got eaten?”

Keliope chuckled at our exchange, looking at the two of us. “Are you going to keep this up, or just stick with one topic at a time?”

“You first.” Aurivy and I said to each other at the same time, though Aurivy simply groaned and gave in. “There was this really big planet-thing that became a god because relic, and it tried to eat Sanctum. We made an orbital defense moon, yes that type, and I covered Sanctum in nothing to protect it.”

Thankfully, I was at least vaguely aware of what Aurivy meant by nothing, having spoken to her about it in the past. “Okay… why did nobody call me when this was happening?”

Accalia gave a somewhat bitter smile. “Because we had to destroy it all at once, or else it would just get stronger. And if we couldn’t do it, and you were there, it would likely have become too much for you to handle. It would have locked onto you and pursued you throughout the universe until it devoured you. How would the system even judge that battle? And yes, you could have come to the Admin Room, but your host would have been lost, as well as all of the things attached to it.”

That… earned a small grunt of acknowledgement. If my World Host died, I would lose my Illusion domain, Clover Kyr would disappear, and I would likely lose access to my shadow version of Earth. There was a lot for me to lose if that happened. “So? Spill, it’s your turn.” Aurivy pressed, and I nodded my head.

“I just got the message. We received nearly thirty thousand points and eight worlds, all of which I plan to reset after I get a look at what’s happened.” As I said that, I walked over to join them on the couch, a very energetic Scarlet moving to sit beside me. Given how proud she looked, I could tell that she played a part in saving Sanctum. I couldn’t help but rub the top of her head in appreciation while turning on the television, having it look at one of the eight worlds.

As expected, the stars had… changed. Visibly, they appeared to be quivering masses of plasma that pulsed erratically. Some of them had gone pitch black in one world, while in another they had turned into… I couldn’t even say. All of the light generated from the stars seemed to become a fleshy monstrosity that filled the entire galaxy as one giant organism that was slowly collapsing under its own mass and reforming.

I scanned through the eight worlds, and even the void that I had gotten from him, trying to find Hanya and Geoff. That was when I felt a hand on my shoulder. Looking back, I saw Terra shaking her head. “Check the world history.” She said softly, and I did so.

“We can’t keep this up.” Hanya insisted, looking at Geoff. “You’re already infected, aren’t you?”

Her power had been working nonstop to keep the two of them protected, updating her list of immunities any time she saw a new infection. However, this world was very chaotic with its pathogens, many void beasts even evolving around them. Some of them were incredibly persistent, even resisting the power of her immunity if she didn’t get to it immediately.

Geoff held his arm, concealing the green mass the was spreading under his sleeve. “It’s fine… there’s just one world left. Once we take care of this, he’ll have nowhere left to hide.” He put a forced smile on his face as he said that, looking at the elven girl with him. “We knew this could happen when we signed up.”

“Yes, but--” She was cut off by a pained groan that escaped his lips, and immediately moved to wrap her arms around him. “Can you do it..?”

“I’ll do one better…” Geoff whispered. “I’ve been thinking… if we die, and the Keeper here isn’t dead, it’s all for nothing. So… I’m going to make sure I don’t. Not fully… when I set up the next death star, I’m going to merge my consciousness with it, fusing myself into the script. This way, I shouldn’t count as dead unless the infection is purged.”

Hanya’s eyes went wide, tears flowing freely down her cheeks. “But… but then I’ll be left alone. Please… isn’t there another way?”

Geoff shook his head, slowly pulling up his sleeve. “I’ve been fighting it for a few hours now, and your power hasn’t stopped it.” His arm was practically writhing beneath the sleeve, bulbous masses forming and deflating by the moment. “When I cut off the infected energy, it just appeared somewhere else. I figure I have a few more hours before it consumes this body. The only thing left that I can do is ensure that we didn’t come here for nothing.”

“Then… then take me with you.” Hanya pleaded. “If you’re doing this, I want to be with you for it. We’re going to spend our lives together, right? Don’t you go running off without me now that we’ve come this far.”

Geoff looked like he wanted to argue, but he knew it was pointless. They had been told that whether they succeed or not, there was no coming back for them. Besides, the look in Hanya’s face made him realize that she didn’t want to live alone in this empty void, that she didn’t want to live in it without him.

“Okay… then we do this together.” He said, holding her hand with his still-good hand. Hanya smiled through her tears, and the two of them left for the last world. At this point, it was already surrounded by void beasts and fallen gods, but they had been prepared. Hanya focused, making the two of them ‘immune’ to the perceptions of others. This was the only reason that they had been able to last this long.

Unlike their Keeper’s prediction, there were a large number of Fallen Gods within the seven worlds they had faced so far. Hanya didn’t know the reason, but not all of them appeared to be monstrous in nature. She only knew that they were all enemies here.

The two of them passed through the blockade, and Geoff chose a random star to transfer them to. Once they were there, they could already feel void fluctuations around them, the Fallen Gods having sensed the disturbance and were trying to track them. “We don’t have long, Geoff… do it.”

Geoff gave a weak, sad smile, nodding his head and bringing a hand up to caress Hanya’s cheek. “The rest of our lives, we shall be as the stars in the sky, brilliant and beautiful, and bringing our wrath upon the world that pushed us to this point.”

Hanya chuckled, pressing her wet cheek against Geoff’s hand. She could feel his power flowing into her, but she accepted it without the slightest resistance, infection and all. As her body broke down with his, turning into countless motes of dust, she knew that the infection didn’t matter anymore. She was with the man she had chosen to live and die with, and that was all that mattered to her.