I couldn’t help but be shocked as I saw Terra’s incarnation dismantling the powers of the enemy gods and Origins. Unlike those at the scene, I had the ability to analyze her power on a deeper level, which led me to turn to look at Terra. “She’s a life story?” I asked in surprise, but Terra quickly shook her head.

    “No no no! Not quite like that!” She hurriedly explained. “It’s sort of similar, but no. It’s her diary back in Olympus. It functions sort of like a phylactery, I suppose? She bound her fate to it, so she won’t be killed unless something happens to the phylactery, or her connection to is is severed.”

    “It just makes it look like the life story because of how it keeps her alive. And technically, her essence is in the diary, but her conscious mind is still within her body. It’s not like the life story where she would be unable to grow or relied on the recognition of others.”

    I let out a small sigh of relief at that. “That’s good to know. Though, I’m surprised that it was Lena and Tsubaki that went to handle the fight with Sanction.” I knew that the two of them were top assassins, but they were also the only two on the team that weren’t Origins.

    “That’s probably because of the void scrambler.” Terra said in a casual tone, flicking her wrist. My view through the screen changed to show a machine at the base of the tower, surrounded by an army of screaming souls. “A rather ingenious piece of tech, though incredibly cruel in its execution. It harvests the chaotic energy of tortured souls to scramble the information within his tower. This effectively renders Origins powerless inside the tower.”

    “...So when the monarch talked about the people who fought us last time being captured and trapped under the admin tower..?” I asked, and Terra nodded her head.

    “Looks like it. They should be in there, if their souls haven’t already been broken. It looks like it has been a really long time in this world since that invasion took place, so I wouldn’t be surprised at all if they had perished long ago.” She answered, and at the same time the door nearby opened.

    Tsubaki and Lena walked through the door, both of them looking incredibly relieved to be back. I turned to face them, a smile on my face. “Welcome back, you two.” I said, and they nodded their heads.

    “Thank you, my Keeper.” Tsubaki spoke in her ever-polite tone. “Are the others okay?”

    “Don’t worry.” Terra assured her. “My incarnation went to retrieve them. They’ll be back to Olympus momentarily. You should focus on recovering your energy. Your battle isn’t over yet.”

    When Tsubaki heard that, her expression hardened. “How many rebel forces will we need to deal with?”

    Terra hummed a thoughtful tone, crossing her arms in front of herself. “It’s hard to say exactly. However, right now, it certainly looks like a lot of the higher tiers of power in the world are treating this as an advanced dungeon outbreak. Sanction never spread the knowledge that the death of the Keeper would lead to the destruction of the world.”

    “What?” I looked at Terra in surprise. “Why wouldn’t he tell people that? That seems like something that would only benefit himself if people knew.”

    “Probably because of what’s happening now.” Terra smiled slyly. “The one situation where a Keeper’s death does not result in the world’s destruction, when it happens during an invasion. If he let people know about the reset, they would question this fact every time they destroyed an enemy Keeper. Given how he’s running things, there would probably be quite a few people that would believe that they could gain control of the main universe by killing him, just as they did with their dungeons.”

    “Now that their own world has been conquered like those dungeons, they will naturally have their disagreements. In the near future, there will be a few who actively seek you out in an attempt to ‘retake’ their world for themselves, or even simply hope to gain it all for themselves.”

    Though she said that, there was a small smile on Terra’s face. “You’ll need to handle this carefully. If you do it well, you could get some unexpected rewards...”

    “What do you mean?” I asked, curious about these rewards. However, Terra simply shook her head.

    “That’s all I can say. You’ll need to figure the rest of it out on your own.”

    My brow twitched, but I nodded my head. The fact that she wasn’t speaking likely meant that it was a restriction from the system itself. It had been a while since she had been stopped from talking like that, but I wasn’t unused to it. Turning my head to Tsubaki, I offered a small nod. “Your report, then.”

    Tsubaki immediately dropped to one knee, with both bodies of Lena doing the same behind her. “My Keeper. As you have commanded, we eliminated the hostile Keeper, Sanction. We have also secured the allegiance of the World Tree Guild, as well as three other guilds that have been suppressed because of their origins.”

    “I am unaware how much time has passed on this side, as we discovered that there was, in fact, a time distortion within the Administrator’s Tower. On our side, twenty-three days have passed. We were beginning to worry that we were taking too long, and would soon run out of time.”

    If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    I blinked, looking down at the kitsune trio. “What took you so long?” I asked curiously. “I mean, I know that assassinating Sanction must not have been an easy task, but with your skills, as well as all of the others involved, I can’t imagine it taking that long.”

    “I can answer that.” The Lena on the right said, lifting her head. “It was my suggestion that led to the delayed completion of the mission, sir. After analyzing the information of Sanction’s power structure from the World Tree Guild, I made the decision that it was paramount for us to undertake a secondary mission before assassinating the Keeper.”

    “There were three targets, each of which had to be destroyed, otherwise there would have been substantial losses upon our return. These were the Origins of Security, Games, and Plants. Sanction’s Origin development has far exceeded our own, and there is no doubt that they would have emerged victorious in a clash between inner universes. If we didn’t take action first, we would have lost Blank, Chelsea, and Julia upon completion of the mission.”

    After saying that, Lena lowered her head again. “I apologize for setting aside the mission for this matter, but I had reason to believe that the time distortion within the tower would not be fast enough to pose an immediate danger.”

    My brow furrowed, and I looked to Lena. “How could you have known that?” I asked. I wasn’t angry, just concerned. It wasn’t like Lena to go off track like that during a mission. And Tsubaki would certainly not have followed along without good reason.

    “I looked through the historical records.” Lena explained. “Sanction was very procedural when it came to his management of his world, as if he had worked it out long before. Ever since his world advanced to the fifth rank, he has made a one century time skip every standard month, whether he was attacking, defending, or even if he had a pass.”

    “This can be seen by looking through history, at the timing of significant dungeon breaks, or the special ‘mythic dungeons’. There were naturally some red herrings mixed in, but I analyzed the data and discovered that the most suspicious dungeons and dungeon breaks all happened almost in exactly one hundred year intervals.”

    “Using this information as the foundation for my search, I looked at the duration of each invasion. The longest defensive battle, which was not followed by a skip the next year, lasted exactly forty-one days. This gave me the clue that the time dilation could not exceed three times speed. Moreover, the speed could not actively be controlled by Sanction. This was all information that the monarch wasn’t aware of at the time, and so it was not included in the simulation that we trained in.”

    “Once I realized this information, I brought it to the attention of the others. Although it would be cutting it close, we still had the leeway to kill three Origins before making our move on the primary target.”

    I listened to Lena’s explanation, nodding my head slowly. After which, I let out a sigh. “That was a dangerous gamble, Lena. If you had been wrong, you would all already be dead by now.”

    Despite Lena’s head still being lowered, I could make out the traces of a smile on her face. “I’m aware, sir. Thank you for your concern. However, I did not believe that our side could withstand the loss of three of our most powerful Origins upon our return. Although I understood the risk, I believed the information was appropriately credible.”

    “Alright... I won’t blame you for this. I couldn’t if I wanted to, anyways. We don’t really have the leeway right now. Things haven’t been smooth sailing since you all left.” Tsubaki and both Lena’s abruptly lifted their heads at my words. “After you dismantled any potential criminal threat to universal security prior to leaving, giant monsters began appearing, capable of eradicating planets in the blink of an eye. Lifre’s theory is that this is the system imposing a challenge on us, due to us having overcome all manners of conventional struggle.”

    Lena’s eyes widened in shock, her mouth hanging open. “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize it would cause something like that...”

    “It’s fine. Nobody could have predicted this.” I shook my head. “We don’t know how the system works, and you were just doing what you did for the sake of everyone. However, between that problem, and the current rebellious forces that have been brought over from Sanction’s realm, we’re now fighting on two fronts. Worse, each battle requires our top-tier combat prowess. Lifre was handling it well enough for a little while after she ascended to become an Origin, but there’s too much for her to do alone.”

    Tsubaki’s eyes widened a fraction at this news. “Lifre became an Origin?” She asked, a gleam shining in her eyes. “Does this mean that there was a breakthrough in the development of ascending with multiple domains?”

    I looked at Tsubaki, hesitating briefly how to explain, before ultimately deciding to tell the truth. “Sort of. It’s more to do with Lifre’s special characteristics. In order for her to ascend, she perfectly split herself into three parts, with each body containing one divine domain and one saint energy. Then, she simultaneously advanced all three to Origin status at the same time, while manually constructing her own internal world, before the three bodies merged into one.”

    Tsubaki nodded her head thoughtfully as she listened to this. Clearly, she was interested in giving it a try as well, and I could understand why. Lifre copied the process from memory, using her unique traits as a slime. Still, without the total affinity for mana, that would have been impossible. Tsubaki, meanwhile, had a total affinity for all four basic energies. It might be difficult for her to split her divinity and saint energies perfectly, but Lifre had already paved the way for her to try.

    “I understand. Is there anything else that we need to know, before more battles break out?” Tsubaki asked, and I turned to look at Terra.

    “I should be asking you this. What status did Sanction’s companions have in his world? Are there any that we can revive on our side to help quell the chaos?”

    Terra had a somewhat bitter smile on her face as she shook her head. “Sanction was somewhat like your previous Keeper in that aspect. His companions managed the world in its early stages, but after that he took all of the power for himself. He trusted entirely in the system that he created to manage the world once it was in a stable state.”

    I clicked my tongue upon hearing that. If there were respected ‘managers’ from Sanction’s realm that we could bring in, it would have been at least a little help towards quelling the inevitable chaos. “Right... Tsubaki, Lena, you two focus on recovery. I’ve got Chelsea and Lifre on defense for now, and the other Origins will be joining them soon. The two of you can’t recover your energy as quickly as them, so be sure to get back to top form.”

    “Yes, my Keeper.” Tsubaki nodded her head, before turning to look at Aurivy. “Would you mind teleporting us back to Olympus when we leave? After we leave the Administration Room, we should appear in Sanction’s tower again, since that is where we left from.”

    Aurivy nodded her head firmly. “Don’t worry, leave that to me.”