Within the void, Chelsea, Lifre, and Blank all stood not far from the world tree, facing the hundreds of universes that comprised Sanction’s former domain. In order to avoid attacking a potentially allied world, they had to disable the security system of the world tree’s vine, leaving just the three Origins as the first and only line of defense.

    Thankfully, they weren’t alone for long. Chelsea turned her head to the side lightly, nodding her head when she saw Dana leading the group of Origins back from Sanction’s realm. Welcome back. She greeted Dana mentally, who only nodded her head in response.

    What’s it looking like for defense? Dana asked, not sure what advancements this realm may have made during their absence.

    Against Origin-level threats? It’ll be difficult. We’ll have to rely on ourselves. From what I saw, you weren’t able to get an upper hand against Sanction’s Origins?

    Dana pursed her lips at that, but nodded her agreement. They have a greater understanding of Origins and world creation than we do. Thankfully, they haven’t assigned a new Master of Darkness yet, or we’d be in even more trouble.

    Chelsea nodded her head in understanding, before looking at Julia. How well can you use your apocalypse swords when you don’t have to worry about destroying the universe you’re in?

    Julia’s eyes widened a fraction at that, but she nodded her head afterwards. I should be able to create and control about fifty of them, before I start to sacrifice performance. Swordsmanship isn’t really my strong suit.

    Chelsea blinked, honestly impressed by that. Most people who hadn’t practiced swordsmanship would barely be able to control five without their control slipping. However, she remembered Julia’s history in gaming, and assumed that she must have practiced there. Good. That will be a solid deterrent.

    After Julia said that, she saw a familiar sight. Within the cluster of worlds, she could identify the forces belonging to the Thousand Eyes Guild. They were slower to act than they were during the invasion, likely because they were no longer battling without any real stakes. Still, they began to merge all of their void monsters together, forming the same giant eye creature that she had fought during the invasion.

    I’ve seen that before.

    Chelsea growled to herself, waving a hand. Behind her, a giant black wall appeared, blocking the eye monster’s line of sight from reaching the universes under their protection. With her other hand, she constructed thousands of black dots around the eye monster, and snapped her fingers. All at once, the black dots erupted into a blinding radiance.

    Dana’s eyes widened as she saw this burst of light, recognizing the memetic traces contained within. This light had a memetic effect to annihilate willpower when taken in large enough quantities.

    When the light faded, the giant monster was floating, its eyes dilated. Although it wasn’t dead, there was no purpose in its gaze. Its mind, and the minds of those that had been controlling it, had been directly erased.

    This should stop them from wasting their time making their other memetic monsters. Chelsea thought, transmitting those thoughts to the rest of the group. Now, it was just a matter of waiting for the Origins on the other side to decide to take to the stage.

    Now that I properly had Sanction’s worlds, I was able to get a better look at the systems that he had. Although I had the information from the forest monarch, that was far from the full picture. The exact systems, as well as any that were not known to the general public, were now listed in front of me.

    “How exactly did he manage to save the non-Origin fighters whenever he sent them on an invasion?” I asked, glancing at Terra who was sitting beside me. She smiled, flicking through the list to point at a system called ‘Reserve Forces’.

    “It’s this one. Really nasty system, honestly. Think of it like a more narrowly focused version of your Digital Conversion System. This system is a double-edged sword. First of all, it removes direct control of the invasion forces from the Keeper. They can no longer choose who to send or not send.”

    “Instead, there are registration methods, which can be indirectly controlled. Sanction tied it into the guild system. The only factors that he could control were the eligible guild levels and the number of guilds participating.”

    “Once a guild registered for the invasion, it was up to them to provide a payment to the system as the entrance fee. This fee was equal to the total forces that they would send, when converted into raw energy. This includes all of their combat troops, their civilians, and even the universes themselves. However, an Origin’s energy value can’t be calculated by this system, so they have no choice but to enter themselves.”

    “To make up for this, the guild system also has a system that generates ‘Dungeon Tickets’ based on an energy tax. Anyone registered as a member of the guild passively pays a portion of their energy recovery to this tax, and a ticket is generated when enough energy is collected. With the tax rates I’m seeing for most guilds, it takes... about one year to generate a single ticket, and they can only have a maximum of five.”

    “Finally, if a guild defeats a dungeon, the memories of what happened inside are granted to their originals, if they are still alive. Because of how this system works, Sanction also does not have the power to refund any worlds he wins. He sacrificed pretty much all of his control over invasions to create this workaround.”

    This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

    I nodded my head slightly at this. “In other words, they can only enter one dungeon a year, at most. What happened to the Five Nations Guild? I know that they lost their Origin, but their doomsday weapon should still pose a big threat to us.”

    Terra blinked, shaking her head. “I’m not seeing their universe anywhere. They may have been destroyed by lower ranked guilds after losing their leader.”

    Right, that makes sense... I gave a small nod at that. “Okay... get Ashley working on dismantling the Reserve Forces system. I don’t want anything like that attached to the worlds under my control. If possible, pause the creation of any of their world dungeons, as well. We don’t need more enemies appearing out of nowhere.”

    Terra chuckled at that. “Already done. As soon as Ashley noticed the system herself, she ordered her team to get to work.”

    “Good...” I smiled in relief, before a thought occurred to me. “Their skill system gave us a lot of problems originally. They were able to use special tokens to integrate other systems into their own, right? If that’s the case, how come they still haven’t gotten an evolutionary system to upgrade their bodies yet? Surely, that would make them stronger, right?”

    Terra shook her head. “Yes and no.” She explained patiently. “While it would make them a little stronger, the change would not be as drastic as you might imagine. What would be drastic is their increased need for food. Their food expenses would rise so much that it just wouldn’t be worth it. That’s why the only eccentric that did stuff like that was the Hermit, who didn’t need to worry about the benefits or negatives involved in acquiring systems.”

    “Right.” As I said that, I looked at the void, seeing that the Origins had not yet launched their attack. “I thought that they’d be fighting by now...”

    A light laugh came from Terra, who quickly smiled. “Oh, they will. But, they’re also scared. They don’t have as much information about us as we have about them. All that they know is that you were able to send in a pair of gods and kill their Administrator, and that a small handful of your Origins were able to hold them back long enough to seal the deal.”

    “After seeing my incarnation negate several of their attacks, none of the Origins want to be the first to charge in and bear the brunt of the enemy fire. Right now, they’re holding a Master Council to try to decide what to do.” She said, flicking a wrist towards the television, which turned on and displayed a large meeting room.

    Within a large meeting room, several anonymous figures gathered together, their bodies appearing as hazy, black figures. There was no method to distinguish one from another, aside from perhaps their habits when speaking.

    “We need to make a decision.” One of the figures spoke in a passive tone. “The new Administrator has yet to assume any direct power. Before he acts, we should decide whether we are going to fight or submit.”

    “Obviously, we must fight.” Another said firmly, slamming their fist against the table. “Three Masters died in the last month. If we don’t fight back, aren’t we just waiting for them to come and slaughter us?”

    “A show of force would create a deterrent from being too strict.” A third spoke up, leaning back. “However, it could also provoke a more fierce retaliation. We don’t know this Administrator’s stance yet.”

    The rest of the Masters gathered began to murmur to themselves. They were all aware of how Keepers worked, to one degree or another. There were certain truths that became visible as they delved into more and more dungeons. Because of this, they were aware of just how hands-off their own Administrator was.

    On the bright side, this gave them far more freedom to govern themselves. However, in doing so, they were less united. Each guild was its own sovereign territory, only interacting with other guilds as necessary. Few were willing to truly stand up and fight for the others.

    “I just heard that the Chaos Eye of the Thousand Eyes Guild was annihilated in an instant.” One figure announced, causing silence to fall over the room again. “In addition, the dark prestige controlling it all perished at the same time. Their bodies simply evaporated into smoke.”

    “So, they’re not completely unable to defend themselves.” Another figure grunted. Any of the masters here would be able to kill the Chaos Eye themselves, should it turn against them. The reason that they never did so was because there was no need to. “I’ve heard they’ve got their own void tree, and the World Tree twigs were helping in their attack. Has anyone gotten in touch with them?”

    One figure scoffed, clearly annoyed at the thought of speaking with the World Tree Guild. “They’re just a bunch of talking lumber. We don’t need to concern ourselves with them. According to my sources, the Myriad Beast Guild helped them from the shadows, too.”

    This earned an interested murmur from the crowd. Although the Myriad Beast Guild was also distinctly different from the Hal Tua natives, they were not as outcast. This was because the Myriad Beast Guild looked close enough that they could still match the native’s sense of beauty to a strong degree. Moreover, this group had produced its own master, the Master of Beasts.

    Everyone looked around, clearly waiting for the Master of Beasts to speak up and reveal herself. After a few moments, one of the hazy figures let out a sigh. “That’s correct. If you wish to turn against us at this juncture, don’t blame me if my claws find a new target.”

    “What I can say, however, is what I learned of this Administrator from the agents they previously sent. The Administrator is compassionate, and cares deeply for their people. If you treat them with sincerity, and are not guilty of any heinous crimes yourself, you have nothing to fear. However, if you decide to harm those under their rule, or commit unspeakable atrocities... remember what happened to the Master of Games.”

    “Also, they assured me that even the privacy barriers over our worlds are pointless when faced with the eyes of the Administrator. If he wished to, he could wipe away our existence with a thought, and only refrains from doing so for the continued peace of his worlds.”

    “Now that I have said my piece, I will be relocating my guild worlds to the shadow of their world tree. For the rest of you... think very carefully about how you have treated others.” Even with the robotic voice of the anonymous projection, the other Masters could very clearly hear the threat in their tone. Many of them hesitated, watching the Master of Beasts disappear.

    Several among these Masters grew more anxious, thinking of the way that they conduct themselves in private. Simply with respect to the Myriad Beast Guild, there were many concubines among the various guilds from this race, and they were often given substandard treatment.

    Unfortunately, for the worst offenders, this only made peace even less likely to achieve, their bodies going tense.