World Keeper

Chapter 998: Going With The Flow

A blonde human woman with shining blue eyes stood before the great ocean of the fifty-ninth floor of Fyor. In one hand, she held a gilded spear with a blue crystal head, her body adorned with golden armor. Since it looks like the sixtieth floor isn’t going to be available for habitation any time soon, we had best make use of this one as much as we can. She thought to herself.

Behind her, a large group of humans, halflings, and dovah all stood, anxiously awaiting the woman’s order. However, she simply closed her eyes, letting her senses sweep out. This was the single largest ocean of Fyor, its depths reaching more than a billion kilometers. Had she only been focusing on worlds such as Earth or Deckan, this astronomical number would seem nothing short of ridiculous. 

The idea that entire planets could easily fit within a single ocean was mind-boggling. However, it was true. The largest monster recorded within this ocean had reached more than two hundred thousand kilometers long. Although it wasn’t quite large enough to consume an entire planet the size of Deckan, it was enough that its mere presence would be able to destroy the planet.

Taking a deep breath, the woman stepped out onto the water, her feet forming ripples along the surface as she walked in long strides. Her figure blurred with every step she took, crossing hundreds of kilometers at a time. We were always warned that physical planets were the easiest to destroy. That’s why Aurivy established Sanctum and its satellite worlds. However, Sanctum won’t be able to withstand the coming invasion.

It didn’t take long for her figure to escape the sight of those watching from the shore, but nobody made any move to follow or leave. They had been instructed to wait, so they would wait until such time as their instructions had changed.

Bihena wanted an alternative to Sanctum. Something that she could establish on Fyor, where there was no risk of void interference. In fact, she had considered the divine floor as a possible alternative, but chose to avoid it as the floor was still a ‘material’ world.

After a few minutes of walking, Bihena felt that she had come far enough, standing atop the ocean, land nowhere to be seen. Even the ceiling of this layer was too far to be discerned, the atmosphere itself forming a hazy blue barrier that resembled the daytime sky of other worlds.

She held her spear forward, focusing her divinity. Runic markings began to light up the spear, and when she let it go it began to hover in place. Bihena quickly reached into her inventory, producing a second spear. This one hand a red spearhead, and she activated it just like the first. Then another, this one with a black spearhead.

These three spears were set to float around Bihena, forming a triangle. When she clapped her hands, all three turned, their spearheads ringing as they struck the base of their neighbor, with Bihena standing in the center still. I can’t just do this with divinity. I learned that from Aurivy. I haven’t done as many big projects as her, but I can’t afford that expenditure.

“I am the one who quells the endless waves. My words dictate the flow of the world.” Bihena began, a complex magic diagram expanding around her in a sphere. It had taken her years of study with Ryone’s incarnation to master this spell diagram.

“Fire and stone as the heart. Land and sea make way to the endless sky.” As she spoke, the three spears began to separate, rotating around her as they pointed high above. “A world of boundless nature, yet untouched by the earth’s pull. A home. A hearth. A hope.  A land for those in need. Drift along the ocean’s road to welcome lost travelers.”

The spell diagram shrank and split, converging on each of the  three spears. Immediately, they shot into the air, leaving blue, red, and black trails behind them. High above the ocean floor, within the empty sky, these three spears struck together. Boundless energy emerged from the world, green lights flowing from the air around them.

When Bihena saw this, she stomped one foot onto the ocean, raising her hand to the sky. Streams of blue and gold power surged from the ocean beneath her, flying to join the slurry of energy being formed. Meanwhile, Bihena maintained absolute focus, watching as the energy condensed more and more, becoming a solid mass more than a hundred and fifty thousand kilometers across.

She had considered making a planet within the sky, but it would be far too disorienting for anyone on its southern hemisphere to look up and see the ground above. Instead, she made an island. This island was only as wide as Deckan’s diameter, and so it had less total landmass. However, this was an island made of pure energy, one which passively sustained itself by drawing on ambient mana and natural energy.

Bihena created mountains and forests, and channels for rivers to flow through. The entire process of the flying island’s creation took only an hour, at which point Bihena called out. “Group one, take flight!”

Her words echoed in the air, traveling beyond the horizon to reach those that were waiting at the shore. A small number of those waiting flew into the arrow, turning into streams of light that shot towards the new island. These would be the first colonists, those setting up the initial infrastructure to allow for others to inhabit the island.

Bihena let out a low sigh, checking her inventory, as well as her remaining mana. Good… still have plenty to continue.

She had been preparing for this plan ever since she learned of the next invasion. Whether it was learning the necessary spell, or stocking up on materials. She had filled her inventory with Mage Heart, as well as identical copies of the three spears. A blue spearhead to be the focus of her divinity, allowing the island to drift in the sky and harness ambient energy. A red one to form the core of fire and stone to create the landmass itself. A black one to create a localized gravity field, enabling even low level civilians to safely inhabit them.

Bihena began to walk again, moving more than three hundred thousand kilometers away. Then, she once again started to pull the three spears from her inventory. “I am the one who quells the endless waves…” She began, while thinking to herself. One down… forty-nine to go.

“Lifre, wait up!” Petra called out in a panic as Lifre jumped through a stone wall, hurrying to chase after her before the portal closed. “If the portal closes before I get through, I won’t be able to find you again!”

“Pfft, it’s fine!” Lifre shouted back when Petra barely made it through. No longer was she covered in her armor. Instead, she wore a brown leather jacket and dark blue undershirt with brown cloth pants. She carried a pickaxe over her shoulder, the head engraved with runic markings. “I’ve got the layout of this place tucked away up here.” She tapped on her head with her free hand, causing Petra’s eyes to widen.

“You memorized the layout of the floor? But we haven’t even gotten to the spire yet!”

“No big deal! Aurivy showed me a map while went to relay the news.” Lifre puffed her chest out proudly, Petra blinking in confusion.

“You memorized a map that big from a single glance?”

“Uhm… well… part of it? I got the gist of it, anyways!” Lifre turned her head to the side. “Besides, this is a safe floor. The interference of the black stone walls isn’t just preventing void fluctuations. Any airborne energy is dispersed. See?” Lifre flicked her wrist, shooting out a basic fireball spell.

Although the magic condensed, it fizzled away only a few inches after it took flight. “Keep your minimap up. The only way we can map this place out is with the system.”

Petra bit her lower lip when she heard that. In fact, she had already noticed something similar before. When she mapped out the world with her World Shadow, the shadow world created was blurred. Even now, it hadn’t settled, and Petra wondered if it ever would. At the very least, it had registered as part of their shadow world, so they could grab the next floor whenever they open the way.

While Petra was thinking about that, she barely noticed Lifre jumping through another gate. Gasping, she chased after her. “After saying all that, you’re still running off on your own?!”

Lifre let out a light, carefree laugh. “We have the new fast travel, it’ll be fine!” The other side of this gate showed one of the elevated islands, Lifre having to walk more than a hundred meters to reach the end of it. “Huh… I wonder how these are being held up.”

“There are probably branches of black stone connected to each one.” Petra speculated, seeing Lifre lifting up her pickaxe. “Wait, don’t tell me you want to…”

“You’ve got wings!” Lifre grinned crazily, channeling her mana into the pickaxe and striking the floor beneath her. The runic markings lit up, amplifying the force of her strike and spreading cracks throughout the island. Petra gulped, looking left and right quickly.

Yes, she had wings, but a demon’s wings were far from enough to let someone fly with the gravity of the sixtieth floor of Fyor. She could spread her wings as wide as she wanted, and she would still plummet like a stone. She tried to condense darkness beneath her feet to stand on as the stone of the island fell away.

Unfortunately for her, the energy put into the platform dissipated only seconds later. Just enough time for her to see that she wasn’t entirely wrong. The island had been attached to a branch of black stone… of a sort. However, rather than a thin branch like one might imagine, it was more like a wide platform… which they were now falling towards.

“Lifre!” Petra called out, eyes wide. Given the distance between the two of them, there was no way that they would activate the same portal. However, Lifre was laughing as happily as ever, even as she was swallowed up by a gate.

Petra soon entered one of her own, finding that her downward momentum had suddenly turned horizontal, launching her out of a wall. By the time she looked down, she saw that she must have been thousands of kilometers in the air. She shot out a burst of energy, propelling herself to the opposing wall and into another portal.

Immediately afterwards, Petra grunted, falling to the floor in a pitch black cave. As a demon, and the Goddess of Shadow, it only took a moment for her eyes to adjust. “Come on, Lifre…” Petra muttered to herself, knowing that there was no way that Lifre was close by. “You know not to just smack everything you see by now… I know that you were told that this floor’s safe and everything…”

With a sigh, she dusted her red legs off and pushed herself to a standing position. At her height, her horns were already brushing against the top of the cave, showing just how small it was. Still, she walked forward, eyes roaming over the walls. There were dark crystals jutting out here and there, and she dislodged one to store in her inventory.

Further down the cave, unwilling to release any of her power after knowing that it would just fade away after leaving her body. She would need to conserve her energy, or else take the gate back to the fifty-ninth floor. “Huh?” Petra blinked, seeing something jutting out of the ground not far away. It looked like… a polished metal handle?

There’s no life on this floor, how could there be a manufactured item? She asked herself. She reached forward, briefly tapping the handle with a finger, just to see if it was going to do anything like absorb her energy. Seeing that it was ‘safe’, she grabbed the handle and exerted enough strength to pull it out.

Petra’s eyes widened at the sight before her, a black axe that only just barely fit in this cave. While not identical to her currently favored weapon, it strongly reminded her of one that she wielded for quite a long time in the past. “But… how are you here?” She asked, thinking that she needed to take this back to Sora to study.

As soon as that thought crossed her mind, the axe seemed to melt, reshaping into the form of a human woman sitting on the floor, her hand outstretched to be held in Petra’s. Although she was made entirely of a black material, Petra immediately recognized the statue as one of her best friends. “It… responds to thoughts? Memories? This is not what they mean by memory alloy, okay?!”