Tsubaki sat at her computer, reading the report that had been posted online about the new ‘Minor God’, Jonas Bayrun. This was a matter that had recently been sweeping through the various worlds, as it was the first time that a mortal had ever been confirmed to have ascended to godhood.

Originally, Tsubaki as well as other people refused to believe that such a thing had happened. Sure, Tsubaki knew of the possibility, but she did not think that it would be something so easily accomplished. Although Jonas didn’t publicize the steps he took to reach his ascension, she could still recall that it had not been too long ago when she had seen him in a similar state to herself.

In fact, it wasn’t until Ryone personally spoke to her priests to verify Jonas’s claims that his word was accepted. From now on, Jonas had officially become the new God of Community. Tsubaki wasn’t sure what types of powers he would gain from that domain, but she had already seen the powers that came from both the Mirrors and Merchants domains. That alone was enough to convince her not to underestimate Jonas.

At the same time, Jonas’s status as a subordinate god, and what that entailed, was also made public. This was perhaps the piece of news that Tsubaki paid the most attention to. It was also the one that made her think the most deeply…

Despite knowing that it was possible to transcend perfection and attain divinity, Tsubaki had never truly attempted to walk that path. That was because she did not want to place herself on the same level as the man that she served. However, the concept of subordinate gods overturned those concerns. If she was able to convince him to accept her as a subordinate… she may yet have reason to become stronger yet again.

I couldn’t help but sigh as I saw Tsubaki reading over the news report. It was clear that her decision had already been made, and I was not entirely opposed to the idea myself. Sure, I may have wanted to give her the chance to reach that stage on her own, not requiring her to be shackled under my own divinity. But at the same time, I was quite curious what it would be like to have a subordinate god.

Either way, the decision that I had been waiting for had now been made. It was time to prepare for the coming invasion from Vanity. This would be my last invasion from a rank one world, unless I had to reset for some reason, so I had to make sure that everything went smoothly.

After advancing time by roughly an hour, I saw that Tsubaki’s train of thought had shifted away from divinity, and instead moved onto training Dana. Focusing, I connected myself with her mind to allow me to communicate directly with her.

“Tsubaki.” I spoke up, and saw her immediately jump to her feet. She was standing at attention so fast that I could even see Dana jumping in shock. “There is another force coming to invade our world. Our soldiers that we sent last time have… failed. The enemy is now striking out at us.”

Tsubaki furrowed her brow, but simply nodded her head. “How long do we have to prepare?” She asked, once again confusing Dana. Despite their mental link, it seemed like she wasn’t able to eavesdrop on my conversation with Tsubaki.

“I’ll give you ten years. After that time, their forces will appear.” Of course, ten years to her would just be an afternoon to me… I couldn’t help but glance at the timer, showing that it was now two days before the invasion took place.

“Very well.” She nodded her head. “My Keeper, I would like to ask--”

I cut her off, already knowing what she was going to say. “Once the invasion is over, yes. Until then, prepare yourself, and prepare the worlds for what is to come.”

Tsubaki’s expression seemed to brighten, her tail waving behind herself repeatedly as she processed my words. “Understood, sir.” She spoke up before I cut the communication, and began fast forwarding once again.

“Eagle Five, we have your signal.” The voice once again spoke through the console, a somewhat groggy elf stimulating her energy to help her recover from hibernation more quickly. Thanks to the network portal aboard the ship, they did not suffer from the classical flaw of delayed communications.

“Understood, Ashlin. Eagle Five preparing to enter Sorii’s atmosphere. All crew are on standby, preparing reentry procedures. Heat barriers at full, activating reverse thrust.” Slowly, above the desolate red planet, Eagle Five spun a full one hundred and eighty degrees. The mana thrusters lit up, sending blue lights shooting out as they began to reduce speed.

Once done, they quickly corrected their positioning. Only then did they begin to feel the shake of turbulence the craft entering into the atmosphere. The elven pilot narrowed her eyes in focus. She monitored the various displays, ensuring that nothing reached dangerous levels. “Heat barriers are rapidly draining mana, activating emergency fuel to reroute energy.”

“Understood, Eagle Five. We’re picking up some surface storms on the planet, can you confirm?” When she heard that, the elf glanced up, through the window of the craft. Her eyes gazed past the flame enveloping the barrier, and she nodded.

“Confirmed. Looks like we’re landing in a dust storm. Please advise, should I seek an alternate landing site?” While this specific area had been chosen due to its flat terrain and easy navigation, a sandstorm meant that they wouldn’t even be able to see the ground on their approach.

“That’s an affirmative, Eagle Five. Patching in coordinates for Beta Site.” As the new coordinates were fed in, the ship continued to decelerate within the planet’s atmosphere, the flames beginning to recede from the barrier.

“Coordinates received. Cutting off emergency fuel to return normal power flow.” The pilot said as she flipped a few more switches on her console. Reaching forward, she took manual control over the steering, as the preprogrammed coordinates no longer applied. Instead, she had to fly the craft several hundred miles past their initial destination.

“Spokes, let’s get started on the flyover scans!” She called back into the radio, this time speaking to the rest of the crew. A slim demon male in his late twenties nodded, triggering the scanning devices built into Eagle Five.

Thankfully, most of their scanning devices weren’t interfered with by the storm raging below. Ironically, it was mostly their navigation systems that had problems there.

“Disabling pulse propulsion, reverting to stage one navigation thrusters.” The pilot called out, the yellow rings appearing once again behind the thrusters as they flew over the landscape. “Everyone, if you look to your left, you will see a barren wasteland. If you look to your right, you will also see a barren wasteland. The difference being that one of these is going to be our new home for a little while.”

“Eagle Five, we read your approach on target coordinates. Weather shows all clear, please confirm.”

“This is Eagle Five, weather is all clear. Bringing us in for a landing.” As she said that, the pilot carefully navigated the ship to land along its underside, rows of landing gear deploying to help ease their stop. Although it was a bit of a bumpy ride, the landing occurred without incident. “Eagle Five has landed.”

Back at Desbar, there was a loud cheer when they heard that. This was the first manned flight to another planet, and they had safely managed to land. Glancing back towards them, the comms officer smiled wryly before speaking into the microphone. “Good work, Eagle Five. Get your temporary shelters set up, and we’ll send your supplies over once you get the gate built.”

“Will do. Eagle Five, out.” After saying that, the pilot stood up, excitedly heading towards the door. Arguably, she had the most responsibility in this journey, but… that also came with a perk. Stepping through the airlock, she checked her EVA rings before exiting the craft. As the ship’s pilot, she had the first rights to the achievement.

Congratulations! You have earned an achievement!

For being the first to travel the void and walk on an unexplored planet, you have earned the One Giant Leap achievement. +15 Luck

She had heard of the achievement that had been given to the first demon to walk on the moon, One Small Step, and thus she had made this a part of her contract before accepting this mission. Achievements such as these were incredibly rare things. It wouldn’t be wrong to call them valuable, but also wouldn’t be right either. How could you put a value on something that couldn’t be traded?

Giddy that she had managed to get her own space exploration achievement, she walked around to explore the surface directly outside of the craft. Her body was protected from the harsh environment due to the invisible shields projected from the silver accessories she wore. “Gravity feels… a bit lower than what we are used to. Spokes, what did you find on those scans?”

There was a chuckle that answered her over the radio. “Bit late to ask that after you are already outside, isn’t it boss? Anyways, I didn’t pick up any life readings. No signs of mana or ki anywhere we passed. I’d call this a dead world, but there wasn’t any spiritual energy either.”

“Well, that’s about what we expected.” The pilot shook her head. “Any valuable resources?”

“I’m reading high levels of iron and copper. Nothing extraordinary like magnartum or numbasic. Though there are some unidentified materials near the surface a few kilometers off.”

“Unidentified is good.” She nodded quickly. “We’ll check it out after we get our home base set up.”

A young demonic female walked through the dirt roads between the cities of Deckan, following behind a kitsune man in his late fifties. Despite his age, he still looked to be in his prime, every step rather heavy.

“This should be far enough, right mister!?” Petra called out, excitement in her tone. They had been walking for over an hour, and were now far enough away that their battle wouldn’t disturb any of the locals.

The man ahead simply let out a reluctant sigh. “I was honestly hoping you’d give up if I made you come this far for it.” He confessed with a bitter smile, now turning to walk off the road.

Petra giggled playfully. “Oh, don’t be like that, it’s all in good fun!” Her hand flashed, and she retrieved her AC unit as she followed along behind him.

“I never thought that Shadow would be talking about this like it was fun.” He muttered, moving to stand roughly two hundred meters away from Petra. A moment later, a similar golden sphere appeared in his own hand.

“Oh, but it is fun right?” Petra questioned. “I mean, as long as we don’t aim to kill each other.”

Hearing that, the man silently raised an eyebrow, to which Petra called out in protest. “Oh, come on! It was one time, and it was an accident! When I see a really fancy magical shield set up in front of someone, with taunting words like ‘Let’s see you break this’, what am I supposed to do?! He seemed really confident, so I thought I had to give it everything I had…”

“How many times have you had to explain that now?” Her opponent asked with an almost amused smirk.

“Too many.” She groaned, shaking her head. “Anyways, let’s do this! I am Petra Carna, Master of Shadow!”

“Creo Blanch, Master of the Spirit’s Cave.” As the two of them introduced themselves, the game officially began. Each of the dungeon masters created fields a hundred meters wide around themselves. Petra’s appeared to be a pitch black field of shifting shadows, while Creo’s was a ghastly projection of the Underworld filled with the screams of lost souls.

“Okay, Mister Blanch, that’s actually kind of cool. Creepy, but cool!” Petra called out when she saw the external appearance of Creo’s portable dungeon. Next, the ground seemed to shift around them, encompassing the two dungeons until only a small hallway connected their center. This was the battlefield of a dungeon war, a self-enclosed area where the dungeon masters could freely monitor and modify the terrain.