Empress Margold sat in her throne room, a composed look on her face that did not at all match the disposition she showed in the presence of the Goddess. She was no longer a ‘mortal’ standing before the ‘almighty’, but a ruler before her citizens. Resting her hand on one of the gems embedded in her throne, she activated a communication function.

Three panels of golden light appeared before her, each one seeming to waver as they waited for the calls to connect. The one in the center was the first to stabilize, revealing a kitsune woman with black hair. Judging from the drooping eyelids and the way her ears bent, the empress could tell that she had only woken up.

“Marrryyy.” The kitsune complained. “Did you have to call so early?”

“It’s the middle of the afternoon here.” Margold shook her head. “But let’s wait for the others. There is an important matter to discuss.”

The kitsune blinked, rubbing her eyes and trying to compose herself. Meanwhile, the image on the right stabilized, and showed a demonic male wearing a black suit. His wings were wrapped around himself as he sat at a desk, offering a polite nod. “Empress.”

“Thank you for answering so quickly, president. I know things have been busy on your end.” Margold returned the nod, just as the third screen stabilized. Unlike the others, it did not show a distinct figure. Instead, what was displayed was a shadowy outline of what seemed to be a human woman. “Lady Representative.” Empress Margold greeted the figure, which seemed to nod her head.

“I assume that there is something urgent, if you have called all of us.” The shadowy woman spoke.

“There is. Very urgent indeed.” The empress agreed readily. “I assume that all of you by now have heard of the new world, Spica?”

“Ehh?” The kitsune tilted her head, blinking. “That’s the place you guys have been going crazy over lately, right?”

“By my understanding, it was deemed a hazardous zone.” The demon added, his brows narrowing. “Has there been a change in the situation?”

Margold took a deep breath. “There has. And due to this change, I would like to request the help of all L.A.W. worlds in establishing a research outpost on this new world.”

“You ask for quite a bit, empress.” The shadowy woman spoke up in an almost cold tone. “You should know that the Council does not currently have the manpower available to divide their attention even further.”

“Oh, come on!” Surprisingly, it was the kitsune that retorted. “You know that those old geezers are just being paranoid. None of us care about taking away your land. I’d bet even those Dawn guys aren’t looking for that kinda fight! Isn’t that why they haven’t launched any actual attacks yet?”

“The Council believes that it is simply due to their vigilance that Dawn has yet to make their move.” The human woman spoke, but did let out a small sigh. “My opinion on the matter is irrelevant, but I do agree with you, Queen Sylva. However, I am but one voice among many.”

The demon president leaned forward in his chair. “I will admit, Lady Representative, there was a time when my advisors suggested moving against Fyor. However, these ideas were promptly dismissed. Although you may have the land that we were originally lacking, we have made due with our secondary worlds. Besides that, the sky of Fyor… well, let’s just say that we prefer to have a real sky.”

“Noted.” The woman nodded her head again, before returning to the matter at hand. “Regardless, Empress, if you wish to secure the Council’s help, you will need to provide a sufficient explanation.”

A small smirk began to tug at Margold’s lips. “The Mother of Magic visited me last night. Not in a dream, as you may suspect. No, she appeared personally before me to deliver a message.”

That certainly got everyone’s attention. “Really, Mary?!” The kitsune shouted out in surprise. “Ryone visited you!?”

As Margold nodded, the demon waved a hand to try to keep the conversation on track and prevent it from derailing again. “And what was the message that the Goddess delivered?”

Margold took a deep breath again, preparing her words. “As you know, each of you belong to a world initially governed by only one of the Goddesses of Earth’s pantheon. Two, in the case of Fyor. This has been a rather hot topic for many years, but I won’t go into that for now.”

“When Ryone visited my chambers last night, she told me… that Spica is the world that she governs. What we perceive as a dangerous environment is simply the result of a new magic she has woven for that world.”

“As was originally the case with all of your worlds, they have no knowledge of the Keeper, and worship only their native goddess. Yet, they are without a doubt a world under his rule. I have passed this message to my advisors, and have declared that we will be launching an operation in seven days to establish an outpost within this world to use as a foothold to make contact with its natives.”

“Given that this is a new world under the Keeper’s rule, I am following the rules we have in place. I am letting all of you know my plan, and freely offering to allow participation from any who seek to do so.”

Finally, the kitsune’s face seemed to become serious. “I’ll pass the word on to my people. If what I hear is true, I don’t know how much help you can expect from Deckan, but we will lend manpower at the very least. Our card magic may not work properly, but that won’t stop those with a strong back from carrying stone.”

“I’ll dispatch a regiment to act as a military escort.” The demon said with a faint nod. “If ki functions similarly in this world as I’ve heard, we should have an advantage. Most of our soldiers are trained monks.”

Then, it came to the human woman, still no more than a shadowy outline. “I will pass your message along to the Council. I would not get my hopes up for more than a token involvement, but I shall attempt to plead for them to consider the benefits of this operation.”

“Thank you, Lady Representative.” Empress Margold nodded her head. “That is all that I can ask for. Then, everyone, as stated before the operation will take place in seven days. We will be departing at noon, Standard Earth Time.”

The three figures all nodded a confirmation, before the images of both the demon president and the shadowy woman faded away. This left only the kitsune queen grinning towards Margold. “So, you finally got a personal visit, huh?”

Now that the other two were gone, Margold practically deflated, letting out a heavy sigh. “You never told me their presence was so stifling.”

The kitsune giggled playfully, shaking her head. “I guess she must have really been annoyed. Lady Udona’s never like that when she comes by to chat. Maybe she’s just more used to appearing in front of mortals than Ryone, though?”

“Really… I mean, I thought I was dead for sure. She even said ‘don’t worry, I’ll make it quick’.” Margold brought a hand up to rub at her neck, wincing at that memory and the thought of where her imagination had gone at those words.

“Yikes! I’ll pray to Lady Udona later to let her know. I’m pretty sure she wasn’t mad at you, though. If she was, well…” She let her words trail off at that, their meaning rather obvious.

“I know, I know. Still, it was nice to actually get the chance to meet her, even if it was under… difficult circumstances.” Margold gave a small smile as she said that. Queen Sylva of Deckan had long ago told her how Udona would sometimes come by to talk, or how the kitsune would go to her room just to find it rearranged into a massive pillow fortress, Udona curled up at the center of it.

From what she had heard, the kitsune queen and her goddess were on quite good terms, though Margold had been asked to never speak of it to others. Sylva had only told Margold because Udona said it was fine if she only told one person. Given their friendship, Sylva had chosen to confide in Margold.

Of course, her nervousness when meeting Ryone was still entirely true. Even though she knew that Udona liked to be more laid-back, she had never heard of Ryone being the same way. And with how incredibly oppressive Ryone’s aura was, Margold couldn’t help but be worried when facing her.

“Well, good luck with Spica!” Queen Sylva beamed a smile, waving towards the elven empress. “I’ll be rooting for you guys to connect with Ryone’s world!”

Margold offered her thanks, before the final panel faded away, leaving the empress alone to her thoughts. There were still many things that needed to be prepared before the operation could be launched, and so much more paperwork she had to do to take care of it all.

I gave a faint nod as I watched the conversation between the leaders of the four worlds. Or rather, the leaders of the nations which each held the Fairy Gates. Fyor had managed to get a representative of their Council inside of Nexus, even though they do not hold any governing power in that floor. The fact that they controlled the majority of the other layers of Fyor had been enough to make the position of Representative official.

I was surprised that Ryone had taken matters into her own hands to get things started, but in the end… I was actually happy that she did. With the confidence and knowledge gained through interacting with Ryone, the leaders would be able to act more freely. They wouldn’t need to hesitate anymore, fearing that this could be some elaborate trap.

Though, that did make me think about what would happen if a Keeper actually sent an entire planet during an invasion… would the system set up an arrangement similar to what we did? Creating the path to the enemy Keeper’s worlds without any proper explanation to either side? Or, would the entire planet itself simply appear somewhere in that Keeper’s universe?

That was likely a tactic used by those higher ranked Keepers that were able to freely give away entire planets for the sake of an offensive. I was… not at that level yet.

Instead, pulling up my interface, I checked to make sure that there was no notice yet regarding my own invading force. Given that they had managed to survive for… it should be nearly four months now to them… but given that they are still alive, it at least means that a part of the invasion should have been a success.

I knew that it was too early to celebrate, but a part of me did wish for their safe return. Even if they don’t come back to the world quite the same as they left it, given how I am fast forwarding things again.

Shaking my head, I cleared away those thoughts. I had already made up my mind… Tubrock.

The dwarven god appeared surprised to hear me calling out to him, going by his tone. Eh? What do you need, lad? I’m not done with the little miss’s golem body yet.

It’s not about that… I want you to accelerate Lorek again. Make it able to participate in the games. This was a decision I had come to after speaking with Sarah after the meeting. Her advice had been fairly similar to Balu’s, that I shouldn’t be afraid to advance once my worlds and myself were properly prepared. It’s not wise to rush things, but at the same time, a world will fall to stagnation if it is not allowed to advance properly.

After hearing that, I realized that I had almost allowed my worlds to suffer that fate. In order to prevent myself from becoming a second rank Keeper, I had chosen to stop pursuing the same type of advancements that I had taken early on. I was simply sitting back and watching, afraid that getting involved personally would mean the doom of my world.

Eh!? Tubrock’s voice sounded far more surprised now. Ye sure about this, lad? There’s no goin’ back after we do this, not without startin’ from nothin’.

I know. I nodded, letting out a sigh. I’m going to pass this message on to Accalia as well, and Tryval once he decides on what kind of world he wants. Once your worlds qualify for the games, we’ll bring them all together. That should push us into the second rank. In order to maximize the amount of time we have to get things ready after advancing, let’s aim to do this at the end of the month, after the next month’s matches have been decided.