Tsubaki’s eyes went wide with alarm as she listened to James’s explanation regarding the monster that they were facing. According to his guess, they would be facing roughly fifty monsters at the minimum that were capable of destroying solar systems. Given the time period for the monsters having been born, it was likely that there were already far more of these creatures that had been incubating within the other neighboring red stars.

We should have the Metong run investigations on all applicable stars in their territory. She decided immediately, giving a firm nod. Any that have missing planets should be considered an incubating entity.

James smiled at Tsubaki’s decisiveness, before raising a question that caused the kitsune goddess to pause. And what do we do about the ones that are already born?

Tsubaki didn’t have a proper answer to that yet. Not one that she was happy with, at least. If James was right with his deductions, then they were in serious trouble. The only way to fight creatures with the power to destroy planets would be to wield a similar power.

Naturally… she had that power. But it was not one that she had fully explored. The power of the scepters could easily fuel a spell capable of annihilating worlds. The only problem was that doing so would require that they design a fourth-tier attack spell of sufficient strength. However, she did have another tool at her disposal as well, one that she was slightly less reluctant to use. She simply could not guarantee that it would have the power required.

Find me one… and I’ll figure something out. She muttered with only a small amount of hesitation, earning a nod from the giant.

Their energy traces are gone, to a degree that even I can’t detect. Give me a few minutes to look for any investigative-type energies in Metong’s database.

Dana sat cross-legged within a world of inverted light and darkness. Her brows were furrowed in focus, working on a project that she was not entirely sure would work.

Currently, her three combatant shadows were in the middle of a grueling trial, with Janaerra returning to her regular cleaning duties. Until someone finished their tasks, she would have time to perform her own studies.

“Can you do it?” She asked hesitantly, and the world around her seemed to vibrate in response. “Okay, but be careful. Let’s start small. Level eighteen horned bison. They are commonly found grazing in the low-level wilds of the south-east. Four feet at the shoulders, and six long, with muscular builds. Their energy signatures should be pretty weak, so make sure you don’t miss them.”

There was another shudder that ran through the world of shadow, before Dana felt a small drain on her energy. Ever since she had become a being made of the World’s Shadow, she had been very sensitive to the amount of energy she had at her disposal, due to the recovery rate being fairly inconsistent.

If she stayed within a dark region, or the world of shadow itself, and did not activate any of her abilities, her recovery was frighteningly fast. On the other hand, staying within light, or near a powerful light source would slow her recovery. When she was in the same room as Tsubaki, the Goddess of Light, her passive divine aura made it impossible for Dana to recover any energy at all.

Dana once heard that the brightest light casts the darkest shadow. If that were the case, then it would mean that she had become Tsubaki’s shadow. She would become the darkest shadow that followed the goddess’s light. But to do that, she needed a bit more at her disposal than the ability to create low-level fighters and weapons.

Despite its title as a Saint-level energy, the World’s Shadow at first showed less power than her own ability as the queen of Hell. That was something that she needed to rectify, as it was now more difficult for her to properly command those monster spirits. She could still do it with some effort, but as her soul had been remodeled, they would first take some convincing.

Currently, she was testing the ability to create monsters with her World’s Shadow, as she wanted to see whether or not she would be able to kill them and collect magic cards. This was a feature of the energy that would normally not have been possible, without Dana’s unique circumstances.

In order to learn more about the energy, Dana had reached out to contact the Shadow Saint of Fyor, secretly sharing the information that she had acquired the energy in order to learn its restrictions. Petra had been… shaken by the news that someone else had obtained her previously unique energy. But after a conversation with Thelsa, the main body, Dana had convinced her that she had no intention to misuse this power.

When Dana learned that the energy was not able to recreate character types that the user themselves had not personally experienced, she wasn’t entirely sure what to make of it. For Thelsa, that meant that she could only create humans, even if they looked differently. She could not create anyone that did not match her current classes, and had difficulties creating members of the opposite gender.

Dana, on the other hand… she had never been an ordinary individual. She had classes all across the spectrum. And while she had not personally experienced certain walks of life… there were still some advantages to being the Tyrant Soul. Where Thelsa could only create humans, Dana had absorbed the spiritual energies of a great many types of souls, both sentient and monster alike. Of course, the sentient souls were second-hand after they had been already devoured once by a monster.

That was how she had created a kitsune, a human, and an elf. These three races had all been devoured by monsters that Dana herself had consumed back when she was still living in Hell. However, this in itself was also a problem.

Dana had absorbed so many diluted types of souls that she herself did not know what was at her disposal. She could only rely on the World’s Shadow to parse the information from her spirit, and hope that there was a trace of something, somewhere in her being. And if there wasn’t, she had to hope that there was something close enough to use as a basis.

Within the ‘world of light’, the true Deckan, an indistinct shadow stirred beneath a bison. Moments later, a similar creature appeared grazing on the plains of Dana’s shadow world. Dana was surprised that the process was so smooth, having expected there to be some processing time or resistance to the creation of a monster.

That was when she realized that she had overlooked one of her other titles. A prelude to her Tyrant Soul and Queen of Hell titles, and one that was likely paving the way for her to create these creatures more easily. It was also the title that first made Dana suspect that achievements were bad, the Monstrous title.

Dana pouted her lips, feeling that the amount of energy drained was less than a tenth of when she created any of her avatars that were currently training. “I hope that doesn’t mean what I think it does.” This was one type of synergy that she would rather prefer to be without, even if it did provide a useful bonus to her.

As an experiment, she copied over the rest of that bison’s herd, filling a meadow with the bulky beasts. Afterwards, she closed her eyes, sending another order to her energy. “Now kill them.”

There was a brief squeal and a roar of pain as over twenty bison fell dead at once, their skulls shattered from within. Dana stood up, walking into the wall of a nearby building to appear within the meadow. She let out a faint sigh, moving over to one of the large bodies and placing her hands on it.

Dana had already confirmed the existence of dimensium within her shadow world, so it was only reasonable that she would be able to create cards out of the creatures that were slain within it. With that thought in mind, she felt a light pressure weighing down on her body, the typical ‘rite of passage’ imposed by dimensium. If one was unable to withstand the weight of the object that they wished to convert into a card, then they would be unable to finish the conversion.

Thankfully, Dana had more than enough physical strength to handle these bisons, as they were all low-level beasts. Despite their bulk, they were barely as heavy as a level six hundred rabbit. Granted, level six hundred rabbits were fairly terrifying in that they were deceptively strong while appearing harmless.

Once the first bison was converted, she looked at the cards that had appeared in her hands. There was not much difference between them and the cards that she knew of, aside from the fact that these cards had a black border lining their edges. Dana could only assume that this was the contamination of the World’s Shadow energy mimicking every step of the creation process.

“You know, it’d be easier if you could just create these cards, and skip the steps in-between.” She muttered, feeling a shudder of energy around her. Darkness spiraled out of the ground, forming a second set of cards in her spare hand. However, she was able to tell that these new cards were perfectly identical to the set that she had just received.

With a small twitch of her eyes, Dana thought it over. “Okay, that’s just being cheeky. Can you copy cards from the main world?” As an example, Dana brought out a storage space containing numerous cards that she had prepared in the past to deal with a variety of situations. Pulling one out, she willed the World’s Shadow to copy it.

Unfortunately… despite the world shuddering around her, the answer that she received was a resounding negative. The energy could only recreate the cards after going through the initial process to create it the first time. “Well… I suppose we’ll be busy for a while.”

Another interesting fact that Dana noticed about these shadow cards was that they did not operate purely on mana. Rather, it was the energy of the World’s Shadow itself that fueled them, becoming self-contained within a card in much the same way as a normal card used mana. This meant that, unfortunately, she would be unable to combine these cards with a normal card to create a new source of income. Who would want to use this new type of card when it was incompatible with what was already dominating the market?

“Okay, well… since I’m already Monstrous, let’s step it up a bit.” Dana muttered to herself, thinking of stronger monsters to bring into her shadow world.

“That’s what we’ve discovered so far, your Highness.” Tsubaki said as she stood within a Metong ship, watching a projection of the High Mother. James, now in a much smaller body than previously, stood next to her and silently listened.

“I see… that is dreadful news.” The High Mother spoke up, crossing her hands over her lap. “Red stars, whether giants or dwarfs, are the most common type of star in the galaxy. If it is as you say, and they are the incubators for these creatures, then we may very well have a catastrophe on our hands.”

“I am aware of that.” Tsubaki nodded. “I believe that we have a way to deal with these creatures. However, I would also advise the Metong to devote some of your Network capabilities to developing powerful spells and weapons that could combat threats of this level. If they appeared once, odds are that something of similar strength will appear in the future.”

The Metong ruler nodded her head regretfully. “I understand. As you suggested, we will also conduct routine checks of the systems within our territory. I am also going to be passing along a similar message to the March, in case these things are able to make their way into their quadrant as well.”

“That would be appreciated. Finally, James has a request that he would like to make of you, and it could prove pivotal in discerning the locations of these creatures.” As she said that, Tsubaki stepped aside, gesturing for James to step forward and speak.

“Oh? Please, if it could be of any help in this situation, I would certainly be willing.” The High Mother smiled gently as she heard that there was something that they needed her immediate help with.

“Don’t go promising anything so early.” James chuckled, shaking his head. “Locked energy X-701.”

When the High Mother heard his request, her smile stiffened. Her eyes seemed to briefly flash, before her features relaxed, letting out a deep sigh. “I see… that energy would certainly be helpful in a situation like this. But, even if I give you the recipe for X-701, are you sure that you have the power to handle its cost to such a degree?”

“High Mother, I can assure you that I have more energy than any other being you have ever encountered.” James answered with a confident smile. “This energy is capable of opening a portal to view through the weave of fate, looking into the determined past or uncertain future. Although I won’t be able to influence matters, I will be able to use this energy to determine certain strengths and weaknesses of the enemies that we are facing.”

“You really did study that database thoroughly.” The High Mother smiled, nodding her head. “Although the recipe is not public, all but the most dangerous classified energies are listed with their number and description, so that the Metong or our allies can identify them through their effects. Or in the event of cases such as this. Very well, I shall approve of your request. X-701 will have its recipe transmitted to your personal database.”