================================

Chapter 490: New Asgardians

================================

The door of the Royal Court Room opened and Gaia lightly gave a curtsy and presented the box at Siva’s feet ten paces away.

It was a six-sided box hand-sized in every side. Its surface color is dark purple, giving the impression that what’s inside it is what Siva thought it was.

“Is that the Zodiac Artifact?”

“Yes, Milord. Inside is the artifact I found in the floating temple in Hagonoy 20 Cycles ago.”

Siva swallowed, he didn’t even ask for the Mana Gathering Spell Formation, the Mana Stones, or the Memory Crystal.

He thought…

“The applications of being able to go back in time are limitless. Whether I can change the History of Terroa and create a butterfly effect into the game or not won’t change anything for these players…”

His mind worked with possibilities. Perhaps Siva could change the fate of a lot of people with this.

“Maybe I can even use it to rescue Baron in time before he gets out of Alexandria. He’s a [player], and in effect, the system itself will be the one that will go back in time and affix whatever changes I do in the background and environmental data, disregarding the present status and location of players affected by the game changes, and would perhaps only change Baron’s situation…”

Siva firmly believed that since they aren’t part of the preset data and [editable information] of the game, the players won’t be involved with any of those “Butterfly Effect” that may happen in Terroa after he changed what already happened.

Only the present location data of the target of his change will be affected by his rescue.

And especially since the event in Alexandria only happened recently, the Butterfly Effect —if any— won’t be that big and may not even be significant at all to the overall current situation.

As such, in his eyes, the Zodiac Artifact was more important than the Mana Gathering Formation and the Mana Stones… at least, the same importance as the Memory Crystal of his mom.

—but there was also a chance that another one of the Time Paradox theories will happen.

—–—that this game world will NOT PERMIT any changes that will occur on its established data.

As soon as this second eventuality occurred to him, Siva was brought to his feet and his mind is so shaken he swallowed, closed his eyes then looked apologetically at Gaia.

“I’m sorry. I lost myself in there.”

Gaia looked intently at him and said, “Were you thinking about saving your brother with this?”

Siva nodded, “Yes. I thought I could go back in time and save him before he was taken away by the enemies that are now staying in Dakar.”

“You have Intel on his current location?” Gaia was surprised, “Who told you?”

“A few new subordinates.” He replied. “Someone brought him back from Alexandria and kept him in Dakar… perhaps for further observation.”

Gaia’s blonde brows frowned, “Your Excellency, I am sorry to disappoint you but you can’t go back on a timeframe that’s too early in the past, even if you are with this Zodiac Artifact.”

Siva’s breathing shortened, “Why not?”

“Because not only does the Zodiac Artifact need an anchor to lock into the ‘reason’ why you went back in time, the item you’re going to use as the anchor have to be connected to the reason why you went back in time. Or else, you risk not only wasting the chance of using the Artifact but you may also miss the exact time period and so may be sent to a time where your target doesn’t exist.”

Gaia paused here to look at the stunned Siva then said, “More importantly, what if after you wasted it in the last use, you can’t use it again? What more, this device doesn’t actually send you back in time but only your consciousness. What your situation was, your circumstances on the timeframe you’ve gone back into back then, will also become your materialization point. And that means……”

“….I still won’t get there in time.”

Gaia nodded, “Precisely.”

Because back then when the Blue Card Legion is attacking Alexandria, he was still in Warjillis Area.

He didn’t have the Inventory Plus Ultra back then, and he also didn’t have the Liberty Drones or the BMA… he was still pathetically weak back then.

The sudden shattering of this hope depressed his spirits and Siva slumped on his throne with a long and audible sigh.

“Tell me the specifics of this item then.” He said.

“Well, for one, it needs the ‘anchor’ to pinpoint at which time period you will be brought back into. It has to be created closer to the timeframe of the reason why you will go back —and what I mean in created is on its inception. I’ve only managed to observe this point but back when I first tried it, I was off by a hundred years to what I thought was my intended target time period. The item I used as anchor was created a century too early than my primary assumptions.”

Siva listened intently and took note of this thinking that if he did went back into time in Alexandria, the item he’d use might actually be 100 years or even older than the time frame he intended to go back into. This time travel object may be too risky than I initially thought it was.

“Finally, the most important point…” Siva waited at er wit heart beating fast. “The item that should be used to anchor should have magical properties.”

“…..eh? Magical Items?”

“Yes, because if it doesn’t, the item will only get destroyed during the anchoring process. I’ve tried it twice and I ruined two high-grade Inventions.”

Siva frowned. So in the end, saving Baron with it wouldn’t have worked in the first place. Just the process of going back in time itself is already a near-impossible task.

He closed his eyes, leaning back to the cushion of the throne’s backrest. He massaged his eyes and temples then breathed out a long sigh.

—Nothing important ever works for my favor.

——if I want something done, I must be the one to make it happen myself.

Gaia remained standing there in front of him and waited for him to gather his spirits.

After a long while, Siva made another long sigh and looks at her, to the box, and then gestured to reach for it. Space rippled and tiny parts of Neo-BMA gently flew towards the box, picking it up and brining it towards him.

After he held the hand-sized box, he looked at her and said, “Would you mind if I am the one to keep it for now, at least until the time we use it?”

“It’s alright, Your Excellency, using it is easy. No other ritual or rites are necessary. Just feeding it the magical item itself will already trigger the magic inside to activate and bring you back to the time period you wish to go.”

“But I do have one last concern. What happens if the [me] at the time we use this…… overpowers the consciousness sent by this item?”

“I am not sure as well, Your Excellency. I’ve only used the item once after all. But what I am sure of however, is that, given you’ve existed all this time as a God on a different soul body… there might be a chance that you yourself will be the ones that will be sent.”

—different soul body, huh…

Siva noted the term. It was indeed true that when talking about the [him] right now and the [Siva] of this Universe, they were of two different physical bodies but the same soul.

He stared at the tiny box for a long time before putting it into his Inventory.

“Let’s talk about this later. Now, about the other tasks I requested?”

At the mention of this, Gaia bit her lower lip that made her look pretty but then proceeded to still pull out three glittering thumb-sized bluish rocks from her Inventory. These are the Mana Stones.

He can’t feel the resonance of Mana in the air but there was an obvious change in the flow of wind in the surroundings. There were no open window in his Throne Room but his Absolute Domain had picked up the changes in the air current inside.

Siva did the same reaching gesture and used the Neo-BMA’s tiny parts to pick up two of the stones.

“I only need two with what I have in mind.” He said while trying his best to sound kind, “And the other ones in our transaction?”

Again, Gaia bit her lips and pulled out with great pains piles similar materials —No, they’re actually ready-made Talismans— in front of Siva.

“How many sets?”

“Six in total.” Gaia said with pain. “May I ask, Your Excellency, if you’re going to install all of these in the Asgard?”

Siva didn’t delay his answer, “I only plan to use one in Asgard and the rest will be used by me to study Spell Formations.”

Gaia’s eyes trembled but she didn’t say a word. It was obvious that parting from two Mana Stones and six sets of Mana Gathering Spell Formations was of great cost to the Elves of Terrafirma.

He asked, “Gaia, how many Elves are in your own territory? And I mean the total population that you are taking care of in Terrafirma.”

Gaia was surprised by the sudden question but she paused only for a few moments before she gave a short reply.

“A little over 60,000… maybe less.”

“That’s….. isn’t that a very small number for the total population of a Terran Race?”

Gaia shook her head gently, “It may be too few, but us Elves live longer and so this number is quite already a feat enough to be proud of. They are really putting in effort to reproduce and since Elves are naturally infertile most of the time, when we lose an Elf, especially the High Elves like me, we can’t help but really feel bad for it. But, may I inquire as to the reason why you asked?”

Siva nodded in understanding, then replied, “It’s because I plan to integrate you all into the Asgard, if you don’t mind. Asgard has a lot of land and my plans also included me reclaiming the Ancient City of Roma in the Far East region of Espada.”

Gaia was surprised once again, “Ancient City of Roma… that’s Anazon Forest! Didn’t you just…”

“Although it’s indeed part of The Union, the fact remains that they can’t control that place since until today, no one can lift the spell protecting the Anazon Forest. I am the key to lifting the spell and I also have Asgard that can teleport in just about any place I wanted it to go to. I plan to settle in the Ancient City and claim Anazon as my turf. What do you think about reclaiming the land with your own people and settle there? Not only will it be part of the protection of the barrier spell covering the entire forest, the forest also has the protection of its inhabitants, the monsters, as well as the Asgard who will defend the place at all cost.”

“Defend it at all cost… why, Your Excellency, why would you protect a barren —No— why would you protect a land infested by high-rank monsters and not to mention, it’s closer to The Union which you have just declared an enemy?”

Siva felt that she should know so he told her of the fact that there was a location there that was connecting Horbe and the Surface Continents. He planned to protect that place against the Church.

What more, when Siva told her about the invasion that will happen nine months from now, all of her reluctance on parting with all of those ‘gifts’ Siva took disappeared. She now understood his motive on gathering forces, resources, and even making an attempt to reclaim Anazon Forest.

“But Your Excellency, how can you be sure that the mons—I mean inhabitants of Anazon Forest will listen to you? Even if you can command their Queen, that doesn’t mean they will still listen to all of your commands.”

“That’s why I’m preparing. Besides, I am also now stronger than before. Regarding your Ascension Ceremony, I think there’d be no safer place than Chronos for it. But wouldn’t the Asgard, once we are moved to Anazon Forest, be the second-best safe place for it?”

“If all goes according to your plan, then yes, it may be the second best place for my ascension.”

After all, who’s to say that once the other Terrans realized that she was in the middle of Ascension they wouldn’t attack her out of fear or jealousy?

Siva nodded, “Then it’s settled. Are you willing to join the Asgard?”

Gaia looked at Siva for a few moments then gave her most elegant and courteous curtsy bow, “The Elves will to join the Asgard, Your Excellency.”

As the (oldest) Highest Ranking Elf, Gaia’s voice in the entire Elven Country is deemed supreme.

Siva’s sour mood from the Black Label incident and the disappointment in Time Travel Aspect was uplifted as he looked at Gaia’s show of allegiance.

Now, it doesn’t matter if the Elves’ resources are given to him this way, they are now going to be a part of a single country and their efforts will also reflect as the same efforts of protecting their new home… the Asgard.

“Your Excellency,” she said after her bow, “What about the other Terran Races? Is this information already disseminated to the rest of them? Would you also pull them into your embrace?”

Siva shook his head, “I’m not myself sure yet if I can accommodate so many people. After all, I am still aware that there are still many spies of Bloody Church still remaining in the Terran Community. It was Gabriel who told me about this but since the threat of the Bloody Church is still there, I don’t think there will be a benefit in alerting the Terrans about this war. I thought he already told you about it before meeting me?”

Gaia was suddenly cornered into a wall and she showed an expression telling Siva that she did not hear anything from Gabriel about this war in the next nine months.

“Did he really not tell you about it?” he asked just to make sure.

“He hasn’t contacted me at all about it. And I don’t think he will or he could since all this time, I’ve been in the Inner Continents waiting for you.”

“…”

Gaia thought that this small ‘trick’ from Gabriel was not a big deal for Siva who was panting heavily in annoyance at the man.

Although telling Gaia or not wasn’t a big deal in the overall dissemination of this information, it only meant that Gabriel did indeed was still angry at his blunder in Alexandria.

—consider us equal then, you old fogey!

Sensing Siva calming down, Gaia spoke up. “Are you planning on helping him erase the traces of the Bloody Church in The North?” shew asked worriedly.

The news about the invasion nine months later is not yet told to the Terrans. Meaning, he was yet to contact them. It might also be that Gabriel is too busy amassing strength in resisting the approach of the Bloody Church on his domain in The North.

Siva thought of holding his decision for this but then understood that it’d be nice to make the old man owe him a favor.

He smiled evilly and chuckled to himself.

“I think I will. As soon as possible.”

Siva nodded quietly. Gaia cocked her head.

“Now that I think about it, it has indeed been a few days since news about The North stopped coming for some reason. Perhaps… he’s already started to reestablish his empire.”

There has been a few news of a massive change occurring in The North as of late in the Net but as ‘massively influencing’ this news is, the fact that there wasn’t any bit of it in the Local Net inside Terroa, only players are the only ones aware of it.

And given The North’s reputation, would the other mainland players believe those thugs who could always stab them at the back the soonest they step into the northern Walled Cities?

Thus, no matter how hot the news was, it didn’t create a lot of noise as expected.

In the real world, it’s only been a few days but in Terroa, it’s already over a week. Although news is as fast as the wind, the fact that the sources of these news were normal players and that the big organizations are either keeping it secret to hoard monopoly over opportunities to do the Missions and Quests generated by this new rising event, or plainly just hiding it to delay the spreading of this news to the real world, the fact still remains that a large threat is in The North and it triggered a large change in the balance of power in there.

Reestablishing his empire… this task might be the reason why Gabriel was yet to contact the Terran Alliance. As always, he was going to clash with the Bloody Church on his own.

Siva couldn’t help sighing for the poor guy. All of his friends are dead and so he had no one to rely for support.

This was just sad in a lot of different ways.

At this train of thought, Siva decided that whether the old guy wants it or not, he was going to help in eradicating the Bloody Church.

“Keeping it under wraps wouldn’t be a long-lasting answer to keeping the Bloody Church in attacking the rest of the Walled Cities in The North. I bet by now, Gabriel had already locked down every city with his ability. No one can enter that he wouldn’t be able to screen. And so, if the Bloody Church still wanted to attack, they can only go to every city one by one through those frozen lands and not rely on the T-Devices.”

Siva had personally experienced how treacherous the cold weather in The North is. Although he had higher climate tolerance because of his curse, he was still aware of its cold weather due to Volt and Thorn’s reactions back then.

With the distances between Terran Settlements so large like that, there wouldn’t be many chances for Gabriel to fail when ambushing the church’s contingents. That is to say, until the church sends either of their pontiffs, then he can just hit and go unlimited times.

The Bloody Church’s reinforcements are limited and so they wouldn’t send their numbers like that just to die… unless either Balaam or Ajora was too greedy or resolute enough to personally go from city to city to sacrifice its citizens.

Although it wasn’t an impossible idea, it was still a task that leaves their —now— established base, the Port City of Dragona, in a perilous quandary.

If news that the two Pontiffs had left their base, a Terran Alliance Contingent can always teleport to Dragona and attack their base.

As such, the “city to city” operation with either or both of the two pontiffs personally going to war is the most viable idea Siva can think of the Bloody Church will use to fend off Gabriel’s troublesome ability to hit and run.

—unless they have a third person who’s as strong as or even better than those pontiffs, then Gabriel may really need a lot of help from anybody.

When Siva thought of this, all the more he wanted to push for the immediate reinstitution of Asgard in Anazon Forest as soon as possible.

“Acting fast is our most feasible option. I’m going to do my part in this war. You gather your people and ready them to leave for Asgard. When you do, however, it’s better to be discreet since the Bloody Church might get a smell of you.”

“I’ll send them by batches then.”

“Don’t tell them about Akhenaton. I plan to let all visitors in this place to undergo an oath taking so I can screen them all.”

The Heavenly Oath… only a very select few can use it and only Siva uses it as brazenly shameless as in this way. Using the Universal Laws of Justice as a security officer to protect his territory; if she didn’t know Siva, she would have agreed openly and won’t bother with anything but she does and she knew that although it was a harsh rule and will seem to her people as a dictatorial rule, Siva was actually quite lenient on rules. What he was only very particular about is the safety of his assets.

Although she wanted to say no, she didn’t say so since she knew in her heart that having Siva’s protection was the best safety net in this war that Siva told her will be coming on their doors nine months in the future.

Nine months…. it’s a very short time…

She bit her lips and nodded, “I shall send them by batch in Aarun, Your Excellency. I hope that your people will be free to escort them in Asgard.”

“Rest assured. I’ll even send the Little Pepper for them when they come.”

When the deal was made, the first matter was in its last polishing. When Siva was satisfied, he then asked another matter, “Alright, now, I want to ask you about business and I will pay you generously after the task.”

“Normal business is fine Your Excellency. What is your request of the Elves?”

“A few certain talisman to achieve a few specific effects…”

Realization dawned on Gaia, “Do you plan to use the Mana Gathering Spell Formation for combat directly?”

“Yes.”

—that’s…… overkill…

She wanted to lament the fate of his enemies. To use five Mana Gathering Spell Formations to cast and empower combat spells…

Perhaps they do have a chance in winning the war against the enemies of the Terrans after all.

One should know, a normal person’s Mana Pool is limited and once all Mana is used, one becomes a vulnerable target in a battlefield. Mana Gathering Spell Formations gather 3 Mana points every ten seconds, and they can exist perpetually.

If Siva rests for just a week and gather the Mana that entire time, and with five of them, once he is in the battlefield, his spells would be flying in all directions like a rainstorm.

Thus, Gaia felt the shivers for the fate of Siva’s enemies. He was really something else.

.

.

================================

Siva finds a different path for Magic!!

================================

.

.

.

.

.