World Keeper

Chapter 436: The King’s Tribute

As the years continued to pass, a number of rather… strange occurrences took place within the lands of Earth. Creatures could be seen within the starry sky at night, ascending to the heavens. These were the new ‘Disasters’, the creatures spawned at the highest level. For some reason, these creatures were born… different.

One example was a silver serpent a hundred meters long, which flew up into the air, its body wrapped in an almost celestial light. Upon reaching the atmosphere, it did not stop its ascent, flying high above and beyond the clouds of Earth. This creature, like so many others that were being born within nature, seemed to find their home planet simply too small to contain them.

This once noble prince of the sea was leaving behind the world which gave birth to it. Instead, it sought a new home among the stars, one far away from the home it knew. Perhaps something was calling out to it, beckoning it forward. It was hard to imagine what force could summon such a powerful monster.

Or maybe… it felt that there was simply more room to grow in the seas of the stars than the worldly oceans. All that could be clearly seen was that it was leaving.

Atop the Sky Citadel, floating just above the clouds, Tsubaki stood upon her balcony. Her eyes gazed at the silver figure dashing up into space. As she did so, her eyes began to slowly close. “Dana.” Although her tone was gentle, it seemed to echo throughout the entire palace, carried by Tsubaki’s power.

“Yes, Tsuba?” A figure appeared next to Tsubaki through a cloud of silver mist. The shorter elven girl similarly caught sight of the serpent flying high into the sky. “Do we have a problem?” Dana was able to tell by the atmosphere that Tsubaki had not called her to play or study, yet she could not make out what the situation was herself either.

Tsubaki gave a faint nod of her head. “Another Disaster has left the planet.” That was the second one this week, showing that they were leaving with increasing frequency.

“But… that’s a good thing, right?” Dana asked curiously, her eyes going back to Tsubaki. “If they leave us alone, then we won’t need to hunt them down, right?” Dana’s eyes blinked in confusion, clearly not understanding why this was a problem.

Tsubaki let out a long sigh, simply shaking her head. “That depends on why they are leaving.” Due to these creatures being able to survive in the vastness of space, Tsubaki had been able to deduce that these beings had been naturally born with an energy body. That meant that there were only a few reasons why they would depart from this world.

First, and perhaps the most likely reason, was that they sensed the need for a special type of food that could not be found on the planet. Perhaps there were creatures that could only feast upon the energy of a star. Normally, this would indeed be the most likely answer, if it happened only once or twice.

Next, there was the possibility that these creatures simply realized that they had the power to explore new lands, and wished to take advantage of that power. But again… this theory held less and less weight the more creatures left the planet. And within the last ten years, Tsubaki had counted no less than fifty such occurrences.

Finally, there was one other reason for her concern, as she cast her eyes down towards the large red dragon resting atop a nearby mountain. She had been able to sense Fafnir’s restlessness as of late. When she attempted to discover the reason behind it, she found that even Fafnir himself did not know.

Which brought her to the final reason… they were not just leaving the planet. They were fleeing it. There was something in this world that terrified the disaster-level monsters across the globe, causing these most powerful creatures to turn and run as fast as they possibly could.

But… what could do something like that? Was it possible for an existence to truly be powerful enough that its presence was felt by monsters across the globe?

“Dana, I’m going to be calling out to an old friend.” Tsubaki spoke, stepping up onto the rail of the balcony. Soon, she began walking out, her feet landing on the air as if it were a solid platform.

Once Tsubaki had exited the barrier surrounding the citadel, she brought her hands in front of her chest. “I am the servant that abides the will of heaven. I am the speaker of His will. Spirit of the world, you who watches over all creation, I request an audience with you now.”

Tsubaki could feel a pulse of energy spreading out from her body as she issued her summons, and so she closed her eyes to wait. It had been many years since she last spoke with the world spirit of Earth, but she was confident that her call would be answered.

And yet… there was silence in the night. The wind gently blow across Tsubaki’s body, the chill permeating her body, but the familiar presence did not appear. At first, Tsubaki thought that the spirit might be busy, that there might be something requiring her attention. And so, she waited longer, for nearly an hour before performing the call again.

When that still failed to work, Tsubaki’s head snapped upwards. I pray to the lords and ladies above, to any who would hear my call. The spirit of Earth is missing. There was a newfound alarm to Tsubaki’s eyes, the first trace of genuine panic that had been seen in centuries.

It must be known that a true, complete world spirit such as this one could not be slain without destroying the world that they were bound to. At least, that was the theory. So for the world spirit of Earth to go missing… there was something truly grand resting beneath the surface.

“Dale!” An alarmed voice called out to the living room, while Aurivy, Terra and I were still watching Jonas. Turning my head, I saw Bihena walking into the room, a grave expression on her face.

“Bihena…” I muttered to myself, looking at the human goddess. She was not dressed in her casual attire, no simple dresses or clothes. Bihena was wearing her golden armor, her spear strapped to her back. “What happened?”

“Earth’s world spirit.” Bihena spoke slowly, her eyes glancing between myself and Terra. “It’s being consumed.”

I shot to my feet when I heard that, my eyes going wide. “How?” I asked aloud, my mind instantly recalling the creature that I had seen in the elemental plane of life. The beast that hunted Fyor’s world spirit. “Did it escape..?”

“No.” Terra spoke with a small sigh, shaking her head. “There’s another anomaly. It looks like one finally spawned as a disaster again.”

I turned around, facing Terra, before turning to the TV. “Show me.”

Terra gave a brief nod, pointing to the screen. The ‘channel’ switched to a scene hovering over the vast ocean. Down below, a shadow could be seen beneath the waves, one that sent chills down my spine.

What frightened me most of all… was that the shadow was familiar. I had only seen the shape once before, and only then its hand. Long ago, before I had even become a ranked Keeper, when I was sailing on the open sea. Only then, this creature was smaller, so much smaller. And even then, it had been large enough for a single hand to grasp a creature over a hundred meters long.

This time… it stood in the depths of the ocean, and yet it felt like its body was almost touching the surface. This was a Sea Terror, one of the ancient kings of the deep. I always thought that they would have been replaced by something worse, but…

My eyes focused in on the massive monster, and I was able to see that its body was composed entirely of energy, primarily spiritual and natural energy, with ki as the runner up. If there was anything that could be celebrated, it was that the mana of this monster seemed remarkably weak. “Terra, this anomaly, what is it that allows the monster to devour the world spirits?”

“It’s not just the world spirits…” Terra spoke with a sigh. “This thing is a vacuum for energy. If any energy touches it, it begins to absorb that energy, and anything directly connected to it. And Dale… natural energy is everywhere, and it is all connected to the spirit.”

I furrowed my brows when I heard that. “So the world spirit of Earth had her intelligence consumed before she could escape… and now it is continuing to absorb her faster than she can recover, along with the rest of the natural energy in its surroundings.”

Bihena gave a firm nod. “If this creature is not destroyed, it will continue to grow without limits. As it feasts on energy, it becomes larger and larger.”

This is worse than the chimera soul. I muttered inwardly. Pulling up the menu, I directly selected the Smite option. There was the chance that this thing could even absorb divine energy. While the most likely outcome there would be for it to self destruct, I couldn’t overlook the option that it would trigger an evolution.

Yet… the smite did not work. The creature continued to stand there, beneath the sea, as if nothing had happened. “Sorry, Dale.” Terra spoke sadly from the couch. “Because of how far this anomaly has grown, it has evolved beyond the tiers of monsters you own. As such, it is no longer regarded as your ‘property’, and can’t be targeted with system commands.”

I looked at Terra, and could feel the guilt in her gaze. She knew about this, but was unable to tell me. This wasn’t something she ‘naturally’ knew, but rather something she knew only because of her status as the System Companion. Meaning that it was beyond her ability to share with me until we discovered the problem ourselves.

Letting out a long sigh, I turned to look at Bihena. “You and I will take care of this. Judging by the creature’s mana levels, its intelligence should not be too high, so it is still running on its base instincts. We’ll use those to take it down.”

Bihena seemed to realize something, nodding her head. “We’ll need the Sea Princes. A lot of them.”

“Right… this thing has a natural appetite for those monsters.” I nodded in agreement. “Get as many as you can muster. If what Terra said about it is accurate, then we need to completely destroy it in one shot. Otherwise, we may end up dealing with a Sea Terror God.”

Bihena’s face darkened at that, but she nodded her head. With a flash of golden light, she disappeared from the living room. Once she had done so, I closed my eyes to focus. Irena, I need your pen. We have a bit of a situation.

No sooner had I sent that message than I was able to feel the cool length of a pen resting on my hand. Thank you, Irena. I whispered mentally, before preparing myself for a fight.