World Keeper

Chapter 601: A Second Chance

Within the world of Kione, a lone lycan woman sat atop a high roof overlooking the city. She could see a number of flying vehicles, or individuals being carried by the magic of their familiars. Her own familiar, a golden-armored crab, stood silently behind her, guarding her.

She was among the first residents of Kione to reach her current stage, just one step short of becoming a goddess through her own power. However, she wanted to take a slightly different path than most who had reached her level. A path that could potentially be unique among those practicing the magic of Kione.

“Kingsa, come over here.” She spoke in a quiet voice, holding up her hand. Using the method that she had read about from those who had already ascended, she condensed a small fragment of her divine energy. At the same time, the crab standing behind her began walking over, its legs clicking against the stone roof as it moved.

When it was in front of her, the woman gave a light toss, sending the fragment of divinity into the mouth of her familiar. This was the method that she had come up with. When other people had ascended, their familiars had remained at the third rank, assuming that they had any to begin with.

However, weren’t familiars merely manifestations of mana combined with spiritual energy? That was the theory that this woman was testing, the path that she sought to pursue. When she had created her divine soul, she had done so both for herself and her familiar, which ultimately turned its silver armor a bright gold. Even when she did that, though, it was not a true evolution.

This time, she was aiming to truly evolve her familiar, to help it ascend to the fourth tier by way of divinity. Only after she had seen the results of this test would she allow herself to ascend. If it failed, she knew that her spirit would be wounded, and that it would take her some time before she could recover.

As she saw the golden light fall into the mouth of the crab, she watched with hope, waiting to see what would become of her most trusted companion. When the golden light of its carapace began to shine more and more brightly, she clenched her fists, hoping that her gamble would pay off.

She wanted to be a pioneer, and that involved a certain amount of risk. However, such a thing would be unavoidable forever. If nobody took that risk, nobody could reap the rewards, after all.

Though she continued to watch her Kingsa, she found that its shell was only pulsating with a more holy light. However, this did not cause her any true alarm. After all, she could sense that her familiar had fallen unconscious, something that had been reported as a common occurrence when one ascended to godhood.

Deep in her heart, she maintained her hope for a fourth tier familiar, hoping that she had chosen the correct path for her evolution. But, when the minutes turned into hours, she began to suspect something was wrong. Until, eventually, a pair of messages appeared in front of her.

Her eyes gave a small, subconscious twitch as she read the messages. It was true… her familiar had really evolved. But it was not to the stage she was hoping for. Instead of becoming a fourth tier familiar, it was now a Divine Familiar of the third tier.

What is a Divine Familiar, anyways? Granted, she could make some assumptions based on the contents of the second message. The fact that it required her to possess her own domain meant that it would no doubt receive additional traits dependent on those domains, or act as a channel for them.

With a reluctant sigh, she shook her head and began the process for her own ascension, doing her best to hide her own disappointment from the ‘failure’ of her experiment. At the very least, it had not split her soul.

A kitsune man in his later years stood atop a mountain of metal corpses, a divine blade held in his hands. His eyes radiated golden light as his gaze turned upwards. The starry sky had turned black, obscured by the shadow of a massive construct hovering over the world of Deckan. His grip on his sword tightened, watching the rain of metallic entities, formed of clumps of machinery that seemed haphazardly fused together.

Some of these creatures released blinding flashes of magic, others wielding the power of ki. If this man were alone, he knew that he would have fallen long ago. However, he wasn’t alone. The God-Queen of Deckan fought alongside him, as did the servants of the Keeper.

He didn’t know why the Keeper himself did not appear for this fight, but he did not have the time to question that decision. He saw the center of the great shadow above release a blinding white light, and then… nothing.

After he saw that message, he awoke with a startled gasp, looking around his room. “A dream…?” He thought to himself as he took in the familiar decorations. Everything he saw seemed so real. And it wasn’t merely a scene from the end… fifty years of his life had passed, all still vivid in his mind.

“Phisher, are you awake?” He heard his mother calling from below, knowing she must have heard him. Going by the time of day, it was likely that she had just prepared breakfast, and it was almost time for him to go to class.

“Yeah, mom.” He called down, slowly climbing out of bed. He had to find some way to determine if his dream had really just been a dream. With that in mind, he opened his status window and achievements, looking for anything out of the ordinary.

What he saw made his eyes go wide in shock, his legs starting to tremble. He knew very clearly what his level had been like before he went to bed. His levels as a Scholar would not allow him to forget the information of his own status. Yet, what he saw now defied all of that.

Not only had his normal levels, such as Scholar and Engineer, increased. Even combat classes like Warrior, Monk, and Assassin had received huge leaps in power. Moreover, he had advanced classes that he never possessed before, the Perfect Self, Elemental Monk, and Pilot.

It took Phisher only a few moments to realize that this had been his status from the end of the dream. The power he possessed at the moment he ‘died’. When he had confirmed that fact, he quickly looked at his achievements window.

Sure enough… the God of Blades achievement had been added to his window. That was the domain that he had painstakingly cultivated over dozens of years, starting with his time as a knight serving under the God-Queen. But how did he have all of that now?

Phisher knew for a fact that he had not developed any sort of technique that would allow him to sever fate, or cut the flow of time. From his memories of the ‘dream’, there was nothing that seemed to indicate any power that could send him back in time, even partially. He had not even made personal contact with the Goddess of Fate.

Still, this knowledge that he possessed must serve a sort of purpose. Closing his eyes, he thought back to the enemy that had destroyed Deckan at the end of his dream. Golems, like the Metong and the March, but of an entirely different breed. Within the last year, they had made their way through the solar system with a massive fleet, devouring one planet after another.

The Metong joined the defensive formation around Deckan, their advanced technology and magic proving to be every bit the equal of the invading forces. That is… until the great shadow came. A ship so large that it was every bit as big as the entire planet, perhaps even larger. Through some unknown means, it destroyed the Metong forces as well as the native Deckan fleet.

From there, it was the inevitable last stand. Gods fell in that battle, killed by the relentless tide of mechanized mobs. Phisher himself didn’t know how many had survived by escaping through the ring, but it would be far less than the number of people that fell.

Thinking of that, he focused for a brief moment, his clothes changing into something more formal. Despite his body still being that of his teenage self, his mind was that of an elder. “I’ve got to go take care of something, mom. I’ll try to be back a bit later.” He called down to his mother, not giving her time to answer.

A sword appeared in his hand, cutting through the air and opening a portal. When he stepped through the portal, he had already appeared before the God-Queen’s palace. His arrival was easily detected, as he made no attempts to conceal his presence. When the guards saw the weapon in his hand, they gripped their own more tightly, preparing for battle.

Phisher let out a faint sigh when he saw this, but knew that he couldn’t fight them. Doing so would only create more trouble for himself later. He had been tempted to seek out the Sky Citadel instead, but his memory did not include the current whereabouts for the traveling fortress of the Keeper.

Lady Udona, Goddess of Life and protector of the world. He prayed in his mind, knowing that this was the easiest method to attract her attention. Phisher had thought about what words he would use before coming here, and chose them carefully based on his past experiences. I request an audience to discuss the third race of golems.

After his prayer, golden light began to shine around the palace, attracting the attention of the guards. It was hard to tell for them if the God-Queen had released this light as a warning or a sign of welcome. You are… a newly ascended god. But your name isn’t in the registry. May I ask how you used your divinity without being suppressed?

Phisher gave a bitter smile at that, recalling the Divine Registry and the annoyance it had initially caused when he first began his path of ascension. It is an ability I cultivated long ago. The power to cut through restrictions. The registry won’t have an effect on me unless I suppress this power.

I see… we have much to discuss, it would appear. The light pulsed around the palace, and the guards blinked, seeming to receive a message in their minds. Their postures relaxed, and they stepped back to make way for Phisher to enter the palace.

As he walked in, he allowed his divine blade to disperse into countless specks of light, maintaining a formal posture that didn’t match his apparent age. Upon entering the audience chamber that Udona guided him towards, he saw that she wasn’t alone. Standing next to her was James, a researcher that had joined in the final battle.

Phisher couldn’t be sure of what happened to James in the end, and only knew that he had been enraged by the enemy for killing someone he cared about. He might have perished in the same blast that killed Phisher, or he may have survived the battle through some special means.

However, James had a peculiar look on his face when he saw Phisher. There was no recognition, but rather curiosity. “You’re older than you look.” He said, rather plainly. “But it’s not a disguise…”

Phisher simply shook his head, directing his attention towards the God-Queen before dropping to one knee. “Lady Udona. If the matter this time were not dire, I would not have appeared in this way. I hope that you can excuse my rudeness.”

To his surprise, Udona returned his words with a smile. “It’s refreshing to see something like this. But please, speak your mind. I did not think that any of this world would know of the third golem race yet.”

Phisher was not too surprised that Udona knew of these creatures. As the Goddess of Life, all races were under her care in one way or another. “I had a dream, Your Highness. A dream of fifty years, starting this day. However… when I awoke from my dream after my own death, I found that I had retained all of my power. Such a thing, combined with the vivid detail of the dream itself, leads me to believe that it was more than just a simple dream.”

A look of realization dawned upon James as he seemed to understand what happened. “We have an anomaly… a rather rare one at that.”