World Keeper

Chapter 625: The Shadow Knights

Udona tapped a finger on her desk, deep in thought as she looked over the papers in front of her. After recruiting Phisher to join her newly established Holy Knights, a creation of hers from the version of the future he had seen, she had been looking into the other members that he had reported entering the organization. However, there was a slight problem selecting any of them at the current time.

Of the remaining Holy Knights, three of them had not even been born yet by the time Phisher presented the information to Udona. With how the timeline had been altered since then, it was impossible to tell if they would even be born at all at this rate, let alone live up to the same standards as the life Phisher had seen.

Aside from those three, the rest had yet to fully mature, with the exception of one man. The only other person to be recruited into the present Holy Knights was a man by the name of Jace Beldin. While Jace had not reached his divine state, becoming the God of Storms that Phisher had seen, he was a remarkably powerful and noble fighter.

When Udona looked into this man, she found that he was a traveler, one that would often go from city to city. Few people truly noticed him, as he did not draw much attention to himself. Jace walked the roads instead of utilizing portals, he stayed in cheap inns, and he appeared unarmed.

However, every city he visited, he would enter the adventurer’s guild to look at unfinished hunting requests. While he never took the requests himself, he would still go and kill the monsters listed in them.

There were two reasons why he never took those requests, from what Udona could tell using her divine insight– in other words, scrolling back through his personal history using the cheats available to her as a Companion. The first was because he was already a Perfect Self, having no need for the basic living necessities like food and water. He was entirely self-sufficient in terms of energy.

The second reason was more direct. He believed that if he took the requests and made a name for himself, the guild would try to tie him down to a specific area. Without the freedom to move as he wished, he could no longer live his carefree hunting life.

The real challenge for Udona at that part had been to convince this man to join her and become her knight. The unsung lord of storms was a powerful elemental monk that had awakened three elemental attributes within his ki. While water and wind were only common elements, his third attribute was far more rare. The element of lightning was the basis for his title, as well as the effect that was produced when he released all three together.

When Udona manifested herself in front of him, he had naturally prostrated himself as any kitsune would in her presence. Given her status, that reaction was something she was all-too used to. However, when she asked him to become her knight, he actually refused.

It was only when Udona assured him that he could continue to live his life as a wanderer, and only needed to respond in times of crisis, that he accepted. Even then, she could feel that he was hesitant to do so. After officially becoming her knight, and learning how to cultivate a pledge weapon, he said his farewells.

In Phisher’s timeline, it was Jace that had originally approached her seeking to join the Holy Knights after a monster tide swept over several villages and forced the Goddess to reveal her hand. Quite literally, by manifesting a giant hand to crush the monsters. However, Udona had no reason to believe that such a tide would definitely occur this time, and no desire to wait for it to do so.

Her current problem that she was facing was that she had no clue who she should recruit to fill the remaining spots of her knights. Naturally, her mind first went to Dana and Tsubaki, two of the greatest combatants in any world. But with their status as Dale’s servants, she did not want to make it seem like she was poaching them.

Aside from those two, there were numerous powerful individuals, both godly and otherwise. The problem with them was their character. Most of them held no loyalty to Deckan, either because they were members of other races or because they had otherwise moved away. Such people wouldn’t have a strong desire to act as her knights, aside from wishing to gain her favor as a member of the Greater Pantheon.

That was not the type of people that Udona wished to recruit, which was why she had not announced that she was looking for members. She did not wish to be swarmed by millions of people looking for nothing more than extra blessings, and only wanted those who would truly devote themselves to the protection of the people.

As she was thinking about that, Phisher suddenly reacted to something. Golden light flashed as a blade tore through the air of the office, moving towards a dark corner. As a man that had basically become her personal guard, it was not uncommon to find her staying near the God-Queen of Deckan.

What was unusual, though, was for something to be able to stop his strike. A black shield with golden carvings appeared, taking the brunt of the attack and deflecting it to the side. There was a crash as the attack was parried, carving out a large hole in the wall.

“Stay back.” Phisher warned as he stepped forward, this time drawing his sword. However, he felt his divine energy being pressed down by the goddess behind him.

“It’s fine, this is a guest of mine.” Udona said with a small smile, slowly standing up. “You can come out now, Dana.”

“Tsk, thought I could pull a fast one on you.” A childlike voice spoke from the shadows, Dana walking out from behind the shield. She looked at the hole in the wall, and then Phisher, before finally turning to face the shield. “Good block, Sanct. I should put you against divine opponents more often.”

“Please don’t.” A masculine voice spoke up from behind the shield, which was lowered to reveal a human face. “It took half of my energy to merely parry his blow.”

“Oh?” Dana blinked, looking at Phisher again. “There was a potential threat to your queen just now. You didn’t hold back, right?”

Although it had taken a moment, Phisher was able to recognize the girl before him. The only issue was that she should not have existed in this form, according to his memories. Dana should have existed as the spirit companion to Tsubaki before falling at the final battle against the golem army. “I would never hold back in the face of an enemy.” Phisher said firmly.

In truth, he was also surprised that his strike was blocked. Clearly, the human male was not a divine being, and had only cultivated the path of a knight. Being able to block the full-power strike of a purely offensive god just as himself was a remarkable achievement. Let alone half of his energy, Phisher would compliment him even if he spent all of his energy to block it.

Hearing that, Dana nodded her head with a smile, looking back to Sanct. “Cultivate well. If you can become the God of the Shield, your defense should be unbreakable.”

“We don’t even know if people like us can ascend to divinity or not.” Sanct pointed out with a frustrated twitch of his brow, two other forms emerging from behind them. Given that one was an elf, and the other seemed like a halfling, Phisher couldn’t help but appear confused.

“True… I’ll need to get someone to test that.” Dana nodded in agreement, already making plans. She had once been the familiar of Tsubaki, and thus her soul was also partially touched by a god. She had a certain degree of confidence that she could create a person designed to pursue the path of godhood.

Udona cleared her throat to get Dana’s attention, causing the elf to clap her hands together. “Ah! Right. Sorry for dropping in like this, but I felt that it was time to make my intentions known.”

Hearing that, Udona simply gave a small, knowing smile. “Are these the three you’ve been training in secret?”

Dana clasped her hands together behind her back and spun on one heel as she confirmed Udona’s words. “That’s right! After training that energy that the boss taught me, I’ve become the owner of this world’s shadows, in a way. These three are the soldiers I’ve painstakingly brought up in order to work for you. Though admittedly, their training went a bit longer than I wanted.”

“Each one of them holds the power of a Maxer from Fyor, with highly specialized training in their field. The Card Knight, Hollevin, has been trained in every known magic system, and can fight against a warrior of the same level in melee combat.” Dana waved towards the elven man, who offered a small nod.

“The Defending Knight, Sanct, trained in every form of defense I could come up with, and a few he invented himself. As long as his energy lasts, he will never allow those behind him to fall.” As she said that, she gestured towards the knight wielding the black shield.

“And finally, the Silent Knight, Despir. Trained in infiltration and counter-espionage, he is a master assassin and spy. Feel free to throw him at any troublesome magic wards.” She gestured finally towards the halfling, whose eyes went wide at the last sentence.

“I object to this on principle!” He shouted out, before Dana shook her head.

“Objection overruled!” Dana called out, before looking to Udona once more. “These three will be training more soldiers for you when you are not actively deploying them. Over time, you will have an army in the shadows.”

“I only have two questions.” Udona swept her gaze over the three shadow soldiers. “I’ve been watching your progress from the side ever since I noticed you claiming the shadows here. So, I must ask… where’s the fourth one?”

Dana sulked, lowering her head with a sigh. “Janaerra isn’t ready. She kept missing chores and is a bit airheaded, so Tsubaki wanted to personally train her. But this last week, she’s been busy working on that emergency request from the Metong. She should be out now helping to get rid of their pest problem.”

“There is a problem with the Metong?” Phisher asked, blinking in surprise, which actually surprised Dana even more.

“Did nobody tell you guys?” She looked between Phisher and Udona, who shrugged her shoulders.

“It was not an enemy that Phisher should fight. He’s good at fighting groups, but… that was a bit much to ask of a single deity. Even someone from the Greater Pantheon might not be able to take out all of them before our energy ran out.” Hearing Udona’s words, Phisher’s shoulders dropped slightly. Although he did not know the scale of the enemy they were discussing, it was clear that it was strong enough to give even the Greater Pantheon pause.

“Right. Anyways, Tsubaki’s going to finish training Janaerra after she gets back from work. But you said you had a second question?”

The Goddess of Life gave a small nod, looking towards Hollevin. “I remember him being the Martial Mage… so where did his title of Card Knight come from?”

Dana let out another sigh, shaking her head. “I refused to make that his official title. So he locked himself up in a library for a couple of days playing with magic cards. I can mass-produce them in the shadows, and I’ve copied almost all of the types known to Deckan. So Hollevin has built up about… twenty different decks?” Dana looked towards the elven man for confirmation.

“Almost twenty-one.” He corrected her. “I need to come up with a few more combinations for my crystal beast deck.”