World Keeper

Chapter 664: First Encounter

Not long after my return from Deckan, Dana conveyed to me the prediction that the Terra twins made upon my departure. Had I known that they were capable of predictions on that scale, I would have asked them to do so before I left. As it was… it was still not too difficult to piece together what their prediction meant, in terms of the enemy location.

Few people had the evidence to support it, but there were many who likely suspected that Earth was the ‘birthplace of creation’. After all, it was one of the first batch of worlds to enter the alliance, and was the one which contained all races aside from the demons. Even if someone else heard that saying, they might know that it referred to the realm of Earth.

The other one is… more tricky. Ruptured space could refer to a few different things. Instead of referring to an entire realm, like Earth, it could refer to the fleet already passing through the void. And even if it were referring to a realm, that would only help me narrow it down to one of two, either Deckan or the realm of the golems. The dimensional borders between those two worlds are thinner, and have led to ruptures from time to time.

The rest of the prediction… I wasn’t really sure what it meant, aside from the fact that the invaders would be able to utilize more of their technology once they established their void bases. However, that was something that I already knew about, so I wasn’t incredibly worried there.

At the very least, their prediction allowed me to discern that at least one of the enemy groups was currently within the Earth realm. Furthermore, neither of them should be in either Lorek or Spica, going by the description of the other location. Or rather, I had never heard of anything from either of those areas matching such.

This allowed me to relax my watch slightly in relation to those two worlds. Although it was too early to entirely leave them alone, I did not have to constantly be worried about being struck there anymore. Now, I had to devote myself to finishing my detection city so that I could find the enemy’s bases.

Glancing up at the night sky hanging over the city, I let out a rather solemn sigh. Now that I knew that one group was within the Earth realm, I had a rather large advantage. After all, I possessed the World Shadow of Earth. Theoretically, that meant that I would be able to transport myself wherever I wanted and catch the enemy off-guard.

Sadly, reality did not match up to that desire. World’s Shadow was an ability that fundamentally relied on shadows. Although space could be considered an infinite darkness, darkness only became a shadow when it was cast on a surface. Floating darkness would not allow the transmission of the World’s Shadow, preventing me from extending its reach outside of the planet.

For a moment, I considered going to other colonized worlds in this realm and spreading my shadow there. That way, I would be able to expand my domain. However, I ultimately decided against doing so. Since the enemy was operating a space fleet, it would make no difference for this invasion if my domain extended to a few other planets. More likely than not, their troops would never descend to a planet’s surface, unless I hid somewhere like Fyor where they could only attack me by sending ground troops.

Come to think of it, how would they battle in such a situation? I wondered to myself curiously. They would have to be prepared for the eventuality where the enemy has a sealed world that does not allow space travel. They’d need ground troops for situations like that, right? Or would Silence simply consider rounds like that an excusable loss?

Shaking my head, I got rid of those thoughts, once again turning my attention to the Command Hub. The question to ask myself now was merely whether or not my enemy was able to establish their void base before I upgraded my detection abilities to find them. It would be great if that was the case, but I had to prepare for the eventuality where they establish their forces before I can locate them.

“Tsubaki.” I called out towards the nearby kitsune maid, who promptly looked back in my direction.

“Yes, my Keeper?” She asked in a reverent tone, bowing low as she waited to hear what I had to say.

“What’s the production rate of the galactic fleet at Deckan?” I knew that we wouldn’t be able to match the enemy’s output speed once they really got their bases set up, so I had to understand how far ahead we were at the start.

Tsubaki thought about it for a moment before answering. “Using the nano-production methods of the Metong, we are able to create one ship every week. Currently, we have just over one thousand Destiny-Class vessels in operation throughout the various worlds.”

I gave a small nod when I heard that. A thousand ships were by no means weak. The problem was that they had to be spread out to cover numerous worlds, meaning that the actual force each fleet could muster was reduced considerably. Sadly, I did not know just how fast the production speed would get once the enemy became established. The production of cloned troops should take time, but even that was uncertain.

Glancing towards the system window, I once again confirmed that the enemy numbers remained steady at two hundred. They had not yet expanded their forces, so perhaps my concerns were unwarranted.

Time passed slowly, the Destiny Fleet hovering high above the world. They had been there for weeks, and showed no signs of moving. Julia shook her head as she recalled the words that Aurivy left behind before departing. Naturally, she knew long ago that her friend had used a mortal incarnation. In fact, she often played with the mortal form of Aurivy when the goddess herself was preoccupied with other things. Thus, there was no bad blood between them over this matter.

Just… she felt rather lonely with Aurivy having been gone for this long. Looking around her home, seeing the clean living room and spotless table, she thought back to how they would play together. Sometimes, they would just sit and eat snacks while watching movies. With her gone like this, the house felt empty.

Her eyes roamed over to the pair of visors sitting on a nearby counter, the latest model of virtual reality equipment that they had purchased a few weeks back. Aurivy hadn’t taken hers with her, as she had hoped to return within a few hours. Maybe I should deliver it to her, so that we can spend some time together before this whole mess gets resolved?

Shaking her head, she decided not to intrude on her friend’s matters. Instead, she focused on the connection between the two of them, sending a silent prayer. Do you know when you’re going to be free to return, Rivy?

It took a moment for Aurivy to respond, a sign of the message being unexpected. Sorry, looks like I’ll be here for a while yet. If you want to come over, I could ask Udona to spare an extra room?

The offer was far more tempting than it should have been, and Julia found herself almost agreeing on the spot. However, she felt a faint tremor in the air. Looking outside, there were explosions flashing through the sky, bursts of light as bright as the sun streaking from one end to the other. Julia’s face contorted as she realized that the Destiny fleet was engaging in battle.

Aurivy! Dange- Her thoughts were cut off as one beam of light struck the planet, far in the distance. Even so, she could feel the tremors reaching her all the way in her home, the windows of her house shattering. A moment later, an explosion shattered the world, crushing her divine body with the rubble of her home as it was blasted apart.

As she was a deity, she was not immediately slain by such damage, though it was incredibly jarring to her. Before she could properly recover, she found golden mist wrapping around her scattered divine body. The next thing she knew, she was beginning to recondense her form atop a large, red carpet.

“Julia!?” Aurivy ran over, retracting her mist as she saw her friend’s body reforming. Above her head, her health bar had appeared, showing that she had lost half of her health from that attack. This was the most damage that she had ever taken with her real body, aside from the moment when she achieved her perfection.

“Danger…” Julia said, even as her head had not finished reforming. “The world… was destroyed… light.” It was hard to put into words what she had seen. There was an intense battle, for sure, but it seemed almost as if a single stray blast had destroyed an entire planet.

“Alena!” Aurivy yelled out into the empty air, waving her hands. Golden mist surged throughout the bedroom, one figure after another appearing around the two of them. Even the God-Queen Udona had been pulled over abruptly, seeming surprised at the change in scenery.

However, when everyone saw the damaged form of Julia, their expressions twisted. The felyn girl Alena retreated a step, eyes wide in shock. Aurivy turned to face her, her eyes almost cold. “Use your book. I need to confirm this quickly.”

Alena did not have the strength to refuse Aurivy, quickly summoning her Pledge of Life and Death. When she opened it, she found dozens of names crossed off, and released a gasp of shock. Udona saw the list, only giving a small nod. The enemy was beginning to move in earnest now, and they had lost over half of a fleet protecting one world.

To her surprise, however, there were no new names being crossed off as they observed the book. Udona knew that there should be more ships stationed in that sector. This meant that one side had fled, or they had only managed to destroy the enemy after suffering such heavy losses.

Similarly, Aurivy appeared familiar with the list as well. Browsing through it, she found a name that she knew and closed her eyes to project her divine senses around that individual. Admiral Degaro was an ardent worshipper of Aurivy, and was a halfling commander within the fleet. Thus, she was able to borrow his eyes to observe the surroundings.

What she saw was a scene of desolation. The halfling admiral was staring in horror at the sight of a shattered planet, its pieces engulfed in flames. As his eyes swept back towards the destroyed enemy ships, she caught another horrifying thought from his mind.

Aurivy’s eyes snapped open, but she felt a chill running down her back. She shared a glance with Udona, confirming that the other goddess had investigated the scene through a similar method. “One hundred ships…” She muttered, recalling the last thoughts from the admiral before she closed the connection.

Udona nodded her head. “And the survivors all self-destructed after destroying the planet.” In terms of the amount of ships lost, it could be seen that the Destiny-class fleet was superior in their capabilities. Unfortunately, it was not to the degree where they could protect themselves and the planets that they were guarding at the same time.

I was pacing back and forth within the Command Hub, my eyes glancing at the system window again. It had been a week at this point since the invasion began, and I had finally expanded the detection range to include the entire galaxy. However, I remained unable to find the enemy, meaning that they had already established their base.

This was further proven by the fact that their numbers within the system window had recently skyrocketed. From two hundred invaders, there were now over a thousand times that number. Clearly, their cloning method allowed them to produce troops far more quickly than I had ever considered possible.

Dale… Udona’s voice spoke solemnly into my mind, and she began to relay the news regarding our first conflict with the enemy. How they had sent in a hundred ships, only to destroy themselves after devastating a planet.

My steps paused, and I looked at the number on the interface more closely. It’s… gone down by about thirty thousand, I think? That meant that their ships would have been operating with a crew of three hundred each. Sacrificing thirty thousand troops and a hundred ships…

It wasn’t hard to understand that these were truly disposable assets to the enemy. It wouldn’t take more than a day to replenish those numbers. However, it was still better to keep them than not. Or, at least, I would assume so.

Send out scouting ships to the surrounding worlds. I want to know if other planets have been destroyed, or if they somehow knew to specifically target an inhabited world. It seemed like the invasion was really going to be kicking off at this point.