World Keeper

Chapter 668: Hidden Weakness

As I rode on Leowynn’s back, the two of us approached the large, blue cluster. It was easy to guess from its appearance that it should have been the location where the mana gems were being produced within the void. However, the fact that the gems within the real world did not explode when they should have was still worrying to me.

I did not believe that it had anything to do with our invaders. If anything, their involvement with this ‘blue star’ would have rendered it completely inoperable. Had they done that, it would have dealt a critical blow to our fleet that I doubted we could recover from.

When we neared the cluster, I was able to make out several details within, my eyes going wide in shock. The barriers surrounding the world of the reality gems were weak and fragile. This was something that Leowynn had already confirmed in a previous experiment. As an unstable, artificial world, they could be destroyed rather easily.

Yet, that very nature resulted in the amalgamation I was seeing in front of me. The worlds that were created as a result of mass-producing these mana gems were crammed together in one area of the void. They were packed so tightly that their barriers kept rubbing against each other… and if my world sight was accurate, those barriers had already been destroyed.

With few exceptions, the bubbles within the void representing these mass-produced spheres had all merged. Now, what I was looking at was an almost writhing world that was slowly stabilizing. Its outer shell, which surrounded the entire cluster, was far stronger than the normally fragile mana gem.

This should still be a world consisting only of mana, right? I thought to myself as I observed the world resting in front of me. For such a world to become more stable, how many smaller worlds had it consumed in the process?

Perhaps more importantly, what had happened to the worlds belonging to the destroyed gems? Had it not caused any harm due to the gems now connecting to a single, larger world? While that would be good if it were the case, it opened an entirely different can of problems.

If this mass within the void were to be destroyed, it would no doubt cause every mana gem it was connected to to simply shatter. All of the ships and machines being powered by these items would suddenly stop working. Even if they didn’t violently explode, the loss of power would be enough to cripple anything related to them.

“This isn’t good.” I muttered to myself, shaking my head. While there were short-term benefits with the increased stability of the mana gems, it left a long-term weakness that had to be resolved. Furthermore, I had to acknowledge the possibility that there was an upper limit to how many smaller worlds could be combined into one before they naturally collapsed.

In the event of such a collapse, all of the related mana gems would stop working anyways, and there may even be greater consequences within the void. “The red, green, and silver ones next… I need to confirm that this is happening with all of them.” I whispered to Leowynn, who began to fly me off into the distance.

Although it would hurt my galactic fleet to lose the convenient source of theoretically limitless energy, I couldn’t risk that fleet being crippled the moment an invader popped the wrong bubble. Given our current level of advancement, we shouldn’t be more than a few major achievements off from harvesting energy directly from the void like they did.

I had to comfort myself with that knowledge, because I soon found that my worries were not unfounded. Whether it was the ki, spiritual energy, or natural energy ‘worlds’, they had all formed similar amalgamations. Granted, the green worlds were still in the process of fusing, as they were not produced nearly as frequently. But, from what I saw, it would only be a matter of time.

Along the way, I did also find numerous scattered worlds. They were tiny, unstable fragments that seemed quite similar to the giant masses, and it took me a moment to realize what they were. These smaller worlds should have been the gems that were previously used in fusions to establish ‘complete’ worlds. Because they had been used in those fusions, their coordinates within the void should have shifted over time, allowing them to escape from that fusion.

I could find at least a little bit of solace in that, given that it meant that the mana gem which previously gave us the greatest amount of worry would not be included in the massive cluster. I thought back to the sentient mana entities, the creatures that had noticed our observations from outside the world. If they were to be released in a larger world, I had no doubt that they would further evolve.

Tsubaki sat within the Control Hub of the detection city, staring intently at the countdown for the upgrade panel. Her mission had not yet been relieved by the Keeper, so she was determined to follow it through until the end. Sure, she had heard that he was leading a force to destroy an enemy base, but she did not have any delusions that they would only establish one such base within the void.

The enemy had proven themselves capable of mass-producing ships, soldiers, even entire worlds with limited startup resources. Why would they ever be satisfied with just one base? Thus, she waited, knowing that her patience would be rewarded. That is, until the countdown froze less than five minutes before the next update could be applied.

Tsubaki sat there, looking in confusion at the screen for several long moments. Then, the countdown was replaced with a bolded sign, reading ‘Victory!’. She let out a long sigh, realizing that her Keeper must have done something to resolve the problem at its source. Having a vague idea of what would happen next, she stood from her seat and exited the hub.

All around her, the entire city was dissolving. This area had been a creation of the Keeper’s divinity, based upon a strict set of game laws. Now that the game had concluded, that divinity was unraveling at its source. The expressionless people walking back and forth within the city had frozen, their features slowly becoming more and more hollow until, eventually, they simply faded away into nothingness.

Tsubaki offered a small nod of her head, as if thanking the city for its service. Although it had not found the enemy, it offered the Keeper some peace of mind while it was working. Thinking of how panicked he might have been, had he never known if the enemy were right outside their door, that simple peace of mind had still played a decisive role in its own way.

Her body flashed, and she quickly returned to the Sky Citadel, where she found Dana sitting in the garden. “You should be able to recall your units from Spica and Lorek.” She said as she walked up and crouched next to Dana. “We should be receiving positive news from the Keeper soon.”

Dana looked over, blinking, before nodding her head. “Sure, Tsuba. I guess we didn’t really have a chance to act in this battle, did we?”

Tsubaki smiled softly towards Dana, reaching out and rubbing the top of her head. “It’s better that way.” She still remembered the scene of a previous invasion. One where Dana had been forced to participate. If she had the choice, she would rather not place Dana in danger like that, but she knew that such thoughts could be considered selfish. After all, she would not hesitate for even a moment to experience danger for the Keeper, so who was she to stop others from doing so?

Dana thought about it for a moment, nodding her head. “Right. As long as it’s all over, that’s what’s important.” A smile grew on her face as she said that. The fact that the battle was over and that they didn’t have to act meant that there was no longer a reason to be worried.

When she came to that thought, Dana rose to her feet, brushing off her black dress. “So, what do you want to do now?” At the moment, she did not have any ongoing projects that she had to attend to, no major research goals or inventions that she wanted to complete.

However, when she heard Tsubaki’s answer, she felt like she should find something to use as an excuse to keep herself busy. “As the servants of the Keeper, we should stand by and await his return.” She said as if it were only natural, making Dana’s face contort slightly.

Who knows if he’ll return before ascending back to his palace… is she going to have us wait for a week again? There had been times in the past several years when Tsubaki anticipated the Keeper’s arrival, and had asked Dana to accompany her to wait for him. However, because the flow of time for the Keeper did not always match up with the flow of time for the mortal world, they had ended up waiting for several days before Tsubaki reluctantly admitted that he wasn’t returning when she thought he was.

Though, she could also not simply ask Tsubaki to wait for so long by herself. Thus, Dana nodded her head in resignation and began following Tsubaki towards the throne room. Once they were there, the two of them found a comfortable standing posture, and began to wait.

Thankfully, they were not left waiting for very long. After roughly twenty minutes, the air before them was torn open, and two figures appeared within the throne room. One of them was clearly the Keeper, while the other was someone that both Tsubaki and Dana recognized as Leowynn, the Keeper’s daughter and the Goddess of the Stars.

“Thanks, Leowynn.” The Keeper told his daughter, though he seemed to have a somewhat troubled expression on his face. Leowynn nodded, reaching out to pat his shoulder briefly before her body vanished into specks of golden light.

“Is something wrong, boss?” Dana spoke up first, noticing that something seemed amiss with their brief interaction. Given that Leowynn was there, he should have either been in the void or deep space. But with his current expression… had their side suffered heavier losses than they expected? It wouldn’t be hard to believe if the Keeper was perhaps the only survivor.

The Keeper looked over, as if just noticing the presence of the two maids. Thinking it over, he nodded his head. “There’s something wrong, indeed. And, you two might be the best ones to turn to for this. You are both related to this problem.”

Dana and Tsubaki looked at one another, briefly confused before urging the Keeper to explain. Thus, he told them about the mass-produced energy worlds, and how they had merged into much larger amalgamations. When Dana heard that, her eyes went wide in shock.

“But… those are base-form reality gems.” She muttered, furrowing her brow. “That means that any we create in the future will appear at those void coordinates, and immediately be assimilated. Do we have to halt production entirely?”

Tsubaki similarly seemed to be thinking it over. “Most likely, there will be a similar issue with the black suns of Spica and Lorek. They were created with a similar principle.”

The Keeper offered another nod. “That’s why I think that this should be resolved soon. We need to find an alternative source of power that can replace these as soon as possible. Otherwise, our first line of defense against external forces will collapse at the first sign of trouble against these clusters.”

Dana shook her head, mentally blaming this on herself. The idea for the self-propagating mana worlds had stemmed from her, after all. And while it had created numerous benefits in the past, it seemed that she had not accounted for the dangers that it would create in the future. “I don’t know of any other source that would be even remotely close to the reality gems, boss…”

“There’s one.” The Keeper answered, causing both girls to look at him in surprise. If he knew about such an energy source already, why did he even need to consult with them. “However, it has not yet been developed in our world. There is a way to harness energy directly from the void, without converting it into the form of a ‘world’ first. If the two of you can focus on this branch of research, we should be able to see results that can replace the reality gems.”

Dana furrowed her brow in thought at that. “Neither of us have direct experience with void research. Even our creation of the reality gems was a product of pure magic. If you want us to do this… we’ll need to have James help us. Is that alright?” Tsubaki couldn’t resist the small shudder coursing through her at the mention of that name, but did her best to suppress it.

“In truth, it would be closer to you assisting him.” The Keeper clarified. “The world that he comes from has already mastered this type of technology. What we need to do is simply to find the means to recreate it in our world, as well as the different technologies leading up to that point. If something can’t be replicated with the technology of our world, you can use magic to substitute it. The important point is to not use the method of ‘creating mass-produced worlds’ to fulfill the goal, as we have now learned the problems it could pose in the future.”