After James left, Leowynn soon arrived, having followed the traces of the void back to Tsubaki’s room. When she entered, she noted the pile of dust built up in one corner, and looked at it strangely. Obviously, she was able to sense that the void traces ended at the dust pile, and that the creature it had once been was very much dead.

“Do I want to know?” She asked, turning to look at Dana and Tsubaki, who were standing nearby. As Tsubaki had previously destroyed all the furnishings in the room, the two of them had no choice but to stand around until she was assigned a new room, or replacements were brought in.

“It tried to hurt Chel.” Dana answered with a helpless shrug. Leowynn blinked, looking at the pile of dust with renewed understanding. She had seen how James reacted to Chel being threatened in the past, turning someone into an invalid for simply suggesting that he would do something against her.

“I see… are the two of you alright?” She asked, turning to look at the two surviving occupants of the room.

Tsubaki hesitated for a moment before nodding her head. “We are fine now, thank you. Is there anyone else in the facility that is affected?”

Leowynn shook her head at that. “I cut off all the void connections in this place, so any lingering entities would have been banished. This one seems a bit… special, but she seems quite thoroughly dead at this point, and I can’t detect any new traces.”

Dana let out a sigh of relief when she heard that. “Good, then we won’t have to deal with a repeat incident. I’ll talk to James about setting up a stronger shielding mechanism for future studies.”

Naturally, Dana recalled how her shield had been entirely erased when she was performing her experiment, allowing the ‘door’ entity to attach itself to her. Given that she based her shields off of those used by James, it was likely that many others had failed during previous experiments without being caught right away.

When she thought back to the look James gave towards Ashe, however, she decided that it was maybe best to bring that up tomorrow, after letting the man have a bit of time to relax. The last thing anyone needed to do was poke him when he was still reeling from pent-up aggression. It would be… unhealthy for them, to say the least.

During these five years, the world of Sanctum had further evolved. With the motivation of a steady increase in power, more gods sought to create subordinates for themselves, establishing their own empires within the divine land. Some especially ambitious individuals took this as the opportunity for themselves to ascend to divinity without waiting for anyone to assist them.

Naturally, there were still far more failures than there were successes, many people losing themselves on their path to power. Yet even so, the number of gods residing within Sanctum had at last surpassed two thousand. Given the trend of the time, many of these deities had various ‘worker’ type domains like Building, Crafting, Transport, or even Storage.

It was not that there was a surge of talents in this field. Rather, even those unspecialized in crafting would seek such a path, as it would provide them with a stable increase in power once they arrived in Sanctum. At least, such was their initial intent. As it turns out, simply having the Crafting domain did not mean people would always come to you for helping them create things in that world. Especially when there was a better craftsman just down the street.

Several gods began to lament their domain choices after a few months, with news spreading back to the ‘mortal realm’ and putting an end to the trend of ‘fake craftsmen’. Left with nothing else, these crafting gods were given two choices. They could either strive to make a name for themselves, and learn their lacking trade, or they could join Kiria Sorin and form a larger workshop.

There were those who stood on either side of this choice. On the one hand, joining Kiria guaranteed at least a measure of livelihood, as he was the most renowned craftsman among the mortal gods. On the other, those who had come this far naturally had their own pride, and wished to make their own names just as popular. As long as they were working for Kiria, their work would naturally be attributed to him, rather than themselves.

Thus, a ‘market’ of sorts began to appear within Sanctum, with various people sharing similar domains and doing their best to market their own style. In fact, Kiria wasn’t against this in the slightest. He felt that it was rather annoying to be asked by so many gods to make common furniture such as beds, couches, and even cutlery.

Despite his clientele being the divine community, he felt that such work was beneath his level of skill. When other gods came to him and requested to work under him, he saw it as a blessing in disguise. After giving a few quick pointers to the new workers, he could assign these more mundane tasks to them. The jobs that Kiria himself wished to complete were more akin to crafting a god’s holy artifact.

Just as he was thinking about this, the bell above his shop’s door rang with a new customer. He glanced up, seeing the familiar face of the Goddess of Wood, and let out a low sigh. “Hello, Miss Hart. Come for a new dress?”

His tone was not condescending, but he had seen this goddess many times since he established his own shop. She had ordered beds, chairs, and numerous appliances from him in the past, and had even asked for a few different outfits. Some of which were for her familiar, rather than herself. Thankfully, he was able to delegate the later work to his new employees.

This time, however, Julia shook her head. “No, I’ve come for something else.” She said, holding out her hand. There was a flash of space as a long branch appeared, almost as long as she was tall. Kiria stood up straight as he saw the branch, and how it radiated with two different types of power.

One power, naturally, was the divine energy that he was all-too familiar with at this point. The other, however, seemed to hold a timeless strength. “This is a branch grown from a tree I’ve been cultivating since this world was created. The tree itself is fashioned after Eternal Wood, grown through divine power. I was hoping that you could help me do something with it?”

Seeing that this was an actual job, not simply another chore to deliver furnishings, Kiria’s mind cleared instantly. “Of course. What sort of product are you looking for. If it’s a branch, I would think a staff or a wand. Most likely a staff, given the size.”

To his surprise, Julia shook her head. “I’d like a sword, actually. Eternal Wood is far stronger than even the iron produced in the upper levels of Fyor, and this was further enhanced with divine power. Despite its wooden appearance, a sword crafted from this branch should contain remarkable power.”

After saying that, Julia added, as if in an afterthought. “However, if there is enough left after the creation of a sword, I would also like a wand. Would you be needing any other materials from me?”

Kiria looked seriously at the large branch, already envisioning what he thought to create. “I once worked with a black flame produced by the Lady Ashley, as well as a special water of life created by Libris Storn. If you can get these for me, I can make you a very fine sword indeed, not to mention the wand.” Truth be told, he could fashion a dozen wands with what was left after the creation of the sword.

Julia furrowed her brow for a moment in thought. Convincing Ashley to allow her to borrow a special flame would likely not be hard. However, she didn’t know where she could find Libris. “Pardon, but do you perhaps know where Mister Storn has settled down?”

Kiria nodded his head at that, able to learn the locations of many deities due to the need to deliver products. Besides, it was not like such a thing was a secret in this world. “He’s a God of Water, so he has decided to live on the ocean, near the Palace of War.”

That made things easier, at least, as it meant that she simply had to seek out Bihena. “Alright, I’ll go look for them. If I can’t get either material, would you still be able to help me?”

“Naturally!” Kiria boasted, patting his own muscular chest. “The flame and water are merely ingredients to further enhance the final product. Even without them, it would be a simple matter to complete your order.”

Hearing that, Julia let out a sigh of relief. She nodded her head, turning and leaving. She wasn’t worried about Kiria’s price, as he had always been more than fair when it came to his work. Besides, thanks to her relationship with Aurivy, it could be said that she had more than enough divinity to pay for whatever she wanted.

Once outside, Julia walked over to the wooden figure standing nearby. After her ascension as the Goddess of Wood, her familiar had… mutated. It no longer had a crystalline appearance, and had changed into a spirit of wood. Julia imagined that this was rather common for familiars belonging to elemental deities, but there were still not enough of such beings to verify that theory.

“Are you ready to go?” She asked with a small smile. Her familiar had been lucky enough at the time to have been resting inside her body when their previous home was destroyed, or Julia would have no doubt lost her in the ensuing blast.

The wooden figure lifted her head to regard Julia, a matching smile forming on her own face as she nodded. She reached out to take Julia’s hand, and the two vanished from where they stood.

I shook my head as I pulled my sight back from the world below. The matter involving Tsubaki and the void monster was more than a little concerning, but I had managed to piece together quite a few details from observing the event. I wished that she had told me about that before, but I couldn’t say I was surprised.

From the very beginning, I knew that Tsubaki had gone through rather harsh training to reach the point she was at now. I had even seen her emulating that training whenever she started a new game, honing her combat prowess by placing herself within an area far beyond her level, going so far as to delete her character any time she failed. You don’t go through that level of training without experiencing numerous hardships.

Because I understood that, I had no intention of prying into her personal life. However, I was thinking of ways that I could comfort her. Small gestures that she might appreciate, to help her get past this trauma being brought back to the surface.

Given her usual interests, giving her a vacation might be counterproductive. I had learned long ago that Tsubaki was practically a workaholic, and making her relax was probably the most stressful thing in the world for her, aside from being separated from Dana for long periods of time.

After thinking it over for a while, I finally decided what I wanted to do for her. However, it required me to descend to take care of it.

Tsubaki stood outside her new room, taking a deep breath as she steeled her resolve. The confrontation with Ashe was still fresh in her mind, and she didn’t feel comfortable staying in that room any longer, even if she had not already destroyed everything in it. Thus, she had been granted a new room, one adjacent to Dana.

Swiping her identity card across the scanner, she opened the door and stepped inside, taking stock of the interior. Naturally, these rooms were practically identical, so there was little difference from her last dwelling. However, she saw a small package waiting for her on her bed, and she could sense a trace of the Keeper’s divinity dwelling within it.

Her eyes wide, she walked over and opened the package, finding a framed picture together with a simple note. Hesitating for a moment, Tsubaki looked first at the note, seeing the words written by the Keeper. ‘So that you can remember who she was, not what she became.’

Her hand was shaking slightly by the time she finished the note, turning her head to look at the picture next. In the picture, she saw a pair of young girls, one a kitsune and the other a felyn. The kitsune had short, blonde hair, while the felyn had short brown hair. Both of them were dressed in dirty, patched clothing, but had wide smiles on their faces as they seemed to be looking at something.

Tsubaki’s hand tightened slightly, clutching the carved, wooden frame as she brought it closer and hugged it against her chest. Other people might think that those children looked filthy and pitiful, but Tsubaki could feel her eyes becoming wet from the memories. “Thank you, my Keeper…”