“This is Scout One, entering the lower atmosphere.” A young elven man said as he caused his shuttle to descend, speaking into a radio. Moments later, he could hear two other voices in his ears.

“Scout Two, descending as well.”

“This is Scout Three, doing the same.”

The three of them were all in charge of the final scanning procedures of this world, which they had temporarily named Harvus Prime. According to the script, they would fly over this world for a full six hours to create a comprehensive map, and then return to the colony ship. This map would include geographical data, life sign readings, as well as resource deposits as far down as a kilometer beneath the surface.

Once the young man had reached the assigned altitude, he flipped a series of switches on his dashboard. “Activating scans now. How’s the data link looking?”

“Just a second…” A voice spoke back to him, originating from the colony ship. “Looks like you’re connected with minimal interference. I’m not reading any magnetic anomalies, so you may proceed as planned.”

“Copy that.” The elven scout nodded his head, focusing on his flying. His starting location was far over the ocean, so he didn’t actually expect to see anything important on his scans immediately.

And, in fact, what he caught on his scan couldn’t be counted as anything significant from a pragmatic standpoint. Instead, it was something more… beautiful than anything else. He caught the sight of large creatures with smooth backs breaking the surface of the water. Each one was over a hundred meters long, and spewed water out of three holes along their back when they surfaced.

This action was accompanied by an almost musical tune that echoed deeply from the creatures, as if their backs were massive instruments. When he saw that, the young scout had an idea, switching over to a video recording. “Why don’t we give the people back home something to look forward to?” He asked over the radio, sending the scene back to the colony ship.

Along the way, he saw many other fantastic sights. A group of ‘migrating’ islands, like those of Deckan. Only, instead of flying through the sky, they were anchored on the backs of giant turtles. Giant pockets of air existed beneath the surface of the island, like large cave structures, helping to keep the island afloat.

According to the information from the scan, based on the thickness of the foliage and presence of animal life on the islands, these giant turtles had to be at least three hundred years old. While that number might not be particularly impressive to an elf like him, that was only the youngest estimate.

As he was thinking about that, he heard a report come in over the radio. “This is Scout Three, I’m picking up traces of manmade structures. All scouts, be advised. I’m reading simple, wooden huts and fences. No signs of any residents, and these structures appear dated.”

A surprised look flashed over the scout’s face as he thought about that, before nodding his head and adopting a more focused expression. The odds of truly encountering sentient life on their first interstellar colonization was incredibly low. But, after the incident with Sorii, the world governments had made plans for such events.

I watched the planet slowly being mapped out, and couldn’t help shaking my head. There really had been sentient creatures living there, at one point. Now, however, all that remained was the dilapidated structures and their scattered bones. “What was it that got this group? Plague, or maybe predators?”

“Neither.” Terra shook her head, leaning against me on the couch. “They just weren’t able to prepare suitable shelter for a particularly harsh winter. Once every about, oh, five hundred years or so, there is a terrible cold front that covers the entire planet. Aside from the open oceans, almost everything freezes for a good six months.”

“Their ancestors were lucky enough to hide in deep caves. As they grew ‘wiser’, though, they expanded away from the caves, and started building those settlements. Soon, they forgot about that deadly winter… and it came back to bite them.”

I gave a small nod as I heard that. Certainly, a winter as bad as that would be deadly for less developed species. However, it wouldn’t be anything too bad for my people, as they had long since invented suitable technology and techniques to defend themselves from the elements. “How long is it until the next ‘big winter’?”

“Quite a while.” Terra answered, patting my leg gently to help assure me. “The last one was only about six years ago.”

So no real sense of urgency on that front. I’ll let them take care of it themselves. In five hundred years, who knows, I might even have a God of Snow or something on that world. With my curiosity satisfied, I allowed the world to resume fast forwarding, keeping an eye out for other important scenes.

So, should we let them know? Sora asked as she watched from within the shadow. They’ll be hitting the twenty-fourth layer soon, after all.

It should be fine for a little while longer. Thelsa said, while watching her latest shadow working. After their discovery of the twenty-fifth floor’s culture, she decided that it was better to get to know them more. As such, they had spent a considerable amount of time on this layer, only returning now and then for Maria and Petra to make public appearances.

Thelsa’s newest shadow was that of a solii, the residents of the twenty-fifth floor. In order to integrate itself into their culture, they had come up with the story that the Solii had lost its memories. It wasn’t able to speak the native language, and had to be given great care for weeks.

By now, however, their efforts had shown positive results. Thelsa was able to properly understand the language of the solii, and her shadow had become a well-respected member of society. This was because, unlike a true solii, her shadow still counted as a part of herself, and was thus able to level up. As the currency in this society was ki, she had chosen to primarily train this shadow as a monk, dipping into the elemental monk class for enough strength that the shadow did not need to concern itself with the gravity of the layer.

Thelsa had never attempted to truly create a shadow of another race before, so the result she had gotten was… less than excellent. She created the shape of a solii, but with the same base stats of a human. Only after training her to a suitable level did she let her shadow enter the solii society.

How many shadows can you create now, anyways? Sora asked, curiously as they watched the solii shadow joining a hunting party. She had thought Thelsa reached her limit after creating Maria, and when Ashley had ‘granted’ Petra to them, but Thelsa apparently didn’t have much difficulty creating another one.

I… don’t know, if I’m being honest. Thelsa answered, hesitation clear in her tone. Ever since my title evolved, I felt as if I could create more. I’ve only been holding myself back because of how time-consuming it is, and the fact we didn’t particularly need anyone new.

Wait, really? Thelsa could hear the surprise from Sora’s voice. Why not just create a few ‘instructor’ types? Then, all you’d have to do is create the starting point of the shadow, and tell the instructors how you’d like them to develop.

Because… well, because I hadn’t thought of that, okay? There was a small huff from Thelsa as she considered Sora’s words. It would help her, in the long run, to have a larger roster of people that she could pull from in times of need. More importantly, it would prevent her from having to ‘remodel’ one of the shadows again, like she had done to turn Julia Storms into Sora Sparks.

The process of remodelling a shadow forced her to remove a large portion of their memory and personality, even when she did her best to keep such things intact. Every time she did so, it saddened her, as if she were losing a close friend. With that in mind, the thought of simply having more alternatives that she could call on didn’t seem bad at all.

Does this mean we’re getting a Shadow Army? Maria asked, a touch of amusement to her tone. Because, and I’ll be real honest here, I am so down to join a Shadow Army.

We’re not calling it the Shadow Army. Thelsa protested against her own shadow, shaking her head vehemently.

Well, maybe you’re not~. Petra spoke up in a teasing tone. I totally am! For some reason, the Shadow Saint was already regretting her decision to start mass producing shadows…

Queen Bria sat at her desk within her quarters, looking over her reports. “It looks like Earth’s colonization plan is working well.” She spoke out to the otherwise empty room. “Our ship should be ready to launch within a month’s time.”

Despite the room being empty, a voice called back to her. “Really? You managed to get it done so soon?” The queen formed a thin smile as she recognized the voice, having been expecting her to listen in. “You even made it like I asked?”

“That’s right, Udona.” The queen nodded, turning to face the figure which now laid on her bed. Udona was wearing a thin nightgown, hugging Bria’s pillow against her chest. “The… humanoid shuttles were quite difficult for the researchers to configure, but they were more than happy to abide by the rest of your requests.”

“I told you, they’re not shuttles, they’re mechs!” The Goddess of Life puffed her cheeks out in protest. “Mechs have this awesome flare to them, the symbol of man becoming something bigger than himself. Achieving more than he thought possible just by sitting in the cockpit.”

Bria shook her head gently. She had long since accepted Udona’s new role in her life, that of a best friend and confidante. Over the years, things had been hard at first, but now… there was nobody she’d rather have at her side. “Regardless, the ‘mechs’ have been assembled per your specifications. Each one has been modularized into five primary components, with multiple secondary components forming the arsenal.”

“And you got them all into cards?” Udona’s eyes practically shone at that.

“Of course, Udona. Just as you requested.” Honestly, that part had been the easiest to convince the researchers of attempting. Being able to carry around vehicles capable of flying outside of the atmosphere within a small number of cards was an appealing prospect.

Udona giggled happily, completely breaking the image of a noble and reserved goddess, rolling around in the bed. “Yes, finally!”

Udona had been waiting for this project to be completed for quite a while. In fact, the entire reason that Earth had managed to beat Deckan to interstellar travel was because of Udona’s special requests for both the colony ship and these mechs. Otherwise, it was entirely possible that they would have already finished colonizing a world by the time Earth had even launched their ship. After all, transporting goods was far easier for them, so they did not have to worry as much about the issue of weight.

However, although Udona’s requests had been… excessive, there was also merit to them. The main cannon she had designed for the colony ship far surpassed what Earth had given to their own vessel. The vessel that Udona had drafted for Deckan was not merely a migration ship, but it could also be used as an interstellar battleship. This alone gave the researchers more assurance, since they saw it as Udona placing a heavy value in protecting her people.

And, of course, that was also a part of it. But only Bria herself knew that the main reason Udona wanted the ship to look like that was to appeal to her personal taste, to create the interstellar vessel of her dreams.