So that’s what it was. I muttered to myself when I saw the scene of Jonas’s city taking off. Creating a divine relic that actually weakened him… was quite the interesting decision. Of course, he could recall his community phantoms if he really needed to return to his peak strength.

I opened an appraisal menu in my mind, getting detailed information on the item’s abilities. Aside from the ability to expand and allow the phantoms to regain their former appearances, it also had an ability known as ‘All For One’. This is where the power of the city truly came into play.

With this ability, the City of Bayrun could funnel the power of all of its residents into a single ability, so long as one of its residents was able to use that ability. For instance, if one of them knows a barrier spell, they could erect a barrier backed by the power of every phantom Jonas had in his community. If one of them was able to launch an arrow of ki, that ki would fly with the power of the entire city behind it.

In a way, that made the City of Bayrun the most powerful divine relic that had been created to date. However, such a thing was not surprising when you considered how long he spent working on it. Though, now that I thought about that, something else occurred to me. Terra? Slight curiosity here, wondering if you could enlighten me.

After I sent off that message, I felt a weight on my lap. To no surprise, Terra had manifested herself there, sitting sideways across my lap. She leaned over, her head against my shoulders as her legs draped over the arm of the recliner. “What would you like to know? If I can answer, I will.”

I gave a light chuckle, reaching my arms to wrap around her waist. “I was thinking about special divine relics, similar to Jonas’s city. Clearly, they can get rather diverse. So I was wondering… what would happen if a golem was made into a divine relic, and that golem was sentient by nature? As in, if Tubrock had made one of the Metong as his divine relic.”

Terra pursed her lips in thought, before letting out a faint sigh. “In most ways, the golem created like this wouldn’t differ from its normal counterparts. However, it would likely be somewhat more powerful due to the divine energy flowing through it. Aside from that, it would not be able to release the powers stored within it without the command of the god who created it. Even if a divine relic is sentient, it is still ultimately a tool for a god.”

Thinking about that, I nodded my head. “I suppose most people don’t use sentient relics, then. It would be a problem if they decided to go into hiding or something, and did not want to be used that way.”

Terra shrugged her shoulders, as if to deny my claim. “A god will always be able to sense the location of their divine relic, unless some truly special interference occurs. Even if your mirrors were hidden within Fyor, you would still be able to detect them from Lorek.”

Well, that was good to know. Before I could speak up again, Terra’s eyes drifted up to meet mine. “Have you looked at your next match yet?”

I blinked at the sudden reminder, shaking my head. It had only taken a few moments after Charlotte went through to Kathy’s world before the system announced that my troops had decided to remain peaceful within the ‘enemy’ world. Naturally, it was counted as my loss. I just hadn’t gone to receive payment because… honestly, I would rather not go to Kathy’s Admin Room.

If I couldn’t get her to come over here, I’d rather just wait until the next meeting a few months from now. Going to a den of giant arachnids did not sound like my idea of a good time. Still, with Terra’s reminder, I mentally navigated the menu to open recent notifications and check my next match.

“Looks like I’m on the defending end this time. And my opponent is… Silence? Don’t think I know that name.” I was already planning to get information from my guild if possible. Although I hadn’t had too much trouble with invasions so far, it was never good to take such things lightly.

Terra gave a small smile, as if able to see through my intentions. She rested her head against me again, and closed her eyes. Clearly, she had no desire to get up. Or to be more accurate, no desire to let me up for the time being. Somehow, I felt that that was very cat-like of her.

Seeing that I did not have any choice in the matter, I decided to open up the guild chat. Today seemed to be a rather quiet day, no doubt because the new round of invasions had just started. For those who were on the defense, they would need at least a little bit of time to settle their problems.

EarthForceOne: Anyone around to talk?

MeatLover: I am free. Invasion this time was a pass. What is troubling you at this time?

EarthForceOne: That obvious?

MeatLover: While some members of the guild appear in the chat to discuss casual occurrences, most only appear when they are in need of assistance or require information. From my observations, you would fall in this category.

EarthForceOne: ...Fair point. I do need some information. I’m just not sure if I can get it here or if I’ll have to talk to the Gilded Branch.

MeatLover: Given the timing, this information should be related to your next opponent. One moment while I access the match listings.

MeatLover: Your opponent this time is Silence? As it happens, I do have information regarding this Keeper.

EarthForceOne: Wait, you do? Have you faced him before?

MeatLover: I have not.

EarthForceOne: Then, why do you have any information on him?

MeatLover: Because, due to my curiosity, I once purchased all of the information from the Gilded Branch on ‘dark Keepers’ who use pure-technology worlds. It was my desire to prepare myself to conquer them, should I find one as my opponent, or be properly prepared to defend if they were the one invading me.

EarthForceOne: That must have cost… quite a lot.

MeatLover: One hundred and thirty thousand points, to be precise. However, they were only able to give me the information on Keepers up to Rank 3 with that price.

EarthForceOne: Well, he’s challenging me, so he should only be Rank 2. What can you tell me about him?

MeatLover: Keeper name, Silence. World type, pure technology. Does not delve deeply into robotics, taking the path of mechanical augmentation. Has remained in Rank 2 for eight Standard years. It is believed that he has reached the end of his path of development, and requires a major breakthrough in order to advance to Rank 3.

MeatLover: However, regardless of this, he has conquered many known Rank 2 Keepers. The method of attack is considered all-or-nothing. The last Keeper to survive a true attack was two Standard years ago. They reported a massive galactic fleet that held the power to easily destroy planets.

MeatLover: Despite this attack failing, and the power invested behind it, Silence did not drop in his ranking. This implies that he was able to salvage the power of his world within the one hundred day period before his next match. It is speculated that he holds a far larger force in his main world, but the information was unable to be obtained. All databases were wiped of information relevant to Silence’s world upon the moment of transfer.

EarthForceOne: Did that Keeper not have a method to interrogate the souls of his soldiers? If he is a pure technology Keeper that doesn’t mess with special energies, their souls shouldn’t have been destroyed upon death, right?

MeatLover: I repeat, all databases were wiped. Upon their arrival in the Keeper’s world, they no longer possessed any knowledge of the world that they came from. They were only aware of their military training, and their mission. Any information regarding their families, homeworld, or the fundamental laws of their world were wiped from their minds using an implant at the base of their skull. If they were to ever abandon their mission, the implant would detonate, destroying their brains.

That was… not something I was looking forward to dealing with. This Keeper seemed to specialize in information control, from what I was hearing. They had methods to control the memories of a target through their implants, and used those to ensure that no information about their world could be leaked.

However, there was quite a bit that could be gathered from that, as well. Any invading forces in that world would naturally not have that type of implant. There is likely some form of identification chip involved with it as well, so that they can easily identify who is and is not supposed to be there.

With this, I had to give up on the idea of being able to earn more points from the upcoming invasion in the same way that I had the last time. Even if I managed to capture an ‘illusion’ of an invader, they would have no information to grant me.

EarthForceOne: Is there anything special about their technology that you can tell me?

MeatLover: According to the Keeper that fought them, their ships appear to run off of what I refer to as a Chaos Drive. This is an energy converter that harnesses the power between dimensions, the void. Although the Keeper does not appear to dabble with additional energies, he has discovered the void and mastered the ability to harness its energy.

MeatLover: From this, it can be seen that Silence possesses the ability to travel across the planar boundary at the bare minimum.

That was not good. I was reminded of James’s old world, where he used the power of technology to study various energies. He himself claimed to be an expert on manipulating the energy of the void in a variety of ways, so hopefully he would be able to provide some assistance with the upcoming threat.

I let out a long sigh, thanking MeatLover for all of his information. “Sorry, Terra, but I need you to get up.” I gave the catgirl’s back a gentle pat as I said that, rousing her from her brief catnap. “I need to go visit James about an upgrade.”

Terra glanced up towards me, a hint of amusement in her eyes. “Is that so? I look forward to watching what you have planned.”

James stood before a large holographic display, looking at the formula that had been prepared by the kitsune sisters. The two of them had been hard at work, receiving help from the rest of his team at times, in order to create the formula which would allow a soul to reach perfection. Such a thing was by no means an easy feat, as they had to calculate for numerous possibilities.

For example, what if the target had a special type of energy? Although the most simple calculations would allow a basic level of fusion, it would not be able to account for the differences between each individual soul. Thus, they needed a more dynamic formula, one that could adjust on a case-by-case basis before finding the optimal path to condense the soul into a perfect state.

James reached down, picking up what looked like a pen from the table and scratching out two figures at different points in the formula. “Sorry girls, not this time. You’re getting closer, though. But, this formula won’t work on the more complex energy patterns, or a person with a warrior level higher than two hundred and eighty.”

The ears of the kitsune sisters drooped when they heard that. It was hard to find warriors with higher levels than that in the current world, but not impossible. Especially if they were to go to Fyor. “Can you give us some advice on how to fix it?”

James brought a hand up to stroke his chin, looking over the formula. “Hmm… try cycling the energy paths a few more times to catch the smaller traces, and create an expanded tertiary chamber as a fallback. That should improve things a little bit. Remember, we’re just aiming for a prototype here. Once we find a solution that works, we’ll be able to refine it into an automatic process.”

The girls looked towards one another at his words, determination flashing in their eyes. However, just as they were about to get back to work, they froze. Shivers ran up their spines as they looked towards the door.

The dark-skinned researcher raised a curious brow, turning towards the door himself. “Well… this is interesting.” He muttered with a small smile.

Walking towards the door, he opened it to reveal the Keeper standing just outside the lab. “I didn’t expect that I’d be getting a visit from you any time soon.”