Gaia looked at the reactions of the various groups and nodded with satisfaction. With this, she had grasped greater authority within the continent. Although many people had acknowledged her power and respected her claims of being a goddess, they didn’t give it too much merit. After all, most of the time she was cultivating in her home which prevented people from caring about her too much. The religion she had established (Divine Syndicate of Genesis, which had been later shortened to Genesis Syndicate) was growing, but not by as much as she’d like. But that was all about to change.

She’d been waiting for a chance like this for a long time and she finally obtained it. All it took was for her to exhibit her age and use the superior power of her Soul to suppress all the others. Something that was made very easy with them having little to no knowledge of the Soul, talk less of Soul Cultivation.

As for the life forms she had created? That was a bit of a trick. No 4th Realmer alive could create complete lifeforms with their little power, no matter what Law or combination of Laws they used. That kind of power was, at the very least, the domain of Immortals and full-fledged gods. The 7th Realm and above. Even then, it was still a difficult feat to achieve, and even if success was achieved, the consequences were almost always fatal.

It was best to leave creating brand new lives to the Worlds and 9th Realmers.

What she did was create an illusion. The fake animals were running away but were still visible, but eventually, when no Spirit Sense was detected and they were free from sight, they would vanish. Some people here in the gathering might try to look for them but they would find nothing.

The few who actually put effort into finding them might find it strange that a new-born lifeform with no Mana to speak of could hide from them, but if they ever came to speak to her about it she would only tell them that she had given them a blessing that allowed them to hide in peace. If anyone was worried about some random creatures ‘possessing some kind of stealth ability’, she would tell them that she had also ‘cursed’ them to live Manless lives. They would live peaceful, mundane lives, and die of old age.

She always planned everything out.

She let the age recede out of her eyes and watched as the various bodies twitched one by one (depending on how quickly their owners regained control). She took note of the faster ones because they were the most talented, but all in all, everyone here was quicker to react than she expected. Really and truly, this World and its inhabitants were something else.

“Do you understand now?” She asked this question to the Toad that had been antagonising her this entire time. He was visibly breathing quite shakily and it looked quite weird on a body like his, but she wasn’t disturbed by that.

“Y-yes… goddess G-gaia.”

“Good.”

Then she turned to the rest of the crowd. Their faces had changed and most were looking at her with wary gazed (which she inwardly respected since it meant that they hadn’t submitted out of fear), but others looked at her with outright fear or obsession. She didn’t care about insignificant beings like them. It was one thing for people to devote themselves to her out of respect for the things she did or represented, but it was another thing altogether for them to do it because they couldn’t withstand looking at her eyes for more than a few seconds, causing their minds to alter. Whether her Soul had been unfairly involved or not.

Losers.

“So, before we discuss how to go forward with the war, there’s something important that we need to discuss before that.”

A few faces twisted with frowns, probably thinking that she was going to ask for a yard after taking an inch, but their worries were unfounded.

“What… she should we call our Continent?”

…

[Central Continent, Dawn Forest, Elven Kingdom]

The capital of the Elven Kingdom was growing much faster than other cities created by this World’s inhabitants, perhaps only being rivalled by the Capital City of the Yoloria Empire (City of Glory). It had streets but no roads or pavements, which was understandable since there was no form of transport that needed them, but the streets were framed by rows of buildings that were diverse in nature and even had stalls here and there. People went to and fro the middle of the various streets and the overall mood was joyful.

Elves and Fae could be seen conversing happily and there didn’t seem to be any disdainful smirks or hidden glares. It was like the dispute between their 2 castes that had erupted into a war 5 years ago (Year 167) had vanished. It was as if there had never been a civil war in the first place! How did that happen?

In any case, things were looking much better than before. The streets were bustling, the shops were selling and the people were smiling. Everything was good. Or, well, that would have been the case if it weren’t for 2 oddities.

The first one being that on one of the stalls, the person in charge seemed to be a 13 year old boy. He had brown hair and green eyes, the typical good looks of an Elf, but nothing else. He wasn’t anything remarkable. However, he was alone.

A child being alone in the Elven Kingdom hadn’t happened in a long time. Ever since the Fae child that had been murdered 18 years ago, protection for kids had been a special priority. So to see one trying to run a stall by himself - unsuccessfully at that - was very odd.

The other oddity was a tall man cloaked in pristine white robes. He had his hood up but it wasn’t capable of hiding his long white hair. And where the shadow cast by the hood succeeded in hiding most of his facial features, it failed in suppressing the light generated by his irregular golden eyes.

This highly conspicuous man was walking down the street as he hummed a tune, but barely anyone paid him attention. What was weirder was that for the people that noticed him, they would pause in awe, but only for a moment before their attention was redirected and they carried on with their day. As if they had never seen him.