World Keeper

Chapter 503: Census

“What?” Tsubaki’s eyes widened briefly in shock when she heard about what had happened from Bella. Their divine registry was meant to prevent cases such as this, so the fact that there was already such a rogue half-god filled her with apprehension.

She turned, casting her eyes towards the resting dragon. “Can you show me what this fellow looks like?” Logically speaking, the fact that he was able to use his divinity meant that he should have already been registered. As long as that was the case, they would be able to suppress him once again.

Fafnir gave a lazy nod, and the image of the man was projected into Tsubaki’s mind. However, doing so only surprised her, as the face was unfamiliar. Furrowing her brow, she couldn’t help but wonder if this ‘Unknown’ power made it possible for the man to avoid the detection of the registry.

There was no such thing as a perfect ability, after all. In order for the registry to suppress a target, it first had to locate them. If the person was using an ability such as this while the search was ongoing, then it was possible that it would allow them to avoid detection.

At the same time, his own ability to hide was similarly imperfect, as shown when Fafnir himself was capable of seeing through it. The problem was that the weakness in this particular stealth method required one to be aware of the user’s ability. They had purposely prevented themselves from bestowing any degree of sentience within their registry in order to prevent the possibility of it turning against them.

Dana, I need you to check the registries of the various worlds. Confirm how many half-gods have gone missing. Tsubaki communicated with her familiar back at the Sky Citadel. Aside from Tsubaki herself, Dana was the only person aware of the location of the various registry bases.

Hmm? Sure, Tsuba. Dana, meanwhile, was busily studying the array textbooks that had been bestowed to them by the gods. In their first experience of creating the ward, they had found a strange synergy between multiple spell patterns that overlapped to create a missing component. She was looking to see if such a thing was likely to happen again, or if they would be able to shave off years of the research time.

When she heard Tsubaki’s request, though, she closed her eyes and focused. An Archmage Scepter appeared in her hand, and she blinked out of view. Her first target was naturally the registry stone for Earth, as that was the closest to her current location. The area that she appeared in was now a frozen tundra, one whose environment had only been made harsher due to their direct influence.

Blades of ice cut through the air like hail, carving white trails that formed a shifting net. When two of these trails overlapped, a small disruption appeared within the space, no more than a tiny ripple. However weak this ripple was, though, it became utterly terrifying when magnified thousands of times across a wide landscape. Fractures in space littered the tundra at random intervals, blinking in and out unpredictably.

Even for someone like Dana and Tsubaki, they didn’t dare try to teleport through such disturbed space. The only way to safely proceed was to either move so fast as to avoid every ripple as it formed, or to possess the key. In this case, Dana had such a key.

“Calm.” She spoke quietly, walking forward through the maelstrom. The angle of the hail seemed to shift subtly, opening a corridor through which nothing fell.

As she walked closer, the next layer of defense activated, and the winds picked up. Reminiscent of one of Fyor’s higher layers, blades of wind began falling down on Dana one after the other. “Calm.” She said again, lightly waving the scepter as she activated the next key.

This continued for every layer of defense. From the powerful hail to the wind, a creeping cold that would freeze energy itself, even an illusion to trick the mind into wandering off the safe path. Until finally, she arrived at a wall within the ice. This was not so much a layer of defense as it was a natural camouflage.

For this obstacle, she held the scepter up, and spoke again. “Thaw.” The blue gem of the scepter flashed red, and water began to drip from the wall as a tunnel was gradually melted.

Only when all of that was done did she finally arrive at the registry chamber. She let out a sigh of relief as she read over the names on the stone slab, before moving towards the leftmost wall. They had known all along that they would eventually need to take a census, so they had established a means to transfer from one registry chamber to another safely.

In order to prevent the chambers from being compromised, the artifact required to do so was kept on their person at all times, and could only be activated within one of these chambers. Still, one she retrieved the key, and slipped it into a small gap in the ice wall, she vanished again.

Back with Tsubaki and the others, they had to wait for roughly half an hour in order for the census to finish, as it took a fair amount of time in order for Dana to break through the initial set of wards. Once she had done so, however, Tsubaki let out a faint sigh. “There are six names missing from the registry. Some of them may have simply moved outside of our coverage, but there is the very real chance that a few of them have already passed.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised.” Bella nodded her head seriously. “I had just barely managed to escape, thanks to the warning of my goddess. If she had been just a second later, I would have not even known I was in danger.”

Why not simply consult their spirits in the Underworld? Fafnir spoke as if the matter didn’t concern him. Though, his suggestion triggered a rather sad look on Tsubaki’s face.

“That won’t work, I’m afraid. As long as they have created their divine soul, they will no longer be guided to the Underworld. While their soul persists, they will not be treated as truly dead. The fact that they aren’t appearing on the registry means that either they have escaped its range, or that they have had their souls extinguished.”

Ahh. Fafnir gave a small nod, while Bella watched the conversation between the two of them. She had heard about her would-be hunter’s power through Fafnir, and would now be able to spot him should he try to attack again. Still, she felt it better to remain behind until she was certain that the situation had resolved itself. First of all, she had yet to finish regrowing her arm, and secondly was unsure if she would be needed to help.

Tsubaki was not well-versed with using her domain for detection techniques. There was simply so much information to process when doing so with the Light domain that even she had problems organizing it all. As such, she turned towards Bella, curiously. “If I may ask… what domain are you pursuing?”

“I haven’t settled, yet.” Bella answered, unsure of why the question was being asked. “I trust in my goddess to give me a domain befitting me when the time arises.”

This time, it was Tsubaki’s turn to be unsure. “You plan to become a subordinate god?” She herself was Dale’s subordinate god, so it wasn’t like she had any distaste towards the idea.

“That is not the case.” The human half-god shook her head. “I wish to reach ascension through my own power, rather than take the shortcut of becoming a subordinate god. However, I intend to fully pledge myself to my goddess even after my ascension.”

There was a… strange look that flashed across Tsubaki’s face. It seemed as if a mix of pride, understanding, and yet doubt all at once. She had no intentions of challenging this woman’s convictions, however. She had merely been hoping that Bella would possess some sort of ability for detection as a worshipper of Bihena. Water was a powerful scrying element, after all.

“I see… unless we finish your ascension now, that won’t be easily accomplished.” She muttered to herself, shaking her head. The pain of ascending the flesh was the next step that Bella had to take, judging by the rate she was recovering her arm. It was also the most grueling challenge of the process, and one wrong move would mean that she would perish, especially if she was doing so without someone’s assistance.

“I apologize for my incompetence in this matter.” Bella spoke with a sincere tone, offering a faint bow towards Tsubaki. It was clear what the kitsune goddess had been after, but Bella was currently unable to provide it. “However, I may know of another who can perform a search, assuming that they still stand.”

Tsubaki’s head snapped over to look at Bella. When she was interviewing everyone for the registry, she did not think to ask them for what domain they were aiming for. She had felt that it was a matter of personal privacy, a fact that she was currently regretting. “Who is it?”

“Libris Storn.” The name was strange, but that only made it all the more recognizable to Tsubaki. The image of a rather slender heroc flashed through her mind.

“Libris… how do the two of you know each other?” She couldn’t help but voice out her confusion. From what she knew, the two of them were from entirely different social circles. There should have never been a point in time when they would have had contact with one another.

“Libris is a gentle soul, a rarity among his kind.” A smile formed on Bella’s face as she explained. “He sought me out for advice when he began to walk the path to ascension, as I had been a step ahead of him. As a seafaring knight of his clan lord, he wished to pursue the ‘Water’ domain. This led him to the church of Bihena, in an effort to understand as much about the Goddess as he could.”

And since he’s a heroc, there’s little chance of him becoming a subordinate god. Meaning that he should only be at the ‘Divine Soul’ stage like Bella. Tsubaki nodded her head as she thought to herself. “His name has not yet been struck from the list. Do you know where we can find him?”

Bella’s expression grew somewhat more complicated when she heard that request. “He spends most of his time at sea, this much I am sure of. The last time that we spoke was nearly a month ago, so it is unsure where he is within the water.”

“Well… I hope he’s not in a fight at the moment, then.” Tsubaki muttered with a shake of her head. Dana, please remove Libris Storn from the authorized list, and report his coordinates to me.

While not a preferred way to track down a divinity, due to the fact that it could put them in mortal danger if they were locked in battle, this was a way that they had devised out of necessity. As such, a moment later, Tsubaki’s figure flashed before she disappeared.

“Eh? Suppressed again? Don’t think I did anything wrong, right?” A green-skinned man said as he adjusted the sails on his small ship. The waves were calm, and the monsters had yet to attack him for a while, so he wasn’t particularly worried. “Well, I figure she’ll say what the problem is when she shows up.”

“Quite.” A voice spoke from behind him, and he gave a somewhat bitter smile. “I apologize for the inconvenience, Mister Storn. I’ll add you back to the registry right away.”

When Libris turned around, Tsubaki was already pulling out the stone that he had seen her use once before. “Hope that’s not going to happen too often?”

“It shouldn’t.” She shook her head as she spoke, pocketing the stone again once she had finished restoring his power. “I had to do so this time as an emergency, so that I could locate you. You see, someone is hunting half-gods such as yourself.”

Libris’s eyebrows shot upwards at that, even his third eye opening wide. “And you are worried that I may be his next target? That seems like a bad time to strip me of my power, no?”

“Quite the opposite, actually.” Tsubaki shook her head, her eyes beginning to glow. “We want you to help us find them.”

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