World Keeper

Chapter 1147: The Fifth Rank

At first, nobody noticed what Chelsea was doing. They were all focused on their own research, or on creating the new device that would help them produce new universes within the void. Additionally, because she didn’t announce her live stream, nobody had a reason to actively look for it.

The first to notice that something was off was Treisha, who had stopped by Chelsea’s office in order to ask her a question. She knew that Chelsea was working on some new security system to put in place for the future, but was lacking specific details. When she saw that Chelsea’s office was empty, she hesitated, asking the artificial intelligence monitoring the site where Chelsea had gone.

Learning that Chelsea’s last known location was her office, she stayed there to wait for her. After a few minutes, Chelsea simply appeared, sitting at her desk and letting out a sigh. Treisha didn’t feel any void fluctuations, but rather a familiar pulse of mana and natural energy. “You’re live streaming something?” She asked, causing Chelsea to look back at her.

“Huh? Sorry, yeah. I’m trying to get something sorted out, but I keep blowing up.” She said with a shrug, causing Treisha’s eyes to widen.

“You keep blowing up, not your project?” She asked to clarify, and Chelsea simply chuckled.

“Well… they’re sort of the same thing now? Anyways, there wasn’t anything left of the area I was working after respawning a few times, so I came out to reset the stream again.”

When Treisha heard that, her brow twitched slightly. “How many times have you exploded so far?” She asked, having a feeling that she wouldn’t like the answer.

“Hmm? Well, if you include the other times I had to reset… this makes the eighty-third, I think? I haven’t really been tracking, so I might be one or two off.” She said as a casual remark, but Treisha’s eyes went wide at the reveal.

Chelsea was doing some type of experiment in a live stream that had caused her body to detonate, and she had repeated this process eighty-three times. “It’s only been a few hours since I last talked to you…”

“Yeah, this is really tricky to get down.” Chelsea crossed her arms in front of herself. “I think I’m starting to make progress, though! Another one or two hundred more attempts, and I might get it!”

Treisha’s eye twitched when she heard that, but Chelsea turned to look at her directly. “Anyways, were you needing me for something?” She asked, snapping the elf out of her thoughts.

“Right… James wanted me to ask if you had gotten the finalized mana code from Ashley. The components are ready to store the code, and we’re just waiting for the final pieces before we can begin the activation.” She said, and Chelsea blinked.

“Sure, let me check.” She quickly turned around, flipping through her terminal. “Got it! It should be sent over to you now!”

Treisha nodded her head in thanks, but didn’t immediately leave. “Are you going to resume your experiments?” She asked hesitantly, to which Chelsea gave a confident nod.

“This is an important project, and I can’t think of a better candidate to handle the experiment than myself. I have to see it through to the end, even if it’s just to determine whether or not I am taking the right approach.”

Treisha let out a long sigh at that. “Is there anything that I can provide to help the process? Any scanning equipment to help you track what’s going wrong?”

“Nah.” Chelsea shook her head. “The whole planet gets destroyed after a few failures, so any scanning equipment would just get ruined.” She said, before quickly starting up her stream and disappearing again.

Treisha’s eye twitched once more, and she brought her hand up to massage her forehead again. “It’s better not to ask… pretend I didn’t hear anything, and just get on with my work.” She muttered to herself, turning and walking down the hall.

As for Chelsea, she appeared within her live stream again, and immediately sat down with her legs crossed. To facilitate the experiment that she was doing, she controlled her body to take a rather unconventional shape. Her body melted down, forming a pair of crossed beams, each connecting to two different spheres, for a total of four spheres.

In one sphere, she placed the core of her ki. In another, her spirit, and another her mana. Then, for the last one, she began to draw in natural energy, creating a dense node of it to match the others.

After that, her ‘body’ lifted up off the ground, forming two more nodes that were each connected to the other four, one above and one below. This caused her to take a diamond shape. In the node above, she concentrated her divinity, making sure that divinity did not spread to any of the other nodes.

Finally, in the bottom node, she began to concentrate on writing a void script. Black and red energy rushed into the node, forming a dense sphere. Okay… that should be all of the nodes needed to create the Origin world. Now, I just need to balance and refine them  to become world pillars.

She had gone through this process nearly a hundred times already, so it was a simple matter to begin shaping each node, altering its core structure. Perhaps because of having undergone the three steps of perfection, the nodes within her body were able to be ‘programmed’ to behave differently than normal energy within this universe. She had been prepared to have to do these tests in the void, but was pleasantly surprised to learn that wasn’t the case.

The first four nodes were set quickly, matching the basic template for a world with no special traits that they had designed. This was where it became complicated, as they didn’t know exactly what they needed to do with their divinity or the void. That had been the cause of most of Chelsea’s deaths thus far.

Chelsea could only experiment, taking what she had observed and using the process of elimination to uncover the truth. She condensed a replica of a Fallen God’s domain, making it the domain of Security to match her divine domain. In her mind, that should have provided the most compatibility. Then, the two domains were each condensed into dense spheres.

Feeling that she had taken every precaution that she could, Chelsea began the world creation process, bringing the four foundational energies together. Out of all the times that she had detonated, only six of  them had been because of this part of the process.

As the energies were mixing together, Chelsea dissolved the spheres containing her divine and fallen domains, carefully wrapping them around the newly forming universe while using her Saint body to monitor and control them. Something that Chelsea had learned early on in her experiments was that she could not have any additional energy combinations within her body throughout this process, or they would immediately clash during the combining stage.

Chelsea could already sense the instability of the two domains as they began to connect around the world, her diamond-shaped body melting down into a solid sphere. At the same time, her body’s energy tried to pacify the two domains, attempting to bring them into harmony. She could feel that this had some effect, though it was like walking on a tightrope made of razor wire, suspended over a boiling pit filled with acid.

Unfortunately, Chelsea’s control over this energy slipped just slightly when she noticed something amidst the clashes of the divine domains. For just the briefest moment, she sensed that a region of her body had the same energy composition as the void itself, and probing that region gave her a sense of boundless depth.

This realization caused her control to lapse for only the smallest moments, bringing her to her eighty-fourth explosion. When she respawned, seeing the shattered landmass that spread in all directions, as far as the eye could see, she couldn’t help but think to herself. Is the clash of energies supposed to occur around the new universe after it is formed, or before it to create the environment of the void?

As she thought about that, her eyes closed. Now that she thought about it… wasn’t it possible to create an Origin without them having an internal world? The Origin of Fate was a perfect example of that, as she had no internal world. However, this only resulted in a pseudo-Origin, one that needed other means to obtain their powers. Even existing rapidly drains their energy.

Following this logic, perhaps the framework of an Origin had to be created prior to the construction of the universe. If that was true, the universe would need to be created very quickly afterwards, before the limited energy ran out. This seemed to make sense when Chelsea thought about it. It wasn’t that you needed to create the internal world to become an Origin, you simply needed it to be able to sustain one.

With that thought in mind, Chelsea began her experiments anew, ready to go through another several hundred deaths if it meant being able to complete this work.

I sat on my throne, my eyes closed and simply observing the distant Deckan with my World Sight as a form of personal training. Tsubaki, having already finished her Trial of Blood, stood at my side with a content smile on her face. As I was observing Ashtanu and its inhabitants, I heard a mental ping in the back of my mind. When I opened my eyes, as expected, the prompt showing that I had been promoted a rank appeared.

I had already expected the system unlocked at the Fifth Rank, as I asked Sarah about it when I originally was promoted to the Fourth Rank. Creator’s Blessing would allow me to spend points and customize individual mortals with special blessings, ranging from an increased aptitude to unique systems designed just for them.

However, the second achievement’s reward had me more concerned, my brow furrowing in confusion. Terra? Mind explaining? Heaven’s Fall sounds… ominous.

Rightly so. She agreed. Heaven’s Fall is essentially the opposite of Heaven’s Gate. Instead of selecting a mortal and spending points to give them qualities like a companion, you are selecting a companion and making them completely mortal.

I couldn’t help but blink at that. Okay… but why, though? What could possibly be the purpose of doing that? If you don’t like a companion that much, you can get rid of them more easily, can’t you?

Terra let out a soft chuckle, her response coming a moment later. The point is that you can customize the individual that you create as a companion, give them whatever special abilities or domains you want, and then send them to the mortal world. Rather than banishment from the Admin Room, it is more like you are creating a customized hero to send down to the world. It is useful when you need someone that fits a special role, but you don’t have anyone that you can trust for that.

I gave a slow nod at that explanation. If that was the case, it wasn’t completely useless. It would allow me to bypass the time needed to have a companion train via their incarnation. But, I didn’t think that I would be using this system often, if at all.