World Keeper

Chapter 1161: Bad to the Book

“Seeya later, Petra!” Lifre said as she waved towards the demoness after they made it back to the first floor of Fyor. They needed to drop off all of the level cap spheres now that they were done with their brief adventure.

Naturally, Lifre had been hoping for more of an adventure, with weeks of excitement, a galactic chase, or some major villains to fight. Of course, most of these things weren’t what you would expect to find when traversing new floors of Fyor.

“Thanks! I’ll do my best. And good luck with your streams, Lifre!” Petra said with a happy smile, before turning to walk into the guild. Once Petra left, Lifre turned back to Lena, about to ask if she was ready to leave. However, she noticed a curious look in Lena’s gaze.

“What is it? Do I have something in my face?” Lifre asked, poking a finger through her skin as if to search around her head for any random debris.

“Huh? Oh, no… I just got another bit of feedback from one of my projections.” She said, Lifre blinking in confusion.

“There was another god or something that wanted to take out Estyle? It’s been less than an hour!” Lifre spoke up in exasperation. “I mean, I get it, corruption. New shiny thing, bad. Old shiny thing, good. But that’s gotta get old after a while, right?”

“Yeah, uhm… not that projection.” Lena said, and Lifre’s expression suddenly hardened.

“Okay, who do I gotta eat?” She asked in an entirely too serious tone.

Lena blinked for a moment, before gesturing for Lifre to follow her. “Come on, I’ll explain on the way.” She said, turning to head into the gate behind herself. “This might not be a really bad scenario. I’ve just gotta talk to a couple of the goddesses first.”

“Eh?” Lifre tilted her head again. “It’s not something that you can handle on your own.”

Lena simply sighed, not knowing of another way to explain this. “...Someone found an ancient vault of Aurivy’s.” 

Lifre’s eyes bulged out at that, and she grabbed Lena’s arm. “Talk and walk! Talk and walk, girl!” She said, opening a golden portal.

Lena yelped, feeling herself dragged along and into the portal. “W-Well, I just found out about it thanks to the clone I have at Olympus--oh hi Aurivy.” She paused, finding that Lifre had walked the two of them straight into Aurivy’s living room with that portal.

Aurivy looked at the two of them, slowly blinking. “Hello?” She returned the greeting. “This is an unexpected surprise. Wait! How did you get through Olympus’s teleportation defenses?” Aurivy asked, pointing a finger at Lifre.

“Travel network, you’re a beacon, I accessed your domain. Unimportant details! Important details time! Someone apparently found one of your old vaults, and it triggered Lena’s spy clone.” Lifre explained, causing Aurivy to freeze up.

“Which one?” She asked hesitantly, and the two of them looked at Lena together.

“I don’t know what you’d call it. According to the information that my avatar pieced together, they recovered a staff, three books, and a key. There were also apparently a lot of other objects behind a shifting, golden maze, but they haven’t managed to crack the maze’s patterns yet.” Lena explained, causing Aurivy to hop to her feet and begin pacing the room.

“I left so many staves around in vaults, that doesn’t help. Keys… well, I’m the Travel and Dungeon Goddess, so obviously I have made key relics. Books… that narrows it down a bit more. Could have been travel logs, or anything else. Are there any significant details on the items that were retrieved? Markings, or discovered usages?” Aurivy asked, seeming a bit urgent.

Lena closed her eyes, reviewing the information that her avatar had sent her. “The staff has a series of golden lines inscribed along its shaft. The books… they’re locked, so the people that found it don’t really know what they are, but they’re calling in a deity specialized in undoing seals. The last item, the key, has a bit more detail. It’s a golden skeleton key, but the teeth at the end are shaped like a heart.”

Aurivy’s eyes went wide as she identified the item Lena had mentioned. “The key to the heart! Oh, wow, that was a long time ago!” She said, shaking her head. “I was going through a phase. Anyways! This is bad!”

Lifre looked at Aurivy anxiously when she heard that. “How bad? End of the world bad? One key can’t do so much, right?”

Aurivy gave a somewhat bitter smile at that. “That wasn’t just my vault. Terra and I gave that vault the codename of Final Destination. The key is nothing special. Sure, it’d be bad if misused, but it’s just a simple love spell that can be reversed with a good smack.”

“The problem is the books!” Aurivy said, flailing her arms at her sides. “The only books kept at Final Destination were life stories. Really bad ones, too!”

Lifre blinked at that, seeming to calm down. “Oh, is that it? Terra’s ‘life stories’ are just criminals and whatnot that she had imprisoned in books, right? If it was really that long ago, then surely the criminals won’t pose a threat to us anymore. Isn’t that right?”

However, Lena had a more serious expression on her face. “Aurivy… how many books were kept in this vault?”

Aurivy couldn’t help but gulp at that. “Uhm… around five hundred or so? I stopped counting, but Terra kept adding more after I stopped visiting the vault. Are we sure that they only got three books?”

Lena shook her head. “That’s just what this group got. I’m having my avatar review the information more closely now. There were four groups that acted together to break into what appeared to be old, divine ruins. I don’t have any information on what the other groups received.”

“Oh, come on, guys.” Lifre chuckled, though a bit more nervously at this point. “It can’t be that bad, right? Right? Someone explain to me why it’s that bad already!”

Lena turned towards Lifre with a wry smile. “I’ve copied Terra before, so I have a certain understanding of her abilities. Anyone who has been recorded in her life stories, receives a form of immortality, in a way. If someone reads their story, they will come back to life. And they won’t die again until everyone that has read their story dies. Their lives are tied to Terra’s divinity.”

“So we just burn the books then, right?” Lifre asked, as if it were simple. “Even divine books should be flammable. Trust me, I’ve burnt a few myself!”

Lena nodded her head briefly, before shaking it. “We’ll need to call Terra for this. Hopefully, none of the other groups had opened their books yet.”

As if on cue, there was a knock on the door. “Given that timing…” Aurivy gave a chuckle, heading to open the door and allow the redheaded felyn twins to enter. “Terra, Terra. Nice to see you again.”

The two looked like they wanted to argue their traditional routine, but quickly decided against it. “Big sis upstairs sent us.” The divine sister spoke up, hands on her hips.

Aurivy nodded her head, looking up at them. “Can you tell us if the stories have spread, yet?”

The two looked at one another, before addressing Aurivy again. “We can check, but we have to be careful. The last thing we need is for us to accidentally read a part of the story while looking into them. Big sis told is what type of people these are.”

“Please, fill me in! I am awaiting necessary information!” Lifre interjected, trying to figure out just how bad the situation was.

Aurivy simply let out a sigh. “There’s only one type of person that Terra has ever actively gone out of her way to imprison in life stories. People that she doesn’t want to give a quick death to, wanting to let them suffer in eternal darkness.”

Lifre blinked at that, her eyes going wide. “Ohhh, they’re people that wanted to kill the boss!” She said with a nod, suddenly understanding. “Yeah… a group of five hundred anti-Keeper forces, especially with their brand of immortality, could be really bad!”

“Oh, you don’t know the half of it.” One of the sisters spoke up, staring into her book. “Back when sis was doing those life stories, the world was a much simpler place. Even if someone got ahold of one of the stories, it’d only take a few well-timed ‘accidents’ to cover it up.”

Lena nodded her head, a grim expression on her face. “But now we have the internet. If someone managed to post a life story on the internet, and it happened to get peoples’ attention…”

Lifre blinked again, suddenly understanding why the situation was so bad. “Oh… oh!”

“Lena, do you have information on those that obtained the books?” The twins asked in unison, and Lena nodded.

“The group that I got the information on is a black market trading group. They’re planning to put the items from the vault up for auction after they are all properly identified. The relevant base is in Gandor, operating under the name ‘Darker Entertainment’.”

Once they had this information, it seemed that the two of them were more easily able to track their targets. “These three books are safe.” The divine sister said with a relieved sigh. “Aurivy, can you grab them? Their ‘divine locksmith’ will be there this afternoon, so we need to grab them soon.”

Aurivy nodded her head seriously. “Got it. I’m also using my main body to try to track the other items. It’s just taking a bit because I had to remember where Final Destination was. Like I said, it’s been a while.” She said with a sheepish smile.

Lifre suddenly blinked, looking at the twins, and then at Aurivy. “Oh yeah, how come you guys didn’t already know about this? Your divine warning bells should have been going off nonstop if things from your vaults were touched, right?”

Aurivy shook her head at that. “It all depends on intent and awareness. Because they lacked the awareness that they were taking anything from a vault of Aurivy or Terra, it doesn’t register as easily. Not when I’m constantly getting bombarded with prayers and blessing requests.”

“Yup!” The Terra twins spoke up in unison. “The same goes for big sis! Though, with her, she’s been really busy trying to keep an eye on anyone whose sacrifice would be worthy of consideration for the Admin Room. She probably forgot all about this vault until Lena received the news.”

Lifre pursed her lips at that, having no choice but to acknowledge that answer. However, before she could ask anything else, the twins abruptly slammed their books shut, looking away at the same time. Lifre and the others blinked at that, aside from Aurivy, whose eyes narrowed.

“Five books have been opened so far. One of them has been scanned into an internet forum. The appraiser is trying to find information about the contents.” She explained, the others tensing up. “Oh, of course, it’s him.” Aurivy groaned, shaking her head.

“Him who? Do I have to start begging for information again? Be less vague!” Lifre pouted, causing Aurivy to look over at her.

“He was termed the Plague Doctor. Terra locked him up because she found out that he was plotting to infect the Keeper with a disease that increases its lethality the higher the level the target. Basically turns the system’s buffs against you as a weapon.”

Lifre couldn’t help but pause at that. “Okay, yeah, that definitely qualifies as bad.”