It's been about a week since I've dealt with the last growth system user, and I've been doing nothing but hanging out with Tearwyn. It was so relaxing, to just be around her and my Black Water so much! Currently, we are playing hide and seek.
'You'd think the little cuddleball with large tails would be easy to find, but that is not the case. Tearwyn is a genius it seems! Well, it's easy to forget she's a Goddess after all. A Kitsune one no less. Trying to get past her illusions without cheating is very hard!'
I smile with amusement at remembering the last time I had found her, she was actually standing out in the open on one of my lakes of Black Water. The only reason I even found her though, was because she was giggling the whole time and forgot to hide her voice!
Shaking my head, I focus on the aura I was releasing. Tearwyn had the brilliant idea of also making this little activity have some training mixed in. The rules were simple. I couldn't tap into my control (System) of the domain to find her, I had to use only my natural senses. So, using the power she had given me when we first met, I am trying to have my aura act like a radar. Instead of applying pressure to souls around me, I am having it instead "bounce" off souls. Kind of like an echo location in a sense.
Getting my aura to do that was the easy bit, as the training I had done earlier with Tearwyn really helped. No, what was the hard part was trying to pick out the real soul resonance of Tearwyn from all the fake illusions she has spawned. As if on queue, I picked up a resonance above me, but I was able to tell it was a fake being this close.
Looking up, I see "Tearwyn" in a "Grawer! I am a monster!" like pose. I couldn't help but smile as it shimmered out of existence though.
Artoria: "So cute. But I can tell that was a freshly spawned one, Tearwyn! I am getting better!"
Several more "Tearwyn's" suddenly shimmered into existence in front of me. They were all in some sort of excited cheering pose holding a sign with a "10" on it. I couldn't help but bark a laugh and in return I gave her a twin thumbs up.
I suddenly heard the sounds of giggles coming from further ahead and to my left.
Artoria: "Ah-hah! You're this way!"
Tearwyn: "Hehe, haven't found me yet though!"
I then heard the pitter patter of her tiny feet as she started to run off further away from me with more giggles before vanishing again.
With my voice flooding with mirth and playfulness I yelled, "You can't escape me forever, Tearwyn! Here I come!"
With that, I dashed after where I had last heard Tearwyn, while pushing my aura out farther to try and find her.
~ One week later ~
I was currently sitting against one of Tearwyn's trees near a black lake while watching said little Goddess playing with team RWBY and a few others in the water. Salem and Raven were next to me playing chess with each other while also looking up from time to time to watch the tomfoolery happening.
Salem: "I can clearly see why you go to such lengths for Goddess Tearwyn, My Lady. She is just adorable."
Raven: "Yeah. Watching her and Yang play brings back some fond memories."
Smiling and turning to look at them, I could only see soft smiles on their faces. Their real faces. It seems when I took over Haven, and made it my own, I had connected all the worlds that have my Black Water in them. It wasn't a strong connection that just anything could use to world hop mind you, but it was more than perfect and adequate for myself to summon my servants in their real fleshy bodies.
Noticing the gleam coming from the ruby ring on Salem's finger, I smirk while asking about it.
Artoria: "So, Salem, how are you liking the new ring I sent you?"
Salem gained a bit of a sly and sinister grin while she said, "It's wonderful, Lady Artoria. I even got to use it already. Some self claimed champion of the Light paid us a visit a few months ago."
Raven: "I can still hear her screams as she dissolved. Such cries of primordial fear and pain were bliss to the ears. And the look on Ozpin's face as his hope was crushed once again was also a delight!"
Salem: "Quite. Though I did notice something interesting happen to our little resident torture toy. His soul seemed to double in size and power suddenly one day. Mind you, it didn't mean anything in the end, but it was interesting to see it happen. If I didn't know better it looked like he merged souls with himself somehow."
Nodding my head with a bit of interest I say, "That can happen. After all, yours is not the only Remnant to exist. Something must have happened in one of them that caused Ozma's soul to be ejected from it."
Raven and Salem: "Interesting."
Artoria: "And you, Raven? How are you enjoying your new sword?"
As I gave a passing glance at her, I could see her eyes light up in joy as she lovingly patted the sword that was laying on the ground near her.
Raven: "It's awesome, Lady Artoria! When it bonded with me, I felt my Semblance expand in power thousands of times over! Being able to cut through dimensions is such fun as well. I've gone to a few other worlds to have some fun since you gifted the sword to me, and I had an absolute blast fighting some of the natives. Never managed to go to another Remnant though."
Artoria: "My guess is because you're just blindly world hopping, so no surprise there. Be careful out there though, Raven. Some worlds have very strong defenders and gods."
As I turned my focus back onto Tearwyn who was having an absolute blast playing some water polo I saw Raven nod out of the corner of my eye.
Raven: "Of course, My Lady."
Smiling at the pure smile on Tearwyn's face, I casually asked about the champion of Light they had killed.
Salem: "Not much to tell, she was only in the world for a day or so. She arrived via a Bright White portal according to reports. She immediately started to kill all the civilians that were around, but she soon stopped and started to complain about not getting "EXP" for it."
Giving a nod I say, "Sounds like a growth system user then. Or maybe just a powerful scout who was not done growing, no way to tell really unless I am there. And I bet the reason they can't get EXP from the kills is because she didn't actually kill anyone."
Again out of the corner of my eye, I could see a highly amused smile on Salem's face as she nodded.
Salem: "Yes, us being immortal as long as there is some of your Holy Water in existence is most convenient. We abuse that fact most heavily."
Raven: "Damn right we do. We have a lot of battle junkies on our planet now. So we have set up colosseums that have Death Battles running 24/7. They are a major hit, and also double as relief and training for our junkies and armies. Even Yang and myself take part in them regularly."
Artoria: "That is a smart way to keep everyone calm and yet advancing at the same time. I'll have to find a universe that I can release you all on, to see how you all do and to let you all have some fun."
Raven: "Please, do! That sounds wonderful!"
Salem: "Yes, that sounds perfect. We look forward to that day, Lady Artoria."
Yang: "No fair using all of your tails like that, Goddess Tearwyn!"
Tearwyn: "No-one said I couldn't! Take this!"
With a wide grin on my face, I could only shake my head in amusement at seeing Tearwyn use her tails to catch and send balls back to the others. It seems they were now playing water dodgeball. I could understand why it was just Tearwyn vs everyone else though, as she was completely dominating them.
Raven: "Adorable."
Salem: "Very much so. When you first talked about Goddess Tearwyn, Lady Artoria, I did not envision her to be like this. But this is so much better and cuter than anything I thought she was going to be like. I am going to commission several statues of the two of you, I think. We've been praying to Tearwyn for a while now, but no-one knew what she looked like till today."
My eyes widened at that, as my hand covered my face in embracement.
Artoria: "Wow, my bad. It totally slipped my mind that you wouldn't know what she looked like. I thought she would show you one day or something. Guess she's been a lot more busy than I assumed she was."
Salem waved off my blunder with ease and said, "It is fine, Lady Artoira. Just knowing her name was enough to start. But, this will help reinforce the religion a great deal."
Artoria: "What is the doctrine you have everyone following by the way?"
Seeing her raise an eyebrow, she asked with some amusement in her voice, "Do you actually care enough to know?"
Returning her question with a sly grin and a shrug I shook my head.
Salem: "As expected. But, I'll give you the short version of it. It really just boils down to worship of the both of you, while also obeying your commands should they ever receive them. We don't need much else, as the gift of the Holy Water has brought everyone closer. We don't need something like Religion to tie us together, as we have something much more concrete and real."
Nodding my head at that, I reach out and catch a ball suddenly thrown at me. Twilling it on my index finger, I look at my little sister with amusement in my eyes.
Tearwyn: "Come play with us, Sister!"
A massive smile split my face as I nodded my head, and stood up. The dress I was in melted to give way to a one piece more suitable for water. Throwing back the ball to the gang in the water summoned a popsicle stick.
Artoria: "I hope you're ready, little sis!"
I then created an inflatable Excalibur Morgan that looked like my old version of it, and a water pistol with its colours and gave them a massive mischievous smile.
(Source: https://fategrandorder.fandom.com/wiki/Artoria_Pendragon_(Rider_Alter) )
Artoria: "For I will win this war! Have at thee!"
I then charged while laughing and shooting out blasts of Black Water from my pistol at the group. Tearwyn laughed loudly in glee and quickly summoned "weapons" for everyone to use. And thus was the start of a legendary war, that history would later remember as "The Great War of the water Goddesses!"
Or not. But, we had fun for a very long time.
~ Two weeks later ~
Currently, Tearwyn and I were resting under one of her trees by the same lake we all played at a few weeks ago. Tearwyn was sitting on my lap leaning into my chest with her tails wrapped around the tree and us. Currently she was watching one of her worlds looking for signs of the Light scout. She had found two already, but the third one was a little tricky it seems.
Artoria: "Think they might be in this world?"
Tearwyn hummed and nodded her head.
'Serious Tearwyn is cute too…'
Tearwyn: "Something tells me they are here. It would be a great world to hide a scout in. A total waste land, and the slow nature of power growth most scouts have would be a perfect fit here."
Taking a peek into the little window she had conjured, revealed a toxic waste land with drek all over the place.
Artoria: "Looks like several nukes hit that planet."
Tearwyn: "That is exactly what happened. In a bid for power, and to sell more of their "Vaults" a company raised tensions between the world powers behind the scenes. Till the nukes actually did drop. A prime example of the short sightedness of greedy humans."
I hum as I bob my head gently against Tearwyn's.
With a sigh though, I speak up, "I think I should head out though Tearwyn. I want your worlds cleansed of the Light. Even though the scouts can't do much of anything, they are still an ugly stain. And they give the Light god's sight they don't need."
Tearwyn's ears drooped a little bit, but she still gave a nod. Dismissing her little viewing portal spell, she turned and gave me a hug as I stood up.
Tearwyn: "I understand. Which world do you want to go to first?"
Artoria: "Actually, before that, I want to stop by the DxD world again before I head out now that I think about it. There are a lot of powerful Devils left that would make great servants, don't you think?"
Tearwyn gave me a hesitant smile and her ears drooped even further.
Artoria: "What's wrong Tearwyn?"
Tearwyn: "Can… Can I ask that you don't? I am actually very interested in how the world will change with everything that has happened. And, I'd like all the strong people to be there."
Giving her a warm smile, I caress her head softly before I snuggle our cheeks together.
Artoria: "Of course, anything for my cute little sister! Well, since you've asked I think I'll go to that dungeon world first. Do you mind if I pick up a servant or two from that world?"
She was still giggling as I continued to snuggle with her, but she eventually managed to talk through the fits.
Tearwyn: "I don't mind! That world has a boring fate over all. Knock yourself out~!"
Tickling Tearwyn some, causing her to laugh even more I then hug her and set her down gently in front of me. She snapped her fingers as a portal opened up near me, and I gave her one last headpat before I summoned my armour.
Artoria: "Alrighty, I'll have a bit of fun with the gods or deities or whatever they are called for a while. After I kill that scout though. Don't have too much fun without me in the meantime, Tearwyn~."
Tearwyn threw her hands up in the air before running off and shouting, "I promise nothing, Sister!"
And then she was gone with a poof of sakura petals. Softly giggling to myself while shaking my head at her antics, I step through the portal. The normal comfort of her portal travel was over quickly, as per usual, and I stepped out.
Looking around me, I was standing in a giant plane of grass lands. Yet, I could tell it was not outside, and I was in the dungeon. The fake sky really gave it away. Suddenly, there was a massive roar behind me that caused the dress part of my armour along with my hair to whip around wildly. Annoyed, I turned around to see what was making such a racket.
Artoria: "Just who I was hoping for, but it seems you need to be taught some manners first."
Before me was a rather large black dragon missing an eye. I smiled in glee at the thought of my soon to be new pet.
'But like I said, it needs some manners beaten into it.'
So I released all of my bloodlust in wild abandon, while also letting go of my power. I didn't use Mana Burst however, as there was no need. The dragon suddenly froze before it started to slowly back away from me.
Artoria: "And where do you think you are going?"
Without wasting any more time, I appeared just above the dragon's snout, and landed a relatively weak (for me) axe kick on it. The dragon's head shot down, and embedded itself into the ground below. Landing softly next to the crater its head made, I let out an ominous chuckle.
Artoria: "You're the big bad dragon, you can take more right?"
I lightly taunted the thing as I reached down with my magic and pulled its head out of the rubble. I then used the same magic to launch the dragon with reckless abandon and smiled in glee as it crashed into the roof hard. As the dragon's body slowly fell out of the new hole in the sky, I heard a loud roar coming from behind me.
Turning around, I saw another black dragon starting to form and pry itself out of the fake sky. This dragon was much, MUCH larger however. I couldn't help the sinister yet gleeful smile that appeared on my face.
Artoria: "Two for one? Excellent~."
[author] And here is chapter 46, everyone~! Buckle up, things are about to get interesting~! See you in the next chapter~~[/author]