A day later, I was talking with Astraea, Nobunaga, and Ninguang about some matters that needed more planning. During our discussion, the subject of, now officially codenamed, Second Mortal World came up.
-"You've got any candidates?"
~"Sigh. I do."
-"I feel 'but' in that statement."-Nobu spoke while rhythmically taping the table due to her boredom.
~"The world I found is threatened by an apocalypse. Due to that, it can't qualify for our plan, but its special characteristics make me want to make it part of Hold. Next is the world of Umi. I believe that it can be conquered quite smoothly, and it meets all qualifying parameters."
-"Won't that disturb your research and plan you had for the Chat Group?"-Astraea expressed her concern.
~"Somewhat, but the research part of the Group is almost done. I'll also soon launch the first steps of the plan. I think that the upcoming trial during the Martial Meeting will be perfect to send them for the first quest."
-"What do you even plan to do with them?"-Asked Ninggunag.-"I couldn't find any records of your plan on the Akasha System."
~"I can't explain everything but think of it as trying to create a multiverse. I want to make Hold, and my whole world, much safer by creating permanent anchors that would ensure my world can survive even if something happened to me."
-"Why such a catastrophic outlook? If this was only that, you would make this plan an official project in the Akasha System."-Astraea looked me in the eyes.-"Explain what else is included in your plan."
~"Sigh. There are two more steps. First includes moving my world out of the [Myriad of Worlds] and Chaos, making it exist in [Void] directly."
-"Ugh, just by hearing those, I feel pain."-Nobu instantly regretted trying to understand what I wanted to achieve.
-"[Void]..."-Astraea seemed worried about something.-"Aeons are being born in Chaos and shouldn't exist outside of it. You..."
~"Indeed. Aeons can't depart into [Void], but I'm more than Aeon. Don't worry, I know my limits."
-"What about the second step?"
~"Discover what exists on the opposite of the [Void]. Everything originates from [Void] and enters and exists in the [Myriad of Worlds], becoming part of a certain world or Chaos. Then what next?"
-"It Ends? Dies? What about it?"
~"Exactly. Everything has to End, but be it Death, End, Nihility, Finality, or Destruction, all of those can't compare to [Void], meaning something else exists that corresponds to those Laws, Paths, and Principles. I just can't seem to find it."
-"You sound a little obsessed there. Be sure to control yourself."-Astraea warned me.
~"I'll be careful."
-"Guys, return to the main subject."-Nobu called to us annoyed.-"What about that Second bla bla."
~"I'll look a little more before coming to a decision, but I'll give you everything you need to start making plans after the Festival of Domination."
-"Agreeable."-Nongguang noted this down before she proceeded to talk about the next subject.
While the meeting was still taking place, my avatar in Orario was preparing to meet the Shinto delegation. Accompanying me will be Artemis, as she would give more weight to my presence there as a goddess, and Jingliu with Cellinia, acting as our Guards. Maiev and the Shadows will also be on standby, but once again, they are ordered not to act without my direct order.
One more person will be accompanying us, Kaguya from Astraea familia.
-"Lord Yue."
~"I'm thankful for your assistance, Kaguya. Having someone knowledgeable about local customs and possessing some contacts in the Far East is a godsend."
-"Fufu, Lord Yue, I'm happy to be of assistance. While I still have some friends in the Far East, not everyone will be happy by my sudden return."
~"I heard some snippets about your past, and I know that you don't wish to share it. I will leave two Sharows with you for your safety, but please be careful in whatever you plan to do there."
-"Lord won't forbid me to act for personal matters?"
~"No, I can even provide some assistance as long as it won't harm the interests of Hold."
-"I'm deeply moved by your generosity, Lord."-Kaguya bowed to me.-"What I wish for is revenge against those who wronged me. I have to achieve it by myself."
~"I see. Then I permit you to act in my name as one equal to god in matters of reaching cooperation between Families of the Far East and Hold Fortress on Orario."
-"Lord?"-Giving her such authority surprised Kaguya.-"Is this appropriate? Won't I implicate the Lord with my actions?"
~"Don't worry. We don't have high hopes for this talks, so feel free to act in a way you think is best. Who knows, it might prove beneficial in the end."
Behind me, Cellinia looked at my left hand as she saw shimmering runes appearing on the [Wyrd], but she didn't point that out.
-"Thank you, Lord."
~"Time to go."
Under my command, our small party moved toward one of the gates out of Orario, where we were supposed to meet the delegation. As my appearance was well known in the city, despite people thinking that I was still a mortal, they showed me respect, and no one stopped or troubled us the whole way.
Thanks to that, we arrived at the meeting point a little early, despite our late departure. Seeing us, an eastern god followed by fea w members of his family approached us.
-"Your Excellency must be Yue. I also greet beautiful ladies."
~"Indeed, I'm Yue. No need for you to call me like that. Please just refer to me by name."
-"I'll do se then, Yue. I'm Takemikazuchi, but please call me Take, as I know Easter names sometimes are hard to pronounce."
~"Sure. As for my companions, this is Artemis, the Greek goddess of the moon. Kaguya from Astraea familia is accompanying us to help us with local customs, and Jingliu and Cellina are present to guard us."
-"It's an honor to meet you all. I, along with my familia, am responsible for helping you to arrive in the Far East."
~"Then I think we can get to know each other during the travel."
-"Indeed. We will need a day to arrive at the port from where we will take the ship directly to the isles. In total, the travel will take around two months."
~"Good, we will follow your arrangements."
-"Then please, there are carriages waiting for us."
Back in Hold, I finished the meeting with my wives and returned to my office, where Loki was waiting for me.
~"Seeing you here would mean that there is something more happening behind the scenes about that meeting."
-"There is."
~"So why did you insist I travel there conventionally rather than teleporting?"
-"Because I wanted to allow all our hidden enemies time to act."
~"Sigh. Spill it out."
-"You know that many gods hate you, not to mention that they despise being called equal to you, so they wish to eliminate you. Many hide their tails well, knowing that I'm allied with you, so I want to deal with them all at once."
~"Continue."
-"As everybody underestimates you, they will send their people at you, which will expose them."
~"Indeed, most gods will be able to detect any divination made on them, but their familia members won't alarm them."
-"Yes. I'll deal with Orario and all rats here, but you will have to take care of two bigger targets."
~"Shinto is too weak to be seen as a big target in your eyes. That would leave Elven Forest as one, but I'm not sure what the second party is in your plans."
-"Rakia."
~"That empire? Why are they hostile to me?"
-"Two reasons, first ego. Ares can't stand you being equal to god, and that musslehead isn't even hiding it. Not to mention his best trophy, Aphrodite, thinks that only you are worthy of her due to your beauty, so it hurts his ego even more."
~"Sigh."
-"The second reason is also because of women."
~"Why?"
-"Ares' eternal rival is Athena, but after her loss in War Game long ago, she and her familia disappeared and went into hiding, meaning that he can't compete with her anymore. But of course, this didn't satisfy him, so he found the target to draw Athena out."
~"Her 'sisters' Artemis and Hestia."
-"Indeed. And as you 'conquered' both of them."
~"Wait a second. I had indeed entered a relationship with Artemis, but there is nothing between me and Hestia."
-"I know, but rumors don't care for truth, and rumors about two virgin goddesses are especially popular."
~"Did you have your hand in that?"
-"No comment."
~"Sigh. Continue your explanation."
-"I want to provoke Rakia into declaring war against both Elves and Far East, using your presence there as the catalyst. Riveria, with the assistance of Okita, Raikou, Musashi, and Raven, will deal with matters of Elven Forest, but before she goes there, you know what must take place."
~"..."
-"Are you opposed to my plan?"
~"Why do you want to do that?"
-"Because it will change what Hold is in that world. The Hold is only a mortal force in our world. I want it to rise into a new Pantheon."
~"..."
-"Think what will that allow us to do. We'll not only be able to bring more gods under us, and I mean 'under' not some cooperation, but true subjects of Hold. Also, we would gain access to Hevens, resources there are nothing to scoff of, especially as many can assist Cultivation..."
~"Stop it. I understand."
-"Then?"
~"Loki, you are everything I hate about gods. Flickle in nature, mischievous in acting, covering the truth behind countless lies, treating the world like a playing board. If not for your love for your children, I would think that you are just another manifestation of Aha."
-"..."
~"But I'm immensely thankful to have you by my side. I'll follow your plan, but next time, inform me before organizing everything."
-"Right..."
~"Did I say too much?"
-"No, I just wasn't ready for such a declaration. Ehem. But I believe you didn't say all of that just to speak about your emotions for me, so be direct. What do you want?"
~"You can say that I'm grateful for not having to deal with matters such as gods thanks to you. I can't reward you officially for that, as you went against the rules by working without my approval, but I can do it privately. Is there something I can do for you?"
-"Why do you ask about rewards suddenly?"
~"You like working for free?'
-"No, no, I want to get payment. I also understand why you can't give me any official reward. But I haven't thought about what to ask for."
~"And that is the reason why I asked it now. So? Anything comes to mind?"
-"Ugh... I know! I wasn't to meet Aha! As you told me, THEY are similar to my divinity. I want to find a method to reduce the effects of divinity on me, not to mention a way to become stronger."
~"Sure, I'll ask him for some time after I'm done with Martial Meeting, so this time you have time to prepare."
-"Where did you learn those strategies for talks and negotiations? Ah, right. Ningguang and I taught you that."
~"Want some tea?"
-"Sure, but don't forget to bring some cake."
~"Can you, Rin?"
-"Yes, Master Yue."
As I still had some time before the Martial Meeting, I decided to catch up on some projects requiring more attention than my puppets could spare. After helping here and there, I finally found myself in the joint lab of Ruan Mei and Mobius, who were working on creating a new race with me.
-"Those are our results as of now."-Ruan Mei finished her explanation.
~"Aside from those two things, we are basically done."
-"The problem is that those 'two things' are the main issues that stumped us from the very beginning."-Mobius looked up from her experiments.
~"Hmm... Regarding the matter of Souls, I'm already working on that, and the results are promising. Still little short, but this will be done in not so distant future."
-"Yes, I read your paper on the subject. I was intrigued by your approach to the subject of the divide between Soul, spirit or ego, and body, as well as about the question of Life. Screwllum was especially intrigued by that last part."
~"I'll be open to discussing it later if you are interested."
-"Gladly, I'll prepare some cakes for us then."
-"Ehem. Don't you bring your lovey-dovey atmosphere to my lab!"
-"It's our lab. Also, don't you..."
-"Shut it!"
-"Sigh."
-"What?!"
-"I just remembered something Yae told me about one of our tea times. Tsundere, was it?"
-"!!!"-This word seemed to be a trigger to the snake as she instantly launched at Ruan Mei.-"Don't you dare bring up those taboo phrases!"
~"Glad you two get along, but let's return to the subject. On the second issue of sentience and power. We already used all the experience Yaoshi and Long had on that, but nothing worked, so we have to approach this differently."
-"What's your idea?"
~"I want to try creating artificial sentient beings."
-"Hou? Interesting."
-"Who is in on that project?"
~"It hasn't started yet, but I'll bring Herta, Screwllum, Black Swan, and da Vinci. There will also be a secondary project headed by Vill-V, Tesla, and Einstein to create bodies for those beings."
-"What role will they fill?"
~"We plan to create autonomous units that will form our future fleet. Each of those will be a sentient ship that will cooperate with our soldiers and Knights."
-"Hmm... That would reduce the personnel needed for fighting in space, and as the ego and be copied between different units, some more dangerous operations would also be possible."
~"Indeed, this project is to answer the need for more ships for the upcoming war. Nobu has been nagging me about that for some time, so I finally decided to get to it. We can use this project as a test for creating a sentience that can work well with unique powers."
-"Good, this can work."
-"Then, until we can continue, I'll return my attention to my other projects."-Mobius started gathering her documents to return to her private lab.
~"Don't be so quick, Mobius. There is one more side project I want you to make that is connected with the race."
-"What is it?"
~"Remember Kalista?"
-"Yes, that girl you saved from Runeterra."
~"She expressed her wish to join this project as a test subject."
-"You mean she wants to use her own spirit and Soul to give birth to the first of our race?"
~"Eaxcly."
-"I'll need a week or so to prepare all apertures, but I will start working on it."-Mobius instantly got to work.
-"Most of the things on my side are ready, but I'll check if everything is right once again."
~"Then I'll instruct Kalista to be ready in ten days. Is that enough?"
-"Yes."-They answered together before focusing on their work.
Knowing that I wouldn't be able to regain their attention, I moved to the next project, spending what was left of my free time in labs. Soon, the time for Martial Meeting arrived, so I gathered with everyone who was involved in it.