Hold over Myriad of Worlds

When I appeared at the viewing spot from where members of the Chat Group were watching the terraforming, the first thing I noticed was the difference in how some of them looked at me. While there was no fear in their eyes, some reverence and even slight worship appeared.

-"Yue!"-Only Elysia acted like before, jumping at me the moment I approached.

~"Liked the spectacle?"~I asked them after catching the Pink Fairy in a princess carry.

-"I knew that you were strong, but this..."-Tsunade spoke first but didn't know what words she should use.

-"I feel like that 'you' outside wasn't the 'you' I know."-Shinobu also tried to express her feelings.

-"Hmm... It made me want to win our bet even more, though losing also seemed fun."-Kirari was not one to care about such matters and remained the same old Kirari as before.

-"It's good to have someone so strong as you backing."-Sora also was quite cool with everything.

-"I don't care as long as you tell me how to get such power."-Accelerator was also similar.

-"I'm somewhat revealed that there is someone so strong yet still 'normal'. It makes me more relaxed about those whole infinity stones matter we spoke about before."

-"It only proves that best teachers need the power to destroy the world."-Korosensei goofed around.

-"All you showed only makes me more interested in you. You are an embodiment of my ideals about the world, born into greatness above the world."-Arisu smiled at me.

~"Don't praise me like that. My birth is not something I'm proud of after all."

-"But that only proves my idea is correct even more. You never tapped into the full power of your origin but still achieved this step and took over the power of your blood on your own terms."

Seeing that she would not compromise, I decided to leave the subject and looked at the next person.

-"This, I don't know..."-Lena was visibly overwhelmed by both the seriousness of our talk and what she had just seen.

Umi, who was next to her, was also in a similar state, if not even worse. I could tell that she had a crush on me, but what she had witnessed hit her hard in a way that was hard for me to mend. The only option was to let her deal with it herself, but I ruffled her hair to show her that I was still the same.

-"Yue."-Aletia called out to me.

~"What's up?"

-"Can you give me more blood fruits?"

~"Sure."~I threw some ripened fruits to the vampire girl, who contently returned to her seat and focused on the received snacks.

-"I'm last? Well, to be honest, it's somewhat hard to treat you the same as before. I'll try my best, but now I can't see you in any other light than God."

~"I didn't, nor will I change in the future, so I would prefer if you treat me like you did before."

We spoke a little, but the awkwardness still remained, so knowing that everyone needed time, I left first.

In the Moon Palace, I quickly prepared a hefty meal and sat in the garden together with the girls. We quickly finished all the dishes and decided to have a drink together while enjoying the moonlight.

-"Sigh."

~"Still can't stop thinking about the job?"~I asked Shu, who sighed for the tenth time.

-"Yes. We didn't check if the cities were properly shielded from the different time flow. What if they also had to spend those years there?"

-"Don't doubt my work."-Ling Sheng'er pouted next to me.

-"It's not that, just..."

-"Believe in yourself and us, Shu."-Aranyani smiled at worrying Shu.-"Yue made sure we spent as little time on the surface as possible. Do you think he wouldn't make sure innocent people were dragged in?"

~"Everything went smoothly. Don't worry about that now. Enjoy a moment of tranquility as later, you will have a thousand things to deal with."

-"That reminded me. You planned to take that planet into your world. Did you succeed?"-Ruan Mei looked at me while asking.

~"Yes. Terra is now a realm of my world. That aurora that covered the entire star system back then was to bring it whole here. That's why it went so smoothly. As I grow in strength, I'm approaching the omnipotence in my world closer and closer. Right now, I can even bend the [Laws] slightly."

-"Oh? Then can you deny the [Correction Force] now? Or break Taboos?"-Ruan Mei jumped on the subject as those forces were something she wished to understand in depth.

~"Denayal of them is impossible, but I can impose more Taboos with my current power. As for the [Correction Force]... I have an idea, but it'll have to wait until I have some more research on the subject."

-"Don't speak in riddles and tell us what you are thinking."-Aranyani admonished my riddler act.

~"Remember Gaia and Alaya? I would like to create something like them but with the power to control the [Correction Force] in my world."

-"Why not control it directly?"-Ling Sheng'er asked about the most direct method.

~"Because It would make me lose myself. [Laws] are tools of the [Myriad of Worlds]. If you were to assimilate with them or even take part of their power, you would start to turn into a tool for the [Myriad of Worlds]."

-"But what about Hold? Didn't you say that it is at least as powerful as the [Law] in the past?"-Aranyani asked in worry.

~"Here is why I wish to do deeper research on the subject. The [Hold], as if the power behind it and the Five Principles is indeed a [Law], but it's not connected to the [Myriad of Worlds]. I uncovered this not long ago while doing tests on the [Void]."

-"You mean that [Hold] is truly an outside power?"-Ruan Mei looked surprised at my revelation.

~"I can't confirm this yet. I need to understand [Void] and its opposing force more before making any assumptions."~I shook my head.

-"How does this connect to the issue of creating something to control the [Correction Force]?"-Ling Sheng'er asked, as she didn't fully understand what we were talking about.

~"By splitting part of my Soul and isolating it, I can create a perfect puppet who will always listen to me, yet I won't receive any feedback from it that would put me in danger of losing myself. A safety-first approach, if you can call it that."

-"Isn't that what I wasn't to achieve?"-Ruan Mei smiled.

~"It is, but that is far away target. First, we need to perfect the creation of living beings and deepen our understanding of the [Correction Force] and other [Laws]. Only then, we might be able to formulate the next step toward that idea."

-"That's how science works."

~"OK, stop with those. We are here to rest."

-"Then would you mind playing something? I hadn't heard your music for a long time."-Aranyani suggested that to change the subject.

~"Sure."

Agreeing with this idea, I took out my zither and chose a melody before starting to play. As time passed, we relaxed even more, especially as the girls started to get drunk. The alcohol brewed from my fruits could easily overcome the resistance of Emanator and high-rank Cultivator, so, aside from me, everyone quickly got tipsy.

The girls also let go of their reservations, truly relaxing after getting to know and understand each other for over fifty years. During those years, I also became much closer to them, but as my focus was essential, I kept some distance from them, but now, it was no longer necessary.

The four of them also noticed that fact and decided to act on it. After all, this was the purpose for making me come with them, as they were well aware that I couldn't fully rest like them.

However, before anything could take place, I decided to take it slow as I had just established a relationship with Fu Hua, so after appeasing them with the promise of spending some time with them individually to resolve those feelings, I sent them to their rooms.

I remained here, looking at the fool moon and thinking that I had many such feelings to sort, yet I continued to push them back due to rushing forward with other matters. I sat like that, thinking about some matters before deciding that doing nothing wouldn't solve anything.

After shaking my head to clear my thoughts, I disappeared from there.

As the most pressing matter was to complete matters with Terra, I focused on there. My avatar appeared next to the great tree, as this was a place that required my most immediate attention.

This tree was a sapling of Terra's World Tree, but before it could assume that role, it needed two more elements. One of them was not hard, as it only required me to integrate the tree with the will of Terra.

Normally, that might not be so easy, but after ages of decimation, the will of Terra is barely holding to existence. That is doubly beneficial to me, as that way, I can fully replace it without a fight, guaranteeing that it won't act out as it is now part of my word.

But that benefit is the reason for the second missing element, someone to act as both guardian and new will of the world. The choice of this person was not fully under my control. I couldn't just appoint someone. At most, I was able to influence the outcome to be someone familiar to me, but the candidates were chosen by the world itself.

I began the integration of the tree and the will of the world, beginning the final point of the evolution of World Tree while waiting for the future World Champion to emerge. And luckily, the person who appeared was someone I knew.

-"Huh? Yue..?"

~"Focus on knowledge in your head. It should answer some of your questions."

She nodded and closed her eyes.

I slowly finished my part, and just as I finished, the new World Champion also found her bearing.

-"And here I thought that the sudden apocalypse was all that would surprise me, but you gave me a shake once again, Yue."

~"I'm also happy to see you again, W. I heard from Theresa that you finally found your peace. Right, I should call you Wiš'adel now."

-"So you heard."-She looked proud of that.

~"Yes, after all, I'm now working with Theresa quite often as she is a member of Hold, quickly becoming a core of our presence in this world. She speaks of you as often as about 'her Doctor'."~I teased her a little.

-"Ugh, don't remind me about them. If I spend more than an hour with them, I risk getting diabetes."

~"I get that. So, do you understand your current situation?"

-"I'm to rule the world."

~"That'll be a no, then. To be honest, as you are part of my word, your job is a little redundant, but as you are the closest thing to a god existing in my word, I will be sure to use you efficiently."

-"Great, I want to contact my union leader."

~"Sadly, our Empire doesn't allow unions in the ranks of high-rank personnel."

-"Well, what will be my role from now on?"

~"You will keep this planet safe on your off time as the World Champion. Aside from that, I'll have you join one of the combat units of Hold. You can decide what one."

-"What were those? Ugh... Duty knights..? Domination had some..."

~"You either join Hope, Duty, or Domination into their ranks or choose from joint units like Palace Guards or my Guards."

-"Your Guards, you mean your harem?"

~"No."~I gave her a side-eye.

-"Tsk.~ You lost your chance."

~"So, your decision?"

-"Your Guards, I'll have most freedom that way."

~"Good. I'll help you familiarize yourself with your new powers quickly and then take you to meet the rest of my Guards."

-"Sure, some fighting right now is exactly what I want."

The two of us proceeded to spend some time trying to fight, as Wiš'adel had some trouble adapting to the fighting style not requiring direct combat. Her experience up until today wasn't that useful when it comes to concepts and laws she now needed to comprehend.

Luckily for her, the Revenant that she was now bound to have helped her immensely by giving her knowledge of those who formed that tool. She was able to get her foot in the door after a few hours, so we stopped there and moved to Hold, where Jingliu, Ling, and Jeanne were waiting.

-"Master."-Jingliu greeted me first.

~"Jingliu. This is Wiš'adel. From now on, she will join you as a Guard."

-"I'll take care of her."

~"Help her to grasp her power when you have some time."

-"Yes."

~"So, why are you here?"

-"There is a little update on the matters of the Cultivation world that I wanted to pass to you personally."

~"Go on."

-"It's about the Mara we unleashed. We got confirmation that one of the core words of the Saint race that was infected by it had fallen. All traces of the Saint race disappeared, and it was isolated from the rest of the 33 Heavens."

~"This was something we predicted long ago. Why do you need to inform me about it?"

-"Because of recent actions of the terrorists. There is a great possibility that they want to merge two realms, using our weapon against us."

~"Oh? If so, then I'll have to make a trip there personally later. Gather every proof of this you can, and I'll deal with it after the trip to the Mortal World."

-"Yes."

~"What about you, Jeanne?"

-"My Lord, during my training with Palace Guards, one of the guards showed the talent that allowed her to pass my defenses, so I thought about bringing her to the Lord's attention."

~"Another surprise, huh? I'll go to the [Knights Aromory] to see her later. Tell me more about her."

-"She is someone who was revived by the Lord along with Lady Kallen and seems to be similar to Sakura, but her talents lie in infiltration and assassinations, not pure swordsmanship."

~"So she is another one of the 'sisters' from a Bubble World?"

-"Yes. She is named Yae Sakura, and her only family is a younger sister, Yae Rin."

~"She not only has Sakura's name but also Yae's?"

-"Her sister was too young to become a member of the Palace Guards, so she is working as one of the maids in the Palace."

~"I get the gist of it. Have them meet me in the evening after I finish with the matters in the office. Inform two of them that if Yae Sakura's talent passes my test, I'll allow her to choose a higher position she wants to take and will give her sister the same privilege after she qualifies in the future."

-"Thank you, My Lord."

We spoke for a few more minutes, but as I needed to get the work done, I split from the girls and moved to my office, where a fresh mountain of documents was already waiting for me.