World Keeper

Chapter 1151: Unexpected Benefits

After helping Chelsea with her own ascension to become the Origin of Security, Dana left the area via a shadow gate. Unlike before, she did not need the tokens to travel to the void anymore. Although she could still feel some resistance from the void defenses, that resistance was no longer enough to stop her.

Moments later, she appeared before the gates of Olympus. However, she did not immediately walk inside. Once she had arrived, she instead sat on the ground and crossed her legs, entering a state of meditation.

Although the educational stream was able to replicate the laws of the world that they had performed the stream in, and even simulated the void itself, there were no other universes within that stream other than those that they created themselves as part of the stream.

Because of this, there were certain things that they had only been able to guess, without any true means of verification. Dana focused, expanding her senses as the air around her seemed to briefly ripple. She recalled how the Origin of Fate had been able to find creatures across multiple universes in a matter of moments, with no information about them other than the time of their arrival.

Clairvoyance on that scale, tracking multiple targets, shouldn’t have been possible with a normal power. Dana was well aware of how the scale of an Origin’s power was expanded, as Chelsea had explained to Dale previously. However, that wasn’t simply scale, but precision.

And soon, Dana understood just how the Origin of Fate had achieved this. As she expanded her senses, she could perceive everything that occurred within the darkness. Not just nearby, or even on the local planets. The further she expanded her senses, the more she could detect. Whether it was distant planets of Earth’s universe, the Ashtanu palace, she could even see what was happening within Thelsa’s shadow world.

Anywhere that she thought of extending her senses, she could perceive the darkness in that area as if it were right before her eyes. She might not have been able to analyze everything at once with perfect clarity, but with this, she could choose to filter what she was seeing, reducing the information flooding into her senses.

“I’ll need to be careful with that.” She muttered to herself, thinking aloud. “I don’t want to accidentally look at the shadow of a void monster-” Dana paused, thinking, before standing up and disappearing into the shadows once again.

When she emerged, she was standing in front of Chelsea, who was focusing on her own inner world. Because Chelsea’s Origin domain relied heavily on technology, she had to try to cultivate a civilization, and had borrowed several of the automated drones from Dana to do so. “Chelsea, we have another important test that we need to do.” Dana spoke up, interrupting Chelsea’s thoughts and causing her to open her eyes.

“...Is it really that important?” Chelsea asked, her tone somewhat annoyed. Clearly, she had been in the middle of her work.

“I need you to write a void script for me.” Dana told her with a firm nod, causing Chelsea to blink.

“I mean… okay? But, why though? And, what type of script do you need?” She asked, brushing her legs off and standing up.

“Any type of script. I want you to try to use it on me.” Dana spoke in a somewhat excited tone, and Chelsea only now began to understand what Dana was thinking.

“You think… because our bodies have the same internal energy structure as the raw void, we might be immune to memetic effects?” She asked, eyes going wide. If this was the case, she could completely understand why Dana had urgently disrupted her inner world cultivation. Being immune to memetic effects would have massive implications.

First of all, that would mean that Dana and Chelsea could freely hunt the memetic monsters outside of the Hyperlane barriers, and did not have to fear their influence. They could police areas that have been targeted by void beasts and clear them out. Also… it meant that any Origins that came in the future would not be affected by the memetic scripts that had once been created to try to help weed them out.

Chelsea focused, tapping into the void and writing out a quick script in the air, which hovered in place with black letters. This was a very basic memetic script, one that would not linger in the target after affecting them, and was only designed to--

“You want to make me dance?” Dana asked, blinking as she looked at the strange writing. “It’s not… it’s not quite affecting me. It’s more like, when I see it, I know what it is trying to make me do.”

That was both better and worse than what Chelsea expected, as it gave the Origins an understanding of any void scripts that they would be subjected to. “In other words, the information is being properly absorbed by the void within your body, but it can’t control you.”

They had never been able to test this in the streams before, because void scripts couldn’t be created in the streams that would influence another individual. They could only create the scripts within themselves, like how they created their void core. Chelsea hadn’t even thought of trying to test this after the streams ended.

“Let me try two more levels of void scripts, just to confirm that it’s safe.” She said, focusing. The next script that she used was more advanced, and required half an hour for her to properly create it. The script took the form of a blood red eye that hovered in the air, staring at Dana.

Dana stared back at the eye, nodding her head. “This one wants me to tell a secret that I’ve never told anybody before.” She said, confirming that the script wasn’t influencing her.

Chelsea bit her lip at that, shattering the eye and working on the next one. She had been hesitant to try this, because this last one was a body-altering script. These were among the most hazardous of void scripts, because they could change a creature’s very essence.

This script took more than an hour to complete, with Dana waiting at the side with her eyes closed. Only when she was told that Chelsea was done did she open her eyes, seeing an angel with ten wings and six arms staring at her. It looked as if it were peering into her soul, each eye blinking at different intervals.

“This one is trying to turn me into a living statue, one that petrifies anything I touch, and infect anyone that looks at me with a similar effect.” She said, still staring at it.

Chelsea let out a relieved sigh, glad that even this script had been useless against Dana. “Good. Now, check your inner world. Make sure that none of these scripts caused hidden changes there.” She said, erasing the last script.

Dana nodded her head seriously, closing her eyes and sweeping her senses through her inner world. “I’m not seeing any changes within the inner world. Each of the script effects you wrote seem to be isolated to the void around it, and… yeah, I can disperse them if I want.”

Chelsea was happy to hear that, as it meant that an Origin could choose to take a void script to help their world, or simply get rid of it on a whim. Still, this was an unexpected benefit to Origins.

While Chelsea was thinking about that, Dana was focused on something else. She concentrated, sending her senses into Chelsea’s inner world. When she found that it succeeded, her eyes widened. The clarity was rather poor, far less than what she could perceive from other worlds, but she was still able to do so.

However, she quickly withdrew her senses, clearing her throat. “I’ve made another discovery… This one is related to the future development and combat against Origins.” She said, causing Chelsea’s gaze to abruptly shift to her.

“What is it?” She asked, unsure what Dana could have discovered in that brief moment.

“...It is possible to destroy an Origin’s inner world remotely.” Dana explained. “I just did a test, and I was able to project my senses into your inner world, observing the darkness within it. This means that any Origin will be able to do similar, and can potentially use that to project their power into that inner world.”

Chelsea froze when she heard that, before lowering her eyes in thought. “I see… so, an Origin’s world should be created with as many variations of their own domain as possible, but the more things they have that an opponent could target, the more vulnerable they are. At the same time, they need to maintain the stability of their world. If we eventually create an Origin with a base element like fire, water, or stone, we can try to create an inner world for them that is entirely composed of their element.”

Dana nodded her head, having had a similar thought. “That was all that I needed to go over. I’ll let you get back to work.” She said, before dissolving into darkness once more.

Back at Olympus, Dana now went through the gates and into the giant palace, making her way to the throne room. Inside, she could see Tsubaki standing next to the Keeper, who had long since opened his eyes. “Congratulations, Dana.” He said with a gentle smile, and Dana nodded her head.

“Thanks, boss. So… are you able to use Origin power?” She asked, looking up at him.

The Keeper hesitated for a moment, thinking. “I don’t particularly feel anything different. When I try to access the power of the Origin of Darkness, I feel like it is there, but not at the same time. There is probably a way for me to use Origin power, but I just haven’t discovered it yet.”

Dana nodded her head at that, not pressing the issue. She had suspected that the Keeper might not be able to use the powers of an Origin by default, given that he did not have the necessary resources to do so. “You can still use the divine domain of darkness, though, right?” She asked, and Dale nodded his head immediately.

“That’s right. There are several gods of darkness that I can get the domain from. And, going by my discussion with Chelsea, the powers I use through the domain of darkness shouldn’t necessarily be weaker than those you can use. It is only the scale that is lessened, which I am fine with.”

Dana smiled at that. “Very well. In that case, I will head to my workshop and begin some research. I’ve got a lot that I want to experiment with, still.” She said, before turning to leave. However, the Keeper’s voice called out to her before she could leave the throne room.

“Are you still able to make avatars of yourself? I was just curious how that would work with the inner world.”

Hearing the Keeper’s question, Dana turned her head to look at him with a smile. “That was one of the first things we experimented with. I can still create avatars like before. However, only my true body has my inner world. My avatars merely channel the power produced from my true body.”

The Keeper nodded his head in understanding. “I see. Thanks for humoring my question, Dana. And, again, congratulations on your advancement. I knew that it would only be a matter of time before you became an Origin.”

Dana’s smile grew wider at that, glad to hear that he believed in her. Even Tsubaki nodded her head in agreement. “If you put me on the spot like that, now I really have to figure this whole Origin thing out faster, that way I can give you something to actually be impressed by.” She said, sticking her tongue out playfully before turning and running out of the throne room.

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