Chapter 9-294: Of Cultivators and Mortals (2/2)
“Thus, the day the Shroud falls, is the day I go elsewhere. I can work up until that day, but no further, and then it is ALL ON YOU.”
There we go. I had just handed off a crushing weight of responsibility, and foisted it off onto all the proper shoulders. My, didn’t they all have the most bittersweet looks on their faces about it.
I couldn’t defend them at all if I wasn’t there. They HAD to Level up their people, there was no choice in the matter. And if they didn’t have enough, their weak people would be preyed upon...
“Lady Traveler, this other Earth,” President Havier spoke up again, rising despite himself. “How... how did they survive their... tribulation?”
“The souls in the Shroud don’t really know, they were barely able to touch the world before the Shroud’s hold was broken. The only thing I can pass on was that the population of the entire world was concentrated in the heartlands of North America, there were substantial geographical changes, and pretty much the rest of the planet had been abandoned by humanity... and was being invaded by opportunistic races brought in by other gods and entities.
“I gather they got good at killing undead by killing a massive number of undead. If there were only twenty million of them left, I can imagine the number of undead they had to kill had at least ten digits to it, and the killing definitely hasn’t stopped since.
“Oh!” I had to smile and clap my hands. “You want them to come here and fight your battles for you!” I had to smirk as he sighed heavily once again. “Given their power, expertise, and Levels, they would rapidly take over the planet, I imagine. Now, it IS another world of Earthlings, but did you notice something else?”
I replayed the videos of them from above again, and turned my eyes on the non-humans.
“They are all human,” the Ælven queen caught on first, her large emerald eyes flashing back and forth. “There are no other races among them!”
“That is correct. They are still a completely human native world. They didn’t have any of the semi-magical reversions that characterized this world. While I am inclined to believe those who display such powers of Good are not racists... our world is not theirs. I think we should handle our own damn problems, and if we make contact with them, it be as equals, don’t you agree?”
Despite themselves, they got the gist of it, especially the non-humans here. While there were definitely racist humans here who would be happy to deal with another Earth of all humans, the non-humans had no wish to be knuckled under by them.
“One of the things I can do is try to set up contact with those people, which will only be effective after the Shroud comes down. While this might be a planetary security threat... they simply have too many damn problems of their own to be invaders, I’m inclined to think. I shall simply have to pick someone viable from among those the Shroud informed me of. It should not be an issue.”
And just who might that be, I wonder?, I mused to myself with an unseen smile.
“Any other questions?”
---------
I didn’t give them my itinerary of who and where, because they had no need to know, but I did catch a couple of them glancing towards my Banner, and wondering if they should bend a knee to me... or go grabbing for power elsewhere as fast as they could.
I did remind them that everything I had talked about with them was going to be released by Heavenbound Hall to the public through multiple venues and servers, giving them time to think, but not time to monopolize... especially if they wanted to attend the Opening of the Sky tonight.
It was nearing dusk as the meeting wrapped up, and I departed without standing around for small talk, as I was helping with the Ritual.
Well, to be blunt, I was going to be the center of it, and the Sylunar who had been undertaking this for years were basically going to be assisting me. I had no problem working out the intricacies of the Ritual. It used multiple Casters to boost a Control Weather high enough to temporarily overcome the power of the Shroud, allowing the people around here, for one cold night a year, to look upon the stars all night.
As Ceremonies went, it was world-famous, as no other force out there could really gather the amount of magical power necessary to do it. The pumping of dozens of Heavenbound-complemented Priests from all Faiths gathered together to participate in this Ritual, and there wasn’t any place else in the world that could really concentrate enough holy power to do the job.
Now, of course, there was me...
I could have basically done this alone. Using that long to Cast a spell, building up all the power necessary, layering it and Raising it to VII for even more punch and power... yes, I could have done this without them. It was only better that it was a combination of Holy and Natural magic, got Theurgy boosts from every direction, and my Caster Level for it bluntly surpassed that of the Shroud itself.
But that was fine. With their help, this was going to go down in history, such as it was.
I was going to display a LOT of power. I was going to attract a LOT of attention. I was going to be a big diversion.
Briggs and Sama setting up a Monarchy and going for the Kingships was probably going to catch just about everybody blind-sided, and that was exactly how it should be...