Queen's citadel.
On a balcony, with the sea of fire as a view,
The underworld manager, Lilith the infernal, was enjoying the fresh hot breeze of her realm.
The sound of screams and the agony of the sinners was like melodic music to her ears.
While resting on her rocking chair with closed eyes, she was focused on a circular plate made of a special material on the table beside her.
The plate was deep blue, and a single sentence was written on it.
'Ancient ones special invite'
At this moment, the plate suddenly started moving slowly towards the edge of the table.
Lilith opened her eyes, and when she saw a small hand taking the invitation plate away, she smiled coldly and placed a finger on it.
"Hmm?"
A voice sounded, and a head came up from behind the table.
"Oh, partner, you are awake!
I asked your daughter about you, and she said you are resting, so..."
And the small hand tried to pull the plate away again with more force.
Lilith, without letting go of the plate, said,
"I was going to destroy this invitation, but I had a hunch that you might come after it."
*Gasp*
"See!? That's Fate guiding you!"
Lilith smiled coldly,
"How about you tell me what you have been up to recently?
Then I give you the invitation."
The owner of the small hand, Little Mortal, said,
"I didn't do anything to report...
I just went to that level 3 civilization, and when I heard about the invitation you destroy every time, and they sent you one recently for that event, I hurried back to see if you still have it.
By the way, stop trying to smile coldly.
The only smile you can show is warm."
Lilith gritted her teeth.
She controlled her emotions and said,
"You didn't do anything?
You suddenly cut off the connection between the mainland and the underworld.
You cleaned up everything on the mainland, in heaven and earth, literally.
And you call that nothing?"
Little mortal raised his eyebrows,
"Oh, you're talking about that...
It was just a minor emergency that I didn't have time to discuss with anyone.
Don't worry about it.
And look!
Isn't everything better than what it was before?"
And again, he tried to take the invitation.
But Lilith didn't let go.
Calling that sudden heart attack a minor emergency made the corner of Lilith's eyes twitch.
She pressed her finger with even more force on the invitation plate and said,
"How about you tell me about your trip then?
How is the investigation?"
She knew he didn't want to talk about his sudden 'mainland purge' for some reason, but what about his 'investigation'?
Little mortal searched his pockets, and after finding nothing, said,
"Oh, right, I wrote the investigation result in my notebook, but because I couldn't bring it here, I left it at home.
And you know, because of old age, we, the ancestors, can't remember the events happening in our daily life... Sigh..."
Lilith waved her other hand, and a gate opened.
"I gave access to all of your birth treasures.
You can go bring over whatever you want."
Little mortal looked at the other side of the gate, which was the silver platform, and said helplessly,
"Alright..."
But before leaving, he furrowed and asked,
"Partner, why do I feel the underworld is a lot more crowded and lively now?"
Lilith chuckled and said,
"You are asking me?
I heard some creatures tried to mess around in your territory and failed your 'Loyalty test',
So your assistant got angry, went to the judge hammer, and judged all of them.
After the trial, she sent all of the sinners down here."
Little mortal gasped,
"It should be her 'cultivator bloodline' that just activated!
I'm telling you, these cultivators are all like this.
They like to remove the 'problem' from its root.
And my assistant is actually a cultured one among them!
You should see a real cultivator! They are brutal!"
After sharing a few more horror stories about how savage and unreasonable cultivators are, and how good and responsible his assistant is, he was about to leave but stopped again.
This time, he looked at Lilith thoughtfully.
Lilith, who thought for a moment he was going to use force, flinched.
Little mortal, while looking puzzled, walked to her and held her hand.
Lilith didn't dare even to move or make a sound anymore.
Did she go overboard?
Then she saw the world around her had changed, and now she was in the Dark world with phantoms above her head.
Then she heard a *gasp*, and she was back in her citadel.
*Sigh*
Hearing someone sigh, Lilith looked down at the little boy who was looking at her with pity, and asked nervously,
"W-what?"
While thinking to herself,
'Am I dying?
Why is he looking at me like that?'
Little mortal shook his head and said,
"Fate is so ungrateful, right?
All this time, I thought you were a Fate expert.
But guess what?
You weren't.
The only reason for fate being connected to you was those two communication devices..."
Lilith's eyes widened in shock,
"How is that possible?"
And tried to feel her connection with Fate.
And sure enough, there was no connection!
She looked at the person who seemed to be closest to Fate while Fate was farthest from him, and asked,
"Can you explain what's going on?"
Little Mortal nodded,
"Yes, I can.
But I won't, that's classified information."
Lilith was speechless.
She asked,
"At least tell me if it's a bad thing or a good thing?"
But Little Mortal left as if he had heard nothing.
He didn't leave through the gate, though, but went directly to the dark world.
What he just saw was obviously related to the Fate storyline.
There was no Fate line connected to Lilith anymore.
Little mortal started muttering to himself to figure out what happened to Lilith's connection with Fate.
"Fate had a plan for my partner.
First, she was supposed to be the vulture's partner, and enter the story through the lava sea of Hunters mainland.
And second, she probably was supposed to help the Vulture find the level 3 civilization by using her communication devices to lure some agents out.
But the lava sea isn't connected to Hunters mainland now; instead, it is connected to the speedy mainland.
Not only that, the communication devices she had were destroyed too.
Both things that could connect her to Fate and let her be part of Fate's story are now gone.
That's why she isn't in the story anymore...?"
Little Mortal gulped down nervously,
"Did I make a mistake in destroying those devices?
Would that alert Fate or hypermind?
What I did forced my partner to step out of the Matrix..."
Then he shrugged and left after muttering,
"Whatever.
This is what it is, and I hope there is no serious consequence for what I did."
After a couple of minutes, Little Mortal came back with his notebook to the underworld, opened a page, and gave it to Lilith.
"Here.
This is the part of my investigation that your security level allows you to read."
Without knowing her security level, Lilith set aside the 'Fate' issue and read the investigation report.
[ Level 3 civilization investigation mission:
1. Travel is through underground subways.
(Rich people can use wormholes.)
2. 'Smart streets' (I can't use it.)
3. Agents are all information law users (So obvious why, right?)
4. For some reason, this mainland is lawless.
(It seems the reason is the high level of security.
Basically, there is no privacy here, not even in the toilet.
Disgusting...)
5. Nobody flies here except the big heads?
6. Buildings might be bigger and taller than they look.
(The floors are expanded in different dimensions, probably.)
7. Vault 44 is the prison
(There might be more of them.)
8. Vault cards can be activated by the agents
(Vault 44 was activated by Agent 44.)
9. All of the vault's cards have a mark.
11. Xyron, the same storyteller who left a message in the robot that no one cared about its name.
He seems to be a cyborg, acting as a boss or something.
15. That sneaky Hypermind is the only one who knows about the sealed realm.
- Hypermind is pretending to be a god here.
16. It seems Hypermind knows about the sealed realm receiving reinforcements.
It sent its hunting dogs out to investigate.]
Lilith, who saw parts 10, 12, 13, and 14 of the investigation missing, asked,
"Where are the report numbers 10, 12, 13, and 14?"
"I just told you.
Your security level only allows you to see this much."
Lilith felt really annoyed.
She didn't know that Little Mortal didn't let her see the things related to the Fate plan so that she wouldn't expose him indirectly later.
More importantly, he didn't want her to know about the agents fooling her for so long right now.
"So the sinners' race is still around?
And you even found evidence that Hypermind is real?
Didn't you have your crystal with you?
Show me some records!"
But Little Mortal, with a stern face, said,
"No!
That's classified information!
And I told you my investigation isn't complete,
So you should wait.
I just came back to rescue the 'invitation'."
This time, when he tried to pull the invitation plate, Lilith let go of it and asked,
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
"I presume you are going to participate in something using this invitation?"
"I don't know yet.
By the way, can you give me an underworld identity card that I can use there if needed?"
Lilith snorted,
"I'm not giving you anything until you tell me what's going on there.
From your 'investigation', it seems you even know where Hypermind is, and you even know things that the sinners' race themselves don't."
While looking calm on the outside, Lilith was afraid inside.
She was ready for him to take over her body and force her to give him the ID card.
But Little Mortal put the plate in his pocket and disappeared after saying,
"Don't want it then."
Seeing him suddenly leave, Lilith was stunned!
"Why did he leave like that..."
Not long after, she suddenly sensed the mainland above starting to move.
Fast!
"What is it now?
Is it because of the 'hunting dogs'?"
....
Planet Lubo.
Silver platform.
Little Mortal came here and called for the guardian token,
"Tell the mainland to move."
And the guardian token asked,
[Direction?]
"Opposite of the level 3 civilization's coordinate.
And by the way, tell it to gather any universe it sees on the way and don't leave anything behind."
[Affirmative.]
The guardian token immediately contacted the space mirror, provided the coordinates received from it to the mainland, and informed it of what its guardian ordered.
Because the speedy mainland was always the winner of the bets between mainlands, its main law was still 'speed', and now with unlimited 'raw law' fueling it continuously from the black holes in the universe connected to it,
It was far faster than before and didn't need to save law for emergencies at all.
....
In the empty void,
Little Mortal looked at the two white dots far away, one small and one slightly bigger, in shock.
"Look how fast it got!
I really want to know if Hypermind's turtle mainlands can ever see the trail left behind from it, let alone catch up to it...
Anyway, it doesn't matter where they search for it.
They don't know that we know about their starting point, and our mainland only needs to move in the opposite direction from where they start their search.
With empty space having no end, and our mainland being far faster than them...
They basically can't catch up to it for eternity."
While chuckling, Little Mortal went to the dark world and started running back towards the level 3 civilization's mainland.
On his way, he started a conversation with his notebook and crystal.
"Okay, let's discuss our next move."
"Now we know that hypermind is fooling the sinners' race, and they think it is a god.
Anything else to add?"
The Crystal vibrated,
The ancient one we saw thought that Lilith was still around and that they were still in contact with each other.>
And the notebook made a guess,
That's why they are fine with all the mainlands gathering there.>
Little Mortal gasped,
"You two are right!
Those agents can fool my partner by pretending to be the ancient ones.
They can do the same thing with the ancient ones there, too, and pretend to be my partner!
So now,
All three of them think the seal and underworld are still fine, and it gets better every day with the law, as the mainlands gather there 'donating'...
And it is actually easy to prove if our guess is correct!
I saw three green mainlands with a lava sea.
We only need to go and take a look at one of the three to see if it's fake or not."
Little Mortal noted in his notebook,
[Side quest:
Take a look at the mainlands and find any lava sea.]
"Alright, now let's talk about my problem.
If I want to face Hypermind and the sinners' race,
I should first take care of my weakness.
Any suggestions?"
Both the crystal and notebook said together,
But Little Mortal shook his head,
"How do you know Hypermind is not a living creature?
What I saw was a real pulsing brain...
And it was in another dimension.
What if it has clones of itself everywhere?
And if I'm not wrong, as an AI, its law is 'information law', or it couldn't act like an all-knowing god."
The notebook vibrated,
The Crystal vibrated,
"Exactly.
And did you see those agents' behavior?
They barely showed any emotions on their face,
As if they don't have any feelings.
Hypermind has eyes everywhere.
One wrong move, and I'm done for.
So, we should find a way not to leave a single 'hostage' for it to use against me if one day I am exposed."
The notebook asked,
And the Crystal said,
But for that, he needs to fight Hypermind, who is the real invader.>
Little Mortal rubbed his chin,
"So I need to find a legal way to kill everybody in secret challenges and become their secret guardian without Hypermind suspecting me...
But Hypermind might find out if a universe suddenly changes owners.
By the way, for your information, Hypermind can peek into the world law's secrets."
Fate was in the world law's main dimension, and Hypermind could peek into that dimension,
So it could naturally see through the guardian law and the secret guardian title.
The notebook asked,
Little Mortal explained,
"Imagine a building and each floor of it as a dimension.
Our guardian territory and the outside world are on the first floor.
The level 3 civilization is on the second floor, I guess.
Hypermind's real body is on the third floor.
And the golden world where higher beings make deals, known as the 'fair ground', is the fifth floor.
The world law's influence ends there, and guardian law is mixed with it in the guardian territory."
The Crystal vibrated,
Little Mortal nodded,
"Yes, except Hypermind, that I'm sure paid a price to stay close to that dimension, and peek into it without being noticed."
The notebook asked in wonder,
And Little Mortal chuckled while saying,
"Dark World is the sixth floor, or maybe the highest place, the rooftop.
And only dead souls and I are allowed to come here, as far as I know."
The notebook asked,
If those who are on lower floors can't peek into or disobey orders from a higher floor, can't you ask the law here to help you?>
Hearing the notebook's idea, Little Mortal stopped.
"If the law here could deal with Hypermind, it would have already done it.
If I'm not wrong, because it's two floors higher, it can't directly affect the dimension Hypermind is in, and needs permission from the floor below it.
But Hypermind is in a hidden dimension and is doing nothing directly, so the world law can't detect it and report it to this dimension.
It means the only way to use your idea and ask for help from this floor is to make a request, if possible!
I can act as the connection between the lower floors and the highest floor.
Let me give it a try!"
Then he cleared his throat, tidied his suit, and said,
"Dark World law, it's me, Mortal.
The guardian from your lower floor.
You remember me, right?
I have a request!"
The two birth treasures became interested.
Is the law here Dark World law?
And he is already familiar with it?
Or is he just acting friendly?
A genderless voice whispered in Little Mortal's ears,
[State your request.]
The two birth treasures didn't hear anything, but from Little Mortal's excitement, it seems he received an answer.
"I want a layer of cover from this dimension to cover up all of my activities as a secret guardian in any lower dimensions.
What's the price?"
The Dark World law answered immediately, as if it were waiting for him to ask something from it.
[1 day for each piece.
You have 1 day now to use.
There is a maximum of 1000 pieces.
You will die in 295 days.
This deal can be extended to 295 days for 294 more pieces.
Do you accept?]
Hearing the answer, Little Mortal ignored the dying part, which was the end of his three-year deal, and muttered to himself.
"What 1 day...
What 1000 pieces?
Oh, wait, those spheres!
That's why I have a day already."
Then he shouted,
"I accept, but keep my one day for now!
I'll tell you when I want to receive your service!"
This time, he didn't receive any answer.
The two birth treasures didn't know what happened, but seeing him start running happily, it seems he reached a deal.
....
In the orbit of the level 3 civilization.
Little Mortal has been floating in the empty void for a while now.
He tried to look for other lava seas, but didn't find any except the three big ones on the three green Mainlands.
He then glanced at the level 2 civilizations that were orbiting around the central mainland like a ring of defense, and didn't find a single lava sea on them either.
"I remember there was a lava sea on the first level 2 civilization mainland we encountered..."
The notebook vibrated,
< But we never tried to enter it or even use it as a cover-up for opening a passage. >
"Yes, back then I couldn't use the dark world to travel either."
< Was it a disguise for them to pretend they were normal and still connected to the underworld? >
Little Mortal raised an eyebrow,
"You are right.
Why else would they have a useless lava sea on them?
Now let's go take a look and see why there are only three lava seas, and why these ancient ones are fine with it?"
And he moved toward one of the mainlands with the red dot on it.
The Crystal vibrated,
< There is a protective array around it, invisible to the eyes. >
Little Mortal's figure disappeared the next moment, and after one step in the dark world, he appeared on the 'beach' of the lava sea.
He looked around and asked,
"Hmm... Do you see anything suspicious?
I only think it's too big compared to other lava seas we saw before."
The notebook said,
< The liquid inside is identical to a lava sea. >
And the Crystal said,
< There is no illusion or anything fake making it. >
Little Mortal scratched his head,
"Well, to be sure if it's fake or not, I can just go 'down' and try to enter the underworld."
And so he jumped into the lava and swam to the deepest part.
He was going to go and try to enter the underworld, but the Crystal vibrated,
< There are others here, a couple of kilometers to your right. >
Little Mortal immediately changed direction and swam to the right.
Soon, he saw the 'people' that the crystal detected.
There was a man in a blue mage robe that Little Mortal recognized on the spot.
He was one of the ancient ones, Vaelgrim, the Arcane Sage whom Lilith had shown him before.
And beside him were two evil-looking creatures on chains, and a woman in a gold robe.
The woman brought out a hammer, like the judge hammer he had, and summoned the 'underground gate', as if it were her daily routine.
Then she knocked on the door, a guard asked who it was from the other side, and after receiving a paper from the woman, the door opened.
The old man in blue, Vaelgrim, waved the mage staff in his hand, and the two evil-looking creatures went in while struggling.
Little Mortal, noticing the woman was about to close the gate, ran after the two creatures inside.
When the gate behind him closed, he looked at the scene in front of him and said,
"How in the world little Va couldn't tell it's all fake?"
The two birth treasures vibrated, saying,
< Aren't we in the underworld? >
Little Mortal frowned,
"What you see now is the underworld?"
Then he ran to a person who was waiting here and pointed at him,
"And who is this dude?"
The two birth treasures answered,
< Queen Lilith. >
Little Mortal was stunned,
"You call this big head my partner?
It's Agent 22, you two silly birthday gifts!"
And as he said, the gate completely closed, and the two birth treasures gasped,
< We are in an illusion? >
Little Mortal stroked his chin and said thoughtfully,
"I think it's not an illusion, or it couldn't fool that old man.
It should be information law, which changes the information about what reality is to something else.
That's why even you, little crystal, as an illusion master, were fooled by it."
The Crystal was dumbfounded.
Information law is so overpowered?
The big head, Agent 22, placed two cards on the two evil creatures and imprisoned them inside.
After that, the two left.
Little Mortal beside him nodded when he saw where they were.
"This place is another floor of a vault inside one of those skyscrapers.
These guys are really good at fooling others, aren't they?
They dedicated a whole floor and an agent to fool the three ancient ones.
I bet the other two lava seas are the same."
But this time, instead of going to the card vault like Agent 44, Agent 22 went to the hidden facility where the cards were being made.
He didn't go to the boss's office, though, and moved in another direction.
After a while strolling around and checking different card-making machines on his way, he arrived in front of a big iron wall.
Little Mortal, who couldn't see the end of the wall from any side, gasped.
"How big is this wall?
There is no end to it..."
But Agent 22, without looking for a door or any entrance, only brought out the two cards and placed them on the wall.
After being scanned a couple of times by something, the two cards entered the wall as if merging with it.
While curious, Little Mortal said goodbye to Agent 22 and disappeared, going after the cards.
When he appeared on the other side of the wall, a new world unfolded before him.
Everything was white here.
The ground, the sky, everything.
Little Mortal, who saw the two cards flying in a random direction, ran after them.
Without his notice, he passed one security check after another until he reached the card's destination.
On the ground was a small crack, big enough for the cards to go in.
The three went in together, and the new place made Little Mortal raise his eyebrows in shock.
Here, while still everything was white, there were other things too.
All around, he saw different creatures floating mid-air with small bubbles above their heads.
The two cards went under another two bubbles that no one was below them, and after the now unconscious creatures came out of the cards, they started floating like the rest, motionless.
When Little Mortal saw the number of higher beings here, he almost fainted.
There were close to 10 million of them, each with a bubble above their heads.
"Well... The bubbles should be their universes.
But why are there so many of them?
Is this a place where they keep the creatures who aren't supposed to come back from the underworld?
They are hiding them here from the ancient ones?
I bet this is an accumulation of billions of years of 'donation' to the underworld..."
While speechless and confused, he looked below.
Underneath the universes in bubbles, something like mist was being extracted from them, entering the bodies of the higher beings, and then moving towards the space below.
Tracking the mist, he reached a ball of misty gas, accumulated from the extracted mists from all the bubbles.
Little Mortal stroked his chin,
"What do you guys think?"
But he didn't receive any answer.
"Oh, something here is messing with them,
So they can't see or hear anything?
Well, I'd better not bring them out of whatever illusion they are in, or we might get exposed."
Then he looked at the familiar-looking mist.
"If this thing had a form, I would say for sure that it's a soul.
But it doesn't, so it's not...?
It's like raw soul, ready to be used, similar to the souls of the cyborgs in the sealed space when I released them to the dark world gate."
Then he looked down.
Underneath this 'raw soul', he saw something connected to it that was again familiar to him.
"It's the same thin lines that I saw Hypermind was using to connect itself with Fate and peek into it.
Don't tell me..."
And his figure disappeared.
When he appeared, he was above a pulsing ground, as if it were alive.
Looking around, Little Mortal frowned.
"Alright.
This is Hypermind.
Underneath is the dimension that the level 3 civilization is, and above me is another dimension that the raw soul is gathering...?
This dude is actually stealing pieces of soul from every dead creature dying in those universes, using their higher beings as a connection?"
Little Mortal, after a brief silence, said awkwardly,
"Is it possible that I found Hypermind's final goal?
It wants to gain a soul, become a living creature, and access both dead and living universes.
And then...
Well, there is nothing else.
That would be the end, I guess.
It can use the cyborg army it is making inside those sealed spheres out of dark matter, and conquer everything with its unstoppable army..."
Little Mortal coughed and left awkwardly while muttering,
"I didn't see anything."
When he was back on the mainland, he tapped on the notebook and crystal.
"Are you two okay?"
And the two, after a while, began to vibrate.
Saying their vision turned blurry after he went through the wall.
Little Mortal chuckled,
"Good for you.
You didn't get spoiled about one of the endings like me.
Alright.
Now that we know the lava sea is fake,
And the three ancient ones are being fooled,
Let's look around and see how we can kill everybody here in a non-suspicious way."
The notebook vibrated, saying,
< Your 'passive fate skill' triggered the first time we came here.
Let's start there. >
The Crystal was speechless.
Little Mortal, who knew there wasn't any fate skill involved, asked,
"You mean the 'new season' everybody was going to register for?
Alright, sure."