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Chapter 544: Balance and Love

I speechlessly watched as Tsubaki brushed through her long tails, shaking my head. It wasn’t that I was purposely letting her ‘suffer’ at the hand of James or anything like that. Rather, my attention had been diverted elsewhere due to the ascension of another mortal god.

This god was, surprisingly, actually a halfling of Fyor. Even though the world had paused while awaiting my decision for his domain, it had taken over an hour for me to consider. By the time that I had done so, I decided to watch over him for a little while, in order to gain a better understanding of his character.

Within a large plain on the tenth layer of Fyor, a lone halfling stood. His eyes seemed to radiate a golden light as he looked down at his hands. This was the result of his own training for countless years, ever since he was a young boy.

“Theon!” A young and tender voice called out to him, causing him to turn his head to look. He saw a female halfling rushing towards him, excitement clear on his face. “Did you do it? You broke through, right?”

Theon nodded his head to the girl. “Yeah, Jessa. You were right.” The two of them had selected this location due to its safety. For the last seven hours, he had been unconscious on the ground as his divine energy merged with his mana to complete the transformation, his younger sister watching over him from a distance. It was her job to protect him in case any dangers appeared.

“Well, what was it? Did you become a subordinate god to Aurivy?” Naturally, she expected that the first halfling god would be taken in this manner by the Goddess herself. While she had good insight, she was not entirely familiar with the process of ascension.

Theon simply chuckled, shaking his head. “No, my road isn’t hers. I am my own god.” Unlike his sister, he knew all along that he wouldn’t become a subordinate of Aurivy. The Goddess of Love had not offered her divinity to him, so there was no way for him to do so even if he wished it.

Jessa, however, puffed her cheeks out. Her thin arms crossed over her petite chest as she stared at him. “Well, then? What kinda god are you?”

Theon blinked, wanting to know the answer to that himself. He had yet to check the notifications blinking at the corner of his vision. And when he did, a peculiar expression arose on his face, as if he was not quite sure what to make of it.

“Theon? Something wrong with your domain?” Jessa asked, concerned by her brother’s appearance.

“No… maybe? It’s an unusual one, that’s for sure.” Theon stared at the notification for several long moments, trying to find ways in his mind for this domain to work. “Am I supposed to be an athletics god or something? What kind of domain is Balance?”

Obviously it’s a super cool domain! I’m actually kind of jealous, you know?! A voice spoke into his mind long before Jessa was able to process what she had heard. I mean, this is balance we’re talking about!

Theon blinked a few times in shock at the voice. It was the first time he had heard it this clearly, causing him to blurt out in shock. “Lady Aurivy?”

“Yeah, that’s right!” A voice called out from the air in front of them. A pink-haired figure stepped onto the grassy plains, her hands on her hips. She wore a silk, pink and blue dress and a silver tiara. “Nice to meet you!”

Jessa immediately dropped to her knees, and even Theon himself had the urge to do so. While he might be a god, he was still ultimately a halfling, and this was the Mother Goddess that had appeared before him. “W-what brings you here, Aurivy?” It took him quite a bit of effort to drop the formalities and address her casually, something he wanted to do because of his own new status.

“See? You’re getting into it already.” Aurivy grinned towards Theon. “I wanted to come here and beat some sense into you if you didn’t realize what an awesome domain you have! I mean, really, I know people that would kill for a domain like that!”

“But… isn’t it just balance?” He asked, unsure what the big deal was. “So, I’ll never fall over. I don’t really get what’s so special…”

Aurivy held a hand to her head, letting out a long sigh. “You’re looking at this too literally, kid! In this world, everything has a balancing force. Light and darkness, fire and water, life and death… Don’t you see!? As the god of balance, you control these balanced forces! If someone comes at you with fire, meet them with water! Swallow the darkness with light, and overturn death with life! This is what balance is!”

“As long as you properly distribute the energy, there is so much you can do! Balance your injuries with the enemy, make them fight at your level. The stronger your opponent is, the stronger you become!”

Theon’s eyes went wide as he listened to Aurivy’s explanation, before a thought occurred to him. “But… if I am maintaining balance… won’t that mean I can never be stronger than my enemies? Aren’t I just the Stalemate God, then?” Although he accepted the fact that his domain pertained to more than just physical balance, this presented an entirely new problem.

“Well, sure. If you fight alone.” Aurivy grinned towards the prostrating Jessa. “But what if you had an ally by your side, someone that existed outside of your balance? A factor that would always allow you to tip the scales.”

Theon was quick to catch on, looking towards his own sister, as well. “But… she’s not a god.”

“Correction, my good sir! She’s not a god yet. The future holds many possibilities. As long as she trains hard, she can reach this level, too! But, just to let you know, you can’t help her. If she becomes your subordinate god, she’ll never be able to exist outside of your balance.”

Seeing Aurivy’s playful grin, Theon felt like he understood, and offered a bow towards the goddess. “Thank you for educating me, Mother Goddess.”

Aurivy let out a groan at that, her shoulders dropping. “Where is that casual form of address you used before?!” She stomped her foot lightly, before turning and walking away. Her figure abruptly vanished into the void, leaving the two halflings alone in the plains.

A mature elven woman stood on the balcony of her apartment, overlooking the city before her. It was hard to believe that she had seen the birth of this city personally. No, not just that, she had been one of the very first people to set foot on this entire planet, and now she was able to look out at a sprawling city.

Construction materials were constantly being imported from other worlds, while mines and lumber yards were being developed to help this world grow even further. Fields had already been planted in many territories, and food was becoming abundant. Although security was a bit of an issue, this world had already begun developing far ahead of her predicted schedule.

That was why she had happily chosen to accept a home in this new world. With all of the modern conveniences taken care of already, there was no reason to refuse. All of her old friends were already long gone on Earth, or had long ago forgotten about her, so there was no reason left for her to stay.

“Julia, I’m home!” A voice called out from the living room, and a small smile spread on the elf’s face. She had to correct her own thoughts. There was one old friend that had never left, and never forgotten about her.

“Welcome back, Aurivy.” She turned to walk back inside, smiling as she saw the halfling draped over the couch. “Did you take care of what you had to do?”

“Yup!” She nodded her head, her arms stretching out towards Julia. Seeing that, the elf laughed lightly, walking over to her. She picked the goddess up and held her in her lap. Her more mature figure made her look as if she were embracing her daughter, yet Aurivy appeared incredibly comfortable. “New god, awesome domain but didn’t realize it. Had to go educate him.”

“Did you call for a medical team before you left?” Julia asked in a knowing tone, causing Aurivy to huff.

“I can explain things to people without beating them up! Sometimes. It depends on if they get mad at me or not. He was a good kid.” As she spoke, she allowed herself to relax in Julia’s embrace. “Still think you should ascend, too. You’d be an awesome goddess.”

“You talked me into perfection. I don’t think I need to become a goddess to be awesome, do I?” Julia fired back in a playful tone.

“I mean, you’re not wrong.” Aurivy admitted with a light laugh. “Has the installation team been by, yet?”

“Not yet. They called while you were gone, and said that they’d need a few more days to lay the wiring. Don’t worry, I’ll play your game with you once the connection is set up.” Julia brushed a hand through Aurivy’s pink hair as she spoke.

“You’d better. I found this super amazing seed for you. And no, I didn’t use cheats. It took me hours to excavate it normally!” In fact, Aurivy was always tempted to activate her admin cheats when playing alone. However, Julia had convinced her to do things manually, at least when it concerned things that Aurivy was preparing for her. She said that it meant more if the gift took actual effort as opposed to a few simple voice commands.

“I look forward to it.” Julia nodded her head happily.

My eyes swept over the scene between Julia and Aurivy briefly as a warm smile emerged on my face. Unless someone called for her, Aurivy spent most of her time descended onto this world, where she lived a rather normal home life with her friend. Normally, none of the others would be able to descend for such long periods without consuming their divine energy, but there was an exception to be found here.

Every god or goddess could descend to an area rich in their domain freely. And for this particular case, that was Aurivy’s domain of love. Not necessarily romantic love, though at times it did seem to be. But the type of love that Julia and Aurivy shared together allowed her to descend in their home as long as she wanted. The two were like the best of friends, and sisters at the same time.

After taking my eyes away from that scene, I glanced towards the clock. There were only a couple days left before the annual meeting. This would be a rather important meeting for me, for more than just the transaction with Grimor.

Prior to the last meeting, I had debated whether or not I should take Tsubaki with me. At the time, I believed that it wasn’t suitable yet to introduce her to the greater world of Keepers. However, I felt like things were different now.

She had experienced the meeting with Balu’s delivery agent, and even praised his nobility. She had seen that other Keepers could be kind, and her view would no longer be tainted merely by the invasions that had occurred in the world. Through spending time with me, she had even managed to understand some of the core aspects of being a Keeper.

No, I felt that I could take her with me to these meetings, and that she would be able to understand them properly while keeping secret what should not be said. My only concern now was Dana, as the two were linked. Dana was far more playful than Tsubaki, after all. However, I knew from experience just how she could get when she was serious about something.

As long as Tsubaki and I stressed the importance of this meeting to her, I was sure that Dana would be able to behave appropriately. While the concept of points would be a new idea for the both of them, I knew that they would be able to understand it easily enough. After all, if there was an unlimited supply of power to customize a world, why would anyone choose not to start with unkillable gods?

Since they understood that my power did have its limits, it should not be too hard to adjust to the idea that those limits were represented in the form of points.