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Chapter 696: Ascension Alternative

The elderly elf looked at the display at the front of the bridge, and gave a soft sigh. “Is it something that we can handle?” He asked in a weary voice, knowing that they were not piloting a warship. Although they did have their weapons, those weapons would be no match if they were to encounter a divine force.

“I’m not detecting any enemies higher than stage three, captain!” The fleet officer reported, looking at the screen again. “However, they are swarming in vast numbers, and there appear to be many different types of monsters fighting one another! It looks like a battle royale.”

The elven captain raised an aged brow at that, looking at the screen with interest. “Something that could make so many monsters go wild… That can’t be anything ordinary. Is Davin currently free? It would be best if we could ask him to take care of this mess, so we can see what they are fighting over.”

There were very rarely territorial disputes in space, and never on this type of scale. At most, it would be either two warring clans of monsters, or a small number of extremely powerful monsters. The fact that so many different monsters were here, and all seeming to be hostile to one another indicated that there was something spectacular to be found in this region.

“Understood, I’ll make the call.” A communications officer said as he turned to his terminal. “Calling VIP Davin. There is a request from the captain.”

On the other end of the call, there was a faint yawn. “What’s the problem this time?” An utterly bored voice spoke up, clearly belonging to a young man. Everyone on the bridge knew that this man was the most powerful individual on the ship, capable of destroying the vessel altogether if he felt like it.

“There is a chaotic monster brawl ahead, and we suspect that there is something inciting their actions. The captain would like to ask you to investigate the matter.” The communications officer did his best to speak politely. Although it was unlikely that Davin would go into a rage and attack everyone, he still technically existed outside of their command chain.

“Fine, I got it.” Davin said, readily agreeing to the request. “I haven’t been able to stretch for a little while. What’s their strength like?”

“Stage three at the highest. I do not believe that they’ll be a problem for you.” The officer reported the information that had been previously said once again.

There was a sigh of resignation from the other end, before the call abruptly cancelled. A moment later, a golden flash appeared on the screen, a humanoid form revealing itself after the flash faded. The captain felt relieved when he saw the image of the ursa standing in front of the ship, stretching his arms lightly.

This vessel was a colony ship, with its mission being to seek out new planets suitable for habitation. It had been on this journey for nearly a century, scanning every new star system that they passed. To date, they had found three planets, and set up three different colonies with the help of the dimensional gates that they had onboard. The original population of the vessel, which had been ten million, had now dropped to merely two million.

Out of those two million current residents, many had decided to attempt and reach godhood. They did not want to die in this colony ship, and wanted to make sure that they would be able to withstand whichever dangers came their way. Tens of thousands of such people met their end with refining either their body or their spirit, with only one showing the willpower needed to succeed.

Davin Gloom, the God of Stone, lifted one hand above his head. Grains of sand filled in from the void of space, forming dozens of massive, stone spikes. With a wave of his hand, those spikes were launched forward, towards the horde of monsters. Although many managed to dodge the sudden attack, several more were still skewered by the assault.

With a new threat having emerged, the monsters turned their attention towards him. Although their intelligence was admittedly low, they seemed to reach a common consensus to defeat the newcomer first, before finishing their battle. Thus, they began to charge towards Davin.

Within the ship, the captain gripped the arm of his chair tight, unable to help the nervousness that appeared when so many monsters charged towards the vessel. Yet, he did not say anything, as this was far from the first time that this had happened. He could only wait for Davin’s next move.

Although he could not see exactly what Davin did… he was able to see that the tide of monsters had suddenly stopped. Their bodies were frozen in space, color receding from the carapaces and hides. Each of them, without exception, had turned to stone. Davin shook his head, waving a hand off to one side and causing the numerous monsters to scatter into the distance. Afterwards, he vanished once again, his job finished.

“Scan… scan for any traces of what they might have been fighting over.” The captain said, his voice hoarse after watching another display of Davin’s might. Had it not been for the man’s lazy personality, the captain would have likely already handed over his seat to the ship’s resident god. Instead, he had to keep searching for another viable option, or hope that they settled on one last planet before his time expired.

“Understood, sir.” The female officer nodded her head, looking at her screen once more. “Performing a full-range scan of the sector.”

On the screen at the front of the bridge, a new display appeared. This display looked similar to a three-dimensional sonar, showing the ship at the center and radiating pulses of blue light outwards. Up ahead, roughly around the area that the monsters had been fighting, there was a small ping. “Energy signature detected at former battle location. Energy type is… it’s reading as multiple wavelengths. However, the most prominent force seems to be… it’s divine energy, sir.”

The captain’s eyes opened wide when he heard that, panic written all over his face. “Give me a proper visual, now! If there’s a monster god ahead, I want to warp away immediately!”

A battle between gods was something that he was not sure even Davin could withstand. The captain had seen the broadcast from Deckan regarding the evil golem deity, thanks to the portal on his ship allowing a hard line for communications. Even still, that was a case of numerous gods teaming against just one. It was impossible to tell what would happen if two deities faced each other in open combat.

The screen shifted again, showing a chunk of crystal floating through the empty space. It appeared completely untouched by the battle that had been raging around it, and simply pulsated with the occasional light. When the captain saw that this was not a divine monster, he felt relieved. At the same time, though, he had never heard of a stray space object containing divine power.

“Pull it on board, and ship it back to Deckan for study.” The captain ordered, knowing that they did not have the proper facilities on their colony vessel to handle an item of that level. Even worse, there was the distinct chance that merely having that crystal on their ship would attract more powerful monsters. This was something that he wasn’t willing to allow to happen.

“Understood.” A female kitsune spoke up, operating her terminal. “Spatial coordinates are locked. Ping Deckan for quarantine procedures.” Once another officer chimed in that they had completed that task, she pressed a button. “Depositing material in Isolation Three. Opening quarantine portal… item has been delivered, captain!”

The captain nodded his head, happy that they had managed to ship that off. “Initiate warp towards the next system. Abandon the scans for this region.” Given the size of the swarm here, as well as its strength, it was certain that there were no stronger entities present. However, that was only right now… if that object had become a beacon for larger forces, there was every chance that they were on their way.

“What’s that?” I muttered from the couch. Keliope had gotten up saying that she had to go train some more, so she had been replaced by Aurivy, who leaned against my arm as we flipped through the various ‘channels’ until we landed on the scene of a strange object being delivered to Deckan.

Accalia furrowed her brow, observing the image on the screen. “An object with divinity? Are monsters forming their own relics now?”

“Definitely not.” Aurivy said with a shake of her head. “No god would let their relic that far out of their sight. Especially not a low-intelligence monster concerned with power. Anyways, Tower would have definitely brought it along with them if he saw it.”

I brought a hand up to stroke my chin in thought, recalling some information that I had read before. Using the remote, I rewound the scene to follow the object back into the empty space where it had been found. Afterwards, I let out a low whistle. “Well, that’s definitely a long-distance delivery.”

There was a small grin forming on my face as I paused the image, before looking down at the remote. “...We don’t have a button for information.” I muttered, focusing on adding one, tying its function to various information displays.

Once I was done, I pressed the new button, navigating to the ‘divine information’ screen I had just set up. Once there, a word appeared above the crystal. Aurivy blinked as she saw that word. “Possession?” She read it aloud. “Does this mean that the crystal is also a god? Somehow..?”

“Not quite.” I shook my head. “This was in that ascension guide I got a while back. It said that there are treasures scattered throughout the universe, containing a trace of power from the dawn of creation. Monsters ascend to godhood typically by devouring and digesting these objects.”

“So… this is a god-making gem?” Accalia asked in a quiet voice, clearly able to see the potential there. “Anyone who used it would gain the domain of Possession? That’s rather dangerous.”

“I agree.” I said as my eyes focused on the screen. “Most likely, James will know what to do with it. An object of this level can only really be dealt with by him or the Greater Pantheon. Right now, we don’t know the success rate or anything else about this object. All we know is that we don’t want it falling into the hands of someone that would misuse a powerful domain like that.” I definitely did not want to find some random villain capable of possessing gods, stealing their domains, or anything of that sort.

Aurivy and Accalia both agreed readily with my assessment, Accalia focusing for a moment. “I just sent word to Udona to have that shipped directly to James. That should be enough to--”

“Finally!” A voice shouted from the hall, Terra walking out with gleaming eyes. “Oh, hey girls. Anything good on?” She asked, glancing towards the screen to see what we were looking at briefly.

“Make-your-own-god gem was just found.” Aurivy explained, Terra offering a small nod. She didn’t seem nearly as excited about that as whatever she had to say next, though.

“Neat. Anyways! I finally got my incarnation to take the final step of divinity!” She said in a proud tone, her green eyes wide with excitement. When she brought that up, I recalled the two girls, Terra and Firma. So they were finally gods now, huh? Or one god… or however that worked for her.