Chapter 169: Steering Committree

Year 187 (continued)

The Triumvirs heard it from their god, and they were honestly lost for words. How do they even explain that the Aivan church will now be assimilated? Do the prayers now go to me, instead of Aiva? There was a lot to think about.

Edna and Lumoof’s first comment was, “A true god is incredibly intimidating.” They had not felt such a strong sensation. Already, messages were flying everywhere throughout the world, requesting for information on what had happened. 

“Indeed. I now understand the huge gap between our power.” If the levels each resulted in an exponential bump in power, perhaps the Gods would be someone in their... level 300s? Or maybe 400?

The Triumvirs of Aiva were incredibly puzzled, and distressed. “We... we must discuss this.”

“None of you leave.” I said to everyone present, including the Triumvirs. A cage of roots emerged around the entire area, and coated it with all the anti-magic aura. “And no messages.”

Everyone nodded. 

“First, I want to hear everyone’s thoughts. What do you think of assimilating the Aivan faith to ours?” 

The Triumvirs were at a loss for words. “I need a lot more time to process this. It is too sudden to find out that our god has decided to abandon us.” 

The problem of assimilating, no, taking over the Aivan faith is a lot more complicated than it seemed. If I could nod, I would. “Indeed, and has such things ever happened in the history of the world?”

Lumoof could answer that. “No. In our records so far, that has never ever happened.”

I looked at Kei and Stella who were both present. I spoke as if I wasn’t one of Earth because the Triumvirs were present. “Both of you came from the other worlds, and have seen similar schisms in faith. Surely your histories would enlighten you the moments where a faith or a temple is torn apart due to differences. What happened then?”

Stella was the one who answered, She was after an adult when she came, so she had a more thorough education on the histories of Earth. “War. Civil war.”

“I ask of you three, and of your knowledge of your priests, and your people. Do you think they will accept an outright conversion to my faith so easily?”

The three Triumvirs all shook their heads. Engka was the one who stood to respond. “No. Many have believed in Aiva for years, decades, perhaps even centuries. So many priests preached of Aiva’s greatness and kindness, of Aiva’s powers, of Aiva’s sense of duty to our world. I am afraid that what that lady said was true. If we were to follow what Aiva willed of us, the Aivan church will break apart. No. I am convinced that they will go to war against us, even if we are the Triumvirs.”

Indeed. “Exactly. This message, if spoken, the other priests of your faith would say all of you have been corrupted, your minds altered by my powers. You three will be hunted and killed.”

The three Triumvirs could imagine it already. Such a message could never be accepted. What Aiva asked was for his followers to abandon what they have known their entire life, and I saw that it was impossible, even if his logic had a sense to it. 

Stella looked at the Triumvirs, and then back at Lumoof. “Aeon, what... what are you proposing?”

“We say nothing of what Aiva had said.” Everyone gasped. “I asked that everyone present to seal those divine words in your mind.” 

The Triumvirs looked at Lumoof. “...but?”

“Your god commanded you to obey me. And my first order is for you to keep everything that happened a secret among secrets. We shall maintain our separate faiths, and the Aivan church will continue. Let no one, other than your successors, ever learn of what Aiva has said.”

One of the Triumvirs immediately kneeled. “Thank you Aeon for your wisdom.” The other two immediately followed.

“Aiva may desire that I take over, but it is not in my interest to do so.I have no desire to wage war against the Aivan church, and have no need for the church’s followers.” The central continent continued to grow, and I wasn’t about to just accept the shit that this god decided to throw my way. “But we will have peace between us, and in the future, friendly relations. But I may have requests for you, that I hope you will assist me to carry out.”

The three Triumvirs nodded. “That should be fine if we keep it discreet and find ways to establish a secure communication channel between us. A ceasefire and a peace treaty should not be an issue either.”

I saw so many potential pitfalls in absorbing the Aiva faith, and already the world has lost enough. It doesn’t need another crusade, one triggered by the supposed capitulation of the Aivan faith. Those who believed did not see reason or arguments, and people will act based on their feelings and their conviction, even here. When religions back home broke apart due to fundamental differences, it always led to war. 

We don’t mind wars. We even allow wars between our vassal kingdoms. 

But the Aivan war has the potential to trigger serious questions of the possibility of the faiths coexisting peacefully, and it would be a war aimed at me, and it would be a war we don’t need. No, more importantly, I did not want what I am implying should I absorb the Aivan faith, a similar fate awaited the other 3 temples. I want my faith to be one that can coexist with the other four, and that we can all work together.

I also saw problems even if they did accept my faith. I was limited by the natural geography of the world, and so, even if they believed in me, I wouldn't be there to protect them. It would not be fair for the Triumvirs either, when they would have to defend my cause and the only way I can do so is to send my Valthorns across the sea and fight a war.

Not until I figure out how to properly cross the oceans. Using Lumoof as an avatar is like a stopgap, and I would like a far more permanent arrangement. 

One of the Triumvirs apologised. “I had not expected Aiva to escalate from an alliance to an outright absorption of our faith.” 

“At this point, what is the sense among your people? Would they accept an alliance?”

“Honestly, it’s a mix. Many admire the strength of the Aeonic faith, and the powers that backed it. But out of principles and loyalties, many prefer to remain with the other three. An alliance may also trigger some dissent, though I expect it to be more ‘mild’. That said, it would be riskier for the Aivan believers on the other continents where the other three temples are stronger.”

“Then we shall not rush into it.” I decreed. “Let us have peace, and we shall be friends. Allow our forces to travel to kingdoms who follow your faith. Perhaps in time, an alliance will be a natural evolution from friendship.” 

I have the time to play the long game, and there was no need to rush things and create so much bad blood. A war won by friendship will last longer, anyway. 

The Triumvirs returned to their temporary lodges, relieved. They would have a lot to figure out, like how they planned to secretly tell their successors. The words of their God by convention was to be recorded in a magical item, and so they had to keep it safe. 

I made sure they all received a familiar from me. 

-

I turned to Stella. “You saw it, right?”

“Yes.” The pathway through the stars, that temporarily bridged this world, and the world where Aiva resides. “I didn’t think that the temples had a way to open the pathways of the stars too, and it used a different mechanic compared to void magic.”

“Good. I believe this means all the 4 temples must have some variant of such summonings or ‘meetings’ with their gods. It makes sense that it is not widely known, after all it communicates with their god, which can be very, very far away.” 

Stella paused and looked at Lumoof strangely. “What are you implying?”

“We need to gather all of the methods, and figure out how they work. So, I’ll need a team of infiltrators to sneak into the secret temples and libraries of the other three temples, and get those information.” For Aiva, I could simply just ask them to give it to me, after all, I am now de-facto owner. The puppet master behind the strings. 

“Oh no.” Stella was horrified. 

“Looks like I must take training spies and infiltrators much more seriously now.” 

Edna and Lumoof merely smirked. “A proper raid on the temples of the other 3?”

“Not just that. We must first find where such information is kept, and who would have it. Don’t worry, I believe this will be a long process. For now, you may focus on studying the techniques used by the Aivan church.”

The Triumvirs gladly parted with the techniques, after all, 

-

I needed spies and thieves. A lot of them, and I needed them to be good at what they did. I have the ability to create higher tier classes for spies, but ultimately, spies gain levels by doing spy-stuff. This meant sneaking into places and taking on roles where they are in real danger. As it is, we have spies who are doing missions in the other nations across the oceans, but the survival rate is pretty low. They usually die when caught. 

“We could give them the Court of the Deitree.” Patreeck suggested. “But the slots are limited.” That would mean we could recall them if they are ever caught, but that didn’t feel like it would work. 

I decided to go back to my [dungeon creation] ability, and tweaked it. I wanted to know whether I could create infiltration dungeons where the spies have to figure out how to sneak to the end. It didn’t quite work. 

Failing, I decided to create mock dungeons instead. I hired craftsmen and mages to build dungeons filled with non-lethal traps, for my new practice spies and thieves to ‘practice’.

“The thing with spies and thieves, is that they could easily doublecross us and we wouldn’t know any better.” Kei and Stella both frowned. “I mean, you heard about the whole double-triple-agent thing, right?”

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“Of course, but who cares.” Next, we set up multiple ‘competing’ spy guilds. The idea was that these spies would play both spy and counter-espionage roles, and they would have to compete against each other on a non-lethal basis. 

Then, from the pool of promising and loyal spies, I chose one, a man named Varida, and used [Gift of Accelerated Growth]. This pushed his level to level 60, and he gained a bunch of skills overnight. Varida became the Central Continent’s 2nd level 60 spy, after Master Intip. 

Yet, even with the new levels and skills, Varida still needed practice, and experience. Knowing the skills is one thing, applying them out in the field is another. 

One thing that particularly annoyed me about spies was their ability to speak to each other using some kind of magical code. If it was not for Patreeck’s constant recordkeeping, and continuous decryption, we would have missed a lot more spies. Each spy required far more resources and mental-capacity to track than most other classes, simply because each of them had skills that interfered with my surveillance. Someone with a low level stealth ability would take twice the normal bandwidth, but a high levelled spy needed the tracking of a single artificial mind. 

So, if there were multiple level 60+ spies, or a hero-tier spy, it’s possible for me to miss them, or only detect them if they did something. 

A hero-spy could probably sneak all the way to Freshka, at least, until they ran into Patreeck’s range and the bubble of my domain powers.

The good part so far, is that spies can’t maintain their abilities full time. So far both of my level 60 spies have skills that are only active for up to 4 to 6 hours, with a cooldown of a day. That meant I could still spot them once they dropped their skills. Yet, that was a time consuming, tedious thing to do that I delegated to my artificial minds.

As it is, I have so many trees on the Central Continent that I can support quite a lot of artificial minds, perhaps in the thousands. Technically, because these minds do most of the mundane administrative oversight work to allow me to function as a divine being. That meant keeping eyes on prayers, on people, on other tasks. Each artificial mind can do alot, but now they take up space. The Valley of the Unrotten, once filled with giant trees, were gradually replaced by the artificial minds. 

They are the buzz in the background, the constant hum of their thoughts, they each observe their own part of the continent. Some followed individuals, like spies, or supported the continental beetle transportation network. Some worked on my many little improvement projects, like beetle weapons, or insect adaptations. Some checked on my own Valthorns and the priests, ensuring that they were safe and performed their duties properly. Thousands of little artificial minds, each a name, but in the background. Patreeck, as the special one, lorded over them all. 

But I considered whether there was a point to having another one. Two super-minds instead of one, to expand the range of our powers, and to compute more things. 

My artificial minds were my magical equivalent of having a big-brother surveillance state. I am the big brother of central continent, as much as a part of me loathed myself for it. The world will be watched, the gods are watching, even if they are far away, and these days, I suspect everyone is trying to spy on each other. 

That said, a surveillance state was primarily ‘defensive’. It kept control of the ‘state’ that it held. ‘Offensively’ I would have to either expand to that continent, which is bottlenecked by one single Lumoof, or use spies. 

-

I sent Lumoof back to the North, and continued our surveillance of the forces at work. The nations of the Northern Islands are highly fragmented, despite their outward unified appearance. The bickering happens beneath a veneer of civility. Here, where seas, straits, channels and lakes separate the islands, the assassinations become a favored way of fighting. 

The heroes left successfully for the other continents and are now working on other things. But even they were curious about the whole god-summoning incident.

“I got a message from Colette.” Kei replied. “They wanted to know what happened. I only responded that you spoke to the Aivan God.”

“Good enough.”

“They want to know the contents.”

“Tell them to ask the Triumvirs. We are not at liberty to disclose.” Push the problem to someone else. 

-

The Triumvirs made an announcement about a week after our meeting, that a special conference was held with the Faith of Aeon and that a great peace treaty has been agreed in principle, that all aggressions arising from faith should thus formally cease. The formal terms will be signed at a later date. 

It sent messages flying, as the other three temples demanded to know the details. At this point, the three Triumvirs have not left, and they sought my guidance.

“Act as if I don’t exist.” I responded. “You three are to lead Aiva like normal, and that means you must be free to make decisions on that basis, so long as it does not contravene our agreed peace treaty.” 

The Triumvirs had to leave quickly, as those back on the Eastern Continent will have plenty of questions. But they first leaked that it was a peace treaty brokered by the Aivan God, and that the two faiths have agreed to peace with no reparations on either side. 

Peace wasn’t so bad, and most of them could accept it. The Aivan church would have to cough out some sums from their own treasuries to compensate the kingdoms that were most devoted to the war, but that was it. 

Peace as the God’s will? That was plausible, believable, and certainly, it aligned to what most kingdoms wanted. A war with a continent an entire ocean away? What good does that do? 

It was easy, in this case, to claim it was their God’s will. 

A lie, but necessary one. I have bigger problems to fry. 

-

“I’m not feeling too good.” Kei admitted privately to Stella. The whole thing with the gods made her feel a sense of dread. “And there’s no one I can talk to.” 

Stella patted her back. It’s a useless gesture, she’s a golem so she doesn’t feel any physical muscle soreness. “Oh come on now. There’s me.”

“You were not a hero. You don’t know what it feels like to suddenly be told that we’re just nothing more than ‘medicine’. That we are unstable medicines that would harm the flesh.”

Stella sat next to her. “It’s something you and the other heroes have realised to some extent, so I personally believed you would have expected it.”

“It’s one thing to suspect your parents don’t want you, and another to hear it straight from the horses’ mouth.” 

“I would never have imagined you would think of the gods as your parents.” Stella sat. “That’s honestly quite creepy.”

Kei caught herself. “Yeah. That’s a bad analogy. I guess it’s like your crush telling you to buzz off, I guess?”

“That’s still kind of weird.” Stella laughed. “But cheer up. Now that you know they don’t really care, there’s no reason to take their requirements all that seriously.”

“I mean... how do I put it.” Kei looked at Stella, her eyes were a little watery. “I think it’s predatory, what they are doing, they pick us and send us across the worlds, tell us, us young, impressionable souls seeking validation, value and recognition, that we are destined to be heroes, instill within us this sense of grand purpose, magically influenced our minds such that we stick to the goal.”

“You’ve known that.”

“Yeah, but hearing it said so matter-of-factly really is different.” Kei said. 

Stella smiled. “Heroes are just like young innocent fresh graduates who are sucked into the corporate feel-good mission statements and sent out to the world, only to discover that their support isn’t great, and the purported values are nothing more than just something written to satisfy some arbitrary rating system.”

Kei turned and looked at Stella. “Shit. Corporate life is like that?” Despite their age, I still occasionally forget that all these heroes never had any working experience. This ‘hero’ stint is probably their first job.

“That’s what my friends say, and you seem to be manifesting similar symptoms. Burnout from work. A realisation that everything is just corporate speak.” 

Kei had a look on her face. “Wait, are you saying I’m having a quarter life crisis?”

“You’ve been at this hero thing for a while, and then you moved on and now focus on helping the heroes. Now you’re wondering why you’re doing it all in the first place. That sounds like a quarter life crisis. You’re feeling lost, even without the gods’ mind control.”

Kei gently smacked Stella on the arm. “Stop it, you’re making me feel worse.”

“Am I wrong?” Stella sat. “I mean, we’ve known each other for how long?”

“You didn’t seem that interested in being my friend at first, though.” Kei responded.

“I’m just slow to warm up.”

“Really.”

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