"Once we were told that the layers beyond our ken were just that, beyond! However, we now have proof that those with sufficient power and drive can ascend even further beyond this point. Heed these words ye who seek power; Struggle against those who would halt you on the path, fight with sword and spell, tooth and claw. Bone and stone, but do not stop. Ever."

Words of Power, Unknown Author.

All-Father Faal stood in his throne room at the center of his golden city. It had been a long few cycles since he had to work this much. The sheer enjoyment he felt was so contagious that his own Beloved and Stoic Thyr had the ghost of a smile on her face, most of their work with the Terran Gods and their old enemies now turned allies was over finally and with it a great flux of knowledge coming from those eldritch abominations was now pouring into regions of Faal's domain that was once deemed not worthy of civilization effort.

"They sure love the more extreme regions of our domain, a test for their brand of mortals once that comes," Thyr spoke with kindness of a mother, she was often consulting with them on the many intricacies of creating life, it was a wonderful thing to see Faal thought to himself as a particular burst of energy he was on the lookout for appeared within his overwhelming Sphere of Power.

The mortals had succeeded in their Mission; the fractured soul of the entity that made Lucrezia was once again whole, but not hale, it seemed. Faal grinned at the image. There she was, brimming with Terran power and tenacity beyond her own, the boy's soul now fully integrated with hers and nearly a whisper left of his own. He would need to brief the mortals on how to keep a secret for now. It would take quite a few centuries before Faal could integrate Terrans into his domain smoothly after all.

And their Divines.

A surge of power made Faal stop. He then grinned as if he had won the lottery, the future of his domain reshaping itself now that Lucrezia was back. The enemy, who had been hiding herself away near his Mana Core, had made a fatal error, and now the future was more set in stone than before. Faal watched as starships the size of entire cities crossed the stars in search of that detestable Goddess, and inside them, the many new weapons Lucrezia and her kith would bring to the world.

Faal had even secured support from William's old patron for this little crusade of his, power brimming from those engines of war that were on lease and ready to wreck whoever Lucrezia pointed them to.

"Her Patrons deserve to know, you should tell them first before dealing with the Mortals," Thyr spoke, and Faal nodded, his beloved always giving sage advice whenever he got too lost within his mind. "Then let us do the honor ourselves, my dearest, summon them!"

In the ancient tongue of a once prosperous planet, her name meant "She Who Upheld Justice." Gone were the kind-hearted and fair people who knew that name. So was her planet, and all traces of its culture. Now she was known as Velkarius, and her role in this pantheon of multitudes was one far more cruel but just as necessary as her old role, for even in the relatively peaceful and fair homeworld of the one who saved her, cruelty and woe were ever present.

"What a headache," spoke another Goddess to her left, Saal'Xhir, formless shape twisting upon itself to match Velkarius's taste in appearances "I was in the middle of a grand celebration to comemorate Lucrezia's return, It is rare for our dear Father to summon us like this...yet not everyone is here" she glanced around the waiting hall noticing there where no one else from what was no officially called the Lucrezian Faction among the Divines.

"He is fond of staggering the release of critical information, says it's for the better," Velkarius whispered. "Yet I feel something off, a being that does not belong in this realm awaits us." Velkarius raised her palm as the waves of power crashed against her own Sphere. It was a powerful being at that, and yet no ill intention could be felt from this outward display of power; it simply was.

If only things could be that simple, she thought to herself as she ruminated on the entire journey that led her to this place. From what was an oft-common case of nobility abuse against its populace to open revolt led by the scion of said nobles, the savagery of mechanized warfare and honest to goodness nobility from that one tiny human who now commanded the greatest might of the new world, and was going to spearhead a force meant to kill a god, just because she was asked to by the ancestral Spirits of her land.

Velkarius had, over the time she had spent with Lucrezia, come to understand what drove the woman, a righteous sense of fairness that bordered on the insane. A thirst for innovation that was so obscene, the Goddess next to her said it was as if she had a fetish for it. Loyal to a fault but secretive and often lost in her mind, after the blessings took hold of her soul, the other Gods thought something was wrong, but most paid no mind. Often, it was that mortals had something going on with them due to any number of reasons, and to worry about it was seen as foolish.

Yet the evidence against something far more powerful at play was mounting by the minute, and now Velkarius had a feeling the truth would be brought to light once and for all.

The Goddess felt the power of her peers wash over the waiting room she and Saal'Xhir were sharing as the rest of the mini pantheon that had blessed Lucrezia arrived. The war Gods stood quiet as Wynnur and Ra'Tyrius whispered to one another; there would be no need to summon Thyr as she was right with Faal at the moment. Velkarius cast her gaze towards the newest member of their little group with a bit of mirth.

Who else to help a fledgling God besides his most beloved, eh? Of course, the one Divine with the power of deep cosmos travel would be the one to set this entire thing off. Sometimes Velkarius saw why even the Gods had tales and stories about tricksters. Even in their near infinite wisdom, they could be duped into schemes by mortals or their kind! Velkarius shook her head in amusement; had the situation been less dire, she would have laughed.

Alas, the Goddess could not lie to herself; she cared for the little mortal woman. Lucrezia not only helped her Church and faithful, but she had personally kept all the vows she took and often prayed to Velkarius with honest devotion. It was a sublime thing she felt, as heartfelt prayer to one such as hers often came in moments of terror and grief; the experience of prayer outside of those circumstances was lovely.

The Silent Soldier spoke, "The Imperium will not move against the New World anymore, now that Lucrezia is safe. I am glad we dodged a Holy War," and then he was quiet once again. The Raider nodded with a smile, "A little bird told me someone is due a few lessons of necromancy," to the gasp of Wynnur, before Ra'Tyrius calmed her, "Please, no teasing. Faal will explain everything..."

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They all felt the pull as All-Father Faal summoned them into the main chambers.

It looked at the entities before it, misshapen and crude yet brimming with power derived from the Ruler of this slice of reality. It judged them and found them...Fitting "We will allow it." It spoke to the Ruler, and it established communications with the Master of All, ready to act as a relay.

Faal smiled, "A pleasure to know you found my children not wanting, dear guest. Now, everyone, if you could show proper respect to the envoy of Terra, so we can start this debriefing off. They did as such, and Faal found it heartwarming how such a small display of respect made the Envoy happy. It was not easy being a diplomat from Terra nowadays, especially with the amount of bad blood among the bigger forces up in the cosmos who had a score to settle with that little planet and its people.

Faal went through the bigger picture with everyone in the chamber as he explained the situation with the mortals, one from his world, another from Terra. His own scout involvement in the scheme and how, together with his dear wife, they had tried to keep things from going public. The envoy also shared words on the Terran's involvement and how a great deal of secrets were spilled from Faal's own forces and disseminated to the Terran Mortals as entertainment.

That was already being worked on according to the envoy, but it would take a while in mortal years to fix the issue, the Lucrezia patrons for the most part took the news on stride unti Wynnur began her part of the talk as she detailed what was basically conspiracy at the highest level all in the name of love of all things, Saal'Xhir Herself confirmed it. The Goddess was being genuine about the entire thing.

"Love has been the downfall of many a mortal on Terra," the envoy spoke. "Will she be judged?" It asked.

"Nay, Wynnur managed to skirt much of my laws via crafty work and bend the rest with ingenious application of current law, to the chagrin of many of my administration and border staff, I must add." Faal smiled at the numerous reports he had to read, a tingle of excitement racing through his body at the thought of optimizing the entire procedure to further expand his perfect bureaucratic machine.

"The mortals who are closest to Lucrezia, or the entity that is now Lucrezia, at least can not be made aware of this Terran business," the Silent Soldier spoke. "My compatriot here is also in agreement with me on this," he pointed to the other War God, "Father?" The question lingered for a minute before the Envoy spoke, its voice brimming with power. "It is not wise to keep such a secret from them. The little ones fought hard to save her, did they not? Instead of removing the knowledge from them, it would be wiser to bind them to not share it with others, until all is right between Terra and Here."

The Envoy made a sweeping gesture. "And we have already meddled with two of these individuals, one of them quite the powerful one at that." The Gods did not need to ask who it meant. Hope had made enough waves as it is within the entire Divine community by wielding a powerful God-Killing weapon, and not having any qualms about using the blasted thing!

The fact that All-Father Faal hadn't censured her yet meant he was ok with it as well.

It was Saal'Xhir who spoke next, "I agree with the Envoy, an oath to bind them to keep the truth from the rest of the mortals until this is fixed is more than viable, and it will foster good relations with the powerful individuals she has allied to, Hope is the strongest yes but it would not be wise to underestimate the Mage and the would-be husband and future duke of the north"

Thyr raised her voice, "A vote then." She cleared her throat. "Those in favor of an oath, raise your hand." Everyone, minus the Silent Soldier, did as such, and he shook his head. "Calamity will follow," he spoke in a low voice.

"Now then, regarding the greater interaction efforts with Terra..." Faal spoke, and on and on it went.

"We are forbidden to speak about it then?" Asked Arthur, the young prince faced the avatar of the Goddess of Love Saal'Xhir within her holy grounds, the great cathedral becoming a beacon of aid and reconstruction effort now that the conflict was truly over. With him were the rest of Lucrezia's saviors, who all had questions to ask but elected to wait for the envoy in front of them to finish her spiel.

"Indeed, enforced via your blessings by direct rule of All-Father himself, effective immediatly as a matter of fact until we can safely establish ties with the Terran entities and assure they won't pour over the realm and take over" Saal'Xhir smiled as her form warped at speeds inhuman, Arthur sighed but he was aware something of the sort would happen, after all it made sense in a twisted sort of way.

Had the populace been aware a Terran had taken over a High Noble like Lucrezia and enforced enough change at such a short time to alter the very way of living for mortals and quite a few Divinities, a witch hunt would no doubt be called for it and now that he had read the reports of the ancient enemy stirring problems with the Shogunate and even the Dynasty Dwarves...

A united front was needed, even if he had to omit some very important facts from his future subjects.

"Once this censure is over, will the tampering with our blessings be removed?" Kaine asked, and the Goddess nodded." I suppose it could've gone way worse, at least we didn't get memory wiped or with altered memories dumped into our souls. He has the power to do that, you know." Kaine paced around as the others watched him. "What about Lucrezia herself? Will she be aware of what happened?" he asked.

Saal'Xhir nodded, a smile on her lips. "She should be, yes. We haven't talked much with her yet, as the soul needs more time to heal, but she is aware of most things. Maybe a few of the details on your side will need to be clarified, as she wasn't fully aware of the battle against her own defenses. If you wish to, of course." A grin blossomed from her perfect face as the rest of the crew made a series of noises ranging from laughs to snorts.

"Her people need her, we should get ready for the celebrations once the crystal coffin is broken" Richard spoke and everyone nodded "Of course everyone here and our friends in the Academy will be invited as guests of honor. It will also be a show of strenght especially now that we have confirmed movement from the Sea Elves..." the others could see Richard was trying his best to stay focused as the man often paced around Lucrezia's enclousure waiting for her to break free from it.

Hope placed her hand on his shoulder, in a wordless exchange to grant him a bit of peace as Vivienne closed in for a hug, out of everyone the three had found themselves into a shared bond stronger than ever, there was a moment of silence as the three shared their feelings of conviction and resilience before Saa'ryu spoke up "What about the other Divinities? will they also be aware of it? we have dealings with major groups of essentially every Sphere of Power imaginable, did the All-Father speak about this?" the maid paced about worried.

This was one of Lucrezia's greatest achievements, from education to thieving Deities. Technological and Magical all the way to quality of life ones with Spheres so small it was a wonder they were even Gods on the first place, and the cultural inclined ones that were on the cusp of a revolution so monumental, when they had heard about the wounding of Lucrezia before all went to shit with the war were ready to declare a holy war themselves.

"Only those whom He deems necessary, very few from what we were told so far, should that list increase. We will inform Lucrezia beforehand." The Goddess form shifted again as the talks reached an end. "I am afraid I must go, dearies, Faal calls me once again..." She sighed, " I wish I could say only good times will come from now on, but we all know that is wishful thinking at best. But know this, Me and the rest will always be with you, come what may." The goddess bowed, and then she was gone. The priestess, she was inhabiting, sucked in a big gulp of air and nodded as she left the chamber.

"War comes, but let us celebrate this without worry for a few weeks at least," Hope spoke, and the group nodded as they moved towards the exit, ready to go back to the North, where their friend awaited them.

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