"Caretaker of Theldesia, we have come to see you are properly protected according to our contract. And, according to the rules of the Sect War, we are here to see to the ending of the dark deities of Theldesia. And, for the sake of the irritation, frustration, and righteous anger of Adventurers, to see to the proper spanking of them while we do it for using us in ways that shouldn't have been taught to us to begin with."

Michael and the South Army were drawn up in formal ranks, dressed as Avenging Angels - the Eagles winged - and Michael yet again was in his four-armed winged form. Formal because they were formally now in the Temple of Creation's audience hall, with the temple's critical staff in attendance including Timberel, Meghan, and Marco.

"Welcome." Purrcy was Queen and High Priestess. "It saddens me that the kami chose to bring war to the face of Theldesia and into the Gate of Time because they believed they could control Adventurers. They forgot that they are the dependents. If the worshipers turn against them, they are left with nothing. As they have been weakened because of your efforts on the surface of Theldesia, they are ripe for the picking." She paused, then said, "Is there anything you wanted to say before I bring Shiroe's party in for planning?"

Michael looked down at himself and sighed at Purrcy. "You know I never looked good in green."

"I know. Navy all the way for you." She smiled at them. "Tetorō hates blue on me, though, and it wouldn't go with his orange hair. The green at least complements that."

"All of us and only the two of you?" he complained at her. The Eagles were having a hard time not laughing at the two of them. He frowned. "Not to mention now he has to add forest green to the black, red, and blue? He's going to hate that, you know." Purrcy laughed.

"Are we going to battle plan or go on a shopping trip?" Reed complained at them. "You two get too relaxed." They both tried to look repentant. Timberel's ears were pricked forward with both excitement and interest. At Reed's scold, he looked like he related intimately, and like he might be taking notes. Meghan was equally disturbed by Michael tempting Purrcy into a more relaxed state at this time of beginning the horror of war inside the Gate of Time itself. Marco handled it as calmly and stoically as he did anything else.

Purrcy motioned BillyBoy to come up to the front. The hobbit trotted up. "So you've earned the honor of being among those who will enter the Gate of Time to fight the only battle Earth Adventurers will fight in it. I do hope you'll enjoy the opportunity. This time, you won't be convincing anyone of anything. Can you and your men really fight?"

BillyBoy looked into her eyes calmly. "Of course. We'd not have survived the Overwritten without it. We fought in the Maze, too. And I know you watched us fight that last battle."

Purrcy smiled. "Well said. And how do you feel about killing the gods of Theldesia that the creatures and people rely on?"

BillyBoy tipped his head, not quite understanding. "If we're talking about the two we fought two days ago, no problem. That's evil incarnate. If it's game constructs that are doing good things, maybe that would be harder. They're not gods, though." He narrowed his eyes at Purrcy. "You're not either."

Purrcy's whiskers turned up. "I'm certainly not God. I've just been given responsibilities, and skills to accomplish them that look rather god-like, ...but we humans are used to that, aren't we?"

BillyBoy's mouth opened, then he stopped and finally nodded. "That's true." He stared her down. "Are you worthy of it?"

She stared him down back. "Are you worthy of the responsibilities laid upon your shoulders?"

BillyBoy blinked and looked like he wanted to slump, then stopped and carefully said, "I wouldn't know if I'm worthy of them. I only know that I've been asked to stand here in this place, and people rely on me to properly do my best."

Purrcy gave a nod. "Indeed. And so it is with me. Do you trust Michael's judgment?"

BillyBoy turned and looked up at Michael soberly. "I do."

"Very well," Purrcy said and looked up and to the side. Michael turned his head to look and there was a bright light in the air through which more people were crossing through.

"Ah. That's how that happened," he sighed to himself. "At least they don't have to throw up coming into the linear Gate."

"Indeed," was murmured from behind Purrcy who was moving to greet the newcomers.

Michael looked to that voice to see Nyanta. Nyanta's ears turned and after a moment, his tail flicked lightly. He stepped forward to stand close to Michael, face to face. The green eyes held his own pinned. "Only mew have seen what happens next. Inari has only calculated it. Inari cannot actually pass through time forward, and they purrevent Purrcy from doing the same. She can only cross into what has already happened or is currently happening in her timeline. ...I will be relying on mew."

Michael bowed his head to Nyanta. "I will be doing my best...in both times." He turned his head slightly and called for Stiletto. They waited until he was up close with them. "What is your time walk limitation for the Gate of Time?" Michael asked Stiletto.

Stiletto shook his head. "Locked down for the duration of this. I can walk the other realms, though."

Michael nodded. "The man you assassinated was called back by his god as a spirit and gave his report. Because he'd been passed through the veil from this timeline back into the past unbounded Gate of Time, he knew what they wanted to know. That's how Night Sun knew to help you, Nyanta. Keep wary, Stiletto." Stiletto gave a nod.

Michael paused. Purrcy, Shiroe, Akatsuki, Naotsugu, Marielle, Crusty, and Tetorō had reached them. Reed stepped up to join them. "Nice avatar upgrade," Naotsugu said looking Michael up and down. "Permanent?"

Michael shrugged. "It's been handy on occasion. It's specific to the Temple of Creation, and the Caretaker."

Reed cleared his throat. Purrcy waved a hand at him. "We've got enough time to say hello, Reed," she scolded him. "You know I like to take my time to properly greet people." Reed gave up. She turned to BillyBoy. "Billy, this is Guildmaster Shiroe and my guild family, Log Horizon - well the seniors of it. The juniors have another task in this battle they're completing." She twitched and Nyanta was rather cold.

Three people had Purrcy in a hug and two were holding Nyanta's shoulders tightly. "They'll be fine. We promise," Log Horizon promised. Michael didn't let Nyanta go until he really relaxed, even though he tried to shake off the hands more than once. Michael took even longer to let Purrcy go and only after he made sure Tetorō was going to keep holding on. He scolded Shiroe, though, and made him let her go. "You've already said hello. She'll stay put if she's got Tetorō. She's really trying to hold herself back from blowing up the bastard's temple so we can have some of the fun, too."

"And thus why we need to get to planning," Reed whined at them.

They stared at him. Michael spurted a laugh. "Really? A whine from you?"

"You really do care, Reed," Purrcy teased him solemnly. "Thank you."

Reed rolled his eyes and groaned at them. Nyanta and Naotsugu patted him on the back sympathetically. BillyBoy shifted, and a smile came on his face. "Yeah, I can see the family. It's good."

Purrcy bowed her head to him. "Then shall we? I'll be changing the entire Gate of Time into a battlefield once we're ready to begin." She waved her hand to the rest of the room, it being the audience hall with the thrones on the floor today. The staff of the temple looked like they were trying to comprehend what was going on in the Adventurer part of the room. "Obviously I want to protect these."

She turned to Shiroe. "You have two options. I can get rid of the temples and we can have a field battle, or I can leave just the temples in place and we can have multiple temple dungeons. I'll have full locks on the temples we shouldn't invade. The ones that are fair game will look different so should be obvious enough."

He looked at the numbers of fighters in the room. "Can we use any of the fighters from the temple to add to our numbers?"

Purrcy bowed her head sadly. "The guards would fight if I asked, since they are trained to it. ...You understand the difficulty I have in asking them to end their lives for this."

He gave a nod. They let him have the time to run through his scenarios. He finally shook his head. "It would be much better if we could have those like us who support you from each region handle their own region's temples."

"You'd rather practice the full battle formation now?" she asked him in surprise.

"Yes," he answered solemnly. "Can it be done?"

Purrcy looked around at the Adventurers gathered so far, then nodded. "Temple or battlefield?" she made him answer her that first.

"Which gives them the least advantage?"

Purrcy hesitated. "Shiroe...even now they sacrifice their own to themselves in order to build up their power for this battle. In the temples, the rooms that happens in is hidden and you have to find them to stop that increase in power. By the law of kami, even though Izanagi stepped in and prevented any further sacrifices on the face of the planet, he can't interfere in their own temples.

"In a battlefield, they will still continue to make those sacrifices for as long as they can, if the dark kami make spaces sacred to them. You will be able to see where they are and hear and smell them. It will be horrible and difficult for anyone on the battlefield, even to causing negative status effects to each person who has to watch it on their way to prevent it, but the prevention of it will perhaps be able to happen sooner."

BillyBoy and Stiletto shivered. Michael and Reed both swallowed. "It wasn't easy, Shiroe," Michael said quietly. "The internal motivating bonus to end it was able to overcome the negatives to some degree. We'll be having nightmares for life, though."

Shiroe looked soberly at Purrcy. "Can I ask for one spell? Are you part of the battle group?"

"What is the one you want?" she asked quietly.

"The one you want to cast," he answered just as quietly. "Don't let them hurt any more creatures and don't let them harm the ones you love. That will be a permanent scar."

"That will be difficult, Shiroe. Already the one to change the battlefield has been building. To pull the other Generals into the battlefield after explaining it to them and giving them time to get their parties in place will take me a while to create and build up enough power for. To then also cast that one..."

Michael shook his head. "No. That is ours to do. In the time it takes you to cast the one to call for the other Generals we can have the temples cleaned of the evil so they don't have to see it. We've been trained to it." He turned to BillyBoy. "Don't come out until we're done."

BillyBoy shook his head. "You'll need us again. Let us come with you to get it done sooner."

Michael bowed his head in acquiescence and looked at Purrcy. She agreed and they looked to Shiroe again.

"Okay. I can work with that," he said and finished putting his plan into order. His final question was, "And is the only way to kill them with Michael's special?"

"Yes," she answered solemnly. "That or I erase them."

The whole room shivered. "Surely not," Shiroe begged, not wanting to hear she'd been granted that privilege.

"Yes," she answered solemnly.

Michael looked away from the pain in Shiroe's face He wanted to go do some killing now and was going to have to be held down until this meeting was done.

-:-:-:-:-

The Michael of the past, the nondescript grey tabby felinoid guard of the Temple of Creation, who had been in the Gate of Time since it was the unbounded Gate of Time. Who had sometimes been sent by the High Priest to fetch wayward children back to school, and occasionally the High Priestess, because he had the odd ability to walk through space, had walked out of the temple just as it was being returned to the Gate of Time and the lesser protections put up around it. He might have been able to spacial walk out of the building, but he knew how tight Purrcy's shields were and that she would be protecting everyone inside from outside attacks. Likely he would be of better use outside the Temple.

He already knew he was the only one in the Gate of Time who had the right tools in his hands to actually kill the gods of Theldesia. And...he could do it without being found, seen, and in an instant, or however long it took to get their HP down. He already knew who had to be taken down first. Night Sun would only increase in power the longer the war went on. Now was when he was weakest. Michael did wish Stiletto was on this side of the veil. One companion would have been nice. It made his back feel a little cold and unprotected.

He wasn't sure if he should try to take them all on one by one, either. The God Cleaver only needed to make the final strike. If others could get them down in power and strength, then he could make the final blow. Michael sighed. There was too much he didn't know.

He'd continued to watch over Purrcy since he'd left the temple. When he saw Shiroe enter the audience chamber, and heard the initial plan, he knew he needed to act then. If the deities could be distracted for long enough to not pay attention to their temples being infiltrated, the party from the future would be able to act against the sacrificial rooms.

Illusion was easy. He stepped to Night Sun's temple and pounded on the door. "Please, let me in! I have information for His Holiness!" Eventually they granted him entrance and he was ushered into the throne room.

Falling to his knees and panting hard, as if he'd been running, Michael bowed to the ground. "Please, I've just come from the Temple of Creation. It has been returned to the proper place and equivalent protections placed on it as the other temples. They are gathering reinforcements from the Adventurers and will come to battle soon. They have called the Archmage and -," he was cut off by Night Sun rising.

"They've brought the Archmage here?" Night Sun demanded. "And the Champion? Has he come as well?"

"Yes, Holiness," Michael answered as if afraid but sure. "I saw them arrive." While Night Sun ranted to himself, Michael read his status data, then started creating his code spell. The gods didn't know how to deal with pseudocode magic. Every one of Purrcy's spells, and his own, written that way had confused them, coming out of nowhere.

He listened as Night Sun ordered his head of the guard to begin to prepare for battle. He wasn't completely forgotten. He had a finger flick at him and he moved to stand respectfully on the wall in the room with the other servants and guards waiting on Night Sun's whims.

When Night Sun ordered his High Priest to increase the sacrifices and three more priests left the wall of the room, Michael wrote a quick spell that would prevent those priests from remembering the request as soon as they walked out of the room. He gave them enough time to get walking for whatever room they were going to, then realm stepped. He cast his building spell on his way, and then was slashing at Night Sun with the Sword of the Queen's Guard, wishing for Nyanta's bonus.

Night Sun didn't sit still, but Michael's Monk's bonus of fast movement kept him at Night Sun's side until he'd done enough damage that way he could bring the important weapon to bear. In three swings from seemingly different directions, the God Cleaver had smashed into Night Sun, severing an arm, breaking a leg, and then nearly taking his head off.

By this time the remaining priests in the room were chanting and the remaining guards were close. Michael got in one last blow, then had to escape the room. He couldn't afford to be cursed just yet. He whispered three words to close his spell and watched as the place where Night Sun had fallen seemed to become empty. Surely if the spell of restraint could lock Adventurers down, it could contain a kami for at least long enough for the battle to be won properly by the correct side.

Ix Chel's temple was next, and she received the same treatment, save that this time he simply realm walked into the audience chamber and attacked her, then locked her down.

He realm walked into Ccoa's throne room and stayed invisible. Michael waited just a little longer for the sake of his spell, then stepped and began the invisible attack yet again. His spirit was protected by the spell he'd learned to get into the High Priestess' bedroom, although that wasn't going to happen until the end of his current level of her dungeon. He'd perfected it here in the Gate of Time, it being a place many people could see in the spirit realm, and walk in, too.

Again, he had to leave before the deed was done, locking Ccoa down to 1HP in a mirror prison. Anything he cast inside would be negated, anything anyone else cast outside it would reflect back. It wasn't perfect. Given enough time, the priests would learn they could simply wait until enough sacrificial strength was built back up, then ask for the miracle of the god being broken loose from his prison. But if it bought Purrcy time, if it make them easier to kill later, if it helped lift the sorrow of the city and its children, if he could do anything, he had to do it.

From temple to temple he went, using the knowledge he'd gained from being obedient to Nyanta's orders and being placed to hear what he'd needed to hear at the right times and places, until he came to the temple of Maneki Neko. There he finally made one prayer request. "Purrcy, please, grant me your luck for a brief time as I act as your sword, so that I may be more lucky than the Lucky Cat and strike the blow that teaches him that to touch your children is to pay the heaviest price."

He felt her surprise, and then her strengthening blessing. He cast his spell, began his attack, and felt himself being slipped out of the code realm, his strength to stay in it failing. Holding on to the intent to be very lucky, he allowed himself to continue to slip out. "You have done that which you ought not, and have allowed a hand to be lifted up against a child of the Caretaker," he said ominously, his blows not stopping.

The cries in the room ranged from fear, to pleas to stop, to cursings. Michael refused to relent. "I am the Guardian," he declared. "You have overstepped your bounds and must pay the price." He could feel the cursing spells coming for him. He closed the binding spell around Maneki Neko and cast Call of Home, wondering where he would end up. He held to the intent his luck would hold and he'd escaped before the curses had found purchase on him.

-:-:-:-:-

The Michael of the ending of the seventh level left the Temple of Creation with his twenty-three men behind him, and BillyBoy's full twenty-four. They divided into the same four groups they'd been in for the South Amerkan Adventurer cities. They wished each other luck and disappeared into the streets which were already darkened as Purrcy's spell pulled on the magic inherently contained in the city to build itself up. They'd put away their clothes that marked them as anything in particular and had put on their armor and other fighting gear.

Over that they wore knee-length over-garments of black, granted to them by Purrcy the seamstress and magic item giver. The tunics had slits up the sides and front and back so they could run and move unhampered, but were otherwise unmarked. They had defensive and anti-spell bonuses, particularly against clerical spells. They'd scolded her, but she'd said she'd made them at a different time. They still frowned at her. That could mean she did it just a few milli-seconds ago.

Having already been in every temple they needed to attack this day, Michael had put markers on their maps of the Gate of Time where within the specific temples the rooms of sacrifice were. Michael had let them know that they would be able to get into the temples by code realm walking, adding the method Stiletto and Hue had worked out to get through the god's spell that Black Jack had confirmed, so they were going in by partners again.

They took back hallways, taking down guards on the way if they came across them, although most of those were guarding the throne rooms. When Michael reached the room his group was headed for, he made sure to first cast his spell that locked the room down. Then they realm walked through the wall.

The battle was fierce but short. The priests in the room weren't strong. The guards were, but had their hands full at first of struggling sacrifices-to-be - the ones not quite devout enough to have stars in their eyes at actually getting to be one of the sacrifices for their god. The ones who were desperate to be sacrificed to their god had to be locked down special, since they fought back, trying to jump to the High Priest.

One even snatched the knife from the High Priest's hands as he fell in death. The Adventurers prevented him from killing himself, then locked him down instead of killing him since his own intent would feed the kami. He raged and wept and they ignored him, although it was painful. To hear even one deranged creature want to die for the sake of evil was hard.

Michael very badly wanted to go to the throne room next and finish the deed he had started so long ago in his own life now, but he had other responsibilities at the moment. They desecrated the room, leaving all of the implements as slag or smaller, cast one small group purification spell (that was large with all twelve of them combined) so that it wouldn't be useful to the god, then left the room. They repeated this process for every sacrificial room they could find. When they were done, they left the temple the way they had come into it.

They passed the three next temples, sending on the message they were moving on, and getting responses back that things were well enough in hand in the other three. In this way they worked their way through all of the necessary temples, from worst to least. At Maneki Neko's temple, which was last, they all gathered together again. Then as a full half-legion they entered it

Once again, Michael asked that the luck of the Caretaker be with them to counteract the luck of the Lucky Cat god, although he also again intended that it would only be an umbrella coverage, not that her own luck would be gone. She would need it herself.

In this temple, they worked their way through as if it was a full temple dungeon until they reached the throne room. While Maneki Neko didn't require human sacrifices, his luck would prevent even Purrcy from removing him any other way than erasure. They wanted to prevent her from having to do that if at all possible.

They entered the throne room just as the sixth-level Michael disappeared. Michael of the seventh level watched the code of his containment spell and was relieved when it held. They worked quickly. Half a legion of Adventurers against People of the Land: even with their higher level clergy spells, it was a simple battle. All twenty-four Eagles had spells that were equivalent or counteracted them.

They killed everyone in the room and everyone who flooded into the room behind them until the room appeared empty. Then Michael walked over to the place he'd locked Maneki Neko down and slammed down the God Cleaver into him, taking the final HP. They watched as the bubbles of death rose into the air. The Intelligence detail, using their combined special skills, had already hunted and taken down all of the other remaining aspects of Maneki Neko.

Around them, the temple shimmered, then faded from view, showing them the full final battlefield. The Gate of Time was now a black backdrop filled with the staff and people of each temple of the dark deities surrounding said dark deities, in all their terrible true forms, standing three times as tall as their worshipers.

-:-:-:-:-

Night Sun was more furious than he had ever been. At the same time, he was elated. For all his main being had been attacked until near death, he hadn't been killed. Thus he'd lain still, unseen by his staff, not really knowing why except by some magic.

He'd watched his attacker leave the room. In that watching, he'd learned how to cross his own temple barrier. He'd paid a high price to learn the secret of how the Caretaker's Sons disappeared from buildings and spells no other spirit or being could pass through. He studied that passageway while he lay there recovering his strength through the sacrifices his temple staff were still making, the sacrifices by the few priests of the People of the Land in his regions, and incidentally any sacrifice being offered to any other deity in the Gate of Time, as well as any death still related to the Sect war.

After he'd been struck down, another of his aspects found that his High Priest, priests, and the sacrificial rooms and altars of his own temple had been killed and desecrated. He raged again and found the highest ranking clergy in his temple. With the help and desires of that one, he was able to break free of his restraints.

While he sat, seething at the pain that had been caused to him, he set his final plans into motion. He was not defeated at all. He was just beginning the final motions he'd planned long ago. He'd always known that only he would be able to enter the Temple of Creation. Only he would rule over the Caretaker and the Inari. He sent his most stealthy aspect to the now-present Temple of Creation and entered it through the gate that had been set by his workers long ago. Using his new knowledge of how the Sons of the Caretaker moved, he slipped through the shielding spell the Caretaker had around it.

Using his spirit sight, he found where the Caretaker was standing with all of her supports in her own throne room. Then he rose up to the balcony of the bedroom suite. There were four forms in the children's room, but none of them contained a living soul. Only a created temporary soul. Before that aspect could be trapped, he moved quickly and looked through all of the temple grounds, but nowhere did he find the four children of the Caretaker.

When he was satisfied, he slipped into the spirit realm. He knew it as intimately as the death realm. He stayed out of sight of those Adventurers who were in that realm and hunted, knowing he would find the children if he looked in the hidden places. He was rewarded when he found four together in a separate space, like the Gate of Time was separate from Theldesia.

He slipped up close to that space, then stopped. It wasn't a simple place to get into, and the protections on it were most difficult. That did not dissuade Night Sun, however. He didn't need to be present to affect a space that held souls. He began casting a spell of cursing. It wouldn't be seen nor understood by any of the traps in that space. All he needed to do was kill the children, and he would receive strength unmeasured. His exultation rose, his goal was so near, and his retribution against the Caretaker and her Sons unfettered.

-:-:-:-:-

Sixth dungeon level Michael looked around. He was mildly surprised to find he'd been returned back to the Temple of Creation barracks. He drank down several potions to make sure he was back to as full up as he could get, then stepped outside. Things seemed strange. He looked through the realms and could see the city was doubled. He was standing in a spacial realm that contained places and people Purrcy likely wanted to protect. In a mirror spacial realm there was darkness and people arrayed for battle. Shiroe and the seniors of Log Horizon were standing in that space with Purrcy.

Before he would go there, there was something he needed to check on. The one place he'd never gone before in the temple, or the whole city nearly, was Nyanta and Purrcy's personal quarters. But that was where the children would be. He wanted to know they were okay. When he arrived in the rooms, they were quiet. He carefully scouted until he discovered that echos of the children that had been put there. Purrcy was getting very good.

He carefully protected himself, then felt for them inside himself. He could feel their concern and a bit of fear from the more timid two. He looked for where they were. It took a while and searching through several realms. She'd hidden them in a foxhole in the park and then detached the park from the rest of the Gate of Time. They should be safe enough there, but he tied into her warning network so that he would get the same warnings she would.

He stepped from that spacial realm into the one the battle was beginning in. If he could, he needed to finish his work he'd started. He watched as groups of Adventurers appeared in front of groups of temples. He wasn't sure how or why that was happening, but it made him feel better to know that Purrcy wasn't planning on fighting all of the temples by herself. It also meant he'd have the distractions he needed to move in the chaos.

He stayed where he was above the people until he'd found and read the statuses on all the gods. He frowned when he read Night Sun's since it was higher than he would have hoped. He couldn't see any sacrifices going on yet, though, so he headed that way. He hit a barrier and was nearly trapped five feet from Night Sun. He silently swore. Night Sun had enough power to protect himself at the least. What made it worse, was that people were dying now. While it wasn't a sacrifice to that particular god who they worked for perhaps, it was a sacrifice to war and that was all Night Sun needed to increase even a little more.

Michael wanted to scream for the battle to stop, but he knew it couldn't happen. The battle had to be seen to its end now. Once Adventurers were brought in and had begun, it had to change at Shiroe's level to get it to stop. ...But Shiroe knew he was here. He stepped again to be where he couldn't be heard generally. "Shiroe. Every kill feeds Night Sun."

"I know, Michael," Shiroe said calmly. "Thank you for dropping his HP for us. Being able to start lower this time will help us. Just do what you need to do. I've accounted for it."

Being told "this time" didn't do Michael's heart any good. How many repeats of failure had they had to go through to get to "this time". Of course, this wasn't the unbounded Gate of Time any longer, so maybe it was just this one.

Michael stepped to the next god that was going to feed off this and took him down with a final blow. Each god was a little more difficult as he went, since the lower priests were also beginning to make field sacrifices or to cast spells that fed the deaths on the field to their gods. When Michael could pinpoint one of those priests, he took them out, too, but mostly he focused on the gods themselves.

He took them out as fast as he could, then stepped back to where he could see Night Sun. What he saw dismayed him terribly. "What happened, Shiroe?" he asked.

"For every god you killed, he gained far more than he gained for each lower person killed."

"Why didn't you stop me!?" Michael cried.

"I told you. I accounted for it."

"I can't get him down far enough on my own!" Michael said angrily.

"No, but you have something else to do now, don't you?" Shiroe asked.

As he said that, Michael's eyes widened and he was suddenly in the space of the park. A dark miasma was forming in the park that was eating away at it. Michael dove for the fox hole the children were in, slipping in while setting off alarms, not caring that Purrcy would be alerted. The miasma hadn't alerted her yet (or him). He had to cut his own attachment to the alarms he was setting off, though, since they somewhat distracted him.

"Go to kitten, quickly!" he ordered the children. Since they all recognized him, they did. He scooped them up in his arms. "Hold on tight, even if you poke me. I'll survive that much. And close your eyes." He held them closely to himself and walked. Purrcy kindly let him take them out without killing him.

He arrived inside Ceridwen's temple complex, but not where she would know. Instead he showed up in a little private garden and put up another box of protection around them all. "Okay. Stay in hiding. I'll be here if that happens again." He left them there, then stood over them disguised as a guard of Ceridwen's temple, adding his cufflinks and his warning earring to his ensemble. He pulled up his connection to Purrcy and watched from there.

He stood there in that garden and watched the battle unfold in shock. The Adventurers had fallen back. "Meowr gods have fallen and their strength eaten up by Night Sun who set this from the beginning, knowing this would be the outcome. Did not the Oracle say when she first sat the throne of the Temple of Creation that Adventurers do not worship the gods of Theldesia? Did she not warn that if holy war was brought to the land that she would of necessity have to step in? And did she not say she was unkillable?

"Has not Night Sun used this to his advantage? To convince the other gods that if they die their strength will make him equal to her until he can recall them back from the underworld? For what reason do mew believe that Izanagi will stand by and allow that to happen?" To have the High Priest speak up was astounding in itself. To have him angry was frightening. "There will be no more deaths to feed him, but only his own."

A large four armed, winged creature landed in front of the Log Horizon group and bowed. "Please, Inari-no-Izanagi, allow me to finish it properly lest everyone become more angry. You did not give us the quest to remove the flavor text of the kami and gods. What is your preference today? Do you wish us to remove that flavor text altogether or do you wish us merely to remove the dark religions so that they don't cause the world more harm?"

Nyanta's ears twisted and turned and his tail lashed. "The kami of Theldesia are irrelevant constructs. Their loss will be negligible."

The creature argued back. "But they teach benevolence, kindness, and peaceful living, not just death, selfishness, and war. Both sides need to be understood to understand why one should be preferred over the other. Certainly even we can see and understand that the atrocities committed by the dark gods is beyond reasonable, but to remove all possibilities for either side is perhaps too extreme.

"And...even in our own world we have found that we all need something to believe in that is higher than ourselves in order to live in a way that is not completely devoid of reason to live at all. If we have something to strive for, to reach and attain that is outside of ourselves we work hard. If we have something greater than ourselves we are accountable to we watch ourselves and our choices more closely. Sometimes having only ourselves leads us to wrong thinking and improper action.

"Please, instead take the time to sort through and decide which deities might be helpful to the world as a whole because their past history shows that they have already been that way. It will be too much, to leave the entire Gate of Time lost and adrift to die. Will you kill all of the people in the Gate of Time for the sake of your anger against the kami? Will you see your own creations become as bleak and angry as you made the Adventurers to be in bringing them here suddenly and against their wills?"

Michael couldn't take in what he was hearing. Not just because it was a plea for the sake of the kami of the Gate of Time, but because he couldn't believe it was him making that plea. How could he be casting the vote for Purrcy to become completely tied to this planet? Had he truly lost all feeling for her until the time that him had come from, that he didn't care if she was?

Just as he was about to go and interrupt, his warnings went off on his wrists and his ear and he dove to collect up the kittens and flee again. This time he went to another of the god's gardens, one that wouldn't be thought of since they weren't particularly tied to Purrcy and Nyanta. He kept an ear on the proceedings though, needing to understand, desperate to know what the outcome was.

"Why should mew ask in their behalf when Adventurers don't worship gods of Theldesia?" the High Priest argued.

"Because we worship the gods of Earth, Izanagi. You know that. You used it to your benefit on the other side of the world from Yamato or you would have lost even more Adventurers and Creatures of the Land. The strength of my companions comes because of that faith they hold. Faith is one of the emotions we need, as is hope. They both come from believing in something outside of ourselves, greater than we are.

"We are prideful, it is true, and you have heard Purrcy argue that we are greater than anything here, but on Earth and here we recognize we aren't omniscient. Even she worships the God of Earth and finds comfort and strength in it. Don't remove that hope and faith from your own world. Your creatures will need it."

"Then how will I purrevent evil from coming again, if the rules of kami are kept in the system?" Izanagi demanded, his tail lashing now.

The seventh-level Michael paused, then bowed to Purrcy and said, "Caretaker, please rather than erase all kami from existence, erase only from the database those who will bring evil, destruction, and chaos so that no creation on Theldesia can remember that they were part of the programming. If possible, please also create a watch for the specific criteria that leads to the creation of a new kami of the same cloth when the people create one for themselves, to prevent it from being born."

Then he turned to the High Priest again, "If you will keep any Adventurer spirits it is important for the final request to be part of the answer. Humans have always created their gods themselves, of the flavor we are talking about today. Only the one true God has come to teach us about himself and we have rejected him time and again, save the few who need that faith and hope who hold on to him.

"Even the evil ones we have created for ourselves. All of these who we have fought this day were like this. It isn't wrong of you to wish for us to fix that error we created ourselves. But it also isn't wrong to allow for them to be present. We will create them regardless to fill that hole in our beings, that need to look outside ourselves, not just inside."

The sixth-level Michael finally understood. Izanagi wanted a full wash. It would leave a gaping hole for the evil to rush right back into given the way humans worked. If the People of the Land were allowed to become more human at all, then somewhere down the line even they would begin to create both good and evil beings on their own. The whole of the question of gods or not needed to be bounded properly for there to be the right balance in the way the world moved forward.

Purrcy turned to Nyanta. "There is another possible restraint. That would be to bind the beliefs to localities. That's another thing that happens on our world. Faith in particular gods can move from one region and area to another, particularly as large bodies of people migrate from one location to another. But where one religion is already established, it is difficult for others to flourish. This prevents any one Earth-bound kami from becoming more powerful than any other one."

She sighed. "Yet, you and Izanami as base creator kami must be allowed still to be able to act within the sphere of your responsibilities. There must be that side case made properly. Even that exists on Earth where we believe there is one creator God who rules over all. Many of us believe He rules over even Theldesia and all creations in all the universes. Please don't anger Him, either. You already have the evidences you need for that case."

The four-armed Michael of the seventh level clapped twice, bowed, and clapped again. "Inari-no-Izanagi, please allow us to fight the final battle against Night Sun properly for the ending of this level while you consider the boundaries and how you'll answer us. If we win, please allow for the drop to be the granting of my miracle request to Purrcy, properly bounded for the survival and growth of Theldesia in the way only you know how to calculate."

The High Priest was looking at Michael with bright eyes and his tail had gone to a hunting swish. The sixth-level Michael swallowed nervously. He hoped the seventh-level him survived. He had to collect up the children one more time, though. Once he had them properly hidden away again, he'd missed the answer, but he was relieved to see the future him was still alive.

He didn't have any more time to watch after that. He'd become the target of an impatient, angry, and now very powerful god of death. He collected up the kittens one more time and disappeared with them.

-:-:-:-:-

"Thank you Michael," Brenner said softly on a chat.

"Yes, thank you," Shiroe echoed him.

The seventh-level Michael sighed to himself. They'd all three had to talk very hard in the battle planning meeting to convince him to intercede. It always took an additional person to convince Izanagi. He wasn't sure why they'd picked him this time. He'd tried to cover the loophole for keeping Purrcy, but he thought Purrcy had opened it back up again. He wasn't sure. That wasn't his forte, really. He looked at her a little sadly. She sent him a code kiss that warmed his cheek.

He turned away and looked at the now giant Night Sun. "And as we've asked before," he grumbled, "why do they always have to become large and giant just because they're a boss? I mean really."

Purrcy giggled in his ear, her misaki aspect sitting on his broad shoulder and her tail waving behind his back. "Because when we have this many Adventurers who want to hit at least one boss when you stole that thunder out from them, there's got to be enough surface area to hit."

"Oh," he muttered. He'd shot himself in the foot twice now on this one. "Really. I don't know why you keep trying with me," he grumbled further. It was their pattern now, though.

"It really is okay, Michael," she consoled him. "Even Shiroe knew what you were going to do before you told him. We know you and we still like you, so it works out."

He pursed his lips. Testy because of that comment he answered, "Well that only works because we know you and we still somehow still like you, too, most days."

"Thank you," she answered politely, then disappeared so he could get to work and she could get going on her own spell creation, like she was supposed to be working on. It wasn't until after he'd gotten his initial orders from Crusty that he remembered he hadn't warned her. He almost froze and had his spell rebound, but he recovered quickly. "Stiletto. Get over to Purrcy but stay hidden. There's a hidden knife."

"Yessir," was his immediate answer. Michael didn't know where the knife had come from, but Stiletto could be and see everywhere at once. He would know and see first.

Quietly Michael whispered to himself and God, "Please, God, if you're here on Theldesia like Purrcy, Chappie, and the Twin Falls boys believe, please protect Purrcy for Nyanta's sake and the sake of all the Adventurers who want to go home. We can't do that without her." It couldn't hurt to ask for the one more miracle.