This chapter starts at T-(3 days, 9.5 hours) when Mad Maudlin's crew is hunting Michael's men in Chapter 217 and Akatsuki begins to set the stage for her and Shiroe to leave Akiba before the war begins in Chapter 218.

Purrcy walked into the room the Department of Time worked in and was met by the person in charge of the main concern she had. She'd dropped the memory cubes from the two spies of the North Army off on his desk as soon as she'd gotten them from the Eagles. "Here is the proper timing for each of the spies," the deacon said immediately, handing her a piece of paper that had his very neat lettering and numbering on it. (He knew his work had to be precisely understood so made sure there would be no errors in what he wrote or in how it was read.)

The deacon was leading her to his desk as they spoke. He placed his hand over one of the cubes. "There is one anomaly I cannot account for," his brow was creased in concern and he was frowning.

Purrcy nodded and the deacon touched the cube. The scene showed a grove of sacrifice. A man - no an Adventurer - was on the altar screaming out words. Given that she could see the full statue and other people in the scene she presumed this was the memory of the spy still in the line of sacrifices and that was the other spy.

Suddenly, there was as if a shadow between the viewer and the priest holding the knife ready to plunge into the Adventurer on the altar. Multiple slashes glinted redly in the red firelight, and the priest was dropping, then bubbles. Purrcy kept her eyes on the shadow and it flitted away as fast as it had appeared. "Assassin," she said curtly.

The deacon touched the box again, then the other box. "Play, slow," Purrcy said automatically. She watched in slow motion what the history of the Adventurer on the altar had caught. The Assassin was all shadow save the glint of the sword, but she could see that he was small and thin given the extension of the shadow's aura. "Stop." She pursed her lips and looked back at the deacon.

"I believe this also to be a moment where Time was warped," he declared. "Have you already had an event yet you could call upon?"

Purrcy took the time to review everything she could. Finally she shook her head. She actually had already given this department her entire history library, so knew he had looked. Asking her would help him look again at specific times. "I've been in only a few battles - mostly the two Mazes of Eternity. If you didn't find a match in those, then it hasn't happened for me yet."

The deacon slumped just a little, then nodded. "Then you may have to stand there and hold the potential for a time connection to be made."

Purrcy nodded. She'd learned how to do that very early, being taught by the Inari. Usually they told her when they needed one, or they were holding open the future location. For Shiroe's comfort, she had held it open, wanting to help him then more than she could, knowing that she could use the Eagles when their work was done, or at least at some point when they were on down time on the other side of the world.

She hesitated. "Let me have the first one for a bit." The deacon handed it over and bowed. "Thank you for your hard work," she told him, then disappeared.

-:-:-:-:-

"Shiroe, can I interrupt briefly?"

Shiroe looked up and smiled. "Of course, Hahaue."

She stepped to the side of his desk and set down a memory cube. Shiroe eyed it a bit suspiciously. The last memory cube hadn't been a pleasant one. "It's not any better," she agreed, "but it is short. And I did promise to bring anything to you I learned. I'll fill you in on what I know until now after we've discussed this little issue."

Shiroe gave a nod and she touched the memory cube. He watched the little scene play out, noting specifically when she told it to play at slow forward. "My head deacon over the time warping that's happening around this battle tells me he believes this is a moment where time is warped, but I don't have anything in my past that matches, so if it's me, it would have to be in my future. Do you recognize anything similar in the recent past?"

Shiroe shook his head slowly, his mind already having replayed through quite a lot. "Too small for most Assassins I've worked with...except Akatsuki, and we haven't fought any Adventurers like that. Her attacks against creatures and monsters are different." He blinked as he looked at the memory cube again. "We will be doing a lot of fighting against Adventurers in that battle, though. Maybe if you put a history on her you can go back and use one of her attacks after the fact?" He wasn't quite sure how the time warping worked, but it seemed like that would be a possibility.

Purrcy considered that, then gave a nod. She turned to look at Akatsuki's usual resting place, but Shiroe shook his head. "She's in class right now. Meow Li has been teaching a secretarial and administrative course and Akatsuki is her star pupil." They smiled at each other, knowing that with Akatsuki's drive, she would be anyone's star pupil.

"Well, that's good, then, that they both are keeping happily busy," Purrcy said. "That's by far a much better topic than what we have to discuss." Shiroe agreed readily.

They both took deep breaths, then Shiroe rose to his feet. "Let's at least sit comfortably even if the topic isn't."

Purrcy was happy to agree. They ended up with him sitting on the couch and her a large enough cat to sit next to him and be pet every now and again. "Normally I don't talk about future time travel in the past, but in this case you aren't a participant and need to know it for your overall planning." Shiroe nodded soberly. Her whiskers twitched up. "Plus, we all trust you implicitly."

At that he did smile a slow smile and gave her one soft pet. "I'll be grateful for the votes of confidence," he said, "even if it is a high standard to have to live up to."

She grinned back at him, understanding. She'd listened to him whine about that more than once already in their conversations like this from before.

When Purrcy was done explaining what the Eagles were doing at the request of Izanagi, he sat back with a sigh of relief. "I'm glad they're doing that. It's one of the things I've not been able to work out a solution to. We don't have enough people on the ground in any of the locations needed to protect the People of the Land. I'd sort of already put it in their hands, but it will help to be able to add it more firmly in as part of the planning so I don't have to have it as a niggling unfinished worry point."

Purrcy nodded. "I rather thought so. Those can be very distracting and I'm sure we don't need you distracted."

Shiroe shook his head, but he was already adding it to the rest of his planning for the upcoming battle, tucking in the loose ends that had been waiting for that hole to be filled. When that was done, one of the random questions he'd had floating around unanswered floated up for asking. He pet Purrcy as he asked, "Is this a future you or a present you?"

"Present," she said.

Shiroe nodded. "So they've recently come back in time to meet with you." Purrcy nodded. Shiroe continued to pet her. "Are you prevented from walking forward in time, or do you choose that?"

Purrcy's ear turned and she turned her head away. "Well...I wonder," she finally mused quietly.

Shiroe sighed to himself. She wouldn't answer it at all if that was her answer. If she was only being careful and already knew the future, she had more fortitude than he would have thought. She was usually very much too impatient. ...Then again...she was also a Hahaue who made her children work hard and grow up big and strong. Perhaps knowing for herself the final outcome was making her patient in their growing.

He slumped a little, then pet her until he didn't even realize she was gone he was so mesmerized. He didn't come out of that and his thoughts until Akatsuki returned from her errands and had to kiss him a long kiss to get him to wake up.

"Ah? You don't usually interrupt?" he asked, very surprised.

Akatsuki put her hands on her hips. "Shiroe under the spell of a cat is very different from Shiroe-who-thinks-too-hard," she put her finger between his brows. "No wrinkle."

Shiroe blinked in surprise, then smiled. "Then a cat mesmer is better?"

Akatsuki stopped with her mouth open, then had to smile. "Yes. Is Hahaue happy?"

"Enough," Shiroe answered back. "Concerned, but doing well." Akatsuki gave a firm nod saying that was alright in her book. "It's time to pack," Shiroe said. "We'll leave on Friday morning. Let everyone know we'll have the big meeting in here tonight."

"Everyone, tonight, in Shiroe's office," Akatsuki stated, confirming as she added it to her notes. Shiroe rather appreciated the class she was taking. Such verbalization helped him know he'd been heard, even if it was odd because it was new.

-:-:-:-:-

Purrcy stood in the Temple of Creation in a special room. Timberel and Meghan stood with her as her Priest and Priestess. They stood at the outside edges of the north and south positions just outside the magic circles on the floor. They had cast their part of the spell and she hers. The room itself was now a 360 degree patchwork vision of all places on the planet that she needed to be seeing.

Her role now was to be watching what was happening so she knew and understood how to best help when she was called upon to grant requests. While she could have just sent an aspect to each location, that was rather much - she didn't really have that many aspects. And, when it was a battle of gods against gods, it was considered rather dangerous. While in these rooms under the protective spells set by the Priest and Priestess, the other deities couldn't affect her (or each other). It was one of the ways to "keep the peace" within the Gate of Time.

Purrcy was already done with that a long time ago and already had the spells prepared for the final battle that would be in the Gate of Time. She had a lot of anger and hatred she'd had to focus towards something over the long years of having to put up with the horrible things these constructs had been allowed to do. It was rather sad that she'd had to learn these esoteric flavor text rules and spells, though. Perhaps she was glad they had them to begin with so there were proper bounds and rules to war between the gods, but that didn't mean she was happy it had to happen.

"Purrcy," a warm familiar voice said in her ear, "how are mew doing?"

"Emotionally conflicted and therefore not settling well to my task," she admitted to her accountability partner and husband.

"Where do mew need me?" Nyanta asked immediately.

"Does Shiroe need you?"

"Only part of me. He can have that much and mew can have the rest."

Purrcy sighed. "I would appreciate your stability and comfort. Let me see if I can modify the spell." She had time to research that, too. Time passed so slowly outside the Gate of Time that she would be standing here ... Purrcy gaped. Seriously?! Seventy-one days plus a little? She gave up on that. She very carefully worked up the cheat she wanted, writing it so it would only be effective for her and not the other deities of the Gate of Time. She wanted them as stressed out as possible.

When she was done, she slowly and lovingly let the code go and a golden rosy glow emanated from the center of her circle to fill the room. Meghan and Timberel glittered as the spell reached them and then the room was encased in a golden-pink shell that slowly faded.

"Right, then," she said, all business. "Come on, you two. Close your eyes and take a deep breath." They blinked at her, then obeyed. She took them and all but one aspect out of the room and up to her office. "You can open your eyes," she said. "Nyanta, will you join me in my office, please?" He appeared rather quickly, spacial realm walking to get there.

Meghan was staring wildly around herself. "Bu - but, Your Emminence! We'll have to cast the spell all over again now!"

"No, it's still going," Purrcy answered mildly. "Expect to be suddenly back in your positions at any time, particularly in about three weeks and for about six weeks extending from that."

"...Weeks?" Nyanta's ears turned.

"I didn't do the proper calculations until I was already set in the room," Purrcy said with a wry twitch to her nose whiskers. "What part of any of me can stand still for seventy-two days without moving?" Nyanta laughed into his hand.

"But...that's why it is that the gods don't war often," Timberel said. "Because they all know it will take a great sacrifice on their own part."

Purrcy turned to Timberel. Solemnly she said, "I have already paid a great sacrifice in withholding my anger for the last thirteen years and three months. I will not sacrifice my time with my children and husband for the next two and a third months for the sake of those who are so evil."

"But...if they see you in the city...?" Meghan protested weakly.

"Then they may believe that I am careless and haven't entered the battle even yet," Purrcy answered her.

"But, Purrcy!" Meghan whined at her, even going so far as to throw her clasped hands down and nearly jump up and down in distress as her ears lay down on her head. "You aren't careless. Why do you keep on insisting on letting them think it!?"

"Surely mew should understand it by now, Purriestess Meghan," Nyanta scolded her slightly.

Timberel put a calming hand on Meghan's arm. "Priestess Meghan, Purrcy knows how frightening she is. She shows them the child to make them forget, or they wouldn't fight against her at all."

"It apparently works," Purrcy said, giving Meghan a look. "You've also forgotten again."

Meghan was puzzled. "I have?"

"What god in the Gate of Time can walk out of that circle without breaking it and return to it again?" Timberel asked Meghan.

Meghan was puzzled and shook her head. "None. That's why we'll have to rebuild it."

"Why can no god get out of them?" Purrcy asked. "Can't all of them walk through space and return again and again?"

"Because we ..." Meghan trailed off and a very frightened look came over her face. She and Timberel both dropped to the floor and pressed their faces to it. "P-please forgive us," Meghan spluttered.

"We're very sorry, Your Holiness," Timberel said humbly, openly admitting by the address that he believed Purrcy was already a goddess in her own right.

"I'm perhaps not so concerned about that particular spell," Purrcy said calmly and quietly, although her tail swished in a bit of a hunting manner. "Rather, I wish to understand why you disallowed the Department of Time to tell me the full scope of the project.

"It is your jobs to instruct me where necessary and needed, and theirs to tell me all I need to understand when it comes to all aspects of time, even here in the Gate of Time. Why did none of you tell me just how long I would be standing there, nor allow me the time to properly prepare what would be happening out here while I was locked in there?" The air was getting cool and the pressure in the room was increasing slowly.

When Nyanta didn't move to restrain Purrcy, as he normally did when she became upset generally, Timberel shrank into himself and Meghan began trembling. Timberel began to speak and was suddenly silenced. "Do not lie to me, Timberel. I will hear you speak after Meghan has explained herself so you have had time to choose to tell me only truths," Purrcy's voice was quiet but required obedience. Timberel stiffened and his large orange ears pricked forward in surprise.

Meghan shivered, then cried out, "What kind of creature are you, to be an abomination of even an Adventurer or a god of Theldesia?"

Purrcy didn't answer right away. Finally she said, "I am sorry to be so confusing to everyone. It has never been my intent to be anything other than what I was to begin with. I have only been obedient."

Meghan shivered violently and finally cracked. She raged against the Inari that would have done such a thing. She lamented the day she had decided to become a priestess. She bemoaned the loss of Li Shou. Her typical talkativeness whipped her up into thoughtlessness and eventually she admitted without knowing it that she had spoken to others from other temples in complaint or at least sufficient to leak things that shouldn't have been. When her brain caught up to her mouth in the middle of that, she froze again. Her cat wails of sorrow were rather pitiful as she collapsed into a tight ball on the floor, shivering terribly.

Purrcy let her cry for a bit, then moved to bend down and put her hand lightly on Meghan's head. "Do you not think I knew from the first meeting that you were this way? You tried very hard that day, but you were grieving Li Shou for all you were trying to not offend me. I would rather you had admitted it then and let me comfort you then. Please remember that I don't wish to see a false face, but a real one. It is much better to let out the griefs and pains when they are fresh so that healing can happen properly."

Purrcy sighed and pet Meghan a few times. "And from that day I have known that your mouth does not close on its own well. You have not given away anything that was something seriously detrimental or I would have punished you long before now, and sent you away. I was able to use what you said to my own benefit.

"I do hope you will more carefully consider what you say in the future, however. As your punishment and training, you may not speak to anyone outside of this temple. Inside it you will only be able to speak to me unless I have required otherwise, until this war is completed." A brief glow surrounded Purrcy's hand and Meghan's head, the spell being simple to cast.

Purrcy placed a warm yellow blanket spell on Meghan, a modification of her "hug" spell, then rose to standing again. She stepped back from Meghan and faced Timberel. "You who has walked with me so closely as to see how frightening I can be, have you finally become so prideful?

"You knew that I wouldn't have the patience to stay in the circle, yet you didn't warn me of the timing and scope," Purrcy accused him quietly. "Your own personal pleasure to see me yet again act beyond the skills and abilities of the other deities of the Gate of Time is selfish and, used in such a way, both inappropriate and detrimental. What secretary cut of that cloth can I trust?" She removed the silence spell on him.

"It is worth it to be cast aside if they must be made to accept that you are a goddess of the highest form," Timberel insisted. With quiet fierceness he said, "If all Adventurers are such as you then all Adventurers are gods higher than the deities of the Gate of Time. Why should they all not be made to comprehend it? Their fight against you is pointless. You could wipe them all away with a word - nay, merely by desiring it."

The room became icy. "Do not become so impious as to assume I am higher than Inari, Timberel," Purrcy warned. "I have been granted skills and abilities by them so can do more than most, but there are many things they can do that I cannot. They have a purpose to allowing this war to occur and I cannot stray from that purpose.

"A deity who uses their power for their own delight and whim is by definition an evil and whimsical deity who must be appeased, yes, but that is not what I am. I do not kill merely because I am tired of playing with a toy. Every creature has a right to live the life they were created to fulfill. That must be respected properly. It is the gods who cannot do that or will not that I fight against. Do not assign such evil to me."

Timberel froze, then shivered. "No, Holiness," he whispered. "I am sorry."

Purrcy crafted a longer spell, leaving Timberel to continue thinking while she was silent. When it was properly crafted, she said to him, "Because you have pridefully desired to see all that the goddess you follow can do, from this time on you will see as I see, and see the results of what I can do as you have wished to. But you aren't likely to understand much of it other than the consequences.

"Perhaps it will be enough to teach you why I am restrained voluntarily, and why mercy is far more important to my integrity and the survival of all creatures that live on this planet than the power of my skills. At the very least it will teach you to properly fear what I am." She said the last sorrowfully, knowing he still lusted after that, and wishing he wouldn't be broken from receiving that knowledge.

As she put her hand on his head to place the spell, she said softly, "Sometimes, as we Adventurers have learned to our pain and sorrow, getting what you wished for isn't what you really wanted."

-:-:-:-:-

Things were suddenly busy in Panama City. The guards on duty around the pen of People of the Land whispered the word around via chat and got extra alert. Shortly other guards were jogging out to the pen and doubling the number to reinforce them. Behind them came a stream of black robed Adventurers, each line accompanied by another complement of guards. When the first priest gave his orders, the guards confirmed first that this irregular request was correct.

The People of the Land weren't too happy with the sudden activity, particularly with the rather large number of approaching black-robed priests. They stirred and paced and many tried to move away from the area of the gate as far as their enclosing pens would allow them to.

It turned the stomachs of the guards but this much had to be allowed. If they didn't, they died in their places as sudden bonus Adventurer sacrifices and no one was saved. The two Eagles on main guard made sure the People of the Land (and thus the spies) were properly gathered up into their lines, but they didn't discipline them. They let the guards each line of priest brought out of the city do that.

The Eagles on post were already preparing their spells and the Twin Falls party members were praying both for the sake of the People of the Land and to request the defensive bonuses Izanagi had promised them for the upcoming battle.

Reed was busy tying another man into one of the lines about half-way through the numbers of waiting Adventurer priests when he heard in his ear, "Reed...have you taken into account below and above? The world is three dimensional." Purrcy sounded rather stressed, actually.

"The spell generally is a sphere above," he answered.

"It needs to be fully enclosing. Ccoa's followers are dirt dwellers."

Reed nodded. "We know, Purrcy. We've accounted for it." She thanked him and the chat closed.

BlackJack had already buried purification munitions around the area and seeded the dirt inside the large pen the same, setting the trigger to be type demihuman or deity so that the milling and very concerned People of the Land wouldn't set them off. Reed frowned, but he couldn't do anything more than he was at the moment.

When Reed was seeing the last of the lines of sacrifices out the gate, he gave an order for the reinforcing set of walking guards to go into the pen with the People of the Land to get them to calm down. In sets of two the eight Twin Falls boys went through the People of the Land and "preached" to them. Their job was to see the remaining People of the Land calmed down and started praying to the creator gods and the Caretaker for protection.

They weren't believed very well, but when Hue mentioned that they were expecting Ccoa's followers to show up, that got them on their knees, as it were. Then Gareth had to let Hue know to tell them that they were being protected from below, too, because then they wanted to climb the fences. It would take seeing to believe it, Reed was sure, but every frightened heart that was willing to add their prayers to the side that needed it to keep them safe was that much more a bonus. Those eight remained inside the pen. They were the back-up. They could purify against enemies inside or out, and they could attack if the shield went down and things got inside that shouldn't.

The fires in the woods to the north of the pen and city were already burning brightly and the terrible smell of burning flesh was reaching them with the smoke that was rising up from the trees. A final procession was coming from the city now and all the guards went to full stiff attention. "I require twenty," the High Priest of the Central Amerkan region ordered sternly. "The strongest who can last the longest or the most frightened."

Behind him another group of guards were escorting a special group of prisoners out of the city and towards the field east of the city where they were likely planning on engaging in battle. "I will tell you one last time," Reed said quietly. "Stop now. Only cursings can come upon you and all of us for abusing the game like this."

The High Priest's hand had slapped him before he had time to even blink. "Get them or you also will be next."

Reed turned and went into the pen. His curse spell had been received by that much. He personally selected the twenty, and on each one of them he wrote an anti-spell, of the sort one would expect to find on Opposite Day. For every person sacrificed of this set, the deity would receive a delayed message and prayer from the Adventurer who killed him and it would be the opposite request that had been made. The curse put on the High Priest was that for every Adventurer he sacrificed, the High Priest's HP would drop rather than increase and his levels would not go up. Reed had pleasantly created that one over a very long time these last four days.

He was quite relieved that they'd gotten all the Theldesian deities they served to agree that they would be able to cast long creation-time spells without any rebounds or costs when finally cast - that once they'd reached the level needed, they would sit and wait until being cast, the costs already having been paid. The spell that would go up over the pen was one of those, and the most important one.

Rather than being cast by just him, it was going to be cast by each Eagle in the circle so was decreased in cost that way. It was a combination shield room and area purification. They'd combined in their intent for a purification field like they'd used against the Devourer and the magic shield and for it to be permanent during the duration of the battle. They'd not be able to fight if they had to hold it, but it would be the most effective barrier against the demihumans.

Overlaid with that went the shield the other half of the party had worked on. That one was the Kannagi and Druid based shield against physical attacks. None of them was under the delusion things wouldn't get through. The hope was it would hold well enough.

When the line of sacrifices had finally been taken off by the High Priest - also towards the battlefield where a dark altar and tall statue had been placed with the fire already burning hotly - every member of Reed's party dropped to their knees. The deacons and acolytes of Izanami put their head to the ground as well. Reed stepped out from the gate and turned to face it. Reed opened his prayer with the proper obeisances.

"Inari-no-Izanami, it is time for us to begin the battle you've set us to as my final exam. Inari-no-Izanagi, it is time for us to set the protections on all the spaces we need to defend before the enemies arrive. Please grant to us the initial blessings and bonuses we need based on your calculations and our discussions, particularly the ability to see in all spaces at once with full comprehension and capability for the duration of the battle plus the time to set the Adventurers of all the related regions straight and on the proper path again.

"Please, with God's help and the Caretaker's love for all living creatures, grant us the strength to last the entire battle and required resulting needed actions. Allow for our respawn points to be where we fell in the proper amount of time as calculated to be most beneficial to the battle. Grant the Caretaker the strength, power, and wisdom to properly code the change to those programmed requirements that should not be part of a real and living world.

"Grant Archmage Shiroe clarity, a quickened mind, and bear the burden of the cost of his remaining connected to all places on the planet at once during this battle. He will need to be able to not be dragged down by the weight of that burden, and will need the minds, arms, and strength of those who support him. Kami who listens to him, please be the strength he can lean on and call upon as the righteous wrath of even we who find this abuse of life to be an abomination.

"Hear the pleas of those who wish to live, have mercy upon them so that this world can move forward a living world and allow their desires to also strengthen us and the Caretaker, Archmage, and Guardian." Michael paused, bowed and said, "Please, Inari, warp space and allow us to defend all the People of the Land at one time."

There was a very physically felt warping of the space around them. At the same time, Reed felt himself being re-written in every cell and his mind being modified as well. He patiently relaxed into it, waiting for it to complete. When it was done, and the other bonuses applied, he rose to standing and blinked to settle the new way of seeing. The "knowing" took a bit to settle as well, and he waited patiently until his rewired brain caught up.

Then he stepped to his station and started the chant for the area purification, wrapping his intent and code spell into and around it, feeling the other Eagles at their posts doing the same. The Eagles who were walking the exterior were the eyes to make sure the rest of them were safe and uninterrupted. The chant finally completed and the code shield went up and down from each Eagle and around until there was a sphere around the pen and out a few feet so the defenders had safe space to retreat to if they needed to.

While the Eagles rested, BillyBoy coordinated the casting of the physical shell by the Twin Falls party. Reed was rather proud of them. They'd learned well even for using their own brand of magic. He noticed that his own Druids and Kannagi's were supplementing the underside of that shield to make sure there was a stronger defense for the people in the pen.

"Why are you doing this?" a man inside the pen had worked up the courage to come and ask Reed. "If you want to save us, why not just free us now, or before now?"

"Before now and they would have hunted you down in anger. They will be distracted now by the Adventurer's coming to fight against them." Reed answered, keeping his eyes on the spells, making sure they were settling correctly around the other pens of People of the Land around the world. "If we let you run now, Ccoa's followers will eat you and you'll be too scattered for us to defend you. After the deities are forced back into the Gate of Time and their followers purified, then we'll be able to let you go."

The man settled to that a bit, then asked again, "But why? All Adventurers worship the gods of the land."

"Well...," Reed almost refuted it then stopped. "At the moment it's convenient to, but that doesn't make it right, particularly to do what these have been doing. The Caretaker and father and mother gods of Theldesia have asked those of us who think it's wrong to kill only for selfish reasons to step in and prevent your deaths."

"What god do you serve?" the man asked, a bit confused.

"We serve under the Guardian, the High Priest of the Caretaker," Reed answered and waved the man off. It was time to move on to the next thing and not be distracted while doing it.

The spells finally meshed in all the locations they were protecting at this time. It seemed like spells were going to take a fraction longer to take effect. "We're slowed for spell results by about fifteen percent," he told his party. "Let's get a sword swing for effect."

As he expected the blade blurred as he watched. "It looks like it will be a consecutive attack in each space by a fraction as well. Expect to feel like you're going through molasses, and make sure you intend every stroke to complete through to the full end instead of stopping at your usual stroke time or you'll have left the last layers with too many HP, or your sword stuck in some poor sap in Timbuktu."

The initial permanent spells set and the base understanding gained, he returned to his post and waited. "Ah, what about the guards around the other locations?" H/R asked suddenly.

"Has one hit you yet?" Reed asked mildly.

"Well...no," H/R answered.

"Defend yourself if one does, but I left a large hole in the rules for Izanagi to work with."

"Dangerous," MasterChiefS7 said dryly, "although I suppose if it works in our favor today it's hard to complain strenuously."

Reed shook his head. "I personally think it's harder for us to calculate all the holes that we'll create. The Inari care enough to calculate it all right and not let us slip up. Like we don't like them to interfere where we need the control to move properly, we don't need to be walking all over the things that they need to be properly in control of." He didn't get any complaints.

-:-:-:-:-

Purrcy dragged Timberel and Meghan back to the War Room, as she had taken to thinking of it, when Reed began his prayer. The same as Reed and his men watched all spaces at once from where they stood, she did also, although differently. Things happened in Central Amerka before Michael began things in South Amerka, but she'd planned for it. The followers of the dark deities would begin sacrificing long enough before the actual battle to get whipped up into killing frenzies and to gain enough bonus points and additional levels and status effects just for the fighting.

Using the power from the prayers and wishes of the captives and from the party on defense of them, she cast the protective spells, strengthening spells, and buffs she had prepared for them earlier. It was interesting to watch from her perspective how and why God's power through faith worked. Where the sacrifices had prayed extra hard, they received a greater defense. Where they had little hope or little caring for assistance, their protection was lessened.

She'd done it a bit on purpose that way. Power received was returned as power spent. To spend the same amount on everyone wasn't fair to them nor to her, whom the excess power would have to come from to grant those with lesser caring the same protection as those with more. If she was weakened too much, then the proper defense and answers to later prayers wouldn't be sufficient.

She was glad that the spells of the defensive party were impartial. That was right, too, and perfectly understood by them. They fought for their country regardless of the man who didn't care if they did or not, or the woman that yelled in the streets horrible things about them because they deigned to care about her liberty, and they fought for the ones who they'd never meet who prayed for them every night because their efforts were kindly appreciated by one or two souls who would also never know them.

When the spells were cast, Purrcy moved the visual in each area to watch what the dark deities and their followers were doing. Because the sacrifices had begun, they were beginning to stir, but none of them were moving forward against the Adventurers yet. At the moment they were merely building up power and granting their followers power. So, not much different than what she and the other three had done.

She checked on the spies, her eyes narrowing to calculate just how much time she had before she would need to be back to open time in the one specific grove of sacrifice, although the High Priestess would warn her. Izanami was perfectly capable of using a tiny fraction of her computational power for that effort. When Purrcy was content, she pulled her assistants back out with her and returned to her tasks in the Temple of Creation.

-:-:-:-:-

The warning came and Purrcy returned to the War Room, solemn and focused. Like when she woke up first thing, she confirmed that things were still moving as expected in all areas she was watching over, sent a few blessings around to those who needed it (notably the children of Log Horizon who were trying hard without Shiroe in Akiba), then focused on the grove of sacrifice.

To watch was difficult and she of necessity was there nearly a full day's worth of Gate of Time time. Because everything she watched was in slow motion, she was able to carefully see when the shadow entered the grove at the side of the priest, each stroke in slow detail, and then the shadow leave again.

Because she was also grateful for the freedom of the two Adventurer spies (not to mention the People of the Land sacrifices that scattered to run and hide), she added her gratitude intending it to be a strengthening protection to whomever had been used as the sword, and to whomever had sent it. If it had been her later, she would receive that power then. If not, then she didn't mind terribly if someone else received her blessing.

She was quite certain after that, but once she'd left the War Room again, she went to Nyanta and replayed it. "Does the style of weaponry look familiar to you?" she asked him.

Nyanta's ear twitched, and he closed his eyes as he reviewed what he'd seen. "If it was one of my own party, I would say Akatsuki," he finally said. "It isn't an attack form I'm familiar with, however."

"Could it be one she might have learned since we've been gone, in her continuing quest to reach one-hundred Mysteries?" Purrcy asked.

"Mmm, purrhaps," he allowed. "Until mew can ask her, I don't think we can be certain."

Purrcy nodded. She would have the Department of Time review the most recent practices Akatsuki had performed along with the slow-motion attack. If they could see a parallel now, they would be able to more easily pick out the exact moment from the future battles that Purrcy had opened Time from to have Akatsuki affect the priest.

This chapter ends at T-(6.5 hours) prior to the beginning of the Sect war (see Chapter 223). The spies are taken from this time (see also Chapter 210) back through time to meet up with the North Army in Chapter 211. Purrcy pays attention to where the Intelligence detail ends up in their search for the broken spy and puts him in their time where they can find him. Inari isn't having those dangerous three walking forward in Time for anything.

The scolding of Timberel and Meghan because of the test comes one base-time day after Timberel asked Meghan if she had any clues to Purrcy's goddesshood in Chapter 222. That was enough time for Meghan to do her own investigations and agree to his plan to find out for themselves.