Local Dragon Ruins History 8 (Waifu Catalog, Nasu!Mythology)
I had finally acquired a taste for the burdens of legislative and civil maintenance after over a decade of reorganizing the empire's affairs.
I started small by resolving issues within the Valentia family, which was large and wealthy enough to be a clan on its own.
Dealing with Fayne's family was an anti-climatic affair since they were, in spite of my newest wife's treatment, a very loyal and productive family. All it took was some actual conversation to correct their behavior. Their misapprehension of Fayne being a 'cursed child' that would herald the downfall of their family (I swear, humans come up with the strangest shit) was quickly resolved after Sothis informed them that they were simply insanely lucky enough to have her blood blessing passed down consecutively without fail for so long.
It would still take a few more years until they properly reconciled since it didn't change the fact that most of her family didn't give Fayne any love, but all parties were quick to agree on renouncing any grievances so that they can move past this.
After that I moved on to hear the thoughts and concerns of other 'clans', families that numbered hundreds if not over a thousand people that shared one to three surnames between all of them.
I could safely say that everyone was loyal to the ideals and vision of the future that Sothis and I sought, that most of them believed that we were wonderful gods… but it was obvious that there were discrepancies in what they thought was 'right' through some typical human 'interpretation' of our will.
Such was the weakness of not having a strong, centralized religious/political institution in place to educate and inform the masses of what we're trying to achieve.
It took a few years in order to answer and clarify a very long list of things that the people needed to know across the entire empire. After doing so I was very tempted to fast-forward through the tech-tree in order to create radios and start an empire-wide radio show. It would be a weekly show, kinda like Sunday service, only with us delivering some wisdom and answering any question that had been sent to us on live radio.
But I relented because we had to do this the correct way. We can't just invent everything for them or else they'll grow stagnant and dependent on us. All we could do was guide and direct them towards productive research avenues through the right suggestions, questions and hints when they're stuck.
Aside from managing national matters I managed to get a start on my plans for an elite team that would defend the realm from our enemies. The timing could have been worse considering that the Giants have formed an alliance with several species of Phantasmal Species' in what would be modern Russia.
Sothis discovered that they had a grudge against us after we kicked them out of Europe when they wouldn't agree to stop eating humans. We had hunted down and destroyed a good part of their population here, forcing the rest to either leave or live in harmony with humans (and abide by our laws).
It looks like they were up for revenge but wouldn't actually attack our empire until we were sufficiently distracted. We could just annihilate them, however, there were consequences for doing so in areas currently claimed by a multitude of divine spirits and other beings.
Namely, we would find it very difficult to get the cooperation of the stronger divine spirits if we appeared too aggressive in our ways, which will make things more complicated during the fight against Sefar. I would rather not start out as a distrusted party during a time when all the gods should be uniting against a common threat. For all I know they could try backstabbing me in the chaos of the fight, while they wouldn't succeed it would still be rather troublesome.
More importantly, by going straight with the Exterminatus option we would be depriving our people the chance to prove themselves capable in defending their own lands. Striking a balance so that we would affirm the belief that "humans can be capable without the gods, but together we can do so much more" is difficult but it must be done so that we can all thrive without making the same mistakes of other Earths in the multiverse.
Luckily, we had a plan to bait them into attacking our empire before they could forge stronger alliances, allowing the team of elite fighters to deal with them and proving their effectiveness as a defence force… all while I would be taking action to increase our own power and reach without our future foes realizing it.
It's time for us gods to take another vacation. This time we'll make sure the news gets out to our enemies. Finally making the trip to the world we unlocked but held back on visiting years ago would be a great way to gain more allies (through capture and diplomacy) and power (credits and local specialty resources).
"I will miss you."
"It won't be for long. A month is only a short time in the grand scheme of things."
"Are you saying you won't miss me?"
"I would never say that. I wish I could bring you along with me, however…"
Fayne and I had been inseparable for the past few days in order to stockpile enough 'contact points' to last for a month. To that end we even used the Hyperbolic Time Chamber on one of those days to soften the impact of our separation. Sothis and Demeter was part of our inter-dimensional journey like before, so I had plenty of opportunity to spend quality time with them, but as Fayne needed to hold down the fort and play the starring role in defeating the inevitable invading forces I was insistent on spending as much time with her as possible.
The past me wouldn't have even imagined entering any sort of relationship with a female that wasn't 'worth any credits', but meeting Fayne had taught me that I could love others beyond the 'waifus' I was supposed to capture and take responsibility for, our encounter had changed me for the better and for that I would always treasure her.
The case of Demeter's passionate (and mildly obsessive) love for me may have been beneficial to all of us but her indulgent personality wasn't doing me any favors in encouraging me to improve myself. Despite her 'self-upgrade modules' and directives constantly pushing her to advance her body's technology it was clear that love had blinded her to the need for me to do the same. From what I've gathered, she would prefer to get strong enough to protect me rather than risk my life… while it touched my heart, getting a similar 'Persephone' treatment from her was worrying to me.
Sothis, on the other hand, would guide and advise me through either gentle encouragement, provocations or with subtle opportunism. She would rather have me learn my lessons by myself where possible, or cheat (using future knowledge) by making sure I'm in a position to learn them and encourage me in one direction or another. I suppose that is why she was so quick to approve my plans with Fayne all those years ago as she opened my eyes to my own shortcomings and the reality of my actions.
After saying my goodbyes and leaving everything of import in Fayne's trustworthy hands, I met up with Sothis and Demeter at our departure point, where Sothis was currently blasting herself with the Clothes Beam until she finally settled on a cute school uniform.
"Aww, you're adorable."
"Of course I am! Now it's your turn, any preference?"
"I leave the matter of modern human fashion in your hands."
Demeter didn't quite seem to 'get' 21st century A.D. human fashion and allowed Sothis to select her clothes after disassembling her normal wear into divine nanites that returned into her body.
Sothis shot her with a clothes beam that slightly modified Demeter's hairstyle and gave her a pair of glasses. My harvest goddess certainly did have that 'married housewife' look with the white sweater long-skirt combo.
"Sothis, shoes please." I reminded her after noting the absence of footwear on both of them.
My goddess of time made a pinched expression, showing her clear distaste for footwear, "But I don't like shoes. It's coarse and rough and stuffy and it gets me sweaty down there."
"We are trying to at least look non-threatening and not too out of place. Even if we are obviously gods we want it to seem like we're just going about 'ordinary' business, so please, put on some shoes."
Sothis pouted childishly but obeyed regardless of how she felt about it, after that, she turned the clothes beam on me and gave me a… decidedly cheap looking outfit.
"My memories tell me that this is Uniqlo grade."
"Well then you're going to fit right in to Japan just fine!"
She's cute when she's being bratty too.
"If we even land there…" I personally gave it a 25% chance to land somewhere in Japan. There were only so many places of significance in that world considering the fact that the main characters were high school students.
"There is a high degree of uncertainty in where and when we would arrive. Proceeding with halting time's flow immediately upon arrival is the optimum way to regain our bearings." Demeter continued on and reshaped her scythe into an ordinary looking purse.
"Yes, of course, who even cares about interacting with the world normally anymore when you can just stop time." Sothis muttered sarcastically.
"It's a strategic use of our capabilities. At least we're not using stopped time to cook pancakes or something."
That would be too frivolous of a use of such abilities, even for me, the man who would use conceptual power to reinforce my sand castles.
Okay, that was a lie.
The pair wrapped their arms around me and I initiated my Dragon Break power, focusing on the new world and pulling myself towards it.
The familiar sensation of time being frozen around us was an indication of our arrival.
We were in a beautiful place where the streets itself was paved with gold and countless jewels.
"Oh, we're in Heaven."
I held out the stamp and dropped it into Sothis's waiting hands, "Lucky you~ I'll try not to take too long. I can only halt the flow of time for about a quarter of my usual limit."
That issue wasn't unexpected. Due to the disconnected nature of the many realms in the Highschool DXD cosmology and the sheer scale of the Dimension Gap we had guessed that Sothis would find more difficulty in safely manipulating the flow of time everywhere.
We had come out of all sorts of plans and immediate goals depending on where we would arrive in. If we arrived in the Underworld we would probably have went straight to Misla Bael and 'healed' her of the convenient coma disease before moving on to grabbing Ingvild Leviathan. If it were Europe then we would have gone straight after Valerie Tepes like every single fan fiction character with meta-knowledge would do. Considering that the world was set at Intensity Level 8 and took place after the events of Volume 12, she would be our priority target since our recruitment window would be hilariously short.
As we arrived in heaven, Sothis would go straight for Gabriel to get that sweet 160 credits. I would be doing a more productive task by helping Demeter get as much information as we can from the layout of heaven for when we needed to build our own afterlife or soul prison.
Demeter was already using her scanners to gather information, I joined her by linking up our minds using telepathy and using my variation of supernatural wisdom augmented analysis magic to share what information I can.
"This shares some similarities to Hades's realm, though the information gathered will be better suited for a different type of afterlife…"
"What kind of people are you hoping to admit? Assuming you want to get some souls from returning to the swirl of the root when we relocate our universe."
"I have no real preference, though those chosen by us gods and any future demi-god children would be preferable… Ares wants all the warriors despite no one having proven their worth in a true war."
"Is the project called Elysium?"
"It is! I see, so our future counterparts have created it after all!"
"Other mythologies have similar afterlives as well. We should pay a visit to the Norse and check out Valhalla."
Demeter and I continued conversing for a few minutes until Sothis returned looking triumphant.
"Got her! Had to sneak through several levels of heaven but I got her!"
Obviously, there was only one person even worth going after in Heaven.
"Just out of curiosity, where did you stamp her again?"
"Back of the neck. I know you would want first dibs on all the places that matter."
The mere idea of taking the Seraph Gabriel all for myself excited me. Once I have her properly convinced I'll take a page off Diodora and corrupt some nuns by grabbing Gabriel's female Brave Saints as well.
"You know me so well."
Using the last few minutes of stopped time, we worked together to open a gateway to this dimension's Earth and ended up re-emerging in what seems to be London.
Retreating to a place with less people, Sothis released her grasp on time and held out her arms towards me. I picked her up and carried her on my back, spoiling her since she spent a significant amount of energy back there.
"I'm down to 80%, it's not bad but don't expect me to stop time for more than a couple of seconds every half a minute… and maybe 30 or so Divine Pulses a day. It'll take me a week to get all that power back." Sothis informed me.
"Or you could just eat a Senzu Bean." Demeter cheerfully held out one of the best recovery items in the universe for Sothis.
Said goddess pouted and started complaining, "You're not supposed to remind me about that! I'm trying to get him to rely less on time stops and more of his brain."
"Stopping time is hardly a brain dead strategy. You're the one using it, after all." I retorted in a way that ensured she couldn't deny it without calling herself stupid.
"Ah, whatever! Come on, head in that direction. There's a girl on your list that way."
Huh, go figure. I wondered who it was. I had little knowledge on who could be in London except for Le Fay Pendragon.
There were other non-Japanese sounding names on the Waifu Catalogue that I hadn't been familiar with since all the humans that made up my memory had little knowledge on anything Shin Highschool DXD related, as it apparently contained even more bullshit powerups and random harem members for no reason. The only ones I had decent knowledge of was Ingvild Leviathan and Nyx since they were in the first volume.
We ended up entering an empty cafe occupied by a young girl with reddish-brown hair. There was something about her that was stirring my [Authority of Light].
"Huh? How odd. I am quite confident in my barrier magic, at the very least, even a god should require a moment to get past them but you three walked through it as if it wasn't even there. If you come any closer I will make you mine- hey, wait, why are you clenching your fist!? What's with that holy power?!"
"God Blow!"
Sothis got off my back and punched the girl-! No wait, she punched something out of the girl!
A dark ooze was ousted out of her in an instant!
"NUU, NNUUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
It was another god, a dark god, a blazing light erupted from the palm of my hand eager to vanquish the field that was possessing the girl.
"-Wait please! We came here to gather valuable research material, did we not?" Demeter placed her hand upon my shoulder and calmed me down.
Immediately afterwards, she transformed her purse into… a vacuum cleaner? She promptly used it to seal the evil god within herself using a modified Evil Containment Wave!
"Aka Manah!? T-that deceitful Angra Mainyu. Why, I never-!" The girl was about to start going on a rant when Sothis suddenly stopped time again.
Realizing she was giving me an opening, I quickly moved forward and bit the girl's neck, swallowed her blood and then used [Absolute Restoration] to fix her body and blood flow back to its original state before returning to my previous position.
This capturing method was given through my [Treasure Hoard] perk that lets me capture a girl in the span of 5 minutes if I went through all the steps. I released my hold on my Dragon Aura which swiftly caught the girl's attention.
"My apologies for interrupting but my wife punched what seems to be an evil ghost god out of you and I think we would all feel better if we took the time to explain some things."
The girl took a more considerate look at me and blushed in record time. "Right, yes, an excellent idea. Come, take a seat, this place has been emptied after I had my… servants... leave… oh my god…!"
She started banging her head with a magic book she was reading. After awhile, she finally calmed down and introduced herself, "Sorry about that. Meredith Ordinton, please to meet you all, or it would be if I hadn't just remembered that I had my sense of right and wrong screwed up by an evil god and mind controlled a good amount of the supernatural side of Britain while I was possessed over the past half year."
Meredith looked like she had just gotten herself a death sentence… which she… kinda just did. Well, on the bright side, our recruitment pitch is going to be a lot easier.
"It's nice to meet you too Meredith. I am called Nikaias, a god of light and victory from another dimension. We have come to this world in search of talented individuals to defeat a civilization destroying alien invaders from another universe. My wife led me to this place saying that one such individual could be found in this direction so here we are."
She didn't seem like she completely believed me on the 'another world' part but seemed to accept us being god's easy enough.
"If you are quite done then I'll introduce myself. You may call me Sothis, goddess of time and creation."
Meredith smiled at the one that removed Aka Manah and asked,"Any relation to the goddess Sopdet?"
Sothis looked towards me, and I added, "It's an Egyptian goddess, personification of the star Sirius."
"Curious, I name one of my personal spells after that very star." Sothis hummed and turned back her gaze towards the girl, then to Demeter, "No, completely unrelated. Your turn."
"I'm Demeter, nice to meet you!"
"Lady Demeter? But you look… different from how Lord Hades has described you."
"Ah, I am eager to meet my counterpart. Oooh! Her hair is lighter than mine."
"Demeter, it's kinda rude to scan another mortal's brain immediately."
I scolded her lightly. Meredith gave Demeter a wary look but made no accusations out of respect.
"Oh dear. My apologies. Here, have a grimoire made by one of our Atlantean mages."
"Are we giving the sign on bonus already? Well, this is one that I have personally written."
Sothis joined Demeter in gifting her a book on magic.
Meredith quickly snatched the two books and opened them both, flipping through the pages like a magic obsessed sorceress. "This uses Ancient Greek but the principles are entirely different! And this, this is a whole new school of magic by itself, it bears some resemblance to both runes and glyphs but an entire book dedicated to battlefield magic…! Is it alright if I apply for asylum in your world?!"
After reading the first few pages she became completely convinced we came from different worlds. To tell the difference between how our spells work at a few glances… She's probably a prodigy.
"Of course, we would be happy to help you."
After talking for a bit longer, I noticed that the room seemed to be getting a bit darker and readied myself for an attack.
"Such a shame that you would renegade on our agreement so soon, Meredith, we very much enjoyed working with you."
Ooooh, spooky skeleton. The aura reminded me a little of the first dragon I fought… I see, so this must be Hades.
"I enjoyed my time as well, Lord Hades. I do appreciate the help you and Lady Nyx has given me in controlling my Sacred Gear, and would have been happy to show my appreciation by assisting you… but the actions you have influenced me to do towards my own countrymen is beyond the pale and I cannot abide by it."
"My subordinate merely removed your human propensity to second guess yourself." Another figure formed in the room out of an aura of darkness, it took a humanoid form. If Aka Manah was this guy's subordinate then… ah, Angra Mainyu.
"Only if you equated induced amorality with freedom of choice, honestly, I may have considered getting back at the British Royal Family but I wouldn't have actually gone through with such evil, not without your influence at least."
"Ahaha, well, we figured as much." One of my targets appeared through the corridor of darkness, Nyx laughed lightly and smiled teasingly, "Regardless of what you feel, however, we can't let you go now when you've learnt too much about our plans. The same goes for your new friends as well."
I discreetly purchased the Zenryoku Zenkai perk using the credits I got from capturing Meredith Ordinton and released my hold over my power.
"Oh wonderful. Not even half an hour into this world and we already found ourselves our warm-up."
I activated [Absolute Space] within the confines of the four walls and generated a pseudo-space that looked like an incredibly stretched version of the cafe that was about the size of a large continent. This application of my power was very limited and could only work by expanding a small confined area so I couldn't just banish a gigantic opponent into another dimension, but it was useful in the event that I had to fight small-sized opponents that ambushed me in my own home.
"An intriguing variant of pseudo-space. Perhaps we may come to an agreement instead?"
Hades released his own aura to overpower my own, but Sothis quickly powered up to counter his own using just about the same amount of power. I could tell that she was only using a fraction of her power so I felt confident in matching her up against Hades.
Demeter could probably take Angra Mainyu easily since she was already analyzing his subordinate god and could probably neutralize some aspects of his power through that.
"Sorry, but you kinda lost any credibility when you were about to kill a teenage girl."
I 'apologized' and countered by immediately blasting Nyx in the face with a Ki Blast, calling dibs on my capture target and announcing the start of the divine brawl.