Dana sat in a lab that she had quickly established in Lorek, typing away at a terminal while chewing on her lip. “If I want a turret defense, I’ll need to have a wide array of damage types, so it could work on different types of monsters. That means an ammunition production plant and a massively large-scale transport operation. If I were to use the Digital Conversion system, the amount of energy that is needed…”

She input  several calculations, triggering a simulation. Soon, large red text appeared on the screen, reading ‘00:09:52.37’. Dana’s brow twitched when she heard that. “Expected irreparable damage to the world’s barrier in under ten minutes of constant firing.”

Dana immediately gave up on the idea of a turret defense plan, as the requirements were far too high for her to be able to create results in just one hundred days. If she had five years, she could work something out, but not like this.

“In that case, barriers.” Dana muttered. “The problem with barriers is their unreliability against memetic effects.” She still recalled the report of the monster that simply burst through any form of obstruction in its path. “Sarah told the boss that there’s a way to modify the Hyperlane Network to repel these creatures. And, she only gave us five days to both study the changes and apply them…”

There were a few things that Dana could infer from this. First, the change was not all that complicated, but just required the knowledge to achieve it. Secondly, changing one node in the network would impact the entire network. Otherwise, they would need far more time in order to implement the changes on a grand scale.

Going through her files, Dana found the blueprint of the Hyperlane Network. She had originally been the one to translate this power from Fragments of Acidia to the geometric system, so she was quite familiar with its layout.

First, she scanned through it, trying to see if there were any areas where it looked like it was incomplete, but that was obviously not the case. There might be evidence like that if she observed the original source code of the Hyperlane Network in the game, but that would require leaving Lorek’s flow of time.

Instead, Dana began to think of it along a different train of thought, theorizing what potential add-ons could enhance the barrier’s effect to make it not only restrain memetic monsters, but even completely eliminate them.

Tower sat within his office, looking at the report that had been sent to him. As one of the leaders of a civilized world, he had been warned of the impending crisis posed by the memetic entities. “This could be troublesome…” He muttered to himself, glancing over towards the door.

As he expected, the door quickly opened, two humanoid slime creatures entering. The first to speak was Atraxi, who was understandably worried. “This is pretty bad for us, right?” He asked, to which Tower nodded his head.

“Moreso than most. Even your planet is a living creature, so it is easy for memes to transfer among your kind.” Tower admitted calmly.

“Do you have an answer?” Pietra asked, Tower thinking about it for a long moment.

“If the Keeper does not make a move, I only have one reliable method that could avert such a disaster. That is, I bring both of our worlds into my dungeon instance to hide until the danger passes.”

“Would that work?” Atraxi asked in confusion. “Don’t you need to maintain a presence in this world, as well?”

Tower simply nodded his head. “My core must remain in the outside world. However, I can arrange a significant level of defense for it. So long as my core doesn’t fall, the dungeon will maintain integrity. If it does, there is already nothing that can be done.”

The two slime deities thought about it for a long moment, before Pietra spoke up. “There is something that I would like to try, with your permission.”

Tower looked over at Pietra, wondering what ideas he had. When the slime god started to explain things, Tower took on a more thoughtful appearance. “As you know, I am the God of Evolution. If I help you to forcibly evolve, would it increase your options?”

“That’s… it’s possible.” Tower admitted. “However, you must know that I am connected to ten thousand dungeons that remain among the other worlds. Evolving me would require evolving all of those dungeons as well. Are you sure that you can do it?”

“On my own? Absolutely not.” Pietra said with a faint chuckle. “However… Mother is also the Goddess of Dungeons. If I borrow that power from her, it may work.”

Tower hesitated, before offering a nod of his head. Receiving confirmation, Pietra focused, crouching down and placing one hand on the ground. Mother, I ask of you to lend me the domain of Dungeons, as well as a part of your power.

Although there was no direct answer, Pietra could feel access to the power being granted to him. With what seemed to be a smile on his face, Pietra channeled his divinity. There were two evolutions that he wanted to grant to Tower and all of the dungeons connected with him. The first was to increase the size of each instance that he could create, making it easier to house both planets.

The second evolution was the power to store a dungeon core within an instance. As long as this was possible, Tower would be able to hide with the rest of them.

The first evolution applied rather easily, and Pietra actually marveled at how simple the matter was. As for the second… this one felt as if there was a great obstruction. The instance was a mere part of the dungeon, so storing the entire body of the dungeon inside of it was impossible, similar to a snake swallowing its own body from the tail.

Pietra changed his approach, trying to make it so the only a small gate remained, the size and location of which could be determined by the core upon entry. This time, although there was difficulty, it did not feel as unachievable as before.

Tower, aware of what Pietra was doing, simply focused on relaxing to let the changes wash over him. With each change, he couldn’t immediately tell what was different, and so decided to wait for Pietra to finish.

Thelsa looked at the report that her shadows had sent to her, pursing her lips. Next to her, Petra seemed confused. “Couldn’t they just perform another evacuation to Fyor? No matter how many monsters try to invade, they won’t get anything here.”

“It’s not that easy.” Sora shook her head. “First, this time there is not a determined deadline for the monsters to be vanquished. On V-Day, they knew decades in advance, and knew that there would only be a few monsters to destroy in the void.”

“Now, the monsters seem almost endless, and we don’t even know if this is the only wave. Rather than evacuation, it would need to be a full-scale immigration. Such a thing isn’t really feasible in the long term, especially with Lorek and Spica handling the majority of the food production.”

Petra nodded her head in acknowledgement, albeit reluctantly. “Would we be able to fight them off with our shadows?”

“I don’t think so.” Thelsa answered. “If it were normal monsters, I would be willing to try. However, memetic monsters are another story. We don’t know what hazards could come from any of those monsters, and there could even be some that could transmit their effects through the shadows. Even without that possibility, the only safe way to act would be to send suicide soldiers.”

Maria grunted, clenching her fists. “You mean that there’s nothing that the shadows can do this time?”

“I didn’t say that.” Thelsa answered. “Let’s wait and see what the Keeper comes up with. If all else fails, we can only implement an all-out attack and hope for the best.”

While others were preparing for what the higher-ups of every world were calling the second round of the apocalypse, Ryone sat in her office, mentally reviewing the information that she had collected from the world’s mana core. She felt that she was on the verge of a breakthrough when it came to fifth tier magic.

However, she also knew that she couldn’t just go back to that core, as doing so might interfere with the readings from Chelsea’s equipment. Though… there was another alternative.

A smile tugged at Ryone’s lips, and she disappeared, emerging within the depths of Fyor and clutching a  blue stone in her hand. This stone had been collected long ago, and she knew it to be capable of connecting with Fyor’s mana core. However, she had placed a seal on such stones shortly after their discovery due to the knowledge that there were special monsters on the other side that were drawn to the minds of those connecting to the stones.

Ryone believed it to be a worthwhile risk, especially since she could always get a new incarnation if something happened to this one. It might take a couple of decades to regain her former power, but that was fine.

Closing her eyes, Ryone undid the seal on this stone, using her magic to enter it. As expected, the landscape on the other side appeared much like what she had seen from the world of the research group. However, there were also changes, these changes being in the form of monsters that roamed between the runic patterns, and giant veins of blue rocks that hovered through the air.

Ryone knew that these veins of rocks were the ‘other side’ of the gate that she had used to enter. She did not rashly approach any other such gate, knowing that doing so could lead to disastrous consequences for Dale if she managed to accidentally enter a floor with a very high level.

Instead, she focused purely on her own training, content to see that the nearby monsters avoided her. Although she was their ideal food source, they could sense the power emanating from her body. If James was able to survive here, then there is no reason that I can’t. Ryone thought to herself, knowing that she was currently far more powerful than the James that had appeared at that time.

As her mind delved further into the runic patterns, she began to make more and more connections, feeling that her previous theories were all starting to come together. Suddenly, things made sense. She had to restrain herself from attempting to cast a fifth-tier spell, worried that it would cause harm to the area.

Ryone focused on memorizing her insights, internalizing them within herself so that she could begin proper experimentation upon her return. I’m sure that Gerard would love to see this place. She thought to herself with a small grin.