As Tsubaki left the office where she had been interrogating the minister, there was a grim expression on her face. As she had feared, there was a mind alteration process involved when it came to the hosts of the thought bugs. Fortunately, it wasn’t complete brainwashing, but it was still a problem.

Lady Accalia, I presume that you witnessed all of that? She asked internally. She initially wanted to communicate with the Keeper directly, but it seemed that her covenant not only forbid her from returning to his side, but also direct communication.

I did… how do you plan to take care of it? When Accalia asked that, Tsubaki closed her eyes, letting herself blend in to the surroundings.

Although the thought bugs did not brainwash their hosts into being their followers, they altered their memories. Any memory related to the bugs themselves would shift, leaving them unaware of any involvement on the part of these creatures. When she had purged the bug from the minister, he nearly went into a panic, shouting about who she was and how she had managed to get into his office.

The reason behind this situation, as far as Tsubaki could tell, was because there were a limited number of thought bugs living within the city. Thus, although the hosts might get promoted, the bugs themselves would maintain their previous roles. A minister would always be a minister, and the president would always be the president.

On that note… Tsubaki strongly suspected that the bug that they had wanted to infect the Keeper with was none other than the president, as it would put that bug in the highest seat of power possible. However, there was no method to directly confirm this, as questioning the host was pointless.

I’ll target all of the ministers first, and then the president, if he is still infected with his. However, I’ll have to be faster than this. I can’t waste time convincing each minister about what had happened and having them pretend to still be infected.

“Five thousand, right?” She muttered to herself, before closing her eyes. Apologize to my Keeper on my behalf, I believe I will need to borrow a portion of his energy in order to execute this mission.

…What are you planning to do?

I have not forgotten my nature, Lady Accalia. Tsubaki let out a long sigh, opening her eyes and moving into a nearby alley. I am quite the Restless Fox.

As she said that dozens of specks of light began to break off from her body, turning into silver spheres that illuminated the alley. She had to use her divine domain to mask the entrance of the alley, preventing anyone from noticing what was going on within.

You know… I have a really hard time taking you seriously when you say stuff like that. Accalia responded, her voice cracking up slightly in amusement. Tsubaki’s brow twitched, once again regretting the title that the system had given her legend.

Unfortunately, there was no helping it. As such, she focused, conjuring more and more of her avatars. It was unreasonable to attempt to carry out all five thousand attacks at once. However… five hundred attacks was another matter.

Tsubaki could feel the pull on her divinity from creating so many clones of herself, and borrowed power from her connection with the Keeper in order to fulfill her objective. Once one clone was created, it took on a different appearance and walked out of the alley.

Tsubaki’s brow knit tightly as she focused, increasing her numbers one by one. Once the last of the five hundred clones were created, she let out a deep sigh, closing her eyes and falling back against the nearby wall. Splitting her energy so many times was taxing, to say the least. If not for all of the training that she had done over the years, it was unlikely that she would have been able to perform such a feat.

Petra was pacing back and forth within the shadow world, Thelsa watching her with a bemused smile. “They said that they were going to handle this personally, didn’t they?”

Petra nodded her head at Thelsa’s words, but still seemed restless. “I know, but I can’t help it. You remember the last time the Greater Pantheon carried out a direct purge?”

Thelsa tilted her head, briefly recalling. “If I remember right… it was the trafficking trade that Aurivy mobilized her church for?”

“Right?!” Petra nodded quickly. “The Greater Pantheon doesn’t tend to do ‘quiet’. I’m just worried that they’re going to march an army into the city and stir up a giant storm.”

Thelsa’s smile turned more and more amused as she listened to Petra’s concerns. “Though, for all we know, they could have been doing quite a lot behind the scenes that we never noticed. For now, I think it’s best if we just see what happens. If there is anything that needs cleaning up afterwards, it won’t be too much for us to handle.”

“That’s right.” Sora nodded her head from nearby. “In the worst case scenario, we’ll just grab the gate and skip the sixty-third floor. It wouldn’t be the first time that we did something like that.”

“I know…” Petra sighed, walking over to a chair and collapsing against it, her wings wrapping around her shoulders. “But this is a proper, advanced civilization. It might not be on the scale of the Metong, but they are still a massive group. It would be too much of a loss if we weren’t able to make peaceful contact with them. Besides, we’re not going to find civilized alien races outside of Fyor anymore… we need to make this count.”

As they were talking, the door of the room opened, the burly form of Maria walking in. Petra’s head shot up to look at her. “Did you discover anything?” Petra asked, anxiously.

Maria simply chuckled, moving to sit next to the small demoness. “Yeah. A certain figure was seen on the sixty-second floor, making her way to the gate.”

“Certain figure… did they send Lifre?” Petra asked in confusion, though Maria shook her head.

“No… they sent the fox.” When Maria announced that, not only Petra, but even Sora and Thelsa showed expressions of surprise on their faces.

“They sent Tsubaki?” Petra asked anxiously. “Either this was worse than we thought, or they’re going full scorched earth… I really hope it’s the former.”

Sora couldn’t help but let out another laugh. “It’s not that bad. Remember, she was originally a ninja, right? Stealth missions are kind of her forte.”

Petra muttered mutinously under her breath. “Yeah, it’s not like she earned the title Ancestor Fox by single-handedly stopping two giant armies from clashing, appearing as the first disciple of death…”

Sora’s laugh abruptly halted, and she cleared her throat. “Okay… so she also knows how to be showy. But she’s still a ninja at heart, right?”

Petra took a deep breath, trying her best to calm herself down. “Maybe… I’m probably just over thinking things. Though, I suppose that it would have blown up a lot more if they sent Lifre. She can’t stay out of trouble if her life depended on it.”

“What if they sent Dana, though?” Thelsa asked, amused by the thought of it. “I’d say that Tsubaki was probably the best choice.”

Petra felt a shiver run down her spine at the idea of sending Dana. Dana had far less in the way of public shows of strength since her appointment to the Keeper’s service. However, one of her first true battle records was slaying someone on the brink of ascending to godhood. And then there was the Stone Father incident, where she sent an entire army of shadow monsters to intimidate a dwarven race. Or how she had been the one to personally end the invasion of V-Day by slaughtering a Void God that others found to be unkillable.

“Okay… I see your point. Maybe Tsubaki was the best choice for this. How will we know when it’s done?” Petra asked, looking around at the others for any ideas.

“I asked Aurivy to keep me up to date.” Maria answered with a playful grin. “Said that we’ll be wanting to establish proper relations once it’s all cleared up. She seemed to like the idea, so I bet we’ll get news before too long.”

Petra let out a relieved sigh when she heard that. Though, in reality, she wasn’t expecting it to be done that fast. Although Tsubaki was known to be incredibly efficient with her work, the size of the sixty-third floor of Fyor was simply too large, with the possible targets spread out over its entire surface. At an optimistic guess, she thought that it would take at least six months before the job was done.

As she was thinking about that, Maria suddenly blinked. “Huh…?”

Petra looked over at her in confusion, as did the other two. “Ah, sorry, Aurivy just contacted me. She said that we can start preparing the second diplomatic group.”

“Already?” Petra’s eyes went wide, before she calmed herself down. “Does she mean like, reserve them in advance so that they’re ready to go on short notice?”

“No… no, she said it will probably be taken care of by the time that everyone is chosen and assembled.” Even Maria herself seemed to be confused by the information that she was reporting to the others.

Suddenly, Petra seemed anxious all over again, as if expecting to return to the sixty-third floor and finding a war-torn landscape.

Within her wooden house on Sanctum, Aurivy couldn’t help but snicker to herself. The noise caught the attention of Julia, who was sitting across from her as they played a game of cards. “I know that look. You’re up to divine mischief, aren’t you?”

“What? Me?” Aurivy asked innocently. “Well, not this time. I’m just enjoying seeing some proper reactions to our favorite restless fox.” She said, playing one of the cards in her hand.

Julia wasn’t aware of Tsubaki’s legend, so she wasn’t sure what Aurivy meant. “Eavesdropping on others, then?”

“I can’t really help it when they ask me to keep them informed.” Aurivy stuck her tongue out playfully. “How has your orchard been coming, lately?”

Julia paused, a sly smile on her face as she looked over her own cards. “I’ve been experimenting with a new type of tree, but I don’t want to make many of them yet. I’d rather wait until we’re done moving.”

“Mov--” Aurivy’s eyes went wide in surprise, almost dropping the cards in her hand. “You mean you want to move to Olympus?”

Julia offered a small nod. “Now that you said that they’re setting up a proper garden, there’s no reason not to. It just took me a while to prepare all of my trees. I don’t want them to spread or leech the energy from Sanctum after we leave.”

Aurivy had a silly grin plastered on her face when she heard that. “Obviously! And don’t worry, you’ll still be able to come here any time you want. The incantation is still in place, after all. Oh, I’ll need to talk to Tubrock about making some adjustments for us.”

Julia couldn’t help but let out a chuckle, assuming that Aurivy’s reaction was quite similar to that of the people that she had been previously watching.