Lilith’s time practicing writing Mana circuits was interrupted by Kali walking into the room.
“Lilith, Jerry is going to be coming back here in a few minutes with Levi, I’d like you to be the one to let him in this time.” Kali said, closing the door gently behind her.
“Sure.” Lilith replied. “How do I do that?”
“First, you need to learn how to tell when another Administrator is trying to enter your universe.” Kali said. “Unfortunately, there’s not a good way of practicing that, so we’re sort of going to have to learn it on the fly. I’ve let Jerry know you’re going to be doing it to learn, and he’s fine with it, so don’t worry if it takes you a bit.”
Lilith nodded, using spatial magic to put the slime she was working with into storage. “Where do I start?”
“So, you have to start by feeling the boundaries of our universe.” Kali said. “It’s hard to explain, but you basically have to read the Mana of our planes. It’s gonna take a little bit to find it, like it did when you first had to find your personal Mana, but once you’ve found it, feeling it out should start to come as naturally as feeling out your own Mana. Once you’ve found it, do a reading like you would any other Mana, and then we’ll be in business.”
“I should be looking externally for it, right?” Lilith asked. “Since it’s not my Mana?”
“Uh…yes, but actually no.” Kali replied. “It’s like…halfway? Obviously, the Mana isn’t ours and we can’t like…use it like we would our Mana, but it’s also connected to us through Worship, and we can check it even when we’re in other universes. So, I guess, look for something that’s connecting you to the universe?”
Found it. Mae said. Give me a moment to share the memory of the discovery. True to her word, a moment later Lilith received Mae’s memories of searching for the universe’s Mana, and finding it. And, once Lilith knew where to look, it was pretty trivial to find again.
“Good work, Mae. Now what?” Lilith asked.
“Look for the edge of the Mana, and then wait. Once Jerry tries to get in, you’ll feel a disturbance, and then you sort of…open the Mana at the spot. It’s kind of hard to explain, you might need to try a couple of times to get it. After you know the sensation, it should be pretty obvious, and you’ll be able to feel something wrong in the back of your mind whenever anyone tries. If someone tries to forcibly break in, it’ll be even more obvious, so don’t worry about missing it if someone’s invading.”
“Okay.” Lilith replied. “I suppose we’ll just wait here until Jerry’s ready?”
“Yeah. I’ll let him know you’ve found the Mana and are ready for him.”
A minute or two later, Lilith felt a sort of…pushing against the Mana of the planes, the sort of magical equivalent of resting your hand on a screen door and feeling someone on the other side push against it. She tugged at the Mana, trying to let Jerry in, but it didn’t yield like normal Mana would.
It took a couple minutes of poking and prodding, but eventually something gave, and the prodding stopped. A flood of Mana rushed in, and a moment later the mana of the universe returned to normal.
“He should be in the entryway of my old place.” Kali said. “There’s a default entry point for visitors, and that’s ours. We’re probably going to need to move it to somewhere more secure now that war is on the horizon, but we’ll do that later.”
Lilith gave her a nod, and the two of them left for the entryway. They exited the room Lilith had been practicing in, went down the hall, and opened a door at the end, revealing a small teleportation pad. They were, of course, in Lilith’s dungeon, and the dungeon was large enough that simply walking everywhere would simply take too long.
It was the sacrifice they had to make for the scale everything was on; the dungeon had only grown and grown over time as Nuwa added new facilities and improved existing ones, leading to the total size of it being more akin to a small city than a standard living space. You could walk everywhere if you really wanted to, but if you were even mildly pressed for time you basically had to use one of the teleporters.
Lilith mentally directed the teleporter to take them to the dungeon core room then activated it. There was a brief flash of light, and then they were in the teleporter room near the core, a small sign on the wall indicating that they were indeed in the right place.
They exited the teleporter room and walked through the dungeon core room to a small door in the back. This door connected them to what had once been Kali’s personal plane, and was now more or less unused space. Kali had moved into the dungeon with Lilith once the dungeon had been made, and over the past few years she had slowly moved everything important there for convenience’s sake.
At first, she had wanted to keep her stuff separate, as Lilith didn’t have permission to use everything yet, but as Lilith solved the outstanding problems on their planes and got more and more adept with her power, those restrictions were lifted. And, once there was no longer a reason Lilith couldn’t access something, there was no reason to keep them so far away. So, Kali just had Nuwa create some rooms that only certain people could access, and moved them all there.
She had not, apparently, moved the default entry point for their universe, but that was probably for the best. They would just need to move whatever stuff they Kali still had there into the dungeon, and then they could disconnect the old plane from the dungeon and fortify it. Lilith made a mental note to bring the subject up with Kali after Jerry had left, then opened the door and stepped through.
Once they were both in Kali’s old plane, there were only a few small rooms until they reached the entryway, where two unfamiliar women, one with dark blue hair and one with blonde hair, were waiting. Or…no, not two unfamiliar women, but, one unfamiliar woman and one eerily familiar woman. “Jerry?” Lilith ventured.
“That’s me.” The blonde replied, smiling. “Now that I’m fully committed to having the swarm take over my planes, I need to alter my image if I want to maximize my Worship gains. And, seeing as how a war is brewing, I do quite want to maximize those gains. I would have changed anyway, of course, but this just provided extra incentive.
“And, since Levia’s conversion went so swimmingly, I had a bunch of time while I was monitoring it that I couldn’t do much technical work in and figured I might as well use it. To pre-empt some questions, no, I’m not changing my name, and yes, I would prefer if you use female pronouns now. I don’t care about my gender, and would prefer to fully commit to the change.”
“Well, we’re not going to judge.” Kali said. “And I assume Levia is Levi’s new name?”
“Correct.” Jerry said. “I had Lia give her a soul that has particularly strong mental fortitude, then had Amelia erase the swarm’s conditioning. And, for good measure, I’ve disabled everything that would let her make more members of the swarm, though if you ever wish for that I can reenable those features.”
“I don’t think that’ll be necessary.” Lilith said. “We have no plans to let the swarm expand onto our planes any time soon.”
“That’s what I though.” Jerry replied, nodding. “Levia, would you like to introduce yourself?”
The other woman, Levia, nodded uncertainly. “Y-yes.” She said. “I am Levia, and I’m going to, u-um be h-helping protect you from n-now on.” She said shyly.
“It’s a pleasure, Levia.” Lilith said, flashing her a smile.
“U-um, likewise.” Levia said, then turned to Kali. “Um, Levi…I tried to eat you before, r-right? S-sorry.”
Kali froze for a moment, then burst out laughing. “Is that what you’re nervous over?” She asked. “I can’t exactly hold that against you; Levi was just acting on instinct, and even if he wasn’t, you’re not Levi, not exactly. You may have his memories, but the one in charge, your soul, is different. If that wasn’t the case, you wouldn’t be acting nearly so meek, believe me.”
“I suppose…” Levia said. “You, um, really don’t mind me? Levi was kind of a pain at times.”
“Are you planning to be a pain?” Kali asked.
“A-absolutely not!” Levia replied enthusiastically.
“Then we have no reason to mind you. Come here, we’ll show you how everything works around here, okay?”
Levia took a tentative step out from behind Jerry. “Alright.” She said. “Um…thank you.”
“It’s not a problem at all.” Kali laughed, waving a hand dismissively. “You’re doing us the favor by helping defend us.”
“I…don’t know how g-good at that I’ll be.” Levia admitted. “This body is quite unlike either I had before, I’ll need a lot of time to get to the point where I’m any stronger than you two.”
“That’s fine.” Kali said. “We’re not expecting you instantly be better than us, and I’m not sure we ever expect you to outstrip Lilith, what with…everything going on with her.”
“Ah, yes, speaking of,” Jerry interjected, “have you looked at any of the abilities you all possess, Lilith?”
Lilith shook her head. “No. I was waiting until I was fully sure of myself before attempting to do so.”
“As you are now, you should be even more capable than I am if it’s just looking.” Jerry said. “Please, give it a try, and report your findings when Amelia and I visit tomorrow.”
“I can do that, then.” Lilith replied. “Oh, um, Levia, are you familiar with the current situation?”
“Y-yes.” Levia said. “Jerry taught me about Administrators and H-Higher Beings, and about the eldritch. I…might have some questions, but I s-should have the basics down.”
“Excellent.” Lilith replied. “We’ll make sure to answer any questions you have, and there are plenty of ways we can help you train.”
“T-thank you.”
“Well, I suppose I’ll be leaving her in your capable hands, then.” Jerry said. “I’m going to go back home, probably spend a little time drafting a notice to send to other Administrators about my changes, and then get back to work. If you need me, give me a call, I’m always willing to help.”
With that, Jerry gave a little bow then teleported away, leaving Levia alone with Lilith and Kali. “Um…now what?” Levia asked. “Is there something you’d like me to do before we start?”
“Yes.” Kali said solemnly. Levia tensed up, and Kali smirked before continuing. “I’d like you to tell us if there’s anything we can do to make you more comfortable.”
Levia stared at Kali blankly for a moment. “Um…I don’t know…nothing, I guess?”
“You don’t sound very sure.” Kali replied. “I’m going to give you one more chance before I read your mind and find out what you actually want.”
“Okay, then, um, is there somewhere with a lot of water? Like…a lake or something that might have fit Levi? I don’t intend to live there or anything, but I’d like to be able to swim there often.”
“There are some outside the dungeon, but that’s pretty inconvenient so I’ll just make one inside the dungeon for you. Maybe even make a whole park area surrounding it so that the kids would have somewhere to play…and perhaps even begin work on a faux city of sorts in case people from outside our planes want to stay for a while…”
“T-that’s fine, I can just go visit the ones outside! That’s far too much work for the convenience that this would be!” Levia said quickly.
“Too late, I’ve already made the lake and park, the city can come later.” Lilith said. “I’ll show you where while we’re giving you the tour.”
“What? When? I didn’t feel a thing from you!” Levia said. “Not to brag, but Levi was even able to tell when Jerry did things, and that skill translated to me! Did you use some sort of eldritch ability?”
Lilith was about to say no, but realized that, technically, she had. “Sort of? One of my other selves did it. She’s the dungeon around these parts, and her existence means we can make a lot of big changes for relatively little expenditure. It’s quite handy, really.”
“She’s a dungeon? But those aren’t sentient at all. At least, not where…” Levia trailed off, then shook her head. “I suppose I shouldn’t apply the common sense I know to this universe.” She said. “If you say dungeons are sentient, then I suppose they are.”
“Yeah, I made them a little differently here.” Kali confirmed. “Though, admittedly it was mostly for Lilith’s benefit. Still, I’m happy to say that I’ve seen good results from it, so it was all worth it.”
“I…see.” Levia said. “And, um…where should I live? I’m fine with wherever.”
Kali blinked in surprise. “I was just assuming you’d live in the dungeon like most people who are involved with all this.” She said. “But if you want to live somewhere else, we can totally arrange that for you, we’ll just need to teach you how to get here.”
“Um…the dungeon is fine.” Levia replied. “I just thought it wouldn’t be fair to impose myself upon you, so…whatever is easiest for you.”
“The dungeon it is.” Kali said firmly. “Would you prefer to be closer to everyone else or to live in this makeshift town Lilith is setting up? It’ll probably be lonelier in the town, but you’ll also have a bit more privacy and won’t have to worry about the kids getting in your way.”
Levia thought on that for a moment. “I think I would like to live in the town for now.” She said. “It’s not that I would be annoyed by your presence or by the kids, I rather like kids, but…I’d like to get to know everyone first before I move in closer.”
“What would you like us to tell the kids about you?” Lilith asked. “If they know you’re here, they’re bound to come visit once or twice, and I know that could be awkward, especially given your history with them.”
“My…history with them?” Levia said, frowning. “I don’t think I’ve met any children from this universe.”
“Oh. It’s a long story, and we’ll tell you the full thing later, but the short version is that they used to be other people, who were trying to turn me into a child and sort of scramble my memories so they could raise me as they wished. I turned it back on them, and am raising them now. Levi fought with one of them briefly, and while I don’t think she remembers it yet, she will eventually.”
Levia’s frown grew deeper. “Why go to that much effort? Deep mind control magic would be easier; Amelia and the swarm are proof of that.”
“They’re not as talented as Amelia.” Kali replied. “They didn’t have the capability to alter someone’s base mental state with just magic, so they settled for doing it the ‘old-fashioned’ way: breaking down someone’s personality so it could be rebuilt from the ground up. Then, as that person’s old experiences trickled in very, very slowly, they would all be recontextualized with their new personality and eventually the old person would be essentially dead and gone. It’s an excruciatingly slow process, but it does work.”
“That makes a bit more sense, I suppose.” Levia said. “But, back to the original question, tell them whatever you want about me; I’d be happy to talk with them or whatever they want.”
“We’ll do that, then.” Lilith said, giving her a nod. “Now, it’s almost time to give you the grand tour, but first, would you like something to eat? And tell the truth, or we’ll read your mind and force it out of you; you’re one of us now, and we’re going to treat you just like we treat everyone else who lives here.”
“And…how do you treat them?” Levia asked hesitantly.
“We treat them as well as we possibly can. Free room and board, the world’s entertainment at your fingertips, the best training facilities this universe has to offer…anything you want just so long as it’s not something that would require a lot of Worship.”
“But, I –”
“You don’t have any room for complaint.” Kali said firmly. “We’re going to treat you like royalty, and you’re going to like it. You’re providing a valuable service to us, and we can’t let that go unrewarded.”
Levia, growing ever more flustered, shook her head. “But Lilith’s stronger–”
“Who said it was about protecting us?” Kali asked. “That’s a huge plus, yes, but there are a ton of other things you’ll be accidentally helping us with just in the process of trying to get stronger.”
“It’s best not to resist.” Lilith said, an amused smile rising to her lips. “We’re not going to budge on this, okay? Now, are you hungry?”
“…Yes.” Levia said, hanging her head. “Um…do you have something with fish?”
“That’s the spirit!” Kali said encouragingly. “And if you can think of it, we either have it or can make it trivially. Now…let’s eat!”
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Levia sure is cute. I wonder what kind of girls she likes?
My guess would be “girls”