When Lia got home, she found Connie wearing an uncharacteristically stormy expression.

  “Is everything alright?” Amelia asked, walking over to Connie. “You look angry.”

  “Ah, you three, good.” Connie said, looking up at them. “I’m angry, yes, but only at the audacity of the other gods. Theoretically speaking, this is probably a net gain for us.”

  “What do you mean?” Lia asked, sitting down next to Connie. “What’s going on?”

  Connie took a deep breath. “Okay, you know how there’s been that whole awkward information gag thing going on? They did something to break it. Specifically, they chose to study the minds of Fae’s parents while they’re in their original bodies. Allowing them to come here so early was just to keep the family together, and since the gods against us are trying to gain an advantage out of it, those of us in the know are now allowed to tell you everything. Well, outside of giving you exact mechanical details of what they’re doing, but that’s not the important bit.”

  Rose raised an eyebrow. “Is this information so important to them that they’re willing to give up the element of surprise?”

  “Apparently.” Connie snorted. “It’s a gamble, and a risky one at that. They’re banking on being able to use this data to greatly strengthen their wards against conversion’s mental changes, at least when it comes to the carryover to people’s real bodies. Personally, as someone who’s much more familiar with the process than they are, I think it’s a fool’s errand.

  “It’s not that I think they’ll fail entirely, in fact I’m positive they’ll be able to piece countermeasures together. That being said…if they want to actually provide a meaningful ward for all Players, they’re going to have to shill out a lot of Worship, probably an amount that they simply don’t have. In return, they’ve entirely burnt bridges with people like Heather and allowed me to give you advanced warning.”

  “Yeah, I think they’ll find my work tougher to crack than they hoped.” Amelia said pridefully. “They’ve already tacitly admitted that I’m better at systems than they are, seeing as how they’re using mine for whatever this thing is, and I worked very hard to make the mental changes stick.”

  “Right.” Connie agreed. “But…let me back up a bit and explain what they’re doing; basically, they’ve put a ton of Worship into a project they’re calling ‘World Saviors’, where they transport the spirits from people in…ten or twelve of our strongest planes into temporary bodies on Yasato.

  “The idea is that the combination of being one layer removed from the real body and the wards built into World Saviors will mitigate any permanent side-effects of conversion and, since those bodies are temporary and can be easily remade, they’ll also provide a never-ending army that will wear down the Swarm via numbers.”

  “Do the bodies disappear when they’re converted or something?” Rose asked.

  “Not at all. The Player in question is given the opportunity to switch sides like Fae has, and if they choose not to, the body is treated like any monster.”

  “Then isn’t that a really bad idea?” Rose asked. “I’m not sure how many people will choose to join us, but such unique bodies are bound to make for powerful conversion materials.”

  “Yes, yes it is.” Connie replied. “A bad enough idea that Willow was willing to invest in the project. She thinks that it’ll strengthen the Swarm even further. That alone should have tipped them off, but they’re desperate and out of touch. They chose to market this as a video game to attract more people, which is already starting to backfire on them.”

  Rose frowned. “A game? What sort of game could take you to another plane? And…let me guess, people aren’t taking this as seriously as the other gods hoped?”

  “Ah, right, no video games here. Uh…how do I put this…you know those screens in the Scourge of the Skies? They use the same sort of technology to show images that you manipulate with a keyboard or controller. That, um, makes it sound lame, but this is an even more advanced form of those called virtual reality. Actual planar transportation is far more than any mortals are capable of, but it’s not out of the realm of imagination for people in other planes.

  “And, yeah, there’s a large group of people who aren’t being as serious about it, like you assumed, and Heather made the ‘problem’ exponentially worse. She got so mad because they used footage of her from before she talked to you to publicly misrepresent her stance, and she went all-in to correct it. Showed some rather unflattering videos of herself from when she talked with you and when she confronted the other gods on misrepresenting her.”

  “That…would explain a few things.” Lia said. “So…what now? Is there anything we can really do about this at this moment?”

  “I have a few things.” Amelia said. “Now that I know the broadest strokes of what they’re doing with my system, I can start making countermeasures. I won’t be able to do anything on a large scale with my Worship sealed, but I think I can make devices that’ll lock people into their bodies for a while. We’d have to feed them with Blood Money, but we could probably use it to keep the most powerful people in their bodies until the conversion takes hold.

  “I’m assuming most countermeasures they come up with will revolve around getting people’s souls out of the body in the cocoon before conversion properly starts, so forcing people to stay in would throw a wrench in that. I could also probably swing something cheaper to force people back into their original bodies, to help take people out of the fight. And a few other things, too; I’ll have to get back to my lab, I haven’t done any serious research in a while.”

  “We should start thinking about propaganda, too.” Rose added. “Do you thinking asking Fae for help would be too much?”

  “It would, Jerry specifically mentioned that when he was telling me about this.” Connie confirmed. “Izumi is fair game, though.”

  “How much Blood Money would it cost to get me a device that would let me watch Fae’s streams?” Lia asked. “And…how much would a device that let me stream like her cost?”

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  “A device to watch her streams? Not much at all in the grand scheme of things, now that your income has gone up with your new conquests.” Connie said. “Ten thousand Blood Money, tops. Probably a lot cheaper if you didn’t want to participate in chat or anything.”

  Back when Lia had first been reincarnated, ten thousand Blood Money had been a lot. But, like Connie said…now that about half of the world was part of the Swarm, her income had risen dramatically. Since kills made by anyone in the Swarm gave her some, albeit at a reduced rate compared to when Lia herself was the one doing the killing, she often had made ten thousand before lunch. Of course, some days she had made hardly anything before lunch, but after being converted people were tending to expand their settlements, so days like that were increasingly rare.

  “As for streaming…well, you don’t want to go cheap on that, since you’re going to be representing the Swarm, and this is a capability you wouldn’t normally even remotely have, but I think…let’s call it two hundred thousand, but I’ll have to double check with Jerry before I make any promises. That being said…why the sudden interest in streaming?”

  “Well…if their goal is to make us out to be monsters that must be exterminated at all costs, then isn’t just showing that we’re not the best solution?” Lia asked. “If they can talk with me and see how we operate, it’ll help show that we’re people, not just monsters.

  “Which…I guess is the same thing Fae is doing, but I feel that watching us doing our work will be different than watching people’s everyday lives. And since we’re currently in a scenario that isn’t really applicable to what things will be like on Yasato, we don’t have to worry too much about the footage being used against us, right?”

  “They might be able to use it to get a grasp on what our command structure is like, but I don’t think that’s a huge deal.” Rose mused. “Plus, a significant amount of our communication is done via some form of telepathy or other non-obvious medium, so it’d still be pretty opaque from a viewer’s perspective…it’s probably worth a shot, and it’ll help us gauge. Worst case scenario we decide we’re giving too much away and stop streaming during important times.”

  Lia nodded. “Right. Um…anything else we should know, Connie?”

  “When you kill or convert a Player and they choose not to join the Swarm, they’ll reappear at a specific location depending on the plane they’re native to. They’ll lose all gear they had except some special pieces, and some of their stats too, but they’ll otherwise be ready for combat pretty soon thereafter.”

  “What happens if those places become part of our territory?” Lia asked. “Will we have to constantly deal with attacks from inside our borders?”

  “No, the respawn point, called an Ark of Players, will move to a new location. And, once you’ve taken over all the countries on Yasato, all Players who aren’t part of the Swarm will be forced out to another plane, and the cycle will repeat.”

  “And I suppose we’ll be forced to go to that plane next?” Amelia asked flatly.

  “Yes.” Connie replied. “Jerry plans to send the Swarm through our stable planes in order of strength, Yasato is slightly out of order in that regard, being…I think third weakest, but Ratha was one of our experimental, unstable planes, and so even the weakest of planes you’ll be encountering from here on out will be stronger than Ratha.”

  “Great.” Lia said dryly. “I had sort of assumed that would be the case, but having it confirmed is still somewhat disheartening.”

  “I have full faith in your capabilities.” Connie said, smiling slightly. “As long as you take it slowly and carefully, you should be able to overcome the power gap by converting residents of that plane.”

  “So…you’re saying everyone we converted before is going to be more or less useless in other planes?” Amelia asked.

  “Not at all!” Connie said hurriedly. “As the planes are permanently connected, the Mana level of the weaker planes will eventually rise to that of the highest connected plane. And your better system construction will be able to bridge the gap in the meantime.”

  “I suppose.” Amelia said. “ What else can you tell us?”

  “Not much.” Connie said. “You’ve got the gist of it and…wait a second, now that you know about World Saviors, you now have free access to the internet on Yasato, and that’s a huge deal. Or…well, free access so long as you’re on the plane, so it’s a bit of a risk to use, but the information on there could drastically change things here.”

  “Do you think with that streaming device we could bundle in access to this internet? That’s how things are streamed, right? Via the internet?” Lia asked.

  “It is, and I’ll have to ask Jerry. If the answer is yes, I’ll probably need to attach a hefty fee, though. Like…double the cost, if I had to guess. There is a lot of freely available information on the internet, information on how advanced tech works and how to build it. While you do have some access now, risk-free access is a huge advantage.”

  “That makes sense. Um…let me ask you, in a personal capacity, if you think that it would be worth half a million Blood Money. I’d have to save up for another week or two, and it would decimate most of my savings, but…I just don’t know enough to know if it’s worth it.”

  Connie paused. “Um…gimme a sec here.” She said. “I need to figure out how to word this in a way that won’t cost you anything and won’t get me in trouble.”

  She frowned, clearly thinking over it, then nodded. “You already know that the more established planes are far more technologically advanced than Ratha.” She said slowly. “The question is if you think being able to have access to a not-insignificant portion of that technology risk-free is worth most of your current savings. I, personally, value technological advancements a lot, and were I forced to make a decision, facing a potential promising but not certain gain in this area, I would likely do it.

  “However, I’m also a bit more risk-adverse than many; my personal safety matters a lot to me, and I would go out of my way to keep myself safe, even if it’s just a little bit safer. I’d think of it less like paying for the internet functionality and more about paying to avoid going to Yasato and potentially being caught somehow. And…well, I’ll be honest, as your girlfriend it would put my mind at ease a bit if you did do this. But I understand war is inherently risky, and sometimes you have to put yourself in danger, so I’ll support you in whatever decision you make.”

  “I’ll have to think on it while you ask Jerry about it.” Lia replied. “Maybe ask Fae and Izumi about it. Uh…they wouldn’t get in trouble for giving their opinions, would they?”

  “No, a god’s unfiltered opinion is worth a lot more than an average person’s opinion, simply because we have so much more knowledge than them. That’s not to say that their opinions are worthless, of course, in fact I’m sure they would give excellent advice, and I highly encourage you to take their opinions into account when making your decision.”

  “Right.” Lia said. “I think I’m going to go find Fae, talk to her about this. That is, uh, unless there’s more we should know?”

  “No, that’s actually it this time.” Connie replied. “I’m going to go talk to Jerry about your requests, I’ll be back in…probably an hour or two? Talking to Jerry shouldn’t take too long but there’s a good chance some of the other gods want to talk to me too.”

  “I’ll get started on dinner, then.” Rose said. “Amelia, would you like to help?”

  “I’d love to.” Amelia replied. “But, first, Lia, do you know where Fae is? Rose or I can probably find her for you if you need.”

  “She should still be hanging around her house, I believe.” Lia said. “Since her mothers haven’t been fully settled yet. Uh, Rose, can you tell if anyone’s in that house?”

  Rose paused, then nodded. “There are three life signs in there, and one of them is strong enough to be Fae.”

  “Perfect.” Lia replied. “If it’s not them, I’ll come back. If I’m not back before dinner, just contact me and I’ll finish up whatever I’m doing.”

  Lia gave her lovers each a quick farewell peck on the cheek, and with that they split, off to complete the tasks they had given themselves.

  that big a deal on its own. It allows better planning, but there's not much they can actually do about it without starting work on Yasato. But, I realized it also means that there's nothing on Yasato's internet that would be dealbreaking for them to know about. So, in a way it's both more meaningful and less meaningful than I had been thinking of it as.