" L-lily ? " " Surprised to see me ? " Rate felt like his plan had fallen as soon as he saw Lily ' No wait she doesn't know why I'm here yet ' " So have you finished wiping out those fake thoughts Life made for you to hunt ? "
Rate's heartbeat suddenly raised " Y-you knew !? " Rate was extremely surprised to hear such a thing " Yep , I knew . Moreover that brainwashing you did doesn't work on me, it just smells like perfume or how an animal finds a mate attractive "
" But the fake thoughts " " I told you Life made it " " Ehh but why ? " Rate asked confused and wondering if the creation of fake thoughts was just to entertain him " Well it was to keep you from finding out I wasn't brainwashed , plus I needed to fool the descenders "
" So you knew from the whole time and just acted like you were brainwashed " " Yep , if I hadn't you would have got your guard too high up " Lily playfully flicks Rate's snout . Rate rubs it " So I answered the how and the why already Are there any questions you like ? "
" Uhm is your actions towards me genuine ? " Rate asked and a bubble of the memory of Lily's thoughts on Rate appeared " He looks so cute and is so adorable " he blushed instantly hearing that " Anything else ? "
Many more bubbles appeared revealing what Lily had thought about Rate and he grew more embarrassed the more he heard them " No " Rate said turning his head away to head his embarrassment and heard a bubble say " He's so cute when embarrassed "
Rate continues to grow more embarrassed by Lily's compliments " Come on stop being so shy " Lily teased him and Rate could only get more embarrassed " Can we just go back home ? " " Oh you're thinking of my home as yours now ? "
" Is it wrong ? " Rate asked " No , I'm just glad you decided to get closer to me " " I mean it does feel welcoming and our old home is already gone " Lily smiled " Having a friend sure feels nice "
Rate thought about Lily's words " Do you not have many ? " " Yep think of me as a boss who has to keep their position and I usually have enemies with people on the same level as me if not we keep a professional relationship "
" Now then you can stay here I'll send you back to your body tomorrow " ' Death and Life should be able to keep Melda away from asking for Rate's soul with the seals I left on them ' Lily waved Rate goodbye and went to sleep .
...
The next day Argus executes the order while Lily stays inside a box carrying Birch's soul inside her body and the spacecraft departs . She waited for when she was close enough and used a door and replaced the clone while also releasing Birch's soul to return to his work " So how did it go ? " " It was fine , What about you guys how were Rate's parents "
" We told them we'll visit them when we have time " " I have time now and here take care of them " Lily threw the pendant to Death and he lifted it hearing some voices " What's this ? " " You'll figure it out "
Lily goes to Rate's room where Rate's body remains inside a pod ' Just like the reincarnation machine , guides the soul to the body ' Rate's soul returns to his body and he wakes up " Here are some clothes for you to wear "
Rate blushed but was glad he didn't hear any of Lily's thoughts this time " You can tell your parents that I knew about the brainwashing gas and we can have dinner together " Rate wondered what Lily wanted to do and she left the room heading for a location while giving the Labyrinth a message .
' They seem excited too from how the debt chain reacted , this will also be a good time to show off a bit ' Lily prepared the few possessors that she kept with herself and walked to the edge of the purified land ' Labyrinth I'll need you to set up a show "
Lily started to feel some gazes and the station behind her started sounding some alerts " Gaze of the Labyrinth detected count increasing " ' We'll need to make a good show before moving to a much better place to trade "
Lily's poison starts to emit from her body forming into a smoke ' These Fetor techniques sure are handy ' she gripped around the smoke pulling out a sword " Sorry Labyrinth but I'll need a piece of your body to buy Indus's star factory "
The Labyrinth recognizes the threat and starts attacking her , gas was released from the ground showing the Labyrinth's power of dominion . Lily stabs the gas causing it to harden into a solid , The Labyrinth counterattacks by pushing away the purification of the great fire's will causing a wall to rise from Lily's ground .
They drew back their influence causing the wall to return back to the ground and Lily hardened her fetors into blades to follow her done . She gathered them all into her shoe and turned it into a high heel .
Her fall accelerates through her power and the Labyrinth opens the ground and lets her in " Commander's life signal too far , requesting dispatch " Ryson received the message " What ? What is she doing ? Show the last footage and signs The commanders "
A screen of Lily's descent to the Labyrinth was shown as well as the area of purification " She's going that far why ? " Ryson checked the footage and listened .
" The Labyrinth piece !? " Ryson tries to recall the conversation that Indus had with Lily " Why would she head right in just a day ? At least take a week to plan for it "
Ryson quickly sends a request for dispatch descenders ' She's barely been commander for a month and she's already doing reckless things , I thought things would look up now that the commander of the frontline has been selected to be the candidate of my station '
" She even showed a personnel that can reduce delivery cost and started a business " Ryson was already looking forward to further cooperation of Ethan's ability ' Hopefully he can also shrink the dispatched '
...
Lily fell into the hole and her heel stabbed into the ground " So this is where you want to make the trade , Quite a nice place " Lily heard some rocks crumble and looked at the floor " Oh forgot about that ... let's make this exchange somewhere deeper "
Lily fell again onto the floor and stumbled inside the Labyrinth " Huh this cave system is amazing " she could feel some sunlight and moonlight and observed " What a weird plant " she picked up the plant feeling the sunlight in it .
' These could be useful for the children ' Lily sensed some of her debtors nearby and decided to see what they knew about this plant "The family called Plantae Solaris or Stellaris have attributes that could be associated with the flaming celestial bodies"
' Sounds like they'll be good for the factories ' "They may take years to produce nectar but they can continue to glow for as long as they are exposed to any manners of light" " Any ? " Lily releases the seals on her eyes and watched a green nectar form " Hmm this is good but not the right kind of nectar "
She consumed the nectar thinking it might be useful for diversifying the diet of the fireforms ' I'll also be bringing in more children from above , Maybe I should make some arrangements for the dragons because of their ancestor being Mother '
She heard some rocks crumble again and looked at her heel " Still here ? " she quickly gathered the information around the Plantae Stellaris family and fell again . She watched from above and saw it close itself .
She fell into a much deeper layer and felt more of her debt chains connected to her debtors ' Let's see any good information in this area ? ' Lily found some and read the blank grimoire " Wait before that "
Lily reabsorbs the fetor on her heel and checks the information "When the mysterious invasion occurred we were dragged down to the underground , after clearing the language barrier we found that the being the Labyrinth which is this world had wanted us to remain in the underground and map it"
' So the Labyrinth does want to figure out how this world works ' "However we notice something mysterious , as it turns out there is some mysterious phenomenon that causes us to forget details hence we spread out but some strange creators keep interfering with our progress yet we continue albeit at a slow pace"
' So there is someone actively interfering with the Labyrinth's investigation ' Lily wonders who it was , guessing they must be really deep inside the Labyrinth ' For now Let's make that deal and see if the Labyrinth will like it '
Some gas came off the surface of the caves and starts to form a piece of the Labyrinth " Good now as for the password I would like to confirm what you will do with it " the debt chain shakes and Lily receives the answer .
' So we were right ' Lily smiled reading the answer "The Labyrinth's structure is deeply influenced by the confusing spell formula of the seal of this entire world"
' But the Labyrinth won't tell me who cast it ... although it could be the Immortal or maybe a whole another civilization inside ... won't matter much but it will matter because of the true body the Labyrinth will regain due to it '
Lily looked at the result and decided to make some arrangements ' First I'll need to make sure that I return home , surely I could head back with Beryl but only if I could call him right now I need to traverse this far but then I have that dinner with Rate's parents '
Lily sighed and the piece of the Labyrinth was fully formed " Perfect now here it is " Lily opens her hand and showed the soul of the grand practitioner of death " This one is valuable so I hope you give me something really good "
The Labyrinth receives the information of the practitioner's value " Also you can keep your old part " Lily showed the box and Labyrinth quickly takes away the soul and the piece while Lily takes the newer piece .
The ground shook and Lily heard a voice " WHAT ARE YOU DOING ? " Lily couldn't find any information about the voice but figured out who it was " Hello Immortal " Lily smiled and deep inside the center of the Labyrinth a hole formed on a barrier allowing a bit of the Labyrinth to seep in .
' I'm quite satisfied with this result ' the ground moves and Lily gets a message from the Labyrinth " Oh thanks for that " ' Getting rid of the debt chain as soon as possible huh , I don't mind after all I'll be back to give you more and get some more '
Lily reaches a part of the Labyrinth not made of terrain that the Labyrinth has dominion over but its true body sealed by Immortal's spell ' Hmm there's a little bit of it left ' Lily looks at a chest with the symbol of a sun inside whilst receiving a message of her receipt with the Labyrinth .
' So the rest of the payment was all the stars it still hasn't touched and those plants I wanted ' Lily opened the case and looked at it " I'll have to give Woods these seeds , I'm sure the great fire can eat these suns themselves "
She closes the case wondering if this case has some useful knowledge of sealing arts ' Maybe I can ask Birch to research it ' Lily looked up and formed a fetor blade ' I'll have to call these fetors instead of deaths might be much easier to explain later at dinner '
Lily jumped and pierced through the Labyrinth's body and the debt chain almost completely dissolved after she exited ' Now I'll have to get back on my own ' she sighed and started to stretch while she stored the Labyrinth piece and the sun box .
" All warmed up , here's to hoping that I could encounter some outcast although I doubt I'd find any but still I would like to find one " Lily sprinted towards the direction the cane recommended .
' Keyly's debt chain already confirmed that the forbidden section doesn't have the password for the seal of this world , I'll either have to investigate any references I could find or take it out of the distributor's hands myself '
Lily stops to take a break in a nearby mountain ' There's definitely no way for me to just search for them and that reminds me it seems like the payment that the Labyrinth made for me is insufficient maybe they sent it home ? '
She resumed sprinting and started to see some satellites and stopped " Argus send Beryl to pick me up " her cane turned into a chair and she retrieved the Labyrinth piece and the sunbox " PAPA " a giant shadow was cast and Beryl dove down and slowly shrinks .
Liily put aside her loot and caught him " Gotcha " Lily lifted him to see him eye to eye " Have you been eating well " Yah , Mama also eats a lot " " Then can you bring me back home ? " " yah " Beryl grew big again and flew with Lily on his head .
...
Ryson arrived at a spacecraft with Ethan who released the dispatch descenders " Thank you for bringing them here " ' You worry too much , she won't die from this , not like I can tell you that ' " Everyone we need to look for the commander she has fallen at the edge of the safe zone "
Ryson said and the descenders followed him " We'll be digging down to rescue the Commander " ' She really doesn't need rescuing ' a shadow was casted on them and they looked up to see Beryl .
Lily jumps out and Beryl shrinks throwing himself to Lily . She descended to the ground carrying Beryl " Ryson why are you here ? " A vein popped but Ryson restrained himself " I was alerted because the station found that you were going deep into the Labyrinth rather than the surface "
" Well you can send the dispatch back I've got it solved also can you make a delivery for me ? " Lily showed the piece of the Labyrinth shrunk " What's this ? " " My payment for the star factory for Indus "
Ryson couldn't believe that she already got it " Now tell Indus that he'll have to give me a much better model for the star factory , after all , I exceeded his expectations and got this much " Ryson looked at the dimensions of the piece .
" Also take Ethan with you he'll have to bring the star factory down although he might have to work overtime cause I want it in five or six days " Ethan was surprised to hear Lily's demands and heard some payment options .
" Now as for these troops you bought send them back and can I get some updates on the land carrier of the dragon associates ? " Lily asked and Ryson answered " The land carrier is going to take a while and the dispatched could stay if you could accommodate them. "
' Nah I need some privacy moreover I ain't got time to take care of them after what happened to those three ' " No get them off my hands " " I can't do that , You'll need them to guard your star factory after all "
" Alright I'll house them but is it possible to send them away as soon as the mother dragon can come down here " " But why would you want that ? " Ryson asked " I told one of my personnel to take care of that it should be done in how long Argus ? "
" 20 days " " 20 !? " ' No wait that's pretty reasonable considering her mass but god dang it that means Birch won't be of help to me for a while I should also make sure he is only focused on enchanting mother'
" Uhm, commander ? " " Just go back and take Ethan with you I really need that star factory , I'll have Argus take care of accommodations " " Ahh I got it " Ryson said ' Well as long as she is okay I can keep on working although I should probably warn her about the other two '
...
Lily visits the great fire after giving Woods the seeds of the Plantae stellaris " Hello dear here is some gift " Lily opens the sun box " Huh that's a very dense star " " Yep go ahead eat some they'll be good for you "
" You got this ? " " Yep yep now make sure to eat them , from what I heard about stars is that they have a lifespan but since you can devour other stars you can live long as long as I make sure you're not starving and burning your own mass like fasting " a dense whip of fire reaches out and grabs one sun out of the box and threw it into the great fire's body .
" This is a fat sun " " There's plenty of them here so you should make sure to eat more " Lily leaves the box beside "Some plants will be sprouting around here this way the children can eat more and grow more just like you dear " " Thanks " the great fire said and Lily smiled taking her leave .
' Now that Birch will be busy taking care of Mother , I'll have to research the seals myself ' Lily takes the Library of seals and starts reading intending to complete it including the forbidden section by the time Birch finishes enchanting Mother .
" Lily can you please explain these reapers ? " Death asked as some of the reapers followed him " I thought they would be good for you , slacking off isn't exactly fun you know " " Yes but can't you give them to Birch ? He had his eyes on the two of us for a long time "
" But if he is done with the reapers won't he go after you ? " " O-oh " Death realizes Birch will eventually get even more curious of his nature as the underworld " But why hand them to me ? " " Armed resources , if you can make them more useful I would be plenty grateful "
Lily looked at the reapers who started to shiver " And why are they afraid ? " " Because you have a lot of deaths inside you plus you technically absorbed the deaths of other people and according to them that's scary " " So did you have to deal with this too ? " " Yeah I was told to expel all the deaths of the people of my old world "
Lily looked at him and at the reapers " Isn't that like at least a few billion ? " " Yes it is , but after releasing all those souls I have plenty of space so I kept them with me now I'm just trying to figure out how to make sure they are awake or something "
" Then take the ones I absorb from my residents they weren't as helpful as I thought " Death takes the deaths of others from Lily's body " If that's all don't bother me I don't know how to do most of the stuff related to death manifestation " " I know I'm just here to complain "
Death leaves and Life comes " Are you gonna talk about the few life manifestations I gave you ? " " Not at all I have that sorted out but I do have to tell you about a greater will that recently appeared where you brought back Rate's family and friends " Life observed Lily while she called for Argus to verify the findings .
" Lily do you notice the damage on your soul yet ? " " Damage ? " 'Maybe she doesn't notice it ' " Maybe because your soul is so strong you're ignoring this tiny scratch on it "
" Uhhh can you specify what it's like ? " Life gives a more thorough observation ' It's like someone was trying to erase your memory , did you encounter anything up there or down here ? "
Lily thought about what she heard in the Labyrinth " Must be Immortal trying to make it impossible for me to remember it can you see if they aimed for the memory of the password ? " ... " Yes I've confirmed it , that part of the soul is where you got the memory of the password or the keys the distributor handed out "
" So they are interfering " Lily turns to Life " Thanks for telling me about it " " You'd be able to sense that damage if you had much higher senses " " Imagine that dull ? " " Yes , deprivation of any sense does make you able to sense inside your body maybe you should set up that kind of environment "
" How ? " " When you go to sleep you naturally don't sense anything at all moreover it's your brain that handles anything inside " " But still I should try to learn how to sense my insides , care to teach ? " " Sure but you plan to commit yourself to completing the library of seals remember ? "
" Uhh fine how about after that ? " " Agreed then I'll take care of the life manifestations that you obtained from the immortals up there " Life leaves and Lily takes note of the greater will that Life detected .
' She said it recently appeared so I'll have to check that one out ' Lily takes the elevator taking her to the bottom of the mountain and to the cave where she bought the mythical beast and there she saw an eroding book made with he Labyrinth's parts " Hmm ? "
Lily takes it out of the Labyrinth's domain and watches her debt chain completely dissolve ' So what is this ? ' she gets a single prompt from the blank grimoire "A compilation of sealing arts and how to break them from the Labyrinth"
' This should work well together with the blank grimoire ' the Labyrinth's compilation was merged with the blank grimoire and text begins to be written on the pages " Search for how to break the seals and brainwashing of the Labyrinth "
The pages leave the grimoire showing her two sheets " Is that all ? " Lily settled down and reads the pages ' This one gets rid of their strength but the problem is the brainwashing ... maybe I can ask Rate later to help me out he did have a plan to save me from the effects of brainwashing '
...
Lily sat down with Rate and Melda " Dad wasn't able to attend " " It's fine " Melda looked at Lily wondering why she called " I've heard that you were aware of the brainwashing gas for a long time " Melda said " Yep I don't know how you guys managed to make it but it is much low quality "
" But you still welcomed Rate as if you were , you even went as far as helping us " ' Well the Labyrinth just gave me all of you but I didn't mind that ' " Yep I thought Rate looking sad wasn't good "
" But that's still a lot isn't it , I've known the previous commander , holding the personality of a robot who will weigh all lives and quantify them " " If you guys have a value it would be very high although I would like to ensure that none of my forces are going to be lose "
" Then shouldn't you have demanded something else from the Labyrinth bringing just me and Frank would've been enough ? " Melda asked " Mother "
" You're right , I just thought it would be nice to help it felt great to here someone's thanks , I never really get the chance to show that I'm willing to give my all to anyone because they'd easily distance themselves from me so I acted that I was brainwashed and got the oppurtunity , I never thought it would get as worse as Rate going to my body "
Rate thought of what Lily's life was like according to Life " She never gets herself close to people in a very intimate relationship only since coming to this world has she found equals like the mother dragon and the great fire "
" So I'm glad Rate came to my place " Lily gave Rate a smile earning a blush from him " So now can I ask you , how did you come here ? " Melda's eyes widened and looked at Rate " Right now ? "
" Come on I revealed the lie of me acting as a brainwashed to Rate without hurting him , it's better to come clean in a comforting time like this " Melda sighed " We were exiled " Rate gasped since it deeply contradicted what he had heard .
" Sorry about this Rate we didn't want you to feel bad about how you were born " " Come on don't feel bad about it I can relate I was exiled too " Lily said trying to give them assurance " Rate already knows about it though Life did tell him a lot about me "
' But not too much ' " So why were you exiled ? Your powers would've been beneficial to the community even in times of peace wouldn't it not ? " " That is true , the world was at peace back then however the cause of the war was what caused us to be exiled to this world "
" What is it ? " " It was our potential to destroy not just on a continental scale but beyond the land too, we have had a few capable of devouring stars and even the sky . We had a plan to fix it which was to seal all our powers and destroy the key to it "
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