As the Lunar Paladins were set to leave Nüjaven for the next location on their pilgrimage to the Sacred Monastery, they were met by three new aspirants; the son of a merchant, a discharged city guard, and a hunter from the countryside.
Each of them met the basic requirements for recruitment, and they all passed the [Appraisal] check, so they were allowed to join the caravan out of the city.
Just like that, Nex Loki, and two of his Valkyrie, were underway to infiltrating the mysterious Sacred Monastery.
"Remember, we don't know each other." Loki said to the others through thought communication.
Using [Faker], [Silver-Tongue], and [Shapeshifting], Loki was able to craft disguise personas for all three of them.
The caravan moved slowly, going from city to city, town to town, crawling towards their mysterious Monastery, where this motley crew would be molded into holy knights.
The whole trip took about a month of constant travelling, in which time Loki, going under the alias, Anton, had been conversing with many of the aspirants along with them.
From what Loki learned, the Lunar Paladins were revered across the continent, beacons of strength and courage. They fought against monsters and other entities that threatened the many towns and cities. Their patron, the Moonlit Mother, was recognised as a major diety among the pantheon worshiped across the planet.
Curiously, this pantheon featured a whole host of deific beings, including Fen, and was centered around the actual World Pillars.
According to what he knew, the Moonlit Mother was the spirit of the moon, that had suddenly gained relevance about five hundred years ago, when she empowered the first Lunar Paladins to put and end to a disastrous world war thar was ravaging the planet at the time.
Loki wasn't aware of any spirit of the moon a million years ago, but a lot had obviously changed since then.
* * *
"Hey Anton," one of his fellow aspirants called one evening,
"What's up?" Loki replied, he had cultivated many budding friendships with many of the aspirants.
"You're from Nüjaven, right?"
"Yes," he said slowly
"Then you must know something about that giant tower that appeared there one day?"
"You've heard about that?" Loki queried
"Everyone's heard about it," the man said, "most think it's some new kind of new vault."
Loki just chuckled, "I heard that it's the home of this super powerful user."
"Impossible," someone scoffed, "have you ever heard of someone powerful enough to move such a huge thing like that? They'd definitely be a famous ranker."
"Ranker?" Loki queried
His companions looked over at him like he'd grown a third eye.
"What sort of question is that?" One asked, "who doesn't know about rankers?"
Loki just shrugged, "I was a bit of a hermit for a while, didn't really keep up with current events until that big tower showed up."
"Well, rankers are what the Administrator call the top users in the world." One explained, "they're basically world powers, the pinacle of what mortals can reach before they get into the realm of the gods."
"Wait, the Administartor determines these rankers?" Loki asked, "what if they try to fool the system?"
"Like anyone could fool the Administrator, even the gods follow the system."
Loki was silent for the nest several moments. He didn't know what use these rankers served the Administrator, but it would probably be best to investigate who was listed on it, lest they become a threat... or a potential asset. It also raised a question; was he among these rankers?
"So how are things at the tower?" Loki whispered in the dead of night.
"Prettyquiet," Yggdrasil replied via thought communication. "Repairs are coming along swimmingly, and I'm finally getting around to those renovations I wanted."
"What renovations?" Loki asked
"The ones I should have probably told you about earlier, while you were still here," Yggdrasil admitted,
"Well, at least you're industrious." Loki chuckled, "How are the twins doing?"
"They are coming in handy," Yggdrasil reported, "they keep asking me about getting encoded."
"Right, I did say something about that to them," Loki muttered, "could you take care of that for me?"
"Unfortunately, I can't," Yggdrasil said, "performing such an invasive procedure requires a level of finesse I do not possess."
"You're serious?"
"Idoubt there's anyone on the planet aside from you or the Doctor with the necessary expertise to edit one's ynvok." Yggdrasil sighed,
"Really?" Loki mused, "I thought that sort of thing was pretty standard among high level users back then?"
"It was nowhere near as common as you just made it sound," Yggdrasil corrected, "and it seems that in the time since, the Administartor has put up safeguards against such extreme conceptual augmentations."
Loki figured that made sense. The ability to alter someone's very soul data was one of the many hacks that Loki had exploited, so it was only natural that the Administartor would develop a patch for such an oversight.
"So that means they can't be encoded," Loki determines
"Most likely," Yggdrasil confirms, "at least not through previously conventional methods."
"And they seemed so excited by the prospect," Loki sighed, "oh well, we'll just have to set the matter aside for now."
"Iagree, there are more important issues that require your attention." Yggdrasil said, "securing Odin, Jörmungandr, and Heimdall, not to mention learning what brought about the end of the old world and our imprisonment."
"Well, the Administrator said I could find some answers from the moon," Loki mused, "and these Lunar Paladins possess a power that doesn't come from this world."
"You didn't really explain what that meant," Yggdrasil retorted, "you seem personally invested in it, but I do not see the correlation."
Loki didn't answer for a few seconds
"When I shook hands with that Paladin, I... felt something from them." Loki said, "It was familiar, and ancient, and I felt it calling to me."
Yggdrasil was silent for a moment.
"What do you mean ancient? You're billions of years old, that word takes on wierd connotations around you."
"Since before my fall," Loki replied
"Beforeyourfall?That is ancient..." She said pensively, "is it another Prime?"
"No." Loki replied immediately, "this isn't the work of my siblings,"
"So, it's from you? One of your legion?"
"I beleive so." Loki said.
He barely remembers any of his legion, hundreds of thousands of titans all created from him. They all followed him in his rebellion, and most of them were shattered in the fall. The feeling he got from the Paladins was alive, so Loki had to find its source.
"This is concerning, how do—" Yggdrasil suddenly paused, "sorry, but I'll have to end this conversation,"
"What's wrong?" Loki asked,
"Nothing to concern yourself about," Yggdrasil said, "something just came up that needs my attention,"
"Should we bifrost back?" Loki asked
"No, no, it's nothing I can't handle on my own," Yggdrasil reassured, "I'll talk to you later, master."
With that, the connection was cut. Loki's head was silent.
Loki smirked to himself. Yggdrasil was definitely up to something she wanted to keep to herself, for now. And it most likely involved the tower. Loki could find out what was going on, but he figured he would give her the benefit of the doubt.
* * *
Yggdrasil silently observed as a group of adventurers entered the grand atrium of Asgard Tower.
Technically speaking, the tower was under quarantine. It's sudden appearance within the city had led to quite an uproar among the populus. The city-lord had immediately quarantined the site, restricting access to the strange new structure.
Many of the citizens were wary of the tower, particularly the adventurers who now suddenly found themselves effectively unemployed without a vault.
The presence of not only the Storm Bringer, but also the Black Wolf served as a powerful deterrent to keep most away. But now they were absent, as was master Loki, and that created an... opportunity.
The repairs and renovations to the tower were proceeding smoothly. Yggdrasil wanted to see how well the upgraded security system fared against live intruders, so she devised a test.
Since Loki and his party departed, Yggdrasil had subtly spread rumors that the tower was a new kind of vault, and every once in a while, some brave adventurers ventured into the tower.
Because of the agreement with the city-lord, Yggdrasil made sure that none of these intruders actually died during their climb, but otherwise, she held nothing back against them.
Currently, she watched as they made their way up the tower. She had, of course, disabled the transfer point, so they had to manually ascend the stairs.
Yggdrasil took great joy in observing their slow progress. After reaching the 11th floor, they started to encounter some of the defenses she designed, mainly boobytraps, and escape rooms, based on her understanding of vaults, and she also had a number of other surprises that she would occasionally deploy to harass them.
Once they reached the 20th floor, which she designated a 'bossroom', however, instead of the standard guardian golem, Yggdrasil had instead deployed one of her dryad combat golems.
Was it unfair? Maybe. But she was having fun.
To make sure it wasn't the one-sided slaughter it would've been otherwise, Yggdrasil actively took control of the golem, limiting its combat capabilities significantly. It was a passing whim, she suddenly wanted to test her own fighting ability against these experienced adventurers.
During her time in the vault, while they were connected to her, her golems were all automated, and followed standard programs she'd developed from witnessed the other Valkyrie spar. Now she wanted to try her hand at active fighting.
"What the f@£k is this?" One of the mortals demanded
"Good day, dear intruders," Yggdrasil said with a polite curtsey, "allow me to thank you for participating in this security test, albeit unknowingly. I have collected much valuable data from witnessing your ill-conceived attempt to invade my territory."
"So this is the final guardian?" Another mortal said, "looks like we made it to the end of this vault."
Yggdrasil giggled, "final? You are still eighty floors to early to be so confident. This is just the end point of my experiment."
She watched the moment they realized the truth of her words, as their earlier enthusiasm drained away.
"Now it is time to put an end this test," Yggdrasil said, "but rest assured; I will make every effort to end this as quick and painlessly as possible."
"That is only if you are able to take us all on," the apparent leader said, "we're all over level 200,"
"My, how quaint," Yggdrasil said, "then allow me to introduce myself. I am Yggdrasil the World Tree."
She then projected her status in front of them;
[STATUS]
Name: Yggdrasil the World Tree
Race: nature elemental (deity)
Sex: female
Karma: neutral good
Attribute: nature/holy
Condition: normal
Job: administrator
Affiliation: Valkyrie
Level: 900
Tier: Transcend
HP: 100.00%
Anima: 100.00%
Points: 19,000,000pnts
[SKILLS]
All is One; Agromancy; Anima Manipulation; Appraisal; Awareness; Botany; Bloom; Controller; Cultivator; Designer; Divinity; Eye of Truth; Font of Fertility; Foresight; Golden Rule; Guardian Angel; Hero's Fortune; Holy Touch; Illness Immunity; Iron Flesh; Iron Will; Immortality; Mind over Matter; Naturalist; Network; Nature's Blessing; One with Nature; One World; Pain Resistance; Parallel Minds; Poison Immunity; Perception; Proxy; Puppetry; Recovery; Record of All Life; Survivor; Skill Garden; Telepathy; Universal Translator; Veritas; Voice of the World; Word is Bond;
[EQUIPMENT]
Nature's Dress;
[TITLES]
World Tree; Transcendent; Tower Administrator; Realm Controller; Elemental Being; Queen of the Divine Forest; Puppeteer;
For the second time in a few minutes, she watched them realize just how hopeless their situation was. She was quite literally a deity, and the most powerful Valkyrie in terms of levels. What they didn't know was that she'd placed a self-imposed geas on the golem, allowing her to express only about 2.5% of her total power, making her comparable to the mortal before her in power.
"Rest assure, you will not suffer," Yggdrasil said, assume Fenris' ready position. "Let us begin."