63

Following behind the women, there was a marked difference in attitude. Whereas before, most people gave me side eyes or walked out of my path. Now, they simply watched me curiously as if Keine's presence ensured I was not dangerous.

We soon entered what could only be called the noble area, it wasn't genuinely noble, but the houses were bigger, and the people dressed in more ornate clothes while the common folk walking the edges of the village were nowhere to be found.

A few minutes later, we arrived at a large hall that Keine walked into and entered the first door on the right. Sitting on a chair and behind a desk was an older man with greying hair and a cane leaning against the desk.

Candlelight eliminated the room, and he was scribbling away with a small pen that was clearly quite old and had been modified as he carefully unscrewed it and, with slightly trembling hands, removed the small plastic cylinder.

He then reached under the desk and retrieved a vial of ink, and upon setting it down, he finally saw Keine and me standing at the entrance.

"Looking as wonderful as ever, Miss Kamishirasawa," He said flawlessly, beaming as he grabbed his cane and stood up, leaving a primitive wooden leg in place of his right one; he then bowed to Keine before his gaze moved over to me.

"He is looking to build a shrine for a new local god," She said politely, causing the man's eyes to light up as he hobbled further back into the room and started searching throw the shelves of scrolls.

We waited for a good few minutes before the man shuffled back over with a scroll that he spread across the desk, revealing a map of the village and the surrounding area.

While a majority of the map was old, I could see where the village had expanded, and new locations had been marked or built as it was much fresher and hadn't faded as much.

Running a finger over the map, he hummed before looking back up at Keine, "Well, with the Moryia pushing back the construction of their shrine again, there would be very little competition, and if you teamed up with that, bird cook, you might be able to manage something,"

He then barked out a laugh and continued, "That is if you can prevent her from having a munch on her worshippers," His laughter then faded as Kenie gave him a stern look and then looked away uncomputable, "Just a little joke Miss," He mumbled while averting his gaze before turning back to face me.

"I surmise that Miss Kamishirasawa has given you the rundown on the do's and don't?" He asked to which I nodded, and he hummed while walking back and replacing the scroll.

Turning to leave, Keine gave a shallow bow and spoke, "Have a good day Kaito," Then, as he whirled around, stunned, and I could see the confusion on his face, she swept out of the room. After giving a polite wave, I followed behind her.

"Well then, I do believe you have many options given that, as of now, nobody has set up outside of town. So long as you do not build on somebody else's property, you should be fine," Keine said, smiling softly as I nodded, "Of course, and have a good day Miss Keine," I replied.

However, before I could turn to leave, the woman pinned me in place with a look, "I do want you to understand something, I care naught if you are a god, but the people of this village are under my protection," She said. I could see faintly wafting off over her was a magenta energy that looked like History.

"I understand," I said, ignoring the itching in my eyes as the energy faded away and Keine untensed. "Thank you, have a good day," She said before turning and heading back towards the school, the people around her making way for the schoolteacher.

Rubbing my eyes with my free hand, I walked out of the village from the same entrance I had entered, politely nodding and saying goodbye to the guards as I left, still receiving a somewhat frosty response.

Walking down the path, I left behind the few farms that were on this side of the village and soon arrived at an empty area within sight of the village walls.

Swinging my parasol in front of me, I stepped through the opened hole and arrived on the front porch of my home. I glanced at the sunflower field and saw my simulacrum still working over the coffin.

Walking towards the forge, I started grabbing the sacks of Dust, noticing that the amount had almost doubled since I had last checked. I wondered momentarily how they hid this infrastructure back in my home world but shrugged it off and started moving the Dust into the Gap.

I then emerged back where I had just been and ignored the angry looks of the guards. They seemed to dislike everything not of the village, which was irritating.

Pulling the Dust out of the Gap, I arranged the sacks around me and focused on the tiny granular motes of incredible potential. The Dust was pulled out of the bags and filled the air as I transformed it into wood, stone, and other building supplies.

I then went a step further and used more Dust to link the pieces together like they were Legos. It took almost two hours, and the sun was setting, but I had finished a small chapel.

It was distinct from the other shrines I had seen, and I hoped that would entice some to arrive and pray, but I now needed to stock it with a pastor.

Feeling the Grimoire grow as I walked inside and past the pews, I stood behind the lectern. I could recruit one of my simulacrum, but that felt awkward, and I doubted that they would be able to play that role for long.

The other option I was discarding was grabbing one of my pre-Grimoire minions to preach; the problem with that one was that they were idiotic and only suitable for basic tasks.

I was about to conjure a new being to serve as my pastor when an idea struck me. While not suitable for a pastor, I did have a Yuuka sealed inside my parasol, and I could theoretically let her essence seep out and into a new youkai, I created.

"Yuuka, I have a question for you," I said, focusing on my parasol. I waited for a few moments before I heard incredibly faint footsteps and, turning around, saw the damaged and mortally wounded ephemeral form of Yuuka around the corner.

"Yes?" She asked, tilting her head as I started to expand upon my question, "I have the ability to create youkai and was wondering if you could sort of seep out of the parasol and into an empty body?"

In response to my question, Yuuka hummed as she thought over my proposal before nodding, "I surmise you are not just doing this out of the good of your heart, correct?" She asked, causing me to chuckle and rub the back of my neck before replying.

"Well, I do need a person to run my shrine and didn't want to leap to creating a youkai for this, so I thought to ask you to take the role,"

Her eyes widened slightly before she laughed and nodded, "That's acceptable; being a shrine maiden will be an interesting new experience,"

I beamed as she agreed and then, setting the parasol down, got to work. Holding my hands out, I focused on the power I had gotten recently and pulled out mana and the small threads of belief.

It took time and a decent chunk of my mana, but I had to create what appeared to be Yuuka; I then looked at the unmoving body in the chest and saw the shimmering form of Yuuka fade away as the parasol metaphysical lightened.

The form I had created wasn't a specific type of youkai as I didn't know what type Yuuka was, so I went with a generic one with a massive tank of mana, the ability to shapeshift so that people would not know there were two Yuuka's running about and what I dubbed a sort of shrine maiden preset.

She would draw sustenance from my faith and, as a part of her, would hold partial power over my domains, which meant she could use mana to do what I did with faith, even if it was much more expensive.

Blinking, the prone form of Yuuka slowly stood up and took a deep breath before releasing her lack of clothing. Before I could do anything, the fabric started to weave around her body, and in just a few seconds, the same clothing that the other Yuuka had worn was wrapped around her body.

I then took a step back as a parasol identical to the one the other Yuuka and I held grew in her hands, starting from the wood spirling up until a large pink petal sprouted out and was then folded and laid on her shoulder.

Looking at my shocked face, she spoke as her form and clothes shrunk and, in a few moments, was clad in an outfit much like Reimu's except dark green and yellow, and the parasol was a staff with decorative flowers and vines growing up it.

"I do apologies, Father; I forgot that I will be serving as a shrine maiden and not a youkai," She said, giving an apologetic bow as I was flabbergasted and sputtered as I attempted to formulate a response.

"You did make this body, Father. I don't know why you're so confused?" She asked, tilting her head in confusion as my bafflement only grew.

A few seconds later, moments before I could bring to word the thoughts I had managed to formulate, Yuuka had laughed in her new high-pitched voice.

"That was enjoyable; I do think being a shrine maiden will be a good time," Yuuka said, "Away from the fear that I had, this opens many new avenues, anyway call me Mykro Fyto, Father," She continued. I groaned as she referred to me as a father once again.

Holding up my hands, I spoke before she could say something else to knock me off balance, "Why, just why?" I asked before continuing, "You are so different from the other Yuuka and even yourself from just a few minutes ago. What happened?"

The newly named Mykro hummed as she leaned on her staff, "It's quite simple, no matter how good her seals are, not even Yukari can protect against dimensional travel without her in person. That is how I managed to seep out to talk to you; however, it was also slowly destroying my soul."

I balanced at the matter-of-fact way she mentioned how her soul had been getting mulched. "So when I entered this body, I joined with the nascent soul that was made to be a shrine maiden which has made me a composite and therefore different,"

I rubbed between my eyes as I thought over what she had said, even as the Grimoire pulsed and grew; I then felt a strange weightless feeling in my head before shaking it off.

"You don't want me to fix it, do you?" I asked. Even though I was skeptical about being able to separate two souls, I didn't want to force such a massive change, even back an accident.

"Nah, it's fine, Father," She said before she stopped leaning on her staff, "This place needs a bit of sprucing up; I trust you can handle any other business you have?" Mykro then asked, clearly attempting to shoo me away so she could get to decorating the chapel.

"Fine, fine," I said, holding my hands up in surrender, "I trust that you won't make this place a jungle or otherwise inhospitable?" I then asked to which I received a nod causing me to swing my parasol over my shoulder and walk into the courtyard in the back.

While in a normal church, this would be a graveyard, here, I would be assembling a relay for my faith collector. Heading outside, I retrieved the Dust that was left over and brought it out back.

I had used around half of my overall Dust to build this chapel which reaffirmed my belief that creating fortifications and buildings from just Dust was wasteful and not something I would be planning to be regularly doing.

However, creating the components was a different matter, so I got to work on transmuting the materials needed for the pylon. When I finished, I got to work on assembling the pylon itself; it had four legs that were sunk into the ground, and the legs then coiled around a metal pole that served to gather the faith the legs had collected.

Then the faith would be collected around the tip at the top and expanded out for the collector to grab, extending its range and increasing production due to having to refine the faith only a small bit.

Dusting off my hands as I witnessed the almost twelve feet tall silvery machine start to rumble to life, the next step would be capping the top with a ring similar to the one I used to extend the range of my soul gem.

Swinging my parasol, I shifted the Path to extend out of the fence that boxed in in this back area; besides serving as a location to collect faith, it would also be an excellent spot to anchor my home in case anybody wanted to hire me or otherwise want to talk.

Striding down the Path, I soon emerged at my home, headed over to the forge, and retrieved the remaining sacks of Dust I had placed into the Gap.

Setting them down, I got to work on forging a new ring, except this time, it would be much larger and able to fit around a pole that was around a foot across.

It took time, as while my forge was big enough and I had the knowledge creating and enchanting that much metal was time-consuming, even with my skills and power.

I stepped away from the forge and wiped my brow as it approached eight. I wasn't sweating, and there was not a single drop of exhaustion in me, but it only felt right.

Lifting the massive ring, I slung it over my shoulder like a hola-hoop and almost fell over as I was unbalanced. I then removed it from my shoulder and dropped it in the Gap for me to grab later.

Entering the backyard, I heard Mykro talking in that somewhat young and excited tone she seemed to have adopted. Carefully opening the back door, I entered the chapel and saw a younger man, most likely in his mid-twenties, engaged in a conversation with Mykro.

"So this is the shrine of a new god?" He asked as Mykro nodded along, "Yup, the god of Magic, Fantasy, Dreams, and the Moon!" She said, thumping her staff on the ground, causing a few new flowers to grow around the windows.

"Hello, I see you've got to work, Mykro," I said politely as I emerged from the door frame and showed myself to the young man, and Mykro, who, by the slight smirk she was hiding, already knew I was there.

"O-oh great goddess, I didn-" The man started to sputter as he attempted to bow but stopped when I made a cutting motion with my hand. I was also forced to cut off a snort as he mistook me for a girl, which was something I knew was a chance when I picked this form but was nonetheless amusing.

"There's no need for over the formalities; just call me Aidan. What can I do for you?" I asked as he slowly stood up from his bow, still very nervous and caught off guard by my relaxed speech and lack of apparent godly power.

"I-I just saw this new building and wanted to see what it was," He said, aborting a bow once again as he attempted to act more relaxed, but all it did was reveal his nervousness.

"Is there anything you wish you could achieve, some dream you have given up on?" I asked as I walked closer to him, and he stiffened up and took a half step back.

"I-I wish I could fly," He attempted in a low whisper as if ashamed that he did have a wish. I then grinned and reached grabbed one of the tiny motes of faith floating around inside of me and rested a hand on his shoulder.

I then pushed faith into his body, focusing on the dream and fantasy of being able to fly through the skies with ease and how I felt the first time I peered down on Earth from high above.

He shuddered as he took a step back, and his eyes glanced up at me, paradoxically, both more scared and somewhat comforted. "Try taking a step into the air," I said softly, and after a moment of looking at me, he took a step forward, and after attempting to take another without lowering his original foot, he noticed something.

He was floating in the air, and as he blinked rapidly, he ascended to the ceiling of the chapel and broke out into massive smiles. Swooping down, he caught me in a massive hug as tears slipped down his face and the Grimoire grew.

"I can fly!" He shouted before realizing what he had done and backing off while bowing profusely and stammering out apologies for overstepping his bounds.

Mykro was smirking openly as I raised a hand to stop his apologies, "This blessing will last for only a week, and even that can vary on how much you fly; I only request that you see if others would like to come and worship at my chapel."

"Of course, goddess," He said, bowing once again before flying out of the room with another whoop of excitement. I could feel the outpouring of faith which left me with a fuzzy feeling in my head and a grin on my face.

"Feels good, doesn't it, Father," Mykro said, leaning on her staff with a grin, "I remember the few times I got a taste of faith felt like the best meal you could ever have,"

I nodded absentmindedly as I slowly regained focus. Mentally eyeing the pool of faith floating around in me, I realized that even with just that one person's faith, I already had a decent amount that would only grow with regular prayer.

"I do have some fights tomorrow, so I'm going to get some sleep," I said to Mykro, receiving a nod in response before I turned and left through the back door and the Path beyond it.

Flying through the sunflower field, I arrived at the faith collector and quickly inspected it to ensure it received the faith from the pylon correctly.

Checking the pool, I saw a small layer of glowing white liquid. Retrieving a vial, I picked up a tiny amount of faith and, in one swing, downed it.

As it flowed over my mouth, I could taste the brownies I used to have every so often after school. The faith then settled into my own pool as I took a deep breath and, for a brief moment, felt like stars had exploded behind my eyes as familiar dreamlike laughter drifted over my ears.

Setting the vial down with faintly trembling hands, I remembered how Mykro had said that the few times she had faith, it tasted amazing, which makes sense with what I just had.

Walking inside my house, I noticed just beside my room was another nondescript door. Opening it, I saw a library filled with hundreds of books.

Stepping inside, I saw on a lectern in front of the entrance a small book, and flipping it open revealed a list of where certain types of books.

Directly in front of me was Formal craft and rituals, while the further you got out, the more complex and dangerous the books and knowledge contained got.

It seemed like a new power, and as I summoned the Grimoire to my side and flicked through the pages, my guess was confirmed. The power was called Eternal Library and translated everything about magic I knew into this place; it would keep growing as I learned more which made this a wonderful way to keep track of things I might forget or what to teach to others.

Leaving the library and closing the door, I arrived in my bedroom, seeing that Komainu was curled up already. Smiling softly, I settled in next to her and soon fell asleep.

Blinking slowly, I looked around the small restaurant I had worked at; standing behind the counter was Dromery, clad in the black pants and red shirt of the uniform, staring at me with a smug smile on her face.

"Really?" I asked as her smile grew, and in a moment of eye-burning horror, her form shifted and fell in on itself as I could see dozens of people, locations, and other things slowly dissolving while screaming into the pink stuff that made up her and the dream realm. By the time I had shaken my head and refocused my eyes, she was clad in the dress, Santa hat, and holding the thick tome I normally saw her in.

"Anyway, you're now a fully-fledged god of Dreams, so I'd like you to hold up your end of the bargain," She said, reaching under the counter where the table markers were and retrieving a small lump of flesh that pulsed slowly with the faint sound of a beating heart.

Generally accepting it, I looked at it cautiously, "What should I do with this?" I asked as I looked back up at Doremy, who started to explain, "All you have to do is plant it and water it with faith, give it a few seconds, and you'll have a beautiful dream tree,"

I nodded at the explanation, "Alright, make sense; you mind if I ask how it works?" I asked, given that I was a god of dreams now. I was curious about how this worked, given that I thought Doremy was entirely a dream entity and, therefore, unable to travel to the physical world.

"That is a chunk of what remains of my physical form," She then broke out into laughter as I fumbled with the lump of flesh and almost dropped it. "I was a mortal once, you know, for a given definition of mortal," She continued with an enigmatic smile.

"Anyway, that is the last chunk that I've been preventing from becoming dream stuff; I had a dream that one day I could walk among mortals once again. The point is once it's given faith or belief, it will grow into a youkai of its own, which will be connected to me and allow me to exist in the physical realm so long as that tree lives."

I turned that explanation in my head over as I nodded along. It made sense and would be a bridge to the dream world where Doremy lived. I knew that belief made a youkai, so one that was made from a piece of Doremy would obviously be connected to her and, from what she said, allow a portion of her dream self into the physical world.

"Anything else?" I asked as the Grimoire pulsed, and Dormey cocked her head as if listening to something before she shook her head no. "Nah, just get that tree grown soon; feeling real grass will be a treat; hell, I'll toss in a bonus. If you get that tree grown, I can give you the rundown on how I became what I am today and even how you could ascend past your current godhood." She said, causing my mind to start jumping ahead at the idea of what could be past godhood.

"I'll make sure to get right on that," I said before giving a polite bow; however, unlike every other time where the world faded away as I woke up. This time I felt a tugging pain as I stumbled toward the Ruler of the Dreamworld. Doremy's chest twisted as the fabric and flesh beneath it opened up again to reveal a maw with gnashing teeth that was pulling me in toward the scene of millions of people, places, and nascent gods being digested.

I shot up in my bed, breathing heavily as Komainu turned over in her sleep, grumbling while she attempted to grasp my arm. I didn't know why my heart was racing. It presumably had something to do with my dreams, but the last I remembered was to tell Doremy I would get started on growing the trees and then waking up.

Carefully extracting myself, I resummoned my robes and headed out of my house, only to be greeted by one of my simulacra. "Hello, boss; we got that clone spell done. Would you like us to put it any specific?" He asked, his arms clasped loosely behind his back

"Just tuck it around, back away from anybody who could stumble upon it. Just don't set up traps or defenses. I don't want Reimu stumbling out and being caught in a Glyph of Warding,"

Giving a sloppy salute, the simulacrum was off, shouting to the others as they lifted up the coffin and started moving it. Held in my hand was the faintly beating lump of flesh that Doremy had given me as I traveled toward the side of my house opposite of the forge.

Taking a few moments, I dug a hole in the ground and buried the pulsating lump of flesh. Placing a hand over the hole, I reached into the small puddle of faith inside my chest and siphoned it out of my hand and into the soil.

The mystical energy was soaked up by the flesh and, in moments, had broken free of the surface, quickly growing. In a few seconds, it had reached my height as the faintly pink wood interwove to create the trunk of a tree.

The trunk grew taller and taller until it towered above me. The branches spread out, forced to bend by the curve of this pocket dimension until they covered a large portion of my home. I stopped momentarily and peered at the faintly pink thick limbs of the tree until the branches started to split as trees did, each smaller stem pinker until the tiny tips resembled the dream stuff that made up Doremy's realm.

Soon after, I saw the branches start to emit a pink fluff, much like cotton candy wrapped around the branches and casting a pink glow on my home. Soon after, I felt a similar feeling of comfort and home as I had on the moon, which resulted in my taking a deep breath and focusing in front of me.

A small stick was then formed out of the free-floating dream stuff shed by the strange leaves that made up the dream tree; it was then that I realized what this tree was doing.

It acted as a bridge to the dreamworld like Doremy said; however, it did that by making the surroundings a smaller world halfway into the said world. This meant my new home was similar to Yuuka's and offered me a considerable power boost because this counted as me being in my domain, like being on the moon, enhanced my power.

I then felt a trembling in the air as the tree shook; casting my gaze up, I saw the branches parting to reveal a figure landing with the rising sun casting a glow around them.

My eyes itched as the slightly off form of Doremy made itself clear. She floated down with her book clutched in one hand and her tail flicking around behind her as she looked around with a giant smile on her face.

"After ten thousand years, I'm finally free!" She shouted, her arms held up in the air, her smile unchanged as she floated a few inches above the sunflowers.

I groaned and put my face in my hands; I assumed she got that from seeing dreams from the outside world, but given what she had said, it was likely longer than ten thousand years which meant she had said that just to mess with me.

The dream warped around me as Doremy vanished and appeared over my shoulder and whispered in my ear, "Seriously, thank you, I may have been the ruler of the dreamworld, but it was still only a dream," She then floated back and landed in front of the trunk of the massive tree that had sprouted.

Running a hand over it, she looked at it with what seemed like fondness and nostalgia for a moment before she turned back to face me. "Do you have anything to eat?" She asked,

"I can whip something up for you; how do you feel about pancakes?" I asked as I started to lead her inside and towards my kitchen. "That would be great; I could share how to ascend further as we eat," She said, which caused me to hurry into the kitchen and retrieve the supplies required.

The Grimoire grew as I finished up a stack of pancakes and gave her a third while setting a third aside for Komainu. Sitting down, I gave her the Dust-made syrup along with the proper utensils before retrieving the same for me and starting to eat, ready for what she would tell me after we finished.

Powers Gained

Eternal Libary

Over the course of your life, you will learn so much of magic that it will become utterly impossible for a mortal to fully comprehend the extent of your mind, but with this warehouse attachment you might be able to help others stick their toes into the sea of your knowledge. This massive library can be access by a door in your warehouse that will automatically add books written from your magical knowledge. You could find absolutely every single magical technique you know somewhere in this library, and the library will keep expanding in size to accommodate your swelling intellect. The library will keep expanding and the books will come into existence with no upper limit, meaning that over the course of your adventures this could become the most complete source of magic knowledge in all of the multiverse.