Many Changes

Lain face was gloomy, dark as a black pan bottom, making it seem he was furious. However, that was far from the truth, as he was actually thinking of how to deal with this problem. For one he needed to make sure his authority doesn't become weak by any mean necessary, so in this situation, he must punish Gaia and Raul. If they cause other NPCs to act in a similar way, he would have to do the unthinkable and end them, to make an example.

Gaia and Raul didn't know what Lain was thinking, all the saw was his angry expression, which kept alternating between gloominess and calmness. So not knowing what was causing his face to change like this, only made their hearts become grip by a foreboding feel of danger. If they know the conclusion he came to, they both would be scared out of their minds. Because he was looking at them like they would betray him, which was the last thing on their minds.

Other than his dilemma of enforcing his authority, Lain was drawn to a problem he was subconsciously evading. How did Gaia and Raul arrive behind him? If it was not because of him summoning the Frost Giant, which allow his mana to flow in the area, he would be lost. It could also be because he was using [Lurkering Monster] which brought his powers down to a low level, from his perspective.

Curious, Lain cup his chin as he asks, " Gaia and Raul, I have a question to ask. How did you approach me without my knowledge?" He didn't sense the presence of magic or skill being use, so how did they do it? Could the world experience changes he didn't know of?

Raul was a handsome man by even the standards of the other races. Raul was a skinny man with a pale white complexion, that seems was caused by plague or disease. Long black hair that drop down from his crown. His brows were bushy and sharp, which gave him the appearance of a ruthless man. His eyes were black with a hint of gold in its center, given him a regal and mysterious vibe. His eyes seem to contain more power than normal, which could probably making a dragon submit. As he kneeled, one would feel compelled to kneel as well, showing his emperor aura around him was real. He truly lives up to his status as the Emperor of the Earth.

On his head, was a foot tall golden crown that had a black star as its centerpiece. He was wearing a long white emperor robe that was adorned by many golden stars. Around his waist was a white belt, which was made from dragon skin. On his back was a long black spear of around 4 meters which was longer than his 2-meter frame.

Raul lifts his head up high, projecting a sense of confidence as he responded to Lain, " Father, from my knowledge, mother and I have been able to use the power of Earth, at our will, since the dawn of our creation. I don't know if it's the same in the other worlds. Controlling this power, we are able to do many things that on our own, we are unable to. For example, sneaking up on you. Speaking of this, I want you to know we didn't know these anomalies originated from you; so because we didn't know who it was, we immediately thought it could be an enemy since if someone had descended, we should know of it."

Lain eyes twitch, as he signed deeply in his heart. He had just got a child in the form of the World Tree and now he had a son and a wife? When he had created the World Tree, he had made it with the idea of a family in mind. He wanted something he never had in the real world and thus he created a family of six in a fantasy universe. Raul was one of his children and Gaia was his wife.

Calming his headache that was building up, Lain focuses on what Raul has said. ' What is this power he is talking about? Mmm, he must be talking about the Floor Guardian Assistance that a guardian of a floor in a guild receives, which boosts their powers beyond their levels, however, this can only be used in their floors and now where else.' This didn't clear up Lain's confusion, instead, it only made it worse. He cannot remember him adding this feature in the guild, he never saw a reason to. His guild had never been attacked before, and each world had more than one max level NPCs, which was already balance breaking. Lain was afraid if he adds such a feature, the Chief Dev would be angry and delete his guild. After all, it was already a blessing that the Chief Dev didn't say anything about his action of violating the rule of having a guild, which a Dev was not to allow to do.

Lain was also accepting of Raul's words, as he indeed didn't tell them he was descending, and with his immense power as a Chaos Titan, their ability to sense people arriving in their world didn't work on him. So their choice of action was direct and logical from a statistical standpoint. However there is a flaw in their approach, these two although are the Guardians of Earth, shouldn't be on the front lines. They should have sent a few of the Ministers of Earth and High Priestess of Life to monitor the area before arriving themselves. Lain buried his suspicions in his mind, for a later time.

Lain turned his head to the side, "Gaia, why haven't you said anything this entire time? Are you upset with me or is there something else on your mind?"

At the end of his sight was a beautiful woman that was worthy of being called a goddess. A single glance from this woman could cause catastrophes on Earth. Wars would start to win her affection, only for them to find out she already belongs to someone.

Gaia has a dark brown caramel color skin that shone with life, power, and dignity of a strong woman. Her head was full of long blue hair, that seems to feel and smell like the sea. Peaking out of her hair was two long curved horns that gave one the feeling of reverence. Also peaking out of her hair was two long pointed ears that were even longer than that of the Elves. Her eyes were green, which seem to gleam with vitality. In the center of her limpid green eyes, a vertical slit rested, given her even more charm than she already had. Her lips were crimson red like a magma.

Gaia was wearing a long blue dress that cover her entire body, except for her arms. The blue dress had many pictures on it, which were animals, beast, land, humans, etc. All these pictures which cover her dress didn't make it look tacky, instead, it made it look original and fresh. This dress seems to have been made just for her. On the back of the dress was the insignia of the guild, a black fist grasping a golden tree.

(AN: Okay I want everyone to assume that everyone from the guild had an insignia somewhere on their clothes because I might forget to add.)

Unlike her son, Raul who had a weapon strap to his back, all Gaia had on her person was a black ring that sat in her left ring finger. On the top of the ring an emblem of a black fist grabbing a golden tree, and underneath the emblem, a few words, 'To my beloved wife, Gaia End Chaos, thank you for all your hard work. As a reward, I present to you, the Ring of Contract. May our love be forever eternal as the World Tree.'

With everything on her, with her beauty, clothing, and aura Gaia truly lives up to her name as the Mother Goddess of Life, Nature, and the World Tree. No one else was worthy of those titles.

"No my husband, you gotten it wrong. I have nothing to add, thus I have remained quiet, sorry if I invoke your wrath." Gaia calmly spoke, making one wonder how strong was this woman? She could talk to the Master of the World Tree with such confidence. However, if one look under that facade one would see, helplessness and dread; not many would understand her feeling and she hopes none ever will.

Lain eyes narrowed slightly, " I see. Now, I must punish the two of you. I don't want to, however as your hearts may feel some guilt for your actions, I have decided to give you both the mission of assembling the family in my world in a few hours. The latest you can reach the Throne Room is at noon, any later and I must punish you further." Lain looked to the sky of Earth and commented before he left, "This truly is a beautiful world."

(AN: look even the Mc comment, why can't my reader do the same?")

Lain teleported back to his dissension point, before ascending back to his world, Golden Nation. He sat relaxing on his throne.

Before Lain was a mirror that showed Gaia and Raul.

Lain was quite suspicious of them, however, he had no real reason as to why. They had done everything they were supposed to do, so why does he feel a sense of unease?

*

With the departure of Lain, Raul was the first to stand up, feeling a bit chilly on his back from sweating. Although his meeting with Father had not gone as he had expected, mainly because of the sense of dread he felt in his presence. He has never felt such a feeling before and was very sure that no matter of force could harm his Father. Especially since according to the circulating myths, the form his Father has earlier was not even his true form. The dread he felt was not even half of what his Father could dish out.

Raul turned to his mother and saw she was trembling all over, her body was sweaty as her dress stuck to her body. The earth underneath her body had sunk in a few centimeters, showing that the pressure on her was stronger than him.

Raul frowned as he went to support his mother. The reason he was frowning was how his Father treated his mother, no, his wife. She was the mother of all his children, so the least he could do was care for her as well.

"Mother, are you okay?" Raul hugs his mother and ask warily. He was not one to know much about the matter of the heart, so he cannot say much in this situation, however, he knew he loves his mother and didn't want to see her hurt.

Gaia hugs her son back, before pushing him away, " I'm fine my son, just surprise that's all. Don't be angry at your Father, he didn't do anything to me. This all happened because of my dragon side, it was fighting against the aura your Father was emitting, not willing to submit, however, how could my bloodline win against the Supreme God? If your Father has not left, I fear my dragon side would have surrender which would have weakened my abilities greatly."

Raul's eyes widen slightly, as he never senses it at all. He was directly next to his mother, so how come he didn't feel this unknown battle going on? Raul nodded discreetly as he felt he realize why his Father has left so abruptly, he probably knew he would harm his mother the longer he stays around.

"Mother, do you think this is the reason he doesn't allow you to his world? Maybe he fears to hurt you so he seals himself off from us, his family. Maybe he has been hurting more than us, at least we can visit and see each other, he has no one." Raul signed, only understanding why his Father has not shown up for over ten thousand years. It's not that he didn't want to, he couldn't. If even in his weakened form he was so deadly, one must imagine his true form, maybe no one could survive being in his presence.

Gaia closes her eyes, before cleaning herself with magic, " Maybe this was the reason, or maybe it's not. All I know is that he gave me children to look over, making me the mother of all of you, but he left me alone to do everything. He is the Supreme God, if he wanted to, he could easily have been by my side during this process, however, he chose not to, leaving me alone on Earth." A pain expression covered Gaia's face, causing her to become even more charming.

Lain who was watching everything from his Throne Room, clinch the armrest of his throne, feeling a pain in his heart. He had never thought Gaia had seen everything from a different perspective than himself. To him, only a few years had gone by, but to the NPCs, ten thousand years had gone by. Lain felt he had failed, he fails as a Father, he fails as a Husband, he was just a failure.

It was only now that he realizes what he was feeling around them, it was guilt. His mind might be from Earth but his body was from Yggdrasil, so it went through a time, the same amount of time as Gaia. Since he had made Gaia his wife, his body naturally desires her and love her, to the point that when he was around her, guilt had awoken inside of him.

Tears stream down, as he never thought he meant something to anyone. He had been an orphan, who was force to raise himself. He was alone in a cruel and dark world and all he could do was scrape by, by any mean necessary. He had gone days without food, or water, on the brink of death many times, which harden his mind. He was lucky enough to be found by an old lady who took him in and sends him to school, which he was forever thankful for. He worked himself through many levels of society, earning himself a small place for himself. When he looked back, looking for the old lady, he learns she had died, leaving him alone, making him feel lonely and miserable. He told himself he would start a family and leave a mark in the world, however, no matter where he looks, no one found him attractive or likable to start a family with. Sadden by the, he worked hard and was rewarded by becoming a Dev of Yggdrasil, becoming a God to some. He thought since he couldn't make a family in the real world, why not make one in the game? That's what he did, however at the end of the day, these were NPCs, data, instead of real people, so he was never satisfied with them, thus he seals himself in his world, never experiencing the vastness of his creation.

However, it seems like God has eyes and had brought him to this universe to live his dream of having a family, real one. In this place, which he cares not if it was a dream, game or reality, all he knows was that he will stay here, and be a husband and Father like he dreams of.

"Mother, you have me and the others, so how can you say you are alone?! Do you not want us anymore?!!" Raul shouted at his mother, something he had never dare to do, even as a kid. However, it hurt his heart to see her like this.

Gaia smiles and rubs Raul's face, kissing him on the forehead, " You all are my children, so how can I be alone? I'm sorry to have worried you."

As the two of them spoke, they heard a voice in their heads, [ Gaia, forgive me, I have not lived up to your expectations, I failed as your husband and I hope to make it up to you. Come to my world, I want you by my side, for you are my queen.] as the voice spoke, a huge portal opened up in front of them, causing Earth to quake violently, even more so than what happens previously with the rift in space.

What Lain has done was breaking a restriction he had place on teleportation in the tree. Since it was a rule set in the World Tree by him, it breaking made Earth, the place the rule had broke at, to be on verge of collapse.

Gaia looks into the portal in shock as she saw her husband sitting in his throne, with tears on his face. She never knew the Supreme God could cry, if someone had said it, she would never believe it, but here she was seeing it with her own eyes.

He had spread his arms open as of waiting for her to fall into his embrace. Gaia hesitated for a moment before stepping into the portal, which close soon after.

The world recovered back to normal. Some people in the world tried to teleport to another world, however, they found the restriction had returned and become even stronger than before. No, even teleporting a step was harder than usual, requiring the same amount of strength as teleporting a mile.

Raul stood there frozen with shock as he couldn't comprehend what he had witnessed. His Father had ripped a giant hole between worlds, yes, what his Father did was not [Gate], it was more brutal.

To rip a hole in space with brute strength, how powerful was be exactly?

As he was alarmed, Raul heard a voice in his head, [Raul, my son, thank you for taking care of your mother all this while. You will have to rule over Earth by yourself, you are a man now. Also, since your mother will be staying with me from today forth, you will have to visit and tell your siblings to gather in my world on your own. You are not allowed to use [Message], you must go to there worlds, and see your siblings.]

Hearing the voice, Raul kneeled and acknowledged his order. Raul got up and left for the Human Continent to get prepared for his misson, while smiling, happy for his mother. Maybe now she can be at peace.

TO BE CONTINUE ⏩