Opening the Gate

~Do you want a revolution?!~

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Bathsheba vaulted over the gates of the Twilight Manor, angering and surprising the sentry who were guarding the place. They shouted at her and those riding her to stop and to return back outside, not realizing who she was carrying because of her speed. But she soon came to a stop right beside the stairs that lad up to the entrance of the manner.

Bathsheba opened her jaws and from them fell a dazzled Loki, who dripped with a little wolf drool as she swayed about in place, partly due to a drunken haze and partly because of the journey here. It was only a few seconds before she collapsed fully and passed out from the excitement of it all.

Steve grimaced a little as he saw the mess of a goddess that he had dropped in front of the manor and he looked at Ais apologetically.

"Sorry about that. It looks like we'll have to carry her inside."

"It's no problem." Ais said as she shifted on the Warg's back. "I can carry her inside."

"You sure?" She nodded in response. "Well if you say so. We're going to have to go now. I have a War Game to prepare for so I'll be a little busy for the next few days."

"Hm. Good luck." Ais wished for her boyfriend. "I look forward to seeing you win."

"I'm glad that you're already so optimistic." Steve smiled. "Already thinking I've won."

"Well you are stronger than them. You can do it easily. I'm sure of it." Ais leaned towards him and closed her eyes expectantly. 

Steve complied and kissed her tenderly, holding it for a few seconds before they parted and smiled at each other, a little red in their faces. Their interactions had become much better at this point, and expressing affection was a lot smoother. It didn't completely get rid of the shyness but Steve knew that Ais was more comfortable now than she was that morning. As long as that was the case, he was alright.

"AHEM." Ptah cleared his throat behind Steve and the gamer looked behind him to see Ptah folding his arms while looking at him with a raised brow. Hestia had been dropped off some ways back, insisting that she would make it home easily.

Steve didn't argue to drop her off right outside her home. Ptah would have insisted that the goddess stay with them again. That was not feasible because number one, he was going to open the Gate. And number two, because now that he knew Bell Cranel was in the city, he wanted little interaction with Hestia so that she would eventually approach Bell and ask him to join her Familia.

When Steve said he wanted to be the back-ground guy, he meant that he still wanted canon to play out somehow. Although he didn't know how that would happen since he had taken Ais for himself, and it was entirely possible that Bell would not get his skill.

But to put it simply, while the events of Danmachi was going on, Steve would be engaging with the events of Sword Oratoria. He would have temporary fame, then the public would be focusing on the adventures and controversies of the uprising prodigy and they would put Steve to the back of their minds. 

Now beginning a relationship with Ais threw a spanner into those works. If he had just gone with Tiona, then canon would have played out perfectly. But now he supposed that Bell would have to find a new fascination.

...

"Bye Steve." Ais said as she was about to slip off before she paused. "Are you still bringing your friends tomorrow? Even with the War Game that's about to happen."

"You bet." Steve smiled. "Come by tomorrow with Tiona, and you'll meet them."

"I will." Ais nodded.

"Goodbye, beautiful."

"...goodbye." Ais murmured as she blushed before hopping off Bathsheba. Steve did not let any chance that night go to waste for him to tell her good she looked. And she truly did. Steve had thoroughly enjoyed her outfit and the time he'd spent with her. He'd be sure to try and get her into a similar situation again at some point.

Steve's attention was caught by a movement in one of the windows. Focusing on it, he saw Tiona waving down at him with a cheeky smile on her face. Steve shook his head and blew a kiss at her from where he was. The Amazon mimed catching it and then made a point of looking at him while licking the inside of her palm.

This made the Minecrafter raise a dramatic eyebrow as he observed her implicative, degenerate behaviour before he laughed. 

He turned the Warg around and Bathsheba vaulted over the stunned guards who merely stood by in stupor as they recognised Steve and Ais, though they were shocked at the intimate actions between the two. Nevertheless, upon recognising a friend of the Familia, they did not react as Steve and his company left the Manor grounds.

With all the nightly affairs done and sorted, Steve's mind then turned to home and to the several schemes he had ready for a time like this. He was going to shake Orario to its foundation with the show he was about to put on.

---

Steve closed the heavy door to the grotto and secured it with a large bolt he'd installed when renovating the place for Ptah. The god in question stared at him with a confused look as he crossed his arms and tilted his head.

"The hell you look so tense for?" Ptah asked. "You're not nervous about the War Game declaration right?"

"Of course not." Steve grunted. "It's just that...tonight, you're going to get some new children."

Ptah's eyes widened before he adopted a serious demeanour and unfolded his arms.

"You bringing them now?" Ptah asked.

"Yes." Steve said as he began pushing Ptah in the direction of his room. "Come. Let's go and do this together."

Ptah said nothing as Steve led him to his bedroom. He did widen his eyes though as Steve lifted up the board in his closet to reveal the trapdoor. Upon lifting the lid, Ptah looked over the edge into what seemed like a gaping darkness, though there was some small source of light shining down there.

"When did you build this thing?" 

"While you were unconscious." Steve said. "Every Minecrafter builds a secret room or secret base in their establishments. It's in our nature."

"Minecrafter." Ptah repeated. "I still don't understand how you coined that term for yourself."

"Simple. Because we mine stuff, and with the resources we mine, we craft stuff." Steve answered. "It could also have something to do with the fact that our the different realms of our lands are collectively called the world of Minecraft since what we do is basically how all the creatures in it live. But yeah, that's where the term came from. Hup!"

Steve jumped into the hole and fell a good few feet before landing on the ground, and holding his arms up in time to catch Ptah so the little god did not break his legs upon landing. Ptah shook the dizziness off from his free-fall and looked around the room they'd landed in. His eyes fell upon the treasure pile in the corner.

"Do you Minecrafters also have no regard for securing your riches in a mannerly order?"

"Of course we do. It's just that nobody knows this is down here besides us, so why should we go to that extreme." Steve lit a couple more lanterns before he fixated on the stone portal frame and walked up to it. He lifted a hand up to the frame, and a screen propped up on his interface.

"This is the gate?" Ptah asked as he stepped up and examined the archway. 

"Yes." Steve answered. "I would not recommend standing in front of it like that. Once I open it, there's no telling what might jump out. I'm confident I can tank any attack, but you are sealed and therefore quite vulnerable in that form."

"Fine, fine." Ptah sidestepped so he was not in front of the opening. He looked up and down the archway and marvelled at all the carvings on it. "Did you engrave these things yourself?"

"Yes I did. Different languages from my original home world. You should recognise a few things here if you've been reading that book carefully."

"Yes I do." Ptah said as he looked at a hieroglyph of a boat with three ancient Egyptian men rowing across the water with oars. "This character right here symbolises a journey from one place to another. You've really gone all out on the symbolism haven't ya?"

"I love aesthetics as much as I love purpose." Steve said as he typed in the server IP from memory. The 'CONFIRM' button became a light grey, indicating that it was no available to press. "Alright, stand back." Steve grimaced as he his finger hovered over the button. "This is going to be LOUD."

"Loud? What do you mean-" Ptah jumped back as a consequence of what cut him off.

...

All of Gekai either woke up or were startled out of their seats as a strange sound blared in their ears. It was reminiscent of a thunderclap, followed by what sounded like a draught blowing through an empty hallway or even out of a deep, dark tomb...like a pyramid perhaps. It was then ended by something that sounded almost like the roar of animal yet as this 'roar' neared the end, it sounded less like an animal and more akin to the draught.

Those that heard it felt shivers, and their skin prickled with goosebumps as the eery noise passed over them. Mother's clutched their babies to their chest while children pulled up their bedcovers over their heads as they trembled a little. Adventurers tightened their grips around their weapons and gods simply narrowed their eyes in both intrigue and confusion.

Even down in the dungeon, all the spawned monsters looked up to the surface in inquiry about what was going on.

Every single thing that heard this sound instinctively gained a mental picture in mind...that something had been opened, and whatever it had opened to was something deep and unknown, sinister perhaps. Whatever it was, they all knew that something had changed, something had been opened and many collectively decided that it could be something that should never have been opened.

...However, one individual in particular had a different reaction.

Far to the North, in a mountainous region covered in ice and harsh winds, a place appropriately called 'Dragon Valley', something stirred. In a large cave, the mouth of which faced away from the winds, in the base of the mountain ranges, an ancient creature roused from sleep as it opened a giant reptilian eye.

Hot steam blew from its nostrils as it was disturbed by the loud noise and it fixated on one part of the sound in particular. The roar that could be heard so distinctly in that sounded both familiar and challenging...for it resembled that of another alpha dragon. The infamous beast, feared and even worshipped by some, growled a little, the mountain under which it slept shaking with the rumbles emerging from its throat.

To hear the roar of another alpha dragon in the world that it ruled by fear was an unspeakable blasphemy...and for a beast such as it, what would be the appropriate answer?

...

"Crap." Steve said. 'I should have set global sound events to false...would that have even worked though?'

"The hell was that about?!" Ptah shouted. "That was more than just loud! What did you do?"

"I opened a portal." Steve said simply as he gestured to the portal frame. "Look."

The portal looked just like a nether portal except that it was green instead of purple. It swirled with mysterious invitation as Ptah took a little step further back. 

"I'm coming with you right?" He asked Steve.

"No, not needed. Besides, I would advise against it." Steve said he walked into another room. A few moments later, he came back out but this time clothed in his iconic get-up. "I'm not sure that with your Arcanum sealed, you'd be able to survive the gravitational pressure."

"What do you mean by that?"

"The gravity over there is three times greater than normal gravity here." Steve explained. "If anybody from here with a normal mortal body walked through this doorway, once they were on the other side, their organs would explode. I'm making plans for future expeditions in those realms. I've surmised that only adventurers as powerful as a moderate level 2 and above can come through here and not die."

"...But then again, it is another world right?" Ptah asked. "I would not be violating the Pact if I unleashed my sealed powers. It would protect me against harm too."

"I just don't want you coming through here just yet. I need to meet up with my friends and see if they're going to tag along. There is much I will have to explain to them about this world. Time also moves so much faster in there like you could not imagine. What's only been like a month out here, has been a few years in there."

"Really?" Ptah raised his eyebrow. "Well just how old are you really?"

"If we go by the temporal stream of these realms, I am still 18 years old. Coming on to 19 quite soon." Steve then quirked his own eyebrows with a smirk. "But if we go by Minecraft years, then I am...I would be over 1008 years old."

"...No wonder you're so cocky." Ptah rolled his eyes. "Brats these days...they hit a millennium and they suddenly think they know everything."

"And you're as insufferable as ever." Steve rolled his eyes. "Once I get them all here, I'll be happy to dump the responsibility of looking after you on the lot of them."

"And it also means I get to talk to other people than a ungrateful twit like you." Ptah stabbed the Sceptre in his back. "Go on. Go get your freak gallery and come back soon. I'll be waiting."

Steve huffed and squared his shoulders before walking right through. The portal swirled around his frame before it simply devoured him and he vanished from sight. Ptah sighed in distraught.

"I finally find a new place to travel to and I can't even go in the first time a doorway is opened." He then lifted his head as his mind went on to more important things, namely the upcoming Denatus where he would have to meet with Freya to decide what type of War Game would be held and what wagers they would place against one another.

It was quite obvious what Freya would want from him...but what could he take from her?

What could he possibly take from her when so much had already been stolen from her? How could he take anything when he had loved her as he once did? The guilt over his and Freya's strained past weighed heavily upon his heart even now. And though he resented her for what she had emotionally manipulated him into doing...he still loved her as he had always done...

In the end, Ptah supposed that the one person best to decide what to demand from Freya would be the one that was not connected to Freya in any way, and who was capable of being cruel and cold...that being Stephen Hewer. His child had many sides to him. In fact, Steve reminded Ptah a lot of himself from his young days where he was the first amongst the gods to walk heaven, long, long before most of the others had come along. Someone consumed by their overwhelming power, and could be cruel and petty even if they did not have an overarching evil goal. 

Somebody who had no problem working for the greater good but would not actively go out of his way to chase that goal, focusing mainly on fulfilling his own ambitions and walking his own path of discovery. It was a way of life Ptah knew too well. And one he hoped Steve did not walk on too briskly...there was no telling where he could trip.

---

Steve opened his eyes as a blast of cool air hit his face in great contrast to the warmth of the underground base. He gasped slightly as his eyes were met with a beautiful sight. It was so majestic, that even with all the powers he had at his disposal, he felt insignificant in a beautiful sort of way.

The handbook he'd been given from 'Nekros' had told him of how there was no more render distance and how vision would be just as easy as real life. The Nether had been quite a fruitful and fiery experience but it was so dark and didn't really have any form of ethereal beauty as what lay before him.

The Overworld.

Rolling in front of him was lush green meadows and pastures full of flowers and grazing cows and sheep, with occasional charges of horses running along winding rivers

 As his eyes travelled further, the greenery gave away to rocky terrain and great mountains that had forests growing above them. But as the land began ascending further, the green mountains became even larger snow mountains over which he could visibly see snow storms raging around the high peaks. Yet even with how realistic it all was, his Minecrafter eye could still see the blocks he could mine if he so wished.

In the Nether, he had experimented to see if he could switch between Minecraft laws and normal laws just as he did in Gekai. And to his delight, it was the same. If he intended to mine a block, he got a block. If he wanted to do things normally, then he would get it normally.

Same things with structures. If he mined it by blocks, then the structure would remain suspended even if he dug out the entire foundation. If he did things normally, then gravity would seem to kick in and the whole thing would fall. This was confirmed when he managed to collapse a part of the Nether bastion into the lava pools. He supposed it was just reality leaving the choice of game physics and real life physics to him, a player. It was admittedly more fun that way as well.

But all the same, even with how different it looked to the game, he recognised his surroundings. He was at the spawn point he first logged into when he had created this world. And as he had mapped this whole place out, he knew exactly where to go. The HQ was over the other side of the snow mountain range in the distance. He took a step forward, and instantly recognised a slight more difficulty doing this.

The gravity here was much more powerful, so his normal actions were a little more restricted than it was in Gekai. But Steve theorized that Ptah's Falna had actually multiplied his strength somewhat. To what extent he didn't know, but as he easily jumped 40 blocks in the air without the help of a suped-up Jump Boost potion, he became even more certain of this as a fact.

Steve decided to take the more scenic route for his journey and immediately started running. Again the Falna pointed to having multiplied his existing attributes as the lands began blurring by, something that even the highest conventional speed potion could not accomplish. As customary of a player, he also began jumping to cover more distance. The wind blew in his face as he joyfully drank in the fresh air in exhilaration.

There was something about all of this that just felt so...right. Like he was meant to be doing this. He felt more at home in these realms than he did in Gekai. It made sense if that was the case, because he was a Minecrafter at heart and he was Minecraft Steve no less. This world was his home by definition, of which he was an icon. 

Pigs squealed as they rushed out of his way and he laughed at them, finding their distress amusing as they screamed at this blurring phenomenon rushing by them. As he ran by a river, he recognised a rather large village, in which he could see Villagers going about their business. Despite their funny appearances, what with their large crooked noses and their mostly bold heads, with exception of those who were clearly female. But all in all, they looked quite peaceful, especially with the Iron Golems diligently keeping guard, especially around the children.

The villager children stared at him as he rushed by and tilted their heads in confusion but he was far gone by the time they could even ponder what it was they had seen. Slowly Steve began ascending the terrain as he entered the mountain forests. He came to a slow halt as judging by the light levels, it was all too possible that monsters could spawn. And he was right as from behind a tree emerged a skeleton with its bowstring drawn taut as it poised an arrow right between his eyes.

But Steve was upon it in an instant, smashing his fist in its face and completely shattering the skull. There was simply a rattle of bones before the monster disappeared into white mist, much like powerful monsters did in the Dungeon. Steve paused as a bow and a couple of arrows dropped on the ground along with some bones. Thanks to one of the plugins, they did not float and levitate, awaiting a player to pick it up or despawn. It just lay on the ground until its was picked. On his PC, he had to click the items to pick them up.

But what need did he have for worthless items like these?

He left them there as he continued on his journey. Eventually he emerged from the forest and jumped across a large canyon onto snowy ground. His eyes quickly identified the powdered snow patches and expertly avoided them as he began jumping up the tallest mountain, placing blocks along the side so to help him have a place to stand when making his jumps.

Once he made it to the peak, he gazed upon what he wanted to see for all this time, even as the sun began to sit in the distance and the sky turned red. The mountain range actually formed a large circle, creating a basin so deep that it became plains area again where it was warm and green. He and the NPCs had created walls between the mountains so as to fortify the place and make sure that monsters or Pillagers did not come rushing down the mountains into their fortress.

Yes, there was a fortress made of blackstone walls in the middle of the basin. And inside the walls he could see smoke rising from the several houses except one, which was his own. A considerable amount of smoke was rising from the forge and the farms outside the fortress walls were filled with crops and fruit trees. He began descending down into the basin, anxiety and anticipation rising in his chest as he wondered what their reactions would be upon seeing him 'again' in their eyes.

He made it to the fortress and jumped over the lava moat before vaulting over the last wall and into the settlement. No sound could be heard from the houses except for the blast of the furnaces in in forge. Steve began to walk on the dug out path to his own house, which was the main one in the middle of the whole place and it was naturally the biggest.

The path had trees growing beside it to make the walk more pleasant. Those trees eventually ended in a couple hundred metres of orchard in his front lawn. As he walked through the orchard, his senses began tingling as his ears caught the sound of someone breathing.

His acute hearing caught the sound of clinking metal and the drawing of a sword and he smiled as he opened his hands and stretched his fingers. Purposefully slowing down to a slower walk, he got ready as the perpetrator revealed themselves. 

A fast and lithe figure jumped between the tree trunks, drawing a Netherite sword as they leapt towards him with a palpable intent to kill. Steve merely held his hand out and caught the enchanted blade in his fingertips effortlessly. The attacker, not expecting this, felt like they had just tried to hit an immovable object and they smacked into their own sword. Luckily they were wearing Netherite armour and so the helmet protected them from the sharp edge.

"Whaaaaa...?" They murmured in confusion as the helmet turned up at him in confusion, puzzled over where this super strength had come from even with no visible potion particles.

Steve pulled the sword aside and stared at the figure. The Netherite armour was shaped to fit a woman, and considering there was only one NPC whose first instinct would be to attack him upon seeing him again, he flicked off their helmet and smiled.

"Hello Kai."

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