Fesian read the feeds that day as he usually did. Every day at 15 00 hrs, the new story only he among his friends seemed to know would publish a chapter.

And he always ate that shit up like corn, whatever that was. He needed the fix, after all.

Today's chapter was still covering the secret preparations of the people of Earth 3079 for the apocalypse, as they called it. He had never thought of it that way, the coming of the system, but he'd been born under it.

The system was hardly a bad thing for people like him who lived normal lives in the middle reaches of the multiverse. To them it didn't matter who ruled. As long as he was alive, nothing really mattered in the end.

Nothing had changed when the heretics took over their sector for a few years. Well, at least for their planets which did not have enough faith to form deities.

The story was starting to reach a lull as it approached its midpoint. The only intriguing thing was when the protagonist of the story started to find out something at the end there. That her cousin had gone missing, and it was only a few weeks to the tutorial starting.

"Gods, damnit!" he cried, throwing his pad across the room. "By all the celestials, do I hate shitty cliff hangers!"

He cursed and cursed for the rest of the night. Even as he prepared a cup of nutrient juice from the cooling machine in his apartment. He was too riled up to sleep. Again. And all he could think of was a planet made of almost three thirds water, and that still had greenery in places. And where only one species of enlightened seemed to live.

It was a very imaginative story. Though the author had been smart enough to make the species have different features like skin colour. It made for an interesting premise. What if there was only one species in charge of a planet? Could they coexist and be a totally peaceful world with only one central government and whatever?

Obviously, the author believed differently. An Essence Desert which had a good amount of technological advancement, but also apparently had magical views you could only see on nature focused C-grade worlds and higher. Unless these humans had a very low bar for impressive.

The multiverse had far more beautiful sights to see, he was sure. A planet he believed should still be smaller than an F-grade world should not have the kinds of sights the author described.

Still, everything was seen through the protagonist's point of view. And she was impressed when her organisation had sent her to a continent called Africa to fight in some war. The organisation was trying to help a group of rebels take over a government.

It was some kind of conspiracy before the world went to shit. Anyway the protagonist had been in some kind of forest, and the way she'd described the large trees that seemed to be holding up the sky. The canopies that cast the landscape in perpetual darkness. The damp, earthy smell and the little insects that buzzed around them perpetually.

It was after this campaign that the protagonist had gone back to her family. Only to discover her cousin had not been in school for almost a month. She had wanted to talk to her aunt about it, but her grandmother had come to the meeting. And the woman apparently didn't like to talk about the boy.

Fesian went to stand next to the smart glass wall of his two room apartment. He used a voice command to have the AI turn the glass translucent. He stared at the violet night sky of his home planet.

He watched the flying constructs, the flying creatures, the vehicles. He watched the pedestrians on the small walkways. They were like ants from his vantage on the nine hundred third floor. Watching people always calmed him down these days.

He decided maybe he wanted to write a story too. First, he'd visit his mother over in the Third City, and then he'd ask her about the days when the system first came.

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Theirs had been a weak industrial planet before, but recently it had made the push to early D- grade. The governing council was hoping they would be promoted to a D-grade sector soon. Though for an unaligned planet without its own Deities, that would prove a bit hard. First they needed to change the entire face of the planet. Removing the primitive fuel burning industries they'd had before.

And planets with deities were not safe in the current state of the multiverse. The heretics wanted them.

He went to sigh, but his sigh was interrupted by a yawn. It was time to hit the sack, a saying he'd found was used by the people on the planet he was reading about. He entered his pod to sleep. He had no idea he wouldn't be leaving that pod physically again.

****

"A new soul?" Kira Rosa asked, watching a piece of light trapped in the first sister's web.

"Hmm," one of the other two sisters, the writer, said. "What were they reading?"

"It's about a small Essence Desert, Earth 3079. They should be starting their tutorial some time after the next fifty years," the first sister, the weaver, answered.

"Just an Essence Desert?" Kira asked. "And fifty years. We have enough time to prepare to send agents there. If anything, the Sage will be interested in guiding its development. I wonder what kind of deities they can produce if guided well."

This was the work she did these days, ever since she was relegated to taking care of their organisation's oracles. They were on tutorial watch duty.

"Yeah," number one said noncommittally, grabbing a jar in which to put the soul.

"Anyway," the second sister said. "Let me read through it and see if there is anything interesting."

"Yeah," Kira said, surprised the woman had volunteered this time.

The oracles knew they were more important than her, and often did not bother hiding this fact. They milked it for all it was worth. They made her plead with them to do their work. And they weren't even real sisters to begin with. In a religious or blood sense.

"The Chosen is normal enough," she continued. "Named Althea Bennett. Her cousin, a certain Rafael Kingsley is said to be missing. Hmm, I wonder why there is so much emphasis on that. Oh, he's dead. She finds out about it well into the integration. She is—"

"Focus," the third sister chastised her.

The weaver continued weaving her tapestry, waiting for her next catch.

"Yeah, it seems pretty standard," the second was saying, losing interest. She started lifting her head but then her eyes seemed to snag onto something.

"Oh? What's this?"

The other two both looked at her, intrigued. Kira also looked up from her own pad. The last few planets of the thirtieth universe were all that were left. The system was almost done with the newest universe. It meant they'd been getting far less souls connected to the new planets via strong strings of fate. Sometimes it would take months for them to catch a single soul.

It was no wonder the second oracle had decided to do her work for once. They were all bored. And the Sage was mostly not interested in what his pet did anymore. They were glorified pet caretakers at the moment. Or feeders, to be more technical.

"The Witch's moon. Look, it's the Enchantress' Witching moon, on an Essence Desert no less."

"What?!" The other three women scrambled from their places.

The Witching moon.

This item has been awarded as a reward to a citizen of Earth 3079 for exemplary performance during a special tutorial quest.

"Well shit," Kira said, not able to control her mortal impulses.

The oracles looked at her disapprovingly, but she ignored it. Her thoughts were racing with plans, with calculations, with considerations for the future.

"...contact her. I need to contact Hasty Mina immediately!" she cried.

Hasty was a quick operator. It took her no more than a few moments to understand what they'd discovered and the implications of it.

"No doubt Miss Devila will be pleased, but the master will be even more pleased. The core of this specific artifact. I won't go into details but the mistress thinks it can help with the master's current predicament with his skills leveling too slowly.

"Oops, you weren't supposed to know that. But yes, the master is preparing for a major breakthrough, after which his plans for the Unclaimed Throne will come to fruition. Prepare that soul. Send out more copies of that story. We need more people on the ground. That artifact must become ours. In fact, we'll need that planet to be promoted as soon as possible."

Hasty was usually a composed person but the news had her so flustered she was bubbling. The four women watched her face on the tab they were using to contact her, following her every word like hypnotized parrots.

"Have you read any more of the story?" she asked at last. "Any of the dungeons mentioned in the tutorial phase?"

"Ohh, ahh…" the second sister went to look into her book again. She skimmed through for a few seconds until she landed on something. "Ahhh, the infinite castle, the castle brook tower, and—"

"That's enough. The infinite castle will do. Maybe we can hit two goals at once. The Azeranth demon clan. I wonder if the demon horde can be convinced to part with them for our cause."

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