The Mech Touch

The Ruined Temple had undergone a major upheaval!

Even though the Water Keepers were still embroiled in a power struggle that took place behind closed doors, every other cultist stationed at the Ruined Temple had become excited beyond frenzy!

The Earth Shrine did not keep the news a secret because an event of this import was simply too significant to the Five Scrolls Compact!

After all, one of the ultimate goals that the cultists were striving for was to open up a passage for the immortal gods to descend upon the Milky Way and turn it into a paradise!

"Our immortal god has answered our pleas! Out of all of the branches of our Compact, our Earth Shrine shall be the first to welcome a supreme deity to our galaxy!"

"The Son of Earth is our greatest Holy Son! His four centuries of penance has finally been recognized by our immortal god!"

"Wait, why was the Sacred Scroll only active for a few minutes?"

"Maybe our immortal god is still on her way. Without the support of any rituals and all of our Sacred Scrolls, even a high one may struggle to travel across an unimaginable distance that separates the kingdom of the gods from our lowly realm."

While it was rather strange that the Earth Scroll did not maintain a connection to their immortal god for long, the fact that it showed the distinct and unmistakable signs of activity was enough to raise the morale of the Compact!

After the immense blow of the Great Betrayal and the constant lack of progress into retrieving any of the missing or stolen Sacred Scrolls, the cultists who believed in the cause finally gained a measure of hope!

The Five Scrolls Compact may be powerful enough to make the Big Two uncomfortable, but even its most delusional members admitted that their strength was not as great as before.

It was a pipedream for them to topple the MTA and CFA that had grown stronger after harvesting much of the resources of human space after their successful coup!

Yet the Compact cultists possessed such strong and unwavering faith in the makers of the Sacred Scrolls that they instantly assumed that their underground organization would be able to rise again with the arrival of just a single immortal god!

No matter how powerful the Big Two had become and no matter how much human space had grown, as long as the Compact was helmed by a single peak figure, it could win every decisive battle that mattered!

No MTA god mech or CFA battleship would be able to withstand a single blow from a true immortal god!

The Compact leaders weren't even scared of the secret megaprojects that the CFA and MTA cooked up in their hidden labs anymore!

Yet just as the Earth Keepers and the other other core Compact members started to plan out their much-accelerated road to trans-galactic domination, the Earth Scroll never woke up after falling silent again.

It was as if it only received a single blip before the immortal god that connected with it had fallen out of contact!

As the silence stretched on for days, the Compact cultists finally came off their high. While they were still excited beyond measure, they realized that the immortal god might not be as close as they initially expected.

Perhaps her arrival might not be as imminent as they thought!

Nobody was able to guess how long it took before the Compact cultists could greet the supreme deity that they had slaved for all this time. It could take months, years or even centuries for the supreme god that corresponded to the Earth Scroll to fully descend onto their mortal realm!

"Do not lose your patience!" The Son of Earth finally came out and declared. "The passage of time is meaningless to the gods who possess an unending lifespan. No matter whether we must wait until the end of our own lives or pass on our holy mission to the future generation, we must never lose faith and allow ourselves to be found wanting by our immortal god!"

The Compact members stationed in the Ruined Temple may have slowed down their movements, but they weren't as subdued as before.

Knowing that an immortal god was on the way was a profound change from before where they weren't even sure if they could complete their holy mission in the first place.

The reinvigorated Earth Keepers and other leaders pulled out the plans that had been collecting dust over the centuries and revised them to fit the current parameters.

Not only that, but the Earth Keepers also attempted to predict when and where their immortal god would descend.

Many of the core members reached out to the Compact's vast and secretive intelligence network while the Son of Earth used his major authority as well as the familiarity built over centuries of penance to beseech more information out of the Earth Scroll.

None of the Sacred Scrolls were easy to communicate with. They were not living sages or electronic databases, but something greater and more profound entirely.

Everyone who had come into touch with one of the Sacred Scrolls instinctively developed the belief that these divine objects did not belong in the material realm at all! They were way too advanced and transcendent to belong in a filthy place like normal reality.

This was the explanation that the Compact cultists had come up with to explain why their Keepers persistently found it difficult to obtain any blessings and insights from the Sacred Scrolls.

Not even the Son of Earth managed to obtain too many clues from the Earth Scroll this time. His authority was way too low compared to an actual immortal god so just the act of trying to find the details of a great deity was bordering on blasphemy!

If not for the Compact's poor state and the need to figure out how long they needed to wait, the Holy Son wouldn't have dared to make this move.

He just hoped that all of the years of penance had won over enough approval from the Earth Scroll to obtain at least a single clue about the immortal god that had briefly reached out to the sacred artifact.

All the Earth Keepers knew from the brief moment of contact was that the immortal god was a woman!

The matronly, earthy aura that emanated from the Sacred Scroll at the time could not be mistaken by anyone!

At this time, the Son of Earth had floated upwards until he had reached the end of the massive pedestal.

Only a few members were permitted to come this close to any of the Sacred Scrolls. The brown-robed figure did his best to surrender himself to the massive Earth Scroll and commune with it up close.

His wrinkled, bearded figure frowned for a time before it spasmed in pain.

None of the Earth Keepers waiting down below dared to make a move or comment on the current display.

Before the Sacred Scroll, each of them were merely ants!

After half an hour of looking for answers, the Holy Son finally couldn't take it any longer and backed off from the holy artifact.

His face visibly showed relief as his feet touched down onto the floor of the main hall.

The brown-robed figure turned and met the eyes of his fellow supplicants.

"I have answers."

Many of the Keepers grew excited again. Their eyes shone with excitement and they had to suppress their formidable auras in order to prevent showing any disrespect at this holy site.

The Son of Earth raised a wrinkled hand. "I have answers, but I did not say I have every answer. The Sacred Scroll was… not as illuminating as we wish, but it has seen fit to bestow me with two possible directions."

The man with the highest authority of the Earth Scroll pointed in a specific direction.

"Old Earth."

The man then pointed upwards and at an angle. "The Red Ocean."

The Holy Son slowly lowered our arm. "Our answers lie in these two locations. If we do not want to prove ourselves to be incompetent and unworthy of our immortal god's favor, we must reach them both and find our answers at these places."

Neither of them were easy for the Compact to deal with. The Terran Confederation as well as the Big Two strictly guarded Old Earth due to its immense historical and cultural heritage.

Though there had been a time when the Compact completely dominated the Sol System from the shadows, this was no longer the case.

The Earth Keepers did not look intimidated, though. No matter how much effort they needed to put into opening up a pathway to humanity's home planet, they were willing to do anything in order to fulfill their holy mission!

Compared to restoring all of the Sacred Scrolls and restarting the grand ritual that was supposed to summon the immortal gods, it was much easier for the current state of the Compact to gain entry to humanity's most precious globe!

"We can either enter Old Earth quietly or with a war party." An Earth Speaker spoke up. "Regardless of what we choose, we will have to make great sacrifices in order to circumvent and overpower the security measures that our old enemies have prepared."

The Holy Son fell into thought. "If stepping foot on Old Earth is the only requirement for us to summon our immortal god, then I would not hesitate to bring as many of our holy warriors as we can rally. However, the Sacred Scroll has given me no clear answers regarding our supreme deity's arrival. Take the subtle approach first."

"By your command!"

"The Red Ocean is more important to our mission. I can feel it." The Son of Earth slowly said as he gazed in the direction of the distant dwarf galaxy once again.

"Your Holiness?"

The bearded figure did not have any clear answers regarding the Red Ocean's importance, but he could still rely on his formidable intellect and intuition to generate a few guesses!

"The Red Ocean… may be where our immortal god descends first!"

Many Keepers gasped. They all wondered why their supreme deity would opt to arrive in a small and shabby dwarf galaxy instead of the more impressive and resource-rich Milky Way.

Was their immortal god weaker than they thought? Was she too afraid to land directly in the Milky Way and attract instant retribution from the Big Two's trump cards?

"PRESUMPTUOUS!" The Son of Earth boomed, stopping his fellow Keepers from developing any further doubts about their immortal god!

"The journey is long and our immortal god may have to put in more effort to navigate towards the Milky Way without the support of our Sacred Scrolls. However, remember what the Red Ocean is famed for. It is a dwarf galaxy that is defined by phasewater. This makes it the natural gateway to our corner of the cosmos."

This meant that the Red Ocean may be the most efficient landing point for any extradimensional or extragalactic entity looking to arrive in the Local Group from afar!

It was just like deciding whether to enter a home through the door or by ramming right through the wall.

The weak had no choice but to use the door but the strong could choose to enter however they wanted.

That did not mean that the strong would stop using doors entirely. It was still a lot more efficient and less costly to keep using proper entrances!

After all of the Compact members in the Earth Shrine heard this explanation, they all became more enlightened.

If this explanation was accurate, then the Compact members sent to the Red Ocean may be the first ones to greet their long-awaited immortal god!

The Son of Earth obviously couldn't go by himself. Sacred Speaker Daphania's mishap had reminded them all that even the greatest authorities of the Five Scrolls Compact could not be arrogant outside of the Ruined Temple!

Another Keeper from the Earth Shrine must be dispatched to prepare for the arrival of their great deity.

"Seeker Leorax Remanos."

"I am here, Your Holiness." One of the kneeling figures spoke while holding his fist against his chest.

"You shall lead our delegation to the Red Ocean and investigate any possible signs of our deity's descent. Until our immortal god arrives, you must remain incognito and never allow the traitors to discover your tracks. This is your mission."

"I shall prove worthy of your trust." Keeper Leorax declared.

"For the immortal gods."

"For the dream of our ascension."