Little Mortal reappeared on Night Planet.
Or to be exact, where Night Planet previously was.
But in reality, he appeared in the midst of a dark void, with nothing around him...
No planet, no sun or moon...
It was only him,
An enormous creature with a human head, body of a lion,
And eagle's wings, and a black token that hit his head.
Little Mortal's jaw dropped when he saw the Mountain-sized sphinx looking around with its piercing eyes.
He tapped the token, which was invisible to the eyes of the humongous creature, and a passage opened.
Then he went sneakily inside with the token.
The enormous creature, oblivious of his arrival and departure, was still looking around.
After a while, it muttered to itself,
"Someone finally took the bait..."
And left.
...
Silver platform.
A passage opened.
Little Mortal jumped out.
"Oh my goodness!
What even was that?"
The token answered,
[The true form of the God of Prophecy, from your list of revenge.]
Little Mortal gasped,
"That lionbirdhuman was the fortune teller?
No way I can catch him now...
Did you make a karma connection with him?"
[Negative, the guardian didn't have direct interaction with him.
But he is related to the names in your revenge list.
Through the two higher beings in a prison cage, there is already a 50% connection.]
Little Mortal nodded,
"Alright, but didn't you find the sneaky guy before without me seeing him?"
[ The clone had direct contact with your guardian territory.]
Little Mortal said, 'Oh!',
And then he hurriedly looked around to find his backpack and ran to it.
Rose was here at the moment.
Seeing him coming out of the passage, she said,
"Secret Guardian, our mission was successful, but there are some problems..."
Little Mortal ran past her,
"Not now, Assistant Rose!"
Then he shouted while throwing the brush and inkwell into his backpack,
"Full body armor!
Little knife!
Space mirror!
Punishment Stick!
Mr. Token!
Assemble!"
The treasures gathered in the blink of an eye.
It was the first time seeing this little demon so serious!
Rose didn't say anything because even his boss was forced to use so many overpowered treasures,
It means it was something serious!
Little Mortal jumped inside the full body armor, and it covered him from head to toe.
Then, with one hand holding the stick, one hand holding the knife, he shouted,
"Space mirror, connect to the karma function of the guardian token.
Mr. Token, connect to my new birthday gifts through karma!"
[ Searching for new connections.
Making karma connection to new birth treasures.
- World Tree (added)
- Heaven's Tear (added)
- Gauntlet of Disaster (added)
- Starfall Stone (added)
- Frostveil Crystal (added)
- Puppet Maker (added)
- Brush and inkwell (added) ]
"Good job, space mirror, did you find their coordinates through karma connection?"
The space mirror vibrated.
"Nice, open a passage outside of the solar system.
It will be a disaster if one of 'them' sneaks in!"
A passage opened, and the fully armed little guardian jumped in.
A rough male voice sounded after he left, and a little white rat jumped out of the backpack.
"What in the world is he going to do?
I didn't even dare to tell him about sending me to my master..."
The big backpack trembled.
"What do you mean, some old friends are coming?
It's only more future trouble...
And what might 'sneaks in' that made him go outside of his territory?"
The backpack trembled.
"Oh no!
How could I not think about it...
He is going to find trouble with gods..."
Rose looked worried now.
She never saw her boss going all out for anything...
Then she sighed and looked at the sky...
Above their heads was now an extra planet that not long ago was dragged to this side with them on it.
The Night planet.
She was the only one who came back here.
The rest were still there, trying to calm the people there and explain to them what was happening.
By now,
They all knew Guardian Mortal went there and became planet guardian all of a sudden, and then he left while a terrifying black hand came out of their side to drag the Night Planet into the Guardian territory.
That hand even took the moon, sun, and anything else alongside the night planet!
The only thing left on the other side was darkness...
The sentence 'plucking moon and stars' literally happened in front of their eyes!
Then the hand sent the burning star towards the sun, and the two mixed to make a slightly bigger and brighter sun!
Even the guardian ceremony from the other side stopped when that happened, while the world law said,
[ Unknown planetary invasion.
The guardian ceremony will be paused until the new guardian clarifies the planet's condition.]
It was as if even world law wasn't completely sure what that black hand that just merged two suns was, and what it was doing.
....
Outside of the solar system, Little Mortal appeared.
He started tapping the space mirror.
He was communicating with it using Morse code.
The only way of communication for him, who couldn't send a spiritual or mental message in outer space, where sound couldn't travel, was this.
The space mirror trembled a couple of times, and a small passage opened.
Little Mortal asked it to check the karma connection between him, his new birth treasures,
And the newborns with whom he signed a contract.
And sure enough, there were six newborns.
And except one, the other five were with a birth treasure he owned.
Through the small passage, Little Mortal looked at the other side, chuckled silently, and nodded.
The passage became bigger, and he went in silently.
...
Mainland.
Ice God was flying away with the newborn girl, the one with ice law that turned a certain guardian into a frozen guardian.
At that moment, Ice God suddenly sensed danger, and he froze in an extra layer of ice, unable to move for just a short moment, not even enough to blink once.
When he was back to normal, he felt something like a stick hit the back of his head and sent him flying.
He wasn't slow either and already attacked the owner of that stick.
But when he turned around, no one was there.
He could only feel 'pain' in his head...
Something that he only felt once because of his law.
He always thought,
How could ice 'feel' anything?
Until one day, he broke the law of the Mainland and was punished by the Goddess of Punishment.
On that day,
He felt the same pain when she gave him a beating with her stick.
While puzzled, his eyes suddenly widened in shock.
"Where is my birth treasure?
Where is the newborn?"
He tried to connect with his birth treasure, but there wasn't even a connection.
As if he never had any connection with it in the first place...
He tried to contact the newborn through their contract, but the contract hadn't been signed yet.
But they all saw the contracts in the hands of newborns, that's why they didn't care and didn't check them to see if it was signed or not.
Either way, they were like slaves, with or without contract.
However,
What was happening?
How is it that the contract wasn't signed?
Ice God mumbled to himself,
"The one who attacked, was it Goddess of Punishment?
But how could she come and go without my notice?
Was she the one who stole my birth treasure?
What about the newborn? Why wasn't the contract signed?
Was that old man involved?"
With his mind in turmoil, he turned around and hurried back to the neutral ground.
He needed to talk to that greedy old man first.
Then he could think of a way to have a chat with that sadistic woman, too, and ask if she knows anything.
...
Far away from neutral soon.
In a big black castle that you could only think of 'prison' when looking at it, with all kinds of prison cells stacked together,
A castle where you could hear the sound of begging and crying constantly day and night,
A lady in red was sitting on an iron chair in the castle.
Her posture was upright and imposing,
Her face conveyed seriousness and intensity.
She had a whip with thorns all over it in her hand.
Her face was cold, and just looking at her could make anyone's eyes feel pain.
Her dress was white originally, but because of her line of work, it was red now.
She was the goddess of punishment.
The owner of the most painful birth treasure in the mainland,
Punishment stick!
Those who ended up in her prison would have a 'change of heart' without a doubt.
They were always dragged here as an unruly god and then left as the most law-abiding citizens of the mainland.
At this moment, while in the middle of whipping a random 'sinner', she suddenly stopped, looked outside, and then flew up while shouting,
"Someone just got hit by it!"
The castle roof exploded, and she flew away.
Her destination?
Neutral ground.
...
In another direction, the sea goddess was flying towards the direction of her castle with the newborn.
Around her was raining, which was unintentional.
All higher beings always had some special effects happening around them.
They could control it if they wanted to, or just let it be.
It was like a display of their main law.
At this moment,
The sea goddess suddenly froze and turned to ice!
In the blink of an eye, she used her law and turned the ice around her to water, and looked around in confusion.
Who was messing with her?
And then, like the ice god, her eyes widened in shock and disbelief.
Her birth treasure was gone, completely, even the connection was gone with it, and so was the newborn.
First, she found out about the contract problem,
And then she found out about what froze her in place just now.
"It was the ice god's birth treasure!?"
She, too, turned around and hurried back towards the neutral ground.
Her only lead was that greedy old man and the ice god.
...
Another direction, God of Meteorite, the tall stone creature, was flying away with the newborn.
He suddenly got hit with something small but heavy from above, smashed to the ground, and sank inside.
The moment he hit the ground, the grassland turned to a swamp and swallowed him up.
The next moment, the swamp turned to stone,
And he was out, looking around in confusion.
He was sure that he attacked the thing above his head the moment he felt something attacking him.
But where is the attacker now?
And the sudden appearance of the swamp,
Wasn't it Heaven's star abilities?
The birth treasure of the sea goddess?
The stone giant suddenly shivered.
He just found out that his birth treasure, and the newborn were both gone...
Like the other two, after realizing there was no contract between them either, he flew back toward neutral ground.
Like the rest, he knew all of this had something to do with that greedy old man.
He would go and see if the sea goddess was in on this with him, too, or not.
...
In another direction, the man with a twisted face and messy hair, God of Disaster, suddenly saw a big shadow on the ground, covering where he was flying with the newborn.
Without hesitation, he roared,
"Meteorite god, is that you?"
And he attacked the big upcoming meteorite above his head that suddenly appeared out of thin air, with his bare hands.
He wasn't even close to the meteorite, and it was already cracking before collapsing from the inside.
A 'disaster' that was supposed to happen in the future affected the meteorite now and forced it to collapse.
It was the effect of his law.
He could force the inevitable disasters of the future to happen now.
God of Disaster snorted.
But his twisted face froze for a moment, and he started roaring in anger the next moment while flying back towards the neutral ground.
"You greedy old man, I'll skin you alive!"
...
In another direction,
God of prophecy's representative, the same unknown woman who had said they needed to shelter all the Newborns, was standing in a place with the last newborn, who was confused as to why she was standing there without doing anything.
The unknown lady suddenly felt a hidden killing intent, saw a silver light, and got hit with a punch from behind.
When she saw the silver light, she dodged it,
When she was going to get hit by the punch from behind,
She sighed and moved forward, and the punch turned to a push for her.
It was as if she could predict everything that was going to happen.
When she turned around, there was no attacker.
And no newborn.
She sighed again, because she already knew that someone was going to attack her, but didn't know who or when, which was an unbelievable fact to her because of her unique law.
And when she saw the newborn was gone, she sighed for the third time in frustration, and while mumbling to herself,
"If fate is inevitable... what's the point of my law of foresight?
A unique law chained by fate, that can't change anything..."
Then she shouted,
"Assassin god, why would you interfere in this matter?"
She recognized the silver knife that had attacked her first.
But she didn't receive any answer.
She tried to connect with the newborn.
And that didn't work either.
She tried to use her law, but,
"It's out of my control now, I can't see anything..."
Unlike the others, she just turned around and left.
She already saw a glimpse of what was going to happen in the neutral ground.
It was better not to go there...
...
Another place,
Nature God, the man who bribed the old man to sell Mortal to that puppet master, was flying away with one of the newborns.
At this moment, he suddenly felt all kinds of disasters were falling upon him.
The elemental forces around started changing, the ground started shaking, and the sky changed color!
He hastily summoned a vast jungle and hid inside,
While looking around vigilantly.
But nothing happened.
He looked around in confusion while his heart was beating wildly.
He knew that was the effect of the birth treasure of that crazy guy.
Gauntlet of disaster.
But why would he do that?
Why didn't he sense his arrival?
And then, like the rest, he discovered the newborn and his birth treasure missing...
...
In another place, the puppet master was waiting patiently on a random chair that he manifested for himself.
He knew sooner or later, his puppets were going to find that weird newborn.
At this moment, plants under his feet suddenly started growing at an unusual speed, and covered his whole body in the blink of an eye.
The next moment, he had already disappeared.
It was one of the abilities of the puppet law.
He could teleport between his puppets endlessly.
But,
"Who is so tired of living to pick a fight with me?"
He could only guess the characteristics of the law that was used.
It was the law of nature, and the only one close by with this law was the nature god.
And,
"Wait, where is my birth treasure?"
The puppet master, the man who was always the one making others feel pain before turning them into one of his puppets, felt pain for the first time in his life after losing his birth treasure...
He knew Nature god was the thief.
"How did he do it?
And was it really him?"
He hastily started looking through his puppets, who were in the middle of their search for the newborn, to see where Nature god was.
Not long after, he found him going back towards the neutral zone.
After sending an order to his puppets, he rushed there too.
....
Guardian Territory.
Silver platform.
A passage opened.
Little mortal jumped out with six little kids, all the same age as himself,
And six new 'birthday gifts'.
The unknown lady wasn't one of the people invited to his birthday party, and he couldn't ask for a birthday gift from her.
The six little kids looked around in confusion.
Their mouths were still agape from the shock of what they had just seen.
All of them were kidnapped, alongside the birth treasure of those gods!
And the kidnapper turned out to be the same mysterious person that they signed a contract with not long ago.
Because now they could feel it clearly...
They looked at the short man in full body armor in fear and awe.
Who was he?
Every time he went through a passage, he came out with one of them and a birth treasure.
Sometimes he was even attacked, but the armor just blocked it for him every time...
The armor opened at this moment, and Little Mortal jumped out.
He took out the small container with the black liquid from the backpack and said hurriedly,
"Okay, everyone, good job.
Feel free to welcome our new friends."
He was talking to his birth treasures.
"Mr. Token, give 'little 1,2,3,4,5,6' a guardian token.
They can go anywhere after that.
I need to go back again.
See you soon, everyone."
Six tokens were given to the six little kids, who received them with dropped jaws and blank faces.
Little mortal tapped the space mirror and jumped inside the passage that opened for him, while saying,
"Open a passage for me in 5 hr at the same cave close to lava sea, the one we stayed for a year."
And left in a hurry to the passage that was opened with the karma connection he had with the Crystal.
After he left, the little white rat came out, and when it saw the new birth treasures, it gasped,
"Heavens, look at this lineup!"
Then he looked at the six little kids and whispered,
"Alright, big guy, is it just me, or all of them..."
He gulped nervously at the end and didn't continue.
The birth treasures who could feel all of these six little kids were higher beings,
<...>
Rose walked to them and said,
"Welcome, everyone."
She didn't know why, but these kids were extremely pleasing to the eye.
The litt ones nodded with a dumbfounded look.
One of them said with a trembling voice,
"It isn't only six birth treasures, there is another chunk of them here..."
"W-who did we sign a contract with...?"
"Wasn't he the same little boy who lost to me?"
"H-he was pretending all this time?"
"The inkwell and brush of that old man are here too..."
"S-so he silenced him before we go in there?"
"Is he collecting birth treasures?"
"Is he an evil god?"
"Who can steal from a god if not an Evil God?"
"Oh no, that's the punishment stick... We are done for!"
"If the goddess of punishment catches us, we will be tortured for centuries just because of the contract we have with him..."
They were all significantly more intelligent than normal 3-year-olds, but the heart and overwhelming feeling were still those of a 3-year-old.
So, tears started streaming from their eyes like a river,
"There isn't even much law here..."
"This place isn't even a universe..."
"That's why it was 'new home' written in our contract?"
"We are in a ruined solar system..."
"And it's in the middle of nowhere, not even connected to the mainland..."
"He is definitely an evil god, and this is a hideout..."
"I want to go home... Oh wait, I don't have any home..."
And so,
The kids continued to complain while crying like a river.
There was literally a lake taking form on the silver platform now, because a dent had formed on it from when Little Mortal dove down into the planet.
Rose was stunned by the conversation between these little brats.
She could tell now, from the things they discussed and the effect she felt from them without it affecting her, that they were probably all higher beings.
But why are they only level 3?
Her boss said higher beings are born as level 6, right?
The little white rat, while rubbing its chin, said,
"Did he go to the kindergarten of gods and kidnap a batch of them?"
The treasures started vibrating, as if they were laughing.