It wasn't Kelvin that found the entrance to the core of the world. He wasn't so lucky. In fact, it seemed as if he had exhausted his luck weeks ago when he found another energy stone mine.
For five weeks he was just moving about, running for his life or fighting for his life. His wish to sightsee wasn't fulfilled. But Wrath loved to see him suffer, so one of them had fun.
He was very glad when he received the order to retreat.
He said, "Finally, we can put an end to this laborious work."
Despite being happy about the prospect of ending the invasion and returning home, his mood only improved slightly as he rushed back to the base.
His bad mood had hung over his mind for weeks. So it continued to influence him on the ride back. He had just switched from being sullen to feeling some anticipation when he returned to base after 9 days of riding non-stop.
He was looking forward to the end of the war and spending his hard-earned game points to strengthen himself. Most importantly, he was looking forward to gaining immortality.
He didn't tell Wrath about his plans yet. In fact, he tried to put it out of his mind and focus on what was going to happen next.
When he reached the base, he found it to be bigger than he left it. There were also more combat bots, drones, artillery, rail guns, and many more machines of war.
He exclaimed, "Wow."
Wrath was also impressed. But she still had time to remind him of more.
She said, "These are just what you can see. If you see what I am seeing, then you will be more impressed."
He nodded and said, "It seems the army is very prepared.
She agreed. "They have to be, as this is a critical moment that will push them to their limit and might break them."
Even as he watched, the assembly line, 3D printers, and refiners at the center of the base were still working. The smoke produced by the laser-focused factories of war was rising into the sky as a signal of the fighting that was going to happen soon.
The base was on high alert. His presence was sensed as soon as he passed the barrier, and he was quickly assigned a squad to join.
After the bulk of the soldiers had returned, the human soldiers and their machine helpers arranged themselves outside of their base and formed a barrier between it and any enemy that might attack them.
No soldiers could idle about doing nothing. They were either running about running errands or standing at attention within a formation.
This high-tension state continued for days with no enemy in sight. But Command didn't allow the army to relax.
The alertness was maintained for as long as it was needed. No amount of complaining and grumbling could change that.
Only the ignorant and inexperienced soldiers complained, though. Kelvin was mostly inexperienced, but he wasn't ignorant, so he didn't complain.
He stood in line silently under the rain and sunlight for days on end waiting for the world to end.
He didn't feel tired actually, so he didn't need to complain. Of course he was bored, and he sometimes felt like he could be doing something else with his time. But that wasn't enough to make him complain because he knew who exactly was delaying them.
Aganju was the source of the delay. The true god was being greedy, so he didn't start the fourth phase of the invasion yet.
He arrived above a small pond. Then his body sank from the air into the pond.
He was so silent and careful with his actions that the water of the pond didn't ripple at all. Its volume only increased slightly to account for the displacement of water caused by the body of the true god.
But if one didn't mark where the surface of the water was before Aganju entered it, one wouldn't notice anything out of place at all.
There is only one reason why a true god would be as careful as a thief in the night. This reason has to be another true god.
There could be two possible outcomes. Either he is hunting prey and doesn't want to spook it, or he is hiding from a predator and doesn't want to alert it.
Whichever one it is requires utmost caution. Aganju might be the god of violence, but he is far from being all brawn with no brain.
He slipped into the pond and approached part of the sides of the pond. This side looked brown like the other parts of the pond. Only divine beings like him would be able to see the subtle alignment of another dimension with the wall.
Not even the mortal who found this entrance knows where it is because the soldier doesn't even know that he found the entrance to the core of the world.
The soldier came close to the entrance, which allowed the mark to find it. After a while, the soldier was given a tedious but highly rewarding mission that mostly wasted their time.
So even though the soldier was the one who found the entrance, it is unlikely that she will be able to find it again.
Command did this to keep the information about the location of the entrance a secret and to prevent the mortals from being too excited about their find, which might alert the god sleeping around it.
That was three weeks ago. But no one has used the entrance until now.
Aganju approached the wall of the pond slowly, neither making waves nor ripples. When he reached the wall, he reached out his hand to touch it.
The wall flickered slightly. Its frequency of flickering was erratic and also high. So the human eye might miss it.
His divine eye didn't miss the flickering. Not that he needed the flickering to confirm what he already knew.
His hand sank into the wall, which caused the flickering to stop. The brown wall turned into a large blue rippling surface.