Chapter 536: Realm of Knowledge

Once he was done dealing with the gods of Orario, Alex exited the Tower of Babel and let out a long sigh of relief that that was done. He HATED politics.

The drama with Freya, while entertaining at first, hadn't helped matters. But Alex was grateful to Cara for providing him some stress relief halfway through.

Along with him was Hestia, Athena, Artemis, Brigid, and Nyx, the latter group seemingly fascinated with Hestia now that they were meeting her in person. Hestia meanwhile was happily chatting with them, answering questions they had about things like her history, and the Falna.

Several of them were now eager to return to Asora to see if they could create a Falna of their own with their followers.

Alex meanwhile was ready to return to the rest of his wives and children for the moment, as he was done in Orario for the day. But, before they could properly leave...

"Excuse me, Alex." Called out a voice from behind, which belonged to Hephaestus.

"Yes?" Alex asked as he turned to see what she wanted.

"I wondered if I could have a moment alone." Hephaestus said as she glanced at Alex's wives.

"Sure." He agreed, after which they dispersed. Hestia however was last to depart, and before she left she said to her friend,

"Remember Hephaestus, I saw him first!"

After saying so Hestia departed with the rest of Alex's goddess wives, leaving him and Hephaestus alone in front of the tower.

"So what's up Hephaestus?" Alex asked when they had all left.

"I just wanted to thank you, and to ask you to continue taking care of Hestia." Hephaestus said with a voice full of gratitude. "Even if things have been strained between us recently, she is still my closest friend. For various reasons."

As she said that Hephaestus' hand reached up to brush her eyepatch lightly, making Alex cock his head curiously as he asked,

"What's so bad under there that you need to cover it up?"

The air around Hephaestus changed drastically as she spat in contempt, "a deformity that makes me a monster in the eyes of those who've seen it!"

Alex frowned when he heard that, and he took a step towards her as he said, "I've seen quite a few things in my time. Can I see it?"

The effect was immediate as Hephaestus recoiled from him fearfully, and exclaimed, "please don't! I don't want another person to flee from me..."

Alex however was undaunted as he continued walking towards her, and Hephaestus remained where she was standing, feeling almost as if she were rooted to the spot.

The next thing Hephaestus knew Alex was right in front of her, reaching out with his hand towards the patch covering her eye.

*snap!*

The next thing she knew the eyepatch was torn off, making Hephaestus flinch as she looked away from Alex fearfully. But he still had to have seen it.

"I don't see what all the fuss is about. Looks like a normal eye to me." Alex stated confusedly, making Hephaestus look back at him in confusion.

"What?"

Alex just responded by conjuring a handheld mirror, and holding it up for her to see her reflection in it.

What Hephaestus saw was a pair of beautiful Crimson eyes that were looking back at her, both wide with awe before tears began to well up within them.

"I-is this real?" She asked emotionally, to which Alex nodded while saying,

"Of course it is. You can just ask anyone you see."

As he said that Alex offered Hephaestus her eyepatch back, but as she slowly took it into her hand, the patch burst into flames. As a goddess of the forge she wasn't scared of flames of course, but Hephaestus just watched as the patch burned until there weren't even ashes left.

"Th-!" Hephaestus began as she looked up to thank Alex, only to see he was no longer standing there. Like he had been nothing but an illusion.

But the mirror remained in her hand, proving that wasn't the case. And as she looked in it again, seeing her flawless looking eye staring back at her, Hephaestus hugged it to her breasts emotionally.

***

"Amazing!"

That was all any of them heard as Hestia got her first look at Asora, alongside Lili and Haruhime.

"So big...."

"So many people..."

The duo uttered in awe, as the Capitol city Alexandria drastically dwarfed even Orario in terms of both size and population, not to mention how diverse the population was. Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, Trolls, Goblins, and numerous other races they hadn't even heard of before.

"Amazing.... It's like living with monsters..." Lili uttered in awe as a massive Tauren stomped by.

"While I wont deny that, I don't recommend calling them monsters to their faces." Alex said wryly.

Even as he said that though, all three were still gaping at the people and buildings around them.

Alex shook his head with an amused look at the trio, and asked the other goddesses, "can you keep the three of them company? I have to go."

"Of course." Brigid answered, though Nyx, Athena and Artemis all immediately dispersed.

Alex shook his head at them, but didn't say anything as he directed his attention to his next destination.

He then made several stops throughout Asora to check in on the people there. First was Hajime to discuss the building of the next gate in Orario, then to the hospital to visit Grant. Only the young Saiyan wasn't there.

Instead Alex found Beth waiting beside an empty bed, as she stated that Grant had been missing since she came back from opening the portal for Alex the day before. And while that would normally be cause for concern after what just happened to him, Beth said Grant sent her a message through the system that he was training.

For some reason though, Grant wouldn't say what kind of training he was doing.

Despite his curiosity, Alex decided to respect Grant's privacy since he was probably trying to focus on getting over how badly he'd been beaten. From what Alex understood, Grant spent his entire second life avoiding the truly dangerous fights because he knew the Dragon Balls wouldn't have been able to bring him back.

This made his fight against Markus the first truly dangerous fight he'd ever been in. It was normal that Grant would need a while to get over it.

After saying goodbye to Beth, Alex then made his way to check on one of their new residents, Eris.

The goddess of Luck and Fortune was currently on the Plateau of the Gods, as it had been called recently, where her new statue had been erected. She was looking up at it in awe since almost the entire thing was made of gold, with accents of silver and platinum.

What was most surprising was that, despite only being there for less than two days, there was already a group of men and women present at the foot of her statue praying to her for Fortune in their ventures.

"Surprised?" Alex asked her suddenly, startling the goddess as she jumped and turned to face him.

"You startled me! And yes, I am." Eris admitted as she looked back at the group at the base of her statue.

"I wonder...." Eris began slowly, before asking Alex, "why do you need me to be this world's goddess of Luck and Fortune, when you already have divinities related to them?"

"Haaa..." Alex just sighed at the question, before answering. "Because, I'm not a 'God' of Luck and Fortune. I just have them amongst the divinities I've collected."

"So you just 'collect' divinities, huh?" Eris asked with a flat voice.

"Somewhat." Alex replied with a shrug. Though truthfully Alex had so many divinities now that he had a hard time keeping track of the ones he possessed.

Alex and Eris then spent some time talking with each other, both hiding somewhat from their respective followers, right up until Alex suddenly heard a commotion.

"I sense our lord is near!" Yua, the head priestess, declared.

"That is my cue to flee." Alex told the goddess, who giggled at him as he vanished from his place.

To 'escape' his fervent followers, Alex transported himself into an entirely different realm to check on things there, Coldharbour.

There, Alex paid a visit to the realm's Warden, Sylvanas, who was already bulging from her pregnancy. It was only a matter of time until she gave birth to the first of a whole new race in Asora, the Banshee.

While there Alex also checked in on the vampires who mostly resided within the realm, which included Serana and her mother. And needless to say Yue had already staked her claim as the sovereign vampiress of Coldharbour.

From there Alex passed into another realm, Apocrypha, where a new sight greeted him.

Originally the world was an endless ocean of greenish ink with towering island/mountains of books that could give those who were visiting footing. And while it was still largely the same, there was now a massive castle that truthfully reminded Alex of Hogwarts in the middle of it.

Within Alex found dozens of Seekers, Daedra who previously served Hermaeus Mora by collecting knowledge from all over Tamriel, doing the same now as they brought stacks upon stacks of books, scrolls, and other forms of writing from Asora and all of the world's connected to it.

Their sole purpose was to horde knowledge, no matter how mundane it may be. Knowledge was knowledge.

And while the increasing horde of writings lined the walls in an unorderly fashion, Alex watched as several of them began to shuffle and organize themselves into dozens of shelves that floated about.

Continuing further into the castle, Alex found the Warden for this world waiting for him in the main study. Saya was currently floating in the air cross legged, her eyes closed as the pink jewel in her forehead shimmered with light, along with the numerous forms of script that appeared on her now tanned skin.

Alex just stood there patiently and watched as she worked, only barely registering the steady flow of information that was entering his mind. Thankfully, it was nothing like when he'd originally consumed Hermaeus Mora's soul, and had all of the knowledge of Tamriel crammed into his skull.

And Alex could tell the same thing was happening to Saya, who was managing the realm for him.

Eventually Saya opened her eyes as she decided to take a break, not at all appearing surprised to see Alex standing there watching her.

"Welcome home. How was Orario?" Saya asked him. She'd probably been too busy with renovating and managing Apocrypha to check in on the Chatroom.

"It was fine. Fought a few people, made a Divine Spirit, and scared the shit out of some gods. You know, the usual." Alex said as if it had been another day at the office.

"I'd make a comment about how UNUSUAL that all is, but it really isn't with you..." Saya said while shaking her head. Not that she was one to talk since she had gone from a 'normal' human high school girl, to a divine spirit of knowledge.

Then again, Saya had long since concluded that what she had grown up believing was 'normal', was nothing more than a comforting illusion people applied to their lives.

But that wasn't important now.

For the time being, Saya took Alex on a tour of the newly constructed castle, showing him all the various nooks and crannies she'd installed in it. Each room within it had been vastly expanded with the use of Spatial magic, and had been designed and filled with subjects of every topic.

One room possessed all of their accumulated knowledge regarding fire, the various magics associated with it, enchantments, and knowledge of how to make it. Another posed similarly knowledge, but with water, it's magics, enchantments, how to purify it. And so on and so forth.

One such room contained all of their accumulated knowledge on explosions, where Alex and Saya unsurprisingly found Megumin. She had at least half the books and scrolls piled around her as she devoted herself to studying every aspect of the art of explosions.

Also piled around her was the remains of numerous decimated bags of chips, and cans of energy drinks, which Megumin had seemingly grown addicted to in her quest to learn as much as she could about explosions as quickly as possible.

However a small army of golems that manned each room, in order to maintain the books/scrolls, and assist those looking for specific information, quickly cleared the mess for her so that Megumin could continue studying.

Megumin was only one such person taking advantage of the knowledge available within Apocrypha though.

While Alex had been away, Saya had sent out numerous copies of her own version of the Black Books, summoning those who desired knowledge above all else into Apocrypha. To access the knowledge they sought though, they had to pass the test first.

The reason the rest of Apocrypha looked the same was because of Saya only altering it to create trials for those who entered it. And with how many strong and talented people populated Asora, there were already several dozen who had earned the right to study within Apocrypha.

Eventually the two of them made their way to one of the common rooms within the castle, where people could gather to study together, trade ideas, and so on. There they found a certain trio of recent arrivals in Asora, Veronica, Serena, and Hermione.

"How's it going?" Alex asked as they entered the room.

"Amazing... I never knew here could be so many different types of magic!" Serena exclaimed as she put down the book she'd just had her nose buried in.

"Right!?! I mean, there's even magic in here to reverse time and destroy entire continents! The Luminary's got nothing on this!" Veronica added as she referred to the 'hero' of their world, the Luminary.

"..." Hermione however was silent as she focused on her book, her eyes moving so fast they were practically a blur as she sped her way through it.

"Buuuuuut..." Veronica starred as she closed her book suddenly.

"All this reading and such won't do anything if we can't even put all this interesting magic to use! So come Serena, Hermione! The Great Labyrinths await!"

While Veronica was posing with her finger in the air like an explorer on her way to lands unknown, Serena readily prepared to join her big sister, while Hermione finally looked up from her book.

"Did you say something?" She asked confusedly, only for Serena and Veronica to grab her arms on either side.

"Yep~! We're going on a adventure, honey!" Veronica declared, imitating her favorite jester as she did so.

"Oh, I wonder what Sylvando and all them would think of this world? We simply MUST have them visit us someday!" Serena declared as she thought of the rest of their companions.

"Wait! I'm not done reading yet! Let me go!" Hermione demanded as she tried to break free of their grips, but unfortunately the twins were far stronger than normal mages.

"Good luck." Alex told them wryly as they dragged Hermione right by him and Saya.

But, as Hermione continued shaking her head in refusal of going on an adventure, a strand of her uncontrollably bushy hair accidentally tickled Alex's nose.

"Ah...ah...ACHOO!"

Alex suddenly sneezed a mighty sneeze, crating a force so powerful that all four girls before him had their clothes torn from their bodies.

"""Eh?"""

For Saya it was nothing but another day around the 'Lucky Pervert', but the twins and Hermione all looked down at their now naked bodies in surprise, before reacting too late.

"""KYAAAAAAAA!!!"""

With a scream, both Veronica and Serena released their holds on Hermione as they tried to cover themselves, which in turn made her lose her balance as she stumbled and fell into less arms.

"You think we can say you fell for me yet?" Alex asked, even as his hands instinctively grabbed her ass.

"!!!"

Bright red from their lack of distance, Hermione tightened her grip on her wand, the only thing that hadn't been destroyed by his sneeze, and screamed,

"REPULSO!"

The effect was instantaneous as, despite none of her spells working on Alex before, this time it did as he was sent falling backwards away from Hermione. And right into the twins as they were trying to scramble for clothes.

*Crash!*

"My god..." Saya uttered with face palm at the scene before her, being the only one spared from the carnage.

SOMEHOW, Alex had both Serena and Veronica hugged up against his body, his hands on their asses while Saya was willing to bet at least one of his fingers was inside them. Hermione meanwhile had arguably gotten the worst end of things, as when she'd blasted Alex with her spell she had fallen after him since he'd been her main support at the time.

But, as she came down, Hermione had grabbed onto the only thing available in an attempt to get support. Alex's shorts.

In the fall she had ended up hauling them down to his knees, and fallen forward with her mouth open only to have it 'plugged' with a certain something.

Alex meanwhile, was completely stone faced despite his current situation.

The only reaction occurring was downstairs, as he felt Hermione's tongue instinctively caress the underside of his cock, which began to grow slightly against his will from the stimulus.

"I'd say this goes past lucky, and straight into the realm of godly..." Saya uttered, getting a little closer to the truth than Alex would've liked.

But, anything he might've said was interrupted, as Hermione released his cock and screamed at the top of her voice, fleeing from the common room without a single care of her lack of dress.