Heaven, Earth, Me

After gathering to speak with Tatyana, the Death Empress explained everything she was part of during the journey. How they left the world, how they arrived at the first planet, and how they found out that Soluna could've helped all along. 

She took a while to speak about Soluna's incident because she was also explaining space stuff to the children, who listened attentively and with interest in their eyes. 

Tatyana noticed that Mirrory had frowned when she mentioned Soluna's matter. Still, she waited for the Ancient Mirror to come to a conclusion and ask her. In the meantime, she answered a few questions. Dawn asked. "Mama Tatyana, how big were those Space Beasts that Mama Kali didn't want to hunt?"

Tatyana hummed and commented. "Take the mountain our house is built in, and then imagine one thousand of them stacked and creating that giant creature! Even your Mommy Yasenia looked like a small little beast in comparison!"

The children exclaimed, surprised. "Wow!" 

Curious, Skye asked. "Mama Tatyana. Who would win, Mommy or that giant beast?" 

Tatyana pondered slowly. "Well, that would be a very close battle! Still, if Mommy uses everything she has, including her personal treasures, she would probably be able to win!"

"Wow!"

"Mommy is so strong!"

While the children discussed, Mirrory finally decided to speak up. "Tatyana. We have a bigger problem in our hands than I thought. There is something that is not making any sense." 

Tatyana and everyone else looked at Mirrory's actually serious face and were startled. She had only been this serious very few times before, one of them being when they fought the [Abyss] creatures. 

Tatyana pondered, and not finding anything wrong, she asked. "What does not make any sense? We made a mistake, it's not the first time we made a collective mistake, right?"

Mirrory looked at Tatyana with squinting eyes. "Are you telling me that in the weeks we spent researching all possible methods to heal Yasenia, including the use of the spirit race, we never thought of Soluna?"

Tatyana paused, looking at Mirrory for a few seconds as her red eyes swam with thoughts. The more she thought, the more confused she felt. "Right… That's strange." After a while, she asked, perplexed. "Are you suggesting there might be some kind of outside interference?"

Mirrory shook her head. "Suggesting? I am telling you. Tatyana, we even listed all the items in Yasenia's Dantian, Soluna included. We didn't miss her once or twice. It felt as if Soluna was completely out of our heads. We did not consider her for a single second that she might have a way to help Yasenia. Even if we thought so, we would've called her and asked in normal circumstances."

Tatyana rubbed her temples and sighed. "How?" She complained. "Even not taking myself into account, you are here. Unless someone above my cultivation level and Fate comprehension meddled with us, doing something like that would be impossible."

The girls looked at them, concerned, trying to think of something but naturally being unable to help. This was beyond their realm of understanding.

Mirrory commented. "I can detect many things, Tatyana, but I am not omniscient. Not even at my peak was I close to that power. Moreover, now I am sealed. This part of myself that I can summon and exert strength with is nothing but a dust mote compared to a mountain."

Tatyana nodded, leaning back, thoughtful. "Not good. Not good at all."

Listening to their conversation, Angel fiddled with her fingers and looked down, feeling guilty. 'If I were stronger, Mirrory might've been able to detect the problem…' 

Easily seeing through Angel's emotions, both seniors spoke. Tatyana chuckled. "Little Angel, you'd need to be in at least the Transcendence Realm for Mirrory to have enough strength to try."

Mirrory patted her head. "If you really were able to be that strong at your current age, forget about high-level World juniors. You'd probably be one of the most talented beings in Heaven's history."

Andrea asked. "Can we do something about it?"

Tatyana shook her head. "Not much, to be honest. Perhaps I could create something if I were here with my main body. But as we are now, we can do pretty much nothing."

Evelyn asked. "Speaking of the main body; How is your breakthrough doing?"

Tatyana raised her eyebrow. "I've managed to condense energy faster than expected, so I am just five to ten years away from a breakthrough." 

Mirrory clicked her tongue in praise. "Not bad, not bad. I am honestly impressed."

Tatyana chuckled. "Thanks~." 

Mirrory then asked with a mischievous smile. "How is that [Love Law] doing? Any progress?"

Tatyana coughed. "I'll never develop that. No need to worry about it." 

"Oh?" Mirrory asked, curious. "Why not? A Death and Fate Goddess that flaunts the [Love Law] would be such a beautiful thing, to be honest. It might even be a first! Personally, I have never seen something like it." 

Tatyana changed the subject. "I got a few interesting things while returning here! A few gifts for almost all the little ones~." 

Tatyana took out a sphere that was previously full of flames but now looked quite different. This sphere was one of the two that the Heaven's Calamity Overlord gave Tatyana. It was a treasure created from cosmic energy that helped absorb almost all kinds of Natural Treasures without extra complications.

Before, it was a burning sphere because it only had [Heaven-Born Flames] and [Lava Souls] inside. Tatyana chose to take a little trip around the different worlds before returning here, which was one of the two reasons that she was delayed by almost 2 years from her initial prediction.

The orb now had Glacial Souls, Gale Souls, Thunder Souls, Heaven-Born Flames, Heaven-Born Alloy, and even a Forest Soul that she was lucky to find.

In short, Tatyana literally emptied the worlds in the solar system from more than two dozen Natural Treasures. Such amounts might look insignificant, but they were not as few as they seemed.

A single Heaven-Born Flame was probably able to fuel all the ovens in the entire Astral Sky Sect for long enough that quantifying would be redundant, as the Astral Sky Sect perishing before it would be more likely.

Andrea and Evelyn both had a Natural Treasure already, but Cecile and Angel were lacking one. Tatyana looked at them and shook her head. "There are none for you. No Crystal Soul and no Luna Essence. Any other Natural Treasure related to your affinities would be nice, but I also don't have any.

Cecile blinked. "Don't you have a Gale Soul? My attributes are Moon, Space, and Wind."

Tatyana humphed. "A Gale Soul would indeed benefit you, but you are a creature with an incredible affinity toward the Moon attribute. Giving you the Gale Soul before you capture one Luna Essence might even harm your growth!"

Cecile sighed and nodded. "Sure. I'll trust you."

Tatyana noticed Andrea looked at the orb with a pondering expression and asked with a smirk. "What's wrong? Do you want to feed your Natural Treasure the Heaven-Born Flames I've captured?"

Andrea was an honest and forward woman, so she looked at Tatyana and nodded. "I am indeed considering that. What do you think? It should help me increase my overall strength, right?"

Tatyana pondered and then looked at Mirrory. The Ancient Mirror answered in her stead. "You would definitely benefit from it. Even taming the Lava Soul would be good for you. However, I recommend that you keep the one you have without modifications. It might've become very compatible with you, so now taking a stronger treasure might create an imbalance that can harm you."

Andrea sighed and nodded. "Understood." 

Tatyana looked at Andrea's frowning face and laughed. "Don't worry, Andrea. I am sure that Yasenia will return with something for you. Your road won't be cut off, as long as you continue pushing forward." 

Andrea blinked and looked at Tatyana with a raised eyebrow. "Is that coming from the Fate Expert or from Tatyana?"

Tatyana snorted. "Tsk, tsk. So ungrateful~." She smirked. "However, I don't need to do Fate reading on you to know some things. Experience could be considered a way of prediction through experience." 

Angel looked at the orb and asked, curious. "So, what are those Natural Treasures for?" 

Tatyana commented, looking at the children. "Well, of course, it will be for the little ones." 

The children's eyes widened, and Tatyana added before they could start shouting which one each of them wanted. "However! These will not be easy to earn. Natural Treasures are scarce and rare. Not all of you will get one, so I do not want to give them away unjustly just because you are her children. While we will give you treasures, how many you get will depend on your hard work and also your talent." Tatyana said seriously. "You might get none, so don't take them for granted!"

The children nodded seriously. This was not a first, as they all had scores and other measuring systems to gain non-essential treasures. It was something Yasenia and the rest created in preparation for future generations of the Dravory Clan. As it grew, you couldn't really pamper everyone in the same manner. 

With that said, Tatyana moved on to explain the second matter she did while she was away. "Anyway, the second thing I did was use the remains of a dead planet to create something like a spatial sect outside of Distancia's Heaven."

After dropping that bomb, everyone in the room looked at her with bewildered faces, not really understanding what she just said. Tatyana laughed softly and said. "As an empire or sect becomes multi-planetary, they start creating areas outside the planet. The reason is that teleporting formations are much easier to create outside the local Heaven watch. Of course, they also become dangerous because of the omnipresence of the [Abyss]." 

Andrea rubbed her forehead and asked. "So, you've created a massive thing that can be considered a Moon that's currently orbiting the planet and will probably be the place that we will live in the near future?"

Tatyana nodded once. "Perfectly understood! As expected from you, Andrea."

The children blinked a few times, not really understanding. So, Evelyn explained it in simple words. "Tatyana created a Moon where we might live in the future." Pointing upward, she continued. "Outside of our world. In space." 

They were baffled, understanding but failing to comprehend. Tatyana looked around and smiled widely. "Anyway, enough about me! How have all of you been during the last three years?"

Tengliu, wearing a beautiful but somewhat skimpy dress, asked. "Lady Tatyana, may I ask something?"

Tatyana nodded. "Go ahead. Also, it seems that you've almost made a full recovery."

Tengliu laughed faintly, her aura much more laid back and easy-going than before. "I am indeed almost recovered. These years have been great, as I've made many introspections." Tengliu cleared her throat. "Will we be able to live in that space sect you've talked about?"

Tatyana nodded. "There will be a teleporter from here to there. That place is more of a… docking station. And also a place to receive people who might be unable to enter Distancia due to their high cultivation levels."

Tengliu and the other leaders understood and started contemplating the future implications.