"Are you ready~~~ to rumble~~~!?"
Just as the words returned almost like a series of echos from the various magical speakers placed throughout the country, the air and ground itself shook as people gave their response both verbally and physically.
"Wha?! Wha?!"
Letty's head moved back and forth on a swivel as she held onto me a bit tighter as she was being dragged into a completely new experience. Alicia and Fate on the other hand, added their own little cheers as they thrust their arms into the air on either side of me.
I could clearly remember all those years ago when they burst into tears the first time they experienced something like this, but after going through it so many times, the two hadn't just acclimatized to it, but had fully embraced this burst of activity.
The MC, of course, was a fairy. While they needed people to help them stay on track during such excitement, pretty much nobody else was as good at riling up a crowd as they were.
This day, we were sitting at the end of the public stadium made for various events. That said, the only events it had ever been used for were all related to Goddess' Realm, and this day was no different.
I really was tempted to have a new venue built for other things, but owing to the popularity of the game, it was doubtful that even if such a building was constructed, it would rarely at best be used for anything other than more games of Goddess' Realm.
Then again, the fact that there wasn't much need for other purposes in itself could've been considered a good thing. No political events, no gatherings for dealing with troubles, no protests.
Even if the building wasn't used to play any other games, considering the lack of formalized games before Goddess' Realm, it really wasn't much of a surprise that the moment something like this appeared, it took over everyone's attention.
I mean, how can a battle simulator like this not completely quash games like tag or hide and seek?
And even for people who preferred to move their bodies more, they had the dungeon to hunt to their hearts' content. While I could have introduced some sports for those types of people, clearing enough space for them to enjoy such games was quite troublesome. Not to mention that there was no guarantee that they'd all gravitate towards on specific sport.
If anything, they'd probably prefer to have duels, in which case the building made for them would have to be heavily reinforced. Not to mention all the safety systems needed to be invented to prevent serious injury.
No, it was far better to just discourage any form of direct competition.
(It's not like my own personal dislike for sports has anything to do with it. Nope. None. No sour memories of PE has anything to do with it.)
Though, I did have to admit that Goddess' Realm did have a lot of similarities to the games I used to play. Especially fighting games, though this was massively more free form than anything you could play back on Earth.
"Let's have an applause for today's exhibition match!"
A huge wave of cheers accompanying clapping brought me back to the present.
A pair of players moved away from a large Goddess' Realm table in front of us. Both players circled the table until they met halfway, and they raised their arms as the fairy MC showed both in praise. The Titan had a bit of an awkward smile on her face as she waved, but the imp she stood beside puffed out his chest, quickly reverting to a superman pose while wearing a smile that threatened to split his skull in two.
Soon enough, both of them bowed out and took their Celestials with them.
"And now, here is the inventor of the wonderful Goddess' Realm, our very own goddess herself, Scarlet!"
(Stop treating me like the sole inventor. Most of the work was done by others!)
But I suppressed my thoughts, fully knowing how futile it would be to vocalize it after so many attempts. Instead, I moved on to the next step.
{Claret, you're up.}
{Yes Master!}
As I stood up, my ever faithful familiar wrapped her arms around Letty and pulled her off of me. My youngest daughter put on an expression of unease, but she managed to avoid falling into a panic attack as the dark spirit of ours rubbed her cheeks against her old master's.
Now freed and able to put on a respectable appearance, I stepped up to the MC and accepted the microphone.
"Hello."
A thunderous cheer erupted, almost causing me to flinch despite how many times I've experienced this exact thing. Even the walls shook as the loud cheering from both inside and outside the building was buffeted by the loud vocalizations.
"Welcome everyone, to this new unveilment for Goddess' Realm. For years, you have enjoyed this wonderful game we have created. Incremental advances both in player skill and in the technology behind it had brought us wondrous excitement, just like this match you had just enjoyed for yourselves!"
I waved a hand towards the players who moved off to the side, forcing the one directing the camera that way so I could get a moment of reprieve. No matter how many times I did things like this, having an image of me being transmitted all over the nation was still so embarrassing.
Not least of which, the insistence from everyone that I started to dress just like that damn statue of me ever since it materialized on every floor of the dungeon.
That getup was fun for the moment, and I really did like it. But I liked wearing clothes that more properly covered my body even in my previous life. And after living almost all of this second life wearing robes out of necessity, showing off so much skin was frankly quite uncomfortable.
While I could get away with reverting to my old attire here and there, the protests I've received every time I attempted it when I went out for public appearances made me give up on any other form of attire for the foreseeable future.
Unfortunately, the reprieve from the camera's focus I managed to earn myself didn't last long and the shining lens focused back on me again.
Suppressing a sigh, I made sure my smile remained faultless as I continued.
"Finally, you see, we have managed to make a great advancement for Goddess' Realm! A great expansion that will change the way you play the game! And that is here, in this new Celestial design!"
I raised the little doll I was hiding inside of my pocket dimension. The figure was, from all intents and purposes, virtually identical to all previous Celestials in appearance. Aside from the fact that it was wearing a set of robes vaguely reminiscent of the ones I often wore. And in its hand was a crooked staff with a little jewel placed in the head.
Levitating the Celestial up, I continued.
"While this new design has new capabilities that is beyond the old, the new features are optional, and do not ensure an advantage over the older models, so rest assured that you are not compelled to purchase the new design. It is only to expand the sort of play beyond what currently exists!"
While I seriously wondered how effective my little affirmation was, considering how insane the demand for Goddess' Realm products were, I did hope that it would reduce the initial demands to make reasonable wait times for the initial purchases.
As vain as I knew my hope was, I still did hope.
"But what way to let you know all about this new feature than to show it to you directly? Today, we will have the first public matches using these new Celestials!"
Stepping to the side, I made way for the players to approach the table.
On one side, was my three daughters.
I was quite hesitant to have them be the centre of attention so young, but at the same time I wanted to show off my adorable babies so badly, I ended up going for it. It wasn't like there'll be problems no matter what the three did anyways, and it would be a good way to gauge whether it would be good to continue exposing them to such large audiences, or to hold back until they got older.
Frankly speaking, just keeping them out of the spotlight was impossible as it was. Alicia and Fate were well known as my daughters ever since their birth, and few people wouldn't recognize them. Even if they hadn't seen them before, the twins' appearances stood out more than well enough to be instantly recognizable.
And then there was Letty. Word quickly spread that she was the original Saint Scarlet, and even though a lot of people didn't know the old stories, those tales spread quite quickly after Letty's appearance. Combined with how much she resembled me, there shouldn't be a single person who wouldn't realize who she was in an instant.
My three daughters would be celebrities no matter what I tried, so it was better for them to get used to it in a controlled way rather than try to vainly protect them from the spotlight.
Alicia and Fate carried their usual Celestials with them, while I gave Letty the one I was showing off. Across from them, thee other players reached their positions as well and placed their own Celestials. Two of them used the older model, while one used the new one, just like for my daughters.
Of course, the three facing my adorable trio weren't highly skilled players, but those that more closely ranged around the average.
A dragonkin, fairy, and dokkalfar placed their Celestials onto the play space. Celestials wielding a shield and axe, a long spear, and a staff, respectively.
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Alicia and Fate's Celestials both wielded scythes, despite how much I told them it wasn't a good idea. I understood that they did it copying me, but my own weapons were quite different from normal. Not to mention that I didn't fight in situations where both sides were balanced as much as possible. For normal, virtually equal combat, I was strongly of the opinion that scythes made poor weapons, and could only be used well under very specific circumstances.
It was simply that I was good at engineering such circumstances thanks to the fact that they complemented my own fighting style extremely well, on top of my enemies being the sort that were difficult to defeat quickly and efficiently with more normal weapons. I effectively traded off usability for the sake of increased power, something that I could only get away with due to the way I fought.
Goddess' Realm on the other hand, had no provisions for such things, nor could such provisions be engineered into the game without breaking the already tenuous balance.
And it wasn't like my twins were the only ones who chose to equip scythes on their Celestials. I've seen it amongst no small number of other kids.
I could only hope that the fad would fade away before they grew too frustrated with the game. It would be too sad if they quit because they grew too stubborn to change their Celestial's weapon.
The new feature we were introducing could be said to be partially an attempt to combat such a thing as well. I was well aware who was the reason why there were even people who tried equipping their Celestials with scythes in the first place. But above the scythe, there was one thing which I knew people were aware I relied on even more on than those weapons.
With the six players all at their stations and their Celestials placed in their starting positions, the camera finally moved back up to focus on the play field.
"Ready? By the Goddess's Grace: Start!"
The fairy MC shouted out what was now the common starting command for Goddess' Realm. I had no idea what it had originated, but the inspiration for it was quite obvious. I was only glad that the MC did the embarrassing call out rather than try to make me do it.
Or rather, with the way she did a little twirl while rising before chopping down with her hand as she energetically yelled her lines out, I had a feeling that she just wanted to do it herself, even though the camera wasn't even reflecting her little show.
Together with the start signal, both teams rushed forward towards the others, closing up their formations so that the melee oriented Celestials could effectively cover their third.
Alicia's Celestial dashed in a bit more aggressively than the rest and swung down her scythe against her opposing member, the spear using fairy. Of course, Alicia's match up was quite poor, not to mention that she was using a weapon that originally had poor effectiveness under any typical situation.
But as bad as her match up was, I couldn't help but feel a little pride in her actions. By choosing to engage the spear wielding Celestial first, the one with the axe and shield automatically became her little sister's target, a match up which wasn't nearly as detrimental.
Despite her young age that didn't even yet reach six, Alicia was showing just how much thought went into her decisions.
Of course, such thought was quickly wiped away the moment she engaged, with the wild and aggressive swings her Celestial made, little thought put into any purpose other than to fell her opponent. The effects of her physical immaturity spoke well in her actions.
Soon after Alicia managed a few swings and avoided her opponent's counter thrusts, Fate reached her opposing Celestial. As her draconic opponent bore a shield and axe, my second daughter elected to concentrate on hooking her scythe around her opponent's shield repeatedly, trying to reach her opponent's vulnerable parts. As the shield bearing Celestial was forced to sacrifice armour in favour of a large shield to avoid the weight slowing it down too much, I couldn't help but be impressed by the strategy.
Fate continuously stepped in and out of range, hooking her weapon, trying to drag it across the shield's edge, and occasionally scraping the other's arm as she found her mark. On the other hand, the dragonkin player found it difficult to get within range of his much shorter axe against an opponent that did her best to push the limits of her range.
I really wanted to applause my cute twins and all the thought and effort they put into the fight.
That was, if it wasn't for one blatantly obvious mistake the both made: they completely tunnel-visioned on their opponent.
With two of my daughters engaging with their opponents without a thought to anything else, the older players, despite their clearly lesser experience at Goddess' Realm compared to their opponents, was directing the match how they wanted despite not being able to get the upper hand in a direct battle. And by separating the two vanguards apart, their third made their move.
The dokkalfar who's Celestial carried a staff, waved its weapon above its head. Light shone from the end of the Celestial's weapon, and a bolt of fire zoomed through the open space, heading directly towards Alicia's Celestial that was struggling to maintain its ground against her spear wielding opponent.
It seemed like Alicia noticed the strange glitter of light, as her Celestial's movements paused for a moment before hurrying to dodge a spear thrust that tried to take advantage of the obvious opening. And while my daughter managed to avoid the sharp tip by throwing her puppet's body sideways, the act broke her stance and I could see the nervousness in Alicia's eyes as she realized she couldn't avoid the bolt of fire that was heading straight for her Celestial.
Those eyes, though, grew even wider as the flying flame burst into white mist moments before it could burn her Celestial and reduce its HP. Alicia looked back, only to be met with Letty's smug smile.
"Hehe. As Mother said, I'm good at magic, big sis!"
Standing at the middle ground behind Alicia and Fate's Celestials, was Letty's Celestial, staff held high in a dramatic pose.
Of course, the new feature I had been teasing earlier was that of magic being introduced into Goddess' Realm.
Originally, just getting the Celestials to move at all was incredibly difficult, and after years of research, we only managed to get them to move at a reasonable degree of speed and accuracy to be used in a game. Of course, I wanted them to also use magic on top of fighting physically, but such a thing just wasn't possible back then without stripping out all the magical circuitry just to make the figures move in a human-like way.
But even more years of research put forward here and there, and we finally managed to strip out magical circuits used to move the Celestials down to the absolute minimum and make enough space to add the bits needed to cast spells. That said, we had to cheat quite a bit to manage even an extremely stripped down level of spell casting.
First of all, the motivating circuits were reduced to such a degree that it was impossible for the Celestial to be involved in complex movements, restricting it to being a primary spell caster and little else. While it wasn't particularly fragile or anything, getting it to move quickly and accurately enough to effectively engage in close combat was virtually impossible without a significant skill gap between the players.
It was like Olympic fencing, but one of the players was wearing a full set of body weights. Sure, the person wearing exercise equipment could win, but only if they had a notable skill advantage.
As for other issues, the reason why both magic using Celestials wore robes and carried a staff was because the robes had the magic circles for the spells drawn directly onto them, and the staff was needed to draw enough additional mana from the playing table to actually cast those spells. At least the rest of the magic interface was able to be built into the space left open after reducing the motive circuits as much as we did.
While we did finally manage to introduce magic casting into Goddess' Realm, it was frustrating that it was limited to a specialized doll that can do little else as well as have its appearance be so limited in customization. It really made me want to design a doll that was capable of both physical combat on top of using magic, but there was no way to further condense the magic circuits any further without some sort of radical breakthrough.
Another burst of white mist appeared near Alicia's Celestial as Letty's ice bolt accurately impacted with her opponent's fire bolt.
"Mwahahahahaha! Don't underestimate me, Scarlet, Mother's youngest daughter!"
I desperately wanted to bury my face in my hands as Letty's Celestial twirled its staff and broke into another dramatic pose while she herself wore Claret like a cape.
(Who are you calling the youngest? Mentally, you're even older than me! Or rather, since when did you have time to learn to do these poses so well?! You've only had a couple of days to learn this game before today's event!)
As embarrassed as I was, I was also quite impressed at the speed at which Letty had learned to play this game. While it was probably partially thanks to how intuitive controlling a Celestial was, her extensive experience in her previous life had definitely contributed as well.
Of course, I just wished that she didn't try to show off so much. Especially as a third puff of white mist appeared.
I fully understood just how hard it was to intercept an opponent's spell when it was deliberately telegraphed. The fact that Letty was able to do this in an actual match with such little experience at Goddess' Realm, on top of the fact that her opponent was obviously not trying to make it easy for her, I was frankly quite impressed with the act. Especially since she didn't have the benefits of high ranked skills to help her out here.
In fact, since Goddess' Realm was so detached from one's body, the players gained very little from their own levels and skills when playing the game. Only really your perception and reaction speed, but even those had limited effect on Celestials that had their own limits to movement that disregarded the player's innate abilities.
The fact that the game was a great equalizer when it came to ability was one of the things that I was actually quite proud of, even if it was an unintended consequence to how it was created.
For one to be good at the game, one actually had to properly learn to do what you wanted your Celestial to do. And Letty was showing just that by so accurately intercepting her opponent's spells, something that was obviously difficult even with the aide of skills.
The player behind the opponent's mage Celestial was growing more and more irate with his spells all being countered so accurately, and I couldn't blame him one bit. In fact, I kinda pitied him. This was supposed to be a fair match between two roughly equally matched teams, but Letty's unexpectedly high ability despite her lack of experience had destroyed all semblance of balance between the two sides.
The only saving grace was that Letty understood the point of this match, and so didn't push her advantage at all beyond just showing off and reducing the match to a pair of one-on-ones.
At least, on the surface.
It didn't go beyond my notice that the way Letty was intercepting her opponent's spells was actually giving her sisters an advantage. The puffs of mist or other radiant debris caused by spells colliding gave tiny but additive advantages to Alicia and Fate. Sometimes, the force would cause one of their opposing Celestials to shift to a slightly more disadvantageous position, making it slightly easier to attack them. Other times, the explosions would leave debris or otherwise alter the terrain just enough that the opposing Celestial would have a slight misstep, giving one of my daughters an opening to take advantage of.
The effects were small and didn't give immediate and decisive advantages, but repeated over a long time meant that Alicia and Fate managed to get in more and more blows against their opponents, causing their HP to drain faster than their own.
In the end, my three daughters won the match decisively without a single one of them falling.
I gave all three of them hugs while doing my best to conceal the mixed feelings I had with all of this.