500th Time Reborn, A World Only Known By Women: The Karma System

"You want to set up a trading system?" Eliza asked carefully.

"Of course, what else would you do with all the extra resources that each town has? They can't just sit there and let them go to waste when other towns could be making use of them. It will make sure that no town ever goes wanting for anything," I explained as Eliza took it all in. "The whole point of this is to help everyone become more sufficient and increase the overall quality of living in that snowy region. Getting rid of the cultists is just something that has to happen."

"You really think that you can do all this?" Eliza asked after a minute, and I grinned at her.

"I am going to try, but I think that I will be able to get everything moving, and then I can come back to work on Bramma. Once this is tidied up, things should be moving pretty smoothly on the island. I still have to patch things up with Melrose, and then there is Kira and maybe some improvements to Bramma," I explained, and Eliza grinned.

"You really think that you can do it all?" Eliza asked playfully, and I grinned.

"Why not? I am a god, after all," I said cockily, and Tallia giggled as Eliza hit me on the arm.

"Oh, shut up!" Eliza said as she hit me again before she pulled both Tallia and myself into a hug. "I love you."

The three of us walked while Eliza showed us how the backyard was coming, but soon the sun was starting to rise higher, and I had to say my goodbyes.

"Olivia and I will be back tonight, but I need to get back to see her. I don't want to leave her alone for too long with the way that things are up there," I explained, and Eliza nodded as she gave me a hug as Tallia gestured for a portal to open to my room where Olivia was standing in our room, smoothing her dress out.

"You are back," Olivia said as Tallia, and I walked through, but then Tallia made a new portal and left us after giving me a quick kiss.

"Yeah, I had told Eliza we would be back last night, so I wanted to check in on her. The others were still all sleeping, but we will see them tonight. One thing that we need to worry about is that Xena, the Blood Witch knows that you and I are here, so she will be making a move on the town in a few days. I think that the Boar-wolves might be some of her minions, but we are going to have to figure out a way to get the town to help start making defenses. She is likely to come with a large group of the beasts and probably more other creatures," I explained, and Olivia sighed.

"Well, I am guessing that we need to start making some preparations then," Olivia said as she sat down on the bed, and I began pacing around the room.

"Yeah, but it is going to be hard since we need to do this without arousing suspicion. Once people know that there are Boar-wolves in the area, they will panic. We can't have that happening when they need to stay calm so they can help build defenses," I explained as I stopped and looked at Olivia. "Do you have any ideas?"

Olivia thought for a minute before she finally answered me, "I think we should gather some of the people who are strong enough together and go out into the forest a little bit and make sure that there aren't any nests close by."

p She then added, "We could also take care of some of them while we are out there so it wouldn't be such a large number when Xena arrives."

I nodded in agreement as Olivia's idea seemed like a good one, but then another thought suddenly came to mind. "That is actually not a bad idea! If we took care of some now, it would make our job much easier later on down the road." My face lit up with an evil grin as an even better plan formulated in my head. If we could draw them all out now, it would make things easier for us when Xena comes with her forces. We just needed bait.

"What are you thinking?" Olivia asked, cocking her head to the side as she watched me pace around the room while I thought things out.

"We need a way to lure them all out so we can take care of them before Xena arrives," I explained, and then an idea hit me. "I think I have just the thing."

---

[Tallia]

Tallia stepped back to her house and was about to head back to Bramma, but when she gestured for a portal to appear, one that was blacker than night appeared. At first, she thought it might be Xena, but it was impossible for the Blood Witch to make a portal here.

Tallia stood for a moment, waiting to see if anything came through, but nothing did. She was not in the habit of going to strange places, but something about this portal felt familiar.

Tallia tried to gesture for a new portal, but nothing happened, and she let out a long sigh. It looked like she had no choice in the matter, so she walked through and was greeted by a warm smile from a beautiful face that was covered in black cracks.

"I was worried that you weren't going to come," Nemoria said as the portal closed behind Tallia, the sounds of fighting and chaos rising up from the edge of the cliff she stood on. "Come sit down, Daughter. I was hoping that we could have a little chat."

Tallia slowly walked over and sat down on the same swing from before when Nemoria had revealed everything about Galio and her past. Being back here was strange, but that didn't stop her from leaning into Nemoria. The Goddess of Darkness and all that the Shadows touched wrapped her arm around her daughter.