"After the first two parties—

We sent the third, this time, the third party returned with positive news."

Amaya spoke with a light smile on her face. The rest looked at her with slight surprise and she continued—

"This party was... weaker than the others.

While the last two parties had Eternals as they attacked Middle Level Worlds, this time, we lowered the level.

This time, we sent Transcendents to attack a Low Level World and once again, the Infinities appeared and the party was hunted down the instant they appeared."

"Infinities appeared to... deal with Transcendents...?"

Vyriana frowned in confusion and Amaya nodded with a smile.

"Yes."

Riona’s eyes shined—

"This means they have no way to know... who is attacking, they just know that there will be an attack."

"That is correct."

Amaya nodded.

"The Infinities have no way to differentiate between Nux and other beings from our Universe, their strength, their movements, their Aura, they cannot differentiate any of them.

To them—

All of us are... Anomalies.

This is also the reason they are the ones who make the move even when it’s only Transcendents attacking the worlds."

"What if... they only do that to ensure no one runs away? Eternals have a slower reaction speed compared to them, what if they feared that the moment we realize they were waiting for an attack, we would summon them back and they wouldn’t get anything?"

Lyriana questioned with a frown.

"No, that doesn’t make sense."

Sharnoth shook her head.

"The Infinities do not want the puppets, they want the Anomaly.

If they knew only the puppets would attack, they wouldn’t bother moving on their own and would send their subordinates instead.

The Infinities do not like to move on their own, we know that well."

"What if they are trying to get rid of all the puppets we have?"

Lyriana asked.

That was quite possible too, it was a common strategy to take the enemy’s arms and legs in order to force him out.

But there was a flaw in that statement too—

"They think we come from another Universe, you think they would want to deal with every single being of a particular Universe... all on their own...?

Every single day?"

Sharnoth shook her head.

"There are quadrillions of beings in a single Universe, they couldn’t possibly keep fighting every single one of them, it is just not practical."

"But we still believe Zylarith is with them, correct? If that is true, then they shouldn’t believe in the theory of another Universe at this point."

Lyriana frowned, but again, Shadow shook her head.

"They are the Infinities,

Arrogance is etched into their very beings, if they believe something, it would be next to impossible to make them think otherwise.

Not to mention master doesn’t have a way to prove his words, sure, he can tell them all the stories of Yrniel and everything else—

But in the end, it had been centuries since he last saw Nux.

Let alone the Infinities, even he would now be doubting whether somehow Nux became affiliated with another Universe or not."

Sharnoth then paused for a moment and added another point—

"And even if the Infinities believe him, that Nux isn’t from any Universe and that the only puppets he has are the ones he collected from their Universe—

At this point, Nux has trillions of them.

You think they would want to capture every single one of them individually, on their own?"

Sharnoth asked and Lyriana turned silent.

The rest of the women watched silently, Amaya then nodded at them, at Sharnoth to be more specific.

"I came to the same conclusion,

The Infinities have no way of knowing who is attacking.

So they would basically react to anything we throw at them and using that information, I continued the experiment and sent another party—

This party wasn’t sent to attack the worlds, they were just sent to... observe the Main Universe and take no action whatsoever.

I wanted to know how the Infinities would react to them, would they know that our party was there?

Because if they did, it would mean that from now on, we wouldn’t be able to leave our Universe? That we are basically trapped here.

Fortunately, however, that doesn’t seem to be the case.

The Infinities did not appear even as our party continued to roam around the Universe, they even interacted with a few people, but again, the Infinities didn’t appear."

"What if... they didn’t appear on purpose?"

Astaria questioned.

"At this point, the Infinities too, would have understood that the Anomaly knows they have a way to stop him.

That must have stumped them too.

This was their biggest breakthrough in this battle so far, and it... had failed.

So what if... they are trying to make us let our guard down?

What if they are not attacking because they wish to create an illusion that their power is no longer working, or that they can no longer keep it activated?"

"That’s possible."

Amaya nodded.

"But for now, it doesn’t matter because from this moment forward, none of us are leaving our Universe, not until we have a clear understanding of what’s going on."

She declared looking right into Nux’s eyes.

Nux just nodded silently, he had no plans to leave either.

Amaya nodded back, then she glanced at Astaria and—

"They can set all the traps they want, it won’t matter. None of us are going to fall for it. All their planning would do is to let our parties begin their hunt again."

"Which they shouldn’t be able to do, especially since they need to protect the worlds in order to keep their reputation."

Felberta muttered.

"I doubt they care about their reputation that much at this point, getting their hands on Nux is much more important."

Aeliana corrected, Felberta nodded in understanding as well.

"So for now, we believe that they do not know the instant we leave our Universe and get to theirs, correct?"

Shadow asked, wanting to continue the conversation.

"Yes, that is correct."

Amaya nodded.

"I tested it a few times, I sent the same party to different parts of the Universe, about a hundred times now, and the Infinities did not appear, not even once.

So entering the Universe is safe.

Now, we need to understand how far we can actually go.

Interacting with beings of the Universe poses no problem, the Infinities did not react till then.

So I pushed forward.

I sent a party inside a world, there was no mission, they weren’t supposed to devour anything, I wanted to see if entering the world is a trigger."

"And?"

Eisheth asked curiously.

"Nothing."

Amaya shook her head.

"Nothing happened, the Infinities did not appear.

To see whether all of this wasn’t a trap, or that the Infinities have actually stopped reacting to our movements, I sent another party to devour some other world.

And the Infinity of Darkness was there."

"So they were reacting."

Lyriana commented, Amaya nodded.

"That means entering the world isn’t a trigger either."

Ember asked and Amaya nodded again.

"That is correct."

"So we can enter the Universe, we can enter the worlds, then... what’s the trigger? The Infinities are already inside the worlds we target, how are they not already there when we send our party, it makes no sense."

Melia asked with a frown.

"Or is it... the intent?"

Riona guessed, she didn’t seem very sure but—

"I came to the same conclusion."

Amaya nodded.

"When I send a party without any commands, the Infinities aren’t there, but when I send them to devour those worlds, the Infinities are.

This seemed more like an intent."

"But... these are puppets...

They have no intent of their own."

Felberta frowned.

"Correct."

Amaya nodded.

"This wasn’t exactly about intent, it was... connected to fate."

"Fate...?"

Rune frowned.

"Mhm."

Amaya nodded, then she began explaining.

"After entering the worlds posed no problems, I tried interacting with the world, talking to its residents, that didn’t do anything either.

I then sent a party to steal something, that didn’t change anything either but then, I told another party to... steal something important to that world.

And it happened."

"The Infinities were there?"

Felberta asked and Amaya nodded.

"Exactly."

"So anything that affects the fate of the world... is the trigger."

Aeliana muttered, her crimson eyes shining brightly.

"That is what I think, yes."

Amaya nodded.

"You... think?"

Vyriana raised her eyebrows.

"These are all, at one level, just... guesses.

I cannot say anything with certainty, I’ve only had a few months to figure all this out."

"A few months is a long time."

Vyriana snorted.

"Yeah? Try experimenting knowing that you need to wait at least a week before testing another one of your theories, then we will talk."

Amaya snorted.

The one week wait was necessary because if she did all of this at the same time, the Infinities would know they were experiments and if they did—

They would do everything in their power to make sure they came to the wrong conclusion and had incorrect information.

Amaya couldn’t allow that—

So she played it patiently.

Vyriana backed down as well, she could tell how much all of this had worried Amaya, not just her, it was the same for every single one of them.

So whatever information they did have—

It was important.

"Anyways, I still need time to run more experiments, only then I would be able to say anything with certainty."

Amaya spoke and the rest nodded.

[Do we know anything else? What triggers the fate of the world? How strong must the trigger be? Anything?]