Author's Notes: Chapter edited and corrected by Scott Fellman.
Serena POV - January 26, 1977 Magical World - July 20, 2008 DxD.
Distracted Globe was finished.
And it only took me the modest sum of 300 hours to finish it, almost two weeks of nonstop work. If it weren't for my metals preventing me from needing sleep or even getting tired, I'd practically be dead from exhaustion.
The megasstructure was more tedious to build than I expected, not because of its size, but because there were many things to enchant and magically modify to adapt it to everything we needed inside the Distracted Globe.
The structure itself was easy to create; the underworld was practically empty on all sides, and that was no different from the surroundings of Pentagram City. Much of the city's outskirts were practically desolate wastelands with nothing interesting.
It was enough to get away from the city and then use alchemy to create a massive metal sphere from millions of tons of earth, following GLaDOS's blueprints. I may have some knowledge of architecture, but I definitely wasn't capable of designing a solid, spherical structure that was stable enough, so the calculations and designs were all done by GLaDOS.
The next step was to magically reinforce everything, even though the structure was holding itself up, incredibly, it turns out that a sphere distributes stress extremely well. GLaDOS was excellent at calculating everything necessary; even so, it didn't hurt to reinforce it, especially considering that the idea was to bring together hundreds of thousands of supernatural people in the same place.
The sphere, even though I managed to get them to agree to reduce its size, was still a kilometer in diameter, which was still too much for my sanity. The surface area of the sphere was over 3.14 km², and I think the closest thing to that size that came to mind was Central Park in New York, with 3.41 km². It was an enormous area; one to three million people could easily fit comfortably inside. And the interior of the zero-gravity track was even more enormous.
Even so, I gave the girls a chance to see if they could really fill the Distracted Globe. I didn't hold my breath, but I would let them try; maybe I would be the one who ended up surprised.
Although that made it more difficult for me and took me longer to charm.Placing the enchantments so that a structure one kilometer in diameter could fly over Pentagram City without any risk of it falling was complicated. It turns out that levitating something that weighs several million tons takes a huge effort, and doing it permanently even more so, especially while trying to place the defenses on the Distracted Globe so that no one could modify it except me.
The last thing I wanted was for anyone to come along and force Distracted Globe to fall on Pentagram City; I wouldn't allow it.
That alone took me more than a day's work, but Distracted Globe was now able to float hundreds of meters above Pentagram City without any problems and able to withstand even the attack of a supreme-rank devil with ease.
Once the exterior was complete, it was time to create the interior. Creating the artificial gravity that allowed it to stick to the wall was, at best, just as complicated, or even more so, but only because I had to create magic that would react to people's intentions and be functional in hypothetical cases of millions of people at the same time.
It wasn't as easy as simply removing natural gravity, creating false gravity on the surface, and then removing it again in the center. No, if I completely removed gravity and left everything in zero gravity, everyone would float aimlessly, which would be annoying for everyone.
Yes, most supernatural races could fly or achieve similar effects, but many couldn't, so I couldn't create true zero gravity; rather, I created something similar that would allow people to 'swim' or 'float' in the air in specific directions.
The same goes for the surface: you couldn't place gravity at a certain height and have people 'jump' over it for gravity to disappear; you had to place something that 'eliminated' gravity intentionally.
So yes, it also took me a long time to work out the logistics for that, especially given the size.
Once I finished that, I could finally focus on creating the entire interior. The first thing was the surface floor. The first thing that came to mind when I had a supernatural casino with people capable of single-handedly destroying cities was a security system strong enough to prevent any incident.
It occurred to me to ask Enid for help, as Nightingale; she had her Noble Phantasm, Pledge of Nightingale, which practically created an area where fighting was not allowed.
I had been able to replicate their NP, and I planned to place hundreds of them around Distracted Globe, but that would also prevent security from actually removing or arresting anyone.
So I went with the second option. The entire floor was made of hidden, almost imperceptible triangular tiles, but within them were small circles that opened to reveal a tiny compartment where small fairies slept, acting as security.
The Fairies had been created from the projections of the Divine Dividing version that I had created and were then turned into Fairies with my tail thanks to Schiavo; they were connected to the magical network of Distracted Globe that GLaDOS controlled.
Each fairy could halve a person's power. Only seven of them were needed to reduce a person's power to less than 1%, enough to prevent any problems, and could be removed by practically anyone.
Now, there were hundreds of thousands of those fairies scattered throughout the Distracted Globe, ready to act as soon as the alarm was raised and a target identified. And not only inside; the exterior also had many of them, in case of an external attack, capable of reducing any attack to practically nothing.
Honestly, using Diving Divide as a security system felt like an insult to Vali, but it's not like I cared; it was just unfair how powerful that Sacred Gear was at disabling people.
There was a reason Vali relied on it mainly: a pity for him that I had defense against magic drain, and the Divide didn't work properly against me. I could easily ignore his Diving Divide during a fight.
Once the entire security system was ready, it was time to build the casino. Ravel and Rebecca had a long list of everything that needed to be created on the surface, so I simply followed their plans.
There were hundreds of gambling tables, as well as bars and places to eat, some rooms here and there, such as bathrooms and private rooms, areas for meetings, and much more.
The private rooms were equipped with enchantments to prevent information from being overheard, seen, or even magically spied on; they could even activate time bubbles if one could or wanted to pay extra for it. Ravel truly knew how to seize an opportunity to profit in most cases.
There were a large number of different games, mainly because this was going to be a place where people from all over the world would come; putting only Western games would practically mean we would lose many people.
So there were games of chance from different countries and cultures, and even several supernatural ones here and there, as well as several ideas for games from other worlds, but they were put aside for the time being.
The more I built, the less empty Distracted Globe began to look, and it started to take shape. It was truly impressive. Everything was also enchanted to be unbreakable and to clean itself of any stains or dirt automatically.
I also had to take a moment to create thousands of magical, unbreakable glasses that wouldn't leak when turned upside down or be tampered with once the drink was finished. They could only be drunk through straws or if a person's lips touched the edge of the glass, but nothing could be added to them in any way, so now they were suitable for taking to zero gravity, shaking, and were completely safe.
There were various types of services set up around it, not directly related to the casino itself—well, partially. I had built a huge bank. Ravel had already arranged the meetings, and the bank was affiliated with the Underworld Bank, though being affiliated didn't mean it belonged to them.
The bank was entirely ours, simply because Ravel refused to lose a large sum of money by managing it inside the casino. I truly didn't know where Ravel got her greed from, but she was capable of seizing any opportunity to keep making money.
The bank building was large enough to be able to enchant its interior to create enormous vaults to store both people's money or belongings, as well as those that were lost and belonged to the casino, that is, to me.
Furthermore, since Ravel's bank was affiliated with the underworld bank, the devils would be able to withdraw and store their money in their bank accounts without any problem; we would handle the transfer... obviously for an extra charge.
It would also include a service to transport them to their homes… for another surcharge.
It really felt dirty to earn more money that way, but I wouldn't interfere with Ravel or her goal of earning even more.
Even so, I could understand why we needed to include such a service; I could prevent fights within Distracted Globe, Pentagram City, and Wallachia, but I wouldn't be responsible for what happened outside my territories.
Most devils, especially those of the lower and middle classes, would definitely use the services to avoid being robbed the moment they leave the city if they had to carry their earnings with them.
Speaking of which, after discussing it with the Satans, I was allowed to create teleportation points in the territories, both human and underworld, of other devils as long as I had explicit written permission from all of them.
So, Ravel also took charge of negotiating this and obtained permission from a couple of dozen of them in the human world, and half of the territories in the underworld. Rebecca was right that if they were offered money, they would accept almost immediately, although it also helped that the request came mainly from a Phenex.
Therefore, I added large teleportation areas to the surface of Distracted Globe, permanent magic circles that teleported anyone inside them back and forth.
I had the idea of using fire, and Floo Powder or Portkeys, but the idea of both magical journeys, along with some drunk people, was a very bad combination, so magic circles were the best option.
With that, most of the surface was finished; a few small details could be added later, but almost everything was done.
The floating platforms offered virtually the same services as those on the surface, but at a higher price and with greater luxury. Apparently, people liked to appear important and show off their possessions, so the platforms were essentially the same facilities, but more exclusive.
High-stakes gambling halls, exclusive games, even luxury bars and restaurants, and much more. There were hundreds of them floating around, dozens of meters above the surface, orbiting parallel to the surface and slowly moving across the entire area they were allowed to.
They were designed never to collide and to keep moving slowly; it would make it harder to find specific platforms, but that was supposed to make it more attractive, or well, it would help people look at the rest of the platforms besides the ones they were familiar with.
Even so, I made sure to place holographic maps that tracked the platforms in real time; They could also ask them to point to certain specific platforms, and they would be indicated.
The platforms were shaped like vertically flattened hemispheres, not large enough to be massive, but large enough to appear sturdy and solid; creating solid discs somehow looked out of place. The undersides of the platforms were designed to display the night sky from different parts of the world.
Once I finished creating all the surface facilities and platforms, everything looked really nice now that it wasn't empty, and the atmosphere was starting to take shape.
I couldn't use really bright colors, or at least not something like all gold, because it would clash too much with the atmosphere of the club area. Hence, the floor was completely black and reflective. Still, there were a lot of neon violet and electric blue lights placed all over the place, on the edges of the surface, along the paths, around each table, in circles signaling certain areas, all in those colors.
Even so, the gaming tables and other amenities were well-lit, but close enough to blend in with the surroundings. The atmosphere felt quietly luxurious, somewhat elegant, and immense, almost futuristic. There were no garish colors, so it didn't assault the eye with as much gold as some casinos I knew.
The only hidden facility here was a room housing the servers. All the electronics, and much of the magic, were connected to these servers, which were similar to a Prüfer unit, along with an AI created by GLaDOS.
While GLaDOS had priority and greater administrative permissions, the AI was responsible for maintaining and regulating all of Distracted Globe, especially the thousands of cameras throughout it.
They were small, invisible, enchanted spheres designed to be unconsciously ignored by people, so no one should notice them. Cameras were pointing at every table and every seat. The AI would ensure no one cheated and would release the fairies if problems arose. They also had magical sensors and others in case anyone used magic discreetly to cheat.
Especially on the platforms and high-risk tables. But putting that aside, I was actually quite satisfied with how everything turned out; it was a good view.
Finally, I tackled the other most important part of the Globe, the zero-gravity dance area. There wasn't much to do there, so it was the easiest part. Creating translucent bubbles that allowed people to enter and exit was really simple compared to everything else.
The bubbles were enchanted to grow as more people entered them, so they would expand or contract depending on their popularity; these bubbles prevented the entry and exit of noise, so they were completely isolated from each other; also, the lights and other visual effects were different in each one.
Each bubble had a small platform where the DJ and their equipment were located, although, well, "DJ" was a bit of an exaggeration; we had stolen some of the artificial intelligences used by some clubs in Night City and placed them there.
The girls couldn't get enough DJs to fit in every bubble, so most of them would be automated with small, rudimentary artificial intelligences programmed to play and mix music; they were quite sophisticated, actually.
There were also some water bubbles, just as Enid and Rebecca wanted; those were much more interesting. The water was enchanted so that people could breathe normally, so that the sound would be transmitted evenly, and so that it would remain clean and together.
Around everything, floating were also small metal spheres from which different effects emerged; some released fog, others lasers and strobe lights, and some even threw fluorescent paint at people or released small fluorescent bubbles; some had small holograms above them of dancing women.
And all of them served as speakers to uniformly transmit the music throughout the zero-gravity zone, making the experience more immersive and reducing sound loss in certain areas.
Once I finished, it was really nice to look at the whole Distracted Globe. It had turned out much better than I expected, so I was really proud of how it looked. Now all that was left was to wait and show it to everyone.
Ravel and the others had already hired thousands of people and were getting them up to speed, but now that Distracted Globe was finished, they could come and familiarize themselves with everything in person; they would have a week to do so.
Finally, I sighed contentedly and created a portal. I could feel everyone eagerly rushing through it without hesitation. I heard Enid gasp before she squealed with joy.
"It looks amazing, Sera!! You really did it! " Enid said happily, her eyes sparkling as she looked around in fascination.
"It looks so preem! Oh, it will be fantastic to come and dance here! " Rebecca said with a wide smile.
"I agree," Lucy said, her eyes sparkling as she looked around.
"I admit it, it looks good," Narcissa said, looking around curiously. We were on one of the floating platforms, so we were close to the surface to see the casino and the bubbles in the dance area.
"Mmm, it's not my area of expertise, but it looks good, my dear." Lucius said while humming softly.
"We'll have to come often, My Odr." Freya purred, looking around.
"This is perfect. With Distracted Globe finished, we can finally begin preparations. We have so much to prepare," Ravel said excitedly and eagerly. I hummed and nodded.
"I'm glad you like it. Let's take a ride. I'll fix everything wrong, and then I can remove the invisibility from the Distracted Globe. Did you send the announcement, Ravel?" I asked as I began to fly.
"I did it a couple of hours ago, the announcement was repeated several times in all the media outlets in the city, there are several people really curious about the supposed enormous sphere that will appear completely out of nowhere in the sky of the city," Ravel said, amusedly. I snorted.
"Okay, let's get this over with." I said playfully while shaking my head.
After several laps and ensuring everything was in order, I finally removed the invisibility from the Distracted Globe's exterior, revealing the enormous cobalt-blue spherical structure that rose above the city.
I also used Distracted Globe to enchant the city sky, using it as an anchor to place an enchantment that replicated the weather of the human world across all of Pentagram City, all while the enormous sphere floated gently in the middle of the city, right above my island.
I had a slight déjà vu. I recalled the Last City of Destiny, with The Traveler floating above it. I quickly shook my head, but still smiled. Yes, now it was all completely over.
Author's Notes: I actually enjoy world-building much more than I expected, so sorry for this long chapter!
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