Three flipped tables, a broken chair and a few broken bones later, we finished our third game of monopoly … both Aska and I were still working on our anger management, but I was only the reason for one outburst of anger, mostly because I won the best of three.
Anyways, the goddess of life was at her wits end and wanted to teleport away as I grabbed her wrist. “To Hannah please.” I said and smiled as we apparently teleported in front of Hannah with perfect timing.
The little apostle of life was just walking towards her when Hannah raised her eyebrows as the goddess and I became visible to her.
“Why are you helping me?” Sofie asked quite scared by Hannah´s presence alone.
“Ask that the goddess.” Hannah said and pointed towards Irminsul who reluctantly showed herself.
“You … you promised me you would save my parents!” Did she? Irminsul only asked me to save her apostle though. Well then, that wasn’t my problem, so I could enjoy how troubled the goddess of life looked to the fullest.
“I …” The goddess of life bit her lower lip in frustration. “I … Sofie, I only wanted to save you, and the only way of doing so was by separating you from your parents at all cost.”
“Wow! You lied to her? Welcome to the team!” I said as Sofie had a little outburst of anger.
“Oh, my, you haven’t told her? How was this called again …” Hannah started and paused a little.
“World Charta article four: Gods may not interfere with the world except through an apostle.” I recited and heard Hannah repeat after me. The conversation went on a little where I nearly dozed off because of how boring it was and I was fairly limited interaction wise. I could show myself to Sofie … but I really didn´t want her to remember me that way.
There was one notable exception though.
“Bring my parents back.” Sofie demanded.
“That is …” Irminsul turned her head towards the me which made me laugh loudly. Theoretically, both Aska and I were capable of bringing their souls back. They would never return to be the person they once were though. Surely, Aska and Irminsul could do something about that together, but I was entirely sure that the goddess of life didn´t want to pay the price for that. “… sadly not possible. The dead do not come back, Sofie.”
“Then leave me alone!” Sofie nearly screamed and stomped onto the ground as she walked back to the camp.
“Well, you got some apostle problems there?” I asked while smiling dumbly.
“I can only hope she will forgive me someday.” She really did hope that and I didn’t doubt one second Sofie would forgive her.
“I´m sure she will … hey, Hannah, there are no enemies nearby, you can go to bed without any worries. And Irminsul … what about the payment?” I asked while raising my eyebrow.
“They agreed.” She said.
“Payment? What do I get?” Hannah asked, hearing for the first time that there was more to this than just my barely existing desire to save Sofie.
“As I said: Cookies?” I asked happily.
“Now I want more.” More cookies? Or more in general?
“Greedy little … fine, when we meet again, I will do one day with you whatever you want.” I claimed and curtsied in front of her.
“… that sounds great.” She admitted.
“Hannah … we see each other in eight years.” I said sadly.
“I´ll be waiting.” She said and gave me a bitter smile.
“I know. Thank you.” I nodded towards her and with that, we arrived back in the bungalow. “Wow, have you ever heard about teleportation sickness?”
“That’s just something you made up, didn´t you?” Irminsul asked.
“Feeling all this life washing over my soul makes me sick.” I said and rubbed my palms against each other. “Wanna play Risk?”
“No! The meeting of the reincarnators is in a few minutes. And Aska, you are invited as well.” The goddess exclaimed unhappily.
“I am? I never get invited to these events.” Aska said surprised.
“Because you are always voting alternately in the council!” The goddess said and ruffed her hair in anger. Truth to be told, it was rare for her to stick around longer than a few hours because we were apparently ‘eroding her sanity’ or something like that.
“Really?” I asked in utter amazement. I started to love democrazy all of a sudden if Aska could vote whatever way he wanted.
“Yeah … he voted against having more than one dimension. Can you imagine living in 2D?” The green haired goddess of life asked while I already imagined myself as a stick man. How would I view the world? A single line?
“These were horrible times …” Aska admitted. “Anyways, off we go!” He said and snipped with his fingers. Once again, I was flung through space yet again and reappeared on lush plains. The grass went nearly to my knees in this place and the sun had quite the unpleasant colour. At least I didn´t need my glasses there which was something.
“Yo.” Someone to my right said, clad in a black nebula that made it impossible to discern his face. “I never expected to see someone else who managed to activate the grace of his patron god.”
I frowned slightly, especially as I couldn’t see a hint of green in my own nebula. That nebula wasn’t from Aska or Irminsul anymore, it was from me alone. My soul was dripping with death itself, producing this black nebula nobody could look through.
“Are you mute, or what?” He asked as I tried to find out what the element was that produced his nebula. Sadly, I spectacularly failed.
I nodded in return to his question as I really didn´t want to reveal my voice to this guy.
“Whatever … how long are you on this planet already?” He asked, to which I showed him three fingers.
“Thirty years … wow, that’s something. I got twenty five and I´m already sick of it. Anyways, I´m the Demon King. Nice to meet you.” He wanted to give me his hand, but I made no indication whatsoever to take it. Awkwardly, he let it hang downwards again after several seconds. I had no intention to take the hand of someone who called himself Demon King.
“Anyways, do you want to join me in rampaging through the continent?” Rampaging? What he was doing was child´s play, not going on a rampage. He couldn´t even cross a simple river with his superior forces … okay, water was scary, so there may have been more to it. “I´m level 436, there is no reason not to join me. You are supported by an evil god just like me, so it is definitely better to join forces.” Level 436? Cool. I was level null.
Slowly, I shook my head showing that there might be a way to convince me otherwise wile the thruth couldn’t be further away. I would never work together with an immature brat who revealed all his cards at the beginning. Turning around, I looked at the hundreds of children in front of me and strolled towards them. As far as I was aware, this was how they would all look at one point in their life. Seeing them alone was a huge advantage for me in dealing with them later.
One by one, I stared at the children with various ages from around twelve to seventeen. None could move very well which made the whole process really easy. After several minutes of doing so, I walked away from them and the Demon King. As soon as I stood a hundred metres away from the children, the god of hope spoke up.
“My dear apostles.” Yeah, as if he had any feelings for them. There was an uncountable number of humans and even the goddess of life rarely managed to feel much towards them. “It does seem that most of you accustomed to Solaris rather well.” Did he mean the few months I was given? Yeah, fuck you!
“Sadly, I have to inform you that some of your less fortunate friends perished due to illnesses or other factors. In total, 46 of you haven’t made it this far and already returned to the normal circle of reincarnation.” Other factors was really funny. One was directly suffocated after birth because his parents couldn’t feed him, another one died because bandits attacked and so on and so forth.
“Some of these deaths were entirely avoidable. One of you has turned against humanity and gathered so-called demons under him. He is currently in the process of taking everything unto the Bhima River and already brutally ended the life of eleven of your comrades with his minions. This was never expected to happen, I am deeply sorry.” Was he? I seriously doubted it.
“He is threatening your lives … I do want not to ask you to stand against him, but I fear I have to. Humanity and the elves will otherwise be wiped out from existence. Thus, I can only hope you will use the powers given to you wisely.” I gnashed my teeth as I heard that. All of their powers were only possible because my soul was capable of running the system without splintering in two thousand parts immediately. I really, really wanted to scream ‘fuck you’ to the council of gods that probably listened but held back in the last second. There was no need to make them my enemies right away. Instead, I stared at the Demon King once more and tried to look behind the veil that covered him.
Not a chance. It wasn’t a deathly veil covering his body. It was something else.
The meeting ended before I could find out anything.
Three flipped tables, a broken chair and a few broken bones later, we finished our third game of monopoly … both Aska and I were still working on our anger management, but I was only the reason for one outburst of anger, mostly because I won the best of three.
Anyways, the goddess of life was at her wits end and wanted to teleport away as I grabbed her wrist. “To Hannah please.” I said and smiled as we apparently teleported in front of Hannah with perfect timing.
The little apostle of life was just walking towards her when Hannah raised her eyebrows as the goddess and I became visible to her.
“Why are you helping me?” Sofie asked quite scared by Hannah´s presence alone.
“Ask that the goddess.” Hannah said and pointed towards Irminsul who reluctantly showed herself.
“You … you promised me you would save my parents!” Did she? Irminsul only asked me to save her apostle though. Well then, that wasn’t my problem, so I could enjoy how troubled the goddess of life looked to the fullest.
“I …” The goddess of life bit her lower lip in frustration. “I … Sofie, I only wanted to save you, and the only way of doing so was by separating you from your parents at all cost.”
“Wow! You lied to her? Welcome to the team!” I said as Sofie had a little outburst of anger.
“Oh, my, you haven’t told her? How was this called again …” Hannah started and paused a little.
“World Charta article four: Gods may not interfere with the world except through an apostle.” I recited and heard Hannah repeat after me. The conversation went on a little where I nearly dozed off because of how boring it was and I was fairly limited interaction wise. I could show myself to Sofie … but I really didn´t want her to remember me that way.
There was one notable exception though.
“Bring my parents back.” Sofie demanded.
“That is …” Irminsul turned her head towards the me which made me laugh loudly. Theoretically, both Aska and I were capable of bringing their souls back. They would never return to be the person they once were though. Surely, Aska and Irminsul could do something about that together, but I was entirely sure that the goddess of life didn´t want to pay the price for that. “… sadly not possible. The dead do not come back, Sofie.”
“Then leave me alone!” Sofie nearly screamed and stomped onto the ground as she walked back to the camp.
“Well, you got some apostle problems there?” I asked while smiling dumbly.
“I can only hope she will forgive me someday.” She really did hope that and I didn’t doubt one second Sofie would forgive her.
“I´m sure she will … hey, Hannah, there are no enemies nearby, you can go to bed without any worries. And Irminsul … what about the payment?” I asked while raising my eyebrow.
“They agreed.” She said.
“Payment? What do I get?” Hannah asked, hearing for the first time that there was more to this than just my barely existing desire to save Sofie.
“As I said: Cookies?” I asked happily.
“Now I want more.” More cookies? Or more in general?
“Greedy little … fine, when we meet again, I will do one day with you whatever you want.” I claimed and curtsied in front of her.
“… that sounds great.” She admitted.
“Hannah … we see each other in eight years.” I said sadly.
“I´ll be waiting.” She said and gave me a bitter smile.
“I know. Thank you.” I nodded towards her and with that, we arrived back in the bungalow. “Wow, have you ever heard about teleportation sickness?”
“That’s just something you made up, didn´t you?” Irminsul asked.
“Feeling all this life washing over my soul makes me sick.” I said and rubbed my palms against each other. “Wanna play Risk?”
“No! The meeting of the reincarnators is in a few minutes. And Aska, you are invited as well.” The goddess exclaimed unhappily.
“I am? I never get invited to these events.” Aska said surprised.
“Because you are always voting alternately in the council!” The goddess said and ruffed her hair in anger. Truth to be told, it was rare for her to stick around longer than a few hours because we were apparently ‘eroding her sanity’ or something like that.
“Really?” I asked in utter amazement. I started to love democrazy all of a sudden if Aska could vote whatever way he wanted.
“Yeah … he voted against having more than one dimension. Can you imagine living in 2D?” The green haired goddess of life asked while I already imagined myself as a stick man. How would I view the world? A single line?
“These were horrible times …” Aska admitted. “Anyways, off we go!” He said and snipped with his fingers. Once again, I was flung through space yet again and reappeared on lush plains. The grass went nearly to my knees in this place and the sun had quite the unpleasant colour. At least I didn´t need my glasses there which was something.
“Yo.” Someone to my right said, clad in a black nebula that made it impossible to discern his face. “I never expected to see someone else who managed to activate the grace of his patron god.”
I frowned slightly, especially as I couldn’t see a hint of green in my own nebula. That nebula wasn’t from Aska or Irminsul anymore, it was from me alone. My soul was dripping with death itself, producing this black nebula nobody could look through.
“Are you mute, or what?” He asked as I tried to find out what the element was that produced his nebula. Sadly, I spectacularly failed.
I nodded in return to his question as I really didn´t want to reveal my voice to this guy.
“Whatever … how long are you on this planet already?” He asked, to which I showed him three fingers.
“Thirty years … wow, that’s something. I got twenty five and I´m already sick of it. Anyways, I´m the Demon King. Nice to meet you.” He wanted to give me his hand, but I made no indication whatsoever to take it. Awkwardly, he let it hang downwards again after several seconds. I had no intention to take the hand of someone who called himself Demon King.
“Anyways, do you want to join me in rampaging through the continent?” Rampaging? What he was doing was child´s play, not going on a rampage. He couldn´t even cross a simple river with his superior forces … okay, water was scary, so there may have been more to it. “I´m level 436, there is no reason not to join me. You are supported by an evil god just like me, so it is definitely better to join forces.” Level 436? Cool. I was level null.
Slowly, I shook my head showing that there might be a way to convince me otherwise wile the thruth couldn’t be further away. I would never work together with an immature brat who revealed all his cards at the beginning. Turning around, I looked at the hundreds of children in front of me and strolled towards them. As far as I was aware, this was how they would all look at one point in their life. Seeing them alone was a huge advantage for me in dealing with them later.
One by one, I stared at the children with various ages from around twelve to seventeen. None could move very well which made the whole process really easy. After several minutes of doing so, I walked away from them and the Demon King. As soon as I stood a hundred metres away from the children, the god of hope spoke up.
“My dear apostles.” Yeah, as if he had any feelings for them. There was an uncountable number of humans and even the goddess of life rarely managed to feel much towards them. “It does seem that most of you accustomed to Solaris rather well.” Did he mean the few months I was given? Yeah, fuck you!
“Sadly, I have to inform you that some of your less fortunate friends perished due to illnesses or other factors. In total, 46 of you haven’t made it this far and already returned to the normal circle of reincarnation.” Other factors was really funny. One was directly suffocated after birth because his parents couldn’t feed him, another one died because bandits attacked and so on and so forth.
“Some of these deaths were entirely avoidable. One of you has turned against humanity and gathered so-called demons under him. He is currently in the process of taking everything unto the Bhima River and already brutally ended the life of eleven of your comrades with his minions. This was never expected to happen, I am deeply sorry.” Was he? I seriously doubted it.
“He is threatening your lives … I do want not to ask you to stand against him, but I fear I have to. Humanity and the elves will otherwise be wiped out from existence. Thus, I can only hope you will use the powers given to you wisely.” I gnashed my teeth as I heard that. All of their powers were only possible because my soul was capable of running the system without splintering in two thousand parts immediately. I really, really wanted to scream ‘fuck you’ to the council of gods that probably listened but held back in the last second. There was no need to make them my enemies right away. Instead, I stared at the Demon King once more and tried to look behind the veil that covered him.
Not a chance. It wasn’t a deathly veil covering his body. It was something else.
The meeting ended before I could find out anything.
