I'll go see what Justice wants to do. She's been waffling about giving up her hydra form for quite a while. I don't mind her hanging around, but I don't know how to kill her virtue without evolving or killing her. I'm not sure what I'll do if she chooses to remain a hydra. Can I solely kill her virtue? I'm not sure. I hope she chooses to become a dragon.
I became suspicious of the deadly sins and false virtues when I found out they could steal Will. Then the information broker said they weren't particularly strong. What were they hiding? But I was wrong to be suspicious.
The sins and virtues do gather Will. However, it's not solely to become strong as I'd assumed. They're not even close to the strongest in the god realm. They didn't go too far because their compulsions dragged them down. Aside from Indolence, anyway. Or maybe he was the one dragging them down.
As for my stats, they would put me at...
Status
Name: Chronovoid
Talents: Timeless Terminus
Lineage: Timeless Origin
Rank: Chronovoid
Species: Chronovoid (Timeless Dragon)
Weapon: I'mma Dragon (Rawr)
Stats:
Str: 1.11 (2.23qi)
Sta: 1.04 (2.23qi)
Int: 1.17 (2.23qi)
Wis: 1.16 (2.23qi)
Will: 7.13 (882.1d)
Rank 3! Well, I knew that.
I'll update my rank.
Status, Rank.
Rank: 3
That's a lot less pointless than my Rank being my name. For whatever reason that happened. Am I in a class of my own? Makes sense, since I utterly massacred Greed, a Rank 8 dragon. I still haven't managed to absorb all of his power.
Pride's Rank was 7, and Martissa's is 3, so there's quite a bit of variation among the, rah, former sins and virtues. I don't know Gluttony's former rank. All I know is that he was stronger than Greed in raw stats.
The strongest virtue was Truth at Rank 6. This puts her below the strongest sins by orders of magnitude. So, why didn't they kill each other? Putting aside Indolence, who was far too lazy. Hrr. It'd be easy for Greed, no? Well, the other sins held him in check. Mostly Pride. Despite the fact Pride was weaker than him, perhaps Pride's also good fighter?
That makes sense considering he grew up fighting literally everyone. His story's so sad.
Rah, right. The purpose of the sins and virtues was to gather that so-called 'chaos,' which I still refuse to believe is ACTUALLY chaos. They'd funnel it into the Chaos Fissures to close them. Chaos Dispersers are basically roaming Chaos Fissure spawners which settle down somewhere at random and make a new Chaos Fissure. They can be 'killed' by blasting them with magic or force, so they're not as immune to damage as the fissures themselves.
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The thing is, when one closes a Chaos Fissure, it makes the existing ones grow larger. The only way to stop this process is by preventing new ones from forming in the first place. That is, by killing the Chaos Dispersers before they settle. Otherwise, they're nothing less than an irreversible countdown to doomsday.
Just like me! So, it makes perfect sense that my fate talent wants me to replace the concept of chaos. Why not replace the normal doomsday clock with a sentient one? Plus, the new clock REALLY enjoys messing with its own timer.
image [https://timjames.net/data/acd/images/174.png]
I think back to my own Will draining out of my maw.
What could possibly go wrong?
I Will myself back to my temple.
"Rwrrr!"
"Go go go!"
"Rawhhh!"
"Rah! rah!"
Seems they're all around the arena? Pride's matches against Dracosect didn't grab this much attention.
I walk over.
Roh? I don't recognize—
I check their status.
Geritel. That must be Gerisel's new name. Wait, he's male now? Rokay, none of my business.
I see him jump into the ring with Dracosect.
Aiming a little high, reh?
Gotta admit. You look sharp, though.
Pride notices me.
"Hello, my god. I've given up trying to fight them. Dracosect was sandbagging."
I look at Pride quizzically.
"His fists treating you as a sandbag isn't the intended meaning of that term, Pride."
"Oh, I know. I mean, he was making me feel better about my lacking combat ability. He at least let me stay in the ring for a few seconds."
Rohhh. Rokay. That wouldn't make me feel better.
I look back to the arena when I hear Dracosect speak.
"Geritel, this will be our tenth match. While I admire your fighting spirit, I have much to do. All the bounties you've requested will require your time as well. I've taken nine—"
"I'LL take one, Dracosect. Your undefeated record ends here. I'll be the second Paragon, soon enough! But before that? I gotta beat you."
Rarh! I rescind what I said about aiming a 'little' high. Let's see if he's got the skills.
I step forward.
"I'll be giving an additional reward to the victor of this match as I've decided to change the reward structure. This will be Dracosect's thousandth victory or Geritel's first. From now on, victories in the arena will be rewarded in the order of first, tenth, hundredth, thousandth, and so on. However, all contestants are limited to a maximum of five hours per Shridenian day in the arena. A Shridenian day is my birth planet's timescale, not whichever planet is your home. I'll also retroactively give rewards to those who've previously satisfied these requirements. The reward will contain a certain amount of physical stats and Will based on the level of accomplishment and dedication you've shown as a member and representative of my hoard. Meaning, the same number of victories isn't always worth the same reward."
I wave my clawed hand and distribute a large amount of stats. Unsurprisingly, most of it goes to Dracosect.
He does deserve it. As usual. Temp already rewarded him for the arena before, though, so to be fair I took that from from his earnings. It's not like he'd notice the loss of a tiny stat exponent when I'm granting him nine, ten figures.
He bows to me.
"Thank you, my god."
He faces Geritel, who speaks.
"Ohho, now I have even more reasons to win! Remember, Dracosect. Tomorrow! RAWR!"
Geritel's being super-aggressive. I wonder what he means with that taunt.
They're all waiting for me, so I count down.
"Three, two, one. Fight."