Talking her down from what seems to have been a panic attack of some kind was actually a bit simpler than I expected… all I really had to do was keep holding her and patting her head while telling her it’s alright.

“And I mean it too. I’m asleep. I mean, my main body is asleep, and it’s not going to wake up any time soon… I’m not going to let it. It’s too dangerous, and confused, and unable to understand what anything here in the real means outside of eating things, and colorful lights, and eating colorful lights. It’s insatiable. From what I can remember it was pretty disorienting. Anyway, yes, it’s burrowed in there but it shouldn’t hurt anything, and like I said… I couldn’t think of a safer place. Even hiding it in one of the planes would be vulnerable, even between them. So I guess for now, you’re my guardian, in a sense. I’m going to protect myself too obviously, but I trust you so I know this is going to be alright.”

Artemis just gazes thoughtfully up at me for a moment before asking, “What?”

“I’m… not sure what you’re asking,” I say gently, for once unable to piece together what she actually means by the single word. Maybe I’ve gotten too dependent on being able to read her that well…

And then she just points at the sky, and then at me again. “What?”

“Oh, that’s what you mean! Sorry. So um, I’m the queen of hunger, you already knew that… I guess I’m some kind of outsider thing? From outside the Record and the planes and the real, I mean. Probably something specifically made or evolved or formed or whatever to eat gods and reality. But don’t worry, I don’t actually want to do that! Not like this anyway. Oh, and I’m asleep. Apparently this body, the one experiencing the real, is part of the dream. I’m not really sure what else I’m dreaming, but from the confusion I’m pretty sure I’m not supposed to be sentient, and whatever Astraea did with the super god’s help made me sentient so I could, I don’t know. Learn to not eat the real, maybe? Not all of it anyway.”

Ah, now that I think of it, I haven’t even looked at my Status in a long time. Let’s just give that a peek…

[Status]

[Name: Nemesis]

[Race: Outsider (Void Horror) – Queen of Hunger (The Dreamer and the Dream) – Obsidian Witch of the Infinite Void (She of Shattered Facets – Sovereign of Night)]

[Mantle of (Domain: Envy, Hunger, Malevolence, Night, Oblivion)]

[Domain: Control (Class)]

[SYSTEM: None]

[Inherent Skills:]

[Bewilder 324]

[Consume 463]

[Control Spawn]

[Create Spawn]

[Mimic Lure 47]

[Lesser Regeneration 381

[Planar Detachment 338]

[Telekinesis (Greater) 290]

[The Ravages of Time]

[Aura of the Unwound (Max)]

[Class: Obsidian Witch of the Infinite Void (Unique) – Level 0 – XP 0/1000]

[Class Skills:]

[Blood Pact 204]

[Dominate 342]

[Prophet’s Voice 723]

[True Sense]

[Verum Corpus 670]

[Wave of Restoration 2]

[Will Detection (Max)]

[Will Surge (Max)]

[Class: Viper of Lamashtu – Level 0 – XP 0/1000]

[Class Skills: None]

[General Skills:]

[Dimensional Storage 73]

[Identify 15]

[Stealth 77]

[Language]

[Echo of the Void]

[Interplanar Common]

[Shadowborne]

[Traits:]

[Abyssal Hunger]

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[Avatar (Queen of Hunger)]

[Blood Thirst]

[Bound Will]

[Legacy of Lamashtu]

[Titles:]

[Autophagic Cannibal]

[Confluence of Envy]

[Devourer of Worlds]

[Divine Calamity]

[Godslayer]

[Primordial Manaphage]

[She Who Stole the Night Sky]

[Stigma of the End]

[Sworn Foe of Themis]

[The Old Fear]

[Tool of the Origin]

[True Demon Lord]

[True Hero’s Familiar]

Yeah, that’s different alright. I can’t say I’m that surprised, considering this is sort of a new me… I think. Also the whole Egos merging thing…

There’s no way it would be unchanged.

But that’s alright. My Identify result is pretty scary too…

[Outsider (Void Horror) – Queen of Hunger (The Dreamer and the Dream) – Obsidian Witch of the Infinite Void (She of Shattered Facets – Sovereign of Night)]

It’s a mouthful as well, maybe appropriate for me, ha! But it will definitely clog up normal people’s Identify… at least they don’t have it on all the time, I can only imagine having an indicator like that constantly floating over my head.

…

I didn’t know that was possible before. Maybe I saw it in my… past life, I guess. Maybe that would be easier… viewing Astraea like my ancestor, and that we have generational memory.

Yeah. Much, much easier. I’ll just go with that.

[Trait Acquired: Generational Memory (Astraea)]

Wait, it’s that easy to get Traits!?

…

Well, whatever I guess. It’s not wrong, at least from how I’m going to treat it.

It occurs to me that while I’ve been lost in my introspection, my wife has been snuggling closer and closer to me bit by bit. Maybe she’s starting to accept…

Ah, no, she’s starting to fall asleep.

And that’s fine.

We can just stay like this for a while… I chose well leaving myself with her.

She’s quite possibly the safest place to be, especially for me.

Especially right now, in this moment.

***

And still so little progress with Izahne.

…

At least I have her sitting in my lap now, so I guess I’ve become a safe person for her… although if anyone enters my throne room she still shivers uncontrollably.

Even the maids.

Even Artemis.

But I guess it’s at least something I can work with.

Vivi – what Astraea used to call Vivianne apparently – has started giving me reports on my people again.

And I’ve stopped eating them outright when they’ve brought me stupid arguments, which they continued for some reason ever since I rebuilt my castle. Despite my reputation, even.

Maybe they’re the next generation, I don’t know. When you sleep for three hundred or more years a lot of people forget what you’ve done, which is still strange to me.

You’d think that’d be passed down in stories. Who knows, maybe the administrator does something to make people forget.

I wouldn’t be that surprised, to be honest. There’s no way that business would go on as usual if the mortals knew about all of this.

They’d probably be living in nihilistic fear.

Much like Izahne is right now.

She’s insisted on sleeping with me again, although she wakes screaming every night. If I chose to sleep during those times I’m sure she’d wake me up in the process, but I promised I’d stay awake and watch over her. Simple enough considering I have no need for sleep.

Or for food, although blood is still tasty. Sekhmet didn’t forget our agreement, although when I first contacted her again after all this time she did seem shocked. Maybe she was hoping I’d have just quietly disappeared forever. Oh, and her son is quite a bit more aged now, though as an ascendant and half-god-blooded he’s definitely still alive.

Livvie has insisted on sharing my bed as well, a thing I haven’t resisted in any meaningful way considering she is also still recovering… and she definitely hasn’t forgotten how many hundreds of years we spent every night like this to begin with, even supposedly before she had a humanoid form. I… still don’t know how to feel about that deception, but she’s important to me even before taking into account how hard she worked to nurse me back to health after we restored the night sky.

Grandmother seemed disappointed that I’d latched onto my wives again, or worldly things of any kind in general.

“You were making such progress,” she’d said. “I had and still have so much hope for you, you just need to let go of everything but power. You’ve already demonstrated that you are capable of it. You need only continue on your previous path.”

But I’m tired of that kind of lifestyle. It’s boring just watching the ants flee.

Or continuously stepping on them entirely because I can.

…

Maybe I should find a way to hide among them for a time. That might be entertaining. I’m sure plenty of other gods do it.

I’ve also gotten powerful enough that I can sense Dolos’ will when he’s present… at least somewhere nearby, though his exact location is always hazy at best.

He watches me a lot. I’m not sure why, though I have no doubt he’s simply waiting for the next opportunity to betray me somehow, or to least someone else around me to betray me.

I’ll never understand that about him, but I guess his Domain has more sway over him than others… either that or he’s just an asshole, which is far more likely.

My so-labeled little sister has gotten quite a bit stronger as well, easily passing level 1000, although she’s still not remotely strong enough to take me down should it be necessary.

Which she’s convinced is her calling now, considering how many innocent mortals I’ve swept off the face of the planes for no reason other than being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Unfortunate, but whatever I guess. At least she’s talking to me again, although now there’s an underlying tension as well as some kind of melancholy.

She probably wishes it never came to this, and I’ll admit that I do too. The times before with her were short and confusing, especially regarding my own role in whatever kind of relationship that was, but it was still a good experience, I think.

Markus is still working with Nyx in her workshop, designing and building technology after technology. As I understand it, runic tech is advancing by leaps and bounds because of the two of them, and my former System Assistant has been rebuilding her reputation as an inventor as well.

I stopped in on her not that long ago, but she wasn’t particularly happy to see me.

***

“Hey, how’s it going.”

“What the fuck are you doing here?” the former sidhe snaps, turning suddenly in surprise at my materializing behind her. That portal to the portable home really is convenient… assuming either of us would actually use it.

I shrug. “I came to visit. I’m not… losing my mind anymore, I guess?”

“Great. Wonderful. So tell me, what are the odds that the next time your wife is out of the house for too long or one of them gets mad at you entirely because you're not paying enough attention to her that you'll react by murdering thousands of mortals?”

Huh.

“Well, um. Less?” I verbally stumble, a bit off balance from her accusation. “Less than before? A lot less?”

She outright glares at me. “You still suck at this, that wasn’t reassuring at all. Was that even supposed to be reassuring?”

…

…

“…Yes?”

“Get the fuck out of my workshop,” she snarls while physically pushing me back toward the portal.

***

Yeah, not great at all. So much for a reunion, but I’m sure she’ll come around.

In a few hundred more years maybe, I bet some ‘good behavior’ will influence it.

…

…

You know, it occurs to me that Izahne is a full-blown goddess now. Isn’t she supposed to have some kind of… godly name or whatever? I thought we just automatically received those when we hit apotheosis if we hadn’t already assumed one…

I wonder.

Appraisal is easy enough, especially if I’m fueling the words needed to read directly from her Akashic Self in a raw sense…

[Hades]

Huh. I wonder what that even means. Maybe I’ll ask Livvie later, she’ll probably know.