Rob opened his eyes to glance at the strange contraption hanging on the opposite side of his bed. It appeared rather arcane, weird, mystical, and magical, like a fracturing web of glowing lines that wrapped around an illusory armor-like object, with its gauntlets and boots appearing far more solid and realistic compared to every other part of the projection.

It sure does suck being unable to use alchemy magic with this soul. Rob clicked his tongue and snapped his fingers, causing the floating mass of colorful lines to condense into one small ring that slipped onto his finger.

He then walked towards the big cabinet where he stored all of his clothes, pressed a certain part, and voila, a hidden compartment revealed itself to him, with a complex array releasing a small cyclone of mana and air. Inside the small circular array were numerous hills of stacked miniature crystals.

Rob observed the crystals for a bit before moving his gaze to the other small object placed inside the hidden compartment of his cabinet. Glancing at the simple white metallic cube, he utilized a simple vision-enhancing spell and looked at the insides of the white cube, where a scarily complex powerplant released a crap ton of energy into a certain magical transformer that connected with the array he previously inspected.

A shrunk-down nuclear power plant, what a wonder of science and magic, eh? Smiling to himself, Rob placed his hand on top of the white cube, causing intricate runes to appear on the simple silver ring on his hand. From the white cube, a large amount of mana diffused out of its ‘pores’ and gathered into the ring, filling it to the brim with mana.

Taking a nonchalant glance at the absurd amount of mana inside his ring, Rob sighed and glanced at the sky with a grin, thinking to himself with a proud smile, I’m already secretly a quasi-Supreme Alchemist with this little magnum opus of mine, so it won’t be too long before my little plan succeeds once this semester ends…

Chuckling softly, his ears twitched as the door creaked open, and Holly peeked into his room with a charming smile.

“Aunt Vivia said it’s time to eat already,” she whispered while glancing at Rob longingly.

“I’ll be going down soon,” Rob responded with a tired tone and slowly stood up. Then, as Holly walked into his room with hesitant steps, he chuckled and appeared right in front of her with a single step.

Before she could even respond, he wrapped her in a tight embrace and whispered warmly to her ear, “I love you… really.”

“Hehe… I love you too,” Holly mumbled with a smile and tightly hugged Rob, wrapping her arms around his waist and back..

Enjoying the silence, the two lovebirds quietly held each other in a warm embrace in the dimly lit room. Unfortunately for them, a nosy little girl broke the silence with a loud cough as Elaine grumbled, “Go down and eat already, you two!”

Holly jumped back from the hug like a frightened cat, while Rob glared at Elaine and clicked his tongue. “Wow, Elaine, good for you for ruining the moment.”

“Well, excuse me for ignoring Mama’s call to eat dinner already!” Elaine crossed her arms and looked away with a snort.

“Fine, you don’t have to be so jealous!” Rob rolled his eyes and turned to look at Holly. “Come on, let’s go down.”

“Mhm.” Holly bashfully nodded her head, and the three quickly went down the stairs.

Upon arriving downstairs and entering the dining room, the three quickly got into their respective chairs, with Herve and Vivia sitting at the opposing ends of the long rectangular table. Elaine on the other hand sat alone at the right side of the table while Rob and Holly sat right beside each other on the left side of the table.

Grinning widely, Herve poured some wine into his fancy glass cup, filled it near to the brim, and nodded at Holly.

Taking the cue, she coughed and clasped her hands together. A warm, holy light replaced the light coming from the light above them, as a warm and enchanting feeling coursed through the whole room.

“Let us pray,” she whispered softly.

The four other members of the Fortune Family clasped their hands together in a praying motion, bowed their heads, and closed their eyes.

“Dear God, our heavenly father, thank you for bestowing us another bountiful meal for tonight…”

Finishing the last sentence of her prayer, the group of five opened their eyes and exclaimed loudly, “Amen!”

They then went on to place food on their respective plates, like rice or curry, or poured some drinks on their glass like Rob’s mystical mind-relaxing liquid or some fizzy sweet drink that had recently taken the capital by storm with its unique flavor profile unlike anything else before.

Herve was the first one to take a bite of the food, and his eyes visibly popped out from delight as he chowed down on his food like a hungry wolf, but why wouldn’t he? With Vivia’s innate talent and skill in cooking, alongside the holy blessing from God themselves, the food could simply be called divine at this point!

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“God is good! Ahahahaha!” Herve raised his spoon to the sky and declared loudly.

“God is always good, Uncle Herve…” Holly hesitantly looked away. “Although using His gifts like this is a bit… unorthodox.”

“Who cares!” Herve retorted. “As long as I get to enjoy good food by helping others, then it’s worth the sacrifice!”

“Oh, dear.” Vivia sighed and took a sip of her wine.

“It’s fine, Aunt Vivia, really!” said Holly.

“I know, if not, we would have been struck down by lightning already. It’s just that my husband here is a bit too shameless when it comes to the benevolence of the one above,” Vivia said with a laugh and took a bite from her own dish. “Although it is surprising just how good my food becomes because of your prayer… Maybe I should go learn holy magic myself too, I had average aptitude with that magic back when I tested my talent in magic.”

“Oh, I’ll be glad to teach you holy magic!” Holly’s eyes lit up with excitement.

“It was just a thought, but I’ll also be glad to learn from you, our dear little holy magic prodigy.”

…

Anna sighed to herself as she opened her eyes. Feeling the soft breeze of the night capital, she rubbed her flowing snow-white hair and covered her head with a hood. She then looked forward, with the lit-up city of the capital shifting into a different view of a family of five happily eating dinner together.

“Look at me… becoming a bigger stalker than ever before with my godlike powers…” Anna couldn’t help but bury her head in shame but still kept looking at the vision being shown in front of her.

With her connections with the spirits just a level below the world spirit, she has gained nigh-omniscient vision around the entire continent and could look anywhere as she pleased. Even with a damaged soul, she could observe anything she wanted within the capital as long as there were spirits around the place she wanted to look at.

Before this, she would have never imagined herself being capable of doing this. But now that she can, she wouldn’t hesitate to use it to her fullest needs. She’s fighting a goddamn godlike being whose strength and skill dwarfed her by who knows how much, how would being a goody two shoes help her in this situation?

Her previous morals and values can be thrown into the wind if it means the whole world is saved, if it means she’ll win, and most importantly, if it means she’ll actually survive through the hellish hurdle ahead of her.

“That’s fine, Anna…” A voice, vaguely similar to her own yet a bit more robotic and distorted, echoed in her ears. “As long as you… as long as we succeed, right?”

“You wouldn’t understand it, you’ve been doing this since the day you were born!” Anna groaned. “But being this big of a peeping tom… it just feels wrong!”

“So what? In the end, every organism is comprised of the smallest of cells. Humans are just walking lumps of meat. Penises and vaginas are just reproductive organs curated by nature to allow the propagation of life.”

“I don’t mean that type of peeping!” Anna groaned and pointed at the projection of the family in front of her. “I meant this type of peeping!”

“So?” Tyr asked rhetorically. “You’re a godlike being whose authority is just below mine. They’re nothing but pawns for us to use in this chessboard called reality. Our biggest priority is the Demon Lord’s descent, and I need not remind you of the consequences of his success.”

“You already know of the existence of fate and destiny, and you know of its inevitable nature. The two will fall in love, and you will fall in love with Noel to fully fit the requirements of becoming a ‘protagonist’ of this world,” Tyr said bluntly.

“There we go with the love thing again. Why do I even gotta fall in love in the first place?!” Anna exclaimed, infuriated by the rules of the world that she had to follow.

“It’s because it’s much easier to make your lover, or whoever the lover of the protagonist is, become a Fated Guardian. With Fate’s protection, it will be much easier for a protagonist to reach the pinnacle of the world they live in, and Fated Guardians can even act as mentors, teachers, and sources of explosive growth for those that are considered Chosen.”

“Sigh, logical as always. I can’t argue with that logic, especially with how strict you are in handling your resources… But wait, what is the peak of this world?” Anna asked curiously.

“It’s rather simple. If we consider Arch-level entities to be capable of destroying entire islands and fighting against the military might of entire nations, then a level above them are Demigods who can fight against the might of multiple kingdoms or empires, and can destroy multiple islands or the landmass of a normal kingdom all on their own.”

“But a step above that… Gods—are beings who can destroy entire continents,” Tyr said calmly.

“Entire continents, huh?” Anna blinked her eyes as she remembered the cataclysmic event last month and mumbled. “To think he pulled that off when he was only an arch-level entity… It’s scary to think that even his scarily strong alchemy magic isn’t his real specialization… it’s his magical knowledge.”

“That is indeed terrifying…” Tyr stayed silent as the two couldn’t help but feel dread from the being known as Mammon.

But as Anna contemplated just how dangerous Mammon really was with her vast meta knowledge, she and the world spirit felt a sudden stir at the southern edges of the continent as clouds and wind gathered into a small vortex.

A streak of lightning illuminated the moonlit sea as swarms of fish and aquatic life gathered around a certain point. The clouds swirled and winds howled. Sirens and mermaids woke up from their peaceful slumber as their limbs trembled from an incredibly tyrannical aura… an aura that appeared from the deep, deep depths of the ocean floor.

At a place where even the nigh-omniscient view of Anna couldn’t perceive due to its incredible darkness, a pair of wide, child-like ocean-blue eyes opened up in the shadowy darkness, before disappearing once again into eternal darkness.

Anna was still scrambling to try and fix her normal, human-based vision and modifying it to see in the darkness, but the sudden blip of blue light already disappeared before she could even take another look. The aura also disappeared completely, as if it was never there to begin with.

The clouds returned to normal, the winds stopped howling, the aquatic life in the sea stopped huddling together, and both Anna and Tyr were left confused as to what had happened.

“So…” Anna mumbled.

“No clue… If I had a completely repaired body, then something like that wouldn’t have escaped my eyes, but it’s no use crying over spilled milk,” Tyr answered emotionlessly.

“I guess you’re correct…” Anna sighed as she took another look at the distant sea. “But I can’t get rid of this foreboding feeling...”

“What do you mean foreboding feeling?” Mammon mumbled with a smile hanging on his faceless face.

Like plucking a cherry from a shrub, he pulled out a dim white sphere from the floating screen in front of him and stole Anna’s thoughts.

Playing with it like it was a toy, Mammon clenched his fist, crushing it into fragments before dismissing the screen.

“Wrath is finally born,” Mammon mumbled and leaned back on his chair with a groan.