(A few hundred thousand years from the events of the story)
“Oh, come on,” Ceres, [Goddess of Nature], complained, throwing the cards in her hand onto the table with a pout.
“Yeah, it’s not fair,” chimed in Drevor, [God of Art], as he tossed a pouch full of money at Croel, [Leader of the Gods] and [God of Fights]. “Why do you always win?” he complained.
Croel grinned, easily catching the money with one hand. “Because I’m just that amazing and unbeatable,” he bragged, not looking in the least ashamed. The other major [Gods] in the hall all let out a collective groan at that, even though they knew it was true; being the [God of Fights], he was granted the ability to raise one stat to 1 billion, and thus was unbeatable in a fight, and because of his intelligence (56 million), nearly unbeatable at games too. Well, unless he challenged the [God of Games], which, knowing Croel’s personality, he never would.
The minor [Gods] stood quietly, not daring to let out any expression similar to disagreement--it was common knowledge in Olympia, the world of the [Gods], that if they accidentally angered Croel, they were better off being reincarnated. Even though he was nice and cordial to the major [Gods], he was famous for looking down on the minor [Gods].
Actually, he was famous for looking down on everyone, just that he didn’t show it so obviously in front of the other major [Gods]--after all, even if they couldn’t beat him in a fight, they each had their respective domains which they ruled over, and were more than enough to cause him trouble for a lifetime (And for a [God], that was a long, long time).
Bang! Heads whipped around towards the entrance of the [Palace of Souls]--the majestic and stunningly beautiful home of the major [Gods]--only to see that it was a black cloaked man who had slammed open the door. He was tall with broad shoulders, and from beneath the hood of his cloak drifted strands of inky black hair. If it wasn’t for his stature, one would have easily assumed he was a woman from the fact that his hair reached his knees.
A deathly silence followed his arrival, and dozens of eyes focused on him. Some bore expressions of pity, some of scorn, with the blonde in the middle having eyes that clearly conveyed his desire to stab a thousand daggers into him. Several heads visibly increased in height by a few centimeters (obviously the work of magic), eyes were rubbed before resuming their ogling, all the while maintaining the absolute silence in the room.
Croel was the first to react, slamming his hand down on the table and standing up with a furious expression on his face. “Who do you think you are, you little piece of shit? You dare slam open the door in my presence? ”
A few sharp intakes of breath could be heard, and even the major [Gods] didn’t dare to speak, for fear of steering the slightest bit of Croel’s wrath towards them. As he stalked towards the cloaked man, the sea of [Gods] in front of him scrambled out of his way. Finally, when they were a scant few metres apart, Croel stopped, and, putting on his most intimidating voice, growled: “I haven’t seen around you before, Azael Calandre, and [System] didn’t inform me about a major [God] being created today. A worthless little minor [God] like you who has just risen to Olympia dares to oppose me? Kneel and grovel for forgiveness, and maybe I’ll consider not beating you into crap.”
Croel’s disgust caused many of the minor [Gods] behind him to remember similar events happening to them, and they clenched their fists. But what could they do? Croel was the [God of Fights], a title granted to someone who had one of his stats reach 1 billion, a feat that was almost impossible. His title also allowed him to immediately increase an additional stat to 1 billion--how could anyone win against him?
The mysterious black cloaked man opened his mouth after a few seconds, his voice clear and calm with not a trace of fear showing.
“Croel Odin Menhit, two days ago you wiped out an entire country on the world of Anemiter because a young woman in that country refused to succumb to your advances,” he announced, his deep voice reverberating throughout the hall of the [Palace of Souls]. Despite the fact that it seemed like he came to take revenge on behalf of the country, his voice was calm as still water, with not even the slightest trace of anger in it. Eyes sweeping over the multitude of faces gathered behind Croel, Azael discovered that most of the [Gods] had very ugly looks on their faces. Evidently, they did not support Croel’s decision.
Thankfully, Azael thought with relief, they’re not a bad lot. It would have been annoying if some of the most powerful beings in this Universe were a bunch of sadistic power-hungry people.
Still, Azael couldn’t help smiling slightly in amusement, as the table with poker cards on it drew his attention. Do they have nothing better to do? Maybe I should fix that.
Nah, who cares. It’s none of my business what they do.
“Oh, why, you have a lover that died, did you?” Azael unwillingly returned his focus to Croel’s sneering face. Croel wasn’t bad looking by any chance--sunshine golden hair and bright blue eyes with a face that could fool anyone into thinking he was a kind, charming prince--but Azael had a feeling that if his personality could be described it would resemble a rotting apple with worms crawling all over it.
“You poor thing,” continued the idiot in front of him, “but today I’ll make it right by getting rid of you as well!”
Azael’s eyes turned cold, and a formidable pressure exploded from him, causing a few dozen minor [Gods] to be thrown into the wall. Even the major [Gods], including Croel, were forced to stumble back a few steps before collapsing to the ground.
“Get rid of me, huh?” came the ice-cold voice from beneath the hood. “I’d be surprised if you could get a single scratch on me,” Azael continued, feeling a quiet anger welling up inside him. [Gods] couldn’t die unless they wished to suicide, but Temmy had told him Croel had tortured multiple [Gods] who angered him until they could no longer bear the pain and killed themselves. To train tirelessly for their entire lives just to be able to gain the title of [God], only to be forced to take their own lives in the end, how could Azael not feel anger for them?
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Croel placed his hands beside him, and mustered all his strength, trying to stand up against the formidable pressure. The leichite tiles around him cracked, spidery lines crawling across the floor, but even then he was unable to lift himself up by the slightest. Croel felt a strong killing intent emitting from the man in front of him, and the ice-cold gaze he sensed that was focused on him made goosebumps raise. It was clear now to him that this man was obviously a major [God]--despite how he hadn’t gotten a message from [System] informing him about a new major [God] rising--and a powerful one at that, he chose to believe that this was a fluke, that it was impossible for him to lose to this man in an actual fight. “You...you dare!” he cried, outraged, his voice visibly getting high-pitched.
“Obviously I do,” Azael replied, reining in his anger so his voice was calm as always. “It doesn’t make a difference, but I’ll give you fifteen minutes to prepare before we commence our fight in the [Soul Arena]. Don’t pee your pants while waiting.” With that, a pair of wings so black they seemed to suck in all the light around them, highlighted with veins of brilliant gold and tipped with a flaming scarlet with talons as big as an adult’s arm, grew from his back, and a second later, a gust of air was all that remained.
“You’re going to lose, Croel,” a crystalline voice resembling wind chimes in the summer air called out, voice clear as day. Croel stood up uneasily, sweat rolling down his face, before scrambling around only to see a small faerie-like girl perched on the left arm of his throne. Her beautiful wings that seemed like they contained the stars themselves within fluttered gently, and she arrived in front of him, landing on the floor without making the slightest sound.
“Sys...system.” Croel croaked out respectfully, not sure how to phrase his words. “Why...why would I lose? And why didn’t you tell me a new major [God] has appeared?”
Temmy’s lips twisted into a wry smile, but there was not a trace of laughter in her eyes. In fact, Croel thought, a sick feeling in his stomach, it seemed like she was angry.
“How polite. I don’t remember you being that way to my brother. And Croel,” she replied, voice soft but firm and slightly mocking, “why would I suddenly inform you about the existence of a [God] who has been around for hundreds of thousands of years?
As for why you would lose, your title [God of Fights] is modified after one of his titles. Regarding how much weaker it is after being modified, I’ll let you experience that for yourself.” Leaving one last icy smile behind for the aghast Croel, she flew after Azael.
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Author’s Note: Okay yeah, so I got a little bored while writing Chapter 3, so I decided to switch to a scene that’s been in my head for quite a while. As mentioned above, this happens hundreds of thousands of years after the events of Grey Eyes, and, as expected, things have changed quite a bit.
Firstly, after a suggestion from Azael, Temmy decided that anyone who has one stat reach 70 million would automatically become a [God]. However, there’s a difference in rank between different [Gods].
[Five Supreme Gods]: Instead of saying five major gods, it’s actually more like five supreme god titles. These five titles are--[God of Magic], [God of Combat], [God of Victory], [God of Nature] and [God of Spirits]. Technically speaking, these titles are supposed to be possessed by five different people, who will then be called the [Five Supreme Gods], but because our dear little Azael alone has three of ‘em the name is slightly misleading. I.E, there are actually only three supreme gods at most in existence.
You can’t blame the name-giver for that though. The [Gods] knew about the [Five Major Titles] because [System]/Temmy explained it to them, but they were not told that one person could only have one title. Neither were they told about whether the titles had been claimed yet.
[Major Gods]: Gods apart from the [Five Supreme Gods] that had their own domains to rule over were known as [Major Gods]. They are significantly much more powerful than [Minor Gods], because their titles would grant them additional abilities related to their domains. For example, trees is a domain. The [God of Trees] would then be considered a [Major God]. All domains fall under one of the [Five Supreme Domains]--Victory, Magic, Combat, Spirit and Nature.
Minor Gods: These are the people who achieved 70 million stat points in a particular stat, and thus achieved the title of [God]. However, they have not completed the necessary action to unlock a domain, thus they are considered [Minor Gods]. They usually serve under one of the [Major Gods].
Difference between Croel and Azael: Croel’s title required him to reach one billion stat points in either STR, DEF and DEX to unlock. Azael’s required him to be a Rank 20 warrior. And what’s the amount of stat points that equates to a Rank 20 warrior? 1 billion points in STR, DEF and DEX. In other words, Croel has 1 billion stat points in two areas, while all three of Azael’s combat stats are at 1 billion with the chance of increasing, along with unlimited INT and WIS. Also, Croel isn’t even one of the [Five Supreme Gods]; he’s just a [Major God].
Trivia about the world in the future.
1. Because of the increasing numbers of people who have achieved [God] titles, the mortal races in most of the worlds have become aware of the fact that they could become [Gods] if they trained hard enough.
2. Along with Temmy/System, Azael designed a plan where [Gods] could receive more or less power based on the amount of believers they have. This was to prevent the [Gods] from going on a rampage and killing millions of people just because they felt like it--after all, if you constantly did that, you would incur the hatred of the people and your power would decrease. It’s entirely possible to become powerless if you have too many haters. The only one who isn’t under this system is Azael, because he asked nicely and Temmy was in a good mood.
3. Olympia is a world created by Azael using his magic. He built it as a welcoming gift for the [Gods] that came after him--he was the eldest, so it was only right for him to at least provide a place for them to stay if they grew tired of mortal affairs. Aside from Olympia, Azael created another world, named Eden. He and Temmy are the only two people allowed on that world, and whenever they see something that they like on their travels, they add it to Eden. Azael has commented many times that there isn’t a single world that could compare to it.