Trying to win against a prophetic god is hard. Even if their visions can't see you, they can still see the things around you. It might not be easy, but it's still possible. Deventus couldn't see me, and she had a hard time seeing my candidate due to the connection, but the people around my candidate were fair game. That was how I ended up wasting ten points to grant my follower the ability to disrupt visions. It did help with his influence, but not as much as what I'd had in mind.

"You know that was really a waste of 10 points."A smirk adorned her face as she spoke. Making me waste points was probably the whole point as to why she'd upgraded that kid's prophetic abilities.

"Yeah, well, I don't have prophetic abilities like you do."

"Oh, don't be mad. It doesn't look good on you." She'd been teasing me for the past couple of days after I'd made that move.

Deventus was one of those people who were slightly braggadocious when they had an advantage. The type that would act like it didn't matter all while slowly adding salt to your wounds.

I couldn't be mad at it. I would do the same thing if it was me. But it's really annoying when I'm not the one delivering it.

"You're right. I'm too handsome to be mad."

She rolled her eyes at my comment." You're a literal storm. I don't think that applies to you."

I feigned shock as I grabbed at where my heart would be."Are you saying I'm not the most beautiful thing you've seen?! Blasphemous!"

As she laughed, I couldn't help but notice that it sounded like wind chimes were softly tinkling in the background.

It was kinda cute.

She was a worthy opponent in every sense of the word. Not only was she was competitive, but it was actually challenging to go against her. Currently, I wasn't sure that I would be the one to emerge victorious.

She made well-thought-out plans, those plans had backup plans, and the backup plans had backups of their own. Whenever I thwarted her scheming, I found myself scrambling to evade her traps.

The only reason I wasn't the one on the losing end was because of the protection granted to my pick by virtue of his parents.

So far, both of our picks had become influential in their circles. Little nudges here and there had made that easy to accomplish. The problem appeared when the parents noticed the division within the children. Given that they were all partially precognitive, it didn't take that long.

We couldn't exactly stop the parents from doing their thing. A direct intervention like that was not allowed.

The picks were still kids. It had only been a year since we'd started this game. Regardless the progress being made by the chosen was still pretty good.

I won't lie and say that I hadn't contemplated using my divine powers to gain an advantage. The thought of causing events that would lead to the chosen's death had also crossed my mind.

Though I never acted on these thoughts. Victory through cheating is hollow. It's not actually a determinant of who is better at the game.

Plus, it was against the rules. I didn't need to cheat to win this. My attention was back on the projection of Malum that was before my eyes. It was a little feature that I used, made me feel like I was actually playing a game.

We both currently in the divine realm where Deventus had been born. It naturally allowed us to observe the world, but that felt too much like a dream for my liking.

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Time flow here was also different. It was a 10-1 relation every year up here was 10 below.

"Why did you want me to play this game?" I turned to look at deventus. She was also observing the projection.

"You don't like it?"

"No, I do, but it was kind of random, wasn't it?" It took me a second to realize that she was still pushing for information on my well-being.

"I needed something to do. My mind sometimes goes places." There was a short pause of silence as she waited, but I didn't elaborate further.

After a while, she began to talk about her travels across the world. I liked that about her; she wanted to help but didn't push too hard. Something that I was grateful for. I tended to get annoyed with those that tried too hard.

Intelligent people know that sometimes all that's needed is that they are there.

We continued to talk and watch the world below. Occasionally my attention would be drawn to my beasts. I liked to keep tabs on their progress. They were the ones that I wanted to emerge as the dominant forces after all.

As the conversations continued, I could feel her mind churning, she wanted to ask something, and she did. She wasn't a shy being.

"You know, you never told me about your existence. You know how I came into being and the circumstances of that event, but I don't know about your birth." She paused for a second as she collected her thoughts.

"I understand if you don't want to speak on it but, I feel that since we're the only two beings right now that we know off, it would be good for us to strengthen our friendship through trust. You don't have to, of course."

She tried to hide it, but the nervousness was present in her voice.

It was always a surprise to me when confident people turned into nervous wrecks over seemingly random things. What was there to worry about? Where did all that self-assuredness go?

I took my attention away from the world and focused on her. These were situations that I hated. I hated them before, and I still hate them now.

To be successful, I had lied about myself. Which is why I wasn't on social media often. Not big lies that could be verified, of course.

I'm not an idiot, but I told small white lies. Nothing too harmful but enough to get into good positions. I didn't hate them in that context. In fact, I loved them, but those lies sometimes limited my ability to connect with potential friends.

Everybody lies, of course, but I tended to do so more than necessary. A lie should never be the foundation of friendship. Those don't tend to end well.

Deventus was a chill girl. I actually wanted to tell her the truth, but one thing about me is that once I begin a lie, no matter how small it is, I always stick to it.

Unless there was no other option, I continued with the lie. Something that has been both beneficial and incredibly damaging, but it is very much a part of me.

"I'm not sure of my origins. One day I didn't exist, and then the next, I came into being." The words slipped out of my mouth like water flowing down a river. It actually kind of hurt to see her eat it up and believe it instantly.

Her enthusiasm at my answer was painful to watch, but it never showed on my body.

"You think we might come from the same energy? Perhaps when I came to existence, the remaining energy helped birth you."She seemed to almost bounce in her skin at the possibility of us being connected in such a manner.

"If that's true, then it would make so much sense as to why I can't see you. After all, I can't see myself."

" Yeah, maybe, I hadn't really thought about that. It's definitely a possibility." Goddamnit, I gotta work on my lying.

She chatted on and on about the possibilities and came up with various different hypotheses of varying degrees of believability. I could only give simple hmms and aahs as she talked.

Even after knowing her for a while, I was still surprised at her naivety.

In one instance, she behaved like a child, only to transform into the nigh all-knowing goddess that she was in the next.

Even the prophetic goddess couldn't tell when I was lying.

I had fooled a goddess.

That's definitely a worthy accomplishment. I could at least take pride in that fact.

All of a sudden, I felt a shift within me. There was a click in mind similar to when I finalized the universe.

I felt different in a way that I couldn't explain. Playing the character of Tena just felt more natural. When I looked at my hands made of storms, they looked and felt like they were real.

It was the strangest feeling.

The more I delved into it, the more I realized that I felt like an actual storm god. I had new powers that I hadn't had before. Though they did feel sorta temporary.

Immediately after, I heard a voice that I instantaneously recognized. It was the same voice I'd heard before passing out from breaking through to the 2nd stage.

You are the [The Great Pretender].

Oh...

...I just got a title.

What?

I hadn't expected that in the slightest.

That was the voice of the universe? It kind of sounded like me but with more echo and grandiosity.

I had thought the voice I'd heard had belonged to my internal demon. Or that maybe it was just a facet of cultivation and that the reason I had felt different after waking up was just how it was.

But apparently, that had been because I had gained a title.

I turned my attention inwards as I focused on my titles, and just like that, I saw them both. [The Great Pretender] and [He Who Hangs at the Precipe of Annihilation].

That second one was rather long but pretty cool. It took only a short while to figure out why I had these titles. One of them was from how close I was to being atomized every time I cultivated. The other was for pretending to be gods and managing to fool a prophetic goddess.

There were probably many other things that happened to get these titles, but those had to be the main reasons.

It almost felt like my universe was rewarding for being a good liar.

They were titles granted by my universe so, they probably weren't insanely powerful but, they were the first forms of power that could be transferred over to earth. I was a tiny bit closer to solving my problems.

"What's got you so happy." I turned to face Deventus. It was only then that I realized that I was grinning ear to ear.

"Nothing, I was just thinking about the face you'd make once I beat you."

"You wish."

It was only another six months into the game when I noticed that the demon was no longer in my internal realm.

That's not to say that it was gone forever, but as it is with cyclical depression, it's an on and off thing. It comes and goes as it pleases.

It was probably one of the most frustrating and best things about it. It would end eventually regardless of what I did, but it would return regardless of what I did.

But I've learned to take my wins where I can.

I was ecstatic at the possibility of returning to cultivation.