Glancing around in all directions, the first thing I noticed was fairly obvious.

I could glance around in all directions. That shouldn’t be possible.

The second thing I noticed was my body. Or, the lack thereof. My torso, arms, hands, and basically everything that I could make out on myself was made of this strange white-wispy substance.

Finally, I began to take notice of my surroundings. I was sat on a large, plush couch that seemed to stretch the length of the entire wall of the room I found myself in. The room was large, holding this couch, a table in the center, an assortment of comfortable looking chairs, sacks filled with what I’d assume are soft beads in order to accommodate a more comfortable experience, and bathed in a comfortable red-orange light. All in all, it appeared that this space was entirely designed with the comfort of it’s occupants in mind.

“I’m glad you’ve been able to grasp the purpose of The Relaxation Station so easily. It means you’re even more suitable than I first thought.” A deep voice resonated, their words flowing pleasantly, as if the being speaking them was made of pure silk and velvet. It was a voice that was foreign, yet for some reason, vividly familiar and comfortable.

Blinking once again, which means I had to possess eyelids in this form, a being appeared in front of me, lounged in a languid way on one of the plump cloth sacks across from the couch. It’s form was as black as obsidian, as if the void itself had consumed the very space it took up. Whilst not entirely distinguishable, it was obvious that the form had an impressive physical build.

However, what caused me to instantly sit up straight and look at the form with deference was not its form, but rather the aura of power it emanated. The extremely familiar power that I had felt a sliver of for the past nearly twenty years.

“I’m glad you recognized me, otherwise this would have been a lot more to explain.” The Archon of Acedia himself, Lord Sloth said in his calming, smooth voice.

I tried to speak, but no words nor sounds appeared. Shit! I can’t even greet him!

“It’s fine, Terrance. I can hear your thoughts as clear as day. Also, what kind of deity would I be if I didn’t recognize one of my most faithful servants. After being born into my fold, you embodied hard work and dedication for all twenty-five years you were alive. Your dedication is exactly why I’m choosing to have this conversation with you.” The figure said, lazily swiping his hand and warping our surroundings. “I require your dedication one more time, my child.”

Instantly, I found myself sitting in a chair, Sloth sitting across from me, and a translucent orb floating between us.

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How may I be of service to you? I tried as hard as I could to direct my thoughts at Sloth.

“An explanation is in order. It would do you well to listen and pay attention.” He said, gesturing with his hands, and forcing the orb to shrink, showing a line of countless other translucent orbs.

“These are all the worlds that myself, and my siblings have influence over.” Sloth said, gesturing to the multiple rows of planets.

“Every decade or so, when all of us have gathered enough divine energy from our previous iterations, we set our sights on a new, uninfluenced world in order to take it over. Each of us will send an Emissary loaded with our blessings out into this world with the instructions to kill the Emissaries of the other six. Whoever’s participant is alive at the end, wins that world. The man in gold that destroyed your home was an emissary of my brother, and your leader on the previous world was my emissary. Are you following so far?” Sloth asked, looking at my ethereal form in what I can assume are it’s eyes.

Yes, I think. Essentially you and your sibling deities play a game every decade to decide who gets to control the next world, and you want me to rebuild our cult in the next world?

“Yes and no. Yes, you got all the details right, but no to your mission. The cult was a great idea, but as you can tell, if someone just builds an insanely strong emissary, numbers stop mattering. So, what I want you to do, is to just become as strong as you can. Magically, physically, in any and every way. Then, when you encounter the other emissaries, you can just decimate them.” Sloth said, zooming in on the last orb in the row closest to himself.

“This is Tenwo, the world you’re going to conquer for me. All you need to do is lay low, gather power, and eventually kill the emissaries of the rest of my siblings. Following?”

Yes! One question, what about the other’s like me? Won’t they be doing the same thing, and specifically aiming to kill me before I’m able to do that? I would never question your judgement lord, it just seems strange to not take the initiative and hunt them down before they can grow stronger.

“A fair question. The answer is simple. I’m cheating. Well, not really, but I’m doing something new this iteration. Instead of loading up on an emissary with all of my divinity, the emissary I chose got simply a small sliver of power, and I held the rest of it back. This world contest has already been running for about nine years, meaning everyone else will be looking for someone their own age, not someone nine years younger. They’ll be chasing a shadow.” Sloth said, a proud smile spreading on his face. “Yeah, you have a decade worth of training to catch up on, but that’s a gap hard work can pass. Especially since you’ll be able to start training the moment you’re born, and have the discipline to actually do it.”

Understood lord, I will gladly help spread your influence to a whole planet worth of poor souls!

“Whatever you need to tell yourself. When you kill the last of the other emissaries, you shall be rewarded, and finally able to rest on the laurels you’ve built.” He said, waving his hand over me.

Suddenly, I felt a surge of his divine power flood into me. More than I had ever experienced before.

Taking one more long blink, I open my eyes and realize I am much lower to the ground than I had originally been. Glancing down at myself, I see the pudgy and discordant body of a baby swaddled tightly into a blanket and placed inside a crib.