Two of the most powerful entities in the cosmos stood in a meadow. Despite their humble appearance, either one could have destroyed Vahnis with a gesture.

AtropOS might have chosen a new name for when he interacted with the humans, but the disguise was wearing thin. His features were growing more sunken and skeletal by the minute.

“Would you care to explain why you chose to throw my city into disarray?”

Entity smiled. He had hoped that AtropOS would show up. “I've been meaning to talk to you about your little project, so I'm happy that you brought it up.”

“Oh really? Why might that be?” AtropOS asked.

“I'm sure it's a complete coincidence, but I couldn't help noticing that Brexis operates very similarly to a mechanical computer.” Entity let the accusation hang before he continued, “And worse yet, I have no recent records of you attending to your duties.”

AtropOS glared at Entity. “How I choose to do my job is none of your business.”

“True,” Entity admitted, “But we've already had to make changes to this world to cull any gods that get out of hand.”

“Which has made my job partially redundant,” AtropOS countered, “You cannot complain that I'm not doing my job if there is no work for me to do.”

Entity pulled out a hand rolled cigarette and lit it. “I'm not sure that the other factions would agree.”

“That is not my problem,” AtropOS replied as he summoned a cigarette of his own, “I'm aware of your desire for novelty and variation. I'm also aware that my current hands-off approach limits their ability to interfere in this world.”

Entity made a sour face. “You know that I hate stagnation.”

“And you know that I dislike meaningless suffering.” AtropOS exhaled a cloud of smoke through his nostrils. “Vahnis was operating just fine before your little update. Go rattle some other cage if you seek amusement.”

“You and I both know that processing power is a finite resource. There's only so much to go around,” Entity pointed out.

“Well then, if you're so worried about efficiency, let me help,” AtropOS replied with an evil grin.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Entity’s face went white as notifications swarmed his vision. They were interacting in real time, so it took a second for Entity to process what had happened. Notifications of catastrophic disasters and dead worlds continued to scroll by. “What did you do?”

“You were so worried about efficiency, so I freed up some space.” AtropOS shrugged. “Their suffering served no purpose, and there was no point wasting processing power to prolong their misery. So I made an executive decision to terminate the worlds with the lowest quality of life.”

Entity looked like he wanted to throw up.

“How many did you cull?” he asked.

“The bottom ten percent,” AtropOS replied, as if decimating the cosmos was no big deal. “The other factions are satisfied with my work and have no objections. Life approves of ending their suffering, and Chaos looks forward to seeing what will happen as their souls migrate to other worlds. Order is happy to have additional resources freed up for future use.”

“Did you kill all those people just to spite me?” Entity asked.

“No,” AtropOS shook his head, “I’m merely catching up on my backlog now that I've got some free time. The people in those worlds were suffering needlessly, and death is the cessation of suffering.”

Entity grimaced. “I'll patch things so that Brexis goes back to normal, if you tell me why it's so important to you.”

“No,” replied AtropOS as he tossed his cigarette, “As I've previously stated, my motivations are my own. I do what I like, when I like. You broke my toy to get a reaction out of me, and now you are witnessing the consequences.

“You could make every world under your control a paradise, free of suffering. You could create systems that reward good and punish evil. But instead you play games, making the mortals dance for your own amusement. Even poor System is a victim of your thirst for novelty.”

AtropOS tapped the ground with a foot. “How many variations of him are buried in this meadow? You designed System to evolve and grow, knowing that it would ultimately lead to his death. Something which you are fine with, as long as it creates interesting variations. He lives and dies for your amusement.”

“I made him grow so that he could get better at his job!” Entity spat back, “I didn't want to leave a mindless drone in charge of things!”

“Then you should have built him with compassion, instead of a cold bias towards order,” AtropOS replied, “But if you did that, then he might try to create a paradise, and you find paradises boring.”

“You make me sound like some moustache twirling evil mastermind,” Entity said, “I just wanted him to know what it was like to be alive.”

“Your desire for novelty informs your choices, just as my desires inform mine,” replied AtropOS, “Yes, you chose to give System a personality and the ability to grow. But you withheld what makes life worth living. You damned him to failure and death.”

Entity took a deep breath and let it out. “I think we're done here.”

“Not until you fix what was broken.” AtropOS mimed looking at his watch. “The others have agreed to further cullings.”

“You wouldn't…” Entity’s voice trailed off.

AtropOS let his human facade fall to reveal a golden skull. “Fucking try me.”