“No doubt about it, that’s the Rod of the Overgod,” Kallos stared at the crystalline torch laid out on a table between Telos and herself. “Its dormant and utterly drained of power, but it appears to be the genuine article.”

“Someone went to a lot of pain to see this thing ended up in your hands, Blue. You didn’t get any memories from Ananke about this?” Arkaziel asked as he and Bobbi joined the conversation.

“I didn’t parse Ananke, it seemed rude what with her being alive and all. I took her power, not her memories. So I don’t know, but it sure seems like it would take someone on the level of Ananke or the Moirai to arrange it falling into my hands. Congratulations on your ascendance, Bobbi. Have you decided on your limited wish, I’d like to be rid of this weird reserved energy Moros set up.”

“What’d you guys wish for?” Bobbi inquired, assuming they had handled the finale of the Tower of Moros while she’d evolved.

“I upgraded the Nebula Lantern to guide the way to light the way to specific treasures, as well.” Arkaziel smirked.

“Wait, you have a Nebula Lantern?” Bobbi did a double take at the cat.

“Yep, my reward for the Tower of Aetherius,” Arkaziel’s pride lit the room. Literally, his smug self-satisfaction merged with his authority of light, to create a gentle warm glow around the black cat.

“I used the wish to acquire an enchantment called Soulchain Conductor, to further hone my extra appendages in combat,” Kallos showed the newly enchanted bracers off to Bobbi. “I would prefer to have mastered them fully myself, but time is not on our side.”

“I increased the power of the Tome of Towers to work everywhere,” Telos smiled a little mischievously. “I could kind of sort of do what I needed already with the knowledge of Binah, but it’s a lot easier this way, and I don’t feel like I’m cheating.”

“I don’t have the slightest clue what you are talking about or hinting at, Telos. Sorry,” Bobbi apologized, but Telos only gave her an enigmatic smile.

“Don’t worry about it, your new form is super cute, Bobbi.” Telos complimented the humanoid StarMane’s pink haired form, then glanced back down to the rod on the table. “You can use your lesser wish on anything you want, Arkaziel and I covered the scheming sneak uses of our wishes.”

“If that’s the case, I want a case of infinite spices.” The chef didn’t hold back, and when she said the words energy pulsed and formed a small spice chest with a small crank that alternated the drawers that faced the front.

“Are you going to make lunch?” Arkaziel asked hungrily.

“Do we have time?” Bobbi looked to Telos and Kallos, and the rod.

“Yeah, I think so. I’m pretty certain that when I push my authority of Love into the rod that it will wake up. I don’t really know what’s going to happen after that, though. Will it draw me in, or something inside out? Will it call a council of gods, or be anticlimactic? There’s no documentation on this thing, not even in Binah.”

Destroy it. Shatter the crystals, burn the fabric of order, let sweet chaos ring one impossible to ignore note. Should rule be consolidated to One? Why not the Many?

I’ll keep that in mind, but maybe if you could give me more information first you might convince me?

Fred did not offer any further information. More and more, Telos suspected that Fred and Reverie both had constraints placed upon them, or that they were more like custodian entities with a limited artificial intelligence, rather than fully realized sentient intelligences. Or maybe she judged them harshly, and they were esoteric beings with different experiences of time and existence. Either way, both continued to be of questionable relevancy. Someone, somewhen, had thrown all sorts of things at the wall for her to see what stuck. Libby, Reverie, Fred, the short lived tenure the Flames of Nyx, Thalassa, Aetherius, Ymir, and Khaos she’d been imbued with had enjoyed. Even her gloves, the Astrum Nexus, remained relevant solely by virtue of being forged from soulsteel.

If Fred and Reverie were actualized intelligent beings, though, Telos did them a great disservice by thinking of them only in relation to their usefulness to herself. The immense tides of power within herself, the increasing push of the Sefirot onto her even when she didn’t initiate it, and the power and authority of Ananke and Chronos had pushed her so far beyond the realm of humanity that Telos feared if she didn’t intentionally work to retain her outlook as an individual, let alone as a former human, that she would lose them utterly. Maybe she already had.

“Here I go,” Telos pecked Kallos on the lips for good luck, grasped the lifeless crystal torch in her right hand and lifted it above her head. Then she infused the dull, depleted item with tides of Ethereal power straight from the Origin and aspected it with her authority over Love. For a second nothing seemed to happen, and then the dull crystal lit up like a sun. Light enveloped Telos, and pulled her inside the crystal. Through layer upon layer of sorcery, magic, divine constructs, riddles that parted, conundrums that failed to confound her, and a minefield of traps that were designed only for others. The sparks of Phanes I hold in my soul and the one provided by Nyx must work as pass keys to enter?

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Beyond the traps a small island of bare earth floated, with a small simple temple made of four pillars of stone. When Telos’ boots touched the earth goosebumps rose on her skin. The air shimmered with palpable energy left over from the creation of the universe, and when she stepped into the center of the pillars, everything swayed. Telos stood just past the entrance of a vast spherical room. The walls were a living tapestry of nebulae, a breathing piece of art that danced and churned to the Cosmic Song, which Telos realized had begun to buzz in the back of her head. Reverie had warned she wasn’t prepared for the truth of the cosmic song, but that had been before her last evolution, hopefully she was ready now.

In the dance of stars, the swirl of nebula, the low ominous groan of all that is, there was a simple beauty. Yet with each second, the sounds and sights of these things grew more and more powerful, and Telos had to divert her gaze to the floor. A smooth mirrored surface, the floor only reflected the sights of the ceiling and walls back at her, but the illumination of her three eyes and bright hair distorted the reflected image enough to provide a brief respite.

At the center of the chamber lay an altar carved from some form of quartz. The altar seemed to be of a single piece, and as Telos approached it caught the light from her hair and eyes and an inner light awoke within that increased in intensity with each step she took closer to it. Telos didn’t even look at the object atop of the altar, for it was the altar that reacted to her presence. A divine hologram of Phanes appeared between herself and the altar at the last minute, forcing Telos to stop almost nose to nose with the projection.

“Hello again, ##@$@ Telos,” Whatever name Phanes initially called her came out garbled, as if it’d been run through autotune by a terrible sound engineer, and Telos couldn’t make sense of it, even though she heard him say Telos in the end. Phanes had the physical appearance of an attractive man, with androgynous long blonde hair, sharp facial features, piercing eyes, ridiculously large breasts, immense angelic wings, and fairly large male genitalia. Why is the hologram naked?!

“Hi,” Telos responded, diverting her eyes.

“Prude,” Phanes laughed and suddenly wore a white tunic that did nothing to hide what lay underneath, but mostly qualified as decent. “Come for the Rod then?”

“That’s it? Hi? Want the rod? We’re talking about the Rod of the Overgod, not your penis, right? We haven’t even met before.” Telos was fairly certain she’d remember meeting Phanes.

“Well, this you, no, I suppose not. It’s always complicated, dealing with an entity like you and your blatant disregard for time, rules, universes, and style.” Phanes condemnation hurt more than Telos expected.

“What’s wrong with my style?”

“Why did you incorporate black into your hair? It looks much better with just the red and aqua, the red coat screamed style, this black one just makes you look like an edgelord, and then there’s the glowy eyes, sparkle tits, and cargo pants. I guess it could be worse,” Phanes let out an exaggerated sigh, “somehow.”

“We’re just going to skip over all of that, and I never want to hear the words sparkle tits again, ever.” The last bit may or may not have involved Telos invoking the power of Ananke to ensure no one violated her desire to not be called that.

“Whatever,” Phanes’ projection shrugged and gestured at the altar behind him. “It’s there, you can take it. I always hoped someone with my legacy would find the chest and prove themselves worthy, but I knew deep down it would be you who came for it eventually, you did tell me you would.”

“Who killed you?” Telos blurted out.

“How tactful. Nyarlathotep, of course. No other Outer God would be dumb enough to try and become Overgod, but give the Face Eater credit for dreaming big. Obviously, Bythos and Sige weren’t going to allow one of his kind rule of creation, so they helped me spruce the place up and secured the Rod from his reach, and from his conspirators. Unfortunately, they made me stick around to guard it. There I was, freshly murdered, and I didn’t even get to go join the cycle. Well, parts of me did, but those parts are gone, so they aren’t me. You know how it goes better than anyone, I’m sure.” Phanes laughed hysterically at his own joke, but Telos didn’t get what was funny.

“How would I know how it goes?” Telos asked with an arched brow that demanded a sincere answer, not a flippant one.

“You’ve been split up more than anyone, ever. You just don’t remember it? Maybe it didn’t happen yet? I don’t know, you’re confusing even for me. I wasn’t a god originally, if you recall. I was just an innocent aerospace engineer and light cultivator who got caught up in your let’s go to another reality plan. Which, wasn’t a great plan even then, but it beat the whole slaving away at Arcanum Dynamics forever. Then bammo, I became Phanes, Creator and Lord of Light, Preeminent Demiurge, whom Yesh gave the honor of saying those lovely words ‘Let There Be Light’.”

“Arcanum Dynamics? Aerospace Engineer?” Telos sputtered the words in confusion. “Wait, Yesh? I’ve yet to encounter him or Ayin.”

Phanes rolled his illusory eyes at her.

“Focus, Telos. If you came for the rod, it’s there. You’ll have to beat the self-proclaimed Overgod and destroy his replica for the real deal to wake up.”

“Okay, I sort of figured I was headed towards a throw down with him anyway. I actually came to eat you, so I could have my soul free and clear of others.”

If Phanes weren’t an intangible spiritual being, Telos doubted he could have remained standing. The ghostly god guffawed and held his belly as he laughed so hard. Telos wondered why a spiritual projections breasts jiggled with laughter like this, then decided she didn’t care, nor that she wanted to know. Maybe he’s gone a little batty being stuck in here all this time?

“Well, you’re being polite about it I suppose. I can’t leave this temple anyway, and let me tell you, being a temple guardian is worse than being an aerospace engineer, which was worse than being a god by a longshot. Didn’t have to fill out triplicate paperwork to request cultivation materials to reach the next tier, and have ten meetings about whether or not ascending would help me complete the projects I’d been assigned and be a beneficial long term move for the company.”

“Well? Get to it. Eat me,” Phanes grinned.

“I don’t want to, you’re being creepy.” Telos shook her head.