“Odd, NO!” Snooze screamed. She shot her hands out automatically, building two separate God Spells in her palms and releasing them at her little Archangel. Odd was encased in a sphere of Wind and then lashed a protuberance of Plantlife. The vines covered the column of Air, and Snooze reeled it in, dispersing the Elements as the tiny form came within reach. Curiously, she noticed that Air seemed to shake and rattle before nearly exploding. At the same time, the vines of Plantlife froze, blackened, and withered. Using the spells had drained her far more than she thought was typical, and she wondered if the void had anything to do with that.

“Let go of me!” Odd challenged in its high child-like pipe, trying hard to fight back against Snooze’s Elemental grasp. “I am a being of great and furious violence! Unhand me, or you’ll face my UNCORKING!

Odd made an adorable growl and then sighed, seemingly resigning itself to its fate.

“Fine, do with me what you will. I have fought a hard war, and in my heart, I am a victor. History will remember me!”

“Shh,” Snooze hushed, stifling the tiny Archangel’s oaths with her hand. Something was off.

She looked back at the orbs of light heading towards them with a frown. They should have already made contact, but they hadn’t. No, in fact, they were moving much slower than before.

“Odd?” Snooze asked, turning to the little Archangel. The star-shaped, single-eyed creature was slumped on the back of Meat’s head, looking very sad for itself.

“I’m Odd,” it responded glumly. Snooze noticed that the tiny helper was no longer glowing as it had been a moment ago. Now, it was its typical hue of translucent… light? In any case, it was absolutely un-shimmery now, and Snooze couldn’t help but think it had something to do with the demicubes slowing down to crawl toward them through the inky void.

“Odd, what did you do?”

Odd launched upward, pointing an accusatory appendage at the god and its central eye slit to a scowl.

“You can’t prove I did ANYTHING!” It cried, then crossed its arms resolutely. “I know my rights!”

“No, Odd,” Snooze continued, pointing out at the demicubes still far away. “Did you do something to those attacks? They aren’t rocketing toward us full of instant kill.”

Indeed, the Runcinated 8-demicubes no longer represented an immediate death to Snooze and her cohorts. Now they were loitering death. Despite the circumstances, in most cases, loitering death is the proper balance of the universe. Death is careful, and it is calculating. Long ago, before the start of any of this--the multiverse and all of its manifestations (including the chocolate cake manifestation) Death and Life became literal mortal enemies. Death made it a point to chase Life across existence, thwarting its efforts, snuffing out those with its gifts, and only responding to its party invites with a “Maybe.” All end to existence hangs in wait for the vast majority of things with that certain spark of life that makes being alive so consequential, usually waiting for specific perimeters to enact its sweet revenge--like a worldwide disease or a vending machine toppling over onto an unsuspecting but incredibly hungry office worker.

“Oh,” Odd said, looking confused. “Yeah! I messed them cubes up good! They’ll think twice before they mess with ole Shadow Emperor of the Plane of Pain Odd again!”

“Shadow Emperor… Odd, what did you do, though, and how long will it last?”

Odd shrugged. “I dunno.”

“Which one don’t you know, the first question or the second question?”

“Yeah!” Odd responded happily.

“Okay,” Snooze said thoughtfully, looking out at the temporarily embarrassed demicubes. She tapped her chin with her fingertip, trying to parse out the implications of this. She was also infinitely curious as to how Odd had managed to sneak aboard the S.S. Meat but didn’t pursue it at the moment as there was a bevy of more pressing issues. She concluded she could try to drag it out of the creature later--if it even knew itself.

“We have a little bit of time--but, how much, we don’t know,” she said. “Whatever you did, Odd--”

“Shadow Emperor of the Plane of Pain, Odd,” Odd corrected.

“...right. Well, whatever you did, it didn’t stop those fully--they’re still approaching, just slower now.”

She glanced at them.

“Much slower. What can I do to buy us even more time? My usual luck dictates that it won’t last long enough to wait for Scroll to return, so we’ll have to up the ante if we want a chance of continued cosmic drama.”

She considered her extensive collection of god spells, but she knew that she’d have difficulty swapping out her Plantlife and Air for other elements, as they were currently locked into her Ritual, even if she could manage to imagine something that might get them out of the situation. Though, Ritual Command had leveled to ten, which she’d completely forgotten about. It gave her more slots, so she could chamber a few more if necessary… but which ones? Octonion seemed a likely suspect, but the limited range and energy she had would make it helpful in repelling only one or two of the slowly-advancing blasts. She put a pin in that for the moment and concentrated on remembering her range of Abilities.

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She had her Aura, but that wouldn’t help much in this situation as far as she could tell. She was still unsure about the precise nature of the effects it had but didn’t think boosting her Archangels’ self-esteem would help right now. But, that did make her wonder…

“Odd?”

“I’M ODD!” Odd responded.

“Do you have any other Abilities, like the one you just did with the demicubes?”

“I am the dirge of the dying. I come with war songs that yield mournful cries from my enemies. I am that which will one day consume. My powers are many and terrible; I will give all the worlds friction burns with my iron-grip!”

“So… no?”

“I dunno!” Odd said happily. “Maybe I’m keeping it quiet! You should never let your enemies know what you’re capable of!”

“Am I your enemy?”

“NO!” Odd announced happily again.

“Okay, Odd, thank you for the input,” Snooze sighed. She returned to her previous pondering of the situation and went through her list of known Abilities.

She had Planet Speaker, something that was incredibly clutch when needing to talk to Savvy, but she didn’t know how that would help, as there didn’t seem to be any other planets nearby, and even if there were, what could she say to them that might assist her where just going to the world couldn’t help more? She moved on.

World Meld also wouldn’t assist her much without a planet, specifically one she had created, and the benefits at the moment would be lacking. Likewise, Avatar and Divine Intervention seemed specific to her world and creations--and she wasn’t keen to use Avatar so soon after having spent several thousand years in that form. She could also use Shape Change, but could she conjure a specter that would make her Archangels resistant to the demicubes? Likely not. She couldn’t risk getting that close to them, even if she could craft her body to resemble a protective orb. Scroll had made it sound like the demicubes could move through her--she’d just gotten lucky with that first one. Could she absorb more? No, that didn’t seem like something to bet on in such a precarious situation, either.

That was when she noticed that the demicubes began to pick up speed again. Odd’s strange Ability had seemingly run its course, and Snooze felt dread enter her being, bubbling up as white-hot anxiety.

It’s important to note that Snooze had received quite a benefit of knowledge from her years spent with the Book of Leaf, the informational sentience constantly peppering her with educational offerings and good-natured food-for-thought. Early on, the Book of Leaf had instituted thorough training meant to shape and mold Snooze into one of the emerging godly leaders of tomorrow--but it hadn’t stuck. Snooze was not without her high points, but the instruction she received was typically reactive, relying on informing her what she needed to change to get the desired outcome.

However, there was one notable exception to Snooze, as the Book of Leaf had seen. Most gods would spend an exorbitant amount of time under tutelage for critical analysis of situational effects, something that didn’t come naturally to many. Critical thinking was something sorely underrepresented among the mortal minds--which was why there was such a vast array of what one might describe as a “parade of idiots.” You can probably think of many such individuals yourself.

However, this phenomenon was not unique in the multiverse, even among the celestial beings--at least without proper courses and heavy workloads of study guides and strategic simulation. Though having access to all known (and truly, unknown) information, the Book of Leaf had highlighted something quite rare in Snooze.

While her critical thinking seemed, in most cases, to take a back seat to wild imaginings and top-speed verbal vomit covering inconsequential, pointless musings, her mind was quite sharp in one particular field: innovation.

When the going got tough, little Snooze’s brain began to work.

Snooze could hardly ever remember what powers she had on a typical day, let alone how best to apply them to any given situation. Yet, knowing her Archangels’--nay, her friends' lives hung in the balance, the little god’s mind began spinning, lifting long-dormant information out of the aether.

Her Elements seemed harshly affected by the nature of the Bulk. She’d seen this when her Air spell had shattered, and her Plantlife had gone rotten from the vacuum of the area. Most Elements were rendered ineffectual then in the Bulk, she reasoned. Then even summoning the majority of her god spells seemed unwise, as they’d likely crumble just as quickly. There were a few that Snooze believed could work, but even if they could, what could they do? Then she had a thought. A terrible, unwholesome idea.

Long ago, back when the Meatlings were still evolving, the Book of Leaf had mentioned the nature of Snooze's creatures and their penchant for dying. Because of her underdeveloped godspell, they had the bad luck of frequently running up against their untimely demises.

What had Book said? She wondered, the words becoming more clear. Death could abide, even in a void.

She was in a void. The phrasing of that seemed… suspicious. Her mind alight, she remembered that the Runcinated 8-demicubes would be death to her Archangels. With a nauseating finality, Snooze had an idea of what she might be able to do. If she was wrong, however, she might not have enough energy to cast anything else. It was a very risky maneuver. Still, she had to try something, didn't she?

She was Level Ten in her Ritual Ability, which meant that she could chamber Elements quicker than she could before, so long as she didn’t have all of her spots filled. Right now, there were only two occupied positions: Air and Plantlife. That meant there were three open. She sighed, additional dread setting in like a blanket of unease--even as the far more dangerous loom of the demicubes approached with increasing quickness. Then she dropped another godspell into position and looked out at her companions.

“Meat, watch your head. Odd, get back.”

The large rosy Archangel whistled seriously while Odd immediately saluted and leaped to a position behind her.

Then, hoping that she wasn’t doing something foolish, Snooze extended her hand and activated a godspell that had long lied dormant. One that she had never used, not for thousands of years.

“Death,” she said, and a pillar of burning energy erupted in front of her.