Saying that Faust was confused would be an understatement. One minute, he was waiting for the bus to come, the sun was starting to set. The next, he heard a screech, from the a set of tires or from the girl waiting in the bus station with him, he couldn't tell, all he knew was that he was looking at a black void the moment after.

His senses, aside from his vision, were dampened. He could hear the muffled sound of his heart beating, his smell faintly picked up the stench of his sweat and and his body could feel his numbed limbs trying to regain full control.

He tried to look around, but he couldn't tell if he actually turned, because of his numbness. His sight couldn't help much either, since all he could see was an everlasting void of nothing. He tried to scream, he could feel the strain in his voice, but all he could hear was a screech getting weaker, and fainter by the second. He tried to give his all again, but it was the same result, only weaker and weaker, until...

『 COMMENCING SOUL TRANSFER PROTOCOL 』

A black rectangle with white text and golden, intricately designed borders appeared in front of him as sounds, visions and feelings started to flood his senses. At first, it was faint. The gentle drops of water falling on a small pond, then there was more. Lovers whispering promises, people walking around, cars traveling in the streets, horses trotting on grass, swords clashing, guns firing, jets flying, the towering machines of war getting into position, chants and prayers, fire consuming everything in its path, howls of pain, songs of fun, war and love, dragons roaring in the skies, the hum of spaceships, things he never heard of before and more and more and more and it didn't stop and too much too Much TOO MUCH PLEASE MAKE IT STO-

『 SYNCHRONIZATION COMPLETE 』

『 WELCOME HOME, CREATORS 』

As soon as it all came to him, it all went away. The numbness from before was gone, replaced with the oh-so-familiar sensation of having a full body. He could feel blood rushing to his fingers due to gravity, his heart beating incessantly in his chest, his heavy breathing drying up his partially open lips and the sweat made from his forehead gently tickling down his face.

He was confused, scared and surprised by the turn of events. So much so that his heart sounded like a thousand deafening drums of war preparing for battle. He wanted to scream and let it all out, but he took a hold of himself and stayed as he was. Letting fear take him in this situation would do nobody any good. To take his mind off his emotions, he tried to assess his surroundings.

He was still surrounded by darkness, but it was contrasted by the rectangle in front of him, confirming to him that he still had his vision. Trying to look around and down at himself did not reveal anything. He could not see his own body, but he could still feel it.

He had half a mind to touch the ground, but he stopped himself when he started hearing a sound. It was someone's breathing, and it wasn't him.

With trepidation in his heart and with a fair amount of fear, he said the first words of the world of void.

"Is anyone there?"

To say that this startled Alice, it would be an understatement. Her fear of the situation at hand and what happened before had overtaken her. She was scared, that much she knew.

Just a few minutes prior, she was waiting for the bus home. With her, at that moment, was only a bored looking guy who was scrolling on his phone. The next, she had seen bright lights quickly getting more and more intense. She might have screamed at the bus barreling down towards them, but she couldn't be sure. Those moments were fuzzy, at best.

Then, before she could process what had happened, she had found herself in this void. A black rectangle had appeared before her, but she didn't bother reading it due to the influx of... She could only describe it as sensations more than anything. The sensation of the course leather of a horse saddle, the smooth surface of a marble table, the gentle caress of an intimate moment, the rough texture of a rocky face, the fuzzy feel of a fluffy fur, the cold touch of a metal blade... Honestly, it was overwhelming for her and she could do nothing but scream as her senses were overloaded with information.

When it went away, she could not be more relieved, which was short lived as she could not see anything around her aside from the black box in front of her. Try as she might to look around, she could not see anything, which scared her to no end. She thought this might actually be hell. Relieving those feelings again, and again, and again. All the evil she had done, all those things she said, all those moments where she tried to undermine all those religions, the lies, the deceptions, the selfish desires, now it would all culminate and bite her in the ass.

Just as fear took over hear heart and she started to hyperventilate, however, she heard someone else's voice.

She wiped around to look at where it came from and, to say that she was disappointed thay she didn't see anything, would be an understatement. For a moment she thought she dreamed it, but she replied hoping, nay, praying with all her might that he was not an illusion.

"Wha-Who is it?"

The moment of silence that followed was almost deafening and it almost broke her heart, but the reply that followed filled her with the exact opposite feelings.

"Oh thank God, I thought I was going insane. Or maybe I am? I don't know. Please, voice of the void, tell me I'm not"

She remained in stunned silence at the absurdity of the reply. She wasn't going to lie, she thought that whoever was talking could have been some higher being telling her purpose and her punishment for being such an awful person in the past life. But hearing someone being so open, so relieved, so... Human.

Maybe it was the stress of the situation, maybe it was the phrase itself, or maybe she was the one losing her marbles, but at that moment, she did not care. She simply laughed. All the stress that had built up in these last couple of minutes had been simply relieved in such a simple series of questions.

Faust did not know if he should feel offended, scared or relieved. Offended because the person next to him was clearly very amused by his very much legitimate question, much to his dismay. Scared because, whoever or whatever it was, could have been a bloodthirsty monster waiting to munch on anything, or anyone, dumb enough to talk. Relieved because the voice, at least for now, was not angry, but rather amused. If this was another person, then it meant they would at least be able to more easily give him info. If it was a monster... Well, at least he could try to amuse it more, enough to not being eaten.

That train of thought stopped once the woman/girl stopped laughing and said in a tone that held a much less fear than before.

"No, I don't think you're going insane. Or, if you are, then so am I"

He remains silent for a few moments as he processes her answer and go through the implications. Well, first off, she confirmed that he wasn't going insane, so that's a big plus for him. Another plus is the last thing she said. It implied that she was probably in a state similar to his, which was a huge relief for him, which quickly turned into fear upon realizing that she most probably had no idea on where were they and how to get out of it. To confirm it, he quickly asked a simple question.

"Do you know where we are?"

He held his breath, waiting for a response. While he was pretty sure she wouldn't know where they were, he still held the fear that she knew and that she was actually whoever was keeping him... Well, wherever this is.

Looking around yielded no better results than before. If anything, it made him even more confused on where he and the woman/girl were.

Speaking of who...

"I'm sorry, but I don't know. I was just in a bus station when..."

This peaked his interest. Could it be that... No, it couldn't. But perhaps...?

"Were you waiting with a guy scrolling on his phone?"

This made her perk up and look at where the voice of the guy was coming from with a frown. How did he know that? The only reason person present besides herself was...

Her eyes widened as she almost yelled.

"You are the guy that was at the bus station?! The one on the phone?!"

She was unsure herself if this was the case, but if it was it would mean that he would know very little about what was going on, putting him on the same level of knowledge as her. Which was both comforting and stressful at the same time.

"Yeah. The one and only. I assume you are the girl then"

Instead of answering immediately, she simply sighs in both resignation and relief. He knews nothing of what was going on, just like her.

She tried to look around once more, to look for any way out of that place, to which she found no way out. Trying to move also yield no better results. It wss like her whole body was asleep, but not the sleep paralysis kind of asleep, it felt more like her body stopped obeying her commands. It felt weird, since she could still feel it there.

Around her was, meanwhile, darkness still prevailed, except for a black rectangle with golden elaborate trims. On the center, a simple message on a simple font that simply read.

『 WELCOME HOME, CREATORS 』

While she had noticed it before, she didn't pay much attention to it since there were more concerning matters at hand. But now that she had nothing else to do, she noticed several odd things about this rectangle that didn't seem to make sense. While it was true that there was nothing but darkness around her, logic dictated that this box should have been able to cast, even if subdued, a some amount of light, which should have been able to illuminate either her body, or even just smalls pieces of her surroundings. And yet, this box didn't cast any lights. It was almost like she was seeing it on broad daylight, or just under a light source. But neither of them could be the cause since she could not see herself not could she see the guy that should be right besides her, within arms reach basically.

She didn't know if he could see it either, but she had to ask. They were in the same stressful situation, sharing any and all info should be essential.

"Hey, can you see it?"

The girl asked, after a few seconds of silence.

"See what?"

He asked in return, in both confusion and frustration. It should have been obvious to her that neither could see shit except for darkness, darkness, darkness and... Could ot be that she could see the rectangle too? Only one way to find out.

"There's nothing around except void and this weird looking rectangle."

At that, he could hear her breaths out a sigh of relief, confirming his brief belief that she could see the rectangle. It should have been obvious, now that he thought about it. As far as he knew, they were the only ones there and the box referred to two "creators". Unless there was someone else with them that they were unaware of, the rectangle should have been referring to them.

Looking at it again, though, the last word made him frown ever so slightly. "Creators", implying multiple... Well, creators. But what did that mean? Did it mean content creators? No, it couldn't be. He didn't publish anything, didn't write books, didn't create videos, didn't make any significant things that should label him as creator, even outside of the internet. The only things he made were problems, waste and half-assed philosophy on private chats. That's it. He was a consumer, not a maker.

He couldn't possibly think of other types of creators out there, except for...

Faust frowned ever so slightly and concentrated on the word. It couldn't possibly mean that this thing, whatever it is, referred to him and the girl as creators like Big G, or Big A, or whatever other creator god out there.

For a fleeting moment, he wished for that rectangle to dissappear and rather show more answers. It was so fast that he didn't even registered that he thought about that until the rectangle disappeared, being replaced by another one that-

His thoughts were interrupted as the girl briefly shrieked. It briefly stunned him before he started to panic.

"Hey! What happened? Are you ok?!"

There was a brief moment of silence before she answered him.

"Uhm, I-I'm ok. It's just that the thing. It changed"

This was unexpected. Sure, her reaction might have been a little over the top, but she was still surprised nonetheless. The previous rectangle disappeared, replaced by another two others.

『 CONGRATULATIONS, YOU HAVE BEEN CHOSEN TO CREATE AND GROOM A UNIVERSE TO BATTLE THE FORCES FROM BEYOND 』

『 PLEASE CHOOSE A STARTING UNIVERSE 』

She didn't know what to say, or think about this. It didn't seem like a prank, even though she wished it was. She had heard about "Isekais" from one of her acquaintances a few months back. It's a type pf story where the protagonist dies and it is transported to another universe, and it really seemed to fit the guy and hers situation to a T. After all, who could really survive a bus slamming on to them?

She took a deep breath right when the guy said.

"Yeah, it changed for me too. It's telling me that I've been... Chosen to create and groom a universe?"

Alice silently sighed as she considered the possibilities and implications. If this rectangle is to be believed, then the guy and her were going to be creators. The godly kind.

The emotional part of her brain tried to deny this fact. After all, she had a mother to take care, as well a cat and a great roommate to go back home to. She couldn't go!

The rational part of her brain, however, told another story. She was dead and is now stuck in a brand new universe of her choosing with a guy she didn't know anything about. Cry as she might, this was going to be her new reality from there on after. Even with the most advanced pieces of technology and the brightes of mind working on it for eternity, it would take thousands, if not millions of years before humanity can reach another universe!

With an almost resigned sigh, she stirred her mind back to the matter at hand when, suddenly, a realization came over her. She was probably going to spend a long time with the guy next to her and she didn't even know his name.

Turning her head to where he probably was, she asks.

"Hey... What's your name?"

She heard a sound of confusion coming from him before she received a reply.

"Faust. Faust Goethe"

Yes, he knew that his name was the same as the book where the German guy makes a pact with The Devil. His father was from Germany and his last name was Goethe, his mother was a big fan of that book. She was also very persuasive and his father sucked at naming things.

The girl answered after a few seconds of silence.

"Faust... Got. I'm Alice. Alice Carroll. Nice to meet you"

He nodded as reply before realizing that she could not see him and say.

"Nice to meet you too. Now, what do we do?"

For as good as it is to know each other, they were in a bit of a difficult situation to socialize in. Maybe later when they could relax, but not at that moment.

She could not help but sigh. While she wanted to know Faust a bit more, she knew that there were pressing matters at the moment. Namely, the starting universe.

She sighs ever so slightly before looking at the box intently for a few seconds. There were no other ones besides the two shown. For a moment, she wished it showed her the actual options since she had no idea where to even start.

Right then, the two boxes disappeared before being replaced by one much more massive. And when she meant massive, she meant she couldn't see the bottom, which stretched itself for hundreds of meters downwards. The top was right at her eye level, there were five bigger looking options with highlighted text beneath each one.

『 CHOOSE A STARTING UNIVERSE 』

『 BEGGINER FRIENDLY UNIVERSES (As chosen by other creators) 』

『 EMPTY: Start in an empty universe and create the basic blocks from scratch. Add-ons and sentients must be created by CREATOR(S) from scratch. Most customizable 』

『 ONE WORLD: Start with a single world similar to the creator's previous specie's homeworld and slowly the expand it and the rest of the universe as the sentients in this world expand their reach. Most recommended if the creator(s) wishes to develop a selected number of living beings 』

『 MULTI-WORLD: Start with multiple worlds to manage, but not a full universe. Recommended for species experimentation 』

『 BLUEPRINT: Start with the blue print of an universe made by other CREATOR(S) 』

『 BIG BANG: Let chance dictated how things will go on. High chance of multiple habitable worlds spawning 』

『 OTHER UNIVERSES 』

『 RINGED UNIVERSE 』『 DISCWORLD 』『 POSITIVELY CURVED 』『 PARALLEL TIME-LINE 』 『 HEAVEN'S GATE 』...

Alice remained silent as she looked over the options presented before asking Faust.

"Hey Faust. What do you think we should go for?"

Faust remained silent as he analyzed each option and weighted each one before saying.

"Well, it's obvious that the first one is a no go. Something tells me that we should have some kind of physics and math degree to even understand half of what we should do. The second is a very good and it would allow us to really discover more about what is going on. Same with the third, although I do feel like it is going to be harder to manage. The forth could be also great, but it won't allow us to be as flexible as we could be. The fifth is also a no go. There are too many unknowns we don't know about that could screw us over..."

He took a quick glance at the ever expanding list beneath the fine options before continuing.

"And obviously, the ones below are not going to help us all that much, if what the box said is anything to go by"

And with that, both of them remained silent, pondering over each choice. Their futures depended on the choice they've made right then and there. From the early boxes, it was clear that they would have needed all the help they could.

After a few seconds of respective silence and pondering, Alice suddenly said.

"I think... Our best option will be the second one. I don't think either of us can manage a single world alone, let alone multiple. By how the box worded this choice, it sounds like we will be able to make more universes later on. For now, let's start with the baby steps"

Faust took but a moment to nod and say.

"I agree. Let's start small"

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And with that, both selected the second option with their minds. The box took but a moment to dissappear before another box, accompanied by something vaguely resembling a human appeared.

『 PLEASE MAKE YOUR PHYSICAL MANIFESTATION IN THIS UNIVERSE. REMEMBER THAT IT CAN BE CHANGED AT ANY TIME, ANYWHERE YOU WISH. YOUR PHYSICAL MANIFESTATION WILL NOT IMPACT YOUR STRENGTH, NOR WILL IT CHANGE YOUR PERSONALITY. 』

Upon fully reading the box, it immediately disappeared as the form came closer, but not too close. Faust noticed something to the side and his eyes widened as he saw another vaguely humanoid form floating just besides him, probably facing Alice.

He remained silent as he saw the form remain similar for a few seconds before it slowly took the appearance of Alice when she was back at the bus station. She was also naked, but none of her genitalia was present. Sure, her breasts were there, but there were no areole, nor any vaginal slit. Looking back at his own form, he almost jumped back when he saw himself looking back at him.

Dark brown eyes, black hair, no beard, small surgical scar... It was all there. Except, of course, for his penis. He was a bit distraught that he didn't have it, but right when he thought about having it back, it suddenly grew to exactly to the same size as he remembered it.

Faust was stunned by this for a few moments before mentally asking it to make it slightly bigger, which it did. Then he wished it to be uncircumcised, which it did. Then for it to be-

Right then he heard Alice fake cough. He looked at where he thought she was and said, with a slight ting of indignation.

"Hey, can't I have a have a bit of confidence?!"

At that, he only heard Alice respond with a scoff and he could almost feel her rolling her eyes.

Sighing to himself, Faust made small adjustments to his form to make look better and a little more handsome. It's not like he was ugly or anything, it's just that he wanted a little more than what he had now.

Looking at his form overall and nodding in satisfaction, he wished for some clothes, a suit preferably, which it did. It looked expensive too. It may not look very "godly" of him to have this kind of thing, but he did like it so that's the only thing that mattered to him. Besides, if he wished to change his clothes he could probably make something much more appropriate, right? He hoped so.

Looking back at Alice, he noticed how she also changed herself a bit from before. Bigger breasts, better skin, better hair and different eye color. She also had some clothes, a much more comfy hoodie and yoga pants.

Once they were done with the small adjustments and testing some things out, like changing the sex of their forms, changing clothes and stretching some features until they were both (figuratively) rolling to the ground, they both said they were done as two other windows appeared.

『 CONFIGURATIONS COMPLETE 』

『 MOVING ON TO PREPARATIONS 』

And with that, the darkness around them disappeared as they found themselves in a completely white room. Looking around, there was nothing expected for himself and the form Alice chose for herself. Looking down at himself, he saw that he was in the form he chose.

After but a moment of getting her bearings, and taking a proper look around herself, she saw Faust in his new form. She noticed how he had changed it earlier and, while she won't admit it out loud, he was quite pleasing for the eyes now... And she definitely will never admit to him that she stared at his junk for a few seconds more than necessary.

Hey, she's human too, you know! She's allowed to have some curiosity too!

Anyway, it didn't take long for a few new boxes to show up.

『 PREPARATIONS FOR THE CHOSEN UNIVERSE ARE UNDERWAY. PLEASE, IN THE MEANTIME, CREATE A DOMAIN AND ADD-ONS 』

Alice frowned. The box had mentioned Add-ons earlier, but offered no explanation. Wishing for it, a new box opened.

『 ADD-ONS: Also known as gods, administrators, higher beings, celestials and many more names. They are personally created by the CREATORS or creatures personally elevated by their own merit, CREATORS or other Add-ons. They are tasked with helping manage the universe, be it by trying to destroy it, by evolving it or simple faith. They are mere tools to be used by the CREATORS, so please don't get attached to them 』

The last phrase made Alice shudder ever so slightly due to the coldness shown. She tried to not dwell on it, but it remained stuck in her head as she turned to Faust and said.

"So... We should probably make a... 'Domain', right?"

He nodded ever so slightly in confirmation as he read through the steps on how to make it. He had mentally asked for an explanation and understood the importance of domains for gods.

It was a very, very long read, one he ws still reading at that moment, but the gist of it was that gods, or Add-ons as the box called them, drew their power from these domains and it influenced not only their growth, but also their personality and set of powers. After all, you'd go for a god of life to heal your friend, not the god of sea or destruction.

The box also recommended that when a creator first picks a domain, it would be best if it was creation, since only one one god could have a a certain domain at the time. For example, there can only be one god of light, one god of fire, one god of time and so and so forth. If there are multiple creators, the box recommends for one to pick creation and the other destruction. The creator that picks destruction wouldn't lose its power to create whatever he wants, but it would be weaker than the one that picked creation.

Other than that, the box said that they could pick however many domains they wanted, even the insignificant ones like electrons and farts. Of course, it's not recommended to pick too many, especially those useless ones, but they could if they wanted to do it.

Making a quick check on the main domains and their respective abilities, Faust said.

"I've made a quick check on the domains and I think it's best if we pick 'Creation', 'Light', 'Destruction' and 'Darkness'."

That made Alice raise her eyebrow and ask.

"Why? The last two sound so... Ominous. Like a recipe for disaster. What if one of us gets changed the domain? The box said that a domain can change a person"

He already expected her to not be on board with this, and he was ready to make a counter point.

"I've read that and it is true, but I've also read some more about it and the box also said that we wouldn't be changed by it. We are apparently immune of this side effect"

This seemed to make her stop and think about for a second. She was probably evaluating that decision before she glanced at him and asked.

"Why these and not others?"

He was also ready for this so he immediately replied.

"They would complement each other. Light is usually associated with the domains of order, collectivism, energy and destruction. While darkness is the exact opposite. Chaos, individualism, matter and creation"

This made her look very confused as she asked.

"I thought Light equals good and creation while Darkness is bad and destruction"

This made him chuckle for a moment before saying.

"Me too, but apparently that's what the box said. Granted, it also said that they could be interchangeable, so we could make Light equals creation and Darkness equals destruction, but the box said that it wouldn't bring the full potential for those domains"

Alice nodded ever so slightly before crossing her arms and asking.

"Why choose only Creation or Destruction? Can't we both pick them up?"

This made Faust sigh as he put his hands on his pant pockets and said.

"Apparently there can only be one god for each domain. Granted, a single god can have multiple domains, but only one god can have a specific domain. It's best if we take both take Creation and Destruction. Can you imagine what would happen if someone got a hold of Creation and Destruction? It would be a disaster. It's better if we were the ones to take those two"

This made her nod ever so slightly before thinking about what to choose. Faust was okay to let her choose, especially if it was the Darkness and Creation, since he's great at making things and he would much rather have Light and Destruction.

Alice remained silent for a few seconds before asking.

"Wouldn't it be better if we only chose Creation and Destruction and left Light and Darkness to our Add-ons? I mean, I've just read that domains, apparently, come with also managing every sub domain that comes with it and I doubt we could manage that, on top of managing everything else"

This made him frown ever so slightly as he hadn't thought about it. Looking back at the domain page, he quickly found the section she was talking about and he had to agree. He nodded and said, while bringing his hand to his chin to scratch a small itch he had there.

"Well, I guess you're right... So, which one do you want?"

This made her shrug and say.

"I'm fine with anything... But if I had to pick, I'd probably choose Creation..."

This made Faust internally sigh in relief before he said.

"Alright then. Guess I'll be Destruction then"

Upon expressing their wishes, a new box came up.

『 CONGRATULATIONS ON CHOOSING YOUR FIRST DOMAIN. NOW, PLEASE, CREATE A PHYSICAL DOMAIN OUTSIDE OF YOUR UNIVERSE 』

This made them both sort of look at each other for a moment, confused as to how to even properly begin. Alice talked first, as she put her hands on the pockets of her hoodie.

"Any idea on how to do this?"

Faust simply shrugged and said, while placing his chin with his left hand and grabbing the elbow of that hand with his right one.

"Well, we've been able to do everything so far by simply wishing it. Can't we do the same for this? Worked so far..."

This made Alice think about it for a few seconds before shrugging and closing her eyes. Then, she thought about an open endless field of grass, wind gently grazing the skin, grass tickling their legs and the sun warmly shining above. For a moment, she thought her imagination must have been really strong to make her feel like she was really there, but after a moment she shot her eyes wide open and immediately saw around her the field she imagined.

For a moment, she felt excitement and relaxation and she wanted to share the moment with her partner/co-creator, but upon realizing that he wasn't there, she started to scream for him.

"Faust? Faust, where are you? Faust?! FAUST?"

She started to hyperventilate and look around for him frantically. He was the only other person that was there with him since she was brought there, she didn't want to alone in a whole other universe.

Right when she was starting to feel trapped and alone, she heard his voice coming from... Her head?

"Alice? Alice, are you there?"

She left out the biggest sigh of relief as all the tension she was starting to build faded away as she answered.

"Oh thank God. I thought you were gone. Where are you?"

She heard him sighs as he responded.

"Still where I was. The better question is, where are YOU? One moment you were right next to me, the next you were gone"

This made Alice flinch, not because of his tone or anything, but rather in confusion. She didn't remember moving away, she simply thought about the field and then-

"Ah!"

She must have been brought to her domain. And since she thought about a field of grass...

"I must have been brought to my domain. I thought about a grass field and... Well, I'm in a grass field. Didn't the box said that it had to be outside of our universe? Maybe that's why you're still there and I'm here"

This made Faust pause for a few moments before sighing and saying.

"Right, I guess that makes sense. Are you able to come back? It's kinda weird to be back to talk to a disembodied voice"

This made Alice scoff, but smile at his antics ever so slightly before closing her eyes and wishing to be back next to Faust. When she couldn't feel the wind, or the sun, she opened her eyes and found herself in the white void right next to Faust, who was lookinh at her expectingly.

"So? I take that it was as easy as it sounded?"

This made Alice and say.

"Yep, as easy as that. Just wish for it, and then... Well, you know the rest"

This made Faust nod before taking a deep breath and getting ready to make his domain. However, before he could go, Alice asked something.

"Hold up, before you go. How were you able to talk in my head?"

This made Faust frown and say.

"In your head? Well, I've just wished to talk to you. Didn't know I would start talking in your head"

This made Alice nod before smirking ever so slightly and say.

"Maybe you're starting to become my voice of reason?"

This made Faust scoff and say.

"Oh trust me, you don't want me to be your voice of reason. I might tell you to play Kwazy Cupcakes and listen to Sheryl Crow"

At that, Alice simply raised and eyebrow while smirking, saying.

"Brooklyn Nine-Nine. A man after my own heart? Sorry, but you're not my type"

At that Faust, in exaggerated gestures, faked an injury to the heart and said, in a tone just as exaggerated.

"Ah! You wound me my love! How can you be so cruel to a fine man such as myself!"

This made Alice scoff while wearing a smile as she said.

"Just get on with making your domain so we can move on. I just wanna sleep"

While wearing a slight smirk, Faust nods and says.

"Yeah, me too. Oh, well, here we go!"

And with that, he closed his eyes and started to clearly concentrate before dissappearing.

Alice found it slightly unnerving to be left alone, but she forced herself to be calm. She knew Faust was just temporarily gone, so she wasn't all that worried.

Faust, meanwhile, was looking around, astonished that his wish worked so well. He wanted to see if he could make something a little more complex than a simple scenery, so he wished for something absolutely ludicrous. The Ultima Tower. An arcology. A theoretical super skyscraper designed by Eugene Tsui in 1991 with an absolutely ridiculous height of three point two kilometers and with more or less 500 floor. It was never built in real life, the reasons escaped him and at that moment he didn't even care.

Right at that moment, he was at the highest floor, which was a very big fancy bedroom, with even fancier post modern furniture, some generic landscape and portraits, and even a couple of fantasy statues that did not seem to obey the laws of physics. Hell, that one has a floating orb near it!

Looking outside, instead of being greeted by the clouds, or even a landscape, he was instead looking at the everlasting darkness where he and Alice found themselves in earlier.

Not wanting to see it every time he came to his domain, which he guessed would happen a lot, he was about to wish for it to change. However, he quickly realized that he didn't know what to change it to, so he stopped to think about it. He could change it to a never ending grassland like Alice, but he knew it would probably become tedious after a while, so he thought some more, until he thought of a great solution.

He remembered playing Bloodborne when it came out and he remembered being fascinated by the idea of stacking dreams and nightmares atop of one another, withe the Hunter's Dream at the top and the Hunter's nightmare right at the bottom. He thought about having the top hundred floors being the highest levels, with his own bedroom as the absolute highest, overlooking the entire universe, then next hundred it could be on the same level as the domains of the add-ons he and Alice should probably make later on, then the next hundred being the realm of dreams, then the realm of the dead and then the last hundred being the realm of mortals.

However, the idea was quickly scrapped as he doubted his tower could be feasible stretched so much, and he and Alice haven't even started making the add-ons. Although, he did filed the idea for later, as he could still make something for it.

Instead, he simply settled for making the landscape outside look like the one from the Hunter's Dream, as a reminder to make that scrapped idea into a reality later on.

Once done with that and making some slight adjustments, he returned to Alice, who looked at him with a raised eyebrow, asking what took him so long. Upon relaying to her his discovery, she immediately popped to her domain to make herself a gigantic palace, with massive steps, majestic statues and enormous towers, with a grand golden throne room and an exquisite victorian-era bedroom. If this was her chance to make herself a queen, then she was going to take it.

Once she had popped back to Faust, satisfied with her work, a new box had appeared before them.

『 CONGRATULATIONS ON MAKING YOUR FIRST PHYSICAL DOMAIN. NOW, CREATE THE SEED FOR YOUR FIRST ADD-ONS, YOUR FIRST SERVANT RACE, AN AFTER LIFE AND THE RACES THAT WILL INHABIT YOUR FIRST WORLD 』

This, made them both groan. They were starting to get tired and just wanted to get some sleep.

Luckily, upon wishing to start the process of making their respective Add-ons, a few new boxes appeared.

『 SELECT THE METHOD OF CREATION OF THE ADD-ON. PLEASE REMEMBER THAT IT WILL TAKE TIME FOR THE ADD-ON TO DEVELOP A CONSCIOUS AND AGENCY 』

『 CUSTOM BUILD: Create a physical form for your add-on from scratch 』

『 QUICK BUILD: Simply select the domain of your add-on and let it choose its own form over time 』

Of course, not wanting to spend any more time than necessary on making a new body for them, and not really wishing to impose a form that their future helpers may hate, the chose the latter option. As for choosing the domains, Faust said.

"Hmmm, the box said that we have to make only two add-ons and the box about them early said that they could make their own add-ons. So, why don't we just choose to make a Light and Darkness ones and then make them make the others? We can always make the necessary ones later down the line"

This made Alice pause for a moment and considered the pros and cons of this choice. The pros are the fact that this would make them do less work and that the add-ons might be able to make much better decisions than them. Besides, as Faust said, they could always make more if needed later on. The cons? Well, she couldn't really think of any at that moment, so she shrugged and said.

"Alright, let's do that. You make the Light and I make the Darkness, right?"

At this, Faust nodded before he selected the domain of Light, while Alice selected the domain of Darkness. As soon as they did it, a couple of floating small spheres, barely the size of a ping pong balls, appeared before them. One was of a brilliant light color, almost blindingly so, while tye other was of a darkness that reminded both of the one where they were before.

Faust and Alice stared at the balls for a while before both slowly started to drift away in random directions, bobbing up and down, almost as if carried away by an invisible sea current.

Faust and Alice sort of looked at each other and shrugged, not sure on what to do next about those balls before moving on to make the servant race. However, before doing so, Alice raised a hand and said.

"Hold on, before we move on... Do we even know what is a servant race?"

This made Faust pause for a moment before wishing for an explanation. When the box appeared before him, he said to Alice.

"Alright, so, according to the box, a servant race is a... Well, race that will serve us and the add-ons. They will, apparently, be responsible for the menial tasks that we can't and won't do, such as managing souls, carrying out messages to each other, the Add-ons, or other species, setting up prophecies and taking care of our 'needs', if you catch my drift"

At this, Alice nodded ever so slightly before muttering.

"So, they're the interns"

This made Faust nod absent-mindedly before continuing.

"Yup, with none of the benefits. Oh, and apparently they'll also need their own domain to live in"

This made Alice sigh and say.

"Alright then. Let's do this"

And with that, they set out to make the servant race.

Upon both wishing to make a servant race, a new box appeared.

『 HOW DO YOU WISH TO MAKE YOUR SERVANT RACE? 』

『 CUSTOM BUILD: Select a species, or make a brand new one, and tweak it to your heart's content. Appearance, loyalties, history, strength, growth rate and many more things can be modified here 』

『 QUICK BUILD: Simply select a species 』

This made them ponder on their choices. Sure, they could be lazy asses again, select a species and be done with it, however this could run the risk of them turning on them and the Add-ons and, while they doubted the servants could kill the Add-ons and them, it was better not risk it. They chose to make a custom build.

Soon, a massive list of races appeared before them and this made them slightly intimidated, but soon shook it off knowing that the servants could be tweaked however they liked.

There were a mind-boggling number of species present. Of course there were the ones from typical fantasy settings like the elves, orcs, dwarves and gnomes, but there were also ones from sci-fi, comic books, manga, books and even ones they never heard about, like wookies, kryptonians, sayans, eldar and even the typical grey aliens that conspiracy theorists like to talk about so much.

In the end, Alice couldn't really decided on which species to make as servants, but Faust? He had one in mind ever since he saw it and couldn't really remove it from his mind. So he asked Alice.

"Decided on one yet?"

This made Alice sigh in frustration and say.

"No, not yet. There are so many good ones that I just can't decide on. You?"

This made Faust smile like a child as he said.

"I have one in mind. Dragons"

This made Alice look at him with a face that almost seemed to ask if he was serious.

"You're joking, right?"

Faust shook his head and said.

"Nope! They're great symbols of power! They would be perfect for any task! Come on, don't tell me that the idea doesn't excite you even a little bit!?"

This only served to make Alice groan, face palm and shake her head before asking.

"Well, can we make more servants later on?"

This made Faust pause for a moment before he looked up at the box talking about servants and saying.

"Uhm, yeah, we can. But apparently it can only be from a species that inhabits a universe after they reach a certain level. What certain level? I have no idea"

This made Alice slightly frustrated, but quickly got a hold of herself before sighing and saying.

"Fine, fine, we'll pick your stupid dragons"

Faust was simply too excited to even care about her comment as he immediately selected the species, with Alice also selecting it not long after.

After that, a truly massive window appeared in front of both of them. It continued all the possible small tweaks they could make on the dragons. This window intimidated both creators and made them wish they had simply selected the quick option for a moment, before they got a hold of themselves and went on to make the adjustments.

After almost an entire hour of tweaking, adjusting and remaking, this was the final result. They made dragons with the potential to master all forms of magic, including creation and destruction, but to a very small degree, just enough for them to learn how to make simple objects only a cubic meter in dimensions maximum. Under Faust's suggestion, they also added several sub-species of dragons, where one or a few forms of magic would be much stronger, but weaker in the others. He really wanted to mirror the species of dragons found in D&D, which earned an eye roll from Alice.

Then, they granted them the ability to turn themselves into any of the other species and back to dragons whenever they wished, they had imagined that this would make discretely carrying out messages from them and the add-ons to any mortal easier.

Then they made sure to crank their loyalty to them up to the max, and to the add-ons only till halfway. This ensured that, in case any add-ons decided to rebel, there would be no question on who they would side up with.

For their last major tweak was a bit harder to decide upon. Whether or not they should be immortal. It could be useful to have immortal dragons at their side, ones that could be reliable and knowledgeable about all kinds of events that Faust and Alice might forget, however there was also the issue of over-population. The debate went on for about a minute or so, but in the end, it was decided that they should not be immortal. Long lived? Yes, but not immortal. However, to balance this, they made sure that they should be hoarders of knowledge, always seeking it and storing it for the sake of preserving it.

From there, they continued to simply tweak and iron out some flaws and strengths and tick off some special abilities, such as the ability to travel between domains except for Faust's and Alice's. They wanted their own privacy after all.

Once that was done, they moved on to their domain. They wished for a domain the size of Earth, with vast oceans, mountain ranges with some peaks reaching thousands of kilometers, scorching deserts and forests with the same beauty as the Amazons.

Once that was also done, they set on to make an after life when a few boxes showed up.

『 SEED OF SERVANTS PLANTED. TIME UNTIL AVAILABILITY: 7 THOUSAND YEARS, 7 MONTHS, 4 WEEKS, 3 DAYS, 14 HOURS, 56 MINUTES AND 22 SECONDS 』

『 SELECT A TYPE OF AFTER LIFE. REMEMBER THAT ANY OF THESE CHOICES CAN BE COMBINED AND TWEAKED 』

『 VOID: Once departed from the mortal plane, the souls of the dead will travel to this void where they will simply sleep and drift on for eternity 』

『 REINCARNATION: The souls of the dead shall have their previous memories erased and sent back to the land of the living to being their lives anew. This choice can be tweaked to include a judge, who's job will to decide where these souls will reincarnate into 』

『 AFTERLIFE: Here, the dead shall remain, aware of their condition and the memories they once possessed. This choice can be tweaked to include a judge, who's will to decide where these souls will reside 』

Now that one about the servants made them confused more than anything and, upon wishing for more information, the box informed them that the domain they've made would be used to make and evolve their servants until they were ready to serve. This would also make their domain filled with other life forms, in case they wanted to have local meals, or even for inspiration for new species.

This kinda surprised and irritated them. They spent so much time making these dragons and they wanted to see them immediately, not wait for a few thousand years! They tried to wish to speed up this process, but the box informed them that they could not, and even if they could, it would not be recommended, as that would cause unforeseen consequences. Deciding to leave that matter there, they turned their attention back to designing an after life.

Seeing as they weren't exactly sure which one to work with, they tried asking if it could be changed later, the box responded that it was but would not recommend, as it could cause a major disaster that even much more experienced creators could not deal with, let alone two beginners.

That kinda spooked them into having a proper conversation about what to do. Which meant Alice simply chose the Reincarnation process and Faust simply went with it. As for the judge, they decided to designate the servants as judges and let them deal with that whole mess.

Next, it was the races and, once again, the intimidating looking box returned. There were a few differences from earlier about it, which were the fact that there was no option of tweaking any of the races, which were just ten, there were quite a few of the more overpowered races, such as the sayians and the kryotonians, were gone and the dragons were greyed out. Upon trying to select them, nothing happened.

At this, Alice and Faust were simply stuck on what to choose, until she made a proposal.

"What if we chose polar opposites?"

This made Faust look at her with a raised eyebrow and ask.

"What do you mean?"

She looked at him with a smile and said.

"Well,exactly what I meant! I mean, we can't let them be overpowered by a single race, which is why the more powerful ones are gone, but we also don't want them to be just too friendly with each other for too long. Otherwise, they might remain stagnant. After all, conflict, hardship and war can really breed all kinds of new innovations and creativity! Of course it's awful, but for a society so primitive it is almost necessary for them to advance enough to the point where they could innovate for other reasons!"

This made Faust frown, but also reflected on her argument. Sure, he despised the idea of having to make a situation where war is all but inevitable, but she did make a point. After all, if someone is too complacent they will simply stagnate, and would not advance in any significant way for a very long time, if at all. But if there was rivalry, conflict, competition…. Well, that's when creativity really shines, even if the original purpose is actually for war. Just look at the radio, or the radar, or even the internet!

He grunted for a moment before saying.

"... I really don't like this, at all. But you make a point. What I don't understand is what you mean by 'Polar opposites'."

This made Alice cross her arms and say.

"Well, I don't really know a whole lot of fantasy stories or even races like you, but I do know that some races have opposites to each other. I mean, angels are demons is the biggest one I can think of and surely you know even better one, right?"

This made him think about it for a few seconds to think about and, while her idea had merit, he really didn't know of a lot of races that had some history of being rivals or even opposites to each other. Sure, there were dwarves and elves and, as she said, demons and angels, but other than that? Not any that he could think of. Although…

"While I can't think of any races that are historically at odds with each, I can think of a few that could end up clashing a lot. But first off, let's select our first four races. Demons, angels, dwarves and elves. Then, let's pick orcs. Because of their violent and strong nature, they will eventually end up being a major rival for the other races, but don't assume they're just brutes, they can also be very cunning and know when to retreat. They would be perfect as bandits

At that, Alice nodded and selected the races he told her before asking.

"What's next?"

Faust took a moment to think about it before saying.

"Next, let's eliminate anything even remotely resembling dragons, or lizards for that matter. It would create too many problems down the line if they discovered the true appearance of our messengers"

At that, Alice nodded before wishing for the box to make anything resembling dragons or lizards disappear, which it did. Faust then continued.

"Next, let's select humans. While weak, we are a smart communal species and usually depicted as a sort jack-of-all-trades and very eager to expand our territory, even against those of our own species"

Alice nodded before selecting them and saying.

"Down six, four more left. What's next?"

Faust thought about it and, while he did not like it very much, it would have been a very much, he knew it would have been necessary.

"Goblins. They are like a plague, no matter the setting. Pillaging, robbing, killing, raping… Honestly, these guys may very well be worst than orcs. While they lack the strength and sometimes intelligence, they more than make up for it in numbers. One large enough could even wipe out an entire country. They will a very necessary addition to keep the various numbers of other species in check"

It was clear from her facial expression that Alice did not like the idea of goblins, but upon hearing about the reasoning behind it, she selected them, although very reluctant. This gave enough time for Faust to think about what to add next.

"Next, add the mermen. We need some aquatic species that can take care of the ocean and they are our best choice. They won't have much sentient competition down there, but they will probably have more than enough ocean predators down there, the ocean is resourceful like that, especially a magic one. Also, they will pose a proper challenge for anyone living near a coastline or trying to sail the ocean"

Alice nodded before adding them and saying.

"Two more and we're set"

Faust really had to think hard about the next additions, since there were so few who could truly keep the balance steady in their world, but upon realizing what was missing, it really was a no-brainer for what had to come next.

"Next, select spirits and genasi. They will both be able to challenge anyone in any environment they are not ready for, even the mermen"

Upon selecting the last couple of races, two new boxes appeared before them.

『 CONGRATULATIONS ON COMPLETING THE PREPARATIONS. NOW, PLEASE AWAIT FOR YOUR SPECIES TO CREATE THEIR FIRST SOCIETIES 』

『 TIME FOR ESTIMATED SOCIETIES: (LOCKED UNTIL SERVANT SPECIES HAVE BEEN CREATED) 』

This made both of them really look at the box in despair, since now truly had nothing to do but wait. But this was quickly replaced with a sense of sudden tiredness that only truly felt when they were about to truly fall asleep. They tried to keep themselves up by slapping their own faces, but nothing seemed to work. It took only a few moments for them to fall to their knees, and then falling asleep as the two of them faded to their respective domains. Asleep in their beds as silence quickly fell in the white empty space. The only things left were two long forgotten balls of light and darkness.