I sat on the edge of the roof of the temple overlooking the city of Avalon; that was the name we’d given it. The empty houses were being occupied and the ghostly empty streets were now bustling with humanoids of every type. The Void Angels didn’t need to sleep or rest so they had no use for the buildings. Even now they circled the ziggurat-city, their voices raised in their endless song. The song did fade to the background and could be ignored, for which I was glad because they never got tired of it.
System Notice – All System effects will be offline for the next hour. Please standby for any difficulties you experience with your abilities during this time.
My eyes narrowed. This couldn’t be a good sign.
---
Six gods gathered around an ancient table, its surface made of dark blood stained stone. Dozens of other gods stood around those who were seated, the table sitting in the center of a great amphitheater.
“We are gathered here to deal with the threat to our world,” Falgest said.
“A threat you failed to deal with,” Jeresh said to Kalesa snidely.
Kalesa ignored the god of Trickery and Pain. “He was stripped of his blessing and ability granted by me and I sent him back to his world to die of mana starvation. He managed to survive for many months before trying to reenter our world. I activated the wall when the System alerted me of his approach. Instead of being killed by the barrier, he was somehow banished to the Void.”
“How did he survive the Void?” Myria, goddess of Crafting and Agriculture asked. “He should have been a naked helpless soul.”
“He had a void parasite attached to his soul,” Kalesa explained. “It was the reason I removed him as my champion.”
“All of this is very interesting,” Thanadar, god of Destruction and Greed said, his voice a low, lazy growl. “But why are we even here? Kalesa and Jeresh dragged me here, but I don’t see the point. He’s not even god rank, so if he steps into our world just have the System kill it.”
Requested action is unavailable due to limitations of the Accords.
Thanadar blinked slowly as he read the message.
“What does that mean?” Ontera, goddess of Nature and Beasts asked. “Why would you be limited in killing this mortal?”
Subject Mordred is a champion and therefore immune to System annihilation protocols.
“I removed Mordred as my champion,” Kelesa said.
Removal of champions by means other than death is not listed in accords. Subject Mordred remains a champion until his death.
“You have to kill Mordred, you were created to fight the Void,” Kelesa insisted.
Error, Void elimination not primary objective. Primary objective equals balance between divinity equals prevention of god wars.
“Mordred is not a god,”
Error, subject Mordred has divine realm classification pseudo divinity, subclassification champion. Primary objective equals no direct battle between Divine beings. Third primary objective equals no direct intervention with champions, equals champions must kill other champions.
“You answer to us!” Falgest snapped.
Error, primary personality traits impartiality and non-partisan. I answer to no one, you answer to me.
“Is that so?” Myria asked with a dangerous tone. “Then perhaps we should correct that error in your design. I cast my vote to amend the Accords.”
The other gods looked at each other.
“That requires unanimous consent from all signatories,” Falgest said. “I will second that nomination.”
“No,” Jeresh said. “It’s not how it was in the old days; your Pantheons vastly outnumber ours. If we open up the Accords, I know what you’ll try and do.”
“Our world—our one remaining world—is under threat from the Void,” Ontera reminded him.
“It’s one man,” Jeresh scoffed. “Just because all your champions failed to match him doesn’t mean the game is over. I for one am not without tricks.”
“Tricks you’ll be limited in using with the System protecting him,” Kalesa reminded him. “I will also support the amending of the Accords if you give me some certain assurances.”
“Assurances?” Falgest asked.
Kalesa set down a parchment on the table, its artifact power putting it beyond the level they were allowed to give to mortals.
“A blood pact between all of us that we will only vote for amends to the accords to combat this threat. Any other objectives or amends to the accords we will not allow and will forbid those in our Pantheon from voting for.”
“Easy for you to say,” Thanadar said. “You only have one other member to your Pantheon. The gods of Order number in the hundreds; do you really think Falgest, Myria, and Ontera have control over all their members?”
“We have sway over enough to control the vote,” Falgest insisted.
“Are you sure?” Jeresh asked. “Are you willing to risk another god war on that?”
There was silence over the table.
“I was barely a child when the first god war started,” Falgest said. “My father’s pantheon numbered in the thousands; hundreds of worlds were under our control. The god war was devastating and halved my families numbers; but we all know what came out of it.”
“The Void,” Kalesa said. “My own families’ numbers had been reduced in the war. We’d been fighting ourselves for so long that we didn’t have the strength to hold back the Void when it started taking our worlds.”
“We are the last of our families,” Ontera said. “Billions were slain in the god wars but we lost worlds to the Void. We only have one world left. No matter the risk to myself or my pantheon I would rather fight all of you by myself then let the Void take this world from us. I vote to amend the accords.”
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
She glanced over the parchment, nodded, and signed it.
Falgest signed it next, followed by Myria. Kalesa signed it in her blood next and turned it over to Jeresh and Thanadar.
The father of dragons sighed but leaned over taking the quill and running it along the soft scales of his hand.
“What’s another god war? If we lose we just wipe out our planet,” he said, blowing out a ring of smoke as he finished signing the agreement. “I’ll vote to amend the Accords.”
Jeresh read over it sighed but signed it.
A toll rang through the universe as the System called the gods to the assembly. One by one, gods teleported into the amphitheater sitting around to look down on the ancient table where the first accords were signed and the System created.
“We are here for one reason,” Falgest said. “To ensure the safety of our world. When you reached godhood, you were inducted into the truth we hide from mortals, that we did not create this world and we were not the first gods. That same threat that brought me and my peers together faces us once more.”
The gods shifted but there was silence for only a moment.
“So what?” a god called out. “One goddess couldn’t keep control of her champion and drove him to act in ways anyone who had observed him could have predicted.”
“Would you dare to say that to my face,” Kalesa challenged.
Andelar, God of Comets and Extinction, stood up and stepped into the center of the amphitheater meeting Kalesa’s eyes without fear.
“What are you going to do?” Andelar asked. “We can’t fight? Isn’t that right System?”
Attempts between two divine entities to engage in direct conflict will result in both being temporally suspended for an indefinite amount of time until matters can be resolved in another manner.
“Exactly,” Andelar said.
“Sit down,” Falgest sighed. “We’re not here for your posturing, we’re here to deal with a threat to our world. While I would also have liked Kalesa to have handled her own champion, that is not the situation we are dealing with. The System had decided that Mordred is both a Champion and a god so we are unable to deal with him directly, and our champions, well, they have yet to prove themselves up to the task.”
“So, what, we amend the Accords to let us kill Champions?” someone called out, their voice both question and protest.
“Why not just change it to let us kill our own Champions,” someone suggested. “Then Kalesa could go down and finish the problem she created herself.”
Error, subject Mordred is no longer a Champion of Kalesa
“And yet he still qualifies as a champion?” the disbelieving questioner asked.
The System did not deign to answer that question.
“What about enabling us to kill champions?” someone else suggested.
“No!” came the resounding answer from across the amphitheater, and it dissolved into a cacophony of noise as hundreds of arguments broke out. Eventually, order was settled.
“We can’t let us kill other’s champions for obvious reasons,” Thanadar said, blowing a smoke ring. “That leaves only one more choice: we have to have a way for us to kill another god.”
A sobering silence fell over the gods.
“They don’t have the balls for that,” Andelar snorted. “All of you have forgotten what it’s like to face death; it’s why you’re cowering here at the thought of that mortal reaching god rank.”
“I don’t like your tone boy,” Thanadar growled.
“Again, what are you going to do about it?” Andelar asked. “Climb off your pile of gold in your divine realm? All of you have just relaxed for centuries; you haven’t worked on getting smarter, stronger, or honed yourself for battle.”
“Maybe we should enable fights between gods one on one to see if you’re as brave then,” Kalesa said.
Andelar smiled. “An excellent suggestion, a perfect way to restore balance and a bit of fear of death in all of us. I know you chaos gods are worried about being outnumbered in a god war, so we limit conflicts between gods to one on one battles between us.”
There was murmuring but not outright refusal as before.
“What about our followers, summoned creatures, our divine beasts?” someone asked. “Would this fight be just two individuals or the only restriction only two gods.”
“Having the restriction only being the number of deities seems the best,” Ontera said. “There are some of us whose primary means of battle is summons or empowering our followers.”
“What’s to stop you from just sending your underlings after us one by one until you eventually weaken and kill us?” Jeresh asked. “I want a cooldown period added to this, no god can fight another god until thirty days have passed after the first fight.”
“Only if they are the defender,” Andelar said. “If someone attacks me and flees, I want the ability to pursue them.”
“Very well,” Myria said. “Are we agreed that a thirty day cooldown for the defender will exist if they are attacked by another deity.”
There was a murmur of assent from the congregation.
“We have agreed to make no other changes to the Accords,” Falgest said, his gaze sweeping over his Pantheon and lingering on Andelar. “Are we all agreed that this is the only change we will make?”
One by one the gods agreed and the crystal lines along the stone table lit up. The table wasn’t the body of the System as no such thing existed, but it was the means by which they controlled it.
“We gods are mortal once more,” Falgest said to Kalesa. “I suggest you deal with your champion as soon as possible before someone else beats you to it; your reputation is hanging in the balance.”
“I know what I have to do,” Kalesa said, turning her back on her old friend. “You and I have more reasons to hate the Void than anyone else.”
---
Andelar appeared in the darkness of the realm of Salrilla, Goddess of Assassins. A blade pressed against his throat.
“Come to kill me Andelar?” Salrilla purred in his ears.
Andelar whirled around, snatching the dagger from her fingers. He pinned her against the wall with his hands as the weight of gravity changed, holding her to the wall like a fly caught in a web. His lips pressed against hers and her smile spread, showing the bright flash of her fangs. The gravity disappeared and she wrapped her arms around his neck.
“I’ve missed you,” she said, intertwining her tongue with his.
“It’s done,” Andelar said. “The first stage of our plan.”
“Yes,” Salrilla said, her voice a sultry velvet. “Let the other gods be distracted by that little mortal. Soon you and I will be free of the restrictions of the System and be able to start our own Pantheon.”
“I can’t wait to put a little god inside you,” Andelar growled, his hands wrapping around her waist and lifting her up.
Salrilla smiled. “Why don’t we practice that then?”
---
System Notice – System has come back online. Apologies for any inconveniences caused by the shutdown during maintenance.
“Why do you talk like you’re a computer?” I asked. “And what happened?”
There has been an amendment to the Accords of the gods. SlAs an honorary god, I will inform you of the change: All gods may now fight each other one-on-one. The defender will receive a thirty day cooldown period where they cannot be attacked by another deity if their opponent flees the battle or is defeated. The defender is not prevented from going out to battle another deity during this cooldown
“Why would they make that change?” I asked.
You are classified by me as both a Deity and a Champion, making you previously immune to divine intervention.
“You put a bounty on my head,” I pointed out.
Punishment for breaching the World Wall had to be made.
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “It’s more than that, you want those champions to go after me, not because you think they can win, but because you want to make me stronger. The question is why?”
Silence greeted me.
“You want me to do something, something the other gods wouldn’t do,” I said. “I don’t think you had to classify me as a Champion or god; I’m technically neither. You took advantage of your programing to let you get away with that because you wanted this, you wanted gods to be able to fight.”
You have completed a hidden objective and earned a title. Objective: study the motivations of the System.
Reward: Title, A Dangerous Truth III
*I’m watching
“I guess even gods can’t help themselves but accidentally create Skynet when messing around with AI,” I said, shaking my head. “Well, I’ll see what you want from me eventually.”
Your Divine Realm is being invaded by Artrix, God of Barbarians and Bears. Time until divine manifestation: 10 seconds.
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