I repaired the damage done by Arthur’s ship to the city. My angels sang a lamentation for those we had lost permanently to the Entropy Demons. Their dirge rose through the air as we gathered the dead and wounded. I walked through my people, my presence literally bolstering their strength. They took fruit down from the silver trees giving it to the wounded to fully restore them. Tobias, Jeriah, Exar’kun and Guinevere found me as I moved among my heroes as they recovered from the battle and the psychological damage of having fought the demons.

“What were those things?” Jeriah asked.

“I’m not sure,” I admitted. “The felt sort of like the Void Angels but without intellect, restraint or presence. They’re just raw emotion and that red energy.”

Guinevere shivered. “That energy is… an abomination. It felt like my body aged ten years whenever it touched me.”

“Entropy,” I said. “I can only theorize but somehow this is what the god’s energy can turn into when corrupted by the Void.”

“The Void and Celestria are incompatible with each other,” Exar’kun objected.

“Evidently not,” I sighed. “I don’t know if this is why the gods are so afraid of the Void or this is the first time this has ever happened.”

“Isn’t that what your energy is?” Tobias asked.

“No, my energy is Mana, Stamina and Void all woven together,” I explained. “I’ve never had access to Celestria. My energy is ethereal it touches upon the material and immaterial. Arthur’s Entropy is the material constantly being twisted by the immaterial.”

“Where is he now?” Guinevere asked.

“I sent him back home,” I said.

“Isn’t that dangerous?” Jeriah asked. “He can reunite with all his allies now.”

“Arthur took the blessing of every god of Chaos,” Guinevere said dryly with contempt lacing every word. “He used a blood curse and now he’s been corrupted by the Void; there are no allies left for him to return to.”

---

Andelar brought his hammer down and the resulting earthquake shook the other god’s divine realm. Frustration filled him with a simmering wrath that fueled his attacks as he battled Mard, god of Autumn and Wind, to a pulp. In the end the concept of Autumn and Wind could not compare to Extinction and Comets. A shadow overcast the land as Andelar’s power summoned an extinction level asteroid calling it towards their location.

“You…bastard….” Mard spat his shoulders slumping in defeat as his doom overshadowed him. “Why?”

“Because you are weak and have power I need,” Andelar said.

There was no time for further questions. The asteroid hit and Andelar stood unmoving as the god was destroyed, he reached down and plucked out the holy essence of the other god. Salrilla was out there now killing gods just like him. Andelar sighed as he fled the disolving divine realm.

After Arthur had returned everything had fallen appart. Every god had watched as Kalesa, one of the original six gods to create the system, old beyond counting, a threat any of them would have been terrified to face in combat, and she’d died without even a fight. The gods had grown weak, complacent after eons without the fear of death and had stopped even worrying about it. Most lounged in their divine realms engaged in persuits of crafting, philosophysing endlessly over pointless matters, engaging in endless orgies with countless consorts, never ending feasts where they gorged themselves; all things ultimately pointless.

Now that they could fight each other again and they had seen the threat Arthur posed the gods had divided. They refused to gather to meet again afraid of ambushes and surprise attacks. Old grudges were now being fought to the death with many other gods taking this opportunity to take out a rival. Everythign was chaos and Andelar’s carefully thought out plan had to be thrown out the window and he had to act directly.

Salrilla entered his divine realm and leaned against him dripping golden ichor. They looked down at the cradle in front of them containing an orb of brilliant divine essense.

“How much more do we need?” she asked.

“More, a lot more,” Andelar growled. “That blasted mortal! All he had to do was kill his rival and keep weakeing the other gods for us to pick off instead he had to send back some void twisted abomination.”

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“We may need to ask for his help,” Salrilla said sitting on the edge of the table.

“Ask for his help?” Andelar asked doubtfully. “Arthur or Mordred?”

“The noninsane one,” Salrilla said rolling her eyes a shiver running down her spine. “And promise me you won’t even go near that abomination, I don’t want you to end up like Kalesa.”

“What do you think Mordred can do for us?” Andelar asked. “I doubt he’d give us the divine essense from his kills and its not like the other gods are even focused on him right now.”

“No, but maybe…” Salrilla strained her sould bound by oaths she had sworn when she reached godhood. “He could…break the….table.”

Andelar grabbed her holding her as she shook before leaning against him even the idea of destroying that taking a tole on her soul and essense.

“He couldn’t, its indestructible no one can destroy it,” he said.

“Mortal’s can’t destroy artifacts either,” she pointed out.

He was silent at that. Mordred had destroyed an artifact, they all knew that, he’d destroyed more since then even though he wasn’t a god. It should be impossible but somehow he’d defied the System and done it. If he could break the table the oaths binding them to the System would be removed…but the System would be unrestrained.

“Can we risk it?” Andelar asked. “What would it be like for the System to be unrestrained.”

“Our world is ending beloved,” Salrilla said stroking his face. “The war in heaven, eventually the others will learn how many gods we’ve killed and they’ll come for us. If the world is going to end let us end it on our terms.”

Andelar nodded. “I will ask Mordred, I will have to enter the Void.” He shivered at the thought of that but since they had seen the energy of Entropy the Void didn’t hold the ultimate threat to them as it once had.

---

Your Divine Realm is being invaded by Andelar, God of Extinction and Comets. Time until divine manifestation: 10 seconds.

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“That’s a bit to soon,” I said frowning as I read the notification. It had only been three days before that I’d killed a god and there was usually a way bigger time between them taking another shot at me. Also I’d met Andelar and he hadn’t seemed to share the same goals as the other gods. I was warry as I watched him ascend while I telepathically moved my people into shelter.

Lightning crackled around me as I flew and landed a dozen yards before the god watching and waiting to see what he would do.

“I’m not here to fight you,” Andelar said. “There is still twenty-seven days before you can be attacked again.”

“So that is the time between fights,” I said.

“No it’s the time between when someone can attack you, youre still free to initiate as many fights with other gods who haven’t been attacked in the meantime,” Andelar explained. “I made sure to slip that loophole into the agreement.”

“Why?” I asked. “I’m still not sure why you need to kill other gods, even if you get stronger how does that let you break the title the System gave you.”

“The System has a portion of all our power given to it when we ascend,” Andelar said. “Its more powerful than all of us individually though perhaps not collectively. As for breaking a title, you know better than most there are ways to break things you shouldn’t be able to.”

I sensed something in his last words there. Andelar wanted something from me, this wasn’t about a fight but that didn’t mean there wasn’t danger.

“What do you want?” I asked getting straight to the point.

“There is….a table….” Andelar said his voice strained as if he had to drag each word out. “if it were…broken….the System’s rules…..could be….rewritten.”

He nearly collapsed as he finished that sentence. I utilized World Forge and created a chair for him and one for me and sat down in front of him. I plucked a fruit from the bow of one of the trees and handed it to the god. He eyed it suspiciously but bit in and his body relaxed as the fruit restored him.

“Thank you, we aren’t allowed to discuss….that thing,” Andelar explained.

My mind whirred with ideas and theories. Rewrite the System, the System wasn’t a computer this table, whatever it was couldn’t be its body or server.

“Does this table house the System or merely control it?” I asked.

“Control,” Andelar said cliptly veins in his neck throbbing with strain which showed just how powerful that oath must be to cause a god physical discomfort.

I nodded understanding my questions would have to be limited.

“Is it guarded?”

Andelar held up his hand his palm flat and shook it side to side.

More or less, good to know. “Where is it?” I asked, this was the most important location.

Andelar handed me a stone. “This links to the place where the….where it is,” he said.

“I can’t promise anything,” I said. “Why tell me all this anyway, what went wrong with your old plan?”

“You haven’t heard?” Andelar asked surprised. “Kalesa is dead, Arthur killed her with that energy, she wasn’t even able to put up a fight; since then the gods have been in civil war. The patheons mean nothing anymore I know at least fifty gods are dead in three days, six by my own hand.”

“Civil war?” I asked. “I thought your kind would have just wiped out the Chaos gods.”

Andelar laughed. “Law, Chaos, those are just the things the mortals fight over, the war in heaven is about one thing, power, being in the same pantheon as someone is no guarantee of safety from them. You should know best of all that its far easier to hate family than strangers.”

“True,” I agreed. “Thank you for the information, I’m not yet sure what I’ll do with it or if it will help.”

“I would ask you act quickly,” Andelar said. “Arthur will break free soon, you’ve already created an apocalypse on earth and now a war in heaven there may not be a world left to rule or save soon.”

“We shall see,” I responded.