"Darling..." Her gentle voice asked, "You seemed sad during today's Meet. Is everything alright?"

"Sad? Please elaborate, Allucius."

"Don't play dumb. You were sighing and pouting, staring off into the distance. Just what was going through your mind, I wonder?"

"...Allucius." He continued, "I might not come to the next Meet."

"Hm? Ah, I get it." She chuckled, "Yeah, those knuckleheads can get real annoying to have to listen to, even if it is only once every ten years."

"No, I... I might not be there for the next couple of Meets." He admitted, "I am tired of it."

"It?"

"Go-" He bit his tongue, "O-Of the Meets, that is."

"Oh." She was stunned, "Then, when are you coming back?"

"A human lifetime is approximately 80 years, no?" He asked as if to reaffirm, "Then, 8 Meets should be enough. Please forgive me for being selfish with this."

"H-Hey, hold on now." She started to worry, "Just what are you planning, darling?"

"I cannot share that information with you, nor the others for that matter."

This conversation between husband and wife occurred merely a few years before Ouroboras relinquished his godhood to reincarnate as Meil. Though Aru was informed of his plans in a rather roundabout way and told to leave him be, she still spent years of her immortal life in desperate search for him. Now, for the first time in what felt like forever, that very God stood before her, his assumed identity revealed for all to see.

"You ass..." She muttered with a warm smirk, "We sat face to face across that damned diner table and you didn't say a word."

"You, but no way, so Meil was...!" Auros, meanwhile, was panicking like never before.

"Hmm. Premature." Ouroboras inspected the mark on the back of his hand, "By roughly half a century. I suppose that is alright."

"Shiet, if I knew that killing you would do this, I would've ended that damned sawtooth's life way before she ever bit your neck off!"

"E-Eh!?" Sheila whimpered, "Don't blame me for this, what the hell!"

"Enough! This is bad..." Olya thought about what to do.

"Olyahim." The Sun God's voice calmly demanded attention, "Have you come to the same realization as I in these years that seemed to stretch on to eternity?"

"Eh!? I-I dunno what the hell you're talking about!"

"Tell me, did you enjoy your time in this world?" He slowly, calmly, floated ever closer to him, "Has your new vessel been treating you kindly? Mine has, in fact I have learned a lot from him."

"...So you want me to admit I regret making myself immortal, huh." Olya chuckled, then laughed, then devolved into a fit of maniacal guffaws, "Hell no! This body's survived things not even you Gods could fathom! I've seen all there was to see and then some, not to mention I've succeeded in permanently fucking up your oh so important Universe Cycle beyond saving! So yeah, to answer your question—Yeah, I'm enjoying my time here, and the "vessel" is doing just fine, thank you very much!"

"I see, I am glad. It seems you still have yet to reach that part of immortality, then." Ouroboras replied in a relaxed manner, "Ah, but I am afraid you will not have the luxury of reaching it, either. You see, I was woken up from my vacation because of you, and so to make sure it never happens again, I will have to seal you away."

"Couldn't do it 800 years ago, so let's see you give it your all this time, bud!~"

The Sun God has awoken once more to make right the situation oh so wronged by the Seventh World Wonder. Putting out his hand, he merely snapped his fingers and a small, perfectly shaped Red hot ball of light appeared in front of him. Olya wanted to stare at it to find out how it would move, but the ball did not wait before melting a hole straight through his chest. The robe he wore was set aflame, and while he was quick to toss it away before it engulfed him whole, this meant he could not dodge the second attack either.

"Aargh!" He yelled and screamed in pain.

The second Tiny Sun blew his head off, leaving nothing but a scorched, steaming stub where his neck is. In spite of these brutalities, it was not enough. Walking around in circles like a chicken without its head, the headless old man was quick to regenerate the wounds.

"Cheh, good as new!" He smacked his chest a few times to taunt him, "Come on, bud! You said you were gonna end my suffering or whatever, but this immortal coil isn't even feeling it yet!"

"You two." Ouroboras turned to the other two Gods before giving a sly signal.

"Right!" They immediately understood the assignment.

Raising up a closed dome around them with Auros' earth molded together by Aru's water, they had effectively created a deaf chamber from which no sound could enter nor leave. Though they were far enough away to not be able to hear them anyways, it would be for the best if Meil and Lem never found out Meil's true identity. Besides, working in a closed off environment will only allow for flashier attacks.

"Y'know, those little balls of light used to be way scarier when I could actually die from them." Olya mocked the Sun God's attacks.

"Apologies for that, I might have gotten a bit rusty during my time as Meil." The Sun God chuckled, "They say the best way to recomp is to start off small, no?"

Thus, instead of Focusing his all on a single Tiny Sun, he had generated hundreds-nay, thousands of them all across the dome. The entire interior was sparkling with lights, as if the elder was among the endless void of stars in the galaxy. Effectively, Olyahim had become the first man to experience the vastness of space, without ever leaving the large ball of soil he was born in.

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***

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

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To Auros, Ouroboras represented the role model of what a God should be. Mature, kind, open and honest, but also a fair judge and a powerful opponent. Simply put, in terms of strength, they were equals, but the Fighting God could not even fathom a comparison between them. Theirs was not a relationship of friends, but of the one who respects and the one who is respected.

"Ha-ha..." Auros tried to break the awkward tension with a joke, "Damn, didn't even let us have our fun with the guy. Just a few Tiny Suns and you already erased him, guess that's the efficiency of a true God for you."

"What are you talking about, Auros?" The Sun God tilted his head, "You are a God as well."

"O-Oh. Yeah, I guess I am!" His voice cracked.

"Darling." Aru approached him with bitter steps, "You've caused me a ton of trouble with this escapade of yours, y'know?"

"I know." He meekly replied, "But you would not have let me go through with it had I told you the details."

"I would have!" She yelled, "If... If you had just told me, I could've reincarnated with you, and then..."

"I wanted to experience a new life. A human life." He shot her down, "And that means no past memories, Abilities or relationships. I apologize, but if you had followed me, the entire thing would have gone to waste."

"Ah." She chuckled, "A waste, he says..."

"Ouroboras, that's enough." Auros frowned, "She's spent the last three decades searching day and night for you. At least have some tact and shut the hell up if you don't wanna cheer her up instead."

"No, I get it. I've... I've had it figured out for quite some time, in fact." She said with tearful Eyes, "We're married, but that love was never quite mutual. I knew that, and yet I still forced him to go through with it."

"Allucius..."

Ouroboras' memories of his time as Meil were still fresh in his mind. The years spent searching for answers on his origins, the family, friends and even adversaries he's met along the way, the countless adventures he's had... Internally, he laughed at the irony of it—Nigh infinite years as a God turned out to be less eventful than a mere 3 decades as a human. Truly, what made someone live was their innate ability to fear death. To fear it, and thus to let it fuel the flame of their lifetime.

"Have you ever lived as a human, Allucius?" The Sun God flashed her a charming grin, "I highly recommend it. The experience is simply unforgettable. To neither start with others' respect nor hatred, to have your worth weighed by the things you bring to the table. That constant pressure to get praised by the ones you yourself love that eventually devolves into an addiction. It's so... refreshing!"

"Darling? No, I just don't get it at all." She shook her head, "As Gods, we're capable of doing everything, seeing everything and feeling everything. Why relinquish that in favor of merely becoming a lowly human being? The range of emotions they feel is so much smaller than it is for us, I mean—You just end up cutting yourself short."

"Our range is infinitesimally larger in scope, yes, however I now realize the truth behind such a phenomenon." He gently reached to grab her hand, "Ours is a facade."

"A facade?"

"Like a rubber band, stretch it out to achieve a larger length value and you'll end up with a thin band." He explained with an analogy, "Meanwhile, humans have an unstretched band. The two are the same in actuality, but we always perceived them as different."

"Yep, I still don't get it." Auros scratched his head, "We get everything we could ever ask for, and you still chose to run away from that even if it was just for nearly a century. Why?"

"That is the simplest question to answer yet." Ouroboras turned to the regenerating remains of Olyahim, "Before this one gained immortality, do you not agree that he was happier?"

Following their friend's gaze, the other two Gods saw the old man's body begin to reconstruct once more. Though there was originally nothing left of him on the surface, a lone drop of blood that spilt from the previous wounds sustained had served as an adequate starting point of the regeneration. Before their Eyes manifested Olyahim, devoid of his clothes, but teeming with anger.

"So that's the case, eh. You, pitying me? Cheh, gimme a break!" He threw out countless insults, "If you're so happy being Meil, then I formally invite you to get the fuck back on that."

"And I will. But not before making sure everything ends up alright here." He nodded solemnly, as if giving his honest word, "Olyahim, your friends are gone, both of them. You've outlived your adoted son, and his sons, grandsons and grandsons' grandsons. Your very descendants know not of you. Before, I would have merely shrugged it off, but Meil has taught me to appreciate the humans you've forged a familial bond with, blood-related or not."

"Enough yapping about love and care." Olyahim cut him off, "If you truly feel even a hint of remorse for your actions, you'd let me revive Schnell and Shaid in peace and give us back the lives we were robbed of. But I know you're not gonna do that. You're chefs that have a preset recipe for this world, and even when I, the crab, thoroughly botched it for you, somehow in some way, you still yearn not to let me go back to the ocean."

"Hmmm..." Ouroboras was admittedly angry that they were read so easily, but still offered his own mercy, "Olyahim, your self-inflicted curse disallows you to truly live without the fear of death. So please tell me, how would you like to feel alive just one more time?"

"Huh?" Olya saw hope glimmering in his Eyes once he heard the sentence, "Wait, you're really gonna do it?"

"Yes, please rejoice." Ouroboras nodded, signalling for the other two to join him in approaching the poor old man, "Feel alive... by experiencing a genuine fear for your life."