Master of the System

“That’s your ex-wife?” Azalea asked with a pained expression on her face. She was flying through the void with Grandpa Vremya, doing her best to dodge Kosmos’ attacks. The god of space had warped the space around them, trapping them in a closed loop. While she stood outside of the loop, she freely bombarded them by splitting the space they occupied. If they dared to stop moving, their bodies would be torn apart.

“She’s just playing around,” Grandpa Vremya said and moved his body, avoiding a spatial tear targeting his heart. “There are better ways to kill us if she really meant it. She’s only trying to make you sweat a bit.”

Azalea rolled her eyes. What had she done to deserve this? Absolutely nothing at all. This was Grandpa Vremya’s fault, and as such, it should be up to him to deal with it. “Well, I’m getting tired of fleeing from someone without being able to fight back. Are you going to do anything?”

Grandpa Vremya snorted. It wasn’t like he enjoyed being attacked by Kosmos either. However, what was he supposed to do? He was the god of gravity, but Kosmos had gotten the jump on him. The two were equally matched, and the person who acted first won. It was similar to how Gravitat could contain Vremya in a black hole and how Vremya could contain Gravitat in a single instance of time. Kosmos had contorted space, trapping Grandpa Vremya. Even if he could break apart space with black holes, it wouldn’t do anything. As for Azalea, she was the god of history, but compared to space, time, and gravity, history was a little lacking. If that wasn’t the case, Istoriya would’ve robbed Kosmos of her divinity immediately after Vremya was trapped.

Luckily, help was on the way. Pravos had sent a message to his other self, and once he arrived, Kosmos would be finished. There was something bothering Grandpa Vremya though. As the god of time, Vremya could freeze time and travel, appearing anywhere in seemingly an instant. Immediately after Pravos sent the message, his other self should’ve arrived, but clearly, he wasn’t here. Either something had happened, or his other self was too lazy to even take care of his avatar. Either option wasn’t good news for him.

“So?” Azalea asked. “What’s the plan? Don’t tell me the domineering expert only knows how to run and stall for time.”

Grandpa Vremya shrugged and avoided a spatial rend. “Sometimes, the correct choice is stalling for time by running around in circles. What else do you expect me to do? Apologize?” He snorted. “As if I’d ever do that.”

Azalea’s expression darkened. She wasn’t in any life-threatening danger, but she was still displeased with what was happening. She didn’t want to attack Kosmos because no one in their right mind would make enemies with such an overpowered individual. With the god of space opposing her, she’d never have another peaceful moment in her life. Who knew when space would suddenly shift, attempting to behead her at any given moment? Thankfully, Azalea considered herself a patient person; she had to be to endure Grandpa Vremya for a cultivator’s lifetime.

***

Vremya stroked his beard. The solution to the problem of Kosmos being a nuisance was quite obvious. As long as the godly laws were restored, she wouldn’t be able to get past his barrier to bother him. It would also save Azalea and his avatar from Kosmos’ assault. However, he wasn’t going to donate part of his divinity to the godly society. He had just regained the ability to travel back in time, why would he want to drop from his peak once more? It was better for some other god to give up their powers than him, and if they wouldn’t willingly give them up, well, it was a shame the laws weren’t around anymore to stop him from killing them. Was it unfair? Yep. Did it bother Vremya? Not at all. Vremya’s gaze landed onto Karta, causing the black dog to shiver.

“What? What is it?” Karta asked, glancing around. As a god, no one had ever harmed her before. She didn’t know what it meant to be targeted. There was that one time a titan outbreak had occurred during the snack gods’ meeting, but she wasn’t in any actual danger thanks to Vremya’s presence. For the first time in her very long life, she understood what it meant to be prey. The way Vremya was looking at her, it made her want to crawl out of her skin. She gulped. “Vremya? Pal? What’s up?”

“Nothing,” Vremya said and shook his head. A snack god’s divinity was pitifully small. If he wanted to restore the godly laws, he needed the divinity of someone stronger; though, he could make up for quality through quantity, but doing that wasn’t worth the effort. If he was going to murder gods for their divinities, he would only target gods with strong ones capable of enforcing the laws. He stroked his beard. He could give the four phoegons divinities and have them maintain the godly laws. That wouldn’t be too bad of an idea, but it wasn’t enough. He could also give his users divinities as well. With their combined efforts, it should barely be doable to keep the godly laws going. “I’m going to obtain a few useful divinities and give them to the phoegons and my users.”

Karta swallowed. So, that was why Vremya was looking at her as if she were prey. Luckily, he didn’t seem to see her divinities as useful. Should she feel insulted or relieved? She wasn’t quite sure. “If you’re going to kill me, can you make it painless?”

Vremya rolled his eyes. “I’m not going to kill you,” he said. “Alright, I’ll be back soon.”

Karta raised one paw. “Bye. Have a safe”—

“I’m back.”

—“trip….” Karta tilted her head to the side. “I think I misheard you. What did you say?”

Vremya opened his hand, and dozens of shining glass orbs dropped to the ground. Inside of each of them, rainbow mist swirled around and shone with a myriad of colors. “I’m back with the divinities. It took a while, but I’m finally done.”

The phoegons crawled out from Vremya’s bellybutton, and their eyes widened at the selection of divinities to choose from. They could easilyAt that moment, Karta realized just how unfair the world truly was.