Until death?

by Andur

  “F.. Fine then make up for this!” I suddenly have an idea. Could this be a chance?

  “How?” Celes eyes me suspiciously.

  “You have to follow one of my wishes!” -Me

  “If it's not too strange. I guess it won't hurt?” -Celes

  I teleport us both into our woodhouse and run for the wardrobe. After a few seconds I find a really hot undergarment.

  When I made a little tour to another planet, I somehow stumbled over this in the red light district. Of course this happened out of pure coincidence! The planet is famous for it's lingerie items.

  I had to do some research in order to defeat my wife!

  Hehehe. Mwhahaha! She will die of shame!

  I turn around to Celes. “Put this on and dance for me!”

  Celes just looks at the thing in my hands and turns red.

  73 - More than one Party?

  On an unknown world, there was...

  Blasius Alronde is the greatest artificer of his time. His genius is said to match the gods. But his fellow craftsmen just look down on him in pity.

  This was for one reason. Blasius invested all of his genius on only one thing. And that was a device to spy on the gods. Blasius wanted nothing more than to know what moved the beings who were so far out of everyone's reach.

  He was in pursuit of knowledge, which wasn't meant for mortal ears. He wanted answers for existence itself and all the other impossible questions which burdened every living being.

  So after years of studies and failures, he finally activated the device which would answer all his desires.

  *Crrrck*

  “And he was so bold! Look at this thing! I had to wear it and dance for him!”

  “Whoa! That's dangerous Celes! Where did he get that! You should have a closer eye on your husband!”

  “I know Sandra, but he finally becomes more active. I am not sure if I should stop him.”

  “That's definitely dangerous. I think I saw that thing in a place of suspicious purpose!”

  “What were you doing in a place like that Margerie!”

  “Even I have to research this stuff in order to get someone. I feel the burden of taking care of my house. My brother ran off and dropped all responsibilities on me after all.”

  “I heard he settled down with the wolf girl somewhere in the north. They are making children like crazy. The latest reports endanger Sandra's position as the top breed..ugh....cough... cough...that wasn't called for!”

  “Shut up! I don't even want to know what you intended to call me Tanja!”

  “Anyway! Have you seen Celes's head maid lately? I met her in town and she either fattened up quite a lot or..:”

  “Rose is on pregnancy leave. My help with the chocolate worked a little better than expected with her boyfriend.”

  “I heard he actually wasn't her boyfriend -yet- at that time!!”

  “What? So she used the baby trap on him!? Your head maid is a fearsome woman Celes.”

  “Hrm. It wasn't entirely her fault. I may have forgotten to tell her what my chocolate exactly does and she was unprepared.”

  “So it was your doing?”

  “I fear so. I didn't think about what would happen if she actually managed to land the big hit with Drem. You only start to appreciate someone else's work if she is gone. Luckily it's just a leave.”

  “Hoho. That's the most important thing then isn't it?”

  “Yeah. If I have learned one thing over the years then it's to hold those dear to you close. Enjoying every moment is important.”

  “Don't speak like your maid is gone forever.”

  “If you had a maid like her you would understand me....”

  *Crrrck*

  Blasius deactivated the device and started to search for the mistake in his theories. Listening to the bickering of a group of women was never his intention.

  He was after the wisdom of the gods and not interested in the worldly problems of other people.

  While taking his device apart, he started to search for the mistake. Not knowing that he already got all the important answers about life and it's meaning from the gods.

  Blasius never found out that he had actually succeeded and tried different approaches on the matter for the rest of his life.....

  Midpoint, Palace

  “A nice party...” I smile while I greet the guests together with Celes.

  There are multiple factions which formed in the recent weeks since the Council disappeared.

  First we have the Perseides Alliance. Those guys are purely a group of convenience. They all share the opinion that other gods should stay away from their worlds. So they formed a contract to help each other in order to keep peace in their sphere of influence. From what I have heard it already became quite a big group and they are actually thinking about duplicating our planet in order to have a base of operations.

  Then there is the Gaian Pact. When I heard about their goals, I had to think about Green Peace! They wish to preserve the nature of the multiverse. At first I didn't understand why a god should be interested in something like that. But then I realized that their members mostly worked as gods of nature under the Council's rule.

  The Council assigned everyone to a specific world in a specific role. This wasn't for the purpose to keep the world in order. They just needed a reason to assign us to a specific world. They didn't really care if the god did his job or not. At least they never checked for me or Celes while we worked for them.

  Having all gods covering every planet of the multiverse has the benefit of being able to hunt more effectively for new gods. Back then I didn't think about it that much, but now it's clear to me.

  After having used the Sphere of Sight I realize it's weak point. If there are too many gods in one place it becomes useless. In order to track someone you had to concentrate on a spark of power. I guess if there are too many in one place it would become difficult to focus on an individual.

  Then we have the Arcane Community. They formed from similar circumstances as the Gaian Pact. Celes's impression of them was something like this. “A bunch of weirdos and insane scientists.” I found her judgement a little too hard. There are some interesting people among them.

  They are only concerned about their studies and experiments. They don't care much about anything else. Their association formed in the first place to exchange their theories among themselves. They just present a united front to others in order to show them to mind their own business.

  The Path is another big group. They are trying to form something like a religious church. I am a little wary of them. The first discussion with them was very strange. I had the feeling to talk to some kind of priests who were trying to convert me to their religion.

  Their doctrine is to value a gods worth on the number of his mortal followers. I already have a bad feeling about them. Celes and I had a fight over something useless as that in our previous lives. I am now of the firm opinion that religion should be left to the mortals.

  The Unity was inspired by our world. A few of the gods who came to Asheim heard about our world from the guards and other personnel stationed within the city. They immediately picked up the idea. By now they are on the best way to their own version of our world. I am very curious about their future.

  At last we have the Carne Empire. It's lead by a very charismatic guy who is called Carne. Oh, wonder. He somehow managed to smooth talk a considerable amount of people into his idea of government.

  I am not against a dictatorship. My world uses one too, with me as the ruler. But I fear that the Carne Empire is the most likely candidate to become the Council's puppet.

  Of course we already informed everyone of our concerns regarding the Council. We decided it would be best to make all circumstances behind the recent events public knowledge. The Council didn't even twitch till now.

  I am still concenerned. They have to be planning something. I am sure of it!

  The rest of the people at the party are from smaller group
s, which aren't worth mentioning yet. Maybe they will fuse with others or dissolve. Or grow enough to be worth mentioning.

  As of yet they are too small to be taken into consideration.

  Looking around, I see that the party should start soon. There are only a few people missing.

  “Oh I hope this party will have no major fuck ups!” -Me

  “I wouldn't put too much hope in that. If you think about our party history..... we have a really bad history!” -Celes

  74 - Party, Ambassadors, Harem, Children and Wine?

  Right now I am sitting together with Carne and Mawu at a table. We arranged a big hall in my crystal palace for about sixty people. Mostly just ambassadors and their confidants.

  I was concerned about Carne. But not any more. Looking at him I believe it's very unlikely for him to be manipulated by the Council from behind the scenes....

  “We are fellow rulers aren't we? So why do you have just one woman!? Isn't there a whole world of them for you?” Carne takes another sip of the expensive wine, while trying to hold onto the four girls, who are his confidants.

  Carne has steel blue hair and looks like an average human in his thirties. Strangely enough he could be some guy from next door, if it wasn't for his gaudy clothes.

  He is an idiot! His community should be called the Carne Harem and not the Carne Empire! Why do these girls stay with him? It can't be because this alcoholic is a prince charming.

  “But I have to admit that your wife is quite the hot device if I found someone like her, I could go monogam for a little while too.” -Carne

  I smile at him. “If you even look at her, you will wish yourself back to the times when you were a mortal.” Why did I say that?

  “Aw! Come on. Don't be so bound up!” -Carne

  “It's rude to say something like that to your host.” -Girl number one

  “Yes honey, don't make a ruckus here.” -Girl number two

  “Yes. Yes. My lovely birds! Carne would never do something to make a woman sad!” -Carne

  “Maybe your girlfriends are the true rulers of your community in reality.” Mawu takes a sip of his drink and closes his eyes to savour the taste.

  “THAT! Can't be ruled out!” Carne points to the sky and takes a comical pose.

  “Back to the topic. Are you sure that the Council members, who fell into your hands don't know what's going on?” -Mawu

  “It's unfortunate, but it's true. Enyo's mind is toast. After looking at her for quite a while the healers are sure of that. It's the same for El Shaddai's soul. That I blew it to pieces didn't really help. After we pieced it back together, there wasn't much more to do than releasing him as a mortal again.” I shrug my shoulders.

  “Hoh? You released him!?” -Carne

  “He was reborn in a medieval world as a female slave.” I take a sip of my drink while the others stare at me.

  “I am sure you had a hand in that?” -Mawu

  “Karma is a bitch. Making me angry doesn't help either.” I grin viciously at them. “As for Tjenemit.” I take out my Tjenemit globe and show it to them.

  -I told the master everything, I swear!-

  -This unworthy one doesn't know anything more than he already told-

  -The trash is ready to be redeemed by reincarnating as a mortal.-

  -The grace of god would be limitless if this one was allowed to die and reincarnate as a mortal.-

  -Forgetting this one's path to salvation would be the greatest mercy.-

  -This one awaits the end of his …...

  I put the globe back into my pocket. “As you can hear, he isn't really helpful. He wasn't influenced by this black hole thing. His mind is still intact. Though I don't understand the reason for it.”

  “You, mister! Know some evil spells! I never would have imagined to see a Council member begging to return to the cycle of life and death. And we really need a better name for that black hole thing. Calamity doesn't really strike it either. Those Ascended had a bad naming sense.” Carne salutes me with his glass.

  “That didn't sound like his mind is still intact. But I understand your point. And about the name, how about Mind Fuser?” -Mawu

  “Too complicated.” Carne scratches his cheek. “How about just Fusion? It's a conglomerate of souls, which are fused together.” -Carne

  “I don't really care about the name. As long as we have the same opinion about how to deal with it.” -Me

  “Crush on sight!” -Carne

  Mawu nods and enjoys another sip of his wine. “I could get addicted to this wine. Where did you get it.”

  “It's a pretty expensive creation from a very well known winery on this planet. Drinking it every day would make even me a poor guy in no time.” -Me

  “I still have to get some of it for my collection.” Mawu takes another sip.

  Looking around, I find Celes with the ambassador for the Gaian Pact, who is an old cranky woman with white hair.

  They are together with the ambassador for the Unity, who is a strange fellow. He decided to alter his physique to the point where you could think that he is on the brink of starving to death. The blue and red stripes of veins are visible on his almost white skin.

  Gods are often an eccentric bunch and they like to express it by using spells to change their appearance, but this guy tops most of the extremes I know of.

  Probably they are talking about the best approach to create another planet for gods.

  The ambassador for the Arcane Community is disinterestedly listening to them. He looks like a cyborg out of a bad movie. His right arm is completely mechanical and steam puffs out of two exhaust pipes on his back.

  At least the rest of him looks relatively normal.

  The girl who is speaking for the Path is talking to some guys who belong to various other, smaller factions. She looks very young. Just twelve or thirteen at most. Many gods like it to hide their age but she overdoes it.

  Suddenly someone tugs on my sleeve and I turn around.

  “Daddy! Can I go to Sandra's place and play with the quintuplets?” Seria looks up to me.

  “Kyaa! So cute! Is that one of the rumoured children?” -Girl number four

  “Carne! I want one too!” -Girl number two

  Drops of sweat are forming on Carne's forehead. “That's not so easy...”

  “How old are you?” Girl number three bends down to Seria.

  “Next month I will be eight and my brother is nine!” Seria gives them her cute little princess smile. Of course I know that it's completely fake! She is still a false snake. When she is grown up I will have a lot of trouble with her boyfriends. That's for sure.

  “Kyaa! Carne! We need one like that!” Girl number one

  “That's not so easy!” Carne's face distorts a little.

  He sounds like a broken gramophone record. Did the mentioning of kids fry his brain?

  Kukuku.... A harem is very desirable as long as you don't have to deal with kids, right? Well surprise! On this planet children are included in the relationship! That's what your stupid talk about me and more women is worth hmm?

  “Actually it's very easy! You just have to forget about birth control and do him. Afterwards you stay for about two weeks on this planet. That should be enough time for a soul to catch hold of the fetus.” I smile at the ladies, whose eyes are beginning to sparkle. “And if you want to make sure, you should look for my wife and get some of her chocolate for him.”