Vure hovered over the surface of Hollow, silently following a Holite that ran around on the surface. Their eyes were transfixed as they followed the mortal from day to day, behind the edge of their mask the curl of a smile could be seen. “What are you doing?” Sylum said, floating behind Vure. The smile disappeared from Vure, their posture changing to a more formal stance. “You know Anodyne told you not to interfere with Hollow.” Sylum continued. “He doesn’t like anyone touching the planet, you should know that.” Vure rolled their eyes as they reactively let loose a small sigh. “I am not interfering, I am watching.” Vure responded. Sylum looked over Vure’s shoulder at the Holite, and how she ran on the surface of the planet as a monstrous nightmare hunted for her. Sylum smirked and turned to Vure. “Strange, I didn’t think of you as someone who enjoyed the blood sports of Hollow. You got a secret dark side Vure?” Vure turned to Sylum, the black eyes on their mask swirling where once they were just paint. Then with a crackling voice Vure replied. “More than you know.” With a shake of their head the paint returned to its static state and Vure’s voice returned to normal. “But that does not matter, I am not watching this in the hopes that she dies. I am watching, because she reminds me of an old life I used to know.” “Oh, who?” Sylum asked with genuine curiosity. “Well, this one has not slept in a couple days, works a lot, even by a Holite’s standard, and they are driven to achieve a seemingly impossible goal. Can you think of anyone?” Sylum laughed gently under his breath and looked at Vure. Sylum took a relaxing stance and shared a side eye with Vure. “I can think of one… How long do you think this one will last?” The edges of Vure’s mouth began to curl again as they too took a relaxing position. “I don’t know, like anyone one Hollow, any day could be your last, even the Potion man couldn’t out crazy everything.” Sylum looked over at Vure with one eyebrow raised. “The Potion man is dead?” “Super dead.” Vure replied as their attention returned to the mortal on the ground. “What the fuck, that guy was pretty much a demi-god. You need to explain what happened there, I can’t be bothered doing a time skip to find it. Tukon is a pain in the ass to deal with.” Vure groaned and rolled over to face Sylum. “Fine.” As Vure started to tell the story of the Potion man they took their eyes off the mortal as they descended into a small cavernous opening in the rock. Sliding down a narrow, steep incline they descended into the planet. The gargantuan claw of the nightmare behind her attempted to follow, but its bulging muscles were too large to follow. The woman lay down on the cold, damp rocks and stared upwards, watching the nightmare claw at the air. She took a moment to catch her breath, letting the moisture from the moss under her back cool her. “Come on you stupid, fat, overgrown cat. Come get me.” She cried out with a chuckle as she slowly stood. Dusting herself off she stretched, feeling safe from the still present nightmare cat that was attempting to break into the tunnel. Grabbing the stump end of her right arm she plucked the dirt from the textured end. Her arm ended half way down her forearm and the scaring on the end was slightly red, and itchy. Her scars covered the small amount of skin she was showing, from face, to balls of her feet. Saluting the wild claw she smiled contently before strolling away. “Aint no monster cunning enough to take Edena out.” She gloated to herself. “You won’t stop me, nothing will.” Edena yelled as she spat at the claw, then turning back into the tunnel she started to run. “Wait, where did she go?” Sylum asked as he interrupted Vure. Vure stopped talking and turned back to Hollow. “Aww, they ran off.” Vure watched the large feline nightmare prowl around the hole in the ground, scratching at the hard stone of the hole. “I guess down the hole we go.” Vure and Sylum made their way down to the planets surface, bypassing the feline nightmare they wandered down into the cave. “So let me guess this straight. Someone managed to kill the Potion man in his own night club? That place was rigged with so many defences too. Who managed to storm it?” Sylum asked as they followed Edena. Edena turned around as she could hear whispers on the wind, facing behind she stared into the darkness where Vure and Sylum stood. Her eyes narrowed as she shifted side to side, trying to make out the source of the whispers. “It is so weird when they try to look at us when we are invisible.” Vure stated as they moved from Edena’s eyeline. “Why is it we can turn completely invisible, but when we talk the wind carries our voice like a whisper?” Sylum shrugged as they both waited for Edena to move on. “I don’t care about that, what group invaded the Potion Man? You would have to be insane as a mortal to assault that guy.” “It wasn’t a group, it was an individual.” “Oh damn, please don’t tell me it was that asshole vindicator.” Vure fell silent, looking to Sylum with an agreeing nod. Edena turned away from their whispers and moved further down into the tunnel. “I fucking hate these tunnels.” Edena said as she started to jog down the tunnel. Listening to the shrill calls of the nightmare at the entrance of the tunnel. “But better than that.” Edena’s eyes strained as she got deeper into tunnel, but she eventually saw the soft flickering of light that only a fire could produce. Peaking her head around the cave wall she spied a small group of imps sitting around a fire. “Oh thank fuck, just Imps.” Edena said as she calmly walked around the cave wall, she raised her full arm and called out to them. “Make room shrimps, I am tired.” The imps all side eyed one another and whispered hastily to one another in their language. Before they could conclude Edena kicked one to the side so she could take her spot by the fire. The imp screamed at her before talking to his comrades. “Stop that moon speak or I might become a trouble guest.” The imps fell silent as they watched Edena take the cooked bat off the fire and start to eat it. Spitting out bits of fur and bone. “Never liked these bats, they always tasted like bad feet to me.” “Then don’t eat it.” One of the imps snarled. Edena nodded, tossing the remaining meat straight onto the fire, burning it into a crisp. One imp tried to grab it from the fire but was repelled by the intensity of the flame. Its aggressive snarls falling to a whimper as its stomach growled. “Nasty one armed woman.” An imp cried, drawing the attention of all the other imps. They all looked over Edena, spotting every cut, bruise, and just how exhausted she was. They started to grin and each grabbed a sharpened stick in hand. “Maybe you can be our next meal.” “Do you think she loses here?” Sylum asked Vure. “Do you even want to know how the Potion Man died?” Vure replied while Edena and the imps were locked in a heated argument. “I do, but this is more relevant. She is happening, the Potion Man has already happened.” Vure looked to Edena as her hand slowly slide to a large pocket on her pants. “Na, I think she is too smart, even for a group of imps. These ones look a little under educated anyway.” Vure added to prove their point. “But four imps with sticks have killed quite a few Holites before. It is not a matter of intelligence, they are fast, and get ya in the important parts.” Vure turned to Sylum as Edena was attacked, pulling a rusted piece of metal out of her pocket she defended herself. “But for them to hit the important parts you have to know where they are. Which means an undereducated group might never actually hit anything vital.” Sylum thought on it for a moment and shook his head. “But if you stab something enough, you will eventually hit something that does not want to be hit.” Vure and Sylum looked at one another for a brief moment before turning back to Edena. She was sitting next to the fire with several wooden sticks sticking out of her back, but rotating above the fire was an imp with a chunk of rusted metal wedged in its throat. Methodically Edena took the wooden spikes from her body, a small stream of blood following each one. Rotating the skewed imp she slowly cooked its flesh until it popped and crackled with the fats within, she took it off the fire and began to eat her meal before turning in for the night. She dowsed the fire, then crawled into a corner of the cave and surrounded herself with rocks and hide her body from sight with a dark grey blanket that matched the stones around her. “Okay, she is asleep. More about the Potion man. How exactly did Sephrium manage to kill him?” Sylum said impatiently, eagerly awaiting a response. “Well, it turned out that at some point the last Phial came across a sacred relic that the Vindicators had been searching for, something they thought had disappeared during the Dream god purge. Turns out it was simply buried under all the carnage that happened.” “So the Potion man expanded underground and came across this artifact?” Sylum interrupted. “Exactly.” “But how did the Vindicators find out about it?” “Well, the Potion man made it a centre piece to one of his rooms. It was talked about enough and eventually the information was sold to the Vindicators.” “What was the artifact? Because from memory those crazy zealots are always looking for some abstract item from Hollow’s history.” Vure was about to respond when they spied spider like legs emerging from one of the tunnels leading from Edena’s cave. Five, long, dark, hard, legs tapped their way through the dark of the tunnel. It poked and prodded with each foot point until it found one of the imp’s corpses. The nightmares body was low to the ground, it looked like flesh wound tight around a large ball. At the bottom of the body was a gyrating maw of teeth that grew seemingly at random, to sizes that varied as much as their placement. All five of its long legs attached at the front of the nightmare, and at the back of the creature was another set of five, shorter legs. The nightmare positioned its mouth over the corpse of the imp and lowered its body to start grinding up the corpse. Bones shredded like paper under the creature’s powerful jaw. Vure cringed at the sight, while Sylum just stared as if it was entertainment to watch. Edena awoke to the sounds of snapping body parts and remained perfectly still as she laid in the darkness beneath her heavy grey blanket. Her breathing increased for a moment before she calmed herself from her hiding point. Vure watched as Anodyne moved through the cave, his form invisible to Edena and the nightmare. He used a guiding hand and ushered the nightmares legs across to Edena, as they made purchase with her soft form it was not long until the screams of Edena echoed through the cave. Joined by the laughter of Anodyne. “I am sorry Anodyne.” Vure whispered. “What was that?” Sylum asked reactively. “Nothing, how about we get on with this story?” Vure …

A new born deity floated in space, drifting aimlessly through the expanse without direction, they took in the sights that the universe had to offer, admiring the celestial bodies, and star clusters. The flickering of different coloured stars illuminated the distance into a rainbow of colour. “I feel odd.” She said to herself, “I think something is wrong.” He added as she furrowed her brow. She raised her hands and stared at them, struggling to tell if they were young or old, from certain angles they were smooth like a child, from others they seemed to be worn like that of someone in their final years. Her drunken eyes fluttered as she struggled to understand where she was, her mind filling with memories of lives she assumed to be hers. “I think these are mine, but they don’t match. How can I have reached old age more than once?” She asked as her head started to throb with pain. Grasping at her temples she started to moan, then slowly it turned into a scream as the well of memories consumed her. She started to cry as lives passed by her eyes, with each passing face she felt a new emotion that continued to overwhelm her, adding to the mountain of emotions already burying her. Right as she reached her threshold there was a deep siren, then out of nowhere a rusted ship appeared in the space before her, she could barely see it through the tears that flowed from her eyes, slowly drifting from her face and freezing. She reached out to the boat with one arm as she held her stomach with the other. “Please, help.” She groaned as another deity stepped from the boat, lifting her up he took her onto the boat, laying her down on a bed. “I am sorry young one, but you will just have to endure what is happening, it will be over soon and you will remember who you are.” He voice was course, but calming. Laying her down he wandered back off the boat and took the frozen tears and placed them into a jar. The sounds of the newly born deity resonated from his boat, he sighed as he slowly made his way back on board, waiting patiently for her to stop screaming he say next to her and slowly stroked her head. She curled up to him and gripped tightly onto his shirt, tearing another hole into it. He kept the jar of frozen tears below her and caught each one as it formed. “It hurts.” She screamed. “I know child, we all do it, and this moment will never leave you, not matter how long you live you will always remember this moment.” “I don’t want to, it is too much, I want to forget!” She continued as she squeezed her eyes shut as hard as she could. “Shh, it will be over soon. Then you will understand, and you will revisit this pain as if it were an old friend.” The main said softly, trying his hardest to calm her down. The hours rolled by and he consoled her every time she requested to forget, every time she begged for it to end, he told her that what she was experiencing was beautiful. The pain started to fade as the memories slowed, and she was left exhausted, laying half in bed, and half on the man’s lap. He gently took her and placed her in the bed before returning to his spot at the helm, staring his boat there was a crackling of energy and they disappeared. The new born deity slowly came back to consciousness, her head calm, memories no longer flooding her mind she was finally able to move. She coiled her nose at the sight of the ship, the exposed innards boasted rust and warped supports, her bead was stained with oil and tainted by rust that had fallen from the ceiling. The floor had no floor, just exposed hull and ribs of metal that were designed to support the floor boards that it was lacking. She gingerly stepped from the bed and balanced her way across the metal ribs through the only door available to her. Glancing out the window she watched as millions of asteroids surrounded the boat. “Finally awake ae?” The man called out as he spied her standing in the door way. “I, where are we?” “More importantly.” The man said as he sat down facing the new born deity. “Who are you?” He said pointing with a smile. The new born deity smirked at the question. “Well that is obvious, I am, I’m… me.” Her smirk faded and she concentrated as hard as she could. “I am Alendra.” He said with a gentle tone. “And you are?” “I am… Soier.” She said cautiously, taking a deep inhalation through her nose looked back up at Alendra with a certainty. “I am Soier, it is a pleasure to meet you Alendra.” Alendra widened his eyes in surprise. “Woah, I don’t think I have ever seen anyone compose themselves that fast after such an intense rebirth.” “I am sorry, did you say rebirth?” Soier said, dropping her composure. “Yup, You my curly haired friend, have lived and died many times, now you have been reborn as a god. Congratulations.” “Wait, so you have been following me through all my lives?” “Well actually…” “Are you god? Are you everyone’s god, or just my own? If you are my god why didn’t you know my name? why do you have this boat? Where in the universe are we? Are we still in a universe? Is this heaven?” As Soier’s breath ran out she gasped heavily. “Are we in hell?” “Woah, you need to calm down kiddo, that is a lot to answer. Give me one question.” “I want to know the answers to all of them though, and more.” “That is fine, and in time you will get those answers. But for now, let’s pick one.”  Soier scrunched up her face and hummed to herself before opening her mouth slowly. “The first one, have you been following me my whole life?” Alendra smiled and relaxed back into his seat. “No.” “Then how…” “Did I know?” Alendra interrupted. “Well it is because all gods have to go through the cycle of life, many times before they are born as a god. You would have lived as everything from a small cell, to a proto-life, through to massive multi-celled creatures, and your final form would be a creature capable of advanced self-actualisation, otherwise known as higher sentience. Most of these seem to be bipedal hairless creatures with the ability to learn quickly.” Soier scratched at her head as she looked around the boat, examining the rust covered walls. “Second question, sort of. Why are you in a boat if we are floating in space? If we really are floating in space.” Alendra laughed as he adjusted his seat. “Yes we are in space, I will allow you to sneak that second question in.” Soier grinned back to Alendra with pride. “The reason I am in this boat is because a very long time ago I used to live in this boat, back in one of my past lives. Now I like to use it to get around the Eterna-verse. I don’t need it, but it makes me feel like I am home.” “Then why is it so rusty, were you homeless or something.” “Yeah I was, I snuck into abandoned docks and lived in their derelict boats, when I was a mortal that is.” “Then why live like this, why not live on a big boat, with beds, and food, and staff?” “What a wonderful Idea.” Alendra yelled, standing up. He waved his hands and the boat started to creak and change. “Let us spruce up this old bucket of bolts.” He continued as the rust on the walls peeled from existence. The room they were in turned into an enormous ball room with white walls and chandeliers, Alendra lead Soier to the top deck where they looked over the several decks of the super yacht. Wait staff lined the walls and there was a smell of fresh fruit and high class kitchens drifting through the air “Yeah like this, why not live like this?” Soier asked as she tried to explore, but before she knew it, the boat was back to the same old rusty mess. She turned around with an expression that begged the question why? “I don’t live that because it is not what makes me feel good. These rusty walls are home to me, they sheltered me through some of the worst storms on my planet. Holes were ripped in her hull, and parts fell away, but she always had room for me to stay. It is not glamorous, but it is home.” “That is dumb, I would live in a palace if I was you with all your wooshing powers.” Soiers eyes lit up and she turned back to Alerndra. “Since I am a god, will I be able to do all those cool things?” She asked, waving her arms around. “Eventually, you might want to figure out some more basic abilities first.” Soier seemed disappointed and tapped a rusty beam with her foot. “Why are you here?” “What a good question Soier. I am here because I like to help new born gods find their way. It can be hard being thrown into a universe with nothing but the clothes on your back. So, naturally I spend my time helping others.” “Like me?” “Just like you.” “I think that is a very good thing to do, I always believed in helping others when I lived on Earth. That is the name of the planet I came from, have you heard of it?” Alendra shook his head. “The Eterna-verse is a big place, it is impossible to know everywhere.” “What is the Eterna-verse?” “Well, that one is a little complicated. Since there are so many universe’s and multi-verses, and pocket dimensions, and a plethora of other realms, we group them all under the name Eterna-vere. Because no matter how many universes collapse or pocket dimensions burn out there will always be one constant, the Eternal-universe.” “Oh woah, that is cool. That is so cool, can you explore them? Can I explore them?” “You can go anywhere you want to go, do whatever you want to do. You are free to be yourself.” “I think I want to help people, like you.” “People, or gods?” “Oh.” Soier chuckled. “I want to help gods, and people, and animals, and everyone.” “That is a big task, if you want you can come help me help so more new born gods like you. On the way I can teach you how to grow, and you can help others too.” “That would be amazing, can I…” Soier’s attention was grabbed as she spied the jar of frozen tears, picking it up she listend to them clink against the glass. “These are my tears, why did you save them?” Alendra turned back to the wheel of the ship pointing to a door that suddenly appeared. “That is your room, I hope you enjoy figuring out the many mysteries of the Eterna-verse.”

Anodyne awoke, his eyes as pitch black as the space that surrounded him, the sterling silver cross pupil darted from side to side as his body slowly adjusted to consciousness. His body once limp and slowly floating through space corrected itself as he awoke. His body was suddenly thrown to the nearby planet by an overwhelming force, glimpsing over his shoulder he spied a bald deity with his arms locked around Anodyne, pushing him down to a nearby planets surface. Their bodies erupted with flame as they broke atmosphere, the heat barely registering as a sensation for them as the vibrant orange flames curled around their bodies, fading as the descended. The air rushed by with extreme force, blowing their clothes around, and Anodyne’s long, dark hair. “Die monster.” The bald deity screamed, cracking his voice. “Monster?” Anodyne thought to himself as he collided with planet side, the cracking sound echoing around the planet as the bald deity continued to push Anodyne down further. The newcomer forced Anodyne through the layers of the planet, cracking the crust in only seconds. The Bald deity changed his position and started to chock Anodyne as he forced him through the planet, his face frozen in excitement. The heat of the planet started to turn the nearby stone into a viscous liquid that formed around the two as they passed through. Eventually the core was struck and the planet started to collapse. First it seemed as if it would float away in several parts as matters started to drift from one another, then they all clamped down stronger than before. Gravity increased, the birds flying around fell to the ground, bones broken and incapable of moving, all large land-based predators started to feel the effect, their toned muscles defying the new increase of gravity, but everything smaller fell to the ground in exhaustion as they were slowly crushed to death. Anodyne gripped the hand of the new Deity, staring into his eyes he smiled in a way that no one had ever seen before. He grabbed the new deity and finally started to fight back. The two of them wrestling in the core of the planet, the external rules of nature changed as the chaos ensued. After hours of conflict the planet was slowly torn apart, leaving the two deities laughing in the middle of the molten core of the planet as it started to cool in the vacuum of space. “You cheeky fuck, your lucky I wasn’t using that planet.” Anodyne jested with the other deity. “When did you change your look? You look like a fucking idiot Lio.” Lio grinned as he rubbed his smooth head. “Mate it is the new trend, do you know how many other gods are rocking a bald head? You’re the one who looks like the wanker with the long hair.” Anodyne shook his head slowly as he stared at the shining head of Lio. He took a moment once he noticed the bushy brown eyebrows resting below his creaseless forehead. “Fashion is not something I don’t think I will ever understand.” “Clearly.” Lio said looking Anodyne up and down. Anodyne turned back over his shoulder, his eyes glowing blue he waved his hands and the destroyed planet slowly reformed, going back through the process that Anodyne and Lio put it through until it was finally whole again. Anodyne turned back to see an encroaching smile crawl across Lio’s face. “You destroy that planet again and I won’t help you today.” Anodyne said like a parent warning a child. “You are no fun at all, and I do need your help. So I guess I won’t destroy it… for now.” Lio said waving his hands in front of him, wriggling his fingers. “Dun dun dun, but one day, when you least expect it. It will be in pieces.” Anodyne stared at Lio with disappointment. “Why do I tolerate you?” Lio shrugged earnestly and they both laughed as Lio raised one arm, pointing two fingers up he brought his arm down slowly, a small tear in space appearing before him. “Come on then, we have work today.” “This is hardly work.” Scoffed Anodyne. “Well if you put the effort in like I did it would be, so, shut up and come on.” The pair squeezed through the tear one by one, disappearing from where they stood, reappearing on a large flat plane of grass that extended further than they could see. All around them others appeared from their own portals, wandering to a central spire that stretched high into the blue sky, it too going beyond eyesight. “This is such a strange place, I have no idea why it has to be like this. It hardly has anything to do with what we are doing.” Anodyne said as they started to walk toward the tower. “Yeah, and why the blue sky? Why can’t they go with the normal colour?” Anodyne gave Lio a side eye. “What do you mean normal?” “Well you know green, the normal sky colour.” “To me blue is default, it is what my mortal lives grew up with.” “Oh, me too actually. But green is literally the most common colour, we are unique. Well, not really. I think Blue is actually like the fourth or maybe third most common.” “Oh shit, and how may I ask did we get this information?” “The only way possible, they were counted. One of those weird groups of gods that like to check rarity on shit. I mean obviously they have not counted everywhere, but current standing, green is number one, and by a wide margin too.” “This has to be one of the dumbest conversations that I have ever had, and that is saying something.” “Are you telling me you seriously don’t find that interesting, like not even a little?” Lio asked, pressing intently for an answer. “I am no longer apart of this conversation.” “Ha, I knew it. Don’t you worry, I will keep you updated with all the random facts and crap these groups come up with.” “D-lightful.” Anodyne said sarcastically. “Maybe we should move the topic to the one at hand?” “Fine, what is your strategy?” “Strategy?” Anodyne laughed. “You have me mistaken for someone who is trying to win. The only reason I did this shit is so I could master creating sentient life. Now that I have done that, I do not care for this stupid game.” “Come off it, you are gonna love this shit.” Lio jumped in front of Anodyne and put on a announcer voice. “One universe locked in accelerated time, every planet seeded by a gods own creation, only one race will come out on top.” “You look like an idiot. Stop that.” “Come on man, lighten up, have some fun. If we do good enough we may even win our entry fee back.” “Entry fee? You never mentioned an entry fee.” “I mentioned there was a prise though, and their can’t be a prize without a fee.” “All right, I guess that one is on me. What is the fee.” “A hundred thousand tonnes of none forgeable matter.” “What the fuck, are you serious?” Anodyne yelled reactively. “Oh come on you hoarder, you don’t even use yours for anything. What is the point in finding rare material if you don’t even use it? It is like…” “Fine, shut up. I will enter this once, and once only. That is hours of work for some shitty life simulator that will be over in minutes.” “Days, not minutes.” “I hate everything about this competition.” The two walked into the tower and signed up for the competition, wandering slowly around the room until they stopped at the final desk where they were handed a different pamphlet each from a god sitting behind a desk. “Now these are your information booklets, they will have all the details on the planet, asteroid, or other habitable region of the Universe that you will be seeding for this competition. We begin tomorrow morning, so please plan carefully. The prize for the winners is on the back, enjoy.” “The whole of creation to explore, and this fucking idiot decides to sit behind a desk and hand out pamphlets.” “Damn, relax Anodyne. He is just doing his job, and if it wasn’t for him, we wouldn’t be here. Now, what seed location did you get? I got a… Oh I better do good, I got a green planet, it is already covered with life. This will be a cake walk for the early stages, hopefully it will cover for my lack of experience.” “I got a barren ass wandering asteroid. No atmosphere, no liquid, just a small pocket in the centre that I can put my genetic material in and pray I actually hit a planet before this competition is over.” Lio winced as he looked at Anodyne. “Sorry buddy, better luck next time.” “Woah, what is this bullshit?” “What?” Lio said confused. “I ain’t fucking lost yet, just because I don’t have fancy green planet like you don’t mean I am not going to do well. I am going to crush this competition.” Lio raised his hands and raised an eyebrow. “Alright, if you say so buddy. But I think you just wasted your entry fee.” Anodyne stared at Lio, his lip twitching with anger. “I aint wasted anything, you just watch.” Anodyne stormed off to a preparation room and started working on his competition entry. He scoured the information given to him about the universe they would be seeding, he looked over his asteroid and its potential trajectory. Carefully examining the planets it was most likely to land on. He festered over the information, but the words of Lio rung in his ears and he stubbornly pressed on with his research, desperate to find the angle needed to win this competition. The next morning rocked around and Lio found Anodyne standing at the front of a display screen, his eyes fixed on his own name that was being displayed on the score board. “I thought you were just doing this because I invited you?” Lio said sarcastically. “I was.” Anodyne replied, his eyes shifting to the countdown timer. “But you told you me that I couldn’t win, so now it is personal.” Come on man, that was not a challenge, everyone knows if you get an asteroid you have all but lost. Most never hit another object, some explode in space when they hit others, and the ones that do make it to a planet are usually millions of years behind the others. It isn’t an opinion it is fact, the odds are stacked up against you.” Anodyne watched the last second tick over on the countdown timer, with a loud siren the game began with a voice echoing through the air. “Welcome everyone to the seed challenge. All your genetic material has been added to a universe that has been created to run time as fast possible, we will watch all your creatures grow adapt, die, and kill until there is only one left. That one will be crowned the winner. There is also prizes for the creations that achieve milestones, and various other tasks. Best of luck to you all, may the best species win.” Time started in the pocket universe and everyone started cheering as the score boards started to fill with points. “There was pretty much nothing in the booklet about the scoreboard, how do I get points?” “You serious Anodyne? All that researching and you didn’t bother to look that up?” Liorolled his eyes and started to explain. “Well it is pretty simple, without going into the intense maths of it, pretty much, anything your species does in the universe earns it points, just existing will get you a point per second, so you will never be on zero points. Then evolving, conquering, diplomacy, tech advancements, literally everything they do will gain you points. The rarer the thing they …

Anodyne floated in the black of space, staring out past his worlds to another deity who was walking as if ground was beneath his feet. He was muttering and hunched slightly as he seemed to be counting on his fingers. Shaking his head, he would start the count again. Vure rose to Anodynes side, staring with just as much confusion. “Who is that?” Vure asked. “I have no fucking clue. But judging by the fact that I can’t read him, I would say someone we shouldn’t piss off.” The new god walked unaware of Anodyne or Vure. Strolling straight past them he continued his mumbling. “Listen here you tweaking creep, what are you doing in my universe?” Anodyne yelled. “Great job at not pissing him off.” Vure mumbled under their breath. The individual looked up shocked. “My goodness, here already. Doesn’t time just fly? Which one of you is Anodyne?” Vure looked up to Anodyne, amazed at the amount of wrinkles his face made when he was angry. “I will assume the one that looks like he is ready to skin me. It did say in my folder that he was quite a grumpy little man.” He said, as he tapped the folder in his hand that neither Anodyne, nor Vure noticed before. “Listen here, you can’t just walk into my universe and act…” “Oh I assure you I am not acting, this is all deadly serious. You have finally reached a point where you are being offered an invite to the mortal wars.” The man held his hand out with a letter in a simple white envelope. Anodyne didn’t even blink, now furious he exploded at the man. “Listen here, this is my universe, and I get to say what happens, not you. I am the one that calls the shots here, so who the fuck do you think you are?” Vure backed away slightly as he watched as a twitch ran across the newcomers face. “I am a delivery man for Tamag Yark. This is your invite, and if you dare raise a hand to me I will break it, and revoke your invite. Now accept the letter, and let me move on.” Anodyne stared down the delivery man, but even he knew that conflict was futile. He reluctantly took the letter, but never dropped his stare. The delivery man tipped a hat that wasn’t there before, nor was it there after he turned around. He then began his walk, muttering under his breath once again. This time with a hint of irritation. Vure cautiously approached Anodyne who was still staring at the deliveryman. “I am just going to take this.” Vure whispered as they slowly pried the letter from Anodynes hand. Peeling it open they read it aloud as Anodyne glared. Salutations, Anodyne It has come to my attention that you have finally reached a point where you may compete in the mortal wars. Below I have left the name of my base of operations. A0620-00/V616 Mon I am sure you should be familiar with this location, I eagerly await your arrival Tamag Yark Vure took a deep breath and stepped in front of Anodyne, obscuring his view of the delivery man. Once again Vure found themselves staring down Anodyne. The silver cross’s in the black of his eyes seemed to vibrate as he squinted at Vure. “What?” He growled. “Do you know what this A0602 place is?” “A0620.” He corrected Vure. “This Yark individual is situated in an Earth Dimension.” Vure floated back to give Anodyne some space, trying to give him the room to cool down. “You don’t look happy about this.” “Of course not, not only do I have to make the trip back to my universe, but I have to go to one of the worst places that exist in the Eternaverse.” “Which is?” “A god damn black hole.” Anodyne moved forward, grabbing Vure. Land appeared beneath their feet and a reflective shield appeared around them. Soon they were plunged into the violent vortex that would take them from their universe to Earth’s universe. The land under them broke apart and cracked. Vure laid on the ground clinging to what little they could as Anodyne stood with his hands raised, struggling to keep the shield from collapsing. Eventually the relentless torrent of energy subsided and they were once again in space. This time they were in orbit around Earth. Anodyne stared longingly at the planets soft blue glow, but turned from it and started to fly away with Vure in tow. “How can someone have a base in a black hole?” “You wouldn’t be asking that if you knew what a black hole really is.” Anodyne said with a sigh to his voice. “I assume this will be your first time going into one then.” Anodyne looked to Vure, Vure nodded slightly and Anodyne chuckled. “You are not going to enjoy it, it is… harrowing.” The two of them arrived at the black hole in silence, Anodyne stopping just shy of its range of influence. Vure waited for something to happen, or for Anodyne to do something. But as time passed Vure began to understand that Anodyne was not going anywhere. “I can’t believe it, you are afraid. I have never seen you scared before.” Anodynes whole body tensed and Vure stepped back slightly, getting ready to run. “I am afraid of a many thing in this Eternaverse. Black holes are not on the list. They are however one of the most uncomfortable experiences I have ever gone through. To make things worse the first one I went into was too large for me to leave. I was stuck in it for a while.” Closing his eyes he took a deep breath. “Fortunately, this one is small. Even you will be able to leave this.” “That was going to be my next question.” Vure said shyly. Taking the first move Vure entered its range of influence and let it take them. Anodyne still had his eyes closed as he stepped forward, unaware that Vure had gone in ahead of him. They both felt their bodies pull and stretch, Anodyne grimaced at the experience while Vure struggled to hold back their screams. Eventually the swirling became too much and all either could see was black and the feeling of nausea and complete body pain. With a crack Vure found themselves had pressed against a planet’s surface; their body being bound to the planet by an intense gravity. Struggling to look up they watched as Anodyne slammed into the planet next to them. Anodyne struggled to his feet, before standing upright. His whole-body tense as he fought against the gravity of the planet. Staring back down at Vure he grinned. “Welcome to the inside of a black hole Vure. Welcome to what gods consider hell.” After short while Vure found their feet. Looking around they appeared to be standing on a planet, there was stars in the sky, and even a thriving, diverse range of flora and fauna that seemed unaffected by the intense pressures that were crushing Anodyne and Vure. “Where are we?” Vure struggled out as their back clicked into place. “Black holes are points that exist in multiple universes. That is why I didn’t need to know the universe Yark was in to get the right one. The more universes that are present, the more intense the pressure.” Anodyne chocked out as he started to walk towards a tall spire that rose out of the forest in the distance. Vure followed, slightly slower. “So why is there so much gravity, and why are there birds flying around?” “The gravity is intense because we are standing on millions and millions of planets that are all occupying the same space. The animals are fine, because they too are just one of millions upon millions that are now occupying the same space.” “Anodyne, I can barely stand. How are we going to leave?” “Don’t worry, your body will adjust. But it will take a while. Now no more talking until we arrive at that spire. My jaw hurts.” Vure had not complaints, grinding their teeth together they struggled through the under brush of the forest. Days rolled by before Anodyne adjusted to the pressure. Another week went past before Vure felt normal. Then once they were both comfortable, they made the final leg of the journey to the spire. Passing through the last bit of bush they stepped out into an open field that surrounded the spire. It didn’t seem to have any doors or windows, outside of it hunched individuals sat down at tables, carefully playing with small animals. They were taking pieces off of them and replacing them with others, the animals seemed to be unaware of what was happening, just doing their best to adapt to the new bodies they were given. Scouring the area Anodyne locked eyes with an individual who was already staring at him with a grin. Anodyne rolled his eyes and made his way over to him. “Do you think those animals are being hurt?” Vure asked Anodyne as they hid behind him, peering over his shoulder at the other gods play with the animals. “I have no idea what you are on about.” Anodyne said sincerely as he made his way to his target. “Yark, I presume.” He said as he stood in front of the grinning man. “You would presume correct. Welcome to my little haven, and please accept this as the official invite to the mortal wars.” He said, raising his hand out to be shaken. Anodyne ignored it as he looked around. “Doesn’t look like war, just a bunch of hunched fools sitting in hell playing with toys.” Yark laughed as he retracted his hand. “You look at the small of things. These gods are creating their mortals for the wars to come.” “What are the mortal wars?” Vure chimed in. Looking over at Anodyne they shrugged. “What? You were taking too long to ask, I wanted to know.” “I am sorry you are?” Yark asked, looking to Vure. “Vure, I am a frie… I followed Anodyne here.” Yark’s eyes darted between the two of them. “Strange” He let slip, eyes opening wide at the realisation that that was aloud he composed himself. “Well, Vure. The mortal wars are how us gods pass time, gamble, or just test ideas. It is a pastime that I created myself.” He stated proud of his accomplishment. The tanned skin of his hand pressed against the soft colours of his shirt. Creating a stark contrast. “Us gods all go to a universe, we seed our creations into the universe, then we watch them grow and slowly take over the galaxy. The race that defeats all the others wins.” Before Vure could ask any more questions, Anodyne spoke up. “Why here?” “You mean a black hole?” “Of course I mean the black hole, why would you choose to live here?” “It is simple, no one will invade me. Here I am safe from being harassed by other gods. Here I can focus on my work, I can even let people know where I am and I am still avoided. Don’t get me wrong I still get invaded from time to time as everyone does. But as my blackhole grows in size, less and less gods come.” Yark tapped his nose and pointed to Anodyne with a knowing grin. Anodyne stared at him, not understanding the gesture. “I, don’t, follow.” Anodyne stated as he watched Yark walk away. “Follow me. You can come too Vure.” Vure grinned behind their mask and nudged Anodyne forward. The two of them walked through the masses of gods who all toiled away at their creations. Fine tuning their creatures as a clay worker might perfect a sculpt. As they walked through the crowds Yark spoke them. “Naturally you wont be thrown into a full blown war right away, we will put you through all …

Anodyne floated alone in the vast expanse of space. He drifted in an ice tomb that he allowed to consume him. It started off small, a mere frosted flaking on his skin. Those flakes grew and met, holding hands they created strong bonds, consuming one another whole, until they were one upon him. Emboldened by their success they grew; a thickness was soon around Anodyne until his shape was lost to the refractions of the ice. A sphere of blue held Anodyne, cracks and malformed structures fractured the image of him. Distorting and breaking him apart. He did not breath, nor did he think, he merely listened. At first the void of space offered him nothing, but once the layers of ice took hold he began to hear. Ear drums pressed heavily against their cold captor Anodyne listened through the vibrations that resonated within the ice. He did not listen for sound, he listened to force. He determined distance, size, and cause with every echo that pressed into his ears. But his endeavour to find what he was looking for seemed to be in vain. Pulse after pulse he listened, ears sharp he pinpointed everyone, even those that arrived together. But the vibrations he was looking for were nowhere to be found.  Echoes of cracks vibrated through his ears as he shed his frozen casing, freeing himself. Cracking his neck he looked around. “Still nothing, I thought that I would have heard something.” Anodyne looked around. “Unless it hasn’t happened yet?” He asked rhetorically. There was a momentary pause as Anodyne watched the hairs on his arms stand on end. “Strange, that shouldn’t happen unless the void somehow became…” Before Anodyne could finish, he was blown down to a nearby planet by an unknown force. He sailed through the atmosphere, entering the green planet as a burning projectile. He tried to stop his decent, but his momentum was greater than his ability to slow down. No matter how much he tried, all he could manage was a feeling of exhaustion as he continued to approach the surface of the planet. He couldn’t help but watch as a large stone became larger before him. Until finally his vision was consumed by it, his head sailing into it at full force. He felt his body compact against the stone as his head started to ring with pain. Then only darkness as he fell from consciousness. Eyes open once again he stared up at the nights sky, strange stars filled the black of space. Two moons rose and bathed him in a pale red light while he noticed others bowed before him, chanting in worship. “From the sky, now on soil. He touched the stone and didn’t spoil.” Sitting up he rubbed his temples. His head feeling twice its actual size. Staggering to a stand the worshippers raised their heads, then their arms. The chant stopped and they were overcome with wails. A man at the front of the crowd hushed those behind him and turned toward Anodyne. “What is your name sky walker?” Anodyne looked around and all the tribal people that bowed before him. Their pale skin contrasting against the dark, marshy soil of the planet. He looked carefully at their body paint and the way they prosecuted themselves before him. “Anodyne. A name that you shall never forget.” The crowd started to cheer his name. Anodyne turned to see the large oval stone he collided with. Where once perfect, a large crack ran from bottom to top, stopping at the curve. The leader of the people before him stepped forward, wielding a staff. “We have used all our magics on the stone, but the demon that is inside still lives. Have the stars sent you to save us from it?” Anodyne turned with a malicious grin. “There are no stars that sent me, just me. I am telling you right now, all your gods are false.” The crowd let out a gasp followed by fast whispers. Anodyne’s head turned side to side as his eyes darted around the crowd in a hysteria. Their leader stepped back, holding his staff before him. Aiming the large ornate rock on it at Anodyne he chanted and shook it, shaking the small carved runes that hung from it. Anodyne let out a laugh, making it sound like multiple people were laughing. He filled with joy as he could feel the unease of those in front of him. “You think your gods are real, if they were, they would be here to dispose of this.” Anodyne gestured to the rock behind him. “Instead nothing, so they either don’t exist, or they hate you. Either way why follow them when you could follow me?” “We don’t follow demons. We worship the lords above, beaming light down on us so we may stay safe in the night. Their leader and the one that looks after us the most rises each night. Gifting us light as if it were day.” Anodyne looked up to the large moon that rose, its soft light bathing the whole marsh they stood in with enough light to see the smallest of details on a distant tree. Raising one hand to the sky he turned the moon red, watching as the tribal people before him started to weep. “I have killed your god, his blood now bathing your planet. Saturating it with his pain. Feel his despair and let it flow out of you.” Anodyne screamed as he twisted his fist, clenching it as hard as he could he screamed into the sky. Blood pouring from his closed fist the stars slowly faded and the black of Anodyne’s eyes turned red. “They are all dead, there is no one to worship but me. So get on your knees and start praying.” The tribal people all lowered, weeping as they felt the soil press into their knees. Anodyne rolled his eyes as he turned back to the stone. Slipping the tip of his fingers into the crack he felt his body vibrate with pain. “Hmm, I guess this is too close to touching for this to work.” Anodyne pondered on a thought before pointing back to one of his new worshippers. “You, get up here.” The worshipper rushed to Anodyne’s side and looked up at him expectantly. Anodyne looked down at him with one eye. “You lot are quite short, that is fine I can still work with you.” Looking at the stone he spoke plainly. “Touch it.” The worshipper didn’t move, so Anodyne lowered himself, leaning on his knees. “Either you touch it, or I flay the skin from your flesh.” The worshipper shook with fear, praying under his breath before reaching out and placing a singular hand on the stone. His body shook violently for a moment, then Anodyne watched as his skin was removed from his bones by a violent force. Then the organs fell, and finally the bones turned to powder. “Now that is something you don’t see every day.” Anodyne chuckled to himself as he thought more on the problem. “You come up here.” Another follower rose to Anodyne’s side. “Please don’t make me touch it lord. I do not want to die this way.” “Oh you wont be dying, I will be improving you.” Anodyne’s eyes turned blue and he rose slightly off the ground. He laid his hand on his worshipper and watched as two new arms grew from his body, just beneath his original arms. His finger tips blackened and his hands were stained red which faded up his arms. His face was covered in a red eye banner and words inscribed across his chest. The other worshippers watched on in awe and ran to him, begging to be next. Anodyne blessed each one in turn and turned to the stone. “Now with your new strength. Reach into the crack on the stone and pry it apart!” Anodyne watched as his now devout worshippers leapt onto the stone, prying with all four arms on each side of the crack they tried to pull it apart. Anodyne looked down to the leader of the people. His arms still raised in anticipation of being transformed. Anodyne smiled down upon him and laid his hand on his staff. “You are destined for greater things.” The man felt an energy surge inside him, his body warped and he too grew arms like the others, but he grew, staring Anodyne in the eye. His plain staff became carved and ornate with a large multicoloured gem on the top. “You all worshipped false gods, feel the real power of a deity. Aim your staff and cast the magic from within at the stone. Split it in half, make gravel of it.” The lead worshippers voice was deeper, as he sigh it sounded like a roar. Causing a grin to stretch across his face. Shouting a phrase, a beam of energy emitted from the end of the staff. Crashing violently with the crack in the stone the other worshippers had to close their eyes. Arms straining against the stone they felt blood trickle off their fingers. Their muscles growing tired from the constant vibrations coming from the stone they were about to give up. Then suddenly it cracked, and then again. Anodyne’s eyes lit up. “Yes my followers, use your new powers. Feel the power course through your veins. Push yourself, pry the rock open, split it in two, release me!” As Anodyne finished speaking there was one final crack and the rock split in two. The worshippers fell to the side and the beam from the leader stopped. Fine dust filled the air where the stone stood. The worshippers looked on in anticipation as Anodyne walked to the edge of the dust cloud. “You were always one for dramatics. Come out already.” The dust cloud dispersed and standing before everyone was another Anodyne. Same clothes, same stance, exact same black eyes with a silver cross for pupils. They both smiled at one another as the worshippers looked around at one another in confusion. “Before anyone asks, yes, that one is also me. How about we call you stone to avoid confusion.” “I think I can handle being called stone. How many of the others do we have?” Stone asked. “Unfortunately, you are the first I have found. To make things worse I didn’t even find you. There was an anomaly and I was blown to this planet.” Stone looked suspicious. “There is no way that happened by chance. There is something else going on here.” Stone and Anodyne exchanged glances and both started to fly away from the planet when they heard a voice. “Our lords. What do we do?” Stone and Anodyne looked to one another, then back to the leader. “Are there others that live on this planet?” Anodyne asked. The leader nodded. “Then conquer them.” Stone added before the two of them flew off. The Worshippers looked excited by their new charge. Flexing their extra set of arms, they let out a war cry and ran off. Anodyne looked to stone as they arrived back to where he started. “I was here, then my hairs started to stand on end. Before I knew it there was an explosion that launched me directly towards your stone.” “Whatever it is, maybe it wants to help us?” Anodyne watched as the hairs on Stone started to stand on end. “Well I guess we can find out now.” Stone looked down at his arms. “Would you look at that.” Stone said a moment before he was blasted off through space. Anodyne remained, untouched. He started to follow Stone but was blown in another direction. When he came to he was lying in front of another stone, perfectly oval, with a large crack. Before him the local life bowed to his presence. Cracking his neck he began to alter those who bowed. “Let’s start again.”