Chapter 385: God's Burden

A god’s boredom was not normal. Unlike people who could do a lot when they were bored, a god only had so many options.

Kael’s current form was no different, and the most amusing thing was to observe the changes in people and have them come to rely on him.

And it was all so easy. With a wave of his finger, the world trembled, and people said his name was being called. That eased his loneliness a little, and his mood improved.

By the time he realised what he was doing, eons had passed on Earth, and people had established his religion.

“Ugh, being a god is hard.”

The fact that he was not aware of himself half the time and acted on impulse just because he wanted to was different from his idea of being a god.

And yet, this was the truth that had been hidden all along.

It was easy to see how gods could cause such massive misunderstandings and even feel threatened enough to burn people if they wanted to. The power was too much, and their own desires ruled them.

Still, there was a silver lining to this situation, and that was the fact that the gods had instincts to love and protect people.

Despite Kael’s desire to lessen his boredom and cause chaos, he never caused an incident where he would kill off the whole world.

At least, not until now. But with a god’s ego, it might only be a matter of time.

Kael continued to watch over the world, occasionally lending his power to those who prayed to him and guiding humanity through the hardships they faced.

At first, everything seemed to be going well.

People built temples in his name, offered sacrifices in the hope of receiving his blessings, and passed down stories about the benevolent god who watched over them from beyond the heavens.

It was amusing to see how much they had changed over the years, and Kael found himself growing accustomed to the feeling of having people depend on him.

Whenever a natural disaster threatened to wipe out a settlement, he would intervene, and whenever a plague spread through a kingdom, he would lend his power to those who desperately sought a cure.

However, things eventually began to change.

As generations passed, people started questioning the existence of gods.

Some scholars claimed that the miracles attributed to divine intervention were merely natural phenomena that humanity had yet to understand, while others argued that the gods were nothing more than fictional beings created to control the masses.

Kael initially found their arguments amusing. After all, he knew better than anyone that gods existed, and he could hardly blame humans for being curious about the world they lived in.

But then the emperors began to speak.

Rather than acknowledging the existence of gods, they started declaring themselves to be the chosen ones, claiming that their authority came directly from the heavens.

Some even went as far as to proclaim themselves living incarnations of gods, using the faith of their subjects to consolidate their power.

And the worst part was that people believed them.

‘Oh? So you are going to use my name to justify your own authority?’

Kael watched as one emperor ordered the execution of those who refused to worship him, claiming that their disbelief was an insult to the heavens.

The man stood before his subjects with a proud expression, completely convinced that the divine power he possessed was proof of his own superiority.

Kael felt something stir inside him.

It was an unpleasant feeling, one that he had rarely experienced before.

He had allowed humanity to make mistakes and had even found their foolishness entertaining, but seeing someone exploit the very existence of gods to satisfy his own greed was another matter entirely.

The sky darkened.

A sudden storm descended upon the emperor’s capital, and lightning struck the palace towers one after another.

The ground trembled, causing buildings to collapse as the emperor’s soldiers scrambled to protect their ruler. Before long, the entire city had fallen into chaos.

Kael watched the destruction with a strange sense of satisfaction.

That should teach him a lesson.

Yet, even as he thought those words, another disturbance occurred elsewhere.

A river overflowed its banks, flooding several villages, while an earthquake struck a distant mountain range and sent enormous boulders crashing into the settlements below.

Kael froze once he realized what he did.

He had not intended to cause any of those things.

For the first time in a long while, he tried to calm himself, only to realise that the magic surrounding him was responding to his emotions far more readily than he had expected.

His anger had spread through the world, and the consequences were no longer limited to the people he wanted to punish.

“Wait a minute. This is bad. This power is the one controlling me, not the other way around. I need to get a grip.”

Kael finally understood what was happening.

He had spent so long acting on his instincts that he had forgotten the most important thing about being a god.

His power was not something he could afford to wield carelessly, and if he continued to let his emotions dictate his actions, he might end up destroying the very world he had sworn to protect.

“Alright, enough fooling around. I need to get a grip on myself before things get any worse.”

For once, Kael was no longer bored. But he was not in control either. His power and his essence as a god was.

Even if he was aware of what he was doing right now, that did not mean he was aware evertime. Most of the time, he was trying his hardest not to fall down the rabbit hole that was his own mind.

“I need to concentrate. This is a trial, so there must be a solution. I just need to keep holding on until I can find it.”

Kael reminded himself as he began to govern the world once more.