Chapter 310

[Lord.]

It was a strange sensation.

Only belatedly did he realize that the power surrounding his body was stirring.

It was absurd.

‘I was startled?’

He was a God born complete.

The sole God, born a great being, who had created countless lives.

And yet, his body trembled at a single word from a creature whose origin he did not even know.

Interest and fear.

Two opposing emotions were mingling and creating something new.

He had created everything in the world, yet a being he had not created was calling him by the name his creations had given him.

More astonishing still, his power was not what it had been in this unknown space.

The eyes that could see even the future could perceive nothing in the darkness.

His hearing, which could catch the breath of a being thousands of kilometers away, responded only to that strange creature.

His other senses were the same.

Here, he was not complete.

‘It is uncomfortable.’

He was experiencing an unfamiliar emotion at the incompleteness he felt for the first time.

Ordinarily, the birth of a new emotion would have delighted him, but the uncomfortable feeling did not fade.

‘It is unpleasant.’

The space and the owner of the voice were eating away at him merely by existing.

[Lord.]

The voice resembled his own.

Shhh—

A mouth appeared on his featureless face.

His voice leaked out through it.

[I do not permit it.]

[Lord.]

[I do not permit you to speak my name.]

[Looooord.]

Fwoooosh—

Uncontrolled power leaked from his body.

Radiance.

It was the trait that manifested whenever he used power beyond a certain level.

Crackle—

Space resisted.

Crackle—

Time flowed irregularly.

It was as though the entire surrounding area resented his power.

Ignoring it, he amplified his strength.

Fwoooosh—

[Reveal yourself.]

Forcing his power outward had an effect.

The darkness around him brightened.

Through the illuminated darkness, he could see the owner of the voice.

[.......]

Two arms and two legs; a featureless face.

Smooth skin without a single sweat pore or hair anywhere on its body.

It looked no different from him, down to the flesh that composed its body.

A derisive laugh escaped through his drawn mouth.

‘So that is what it was doing in the darkness.’

He thought of the word that suited the situation.

[A copy.]

He stared at the being imitating him.

[N-noooot a copy—]

It had the same form and the same voice, but not a trace of dignity.

His discomfort deepened.

[Disgusting.]

The Lord stepped forward and looked down at the unknown life-form before him.

Shhh— Shhh—

He met the two pupils that had appeared in its featureless face.

[I will ask again. What are you?]

[I am you.]

[Where is this?]

[You cannot know.]

[It seems you have no intention of answering.]

Immense Existence Force filled the Lord's two eyes.

[Grrrrrr.]

As if it sensed the difference in their Presence, the creature made an unpleasant sound.

[How unpleasant.]

He possessed not only the power of Creation, but the power of destruction as well.

If he wished, he could erase it.

‘This is an unknown space. In that case, I should make physical contact and use an Authority...’

He stopped.

[.......]

The Lord halted the hand he had begun to raise.

He had recalled something he had forgotten since entering this place.

‘This creature is conversing with me.’

Why he, with his transcendent power, had found things tedious.

Why he had created so many lives.

‘It was to create an intelligent being with whom I could converse as an equal.’

The lives he had made so far had been unable even to exchange words with him; merely approaching him made them unable to endure his Presence and caused them to perish.

Yet.

[.......]

The being before him had no future, even to eyes that saw through essence.

It imitated him and made him experience a variety of emotions.

‘I do not know what it is.’

He reminded himself once more that this was the first time he had ever experienced such a thing.

The unpleasant feeling quickly subsided.

Interest filled its place.

Creeeak—

The Lord's mouth curved upward.

He calmed his power and lowered the hand he had raised.

[First, we must decide your name.]

His voice was gentle, unlike before.

Based on the traits of the creature before him, the Lord created a name.

Something grotesque, irrational, bizarre, and strange.

[Anomaly.]

[Anomaly?]

[Yes.]

The Lord reiterated it to the being that tilted its head in his shape.

[Your name is Anomaly.]

[Anomaly.]

[Cackle—]

The Anomaly burst into laughter.

[.......]

The sound alone seemed to make the space tremble.

Fortunately, it appeared to like its name.

[I am Anomaly.]

[Yes.]

[You are Lord.]

[That is right.]

He tried speaking with the Anomaly again.

How much time had passed?

[Pathetic.]

The Lord realized that the Anomaly's capacity to learn was poor.

And.

[Screeeee—]

[.......]

The more he dealt with it, the more an inexplicable discomfort swelled within him.

He was a perfect being, yet before the Anomaly he felt as though he were becoming incomplete.

After he had spent some time in that place where his senses had dulled.

[.......]

The Lord recognized a change in his body.

One of his arms would not move as he wished.

The darkness of the space he had illuminated had somehow grown dense again.

[Is it corrupting me?]

Snap.

He tore off the arm that had begun to turn black.

And.

Snap, snap.

A new arm regenerated where the severed one had been.

Complete regeneration.

[This is not a place where I can remain long.]

[...?]

[Follow me.]

He had said it because he intended to guide it to the place where he lived and converse with it there.

[Impossible.]

For the first time, the Anomaly expressed its own will.

[I can exist only here.]

[Ridiculous. You do not even know what you are.]

[I... cannot leave.]

[How vast is this place?]

[I... cannot say.]

At its firm expression of will, the Lord nodded.

[It cannot be helped. I will return.]

[.......]

Two pupils sat in its featureless face.

Shhh—

A third eye appeared beside them.

[When?]

The Anomaly asked, glaring at him with three eyes.

[Do not imitate my appearance so excessively. It does not please me.]

[What form should I take?]

[You have received a new name. Why not manifest a body befitting it?]

[Manifest a body?]

[It will not be difficult.]

If it were a Mortal, perhaps it would have been otherwise, but it was a strange creature capable of imitating his own form.

Changing its shape should not have been difficult either.

Fwoooosh—

Bright light flared from the Anomaly's body.

It did not take him long to realize it was the Radiance he had used to illuminate the darkness.

[.......]

The space undulated around the mass of condensed Radiance.

He had told it to create a body, but it discarded its form and became the very power it emitted.

[I will wait.]

[Yes, I will return.]

Leaving the mass of Radiance behind, the Lord walked back the way he had come.

***

After escaping the darkness, he was once more in a place whipped by blizzards.

When he looked back, a small crack had formed in the Boundary that had blocked him.

It was the space that had made his perfect self incomplete.

[This needs attention.]

Fwoooosh—

He awakened the Authority of Boundary.

But.

[.......]

The Radiance that manifested whenever he used power was gone.

Fwoooosh— Fwoosh—

He tried using his power repeatedly, but the Radiance never manifested.

Meanwhile, the crack sealed itself flawlessly.

The might of his power had not diminished in the slightest.

Only the trait called Radiance, which appeared whenever he exercised power, had changed.

[Could that creature have...?]

He was startled by the unexpected change for only a moment.

[Ha ha.]

He burst into laughter.

[Ha ha ha ha.]

He had lived for tens of thousands of years, walking all over the world.

During that time, nothing in his life had changed.

Yet crossing a single Boundary had brought about a change.

[Anomaly.]

The mysterious creature to which he had given that name.

His Presence had not fallen; only the trait of his power had changed.

[Could it have stolen the trait of my power rather than merely imitating it?]

More than unpleasant, it was remarkable.

‘What else will it take from me the next time we meet...?’

The moment that thought occurred to him.

[.......]

One possibility came to the Lord's mind.

The hundreds of types of powers within his body.

Each of the powers he had named Authorities contained transcendent energy.

It was a possibility he might never have considered had the Anomaly not taken his Radiance.

[It is an attempt worth making.]

To separate an Authority was to split his very essence.

He put the possibility into action.

It was accompanied by a small measure of pain.

And so.

Before him, a being embodying a single Authority was born.

[Who am I?]

[You are Time.]

[Who are you?]

[The Lord.]

At the long-awaited question, [I am a brother whose Presence is equal to yours.]

The Lord answered with a broad smile.

[Brother.]

Time accepted his words.

[Your name is Cronis.]

Time was only the beginning.

Death, Fire, Encroachment, Creation, Boundary, Barrier, Regeneration, Life, and more.

He separated the countless powers he possessed.

The powers separated first were the stronger ones.

He could see that they would later be called higher Gods.

As the separated Gods came to recognize themselves, the traces of Authorities that had remained within him disappeared.

The futures he had once seen as a matter of course gradually vanished from sight.

Each time a new God was born, his view of the world was renewed; each time he separated an Authority, he became a new being.

It was not an unpleasant feeling.

He had gained the uncertainty he had wanted so dearly.

It was different from the passive uncertainty the Anomaly forced him to feel.

The being who had once been forced to accept tedium became a being who awaited the new.

None of the Gods noticed how he felt.

Each God had been given a duty.

Among them, the duty of Styx, who embodied Boundary, was important.

It would be troublesome if the Anomaly appeared in the world he had begun to cultivate anew.

‘The Anomaly has a trait that takes what belongs to others.’

It had become a major turning point in cultivating the present world, but it was not a creature he wished to admit into that world.

[Styx, guard the Boundary.]

[The Boundary?]

[North of the center of the Continent. There is an unidentified Boundary there.]

He did not say that his visit had created a crack, or that he had sealed it before Styx was born.

[Your power is specialized for guarding that place.]

[Is that so.]

Styx accepted the command without making much of it.

[Murus, your Barrier will help guard Styx.]

[I see. No, I do not.]

For a moment, the many Divinities that made up Murus issued answers of both assent and refusal.

[A Barrier that guards the Boundary. It will not be boring.]

Rational Murus answered on behalf of the others that he would do so.

It was not only Styx and Murus.

Many Divinities received duties from him.

The Gods raised no objections.

They merely trusted and followed without question the words of the brother who was like a parent to them.

Hundreds of Gods were born from his separation.

None could emit Radiance when they used their powers, but the world continued safely.

The insignificant creatures he had once made sometimes went extinct after becoming toys for the Gods, but it was not important.

Creation constantly produced new insignificant creatures in his stead.

The paradise he had made bore sweet fruit.

Unlike when he had been alone, time passed quickly in paradise.

And then.

"Humans are not toys."

One human rose in rebellion.