Spending My Retirement In A Game

"B-But oh great goddess, what do you-" Ambriel exclaimed with a confused, nervous expression. It seemed like they never had the chance to speak to Ari before, and now that it finally came to it, they were being directly reprimanded like this.

And of course, since she seemed rather angry and annoyed, Ari wouldn't give Ambriel any chance to really speak, "What I mean? That you should get off your high horse, that is what I mean. Who are you to believe yourself to be greater than this man? You were born into this position, you were created for it. You didn't have to work for the place you currently are, and you always had the power that you currently do. In what way does this make you better than a man who has spent a hundred thousand years slaving away, working toward a goal that had been forced upon him by a being that he utterly despised?" The Goddess asked, and Ambriel looked back at her, trying to find an answer as quickly as absolutely possible, although they were seemingly stuck, unable to say anything at all.

"Th-That is exactly what makes us better, r-right? We angels and you deities are such great, pure, faultless beings!" The Angel exclaimed with a lot of dedication behind their voice, and Eisen just stood there and watched their back while they were pleading to Ari to be understood so vehemently.

"That is quite a disgusting way to think. You assume that us gods never had to lift a finger? That we didn't have to learn? That we were born into perfection? Of course not, none of us are perfect in the slightest. Not even me, despite what you may think. And the fact that you are saying this is close to heresy, is it not? Daring to try and downplay the efforts of the gods to improve themselves and rise to their current glory."

With a shocked expression, as they seemingly only just now realized what it was they were doing, Ambriel glared down at the ground underneath them. They choked up in a panic as they were searching for words to use. At this point, Eisen nearly felt bad for them. But of corse, that was just for a short instance, since Ambriel wouldn't manage to change all that much this quickly, which they demonstrated within just a few more moments.

"My God-Goddess, of course I am not saying that your efforst were wasted! I... I am saying that the efforts of this man were wasted! Compared to the greatness of the gods, he is merely a speck of dust, and he always will be! Your glory is something that I would never, ever dare insult like this!" Once more, Ambriel was trying to explain what they meant to Ari, although they were just making it worse with every word. Of course, Eisen's ounce of sympathy disappeared instantly with those insults directed at him as well. He wasn't as kind as to ignore it after all that Ambriel had already said.

"...You are a rather young angel, only roughly eighty years old, I assume, so you must not know... But every hundred years, competitions between those that peaked and the deities have been held, simply as a way to... 'keep up'. After all, Eisen grew up amongst many of the gods that you know of. It would be a shame to throw away their friendship like that. Hence, the 'Games of the Gods' were introduced. This was also a way to simply entertain the gods and some of the souls that have been dwelling in these realms for a long time."

Ambriel immediately raised their head, "Ah, yes! I have heard stories about that! The Gods compete against the mortals! And of course, the Gods always won!" The Angel exclaimed smugly, and Ari slowly nodded her head, "Of course, but only as far as the public knew. What I am talking about are the games that the true greater gods participated in, not champions of their choosing." The Goddess explained, and Ambriel seemed rather surprised about that.

Even Eisen was surprised, since he hadn't heart about this. Well, he did briefly remember some parts about a few competitions before, but it didn't seem like such a great deal in those memories. And of course, there was also the part about 'growing up amongst many of the gods', as Ari just mentioned. Somehow, he knew that there were some bits missing when he remembered a couple of the gods, but he hadn't been aware that it was something like... this.

Either way, for now, Eisen chose to continue listening to Ari, considering that he was also pretty interested in what she was trying to say.

"In the true 'Games of the Gods', it was a competition between those that peaked, and the gods that wanted to challenge them. Do you want to know the score of those special games?" Ari inquired, and Ambriel slowly raised their head toward the Great Goddess in anticipation.

"The score is 891 to 43. One 'point' per year the competition was held, clearly. Of course, the side I just named first is the side that this 'speck of dust' you just chose to insult was on. They were competitions of pure skill, of course only held amongst those that were able to display that skill. Eisen was challenged by the Lesser Gods and Goddesses of Craftsmanship, and then even by Silmos, and mostly, the latter faction lost against the old man in any competition of skill. Then, once Brody joined him at the peak, the competition was widened quite a bit. All the Deities underneath Gonor, as well as Gonor himself, as well as Artger and his subordinate deities. Once more, they all lost. Each time that another one of them peaked, more deities joined the competition, until there was no longer a deity that did not want to compete against them." Ari started walking around the hall of gates, as if to increase the dramatic effect of her words.

The old man looked at her with a smile on his face, as if he was happy hearing about something as nostalgic as that, although he didn't even directly remember any of it. Even then, it still somehow made him happy to an extent.

"Of course, there were a couple of years that the side of the gods won, but it was clearly in the minority." Ari admitted, slowly looking to the side with a somewhat wry smile on her face, as if her proud facade had cracked for a single moment, "...And one of those years was because one of Eisen's experiments turned him into a mad, demonic murder-machine that ended up killing everyone but Brody... And that just a few hours before the competition was set to begin..."

"...Eh..?" The old man exclaiemd a bit surprised, "I did that?"

"...You were researching the way how large amounts of different energies could affect living creatures together with Jyuuk, and you of course used yourself as a test-subject... A few hours later, some of the mightiest beings in the world were dead, and a whole mountain-range was wiped out of existence... It's a beautiful canyon now, though..."

"...Sorry?"

"You should be..." Ari admitted with a quiet laugh, showing some of her 'real' personality to him. Of course, it seemed like she had really grown up since the last time that he could vividly remember meeting her, as you would expect, but she luckily wasn't the cold woman that Eisen had seen her be just now, as well as in the trailers that came out before.

"...There is no way..." Ambriel muttered quietly to themselves, completely in shock after that revelation just now. After all, how could it be that five mortals were so much mightier than all of the gods combined? That was clearly impossible, wasn't it?

"...My Dear Angel... What you must not know is that all the greater gods, with some exceptions of course, were mortal at some point. Saying that they grew up beside Eisen was not just some metaphor, I meant it rather literally. A hundred thousand years ago, those that had the fate to turn into gods someday were born. And Eisen was born at the same time. He was an existence made to guide them. He had experiences from a life before, experiences that these soon-to-be deities could very well make use of as well. And so they did, of course." The goddess explained, and both Ambriel and Eisen listened closely, of course with two different reactions that stemmed out of the same basic emotion.

Shock.

Eisen was shocked to hear that his relationship with the gods was one like this, since he had never heard of anything like that.

Meanwhile, Ambriel was shocked to hear that Eisen was supposed to be someone so great. The man that they had looked down upon this whole time. The man that he despised, and called 'disgusting' so many times by now.

But of course, it had to be the truth. It was what Ari, the greatest goddess of them all, had said. There was no way that she would tell a lie like this. Ambriel had to believe it, despite how it seemed so ridiculous to them. The Angel ground their teeth and slowly turned around, glaring at the man that was standing behind them. Eisen himself just looked back with a blank expression. He really cared very little for what Ambriel may be thinking right now. He looked at the Angel and let out a deep sigh.

"Stop staring like that. You heard her. I'm not saying that I'm as great as a god, or that I'm superior to them, or that I'm even as close to them as what Ari just said may make it sound... But what I am saying is that if you keep talking shit like that about mortal beings, I will show you that you are quite mortal yourself, at the end of the day. You've seen me fight, you know that it won't be a good time for you." Eisen said, clearly threatening to kill the Angel, although he wasn't paritcularly sure if this really worked.

Either way, for now, Eisen just stepped past them toward Ari and the gate that it seemed like she had appeared out of herself, "If possible, I would like to speak to you some more as well before leaving." The old man suggested.

Ari looked back at him and slowly nodded her head in response, "Of course, that is why I came here in the first place." She admitted, slowly turning around to follow Eisen to the gate. The two of them stepped through what seemed to be a wall of light, and left behind an Angel filled with hatred and anger.

The perfect emotions to cause some chaos.