***The Crystal City***

***Seria***

I watch Myrm as she notes down her plans for the world’s future. After seeing Ascathon’s progress with converting his first country to his faith, she decided in her usual competitive manner that it would be bad to lack behind. As a direct result, she is now trying her hardest to get herself established in the world by indoctrinating the church of light and any countries which have a strong connection to that particular religious group.

It’s questionable whether she realizes where her actions are leading the world as a whole. I for myself can already predict that this course won’t lead us into a bright and happy future. As a result, I will probably have to change my plans and be flexible.

After a while of staring at her, I allow my eyes to wander through Myrm’s office. It’s empty, except for a few folders on her desk and a large plant in the left corner of the room which Myrm used as a hatstand to store her new, shiny helmet.

I was a little surprised when I found out that Myrm’s office is just a storey beneath mine and uncomfortably close to Ascathon’s. After their initial meeting, I really do hope that they don’t run across each other on the corridor. But that’s not what surprised me the most. It’s the fact that Tjenemit considers Myrm – a newcomer – worthy enough to give her an office in the Crystal City’s administration complex. Which is a grouping of large buildings with several floors, housing everything the Council needs to keep the rest of the multiverse in check.

What did Myrm do to warrant such a special treatment? Normally, it takes centuries for even talented gods to be acknowledged. She ascended just a few decades ago and only came to the Council’s attention within the last year. Something must have happened which I wasn't told about. I would have preferred it if she stayed completely beneath their radar, but what’s done is done. Having her work for the Council is better than to have her hunted down and taken care of.

At last, Myrm puts down her pen and focuses her attention on me. “Did you only pay me a visit in order to watch me work?”

“Not exactly,” I reply nonchalantly and invite myself to sit down in the visitor’s chair, facing her. Smiling, I swing one bare leg over the other while tugging and twirling a lock of my blonde hair, careful to correct the hem of my blue dress. I just acquired it, and it would be a shame if it were to get any wrinkles so soon.

Most of this posturing is aimed at teasing Myrm, who seems to have abandoned all femininity in this particular reincarnation. Most of that is my own fault for messing with her mind. Dad always said that I should work on my soul magic, or I would someday mess something up that I wasn’t able to fix. That’s what I get for not listening to him.

I just hope that I'll get another chance.

Done with setting myself up, I explain the reason for my presence, “I actually want to consult you regarding two projects I am working on. Up until now, I spent a great deal of my time on gathering resources for my plan. It feels like I am ready to leave the planning phase in another few centuries, hopefully going for actual execution.”

“So long?” Myrm furrows her forehead. “I knew that you are one of the oldest gods, but to learn that you are also patient enough to plan something that takes centuries is somewhat frightening. It sounds like you are planning something huge. Are you sure that I can be of any help?”

Actually, my plans span over millennia, but that’s not important for this discussion. The less she knows, the less risk I take. One wrong word and she might remember something I don’t want her to. I wave her off. “Oh, please. I just want a few directions. Give me your best advice and I will be happy, especially since I have next to no expertise in the field. You see, I want to create my own world-”

“Create your own world!?” Myrm exclaims with more than a little shock in her voice.

“Yes, if I could please describe the problem to you without being interrupted?” I try to steer us back on course. “Many gods create their own worlds. I’ve inquired about various methods of going about such a task, but none of them strike me as easy to accomplish for someone with my set of skills. I am new to this and I don’t want to involve other parties.”

“So am I,” Myrm replies. “But if you really don’t want to involve others, then it will be hard. Very hard in fact. Even for someone who can move planets with a thought. What do you plan to do about the normal reincarnation cycle? Even if you create a planet for yourself, with your own population of mortals, it would take just a few generations until more immortals or even gods are reincarnated on this world.”

Who says that the planet’s population will consist of mortals? Mortals won’t help me to reshape the multiverse. “Yes. I know that it will be hard. Don’t worry about the reincarnation problem. I think that I have a solution for that. It’s not perfect, but satisfying in my eyes. There still will be quite a few obstacles in my path, but I heard that you have quite some experience with biology and medicine.”

She narrows her eyes. “You did?”

Oops. Have I said too much? “Yeah, I think you mentioned it once? Anyway, I don’t want to do everything from the ground up, so I thought about taking some dead rock, putting it into the right distance to some sun, and throwing random organisms onto the new world. Would that work? Someone mentioned that I would need a lot of luck to succeed that way, but I don’t care if I fail the first few times.”

Myrm purses her lips. “Probably not. At least not if you are unwilling to wait for several million years for the introduced microorganisms to evolve into higher life-forms. You would have to ensure that the organisms you let free are sturdy enough to survive the environment. Just dumping random stuff onto a dead world will result in nothing more than a giant mess of rotting bio-matter.”

“Ah, so how should I do it then?” I ask.

She leans back in her chair, considering the issue. “The least you would have to do would be to pick out suitable lifeforms for your world’s ecosystem, make sure that there is enough water and gases in the environment to ensure a working biosphere. If you would get yourself a gene-splicer, that would make things much easier. If there is something you want to have on your world, you just have to strengthen the specimen with something that has no issues surviving in a hostile environment.”

She launches into a long and detailed explanation of how she would try it without having detailed knowledge on biology. Time passes, and before I know it I am being fed several possible scenarios with an at least decent chance of success.

Hmm. The one I like the most is making use of a virus. So I would probably have to splice most of what I want to have on my world with demon-genes? They are the sturdiest creatures I know of. If there would be a ranking ladder for survivalists, demons would even beat cockroaches. Adding other races like beastkin might also give them the necessary boost for survival in a hostile environment.

Come to think of it, wouldn’t it be much easier to pay some technologically advanced culture to do the work for me? I could have them devise a short-lived virus that does the work for me, so that I can pick the specimen I want without worrying too much.

I said that I don’t want any other parties involved, but that only meant that I don’t want to reveal the location of the planet. Who would ever find out if I went to a technologically advanced part of the multiverse and paid the mortals there to engineer a suitable virus? The mortal world changes from moment to moment from a god’s point of view. Our timescale is simply too different from theirs. I can store the virus until my plans come to fruition. By the time I actually go to the execution phase, the mortals who created the virus will be long gone and any proof will have vanished in the currents of time.

No indication that I am up to something, no questions.

I take a deep breath to calm myself for the next questions. “That sounds like good advice. Now… regarding some relationship issues I have.” Myrm isn’t allowed to realize that I actually want information on her.

“Relationship issues?” She raises both eyebrows, looking intrigued. “You are acting really strange today. I am probably the last person you should consult regarding relationship troubles. I am single, and will probably always be one.”

Trying to sound embarrassed, I clear my throat. “Just give me a different perspective. I myself seem to be eternally alone.” I am so desperate, I even fuck a random succubus to get rid of the itch.

Truly pathetic!

“There are two people with opposing affinities who have a really bad time with each other, but they already showed me that they work really well together. I want to help them because they were such a nice couple while it worked out between them. The problem is that anything I try to do seems to make it worse. Even with all my years, I am at my wit's end. And believe me, I tried everything! From dates, to romance, to hunting expeditions...”

“Opposing affinities? And they work well with each other?” Myrm asks, sounding not convinced. “Are you sure that they have opposing affinities? That would be like throwing fire and ice into the same pot. It sounds unlikely that it will ever work out.”

I shrug. “But I’ve seen them with my own eyes. They are like fire and ice, that’s true, but they complement each other. It’s just that they currently seem to be having a domestic quarrel.”

“It’s not that I don’t believe you. Maybe you just missed something obvious? I can only say that I haven’t ever seen two people falling in love without some common interest,” Myrm explains. “Are you sure that they really have nothing in common?”

Scratching my chin, I consider it. Hopefully, I won’t give too much away by mentioning this tiny detail. “It could be that they are overlapping a tiny bit in the blue sector. To a degree, they are both scholars, though they pursue different fields.”

Ascathon prefers red, black and blue magic, while Myrm sticks to her proven body strengthening techniques, utilizing green, white and blue magic.

Her internal mana manipulation makes it really hard for her to cast and control external magic, but that is a small price to pay for what she can do with all her power released. She turns into an almost invincible fighter. A superwoman with the ability to punch and obliterate a mountain with a single swing of her fist.

Myrm shrugs. “Then there you have it. While they worked in harmony with each other, they probably shared a goal or had a common enemy. People with a blue affinity are often very rational and tend to put logic before their feelings. Just create a situation that allows them no other logical choice than to join forces. Once they are forced to spend time with each other, things will naturally run their course if you are right and they indeed complete each other.” She smiles, happy about her witty advice.

I feel my own expression freeze up. “Are you telling me that putting them into a nice, romantic environment had just the opposite effect of what I wanted to achieve? That I should have thrown them into a war-zone, with an enemy that didn’t care about either of their lives?”

“For sure.” Myrm huffs. “In a peaceful environment, they would have talked to each other and realized that their opinions and goals are diametrically opposed, which would have automatically ruled out the other side as a partner. They would have spoken a few words and deemed the other side unfit for further consideration. The only way for two such individuals to work together is to have a goal they can agree on.”

“Botheration!” Could it really be that easy?

***The World***

***Ascathon***

“Ah!” I strike Luxley’s hand with my educational pointer, a long piece of sturdy reed. He flinches and his spell collapses without activating.

“What did I tell you about activating the second layer of the spell matrix too early?” I ask.

He rubs his hand, where a red mark is forming which soon will definitely turn into a bruise. “That it’s really, really bad,” he answers like a petulant child, his eyes wandering through the throne room and to his adviser, an old man who is apparently supposed to be something like a court-mage.

I follow Luxley’s eyes, glaring at the old man who is currently slacking around and doing nothing. When he notices my attention, he quickly returns to his cleaning duties with a mop and a bucket, taking care of Luxley’s failed attempts at resurrecting a corpse.

Some of the king’s earliest attempts at spell-casting weren’t pretty, but he is improving. In fact, he may be a natural genius at necromancy. Even if it didn’t seem like it was intentional, but Luxley bungled his Reanimation spell and came up with an accidental version of Corpse Explosion.

“Why don’t you teach him?” Luxley points at the old man. “He is my court-mage. That’s why I hired him.”

Pursing my lips, I study the elder who shrinks in on himself when my attention lands on him. As I understood it, he got a pretty thorough beating from Myrm when he tried to stop the god of order from taking down the castle.

I turn back to Luxley. “Is he supposed to be king? Or you?”

“I am the king!” Luxley sputters. “How can you even question that?”

“Oh, good!” I whack him with my reed. “Because it seemed for a moment like the king of a growing nation didn’t want to train his magic, and through it, his mind.” I whack him again. “It sounded like you intended to rule this country with nothing more than your right of birth and the help of your loyal subjects.”

“J- just stop it!” The king jumps back, narrowly avoiding a third whacking.

I wonder whether he is getting too used to me. He certainly never tried to avoid punishment before. Pointing a finger at him, I zap Luxley with a little lightning bolt.

“Ow!” He jumps. “Why are you so adamant about me learning magic? I am a ruler! My job is to rule the kingdom, not casting spells.”

Tapping my pointer against my chin, I consider the question. “It’s because knowledge is power and power is needed to rule a nation. Magic requires knowledge to be used properly. If I put you in charge of my followers, I want you to be a powerful ruler.”

Luxley takes a deep breath.

“Ah!” Waving my stick at him, I stop him from interrupting me. “You, Luxley. Right now, you are worse than vermin. You sit in your castle and at the first sign of attack, you have to run away from your own subjects. Up until now you just wielded power, you didn’t have it. And someone who just wields power isn’t much more than a brute with too many muscles.

“The ancient Mirai understood that. The necromantic priests invested most of their time in study and improving themselves. They had others supervise the nation according to their wishes. And in the rare instances in which they had to leave their studies, they had the power to lay down the law. You are really talented, Luxley. I don’t know how it happened, but somehow your family lost all their heritage and just look where it brought you before I arrived.”

“I am nothing more than a pawn to you,” he grumbles.

“Yes,” I nod. “A useful pawn who would do very well in staying useful. So, how about we continue with the lessons?”

I watch Luxley as he tries another reanimation.

Come to think of it, I haven’t taken account of Karin’s growth in a while. Maybe I should organize a little field trip for her to practice her skills. Somewhere off-planet where she isn’t at risk of being found by an over-eager Council member.

I nod when Luxley manages to revive another corpse without creating a big mess. Surprisingly, he also manages to give it some basic commands. It gives me hope that he might actually be able to pull off a full resurrection, soul included, with a reasonable amount of training. It isn’t like Luxley is stupid. He had more education than any other citizen in his country. Just not the right kind.

Seeing that he has the spell under control, I instruct him to continue training with the other bodies and walk over to the so-called adviser. “You.”

“Yes?” He stops scrubbing the floor.

“You are still in charge of the kingdom’s information network, right?” I ask.

He nods.

“Tell me what’s going on in the world. Think of it as if I have been absent for the last month,” I instruct in a brisk voice.

The old man furrows his forehead in confusion but complies. “Your Order of Chaos is spreading your teachings through the kingdom, though some of these reformations will take time to accomplish. Many of the surrounding countries joined us without much of a fuss, as their religious followers acknowledged our leadership thanks to the Order. And the fact that you seem to be very persuasive when you appear in front of their royalty in person.

“There are rumours that an opposition to our coalition is forming in the northern hemisphere. They apparently worship Myrm, though no reliable information managed to get past the Great Blight in the centre of the continent. Apart from a few airships, there is little trade and traffic over such long distances. All the information we get is second-hand reports.”

“I see.” Maybe I'll be forced to take actions faster than I want to. “Thanks for the update, please, go on with your cleaning duties.”

“Yes, Sir.”