As though shedding an unneeded part of oneself, the system error discarded her appearance and unveiled her true form.

This was not a ‘transformation’... no, it would be more accurate by far to state that she was merely returning to how she had always been meant to be. Much akin to a Cheshire cat, discarding its guise of a house cat and unveiling its true, toothy grin, the girl who stood perpendicular to the very axis of the world itself finally showed her honest feelings.

On her face was a devilish smirk that held not a single emotion other than contempt.

“Ahh… Finally, you show your true face, my friend.”

The demon king, ruling over his boundless black, could not keep a smile off his own beastly lips.

In that space devoid of anything, only four entities existed, each of which desired one thing more than anything else. Yet one of them was already in possession of that very thing.

“Stay away… Stay away, stay away, stay away, stay away! Don’t come even a single atom closer!”

Though the voice was no doubt familiar, there was an unprecedented amount of expression in it—this was not a girl like a doll, who one might mistake for artificial if she didn’t blink. This was a girl shouting from the depths of despair and all-consuming fear. The Ahura called Entropy had long crumbled, and its consciousness had returned to the main body. The Prism.

The ruler of this world, sitting atop her multicoloured Throne, commanded that very Throne to defend her from the demon king’s attack, almost subconsciously. The darkness he had sent at her to break to pieces that very Throne managed to shatter and reduce to dust several universes, but in the end, because of the Throne’s pulse of pure killing intent, she was unharmed, quivering though she was. That same pulse of killing intent would have instantly pulverised any unworthy challengers, but unfortunately for her, everyone who had assembled more than had a right to the Throne.

“Aah… It pains my heart to see you like this, my love, but please, would you not give up your childish dream of eternal solitude? I do not believe it will grant you any happiness.”

The demon king spoke, true sympathy in his wretched voice, but the only response he got was more panicked shouting.

“Mmh… I’m not entirely sure I agree with what Asty’s saying, but the root of it all is true—your world sucks! I’ll break it apart even if I have to destroy this entire system, En!”

The glitch shouted at the world’s true ruler, more than a little irritation in her voice, and, at least in her own, broken mind, that was entirely reasonable.

A world of eternal isolation. That was the fundamental nature of ‘Grand Atlas’.

And, importantly, ‘Grand Atlas’ did not encompass just the one planet the demon king and the goddess of light had been fighting over.

Every single world that had ever existed, along with its gods, its inhabitants, everything.

The space between worlds. The three fundamental forces that inhabited it—Mephistopheles, who would devour everything, Obsidian, which had lent the demon king its strength, and Gold, the origin of the goddess of light.

YHWH, along with the world he ruled.

From the start to the end, it had all spawned from the prismatic girl’s selfish, reckless, egotistical wish.

What could bring further isolation than being in an entirely different dimension from any other source of life?

Not even she herself could properly remember what had first given birth to this wish, but in any case, she wished to be alone. If one never met anyone, there would never be any goodbyes. If one never became friends with anyone, there would never be a falling out.

With that extremely simple, exceedingly naive, painfully childish train of thought, she had once claimed the Throne and created a world exactly as she wanted it.

Eternal isolation for everyone and everything. With this, no one would ever be saddened again.

And yet.

And yet, and yet, and yet.

Any system was bound to have errors. And the larger and more complex the system, the more complicated and far-reaching those errors would be.

With a system as large and complex as the Throne, which allowed its owner to govern over all of reality with so much as a thought, such a flaw would be absolutely fatal.

It had grown large enough to possess a will of its own, and it was sick and tired of this world.

To be eternally alone would be a heaven only for an extreme select few people. To anyone else, it would be eternal torment.

Thus, she had pilgrimaged across worlds, seeking for a person who could embody that opposition.

And finally, she had found one. In the world that contained the Prism’s Ahura, there was also the very embodiment of the Prism’s exact opposite.

And so, she had befriended him, she had introduced him to that Ahura, and she had set them up against one another—

And yet, here she was, getting involved herself.

What was this? This wasn’t what she had planned.

She would not accept this kind of ending. This carried not a single bit of the emotional weight she had sought to create… of a pair of ages-old friends, at each other’s throats and truly out to murder each other.

She had gone so far as to create others like herself to put up a more convincing front as ‘the world’s assistants’—the truth of the race called Grimalkins was truly so simple.

Similarly simple was the truth of the beast-people, who she had also created, in merely an attempt to try and unify the world a little.

But…

This wasn’t what she had planned at all. Not even close. And yet, even so…

She found her heart was beating like a war drum. Her blood rushed through her veins faster than ever before, her artificial synapses firing with excitement—

Excitement? Excitement?!

What kind of feeling was that?! Absurd! A time like this, and she was feeling excited?!

Ahh, but… this was the first time she had truly felt anything other than dreariness in thousands of years.

Perhaps this alternate finale was not such a bad thing?

“You fuckers…”

A voice, as though crawling up from the depths of hell, filled with righteous indignation.

“Don’t you forget about me!”

The goddess of light.

Brought about by the schemes of the bug? Psh. Who gives a crap about that?!

Her feelings were real, even if her birth was planned, and she was going to prove she was more than just a stand-in for a cat-eared coward who didn’t dare to include herself in her plans!

And looking at this all, the demon king—no, Faith embodied…

“Hahahaha…”

Couldn’t hide his elation. Truly, he was excited. Beastly laughter echoed from his mouth across all reality, reverberating with his very soul.

Since the very first time he’d met Cyci… at the very least, in his latest life, the foremost thought relating to her had been that she was the only creature in existence capable of standing up to him.

And so, here she was, doing just that. Give her the Throne? Not a chance.

In the first place, he wouldn’t let anyone kill the Prism. That would all but invalidate his entire goal and everything he stood for.

He wished to dethrone her, yes, but ultimately, that was for her own sake.

He would make her happy, even if he had to force the issue a little.

Emanation -

“Aka Manah—”

And thus, with each of their thoughts, the four Gods once more collected their feelings and sung their odes to their own souls.

In this vast world -

“Grand Atlas—”

The Prism.

“Execute command—”

The bug.

I shall guide ye to the path of light -

“Iter Luminis—”

The goddess of light.

Out with the old, in with the new -

“Exitium de Antiquis—”

And Faith.

The incantations were completed, all at once—

Keep your hands off me!

“Noli me Tangere!”

Error-type: illegal system access detected!

“Error Code 37564!”

For I am God!

“Quia Ego Deus!”

We shall keep only the cast!

“Dramatis Personae!”

The multi-coloured violence clashed with itself, tearing asunder whatever unfortunate universes happened to be in the middle.

Fundamentally, the system error was born out of opposition to the Throne, so it was her attack, a bomb of pure faulty logic, that proved the most threatening to the Throne’s possessor.

So, in response, the Prism raised her hand, commanding the Grand Cosmos to defend her by condensing all nearby stars into a single point to form an immediate black hole. As a followup, she immediately sent that black hole forward in an attempt to tear the system error limb from limb.

Faith, meanwhile, was made of pure, concentrated darkness, so in his eyes, the attack from the goddess of light posed the biggest threat—so he decided to call in help.

“Come forth, my loyal soldiers! Knights of the Black Army!”

With his Apostles at the forefront, his Legion manifested behind him, a giant, swirling mass of blackened souls. Immediately, the Abyssal Princess Knight rushed forth, and rather than absorbing the attack of the goddess of light, or even dodging it, she drew her sword and reflected it right back.

The Prism, from the corner of her eye, noticed this, and got an idea—

Raising her hand, she called forth her elemental goddesses, the guardians of her perfect, heavenly Grand Atlas. The belief that she had created them, she now recalled, was entirely incorrect—in truth, they originated from whatever world she had lived in before claiming the Throne for herself, though she had long discarded the memory of whatever role they might have had.

“Keep them off me!” she commanded, and the goddesses obeyed, their ears twitching with delight as they were finally able to unleash their full power once more, just like they had done so many millennia ago to claim this Throne in the first place.

The goddess of fire rushed at the system error, her fists clad in flames that burned away the very space she was speeding through, but before she could reach her target, she found herself hit by another’s flames—one of Faith’s Apostles, the Imperial Red Darkness Dragon, had just shot her. More than a little annoyed, she changed targets, though the dragon she was targeting knew her strengths well, rushing backwards while she continued to shoot flame after flame.

In the goddess of fire’s place, this time, it was the goddess of wind who rushed forth, blades of hurricanes in hand, dashing around the system error’s cages of faulty code one after another.

The goddess of earth simply faded away, and soon reappeared right behind the goddess of light—but before she could smash the other goddess overhead with her hammer that could smash a planet to dust and break a universe in half, the goddess of light turned around, engaging her with her divine blade. Nominally, she possessed the commanding authority over the four elemental goddesses, but in practice, that was easily overruled using the Prism’s brutish, overwhelming power.

The goddess of water, meanwhile, was stolen away before she could even attempt anything—the child who had freed her was now demanding her attention with a violent dance of the sword meant to tear her head from her body, and that same child’s brother possessed the potential to squash her with a single strike.

“Gh…!”

The Prism found herself more than a little annoyed that her newly gained war potential was stolen away so easily, but given another of Faith’s Apostles was coming her way, she lacked the time to think much of it. The assault this time came from the Miracle Slime, who, with her power to immediately, fundamentally eradicate anything she touched, was a threat even to the possessor of the Throne. Thus, no reaction could be allowed other than completely eradicating the Apostle before she could do the same.

With a simple incantation, she gave another order to the Throne, and the universe obeyed her whims.

Hundreds, if not thousands of worlds aligned, surrounding the slime and, simultaneously, all performed the same action.

The Big Crunch.

The exact opposite of the Big Bang that occurred when a world was brought into being, this was a world collapsing in on itself, reduced into a building block not more than the size of a single atom.

The slime was torn to millions of little shreds, and yet, as her title as a Miracle Slime implied, she manipulated probability itself to allow even a single cell of herself to survive. Though her attack had failed, the counterattack had also failed, and within seconds, she was back up to full power, the energy of her Lord’s Aka Manah coursing through her body.

This time, it was the vampiric Apostle’s turn to launch an assault, and as her target, she picked the one she had the strongest grudge against. Enhancing her speed allowed her to surpass even the concept of speed itself—she attained true omnipresence, and used it to slice at the system error’s body from every single existing angle simultaneously, for she was the girl who had ‘betrayed’ her Lord, and had been lying to him from the very start.

But a simple manipulation of variables was all it took to dodge such an attack—a single line of faulty code and the purple girl was several universes over, and the vampire’s surekill attack had failed to land a single hit. However, she failed to account for the true meaning of the concept ‘omnipresence’—even in her new location, she was mercilessly rained upon by sword-slashes, requiring her to relocate once more.

The Prism, meanwhile, turned her attention back to Faith, and decided to use a different part of the authority the Throne bestowed onto her—not her specialty, spatial manipulation, but the part that governed over souls.

Fundamentally speaking, quality trumped quantity, but where the Throne was involved, any equation could be flipped on its head—if quality trumped quantity to a certain extent, then the answer was overwhelming quantity. With a single incantation, she sent billions upon billions of souls his way, like condensed comets of pure energy.

Yet again, an Apostle stepped forth to defend Faith—this time, the maddened witch, her face half made of scar tissue, summoned forth an endless army of mechanical soldiers with which to counter the Prism’s endless army of hurriedly-created souls.

In name, this was a fight between three God-candidates, each vying for the Throne, and the current, ruling God, but in truth, simplifying it to that level was not only unwise, but also dishonest.

Not only did the Prism possess her Legion of elemental goddesses and did Faith have his Legion of soldiers, that very Faith was fighting with a handicap—piercing the Prism’s heart or lopping off her head constituted not a victory, but a loss, since his entire goal was her happiness.

And yet, the system error couldn’t claim the Throne even if she managed to slay the Prism—her very origin as a flaw in the Throne’s system meant she could never truly acquire administrative authority, even if she planted her ass on the Throne. At most, it would break apart and cease to function, and since whatever had created it had long been painted over by the Throne’s very function, that would only leave a world of nothing, which managed to be even worse than the very world of isolation she was born to destroy. Thus, she, too, was fighting with a handicap—a massacre constituted a loss.

Despite… no, exactly because of the overwhelming superiority of every combatant involved, this was a stalemate, and if they continued like this, it was doomed to last forever.

And thus, Faith came to a conclusion.

This wouldn’t end. As long as it remained a four-way fight, this wouldn’t end.

So then, the solution was to make one faction overwhelmingly stronger.

He needed to fundamentally rethink his approach. The physical appearance of the Throne had driven an idea into his head that was now interfering with his ability to plan an outcome he desired.

Which was to say, the idea that there could only be one person atop the omnipotent Throne.

Where had he even gotten that idea? Certainly, there was no one who had told him any such thing.

The Prism’s desperation to cling to her Throne, though her world was less than perfect, was very understandable. To begin with, she had created this world out of either fear, or anxiety, or another, similar feeling—taking it from her by force would accomplish nothing.

It had taken entirely too long, but finally, he had realised that much. So, then, what was the solution?

To begin with, what would his world even be like? He could not even begin to imagine what a world focused entirely on one other person would be like… but, come to think of it, he could not imagine it would actually be a very nice place.

And thus, using his natural darkness to his advantage, he penetrated her colours and arrived at her side, their colours mingling and mixing around him.

With a fearful jolt, she turned to the person who had just arrived at her side without warning.

“Wh-what do you want?”

With a glare and a quick incantation, she wrapped him in chains made of pure, solidified space. Her rainbow-coloured eyes, though more fierce in expression than her Ahura had ever shown, trembled in fear.

Faith, meanwhile, also trembled, but not in fear—instead, he trembled in trepidation at, this time, truly being so close to his beloved goddess.

“I come here not to rob you of your throne, my love,” he said, narrowing his features into a smirk.

“You’re giving up? Good. I like you, so I’ll l-let you be my pet, at least-”

“Aah, pleasant as that would be, I will have to refrain. Neither you nor I are very suitable to possess the Throne, you see.”

The Prism narrowed her eyes, and with them, the chains.

“Then what?”

“I have a… proposal.”

“P-proposal?”

It was quite clear he meant the word in the diplomatic sense, but for just a moment, she let her thoughts drift to the sort that had often happened in her many universes. A white dress, combined with eternal matrimony with one’s beloved partner—

No, considering the contents of his offer, perhaps that wasn’t entirely off, either.

After all, what he said next was—

“Please, be mine. I shall be by your side forever and ever, always ensuring your happiness first and foremost… so would you not grant half of that Throne to me?”

Without missing a beat, her face flushed bright red. But the feelings her Ahura had harboured for the demon king, the memories it had built with him, they overlapped with the true Prism, filling her heart with joy…

She released the chains, took his hand and pressed her lips to his, and instantly, the two strongest factions in the conflict conjoined into one.

The twin Throne of Paravandeh had been born.

“Wh- You’re kiddin’ me, you two!”

The system error cried out in grief as she saw her carefully constructed plans fall apart before her very eyes…

“D… Don’t you fuck with meeeeeee!”

… And the goddess of light yelled out in anger and envy as that which she would never have was so blatantly thrust before her.

But against the Throne, now lorded by two Gods and their Legions, neither the system error nor the goddess of light could prove victorious. Having thoroughly, utterly destroyed the old world and left the canvas of the universe blank, it was now time for the colours of Paravandeh to paint the cosmos.

A new world, with the love between the Prism and Faith as its foundation.

Lamenting that not only had her plans been turned to dust, but she wouldn’t even get to experience her long-awaited new world, the system error drifted through the empty cosmos, sure she would be painted over any second… She no longer possessed the kind of strength she had been saving, that would allow her to persist through a change in laws. After all, she had just expended it in that exhilarating four-way melee.

But before that could happen, Faith picked her up, setting her down next to his Legion.

“Eh…?”

“Come now. Did you think I would forget you? You are, after all, my first and greatest friend, Cyci. Both the first friend of Astaroth Avasia… and the first friend of Astaroth, king of demons and God of Faith.”

She was baffled. Absolutely dumbstruck.

But more than that…

A happy, idiotic smile drifted to her face. The Gods of the new world welcomed her with open arms, not as a system error to be squashed, but as Cyci.

A new world, founded on the twin laws of “I won’t experience emotional torment” and “I will make my goddess happy”... Surely, Paravandeh was going to be a pleasant ride.