Epilogue - Choiceless

“Wh...What?!? The Creator!” If I had a body, my heart would’ve stopped in that instant, piss travelling down my legs. From the books I’d read about him, you really don’t want to meet this guy. Even when he helps you out, you usually wind up going through hell.

“Kakakakaka, Too bad! I think if he had a body he’d have fainted already, the sight of a young Raiju fainting would’ve done me good.” The creator, “Alright, tell him the plan Yama I’m running out of time.”

I noticed a suspicious smile on Shiva’s face as Yama suddenly woke up, seeming to recover from a trance similar to one I had recently been in.

Shaking himself, I couldn’t help but notice his flushed cheeks and surprise at seeing all of us looking at him. “Ri...Right” He said, regaining his control. So, you aren’t the only newborn god who is having trouble figuring out what to do with him/herself. Unfortunately, our galaxy is already pretty well managed. Honestly, we have too many gods. This situation seems to occur fairly frequently, after all with trillions upon trillions of souls all cultivating trying to break from from the bonds of mortal life, they will eventually evolve. The problem is, we have a limited number of godly positions available, and without a position it’s extremely hard to gather divine power. Worse, it’s boring! The only thing more dangerous than a bored god is a hoard of them! As the overpopulation issue keeps increasing, there will eventually be a war. Half the galaxy will probably be destroyed, and father will be forced to step in to stop the war and rebuild the galaxy… again.”

“We are frankly getting tired of this shit, it keeps happening over and over again. We’ve been at a loss as to how to deal with it for a long time. Then, you came along. A god without a body, yet able to move freely in his soul form. You are unique, even father has never seen someone like you before. Able to survive not one, but two baptism’s in your soul form. Not to mention eating so many Seeds of Life without exploding. You offered us a special challenge, because it was obvious that you needed to be reincarnated. It’s impossible to gather divine power in your current state, and all you can really do is float around the elemental sea’s unless we find you a body. Now, this wouldn’t be the first time that a god has been reincarnated, that’s easy. It’s just that you need a vessel that has insanely high affinities to both Lightning and Fire; otherwise your soul will eventually absorb too much essence, too quickly and blow yourself up…. as you’ve done a few times now that I think about it. There just isn’t a mortal body out there that has those affinities naturally!”

“I was talking it over with the council for a while, and we suddenly had a spark of genius… what if we gathered all of the powerful souls, the reincarnated gods and people on the verge of godhood and put them all on one massive planet! This way, after a while someone who has undergone the Fire Baptism will mate with someone who has undergone the Lightning Baptism! That should create a body that we can shoehorn you into somehow.”

“While you were busy” *Ahem* “playing around on that mortal world, I let the word out. Well, quite a few god’s have already approached me about reincarnating there, and I’ve begun collecting powerful souls who show up at the courthouse to flesh out the population as well offering various immortal beasts the chance to move there when it’s completed.”

“Of course, we had to get father’s permission to build this place, only he has the authority to build a new universe. Especially since this universe is going to have to be insanely close to the Elemental Sea’s in order to work. The Essence requirements for that many powerful souls cultivating in one place are astounding.”

“It was at that point that we realized that we couldn’t build anymore universes. There are a limited number of sun’s allowed in each galaxy, and we’re at capacity. Which is understandable given the population issues we have. If we could’ve built more universes we wouldn’t have this problem. So, we decided that instead of building a new universe from scratch we’d move one. You wouldn’t know about it, but your old library has made quite the impact on society there. The average cultivation level has skyrocketed, and new immortals are cropping up all over the place. We thought that it’d be poetic justice for us to use the world where you first became a legend.”

“So, what do you need me for?” I asked, “It seems like you’ve already decided to build the place and how you’re going to do it.”

“Simple, I’m going to use all of the essence you got from those Seeds of Life to move your old universe over and rebuild it a bit.” Said the Creator.

“Wait, won’t that kill me?” I asked, freaking out. I really don’t like where this is going! I tried to back up but found I couldn’t move.

“Nah, it’ll just hurt worse than anything you’ve ever experienced before, and knock you out for a few thousand years.”

“WAIT!!! Don’t I get to say no?”

“Why would I ask for your opinion? You’re but a babe, not even a hundred thousand years old yet. Trust Grandpa, it’s for your own good! Now, this will hurt a bit, but don’t worry it’ll be over quickly. ”

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

I felt as though my entire being had been ripped to shreds, my soul descending into hibernation yet again.

The last thing I saw was the image of Solaris, Overlord of Fire transforming into an enormous Phoenix and rushing to me. While Raiju transformed and started yelling at the creator.... Huh? Wait, why does he look exactly like that damned Mutant-Wolf! “Why did you have to do that too my son, father!? You could’ve at least explained to him why it was necessary!”

My vision faded to black, a familiar warmth spreading through my soul, it reminded me of my mom from the Spirit Plane. The voices fading away into nothingness, the sound of the creator’s laughter rocking me to sleep… “KAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKA”