After another minute or so of flying, Jocelyn slowed down and we started to descend. Roughly estimating our destination from the angle of our descent, I saw that we were moving toward a small cottage in a clearing surrounded by gentle trees. Next to the cottage was a gorgeous and clear pond, above which lingered strange clusters of light drifting here and there.

We gently landed in the clearing and I sighed in admiration as I took in the pristine sights. Like everything else I’d seen thus far on Meridian, everything was vibrant. The trees were a motley of fresh greens spotted with crisp browns and oranges. The pond was so crystalline and pure that the soft sand and brustling foliage at the base were clearly visible. Creatures drifted through the water in all kinds of shapes and sizes. There were little goldfish amidst octopi, clams, sharks, dolphins, krakens, submarines, a few subaquatic cities, some humanoid blue creatures, and many other things.

As I examined the pond further, I felt a strange sense of incongruity. I moved my eyes further and further in but I couldn’t seem to reach the end of the space. When I couldn’t find the end, I forcefully tore my eyes away from it, and then I heard Jocelyn laugh. Turning to face her, I found her covering her mouth with a clawed hand.

Sensing the question that I was about to ask, she waved her hand toward the pond and started to explain. “Borders and edges work a little differently in Meridian. This world is the place where all time, all space, all dimensions, and everything like that meets. Throughout the world, you’ll find localized spatial pockets and dimensions such as that one. For your reference, this particular pond contains roughly four times more water than the planet Earth that you came from.”

That’s… incredible? It honestly felt too surreal to me. Or maybe I was just getting used to seeing things that I didn’t know were possible? I examined the pond again briefly before turning my attention to the cottage.

“Is that building also a spatial pocket or localized dimension or whatever?”

“Nope!”

She clicked two of her claws together and the door swung outward. Holding the door ajar, she motioned for me to go inside.

I stepped into the doorway and paused to take in the room. In the cramped area, there were three individuals seated around a small table with six chairs. The table took up half the room and the chairs took up another third, leaving very little space for walking.

Like the conference room I had visited before when I first became an Overseer, each of the chairs had a name engraved on it.

Jocelyn, Dallin, Loki, and Mumblegrumble. The sixth chair had a blurred-out word written on it.

When I first saw the name Loki, I had briefly considered the possibility that it was the same Loki I heard about from Norse myths back on Earth. Seeing the god in front of me, though, I somehow doubted they were the same person.

Its body was the size and shape of an adult human male, but it had a dark cloak wrapped around its shoulders and a hood covering its face. The only thing visible beneath the cowl was a starry void, swirling and squirming behind a thin wall of glass.

Next to Loki sat Mumblegrumble, the Strange One. If I had to guess based on stories that existed on Earth, the writhing mass of tentacles sitting there would be one of the ‘eldritch’ that Jocelyn mentioned earlier. I saw no eyes, ears, mouth, or any other distinctive features other than writhing tentacles moving about in a circular pattern.

The final god over our world, Dallin, sat on the edge of the table in front of his seat. This was a form that I recognized as I had seen it many times when I was on Earth. The regal appearance, the soft fur, the small body, and the horrendously annoying bark were all well-known features of these creatures.

Dallin was a chihuahua.

Jocelyn prodded me in the back. “Are you not going in?”

I stepped all the way into the cottage and moved toward my seat which was between Dallin and Jocelyn. I proudly observed the name engraved onto my chair: Legion.

Taking a moment to pull back Jocelyn’s chair for her, I was the last to take my seat.

“Welcome to World Conference for World 6!” Jocelyn cried out enthusiastically, her mandibles clicking together erratically as she raised her claws in the air.

Seeing the motion, I ducked my head down before remembering that she probably couldn’t even hit me.

“First, I would like to introduce our newest member, since Mumblegrumble and Loki didn’t come to our recent emergency conference.”

She nodded toward me and I raised my hand in a little half-wave before reaching back to rub the back of my neck sheepishly.

“My name is Legion. I’m still new to this Overseer gig, so I’m looking forward to working with all of you.”

Finishing my lame introduction, I leaned back on my chair and observed the reactions of my fellow gods.

Unfortunately, I had no experience with reading the emotions of writhing masses of tentacles or starry voids. The tentacles seemed to shift a little faster and the void may have become a little lighter?

It was also possible that I was overanalyzing things.

Dallin was easy to read, though. His body was quivering and his tail was wagging like those little rat-dogs do before they start yapping up a storm.

“Legion, my man! How ya been, buddy? I saw your little display out in the borderlands of the Whatchamacallit Kingdom… Ravir? Rovan? Something like that. Anyways, that was pretty sweet!”

“Huh…?” I let out, my eyes widening with surprise.

He wasn’t mad about it?

“‘Other gods have dubbed the non-human species ‘monsters’. We will embrace that title and turn it against them. If these races are to be known as monsters, then tell all who hear my call to come unto me! Tell them that I am Legion, God of Monsters!’ Dallin recited, his tone rising with excitement. “That was soooo dope! You’re a real man, takin’ a stand!”

“Excuse me?” I stared open-mouthed at the yapping chihuahua. Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw Jocelyn nodding in agreement, and, as far as I could tell, Loki and Mumblegrumble had no particular issues with my statement as well.

“Uhhh, I was expecting you all to be a little more... annoyed about this? Maybe a little angry or vindictive?”

“About what?” Loki spoke for the first time. Its voice was deep and echoed as if we were in an amphitheater.

“All of you agreed unanimously to have your followers persecute and kill monsters. Doesn’t it bother you that I am trying to bring those very same monsters into my own church?”

“Of course not,” Mumblegrumble intoned in a hollow, monotone voice. “Why would we care?”

Why…? Why would you not care?!

I wanted to shout but I held myself back, taking a deep breath as I tried to wrap my head around what they could be thinking.

“It’s pretty easy to understand if you think about it a little differently,” Jocelyn supplied. “You’re still thinking in the limited perspective of a mortal. It is not uncommon for the lesser beings to persecute those who think differently from themselves but they often forget that diversity is part of the foundation of progress.”

“So, by introducing an opposing viewpoint, we are all going to progress somehow?”

I still didn’t quite see it but I had the distinct feeling that it should be obvious and that I would feel stupid for not seeing it.

“Why do you think we chose to persecute monsters?” Loki asked.

I recalled Jocelyn’s explanation from when I first became an Overseer. “To increase the frequency of human deaths, and thus to harvest more souls, right?”

“That’s it. If you understand that much, then it should be obvious,” Loki concluded.

More deaths. Harvesting souls.

Duh. It really was obvious.

If I created a church of monsters and it fought with the churches led by humans while both sides continued to respawn, it would effectively double the base of souls that we could harvest. The increased frequency of conflicts that would inevitably result from this would lead to a substantial harvest.

It was so obvious that I had to wonder one thing. “Why didn’t you guys do this earlier? It seems to me that if one of you played the bad guy and led a church of monsters, you would have been able to reap many more souls?”

Loki, Jocelyn, and Dallin exchanged glances, and I assumed that Mumblegrumble participated in the gesture as well.

“We did consider the idea…” Dallin sighed. “Unfortunately…”

“It’s a lot of work,” Jocelyn finished. “Even if we split the load two and two, there are a lot more races on Hanulfall than just humans. Whoever had to manage the various non-human races would have had between ten and a hundred times more work than those who worked with the human races, depending on how large their church got.”

Holy hell… How was I supposed to respond to that? No wonder the little I had seen of religion on Hanulfall was a mess. These guys were all lazy. I was still a bit concerned about the one versus four matchup, but if they were like this then it felt a little more doable.

“Also, being a God of Monsters is cool and all, but there is one thing you should be careful about,” Dallin added.

“What’s that?”

His lips turned up in a mocking chihuahua grin. “You really know nothing, man…” he yapped. “Though we look like a ragtag team of misfits, we do have rules and regulations. Since you are going down the ‘chad’ route and collecting all the pretty nonhumans, you gotta be careful that you don’t break any laws.”

“Laws? Gods have laws? Like what?”

“Laws like the Prometheus Act.”

The Prometheus Act? I wasn’t expecting to hear a name that I recognized. Wasn’t he from one of the Greek stories? The guy who stole fire from the gods and got eaten by a bird? It was something like that, anyway.

Seeing my confusion, Jocelyn continued the explanation. “It’s a law that was put into place after another Overseer, Prometheus, protested against raising animals that can both harm and kill gods on the world he presided over. It took a few centuries or so, but he proved that rearing and utilizing tamed divine beasts allowed gods to undermine the system and take away the rights of other Overseers to exercise their godhood. The Supreme Existence and the Council of Dimension Lords outlawed the creation and utilization of divine beasts.”

Well then, that was good to know. Luckily, I found out before I accidentally broke any rules.

“What, specifically, do I need to look out for? Should I just order my followers to avoid wild monsters?”

“There is no issue with wild monsters as long as they are not granted divine power. The important thing is that you must never, under any circumstance, allow one of your followers to perform an initiation ritual on a wild monster. If you are ever discovered to have broken this law, the matter would immediately escalate, and you could be imprisoned and possibly terminated.”

Wow. This was a big one to keep in mind. I would definitely tell Ray the moment that I got back. As per the teachings of the God of Monsters, wild monsters could be tamed and kept as pets, but they shall never, ever be baptized.

“Now that we’ve cleared that up, let's move on to the next topic!” Jocelyn called out.

She waved a clawed hand and a small piece of paper appeared in front of her which she began to read from.

“The Supreme Existence has noticed an unknown distortion in our dimension. I am asking each of you World Leaders to relay a message to every Overseer assigned to your respective worlds. The distortion was found in Dimension ZDX047 and has since traveled through a thousand dimensions.

It is currently dwelling in our Dimension ZDY047 on or near World 6 in District 12.

Zone, District, and World Leaders in surrounding areas are to take extra caution in observing and reporting strange and/or unique phenomena within their respective spheres. Overseers are not authorized to engage or attempt to resolve this phenomenon on their own. Once the nature and identity of this distortion are ascertained, a Dimension Leader will be dispatched to resolve the situation.”

There was a lot of information there, but I needed to know one important detail before anything else.

“What Zone, District, and World Number are we?” I asked.

Jocelyn pointed behind my head to the doorway. I twisted my body around in my chair and followed the angle of her claw to a sign that I had missed hanging above the door.

Dimension ZDY - Leader : Phil

Zone 47 - Leader : Horus

District 12 - Leader : Thorystav

World 6 - Leader : Jocelyn

Well damn.

“So this distortion is residing near or on our world? Do any of you know what it might be?” I asked nervously.

I wasn’t sure how common this type of thing was, but it was probably a big deal if the Supreme Existence was involved.

“I already found it,” Jocelyn supplied. “There’s nothing for any of you to worry about; I’m just reading this out because it's part of my job.”

“What was it?” Dallin asked, his tail wagging while his tongue lolled out of his mouth.

Jocelyn shook her head and her mandibles clicked together. “Nothing you need to concern yourself with yet, it was just an old manchild playing games again. Nothing out of the ordinary.”

Dallin and Loki observed Jocelyn silently for a long moment before nodding. I wanted to ask more, but if Jocelyn wasn’t willing to tell more, then I had no way of finding out anything.

“That concludes my official business. Now that we’re moving on to individual reports, I want to start by asking the standard question first. Do any of you have any questions or problems that you need this council to help you resolve?”

At Jocelyn’s question, I sat up straighter in my seat, my original purpose in coming to this meeting flooding back into my mind. There were a few things I had to accomplish at this meeting, and our discussion thus far led me to believe that some of the ones I had expected to be difficult would be doable.

I took a deep breath before taking the plunge. “I have a question.”

All eyes turned back to me.

“Which of your churches does the High Priestess Eileen Vanis belong to?” I asked.

I was met with silence. There was a yawning sound from Mumblegrumble’s general direction.

“She does belong to one of your churches, right?” I tried again.

“Not mine,” Jocelyn replied.

“Don’t know her,” Mumblegrumble mumbled evenly.

Both Loki and Dallin affirmed that she didn’t belong to their church either.

“Well, she obviously doesn’t belong to my church…” I muttered. Then my eyes widened as another question rose to my mind. “Does that mean she commandeered a temple full of your believers and none of you noticed?”

Nobody offered a retort. They didn’t seem particularly interested in this problem, for some reason. Maybe this last detail would catch their attention?

“Also, I personally confirmed the presence of holy power in her. If she isn’t registered as a follower in any of our churches, how is this possible?”

Now that got a reaction. Jocelyn half-leapt out of her seat and Dallin perked up, his gaze turning sharp and serious. Mumblegrumble’s tentacles stopped writhing and Loki’s starry galaxy began to spin like it was being pulled into the depths of a black hole.

“Are you absolutely certain?!” Jocelyn shouted, her voice rising a whole octave as she stressed each syllable of the question.

I nodded in affirmation. “As I said, I personally confirmed it, though I wasn’t aware that she was independent of our little group here. I remember it clearly because I was shocked that she had even more holy power than my Tether. The High Templar there had a ridiculous amount, as well.”

“There are godlings walking around without divine supervision? How did something like that happen?” Dallin groaned. “Don’t we need to report this to the District Leader?”

Whoa, whoa, whoa, the first suggestion was to escalate it? Were godlings that big of a deal?!

Jocelyn clicked her mandibles together anxiously as she sat back down in her chair. Her beautiful wings fluttered behind her, showing her nervousness. She leaned forward and held the sides of her head in her claws. After a moment of tense silence, she let out a deep sigh. “I will file the report. For now, it seems like we found the tail of that crazy lady. Legion, thank you for bringing this to our attention.”

I smiled and accepted her sincere gratitude. It wasn’t intentional, but it seemed like I stumbled on some really important happenings. I wasn’t one to complain about good luck, though. This was exactly what I needed to transition to my formal request.

“I have a request related to my original question.”

Jocelyn motioned for me to continue.

“Eileen Vanis and three others whom I suspect are her co-conspirators have recently left the town of Cairel in a hurry. Additionally, as you are all aware, I recently began the establishment of my church in that area. I expect that soon there will be a confrontation between our churches as some of my followers begin to respawn in the temple. I want to request that the four of you allow me to resolve the situation there personally and without interference.”

“So you’re asking us to let you interfere with and help your followers but you don’t want us to interfere with your plans, is that right?” Dallin clarified, his sharp eyes focusing on me intently.

I simply smiled back, allowing Jocelyn to consider my request.

“We understand that you need time to get yourself established before you are competitive with us. Not only did you notify us of the presence of dangerous elements, but we have already reached an understanding that the presence of your church will ultimately be beneficial to us all. As World Leader, I order myself and the other Overseers to, immediately following the end of this conference, take a ten-day vacation while Legion settles his affairs. We’ve been so backlogged recently that our vacation days were piling up anyway.”

The other Overseers each agreed. I half-raised my hand and asked, “What, exactly, does a vacation entail for an Overseer?”

“Ah, we’ll still be around if you need us, but while gods are on vacation, our access to the Overseer System is limited—we won’t be able to spend any holy power. It’s a restriction put in place because some gods are workaholics and we have to take away their access to get them to relax for a few days.”

Yes! That was exactly what we needed! I hid my exultation behind a grateful smile. The blanket ban was a bit unexpected though. Were they just going to abandon all of their followers, even the ones outside Cairel, for ten days? They really did seem to think of this more like a game or a pastime. It was a little disconcerting to me that gods would treat their own faithful followers like this, even if it was to my benefit.

“Is that everything you have to say?” Jocelyn inquired.

“Yup, that about covers it. Thank you for your kind consideration!” I replied giddily, my grin growing wider as I made a mental checkmark on the list.

Jocelyn examined me for a moment and then shook her head. “Well, if you need any advice, feel free to ask. We were all new gods once and we’ve all made mistakes with the system.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” I replied.

“Please do. I’d rather not clean up a mess.” Then she motioned toward the other gods. “Are there any other topics we need to discuss?”

I settled down and prepared to listen to each of their reports. I didn’t really know much about Hanulfall so I leaned back in my chair and perked my ears. This was an excellent chance to learn about the projects of the other Overseers and the state of the world.

“How’s the situation at the wall?” Loki asked.

“As terrible as ever,” Jocelyn sighed. “Those creepy things from the Abyss are tedious to deal with. My Radiant gets a little more unstable every time she fights them. They really do live up to the name of Nightmares.”

“Do you need help?”

“No, not yet. If Mr. Sullivant starts acting up again, I might ask for some help, but it's fine as long as he keeps doing his own thing. I am a bit concerned about the devolving situation in the New American Empire, though. Dallin, were you able to find any information about this ‘Spencer’?”

Dallin raised a tiny paw. A three-dimensional image of an ordinary guy appeared over the table. He was on the lanky side and he had brown hair, brown eyes, and balanced features. What stood out to me was his bloodshot eyes and twisted scowl as if he was trying, and failing, to hide his rage.

“As you all know, my Top Dog has a massive information network. He and the Hounds believe that Spencer may be a summoned otherworlder. Apparently, the New American Empire attempted a summoning ritual but made a mistake. They believed that they had failed, but one of my Hounds found a trace near the Abyss.”

Jocelyn groaned and Mumblegrumble’s tentacles twitched erratically.

“Are you sure about that?” Mumblegrumble demanded, his hollow voice rattling with thunderous echoes. “Does that mean that Mr. Sullivant is involved? Or is it the mermaids?”

Dallin shook his head. “Neither, I think. Eyewitness accounts indicate that Spencer is a peculiar individual. He refuses to enter buildings unless invited to do so, and anybody he makes physical contact with rots and turns to dust. He is rather composed on the outside, but when I approached him and tried to touch his mind, I was completely overwhelmed by his hatred and anger. There is an aura about him that is reminiscent of a Precursor, which I believe is the source of both the amplification and the perpetuation of his rage.”

“A Precursor?” I blurted out. “Aren’t those the former gods?” At least, that’s what I gathered from Ray’s conversation with Shaman.

Jocelyn, Loki, and Dallin all looked at me with weird expressions. It was Mumblegrumble who opted to answer my question. “Precursors are the highest level of being. To attempt to define them with the lowly term of ‘god’ is an insult to their strength. We gods are like specks of dust in front of them. If you consider us to be their replacement, then no, they are not the former gods.”

“If they are that powerful, then how did you guys take over?” I asked.

Jocelyn smirked. “That is an excellent question and I will assign it to you as homework. You should take some time to learn the history of the world over which we preside. When you know the answer, you will understand almost everything you need to know.”

Homework? Damn it! I thought I was done with that when I dropped out of college! But that shouldn’t be too hard. I could just look at the star associated with Hanulfall, right?

As if reading my mind, Loki shot down my optimism. “Don’t bother reading the records. They document all localized time and space, but they cannot store information about Precursors. If you used that method, you would find very little information from before the time we Overseers took charge of the planet.”

“Also, you still haven’t fully adapted to being a higher-level being,” Jocelyn added. “I saw what happened to you last time you focused on a record. You probably didn’t retain any of the information, right?”

That was true. I saw eons of history, but I couldn’t recall any of it. The entire memory was a massive blur. My head ached with phantom pain as I tried to recall it, so I gave up.

“Getting back to the matter at hand,” Mumblegrumble interjected. “If a Precursor is involved in this mess, then we might need to escalate this project. Besides, there is only one Precursor associated with the Abyss, and we all know what happened last time she started interfering in mortal affairs.”

I raised my hand.

Mumblegrumble snorted and waved my unasked question away. “That’s part of the homework you were assigned. Telling you what happened back then would be as good as giving you the answer.”

Well, that was also a pretty big hint. I now had a lead on where to search to find the answer.

“I have taken note of the situation,” Jocelyn said. “For the time being, we will not escalate this until we have definitive evidence that it is beyond the scope of our ability to handle. Dallin, continue investigating Spencer and his origins. Try to discover his objective and where his rage is directed. Loki, I want you to secure the gate between realms and to discover if the fallen Precursor really has left the Abyss. Mumblegrumble, keep baking those cookies; we can’t let the mermaids get out of hand.”

Then she turned to face me. “Legion, I don’t have a job for you this time. Focus on building up your religion so that you have enough power to participate next time.”

Ouch. Even though I really didn’t want to be assigned any additional tasks this time around, I wasn’t too fond of the reason. Objectively, it was true that I didn’t know as much as them, but wasn’t I still a god? I finished my training with Auto, so I should know enough to do any work they might assign me to do.

“Is there anything else that we need to discuss at this meeting?” Jocelyn asked.

One by one, each of the other gods motioned that they had no other matters to address. I shook my head and Jocelyn concluded the meeting.