Life As A God

"Are you really going to do nothing, Time?"

"Of course not. Who do you think I am?"

"A lazy god who doesn't get up till noon, and even then needs an emotionless butler to wake him up." (In the other room, Contracts sneezes.)

"That..." Time didn't think that his reputation would be that bad.

"The truth hurts doesn't it," she said.

"At least I don't, don't..." Time realized that, compared to him, she was practically an angel. (Metaphorically speaking, of course. Real angels weren't that nice.)

"And he can't come up with an insult to save his life. 'Have a terrible day.' Really? (Referring to chapter 40.) I thought you could do better than that. You should take lessons from Sun. He can spew curses at Life all day long. And in 15 different languages at that. The best part is that Life thinks that he is just going over a cooking recipe or something since he can't understand a darn thing."

Time was speechless. The art of dissing your enemies without them even realizing it wasn't exactly the first thing elves were taught.

"By the way, you won't go back on your deal now that she is back, right?"

"Don't worry." Time paused a bit. "Our deal still stands."

She noticed his hesitation, but chose not to comment on it. "Me? Worry? It's you who should be worried. You haven't fulfilled your end of the bargain yet."

"The almighty loved Earth so the restrictions on it are greater than those on the other worlds."

"So?"

After a small pause, he said, "I need a year, in Earth time."

"The boss is already dreary from all this waiting. It's getting harder for me to control the situation. The last time when I went back to give a report, he nearly went on a rampage. You better not disappoint him, Chronos."

Inspecting the design plan for the seals in the Astral Temple, Time sighed. "Neko, I feel so conflicted. Should I allow them to stay or banish them? I mean, I don't want to send them away, but keeping them here is just making things more complicated. What do you think I should do?" Only silence greeted him.

"Hey, are you listening?" There was still no response.

"Neko?" Time lifted his head and looked around the office. The black furball could not be found anywhere.

"Oh right... I left her behind. "

***with the cat who was abandoned***

"So, you have no idea who you are? What, do you have amnesia or something?"

"Not that I know of." At this point, he was starting to doubt the validity of his words. How could he be so clueless?

The owl was trembling. Its little heart could not take this much torment. Neko was also trembling. She had never worked this hard to suppress her laughter. (Not even when the Dagger Rain happened.)

The phoenix decided to put an end to this and asked, "Alright, let's do an easier question. What's your name?"

The Almighty was conflicted. Should he say his real name or make something up? If they found out that he wasn't a God through the name, what would they do? Wipe his memories and send him back to Earth? That would probably be the best outcome. But what if they decided to kill him?

After a short struggle, he decided to tell the truth. He was stranded in another world right now and these last few minutes revealed just how little he knew about it. It was always better to make allies than enemies anyway, even if those allies were a bunch of talking animals. Besides, he never had any plans for becoming a God.

Seeing he was taking so long, the phoenix could not hold back from commenting, "Did you forget your name as well?"

Hearing the bird, the Almighty rolled his eyes. Having made up his mind, he said, "Quan. My name is Quan."

Hearing that, Neko raised an eyebrow. The Almighty's previous words felt dark and murky, full of carefully calculated lies. This, however, was like a ray of sunshine after a thunderstorm, truly refreshing.

Ibis narrowed his eyes, "I don't know of any God who goes by that name."

"I'm not a God." Instead of waiting for his inevitable doom, he might as well be forthright.

"What!" the phoenix screeched.

Neko tilted her head in confusion. What did he mean he was not a God? He was the Almighty, the very definition of a God. Why was he denying it?

Ibis frowned. Its previous fatigue was all but gone. This was a serious issue. They couldn't have an unidentified human roaming about. "How did you get here?"

"Through a portal that led me to Stars' Pavilion. It was all an accident though."

"Why would Stars alow you to stay?" Ibis continued.

"I'm not sure." He really wasn't.

"Which world are you from?"

"Earth." Judging from his words, there were other worlds than Earth, Quan thought.

Hearing that, the phoenix cut the owl off. "Earth! But you can't access the portals there without magic. And you clearly don't have any."

Ibis frowned at that. Out of the three of them, the phoenix was most sėnsɨtɨvė to magic. There was no way he could be wrong. But how could someone without magic come here?

So they can't sense that I have magic, Quan thought. How odd. I clearly used it to open that portal earlier. "As I said, it was an accident. I was only half-aware of what was going on."

"...That's some accident." In all its years of gossi- gathering information, the phoenix had never heard of such a thing happening.

Faced with such a situation, Ibis felt some excitement build up in him. It was rare to encounter a difficult problem like this. What could it be? The loss of consciousness he described, his arrival here, and his lack of magic were truly odd. He had no knowledge about Gods like a regular mortal but could speak the language of Heaven fluently.

Then, the answer struck him. He realized that it had been staring him in the face all along. "Hmm. Maybe one of your parents was a low God and you were not aware. When they died, you naturally inherited their power. You didn't know how to control it and instinctually came to Heaven for ȧssistance."

Quan was surprised, but compared to what he had heard till now, the owl's words made sense. "That...It could be the case."

Receiving acknowledgment, Ibis continued, "As for you appearing at Stars Pavilion, it must be that your powers are related to his. You were drawn to the pavilion because of this similarity."

"But if he inherited magic why can't I sense it?" the phoenix inquired.

"Stars probably sealed it away for his own safety. Yes, that must be it. And the Guardian must have let you through after understanding your situation. He probably just did not report it yet. Yes, yes. It makes perfect sense." All the irregularities snapped into place. Ibis couldn't help but praise his cleverness.

Neko, who stood calmly to the side, was dumbfounded. She never knew that Ibis had such a rich imagination. What low God? That's the Almighty you're talking about. The Almighty, abet clueless, was still the Almighty.