Virach

From the tallest peak of the tallest mountain range in the world, I held my wife tightly under my arms. She rested her head on my shoulders, as we saw the sunset beneath the clouds.

“I don’t think I will ever get tired of this view”, she said, looking up from the magnanimous balcony, to the night skies, the stars, and the Night Clouds. “Even after thousands of years, it is just as beautiful as the first time I looked up.”

I followed her eyes, and took in the same view. Yet, I couldn’t feel much more than displease: differently from the young ones, I was one of the few who knew exactly what those colorful stains beyond the night skies were. Gore. Innumerable amounts of frozen blood particles, mutilated limbs, and corpses. Even the ocean, and the earth, the planet, the moon and the sun itself were just wrong. Yes, even the stupid and flawed [System].

Basically, that universe was shit.

However:

“Yes”, what really mattered was what the inhabitants of that shitty universe made off it. What really mattered was that the love of my life could smile and find beauty even in that cursed existence. “Truly beautiful”, I concluded, looking straight at her.

Blushing and smiling, my wife pushed me away, saying:

“Come on, you’re you trying to hit on me or something? I’m married, you know?”

“Wh-”, I stuttered. Then, burst into loud laughs: “Ha! Ha! Ha!”

I pulled my wife, the beaming woman with long white and blue hair closer, and kissed her.

“Even after thousands of years, you’re just as beautiful as the first time I looked at you.”

“Virach”, my wife’s hands enveloped my face, and we leaned for a second kiss on the large sofa.

But we were interrupted by a loud knock on the doors behind us.

“What now, another dragon attacking our cities?”, I sighed.

And, I was about to say that I should be left undisturbed for the next few hours, but my love, Och, interrupted me, laughing:

“If that’s the case, shouldn’t you be solving this problem? I will still be here when you come back, don’t worry!”, apparently noticing my reluctance, she added: “Come on, I’m not made off paper, I’ll be fine.”

Yes. Yes, she would be fine, I knew it. They knew it. Because, if this changed, there would be no more world to anyone find beauty in. I’d make sure that’d be the case.

“I won't take too long”, I excused myself, and walked off the sofa and the balcony. Just before the massive doors separating me from the news, I opened my [Inventory] spell, and instantly equipped my full golden armor set. Finally trespassing the threshold, and closing the doors behind me, I asked the bowing servant: “So?”

“Yes, your majesty, emperor Virach. I came to report to you that an Intermediary [God] has been killed, and its entire cult has been destroyed.”

“Hmm.”

Kinda rare, at least rarer than Lower [Gods] getting killed, but, nevertheless, not a piece of outrageous news. Everyone expected something like that to happen every 1~ 2~ thousand years.

But my servants wouldn’t bother me, not when I’m relaxing with my wife, with such a trivial deal. There must have been something more to the story:

“Who was killed?”

“[Emerald Goddess] Umi and her cult, your majesty, emperor.”

That awfully arrogant woman? Good news, then. But, maybe not so much; Umi’s territory was a neighboring one, had the Nalatza Empire invaded her kingdom, maybe they were starting to fell too much on control.

“Who did it?”

“The Adventurers Guild, your majesty, emperor: a couple of twins killed many Lower [Gods] from the kingdom, the [High Priest], and, finally, the [Emerald Goddess] herself.”

After listening to the news, I had to control the sudden surge of emotion-generated aura, and send it upwards, and disperse it beyond the atmosphere, unless I wanted half of my empires animal and vegetal population dead, from powerful monsters and soldiers, to plants and fungus, including my palaces servants, and even my wife. The ceiling, however, wasn’t as lucky as the lives I saved from myself, and simply disappeared under the pillar of golden light that surged forward.

Every living creature in all neighboring countries would feel a little unease tonight, as my aura slowly dissipated high over their heads, but, well, better suddenly a little scared from the skies, than suddenly dead.

“Was it the 1st Guild Master?”, I knew the guy had a sister, but I couldn’t remember if they were twins or not

“No, your majesty, emperor, the culprits are relatively new adventurers”, the servant explained with sweat dripping from his nose and chin, but unflinching. Differently from those who were thought to be the same as me, I didn’t go around killing my own men, so they were all excellent professionals, of at least [Level: 100], and able to stay relatively controlled even when so close to me. “They were, apparently raised by Taffy, and she keeps them both under her wings constantly.”

So, the whore finally made her move, hu?

However, how?

I spent quite some time and resources messing with her pieces, even helping that black magic scum, so she should never have seen two people in 1st rank at the same time, and even if she did, we'd all make sure they wouldn’t be on her side.

Plus, the [System] award experience, so she can’t have artificially raised their [Levels] high enough to go around killing [Gods] like that…

Well, it didn’t matter. There was only one thing to do in response to the whore finally heating up that universe once more, and surprisingly being the first one to move her pieces:

“Keep vigilance on these two all times, don’t let them go a single second without being observed. And contact the scum, make him do his black magic. If he fails, notify me as soon as these twins get away from Taffy and I’ll end them personally.”

“Yes, your majesty, emperor.”