"Aigar, here you are," Strigmal said as she appeared right in the middle of his current abode. "You know, you can be hard to find sometimes."

Aigar just sighed, letting his nine golden fox tails express his displeasure for him while he stared at the four-armed, silver-skinned woman who had so rudely interrupted his research.

"Strigmal, why are you here?" he asked despite already knowing the answer. “Nevermind. There's only one reason you'd come find me at my personal Convergence Tower. It's already time again, isn't it?"

He was annoyed. Quite frankly, he was very annoyed. But not at Strigmal. That would be foolish beyond words.

The last time he’d made it clear he was upset at her for this very same reason they had fought for 16 full years and ended up destroying two planets.

The planets he didn’t care for, but the time lost on potential research was utterly devastating.

The sooner he dealt with her and this whole situation, the sooner he could get back to his work.

She shrugged with her two sets of muscled shoulders as she replied, "Seeing how far away from The Core you are, I'd guess you're getting the message right about... now."

Hello, Guardian Aigar. The Game will begin on planet 58 in 6-months, 21-days and 34-minutes. Select a player from the list below to represent you. Planet 18's Delagu'or. Planet 7's Chris Marston. Planet 96's Flame Whisper. Planet 307's unnamed Fulgar Wolf Leader.

He quickly dismissed the list after seeing only four options. He had once chosen to read through the entire thing. What a massive waste of several days that was. Sure, it happened more than a million years ago but every day was important to Aigar.

"I do not have the time for this. I’m at a critical junction in my research, Strigmal. Can’t you, I don’t know, help somehow?" he pleaded. “You know I don’t care for this.”

Strigmal laughed. "I assumed as much. And while I know you don’t care much, you still want the reward, don’t you?”

Aigar immediately nodded. “Of course I do, it just isn’t worth me putting any time into. Just us talking is putting me in a deficit.”

“I looked through your options before coming here, Aigar,” Strigmal claimed. “I've selected a compatible player to work with the choice I made from my given list. Care to see his information?"

Aigar flicked his wrist dismissively. "Sure, sure. Thank you, by the way. If it makes this go faster without holding me accountable for making a poor decision, then I'm perfectly fine with whoever you chose. As little as this matters to me, I’m sure a battle… enthusiast like yourself wants to win this game a considerable amount."

"Here," Strigmal said in a bit of a mysterious tone which wasn't uncommon for her.

She then tapped her forehead with one of her index fingers. A moment later, the details of her hand-picked player entered Aigar's vision.

Darren McCullen Planet of Origin: Planet 82: Locally referred to as ‘Earth’ or ‘Terra’. Species - Race: Lesser Human – Caucasian. Soul Slots: 10. Adaptability: Extremely high. Special Compatibility: A soul slot can be consumed to swap his race to that of yours should his identity be combined with that of a fictitious character he frequently roleplays as.

"That's a lot of soul slots Terra… Terra… Terra… Wasn’t the place stripped of its magic not too long ago?” Aigar asked.

For as great as his memory was and for as much as he researched, some things still eluded his mind.

Strigmal nodded. “Yes, it was. A few thousand years ago. Then again just a bit of 900-years-ago. The constant hero summonings hardly help with its magical tears either. No chances to heal, sadly.”

Aigar sighed wistfully. “Ah, I recall now yes, yes, the purge and then the deluded man calling himself a god... Well, at least it has its technology if nothing else.”

He stroked his chin thoughtfully before saying, “This lesser human’s compatibility sure is oddly specific to me. I guess you spent a lot of time looking," Aigar said uncaringly.

Strigmal nodded slowly in confirmation.

"Well, if you think this 'Darren' is a good choice, so be it. Core, I choose this one," Aigar said, resulting in a smile spreading across Strigmal's beautiful face.

Confirmed. Please decide if you shall dictate the usage of your chosen player's Soul Slots and leave a welcome message along with a single promise.

Aigar clicked his tongue as his nine golden tails swished about in exasperation. "This is always such a bother."

He sighed and then said, "Well, I should at least give the poor thing some powers... Can’t exactly trust mortals to make wise decisions on their own. It always surprises me how incompetent lesser beings can be. I do want the reward…"

"Very wise," his four-armed guest noted.

Aigar paused for a moment to consider which, exactly, of his many powers to gift.

He really didn’t need that long to decide. He was busy after all and this wasn’t a huge priority for him. "Well, here goes. A simple explanatory message should do the job along with the powers… 'Hey, kid. I gave you five of my powers...'"