With my mind held in place by some strange energy, I found myself unable to do anything but watch and listen. When Malthan appeared, the world froze. Whether it was my own shattering body or Celeste pushing herself to her feet in the distance, they both froze in place. The only things able to move in this space were Abzul and Malthan.

“I should have known it was you, bastard.” The carapaced god clacked out, spitting a venomous green glob on the ground.

“It’s not just me.” Malthan corrected, his voice eerily calm. At that point, more figures began to walk out from the void behind him, each one shattering reality around them as if it were glass. Some of the figures I recognized from the records Celeste had shown me, some were entirely new to me. However, each one of them I knew to be a god, like Malthan himself.

In total, nine figures appeared behind Malthan. The ones that I recognized included Aria, the elven Goddess of Fashion, the petite Goddess of Life that Malthan had once shown me… Aria’s face was distorted in a mask of fury, while the little goddess had a grim look on her face, her solid green eyes narrowed.

From the seven others, one stepped forward. This was an alien goddess, but I did not know her race. Her skin was black, with flames rising from her hair. At first, I thought she would be the Goddess of Fire, until she began talking. “Abzul. You have been judged guilty of abuse of power in order to slaughter the champion of another god. You have surpassed the limits imposed by the system in order to accomplish this. Do you have anything to say in defense of yourself?” So, probably a justice themed goddess, then.

Abzul’s black lips pulled back as he snarled. “Why don’t you ask your little Chaos God, hmm? He clearly broke the rules long ago!”

The woman glanced over to Malthan, and then looked back to Abzul. “Explain yourself.”

Abzul nodded his head slightly, standing at his full height to glare down to Malthan. “I can overlook the Worldforce Army being present. He’s a Xeno-Shifter with a talent for manipulating elements, so he might have been able to create those himself. But the Primal Titan?! You know damn well that has never appeared for at least another three hundred years! There’s no way that he had the power to create that on his own!”

Malthan kept his calm smile as he listened to the accusations. “But he did. And there are a dozen other gods who can attest to it.” He glanced over towards the flaming goddess, who nodded her head in response.

“Malthan speaks the truth. I myself witnessed this feat. The guidance offered by Malthan in this case has already been deliberated among the others, and was found to be within the limits of the rules.”

“Then what of his lifeblood armor? Even as a Xeno-Shifter, he would have to have destroyed entire worlds to find the sample he needed to form that!” Abzul retorted, though he was clearly shaken that his first accusation failed. What the hell is up with the worldforce army or primal titan? I feel like I’m missing something, and I don’t like it!

This time, it was Aria who spoke out, a smug grin on her face as she looked at the klax god. “That is easy. He got it from his universe grove. Don’t tell me your accusations are this flimsy?”

Somehow, Aria’s words struck deeper than anything else that had been said. “How the hell does that mongrel have a universe grove!? It’s not even been ten years! Unless he used a universe-level device, it’s impossible! And that itself is against the rules! So explain that to me!” Getting really annoyed with people talking about me like I’m not even here!

“Oh, gladly.” Malthan said with a laugh. “He has people who love him, quite a lot actually. One even sacrificed a godly favor to enhance his strength.” Malthan snapped his fingers, and a particularly gory part of my body exploded, a golden ring rising up from the floating flesh and blood. “A ring that enhances element absorption rate. Plus a lucky little staff that gave him the mana types he needed. And to top it all off, he was crazy enough to lock himself in a time dilation field for nearly two hundred years to study time mana!” Malthan couldn’t help but tilt his head back and laugh uproariously at that.

“But… but…” Abzul stepped back, trying to find another way to defend himself. “That’s not how things are supposed to go…”

Finally, the Goddess of Life spoke. “Thirteen.” Her voice drew Abzul’s attention. “This is the thirteenth test. Every time, a Champion will rise to stop your little wars, and either he will fall before you, or you before him. But this time, you broke the rules, and activated your full strength to kill. Why?”

Hearing her cold tone, Abzul’s face grew vicious. “You want to know why, brat? I’ll fucking tell you! How long has it been since the First left? How long since he became so disappointed that he could not bear to watch? If even he has given up hope in this system, then what point is there? We might as well let everything return to the dust!”

“That is not the way of things.” The flaming goddess spoke out, shaking her head. “While misguided, you have cause for your actions. You are aware that the punishment for unleashing divine strength is destruction, so you shall be given only one chance.” Malthan chuckled darkly when he heard those words. “If you can defeat your accuser, you may retain your existence. You will be cast down to the mortal realm, and forced to live out your days, but you will survive. Otherwise… you will perish here.”

Abzul turned to look at Malthan. It was hard for me to read his expression when his face was covered by the slick carapace mask, but he was trembling. Even though he showed no respect for the Goddess of Life, he seemed… almost afraid of Malthan.

“Oh, don’t worry bug breath. You don’t have to fight me.” He then turned towards the flaming goddess. “Hiren, I wish to allow another to fight in my place. Is that permitted?”

The various deities tensed up at this moment, but there was one who showed the strongest response. Aria snapped her head to the side, her eyes wide as she looked at Malthan. “As long as she agrees to it.” The flaming goddess said, nodding her head.

“Malthan…” Aria started to speak, seeming at a loss for words.

“Just go, kick his ass.” He said, shaking his head with a small smile.

Abzul’s body seemed to visibly relax when he learned that Malthan was not going to be fighting him personally, and then even more so when he learned his opponent was Aria. “The clothing goddess wants to fight the God of War? Oh, this will be good!”

Aria turned to send a sharp glare at Abzul, slowly walking forward. Her iconic blue dress slowly began turning red, flames starting to rise from it. “Haven’t you ever heard of a fashion disaster, you overgrown cockroach?”

Abzul simply scoffed at that, tilting his head back and screeching as golden light formed around his body, seeming to become a glowing armor that adhered to his form. “I don’t care what you call yourself, I’m not going to lose to a runt like you.”

Pay close attention here, John. I heard Malthan’s voice echoing in my mind again. This might be your only chance to see a real battle between gods. Though… I don’t think it’ll last that long.

After I heard him say that, I couldn’t help but turn my attention to the fight. It was easy to guess that the golden light was some divine skill that Abzul had learned. Yet, Aria showed no signs of releasing a similar skill. She simply let the flames flicker about her outfit as she casually walked towards him.

Can she really fight that… I began to wonder, as Abzul unleashed the same level of speed as he had displayed in our fight, vanishing and reappearing behind Aria. His claws, wrapped in golden light, descended upon her, and yet she still made no move.

There was a crisp sound of metal striking metal, and I saw Abzul’s claws stopped inches away from Aria’s head, the golden light unable to touch her. Wrapped around each claw was a seemingly harmless white cloth, yet it perfectly restrained his movement. I could hear grunts of effort from Abzul as he tried to pull his arm back, unable to move. In the end, he actually forced himself back, ripping off three of his own clawed fingers to do so. Green blood fell on the ground, and he let out a hiss of pain as he recoiled.

“My turn.” She spoke in a low voice. When she lifted her hand, countless threads seemed to materialize around her, floating up and twisting together to weave a giant tapestry in the sky. “You achieved ascension by devouring the heart of a Divine Dragon. Let me show you what it means to ascend in a skill.”

Slowly, the tapestry formed into an actual image, a completely lifelike image of Abzul, his blood still dripping down from his severed claws. “Divine Tapestry, Essence Burn.” Aria snapped her fingers, causing a small flame to form on the bottom corner of the tapestry. “I have woven your body and soul into this picture. When it burns, so do you.” The fury in her voice sent chills through my mind, but also confused me.

Abzul finally seemed to realize the trouble that he was in now. His body tensed up, and he lunged at Aria again in a desperate attempt to quickly finish her off. His tail, wrapped in golden light, surged at her like a holy spear while his uninjured hand once again tried to take her head.

“Unravel.” She spoke a single word, and the light around Abzul’s body shattered. His claws were once again trapped in that protective white cloth that seemed to come from nowhere. But, what really seemed strange was his tail. Although it had stopped, there didn’t seem to be any reason for it. But soon, it began to distort, thin lines of it broke off, like countless threads being plucked from a piece of cloth.

Seeing this, Abzul didn’t hesitate to cut off his own tail with his injured hand, ripping out another two of his claws to free himself from the strange cloth protecting Aria. By now, the fire on the tapestry had spread to Abzul’s feet, and a corresponding black flame appeared there on the real Abzul.

Even as he jumped back again, the fire would not leave him. His severed tail continued to unravel until there was nothing left, while the fire crept slowly along his body. “You… how the hell do you have this kind of power!? You’re not an ancient one! You’ve barely been here a hundred cycles!”

Aria smiled calmly as he asked that. “I already said it, didn’t I? I’m the Fashion Disaster. All things can be woven, and all things unraveled. That is the meaning behind an ascendant skill.”

Wait wait wait, so let me get this straight… The skill that Aria is using now… is fucking Tailoring?! How the hell is this Tailoring?! I felt my mind trembling as I realized what was going on. Aria didn’t release a golden light like Abzul because she didn’t need to… her very clothes were her godly powers…

That’s right, Johnny boy! Malthan’s voice echoed in my thoughts again. I haven’t seen her this pissed since some idiot destroyed her home planet. As we thought to one another, the fire continued to spread along Abzul’s body. His leg had already been reduced to ash, leaving him howling in pain on the ground as his other leg began burning. I really thought he’d put up more of a fight.

“Oh well.” Malthan said, shaking his head. Turning to Hiren again, he spoke up once more. “The result of this fight is obvious. I request that we repair the damage that he caused when he broke the rules, and return my champion to his previous state.”

Okay, hold on, since when have I been your champion?! I still don’t understand that!

For a moment, I thought he was going to ignore my thoughts, before he actually answered. Of course you are! Do you really think I am bored enough to talk at length with every single one of my people like this? I mean really, have a bit of self-awareness and think about how often you had a god on speed dial.

I… could not refute that. It was true, and even I had thought many times before that it was strange how he spent so much time talking to me. Well, what does being your champion even mean?

We’ll get back to that later, after we get you your body back.

Hiren nodded her head. “As is the rules, you are right to request this. Narlom, if you would be so kind?”

At this moment, yet another god seemed to walk onto the stage. I recognized him as the God of Time, the mostly-human god whose statue I had once created on the Ha’vosh homeworld. “Yeah, yeah, I hear you. Let’s just wait till this fight’s over, and I’ll bring your precious little human back.” He said, grumbling. Different from the appearance of his statue, he had a long, twisted beard and held a gnarled staff in his hand that he used to support himself.

“Ah, right.” Malthan turned towards Aria, who was still slowly burning Abzul’s tapestry. “Hurry this up, will you?! We’re waiting on you so we can bring John back!”

Aria jerked her head up slightly, before nodding her head. “Ah, sorry! I’ll be done in a moment.” By now, Abzul’s four limbs had all been turned to ash, but he was still writhing in pain as his torso slowly burned. “Sorry, but looks like we’re cutting this short.”

After she said that, she swiped her hand up towards the tapestry, and drew a line with her hand. The image of Abzul, followed by Abzul himself, was suddenly cut in half from that simple action, his movements coming to an abrupt halt. “Okay, all done here!”