A large grin was plastered across the face of Hermes, once more taking the form of a cat.

“He fancies himself a hero…” he muttered, before bursting out laughing.

“He... he really thinks of himself as... as the savior of mankind” Hermes wiped at his eyes.

“As if we chose him to be a hero! What an idiot! We chose... who was it again, Old Man? Alistair? No, no, he was the vengeful one.”

The alleged ‘Old Man’ sighed in response.

“Remus. Second iteration. Showed much potential, but he became too focused on saving everyone.”

The two gods were in what appeared to be a messy office, watching Seamus struggle against the hobgoblin. His valiant efforts were - to Hermes' great amusement - displayed on the screen at the front of the room.

A knock on the door interrupted them.

“Come in,” Chronos rumbled.

A young woman poked her head in through the doorway. “What’s this you have here, Chronos?” The cat caught her eye. “Hermes too? What games are you playing now, O Lord of Time?” She walked into the room, her battle attire drawing both gods’ eyes.

Chronos sighed and scratched his chin.

“Attempt number three-thousand, five hundred and eighty.” he stated.

The woman claimed a spot on the couch, then joined them in watching Seamus on the screen.

“Ah, your champion,” She then stared forward for a few minutes, eyes glazed over.

“A self-appointed hero?” she eventually questioned.

“That’s what I said!” Hermes cried out.

“Curious. I suppose my champion will just slaughter yours then,” she stated, before standing up and leaving the room abruptly.

“This is why I don’t invite Athena to parties. She gets too competitive,” Hermes grumbled in complaint.

“Seamus believed himself to be a hero very quickly. Such a rapid change displays an ability to adapt. It took much longer for anyone else to become that self-deluded. Perhaps he has a chance,” came the reply.

“Yeah, but he isn’t strong enough, and his willpower seems to be quite lacking. He nearly fell apart in his first battlefield, not to mention his choice in weapons,” the cat shuddered, “Why use a katana of all things? A simple spear would fare much better.”

“He will learn in time. They all do”

“Yeah, but nobody actually saved the world, did they? In fact, I would wager that he will accomplish nothing in his second iteration. You willing to bet on him, Old Man?”

Silence engulfed the room, save for the fight going on in the background.

“That’s what I thought.”

The cat transformed into a humanoid form, took one last glance at the television, then left the office.

Chronos sighed once more, this time in disappointment about his fellow gods. Yes, this was late in the game. He should have chosen his early champions wiser, instead, all of them eventually went insane. There was a chance for this one, though. He had the right mindset, even if he was going about it in all the wrong ways. At least he wasn’t a dud, and just hiding away in hopes that it all would be over. Those ones were the worst.

Nor was he going and killing off all the other champions and successful survivors as the previous one did. Nobody could have predicted that, least of all Chronos. He did well for the first few iterations, then he just went crazy. At that point, he knew he had to pick a different champion.

Luckily, he was one of the few divine beings that could change what they do between iterations. He could change his champion, as well as have the champion remember each of their lives. That does frequently turn them psychotic, but they typically do well for the first ten or so.

Chronos paid attention to the screen once more as Seamus defeated the Secret Boss. ‘He figured something out, I suppose. That’s better than some of the others I have chosen’.

He pulled out his notepad, jotted down a few notes, then placed it back into his pocket.

‘Hermes believes this one has little to no potential. I disagree. Maybe I should have taken him up on that bet?’

Maybe if Seamus had gone with the group, he would have gambled on him. Teamwork is far more likely to succeed than doing it alone, as he had observed through all of the previous attempts by the chosen ones. Especially if they got another god’s chosen on their team.

Taking one last deep sip of coffee, he pulled up a computer and began analyzing Seamus’ behavior. He couldn’t afford to take any more chances, not after last time.

‘Time to get to work.’