"I am God Earl," the first announced.

"And I am God Doris," the second bellowed.

"Gods?" I asked. "If you're gods, what rank are you?"

"I never expected you'd know about that. Even some gods themselves don't know of the hierarchy," Doris said.

Earl asked, "What'd he say?"

Doris responded, "He asked us what rank we were. You never pay attention. Remember that left turn on the way here? You missed it and caused us to be delayed! Just listen, and I'll fill you in later."

"Yes, dear."

"As for my question?" I interrupted.

Doris, again, was the one to answer. "I am rank ℵ4, and so is he. Our quota is 10 million, so we have quite a bit to spare."

I asked Annie to confirm if they were truly such existences, and she did so.

With that, I was able to make sure they were ready.

"So, are you sure you want to pay two world cores for 100 drops of this special water?"

"Yes," Earl said. "We'll also throw in removing your race-up restrictions a few hundred years early."

"Then how can I refuse?"

"I like you," Doris said, "So I'll give you fifty world cores. I don't know what use you have for these, but I hope more will be useful."

"I'm sorry, but we don't have enough drops currently."

"If you can give me an extra ten drops, consider it your payment."

"Then, please wait a moment."

I went underground to use the staff and procure fifty drops. The other sixty were from Persephone. I hoped they liked the slightly higher-quality version. I also hadn't met any other gods, so this would be an excellent opportunity to make connections.

Quickly, I returned to the surface. Somehow, the gods made a pool appear, and they were swimming in it, awaiting my return.

As soon as I did so, it all vanished. I could also tell they tried to erase my memory of the event, which would have succeeded if it weren't for Proper.

"Here's your 110 drops."

"Thank you, here's your cores," Doris said. She took them from Earl's hands and gave them to me.

Doris next stared at me for a second before a rune appeared on the palm of her outstretched hand. She placed it near my heart. The rune's effect was immediate. Though I didn't have my race changed, the cap on my stats was listed. Using the artifacts I was given earlier, they each increased to the new cap of 2500.

[Error. Level incorrect. Increasing level to match stat maximum. Level: 26]

[Error. Unknown interference. HP, MP, HE, DE +1500. Small regenerations + 3 levels]

That was unexpected! With such a massive stat increase, my level was artificially increased to match it. Unfortunately, the only rewards I received were for my energies and regenerations. I didn't get any skills or other rewards.

It seemed like the reason my race couldn't increase was mainly due to the fact my stat cap was not in line with what it should be. Most likely, midnight vampires should have stats even above my current level, but this was supposed to be the minimum.

I wondered if something like this was why so many couldn't advance in race. I didn't have time to think further. I first had to deal with the cores. Unlike the one before, these 52 cores weren't covered by a blood-sealing shell. Instead, they had a clear covering. They were grouped in 4 groups of 13, each group in a small box. They also weren't all red. Each box had seven red, three green, and three blue.

I immediately told the councilmembers I would be leaving shortly with the cores. They let me, partly because I was their leader and partly because they had no use for them.

As soon as I arrived in Persephone, Annie came up to me.

"Master, can I have some of those cores? They will help me greatly increase my strength and ability."

"Sure," I replied. Even if I could figure out about a couple of them, I had way too many. Pristine alerted me to a new resistance as soon as I took off the casing of the first: world core destruction Lv 8.

With the new resistance, nothing happened as I handed her two red, three blue, and three green cores. I didn't know what she did with them, but they all disappeared.

Persephone also wanted many of them to help increase the barrier and life around. In fact, the different-colored cores even contained many souls. First, though, Annie interjected. She had to cleanse them all of the imprints left behind by the gods who gave them to me since they were originally from them. It took her about an hour to finish all 52 gems, which were now completely mine.

The remaining eighteen non-red gems, as well as six red gems, were given to her. In so doing, she had enough trillions of souls for making a few different animal species, based on spawners Annie conveniently had with her, a complete human civilization, and an intermediate level 1 world barrier.

The circumference of my world also increased by 4.4*1029 times. It was then increased 2.376*1070 times, for a new value of approximately 5.645376*10140 kilometers. This meant it somehow became a level-eight world!

There were very few worlds in the universe as big as mine—less than a few thousand. If I somehow got more cores, I may even be able to promote it further. From the information in the void council's library, which has mostly been successfully recorded into the library, I learned that, after the ninth rank, a world becomes a "great world." Hopefully, if I become a god, I can make my world such.

Next, I had Annie help me to convert the remaining cores. She had some special techniques now available to her thanks to her previous consumption of cores.

Five red gems were used to create a three-star world with a level 1 intermediate barrier. I did not create life, as I knew who would live here. I named it Demon's Playground to bind it within my soul.

In this world, I set up a few houses and some small animal spawners. I then brought Furcas inside, to live here with his twenty legions. This way, the forces of Hell's lower layers wouldn't be able to interfere.

They gladly brought all their possessions and moved in over a one-week period. I could now always call them forth.

The next ten were preserved in case I needed them later. Annie and I created a small sub-dimensional space in her house to store them inside. She also stopped time there so that they didn't degrade.

I was most excited for the final five gems. They'd be going into my blood world.

After they combined with it, the blood flowing through was much more vigorous and livelier. It was also at least a few thousand times more powerful. Finally, I did what the blood tyrants could never do: I turned the blood world into an actual world! I named it Crimson to likewise bind it to my soul.

After, I entered it for the first time. It was different from my other two worlds, as it endlessly created blood and used its power. Its circumference was much larger than a nine-star world, but it had a different function. It just contained blood for powering myself up. Using this blood, I may be able to increase my race. The consciousness was also awakened, and it could now intelligently control the force of the blood. When the blood world was finally finished, it combined with my personal void fog, creating void blood fog, a new, limitless source of energy to call upon if needed in battle.

Because of this, my V energy now showed ℵ0∞. I didn't know what the first symbol meant, but it was luckily used on earth. Apparently, it's called Aleph and represents the cardinality, or size, of infinite sets. The math behind it is more complicated than what those from Earth have discovered.

The raging tides in the ocean of blood were slowly condensing, forming large landmasses worldwide, fueling them with blood.

Soon, another change took place. The blood gained intelligence and became a type of monster, a blood slave. They were completely under my control. A few blood slaves increased their race again and became blood servants, which were equivalent to adult goblins in terms of stats, but their attack, shooting sharp strands of blood, was much more vicious.

I now had two billion to fight for me. The appearance of servants was approximately 1/100,000. Of the 20,000, I chose 1,000 to lead the rest of them. They immediately increased in race, becoming blood butlers. From the butlers, I chose 100 to lead the others as the generals. They also experienced a change in race, becoming blood stewards.

With the hierarchy established, I left the blood world. Inside of it, void fog and blood flowed equally. Suddenly, all of their races mutated due to the fog. Even all of my blood changed. They became voidless blood instead of just blood, commanding a little of the void and traveling through it briefly. My blood became voidblood.

I did not know how I acquired so many worlds already, but I hoped it would help me increase my rank.

That was my next goal, so I went to see Gabriel. First, I contacted him to make sure he was in Archipelago.

Aurora didn't want to see him, or else I would have brought her. Instead, I went alone while my family helped with putting the finishing touches on the world's new society. At this point, I quickly checked to ensure my mom and sister were safely back in the dungeon before setting off through my void tunnel.

I easily arrived some distance away from Gabriel, so as not to disturb him.

"Commander Gabriel, I have come to inquire how to increase my race to archangel!" I announced when I arrived.

"Captain Roberto, you've already reached your stat cap? That was incredibly fast. I can't believe it. Please, come over. We were discussing some other matters, but this is also important."

I knew there were others there, but I pretended not to see them.

Gabriel introduced me. "This is Ariel, another Archangel with Divinity, or two-star general in your world's terms."

"Nice to meet you. I am Captain Deathly Angel Roberto."

"I've heard a lot about you. You immediately became a deathly angel upon becoming an angel, a momentous feat. Then, you were promoted directly to Captain and even impressed Seraphim Camiel," Ariel said.

Gabriel continued after her. "Camiel should come to explain since he's taken a liking to you. Please wait for a moment."

"So," I asked ariel, "What were the two of you discussing?"

"You're lucky," she responded. "Captain is the minimum clearance to hear about this. We received word a new head of the Council of the Void has been ordained, but we can't seem to find out who it is. You probably don't know anything about this, so I'll explain a little. The Council is in charge of the void, which connects every planet and everywhere within each world to each other. This new leader is immensely powerful. Some say he may be able to bring down gods and devils, but this hasn't been confirmed. While they usually maintain neutrality, they are still seen as a threat to us. They have been known, on occasion, to side with our enemies. As such, we want to find out whomever this being may be. If needed, we wish to eliminate them. We were just discussing strategies for finding out who it is, especially since it affects the balance of power in the entire universe. Even General Seraphim Raphael, the Commander and Chief of the Angel Army, a five-star general, is interested in this issue. Only very powerful beings, at least as powerful as us, were chosen to attend, confounding this whole matter."

"Thanks for the explanation."

In the time it took her to explain the situation, which secretly involved me, Gabriel returned. This time, though, another angel accompanied him. It wasn't Camiel.

"I am General Seraphim Zadkiel, the second-in-command and a four-star general of the Angel Army. I have heard about you from Camiel. Even I am impressed that you have reached such a high level of power in such a short amount of time. This is unheard of. Additionally, since you are a deathly angel and not a normal high angel, we can't use the obelisk for you. Please know, most who attempt this change of race do, in fact, end up changing in some way. There is a large gap between high angels and archangels. If you fail, you will most likely have the lightest punishment: falling from a deathly angel to a normal high angel. Most will have their stats lowered to a normal angel's status. That's why becoming an archangel is so rare. Are you sure you wish to continue?"

"Yes, Sir! I am ready. Please direct me, sir!"

"I thought you'd say that. Gabriel, I'll meet you two at Acropolis in Arch Dome. Ariel, continue strategy planning with Jophiel. If needed, I'll bring in the lowest-ranked Seraphim, Three-star General Sarathiel."

"Yes, Sir!" both responded.

Gabriel began explaining to me where we were going. Arch Dome, the archangels' home planet, is close to the center of the galaxy controlled by the army. Being closer equates to being more secure, with heavy restrictions on entering. The worlds most proximate to the center, in the first ring, were for the seraphim. The second ring was where we were going. At the exact center of the galaxy was a passageway to the heaven realm.

Only Raphael could enter at will. If circumstances dictated or an emergency existed, so could Zadkiel.

Gabriel opened up his dimensional tunnel, still too weary to give me the coordinates. I followed behind him, and, after we arrived, I learned we still weren't on the correct planet.

I felt that I knew where we were going from here. The twelve planets of the first ring and Arch Dome were guarded against the void's power. Instead, we went through a different way.

There was a large, pearl gate sitting in the surrounding arid desert. Gabriel explained that this was the same mechanism used to get to the first-ring worlds.

Passing through the gate brought us to a sub-dimensional space. Here lied a rainbow-colored bridge, which we quickly flew by. On the other side, there was likewise a gate, which allowed us to leave the sub-dimensional space. Somehow, the two sub-dimensional spaces were linked through the use of that bridge. I couldn't comprehend how, though.

We were in Acropolis, the capital city of the entire planet!

The city was aptly situated atop a mountain, overlooking smaller villages. We walked past many skyscrapers until we entered an open-top building surrounded by 17 pillars down the long side and eight on the short side. From here, the floor rose up to the structure floating high in the sky.

There, we met Zadkiel again. He had a serious expression on his face.

"Commander Gabriel, we have found that they are selling lesser quality restoration water for high prices. This has made the issue graver. Even worlds we thought we wouldn't have to worry about are now able to return to glory. According to rumors, even the Harab-Serapel have obtained a drop."

Gabriel responded, "that shouldn't be enough to do anything. Maybe a small world will get some repairs, but it is far from enough to revitalize their entire army."

"Who are the Harab-Serapel?" I asked.

Zadkiel explained, "They are the death ravens, lead by Baal, one of our great enemies. These ravens specialize in pinpoint attacks at the heart and are relentless. We had to destroy their worlds in order to win the last fight—even one of our gods had to lend a hand."

I didn't want this fight, so I sent a message through the void to the Council, forbidding them to sell any more drops to the Harab-Serapel. They agreed.

"This matter doesn't concern you. For now, we will help with increasing your race. Please follow me to a first-ring world. We'll continue there."

"Yes, Sir! I'll follow General Zadkiel!"

Zadkiel led the way through the sky and to another sub-dimensional space connected by a pearl gate. Like before, we followed the rainbow road to another pearl gate in a second sub-dimensional space.

On the other side, we were in a military-style installation. There were archangels standing guard, but they immediately lowered their guard upon seeing Zadkiel. They knew he wasn't a threat to them.

He continued leading me through the base until we finally arrived outside. This was one of the east-facing first-ring worlds leading directly to Heaven. Here was where the artifact I needed was. He led me to another base to pick up a golden feather, which they had very little information about. They just called it the "progenitor's feather." Again, the mysterious progenitor term popped up.

Finally, after multiple layers of security, I was in possession of it. The one function unlocked was increasing the success rate by 10%. Like Archipelago, there was an obelisk to assist with the upgrade. Here, though, it was much more intricate.

To begin, Zadkiel led me to a grassy plain. A high fence surrounded the obelisk. Zadkiel had to melt this fence to gain entrance. This caused a reaction, where a hundred commander archangels showed up, weapons ready. When Zadkiel explained the situation to them, that I was increasing my race, he said that I had done excellent service to the army and that this was part of my reward.

That calmed them down, but one still spoke up and told him a signature was required. Zadkiel took a feather off his wing and shot it towards the unfortunate angel, but the feather transitioned into a splatter of ink that magically created a stamp and signature on the piece of paper that appeared.

After that, the angels left us alone. It was finally time to begin. I walked forward but was quickly stopped. I had to follow a specific path to avoid the traps. They must have been at a higher level than I could hope to detect. I followed his directions and walked the winding path, arriving in front of the obelisk along with him.

He used some heavenly energy to cause a panel to appear. I could only figure out that archangel was selected. From there, he used a skill to create a pointed key. He hammered it into the obelisk with his fist, causing it to turn a golden hue.

The obelisk shook before a sweet fragrance was emitted. Immediately, flowers began blooming throughout the field.

Finally, the door opened, revealing the dark interior. After so many hoops that had to be jumped through, it was time for me to increase my race and become an archangel. I was ready for the test and was sure I would pass it.