The darn youth's shrieks and hollers never really stopped. Not the automatons could calm her down.
Not the useless things I'd resurrected had some insights to add. To think they were four women in the prime of their womanhood. Four! And all had siblings and at least one little pipsqueak!
But no one had real parenting experience? How come? What the flying fuck did I set as my search criteria?! What was happening in the world out there?
Too few wars to effectively cut down on numbers and motivate procrastination? If I weren't so damn clear on how disastrous the death toll numbers really were, I'd have misunderstood the current state of the multiverse.
"Nonsense," I muttered with conviction. "Think, Spice, think! When Thoth comes back a solution will be the least of your worries!"
How come those I resurrected with difficulty behaved this unruly, this... selfish? I should have left them rotting away until properly trialled.
They had the gall to ask about their own meaningless situations, croaking inquiries all over the place. Some had been dead longer than others.
Two of the distracted women knew little about today's politics, which their questions and reactions aptly proved.
This didn't mean that the other two were up to date. They simply knew more bits of recent history, that was all.
However, what their question and answer session devolved into was a kicking and screaming session.
After all, the four didn't live in the same goddamn corner of the multiverse, had different values, dealt with different tribes... I might've screwed up...
Anyhow, their sorry exchanges would have seemed interesting if not for the fact my mind was totally filled with Thoth and the cumbersome punishment he will undoubtedly unleash upon me.
That was also why I found out about a certain recent development much too late than I should have.
"So he's dead," I grumbled while freezing the four useless dimwits with my undiluted presence. "Dead... oh." I froze in place soon after "W-who's dead again?!"
It was a freaking scream full of incredulity and perplexity that rattled my dry throat, unceremoniously uprooting and blowing away the nearest dozen or so Murder Trees.
The glances I earned were a mixture between reproach, fear, and curiosity. However, I was not up to decrypting whatever shit the three women felt.
Their emotions were none of my damn business. I had to mercilessly deal with a fucking landslide! "Thoth is dead."
A fraction of a second later, and I found myself eating rocks and greeneries, my head ploughing the ground. "What did you say?! Rubbish!!!"
Supreme Gardener was the culprit, yet I couldn't really take it out on him. Compared to the anger first and fear second I felt, his slight was of no consequence.
"Calm down you fool. Act more human and we shall see what the New Will has to add. Want to ruin Thoth's sacrifice?"
That hopefully did the trick. Supreme Butler had to stay silent for as long as I needed to get my shit together and it would all be peachy.
"What are you guys up to! Why are we here, and... how?" These were not questions worth answering. A total waste of time.
Especially now that the latter had begun ticking faster... "Silence, useless mortal! Who doesn't help doesn't bark," my voice sounded cracked and not at all majestic.
But it did the job just as well, with the stupid orc flinching. From the sidelines, I noticed her fellow resurrected, a vicious-looking dark elf, snickering irritatingly.
It took a random slap cracking space from me to wipe that off that annoying mug. "You there, have you things to say too?"
I didn't ask with the intention of inquiring. I just asked to be somewhat polite as I got an interesting idea that might work out.
"This place is not the promised Endless Plains. Devil, where have you taken my soul?"...and why had I resurrected such an ignoramus, I wonder? Why the fuck did I indeed take souls I was now responsible for?
With all the drawbacks accompanying such a stupid decision made on the fly? "I'm not up for a religious debate, so spare me your misguided convictions, centaur.
Reserve them for your companions in suffering who will surely have more time to attentively listen." This should've been all, but...
It wasn't even her who responded—not that I excpected a response at all. "I cannot. I have things to do." The last of the four, a small yet sturdy girl looking parts of a rugged mountain, parts obsidian disapproved vehemently.
Why do mortals never shut up and think for a second? Why did I always have to break it to them? For my sanity's sake, I was a god!
"Oh, really?" My expression was one of schadenfreude as I muttered a heavenly poem. "Cursed art thee who fail mine godly task!
For failure demands the culling of thine people, success continuation of what should not be." Okay, that certainly didn't sound like a poem at all.
The curse I spoke sure sounded awkward. It had simply been too long since I last uttered such nasty words of power.
But the effect was immediate. Three of them realised the truth with their very essence, no need for the brain at all.
The fourth lost all facial colour only when I chuckled in her general direction. "And for you specifically, the curse is inversed. Fail, and I swear upon my name that your family lives on for all eternity!"
Their current state of mind facilitated my work tremendously. As my time was tight, I hurriedly broke Aethernum's barriers and opened up a random portal and completed the godly assignment.
"Look after her as if she is your god. This is your trial. Begone!" Without waiting for their futile protest, I kicked them all through the portal, Sovereign Gardener included.
The latter got the glory to take her along. I did not trust the four to do an acceptable job. Mortals were, after all, extremely frail beings.
Which I could sadly say of myself too. No second had passed after their disappearance and I fell to my knees, vomiting my godly insides out.
Yet even that little time of respite was not allowed for me to take. "Intruder! Intruder!" Aethernum thundered mercilessly.
"Freeze space, stop time, start the Annihilation Protocol." To the disastrous restrictions speedily turning the place into the multiverse's most restricted corner, I had only three words to say.
"Fuck you, Thoth!"