Without any warning, more than a few millennia ago, an age throughout which Gods were born took place.
Hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of Gods were borne out of thin air. More Gods than humans had the ability to name, to worship. If you wanted to believe in someone, they were there to be believed in. There to do with your faith whatever they pleased.
They were in abundance, giving humanity one miracle after another.
But even within the populace of Gods, as if they were learning from their subjects, many wished for even more power. Power to stand above all the multitudes of Gods. To show their superiority. Their prowess, their clout.
So under the will of the [World's Law] Thirty-Two titles were made. Titles that held power to move people, to make accepted religions.
The God of Weaponry
The God of Conflict
The God of Prosperity
The God of Wisdom
The God of Health
The God of Fauna
The God of Flora
The God of the Sky
The God of the Earth
The God of Weather
The God of the Seas
The God of Logic
The God of Power
The God of TItles
The God of Oaths
The God of Dignity
The God of Art
The God of TIme
The God of Civilisation
The God of Fertility
The God of Weather
The God of Luck
The God of Calamity
The God of Energy
The God of Monsters
The God of Healing
The God of Belief
The God of Vanity
The God of Sins
The God of Virtues
The God of the Sky
The God of Home
To earn one of these titles, a God had to earn the favour of the people. Fabricate miracles, show benevolence, leadership, and the qualities befitting Gods.
Do their jobs.
But that wasn't sustainable. Over years of benefitting from miracles, people would get more dependent on Gods and Gods would have to put more effort into just getting a title. It would be harder to retain your place.
Or at least that's what the higher, more powerful Gods started to believe. And that belief was enough to give the stronger Gods a reason to overthrow the [World Law].
'Why perform tricks to please, when you can bend the humans into submission?'
Soon tyranny overthrew the [World Law] and Gods started running amok. Harming humans, harming devotees, making examples out of the ones that didn't follow, and finally creating havoc within their own ranks.
'Why fight for a spot while dealing with humans, when you can just kill the Gods who have the spot?'
Within the endless battle to fulfil these immortals' pride, the [World Law] created them-
the two Deities.
Incredible beings far above the Gods. One who could wipe more than a tenth of them off with a single strike.
The Deity of Animation and the Deity of Entropy. The only constants that even applied to Gods.
But even with all that power, they were just onlookers who ensured that no one would abuse their powers and only got their place by earning their subjects' favour. They had no ambition of their own. They could think for themselves and feel, but never hold a single goal in mind.
Because if they did, the [World Law] would reject their existence. No one knows what, if anything, would happen if that took place. Maybe it already did.
The world was now back in order.
The titles were spread among the world in societies and people. Each major town got a church holding the God with a title, making a total of thirty-two churches spread across the land, some prosperous lands having even more than two churches.
The strongest of all Gods lived in the central city of Autopolia- The God of Titles.
The one burdened with naming the people who would join the crusade against darkness.
While the weakest of all Gods lives in a decrepit town the size of my hometown- The God of Weaponry. The God ostracised by his own people. The irreplaceable God.
Both the deities live in every church, to look after the Gods.
Destroying that entire structure.
That was the job that I undertook. I would climb all the way from the bottom, up to the top. Because this was now my new destiny.
###
The world is as big as you make it out to be. If you live in a room and decide to never venture outside, you would be content. If you live out in the vast lands and live the life of a nomad, you would be content.
But it's only when you understand that for every human on this land, there's a separate place they consider their world, can you understand the grand scale of the place we live in. Because essentially, for every human being, there's a different world. A world they decide on solely on how they see it and think of it.
My world was limited within the confines of the town walls that guarded me since my birth- or rather it was even smaller. I locked myself up with my past within the farm that I inherited. And I was happy. Why wouldn't I be?
I got food on my table, people in my care, and a constant place of safety.
Then I stepped out. The initial phase of living in someone else's world was exciting, it was novel. I felt like I could do anything, that my horizons had expanded beyond what I would ever hope. Though following that I was brutally taught that you can't just join someone else's world and think that you would be accepted.
Life taught me that when you reach out too far, you don't belong.
So I decided to return to my world... The one I was familiar with. The one with the big walls guarding me and the farm holding me captive.
But I got rejected because I, even for a minute, tried to belong where I didn't. My new past released me into this world as a weak fawn, unable to help myself. And now there was no going back anymore.
"You ready?" I asked the woman sitting against the tree.
"As ready as I'll ever be." Rumie took off the piece of cloth tightly wrapped around her abdomen. All the bruises that I had left on her were gone. Three days had passed. It was a new dawn. I was going to step into someone else's world again.
It didn't matter if I didn't belong. I wasn't planning to belong in the first place.
This was an invasion.
It was their turn to belong to my world.
"Vivi?"
"Uh hn."
"Then lead the way."