Transcendence?

***Floating somewhere above the Sea of God***

***Lidith***

“Then it's my turn?” I take the dice from the game board and look at the game pieces on the table. The board is an exact copy of the real world under our feet. Several figures are representing my chosen ones, while others represent the champions of my opponents.

“Looks like that's the case.” Aneth lolls bored in his chair, while looking at a set of cards in his hand. He is holding six cards at the moment.

Wynne and Charon are also studying their hands. Wynne has seven cards at her disposal, while Charon holds four.

I draw another card from my deck and check the five cards in my hand. I could influence a peasant, which isn't very effective. Sometimes it's very useful to take control of an unimportant person in the right moment. But I see no opportunity for doing so right now.

Then I could grant my divine protection to someone. That's actually pretty powerful, but I don't want to waste the card on something unnecessary.

My third card would allow me to talk to someone in person. Quite useful. Especially if you are forced to save an important person.

There is one assassination attempt left. I am not a fan of using those, so they keep piling up in my hand until I find an especially despicable target.

The fifth card allows me to permanently spy on a certain target. Quite useful, it's necessary to put that card on all important persons. The fact that our little game has a mind of its own makes this card super valuable.

The newly drawn sixth card turns out to be an enchantment. It allows me to grant my divine power to an item and thus creating an artefact. Aw... whom should I give it?

I wish I would get another summoning card. Having more minions is always beneficial. I take another look at the game board, where the enchanted figures are slowly moving around, showing the locations of the persons they represent.

“Why does it feel like all of you are ganging up on ~meee~.” Even if they are denying it, I am sure of it! The recent attack by Aneth was proof enough!

“Look who finally realized what's going on.” Charon shakes his head and knocks onto the table with his knuckles.

“Eh? You don't deny it?” I look up flabbergasted and everyone is looking at me.

“You stole my champion! I put so much effort into his miserable youth! I wanted him to abhor this world enough to destroy it! I was so close to kicking him over the edge when you created the opportunity for him to escape my influence!” Charon shakes his fist at me.

“Well, sorry for being smart for once. You don't always have to use your influence cards for your own champions. If you can turn someone around, then it's legit!” I try to defend myself.

“You stole my champion too! And you already had a very strong one to being with!” Wynne puffs her cheeks and points at the white figure, which represents the Immortal Empress.

“Haaah? If I remember correctly, your champion was almost taken out by Aneth's sneak attack! You abandoned her, saying that she was too weak and that you would summon a new one! I just influenced Kane to lead Ascathon to the slave market in order to pick her up! I collected something that was given up!” Yes! That's right. She has no justification to be mad about it! And I thought that we were allied! How can someone like her assist Aneth and Charon?

“Then Ascathon got laid and you ended up with yet another immortal!” Charon says this like it's my fault.

“Well, sorry. You all saw the circumstances. Maybe you shouldn't have summoned a soul magician, Charon! It's not my fault that you lost control of your own summoning.” I puff my cheeks.

“He wasn't that strong at the beginning! I never thought that he would accidentally catch the soul of another immortal!” Charon grumbles and looks down at the board.

“From my perspective it looks more like you don't have any control over him!” Aneth points an accusing finger at me.

“It's perfectly fine! I even managed to steal two champions from you. It's not justified to accuse me of having no control!” I fold my hands and look at the board.

“And now another one from that Kane and Tanith! That means that you have five immortals under your jurisdiction!” Wynne spews another accusation at me.

“That was legit too! I drew that summoning card! It was perfectly fine! And I deserved it! You guys took four of my worshippers out of the game!” Yes that's right.

Wynne almost killed Fingulf with her assassination attempt. Right now she has the most control over the Nation of Mist.

Charon tried to kill Ascathon by manipulating the mana core of his flying ship. I had to use a precious protection card to save him from being killed in that crash.

And Aneth killed the Jarl and two of his wives by using his hero. It turned out to be to my benefit in the end, but that's just the nature of our game. You can't control every aspect of the world.

“I still don't believe that it's justified to gang up on me.” I mumble.

“It's perfectly justified!” All of my opponents snap back in unison.

“You control the whole continent of Phenex! Just because you got that overpowered Jazira!” Aneth stabs his finger at my white figure. “And you are currently taking control of Norfolk too!”

“It was very awkward that this Ascathon managed to trick me. Maybe we should abandon the game and deal with him. I don't want someone on this world who is even more powerful than the Immortal Empress.” He looks at the other two.

“You can't do that! That would be a violation of the rules! The rules are untouchable! You know what would happen otherwise!” I gasp. Charon is a maniac. He has been trying to destroy the world ever since we started playing a few thousand years ago.

To my relief Aneth and Wynne nod in unison, thus denying Charon's suggestion.

Everything started when the four of us came into conflict with each other. One world isn't big enough for four gods. At first we tried to enforce our will with brute force. But that turned out to be a very bad idea.

When two divine beings fight with each other, there tends to be a lot of collateral damage. Aneth and Wynne ravaged a continent when they clashed with each other a few thousand years ago. I was barely able to stop them before they destroyed the world.

Charon became troublesome at the same time. He started to spend his time killing people and causing destruction. I guess every god needs a hobby. Eternity is simply too long otherwise.

Aneth finds joy in causing wars and conflict, so he stepped on Wynne's feet while doing so.

Wynne is something akin to a gardener. She is always trying to build something up and to cultivate nature.

As for me, I had enough trouble with trying to protect the innocent mortals from them. That's why I was really happy over her suggestion to play a game over the fate of the world.

Somehow everybody agreed. Charon only did so under duress. The notion of having three gods gang up on him wasn't his idea of fun. But I still wish that he would simply take a pathway to another world to cause trouble there. Then it wouldn't be my business.

Unfortunately all of us seem to regard this world as our home and while Charon is a maniac, his destructive urges are suppressed by us. Neither Aneth, nor Wynne nor I desire the destruction of the world. Though I think that Aneth and Wynne just see the world as their playground.

So when we decided on playing a game, the next question was on which game we should play. After a long debate, which took almost a year, we decided on inventing a new game.

Therefore we spent another twenty years on writing a rule book and collecting ideas from various other worlds. The outcome was a troublesome mixture of chess, various card games and table top games. Combined with using the real world as a playing field.

And right now we are still playing the game. Nobody thought about implementing a time limit. It's better than destroying the world in any case.

Though right now I have a big problem. I thought that I was on the best path to finally winning once and for all. But if all three of them start to turn against me at the same time, I could lose everything I gained very fast.

“Hmmm...” Should I bestow my divine protection on Fingulf to have him take over the Nation of Mist? But right now he is relatively safe from attacks. The others ignore him, since he is bound to his bed and can't influence the elders.

Wynne surely pulled a bad trick on me with that backstabbing attack.

Aneth still has the Kingdom of Mislow tight in his grasp. I don't have much influence there.

And Charon has a horde of minions, assassins and other followers all over the board. He lost three of his pieces when he tried to kill Ascathon though. I had to send Celestial to the rescue by influencing Sera. Luckily she doesn't count as an influential figure yet, so I could instil fear of losing her father into her.

She acted as expected and persuaded her mother to search for him.

I have to be careful of every step. The worst outcome would be if they managed it to play the Immortal Empress and Ascathon against each other. That's something Charon would do for sure if he gets the chance.

First I will determine what I am able to do, so I throw the dice with thirty sides.

“Damn!” It's just a twelve! So I have twelve casting points for this turn. That's not very much. Most cards cost fifteen or more. There is just the spying card which costs ten and the talking card which costs five.

I bite into my lip and finally decide to place the spying card on Sera. It's a little early to put her under permanent surveillance, but I hope that it won't be wasted in the future. Investing too much into a summoning while it's still weak could come back and bite you in the end.

The card turns into light and envelops the figure which represents Sera. I look towards Wynne.

“It's your turn backstabber!”

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