Regret

God of Knowledge was researching.

"Failed again! What trouble," she said with disappointment.

Fifteen years ago, she came to the realization that her predictive abilities had ceased to function. She quickly pinpointed the problem.

In order to make accurate predictions about the future, it is necessary to understand the patterns and rules that govern the river of time.

As the God of Fate, she was supposed to know the laws better than anyone. However, that was the way it used to be.

Now, the rules have changed.

His prediction ability became unusable because although not all riles changed, enough of them did.

She has spent the past 15 years diligently researching and uncovering as many rules as possible.

However, she was far from done.

"The rules have undergone a fundamental change! Working alone, it would take thousands of years to rediscover them. I should join the research team," She said to Rachel.

Other gods in heaven who were also affected by this problem formed a group to conduct research. They extended an invitation to her; She refused the offer as she was afraid it might expose Rachel's existence.

Long ago, she cast a spell to hide Rachel in the river of time. However, with the change in rules, she lacks confidence that Rachel can remain hidden from the gods' eyes.

"Please don't do that! Our lives are stable. Why risk it?" Rachel pleaded.

God of Fate replied, "When can you be promoted to rank 5? You're just delaying it for years!"

Rachel assured, "Soon, I promise!"

God of Fate sighed and continued her research.

...

Zagronan sat in the headquarters while six demons stood before him.

One had a pig's head, which was his first child.

Another looked normal, just as handsome as him.

Two others were identical twin girls; Both had large feline bodies with human heads.

Another wore black clothes and had three pairs of eyes on his face.

The last one looked precisely like elves, except for her five pairs of breasts.

Zagtonan smiled at his children.

He was proud of them because, Despite lacking royal lineage, they were able to attain rank 1.

"My great children, I'm pleased to announce that we are going to war!" he said.

"What war?" Corey asked, worried.

He was about to advance to his second sequence job and didn't want anything to happen.

"A war with demon bandits!" Zagronan replied.

"What are demon bandits? Are they delicious?" Emelia, the girl with ten breasts, inquired.

"Bandits are demons who serve a lord who is 'unavailable.' Every single demon who doesn't have royal blood is enslaved and owned by the nobles."

"But in rare cases, some nobles refused to keep slaves. Every demon born near them still gets enslaved by them, but the noble would not control them. Those demons are usually scattered around and often cause trouble." Zagronan said.

"Are they delicious?" said the handsome demon, Ross.

"I don't know, I've never eaten bandits. I guess we'll find out soon," Zagronan said with anticipation.

As he gazed upon his children, he saw joy and anticipation for the war in their faces. The pig's head, especially, looked very happy and even shaking a bit from the excitement.

"First child is something else!" he thought, planning to reward him with the best meats after the war.

"You are dismissed."

The children went away.

"Zag, concentrate on reaching rank 5! These battles are not important," Rachel said.

"After this one, I promise I'll enter a closed-door meditation," he said.

"Now, let's get back to Lana!"

Rachel sighed as Zagronan cast a teleportation spell, taking them directly to Lana's bedroom.

"What? Lana, you're cheating on me!" Zagronan said with anger.

Lana was in the middle of an intimate moment with a demon with a single large horn on his forehead. Despite seeing Zagronan, she continued with her 'action' and replied, "You've been away for a month! Do you expect me to just wait for your return?"

"The baron ordered me! I had no choice," he said.

"I don't care. We had a deal, and you broke it," she retorted.

"Okay, don't cry. I forgive you,"

"Hey, horned guy, can you hear me?" Zagronan asked with doubt.

While continuing the 'action,' Lana said, "He is of the Demon King of Lust's bloodline. He doesn't hear anything else when he's in the middle of it!"

Zagronan sighed and cast "Melt."

The spell hit the one-horned demon, causing him to melt into a red, sticky liquid.

"What did you do? He hadn't finished it yet!" Lana exclaimed.

"Don't worry, I will finish the job," Zagronan reassured her.

Then, they got busy once again.

Rachel sighed deeply but was already numb to all this, so she started thinking about her life while observing the 'action.'

...

Dyer came out of his closed-door meditation. After more than a decade, he had finally reached one unsettling conclusion.

"I will die if I invade hell!"

This conclusion was unbelievable to him.

He possessed many rank 10 spell crystals and didn't expect anyone to be able to kill him. He double-checked this conclusion, but the results remained the same.

"What could possibly kill me? Are the demon kings hiding something, or is it that pill container?" He couldn't predict this, as hell lacked in luck.

Even the little he could predict was thanks to his improved prediction ability.

He cast a message spell and connected with Lewis.

"Hey, did you get any results?" Dyer asked.

Lewis answered while eating an apple, "No, it's the same as before. No out-of-the-world item above rank 8 was found."

After learning about how to promote to rank 10, Lewis and Dyer had been conducting a covert search for these items, but have yet to discover any.

"Keep searching, and don't forget to explore the mortal continents as well.," Dyer instructed.

Lewis inquired, "When will you come?"

Dyer and Lewis were old partners and had founded the Seven Lights Academy together.

Initially, it only had seven lights: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, cyan, and purple. The black, white, and invisible were added much later.

"I have to get back to predicting again, maybe a few decades later," Dyer remarked.

Lewis nodded; for them, a few decades meant very little.

"Dyer, recently, I feel something is wrong in hell. There is an extra presence there."

Dyer nodded and replied, "You felt it too? Yes, it seems like we have ten demon kings. I've already sent an avatar there to explore, but there are no results for now."

Lewis said, "I will also send an avatar. See you later," and then disconnected the call.

Dyer wasted no time. He went back to his closed-door meditation and sealed the door.

He still had a lot of things to predict about heaven.

...

The Demon King of Ice was in a room.

In the room were eight incarnations of the Demon Kings of Pride, Envy, Gluttony, Greed, Lust, and Wrath; along with them were the Demon King of Knowledge, who was a former god now called Tanoth, and the Demon King of the Tower, who was a former mage.

They were all seated around a circular table, while a gorgeous cat lay asleep at the center.

"You're back, Ice," said Tanoth, who was the most familiar with Ice.

"Yeah, I managed to come out from the depths of the River of Time," he said.

"But how is it possible? It has never happened before," Tanoth said.

"Hey, if anyone can do it, it's me!" said Ice.

"Now what? Do you want revenge?" asked the Demon King of Wrath.

"The past shall remain in the past. Now let's talk about the future," said Ice.

In the past, he was slain due to a conspiracy involving five demon kings.

It was a battle over an inheritance of the creators, named the 'treasure chest.' They had discovered it together while exploring a faraway place in hell, but everyone started to fight upon finding it.

The five demon kings teamed up and killed him, as he was a god who had defected to hell. Then, they made a deal on how to divide the treasure among themselves.

"So, what was in the 'treasure chest'?" asked Ice.

The treasure chest was equipped with a timer, and instructions indicated it would unlock once it hit zero.

The demon kings tried various methods to open it, but failed.

"The thing that allowed us to create so many incarnations!" said Tanoth.

Then, all nine Avatars spoke at the same time.

"It allowed us to have one mind!" all eight voices synced together, creating an eerie feeling.

Ice was surprised.

"You mean you are all connected?" he asked.

They all synced together, "No, we are one mind in different bodies. The treasure allowed us to become one."

"Then, you all agreed to it? How is it possible that demon kings decided to do this?" Ice asked.

"We didn't agree to anything! We were forced," they said.

"Who can force you, rank 9 demon kings?" Ice asked, feeling a sense of danger.

"It was Tom, who happened to be a pet belonging to one of the creators," they said.

"Who is Tom?" Ice asked while preparing to dissipate his avatar.

"Tom is here, on this table!" they answered.

Ice looked at the table and saw the cat.

It looked at him with the same disinterest and annoyance every cat has towards the universe.

"No," Ice tried to scream, but he couldn't.

He felt himself losing his mind. Strange ideas began appearing in his head, changing his worldview.

The avatar disappeared, and soon, ice came with his true body.

"Welcome," the eight demon kings said to Ice.

He smiled and, along with the other eight, said, "Thanks!"

Then, all of them dispersed and returned to playing their roles. Tom just sat at the table without a care for the world.

...

Doris was sitting on her throne, reading books.

After losing all her power, she thought it was the end of the road, but Dyer allowed her to live. He even allowed her to continue being the emperor.

With a knock on the door, Alistair arrived.

"Hey, Doris, you called for me?" he said.

"You, Alistair, are the only one who can understand me! What should I do now? Should I just read novels and wait?" she asked.

Alistair frowned and said, "Doris, I think you're done for. Dyer will eventually grow tired of you and dispose of you. There's nothing you can do."

"As honest as always, right, ancestor?" she said while laughing self-deprecatingly.

Then, she continued, "Hey, ancestor, now that I think about it, I regret not spending time with my family. At that time, I hadn't accepted them, but now, I regret killing my brother and making my mother suffer, my father going away and dying! I really regret it, and have been regretting it for a long time." Then, tears flowed.

Before, she was strong, so suppressing these emotions was easy, but now, these old regrets were haunting her.

After all, the memory of thousands of years is intolerable for a mortal.

Alistair, who knew next to nothing about comforting someone, just stood there and said nothing.

After a while, Doris stopped crying and said, "Thanks for coming."

Before leaving, Alistair offered one last piece of advice, "Hire someone to be your friend, someone who will listen to your regrets." Then he left.

Doris thought about it for some time and decided to heed the advice.

Soon, there was a notice throughout the entire Dyer continent that the emperor was looking for someone to be her friend. Many people volunteered, and a grand examination began.

The examination had 10 stages, with the final stage being judged directly by the emperor.

Doris looked forward to finding her 'friend'!