SIDE STORY

The world is a dark and cruel place. It's a place bound by the intimate connection between a mortal's wish to survive and an immortal's whim to find fun in their long life. This continuous cycle divided the realm into pieces and standards that controlled the society of men, demi-beasts, beasts, and monsters. The largest division happened when the God of Mischief, Aswin, made a cruel bet with the God of Creation, Elphios.

"What the---! *cries* My baby! Which horrible god messed with my laboratory and changed my baby?!" Renee, the minor goddess of land plants, asked in horror upon seeing that the new life she was working on became something completely out of her imagination.

This made her godling, Penelope, scratch the back of her head and answer, "It might be Mister Aswin, mother. He was here, earlier, to ask some compounds for---"

"Aswin?! Again?! *cries* Why would he do this?! This is going overboard! He actually killed my baby! My poor baby! It didn't do any wrong! Why?!" Renee exclaimed while hugging her modified plant. Penelope sighed at the sight of her mother before looking at her the card on her hand with the name 'Kira' written on it. And then, hurriedly, she left the room to write a letter to the owner of the card about what happened on the laboratory. This was so that the owner can add her mother to the list of victims that he will be giving to Elphios.

At first, the God of Creation ignored him. He knows that agreeing with the God of Mischief would only bring more trouble than it was worth. This didn't last long, though. He had no choice but to hear the other god out when he started using his antics to target the lower gods with games that disrupted the lower gods' work in Veteus.

Since he can't find any higher realm's rules that the God of Mischief violated, he had no choice but to agree with it, with the purpose of keeping the peace. He was completely unaware of how much this decision will impact the lower realm.

The bet consists of both gods choosing a representative in the lower realm. They will give each of these mortal symbolic marks that will serve as their connection to the upper realm. When they reach the proper age, the gods shall pit them together in a battle, of whatever form, that will shape how the system will function for the next hundred years.

To make things fair, they both agreed on two conditions. (1) No influence shall be made directly to the lives of the concerned mortals while the bet is in session. (2) The battle or challenge shall be chosen randomly using roulette so that none of them will have any reason to back out because of cases like 'cheating'.

The first people chosen in this bet were the Rose Kingdom's royal princesses, Crowned Princess Athena and Second Princess Aphrodite. Princess Athena gained the blessing of the God of Creation, while Princess Aphrodite gained the God of Mischief's. These two sisters lived closely connected with each other's thoughts. They were completely unaware of the battle, that is, until the second sister reached adulthood.

On the day of her debut, the sisters met their mate, Michael, for the first time. This meeting was the condition of the first 'battle' that came out of roulette. The two sisters shall compete with who among them would acquire the man's attention, much to the God of Creation's vexation since he's aware of how strong the 'soulmate system' is, both emotionally and physically. Whoever loses will be hurt because of it.

He tried to call off the bet, but the God of Mischief prevented him from doing so. The other god concocted a reason that nothing drastic was yet to happen. Since it's like this, the God of Creation has no choice but to abide by the rules of 'word' that all gods must follow. It caused the righteous god to back down temporarily. Instead, he started thinking of ways to help the losing mortal child recover from the potential pain.

Based on the rules of 'mates', one mate will notice the connection while the other be completely unaware of it until their mate tells them about it. It's so that there's a gap for genuine feelings to be fostered between both parties. Since there are three people in the 'soulmate system', this time, the roles were set randomly by luck and by logic.

Athena was given the role of feeling the connection towards Michael, Michael was given the role of feeling the connection towards Aphrodite, while Aphrodite was given the role of not feeling anything at all. This twisted their entire life.

Athena, though fond of Aphrodite, slowly darkened upon realizing that her mate is putting more attention to her sister than to herself. It came to the point that she started acting outside what she normally did before she met Michael. Aphrodite noticed the darkening and tried to avoid Michael; however, Michael was persistent with his courtship. He was so determined that Aphrodite couldn't help but to be swayed by it. She still did her best to avoid him, though, but that little sway did not escape Athena's eyes. The moment she realized what is happening, Athena completely lost her mind.

Her energy, which was amplified by the Creation God's mark, ran out of control and accidentally destroyed a part of a barrier between the realm of mortals and the realm of immortals. Worse, Athena's energy became so twisted the Creator God can no longer absorb it back to his body without it harming him directly.

With no choice, the Creator God called off the bet with the Mischief God and, for the first time, destroyed a soul with his own hands. The damage has been done, however.

The energy that he can't absorb scattered across Veteus and started harming the natural flow of life. Veteus became more chaotic than before as those who are following the set system formed by the gods were harmed, one by one, by the new agents of chaos. In order to protect his people, the Creator God sacrificed a part of his power to create the Menu - one that allowed his followers to reach new heights. He also changed the system, one that the God of Mischief tried messing with because of how 'rigid' it is.

No longer having the patience for his antics, the Creator God tried stripping the God of Mischief of all his abilities, which was, of course, met with resistance. He was hoping to do this to send the God of Mischief to the mortal world and help him learn more about the mortal life which he has no problem playing with. It was clear that the Creator God was sour of what happened in the last bet.

Since he is the God of Creation, the God of Mischief have no choice but to follow through... at least, on the surface. While the God of Creation was extracting his powers, he allowed some of his abilities to stream out of his body and merge with some of the God of Creation's protected souls. In his point of view, it was a simple prank that will serve as the God of Creation's punishment for messing with him.

It took about three hundred more years before the God of Creation realized what the God of Mischief has done to his creations, and by then, everything was already too late for the infected souls to be returned to their original pristine state. The god doesn't want to destroy these souls, though. He wanted them to have a chance to find their place to the world while warning them of the potential future that will befall them if they allow their feelings to completely control their thoughts.

With this in mind, he created new labels in the 'menu' that he has gifted to his people.

These labels are... 'hero', 'noble', 'villain', and 'outlaw', each with qualities that defines the other. The agents of chaos noticed these new labels and started concocting plans of their own to make use of it.