Chapter 54

The Gods and Goddesses love drama. They always have, and always will be.

For beings as old as the universe itself, and as powerful as stars, there is nothing in this cosmos that can make them as excited as the lives of others.

To these Manaborns, the meaning of these dramas is similar to watching their own reality television show, but with their selected characters, known as Apostles.

These ancient ones like to see their Apostles fight each other, fall in love with each other, or even destroy planets under their names. The bigger the events, the bigger the achievements, the better they would feel.

There was once a Demon Lord, who was the Apostle of the God of Greed. He was granted an inferior body of a goblin but with the ability to absorb. Everything he ate, became his power. Very quickly, he rose to the top of the food chain, devoured countless beings on his planet.

Blessings would then be granted to that Apostle and their race of goblin as a whole.

For a thousand years later, none dared to touch the goblins where he lived. The race became a superior species.

There is no information about his current whereabouts, as he disappeared after his War. Some said he moved to a higher civilization to participate in another War, some said he died.

Another example would be a blob called slime, who was given the power of a level 7.0 upon being born. It was the Apostles of the God of Unity.

Even though it was born on an extremely racist planet, with huge discrimination against monsters, it managed to gain the authority of a Demon Lord and built a country free of discrimination.

The country quickly gained a powerful influence all over the planet, unifying every other nation into one.

Yet the result is not important. The important thing is that the Apostles must make their Gods and Goddesses satisfied with their achievements. Their journeys must be a good show for those who gave them the blessings.

In the end, the Manaborns with better Apostles will gain more control over the universe, and those who keep losing will have fewer planets in their hands.

The Manaborns are immortals, they do not die due to old age, and they very rarely want to fight with one another. Because similar to the collisions of celestial objects, if they fight, they will do it on the cosmic scale, destroying many planets and even galaxies in some cases.

As a result, the Apostles become their avatars. The Apostles are the chess pieces of this endless Universal board game the Manaborns play.

Be it genocide or saving races from extinction, from marrying other Apostles to killing all of them, as long as they can perform something big, it is already good enough.

The essence of this is to create more chaos, disorder. Entropy.

That is the true purpose of the Apostles.

There are two major events for those who would like to become an Apostle, or already is an Apostle.

Selection.

And War.

As the name suggests, Selection is the process in which the Manaborns will try to find the best representatives for them.

Even though the achievements of the Apostles can be anything, they must all have one quality which is power. If they die along the journey, then being an Apostle is meaningless, and the others will laugh at that specific Manaborn.

In short, the Selection is basically a way for the Manaborn to choose some representatives for them so that they can participate in the War.

To do so, they will all have a fighting tournament, to show the Gods and Goddesses that they are worthy of being blessed. This is the case of those who would like to meet the Goddess or looking to become an Apostle.

As for the Apostles, it is the chance to prove to their benefactors that their decisions are correct. If they are defeated in the Selection, they will bring great shame to those who blessed them.

The Selection can be anything that a particular God or Goddess wants it to be. It can have one single round of elimination like a battle royale, or it can be of multiple stages.

In the case of Tomo, Goddess of Curiosity, she is known for doing unconventional events for her Selection, out of 'Curiosity'.

After the Selection, the winners will be chosen by the Manaborn. They will face the Goddess and will either be blessed or thrown away if the Goddess does not like them.

It is then that the War also starts.

The rules of War are simple.

Firstly, it is divided into three groups.

Ena, Mena, Thena. These groups correspond to the civilization level.

Mena level looks at Ena level as if a human is looking at a chimpanzee. And Thena would look at Mena as if they were ants. The difference in power is astronomical. Because of this, there will be no interaction between higher levels and lower ones.

Secondly, also the most important, do whatever they like, no strings attached.

It may sound easy, but actually, this is where things get interesting.

The truly difficult things are only present when one gains total freedom. If an artist is commissioned to draw 'whatever you like', there is a high chance that the artist will take ages to finish the drawing.

Similarly, if a person is told to 'be free', they will most likely get lost and start doing what they have been doing all this time.

The nature of 'free' is actually 'entropy'. And it is what exactly Manaborn wants.

Without morals, without laws, the world would be in mass chaos. Just like in the case of the Apostle of Greed. He devoured half of his planet, and his offsprings are at least a tenth of the remained population.

The Apostle of Unity was a rare case, who managed to keep their mind while being a slime. Usually, slimes are stupid creatures. It should have been a huge calamity, the kind of the slimes, rather than the chairman of the leaders of its home planet.

Kill anyone, harm anyone, build anything, create anything. There is absolutely no limit. The blessings given by the Manaborn will make anything in the world trivial. What the Apostles are supposed to be doing at this point is to be the best showmen the whole Universe has ever seen.

Of course, if one is killing too many people, other Apostles will find and cut that Apostle down. In fact, once War has begun, there will always be other Apostles of other Manaborn around. Furthermore, there is always resistance to the assistance of the home planets of the Apostles, thus making the game even more unpredictable.

Everyone wants to prove they are the best in this Cosmic Chess.

Once the Apostle has done something truly remarkable, there will be a reward. The type of which depends on the Manaborn.

It can be a new planet, eternal youth, everlasting life, ... being reborn.

Just like the War, there is no limit to the rewards as well.

The Manaborn winners will have more influence over the cosmos, giving them more chance to win the next War. The losers will slowly lose their status. People will soon stop believing in them, and eventually, become Forgotten.

There are countless Forgotten, unable to participate in any War. They are like rogue planets, with no destiny, no way to enjoy anything.

In short, beings other than Manaborns are their children. They participate in the Wars to commend their Creators. Those who lose will have their children taken away from them.

No one knows about them, no one remembers them, they live lives of solitude, boredom, and loneliness. Their consciousness fades into darkness sooner or later.

The situation of Earth is not very good. It has been left alone for thousands of years with no major blessings from any Manaborn.

Earth has been under the influence of 3.

The Church, which is the strongest, is under the Goddess of Freedom. More than half of the World worships Her. Those countries are powerful, to say the least.

The Red God cult comes second. Mostly in the far North and middle continent, they are the believers of the God of Control. Although they are not as powerful as The Church, the principles of the God of Control give them some power to fight on more or less equal ground.

The Church and the cult of The Red God battle quite regularly. It has only been about 50 years from the last crusade of the two.

Strangely enough, although the two sides hate each other, they worked together to stop the Apostle of Hatred from taking over the planet in the end. That also marked the first Apostle seen on Earth after at least 2000 years.

Lastly, and almost dying all around the world, is the Goddess of Love. She is everywhere since her principles do not conflict with the others. However, Her influence has been diminishing greatly.

It has been a long time since the last time anyone has heard of Her name, Phi.

There is little to none of the Apostle under her name. As if she is so disappointed, she gave up on the War. Earth is the final place where her influence still exists. But at the current rate, she will disappear from the knowledge of the Universe and become Forgotten.

The people of Nohin put their trust and hope in Hero, they thought he was an apostle sent by the Goddess of Love.

But no, Tomo, the Goddess of Curiosity, sent him here. She knew that Earth was being abandoned by their three deities. And she wished for this planet to be under her control.

The plan is simple. First, Hero defeats everyone, goes through the Selection easily. Then, he will participate in the War. She thought the guy was from another dimension, so he would have achievements beyond her normal thoughts. Finally, once that is done, he will inform everyone that he has been under Curiosity all this time, smashing all their beliefs, converting them all to Tomo herself.

Unlike Freedom or Control, Love has only one place left, this current planet.

With Earth in her hands, Tomo will eradicate the last of Phi. Erasing her completely from the knowledge of this Universe.

She will become Forgotten, the only way for a Manaborn to die.