Master of the System

Karta stretched her jaws wide, taking in a huge yawn. She smacked her lips a few times with her eyes still shut. A moment later, her hackles and ears raised, and her eyes shot open. She bounced to her feet and looked from side to side. The last thing she remembered was being forced to consume a divinity while surrounded by thousands of titans. Where was she? In front of her, there was a black dog with sleek, glossy fur. It was also a Labrador retriever, and it looked like a much cuter version of her. Karta’s lips pulled back, and she let out a growl, but the fancy dog did the same exact thing. Who did that dog think it was!? She was now the god of the marketplace and potato chips! There wasn’t any other snack god as strong as her!

Karta sniffed before furrowing her brow. Something was wrong. The dog in front of her didn’t have any scent; instead, she smelled lavenders coming from … herself? Karta looked down, and her eyes widened upon realizing her hair was sleek and glossy! A bark escaped from her mouth. That wasn’t an intruding dog. That was her! What the heck happened to her!? Absorbing Rynok’s divinity must’ve changed her appearance! The change wasn’t a bad one either. Karta strutted in front of the mirror while inspecting herself. She looked good! She’d like to see if Vremya would still call her a stinky dog now!

“That’ll be three earth-grade spirit stones.”

Karta turned her head. There was a closed door in the room, the only exit. She hopped down from the table she was on and nudged the door with her paw. It creaked open. Outside, Vremya was standing in front of a desk with a lady counting spirit stones sitting behind it. Vremya turned his head, meeting Karta’s gaze. “Oh? You’re finally awake?”

Karta pushed the door open all the way and burst into the room. Her eyes widened as she took in the sights around her. “A doggy daycare!? You washed me!?” Karta’s hackles rose, and her body tensed, her nose pointing straight at Vremya. She barked and stomped her front paw. “Do you know what it means to wash a dog!? No! In the first place, I’m not even a real dog! I’m a snack god, a god!”

“You stunk,” Vremya said with a blank expression. “I’ve seen a few advertisements for this place, and I’ve been meaning to take you for a while but was too lazy to do it.”

Karta’s vision went red. That was it! She had had enough of Vremya calling her stinky! Even if she were a bit fragrant, from what place did a naked old man have the audacity to criticize her? With a bark, Karta ran forward and tackled Vremya … and promptly hit an invisible barrier. She bounced off of it with a thud, and she groaned while rubbing her head. A shadow covered her vision, and she looked up to see Vremya towering over her with his fanny pack in plain view.

“You might’ve suffered some side effects from absorbing Rynok’s divinity like that,” Vremya said with a furrowed brow. “The divinity is influencing your feelings towards me, making you more aggressive. Rynok must’ve cursed me a lot before he died.” Vremya shrugged. “It shouldn’t take long for the divinity to fully digest. Just lay in bed for a few days.”

Karta was about to reply, but something dark covered her vision. Was that the opening of a bag? Before she could figure out what was happening, she was already lifted off of her feet and stuffed into a sack. “Hey! What are you doing!?”

“Making sure you don’t run away from me,” Vremya said. “Anyway, stop struggling. Focus on your new divinity for now. Make it yours.”

Karta stopped squirming and curled her paws while furrowing her brow. Her eyes squinted as she focused, looking deep within herself. In her mind, a golden mist was going up against a sea of potato chips. The mist was circling and attacking the chips, separating single chips from the group before surrounding them like ants. Karta frowned and barked in her mind, and the potato chips, which were falling apart like a sea of fish being hunted by a shark, gathered together, solidifying into a wall instead of a sea. The edges of the potato chip wall lunged forward like arms going for a hug, and a circle made of potato chips was formed around a blob of golden mist. The potato chip circle shrank and crushed the golden mist trapped in the center, condensing it into golden potato chips. The process was repeated over and over until all the golden mist was gone, leaving behind an ocean of potato chips, some glowing gold.

When Karta opened her eyes, she was lying in her spot on the couch. Vremya glanced at the dog from the corner of his eyes. “Awake now?” he asked. “How is it? Are you still the stinky dog?”

“You’re the stinky one, old man,” Karta said and rolled her eyes. She glanced around before slapping her personal computer with her hindleg, turning it on. “What happened? What’d I miss? Anything interesting?”

“Looks like you successfully ate Rynok,” Vremya said and turned back towards his screen.

Karta squinted at the old man. “How did you know so much about devouring divinities anyway?” she asked. As far as she knew, Vremya was the god of time, and he had no other domains. It just went to show he had never consumed another god’s divinity for himself.

“I read it online,” Vremya said and rolled his eyes. “Also, we’re in an annoying position.”

“Annoying position?” Karta asked and tilted her head. Her gaze landed on her display that had finally loaded. However, there was something different about it. “Did you delete my apps?” She blinked and swiped at her display. The only app available to her was the marketplace, but when she clicked on it, there wasn’t anything up for sale. Karta blinked and whipped her head around towards Vremya. “Old man…, did we get blacklisted from every service?”

“Yep.” Vremya nodded. “The primordial council published some fake media pieces about us attacking the financial world, and while you were sleeping, the majority of the gods rallied together and collectively went against us.”

“Fake media pieces?” Karta asked. “What do you mean fake? We did go and attack the financial world, right?” She checked her body. “I’m definitely god of the marketplace now, so it really did happen.”

“The article said we figured out a way to bypass the rule of violence against gods, making it seem like I attacked Rynok directly, which I hadn’t.” Vremya snorted. “It’s fake because the facts are incorrect. I used titans to do it.”

Karta shook her head. “If we’ve been rejected from godly society, how are we going to get the things we need to be lazy?”

Vremya swiveled his personal computer, showing the display to Karta. “Not every god has cut ties with us,” he said. “I went to the main hub and found I could download these few apps.”

Karta narrowed her eyes at the earth-colored apps floating in front of her. “All of these belong to the evil gods.” She blinked. “Did you tell Pravos yet? What did she think about it?”

“She’s over there,” Vremya said, pointing towards the corner of the room. Karta turned her head, but she didn’t see anything there except for a potted plant. She sat up, and thanks to the little bit of height gained, she was able to glimpse part of Pravos’ back jutting out from behind the plant. The god of justice seemed to be rocking back and forth, and Karta had to strain her ears to make out the faint murmurs coming from the corner of the room.

“Everything is unjust. The gods rejected justice. Why would people reject justice? Everything is unjust. The gods rejected justice. Why would people reject justice?”

Karta put a paw on Vremya’s leg. “Is she okay…?”

“She’s been like that for a while now,” Vremya said. “The caretaker golem didn’t seem to find anything wrong with her, so I think she’s fine.”

“If you say so….”