Chapter 235: Ch 235 : The Game has just begun

The tournament of Gods, a spectacle that had captivated a universe for over a few years, was finally over.

It had not just been a good idea, it was something that surpassed even the expectations of Sunny.

The first and most obvious benefit was the faith. He had started the tournament because of this very reason.

He had spent, yes. He had burned through Adam’s entire fortune and a sizable chunk of his own for scaring away the void beast.

But the profit… the sheer emotional surge of faith from trillions of souls watching their champions, their demigods fight and bleed for them… it had refilled his coffers a hundred times over.

And with Sunny dying thousands of time, for their protection, the gods were having more and more faith on him with each passing second.

He was now on a clear path to earning quadrillions of faith in a matter of hours, not just from his own worlds, but from the 25% tax of six billion other Gods whose own faith generation had just exploded.

The second benefit was purpose. The tournament had given his entire empire a set of goals.

The trillions of lifeforms now had idols. They had seen the power of Anaske, the cunning of Nephis, the indomitable will of Thalorax, the absolute, terrifying power of Nova and Mammon.

They were now striving. They were motivated to train, to fight, to be like their heroes. And in the end, that collective ambition would only make his empire, and by extension, him, stronger.

But the third benefit, the one he hadn’t even planned for, was the most valuable of all. It was the Void Beast.

That unexpected encounter, followed by the brutal war with Edgar, had been a ice-cold bucket of water dumped on his entire Pantheon.

His Gods, his powerful subordinates, had been growing lazy. They were safe in their protected universe, their bellies full of faith, their minds occupied by the new games and novels Thea provided.

They were beginning to think of the demons as just a distant threat, just like the old gods did.

The Void Beast and Edgar had shattered that illusion. They had shown the Gods, in the most brutal and direct way possible, that in the grand cosmic scale, they were ants, just as fragile and insignificant as their own mortals were to them.

It had instilled in them a desperate, and all-consuming fire. A fire to grow. A fire to fight alongside their Emperor, not just hide behind his barrier. They were no longer just subjects. They were an army.

And finally, he had established his authority. He was not just their protector; he was their judge.

His verdict on Venus, a decision that had horrified and awed them in equal measure, had drawn a clear, uncrossable line in the sand.

He was a chill, fun-loving God, yes. But he was also an Emperor who would not tolerate misconduct, who would not suffer a stain on the reputation of his Pantheon and all the other Gods.

But this wasn’t just a verdict, it was good for Venus too. As he can learn many laws and increase his strength in these ten thousand years, this was a luxury that the other Gods would have to buy.

Adam, the God of Growth looked at the Emperor, his eyes filled with a complex emotion.

“Are you certain Venus won’t resent you for this?” Adam asked, his voice was concerned.

“Ten thousand years of isolation… even for a God, that is a heavy sentence. Especially when you yourself admit you might have made the same choice in his position.”

Sunny’s cosmic mask turned, the swirling galaxies of his eyes seeming to fix on Adam. “Maybe he will,” Sunny replied, his voice a cold and calm.

“But do I care?” He raised a hand, his fingers clenching into a fist. “If I sense a single, traitorous thought from him, if his ’reflection and training’ turns to ’resentment,’ I will simply kill him. I will have a clone use Loki’s Disguise talent, take his place, and rule his world in his stead. His people will never even know he is gone.”

Adam recoiled, a genuine shock on his face. “Cosmos… that is…cruel.”

He looked at the masked God, the being he had come to see as a friend, as a successor.

“The fights, the thousands of deaths you endured… I think they have shaken you. Changed you. This isn’t the God I’ve come to know.”

“You could say that,” Sunny replied, his voice still devoid of emotion. “You could say that dying more than four thousand times in a single day has… clarified my thinking. You could say the Soul Splitting has damaged my empathy. You could say, Adam, that I have finally gone mad.”

He stood, his own divine form radiating a cold, unshakeable, and terrifying authority. He strode past Adam, his cosmic robe swirling around him like a galaxy of living night.

“You should understand, Adam, more than anyone, that we cannot win against the Demon Lords if we are divided. We cannot win if we are soft. They need a hand of iron. A hand that guides them, yes, but also a hand that controls them.”

He raised his own hand, his gaze fixed on the subspace of his universe. “You tried to defeat the demons your way. The soft way. You treated the old Gods as your brothers and sisters and they fell to discord. They tore your empire apart from the inside out.”

He turned back to Adam. “Now, let me try my way. A way that combines both. Tyranny, and softness. The stick, and the treasure.”

He walked towards the newly-built treasury, a colossal vault that now held the million SSS-Grade artifacts Nexus had harvested from the Realm of Advancement. “I will give them treasures,” he said, his voice a low rumble, “to fuel their growth, to reward their loyalty, to make them strong.”

He clenched his fist, and the entire God space seemed to darken, to bend to his will. “And I will give them the stick,” he whispered, “to ensure they do as I say, to ensure they are never, ever a hurdle.”

Adam looked at the Emperor, and he felt a sigh build in his soul. “I am too old for all this,” he said, his voice filled with sadness, a sadness after thinking about the past.

“I just pray that your path… is the one that leads to victory.” His divine form dissolved, a wisp of golden light that flowed back into the subspace, back to his own, quiet, peaceful world, leaving Sunny alone with his resolve.

“Don’t worry, old friend,” Sunny whispered to the empty, silent God space. “I will be successful.”

“You never will be, you pathetic bug.”

The voice was a high-pitched, furious shriek, echoing from the floor of the throne room.

Sunny glanced down. In the SSS-Grade cage, the tiny, cat-sized, and utterly powerless form of Edgar was glaring up at him, his red, circular eyes burning with hatred.

“I have seen your strength,” Edgar spat, his voice a tiny roar. “You are weak. You are a coward, hiding behind your barriers and your tricks. Many of the true demon gods would have killed you a thousand times over already, and you would not have come back!”

Sunny merely looked down at the tiny, raging demon, a flicker of amusement in his eyes.

He had a universe to build, an army to raise, and a war to win. He didn’t have time for the taunts of a caged monster.

“The game has just begun, Edgar,” Sunny replied, his voice calm and indifferent , as he passed the cage, his mind already on his next, grand design.

“You were too weak to even be a threat. You were just a stepping stone for me, to show all the Gods that I am their protector. I hope your masters give me a few more years to grow. And then… they will be following in your footsteps, right into one of these little cages.”

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