Upoop of his castle, Pandazes down upon the lowered drawbridge that stretches into the void. Colors swirl around the feet of each divinity as they cross the translut, glowing crystal span, each acc to their power and aspect. She takes the measure of each god as they arrive. Loosely speaking, they fall into three categories. The numerous minods are beings still struggling to survive against the wiles of fate. Mid gods, true immortals, sustain themselves from the mana of their worlds and will st as long as there is mana. Typically, each world hosts one mid-level god. Majods are rare beings, free from the shackles of worlds or mana or even physics. To them, a universe is but a toy. They usually bee creators… or destroyers.

  It opens a sed eyelid. A human god from one of his seeded worlds saunters out of the void. The bridge beh the god’s feet bzes an eye-hurting violet, pletely dyeing the crystal’s soft white glow in bck light. The newer strolls across the span with the pooise of a majod.

  “Chaos,” Pandora tastes the air, “it seems the tides are ging.”

  Pandora tio watch the arrivals, all the new and old divinities until nods are on the bridge and the appointed proper time is e. With a thought, the drawbridge begins to rise.

  Just then, a te arrival forms from out the void. The teer is a bipedal goddess remi of a human in general form, except for the single rge eye in the ter of her head. The goddess, seeing the bridge rising, rushes across the causeway and jumps. She almost makes the jump but her foot catches the edge and she sprawls eye first onto the crystal bridge. The crystal glows a very muted rare silver-grey, insinuating the girl is a minoddess of explosive luck.

  The bridge tio rise and the goddess panics. She wipes the tears from her eye and attempts to rush down the bridge. Unfortunately, the bridge is already too vertical, and she falls forward, then begins a roll.

  Pandora snorts bubbles as the goddess rolls into his castle.

  ________________________________________________

  “Ughhhh… Yazu is unlucky today.” She cries aloud. The one-eyed goddess pushes her body off the floor and looks around the stoechamber.

  “Yazu is also lost.” she announces with a pout.

  Theices the massive glowing arrows on the ceiling.

  “No, not lost. Yazu is blind.”

  Then she remembers her timing.

  “AND LATE!” she screams and runs down the hallway. After a minute of running and occasionally tripping, she finally enters a massive stadium filled with thousands and thousands of gods. She looks around, unsure if she should take a seat or stand with some of the standing gods.

  fused and a bit overwhelmed, she hurries to the first god her eye falls on. “Hello,” she says, tapping the god. “Yazu has a question!”

  The god, t over her height by three Yazus and her mass by twenty, gres down at her with red tusks, sharp-poieeth, and spiked horns made to rip and tear.

  “What do you want?” the god of rippling muscle and spikes asks with a deep and powerful voice.

  Yazu blinks rapidly. She swallows as she gazes at the monstrosity before her.

  “Um, Y-Yazu has a Question.”

  The god s a massive appendage around the goddess’ petite frame, elig a squeak of surprise. He raises her till she’s eye to face with his toothy visage.

  He grins. “And why should I ahe questions of fresh meat?”

  Yazu swallows audibly. “Because Yazu is cute?”

  The monstrosity guffaws. He raises his arm bad the Goddess realizes what's about to happen.

  “Yazu is sorry. Yazu will not ask questions from you. So, if you find it within your heart to not thr-ahhhhhhhhhhhhh”

  Like a professional pitcher, the spiked god throws the petite goddess across the stadium, her cries of panic elicit the chuckles of many gods. Finally, just as she is about to crash into a god, the god iios quickly by taking a step back. Yazu screams as her body crashes into the just vacated stadium seat with a siingly deathly ch that would have been the death of her, if not for the fact that she isn’t mortal.

  Groaning in pain, Yazu gets up off the ground and finds that everyone except for her is seated. Panig, she quickly sits down in the empty seat she crashed into, o a bipedal god with white gloves, a top hat, and a red suit of some kind.

  “Oh,” Yazu realizes.

  She taps the man, and the man g her.

  “Yazu is sorry for almost crashing into you.” She apologies.

  He tilts his head. “That's not your fault.” The man looks across the stadium and locks eyes with the spiked god. “I was just being targeted because I’m new.”

  “You’re new? Yazu is oo. We should be new buddies!” She grins happily.

  The man ughs. Luck, it would seem, is by his side. He opens his mouth to say something, but stops.

  “It seems the show is starting.”

  ________________________________________________________

  The stadium falls silent and the lights go down. A single spot shines on the raised dais in the ter of the stage

  A grey fluid slowly rises into a n until it stands two Yazus tall. For a moment it is still, then it flows into the shape of an anomalocaris, then a woman, then a goose, then things less identifiable.

  The mercurial being spreads its antenna wide as it turns a full circle, to wele the audience.

  “I am Pandora, and I wele ead every one of you to the 17894th God Games.”

  The crowd of gods roar into the sky. They yell and scream, creating a cacophony of hat sounds less like a cheer and more like a zoo filled with screaming animals.

  Pandora lowers his arms.

  “Now then,” her words echo over all the adution, sileng everyone and thing, “this game of mine will be very different from those before.”

  Above the stadium, a holographiet lights up. The p is massive and covered with numerous floating isnds. Underh those isnds is the p's half-frozen and half-molten core.

  “For this game, I have spent a great deal of time creating, testing, debugging, and finally finishing something I like to call a World-System. For those of you who don't know, the World-System is a mana-based self-sustaining pary interface, wholly desigo ge and enhance living beings not just as a species, but on an individual level.”

  The crowd… tio be silent, to the growing annoyance of Pandora.

  “Some of you may have enjoyed one or even several of the many thousands of beta test worlds. For your tributions, thank you. And now you all have the opportunity to py, experieo immerse yourself in this, the culmination of an eon of efforts, World 177.11!”

  The crowd doesn't cheer.

  Pandora sighs fme.

  “Fine-fine. You’ll uand the greatness of my system soon enough.”

  Pandora points at the h p.

  “This world is called Tristique and will be the pyground for my game.”

  Six more ps rise up and float around Tristique.

  “Tristique has six different species that I have seeded from different worlds. From these worlds, you will be required to choose a champion from among the critters that survive my tests.”

  Seventy two bursts of light emanate from Tristique.

  “As for the game, I have pced a blessing into seventy-two floating towers. Your champion must collect all of the blessiher from the towers themselves or from a previous champion who did. Once all blessings have been collected by a single individual, then the final tower will reveal itself. The champion that pletes that tower will win the God Games and be awarded this–”

  Pandora raises a tentacle that flows to unveil a single, glowing, box.

  “This is a single-use item that tains the power to transform any mortal into a god!”

  Now the cheering begins as all gaze at the simple box in Pandora's hand. Even the Majods are sitting with rapt attention.

  ______________________________________________________

  As the cheering tihe single human god tilts his head thoughtfully toward a cheering little girl.

  “Yazu, right?”

  “Hm?” she stops cheering, and grins. “Yup, Yazu is Yazu’s name.”

  “Do you pn on joining the God Games?” he asks.

  She nods. “Yazu wasn’t listening to what blob-person said, but Yazu thinks games are fun!”

  The man snorts and looks at one of the six seed ps.

  “Then, how about I give you a reendation for a Champion.”