Chapter 809: Ludo Face-Off [Monthly Bonus 1]
In one of the billions of universes within the Origin Multiverse, there was a goddess.
She was a beautiful woman with grey eyes and long blonde hair tied into a braided ponytail, dressed in a lightweight, short-sleeved, button-down collared shirt patterned with flowers, paired with cargo shorts and sandals.
With the sun hat resting on the stool beside her, she looked as though she had just returned from a beach, or someplace equally relaxed.
Seated across from her was a man.
He had a handsome face, black hair styled in a neat, side-parted undercut, and wore a simple brown long-sleeved button-up shirt over black trousers and leather shoes.
His triangular, spinning pupils were locked on the board set between them.
The two were playing a game, one that originated from the largest continent of the Original Earth, a dice game known as Ludo.
Though it was designed for 2 to 4 players, only the two of them were present.
When the man rolled the dice and landed a 6, he moved one of his tokens from the starting square into the playing column.
Their game had remained a quiet one until the woman suddenly broke the silence.
"I heard you met my ’Slayer’."
For a moment after she spoke, the man didn’t respond, still focused on counting the squares of the playing column.
Once he moved his token to the proper spot, he finally answered.
"It was Nash, wasn’t it?"
She neither affirmed nor denied it, but that silence alone was confirmation enough for him.
"I’ll beat him up the next time I see him."
At that, the woman, still watching the board, replied.
"Be careful. He’s gotten stronger lately. He might just pull the rug out from under you."
But her warning only made the man scoff.
"The fact that he still has room to grow stronger already proves he’s not my match."
She chuckled softly at his words.
"The one with greater power isn’t always the victor."
"Yes. The one with OVERWHELMING power always is," the man shot back, rolling his dice again.
Though she didn’t want to admit it, she couldn’t help but agree. More often than not, no matter how many traps or plans were set in place, overwhelming power had the tendency to bulldoze through all of it with nothing but brute force.
She, too, had relied on her overwhelming power to bulldoze through the schemes of weaker people, which might have tripped her up if she had been even slightly less powerful.
Bringing the conversation back to the original topic, she asked,
"How was he, the Slayer boy?"
"How was he, huh?" the man repeated, muttering as he brought out another token from his starting square before continuing.
"Evaluating him objectively, and not with the eyes of someone who can literally see through him, he was unpredictable.
His thoughts were erratic, and some of the things that came out of his mouth could make one question his sanity.
It was the first time in a long while that I felt genuine shock toward a lower existence."
"He actually managed to shock you?" the woman asked, blinking as though she couldn’t quite believe what she’d just heard.
"Indeed," the man nodded. "Even I was surprised at that.
He’s also very audacious, distrustful, and impulsive, but at the same time, he’s calculating and knows how to twist a situation to extract the maximum benefit for himself.
His seemingly random words and actions often converge toward a larger purpose."
He passed the dice to her, and as she rolled them, he looked up to meet her eyes and concluded,
"He was just like you, Luka."
His words made the Progenitor goddess raise one of her brows in mild surprise.
"Just like me? Audacious, distrustful, impulsive yet calculating? Is that really how you see me, Ranus?"
The Eternal of Space replied without a moment’s pause.
"Yes.
When I first met you, I actually wondered if you were the Progenitor Snake and not goddess."
Then, with a sigh, he added, "Give the boy a few thousand years and he might become just as much of an unpredictable snake as you are.
I shudder to think about what’s been unleashed upon the greater Cosmos."
"You shudder?" Luka asked, then scoffed as she shook her head.
"Oh, please, Ranus. You’re not fooling anyone. Not with that amused smile of yours."
At her words, Ranus, only just realising he’d been smiling, brought his hands up to adjust his expression.
"Seems I failed to suppress my excitement at the potential entertainment he might provide."
Luka simply chuckled at that, and still laughing, she followed up with an ominous question.
"I wonder, should I let the fruit ripen a little bit?"
She rolled the dice, landing two 1s, and as she moved her tokens across the board, she continued.
"Or should I pluck it while it’s still immature?"
Her grey eyes remained fixed on Ranus as she spoke, while the man calmly examined the board and counted the spaces he had left before answering with a question of his own.
"I wonder, what should you do? I get the feeling you’d just do the opposite of whatever I suggest."
Then, he lifted his gaze, eyes flashing like something had just clicked in his mind.
"Or is this reverse psychology? You make me think you’ll do the opposite of what I say, so I tell you what I don’t want, expecting you to do what I actually want, but then, in reality, you just go ahead and do what I don’t want after all?"
"You’re overthinking it, Ranus. I didn’t put that much thought into the question," Luka replied, rolling her eyes.
Ranus immediately shot back.
"I didn’t put that much thought into my answer, either."
"You’re no fun, Ranus," Luka muttered in a sulky tone, making Ranus visibly cringe.
He quickly composed his expression and spoke.
"The days when you could easily get a rise out of me ended over a trillion years ago. I’m not the little boy you once knew back when the Cosmos was still young."
His response made Luka narrow her eyes, a hint of irritation appearing as she asked,
"Are you implying something?"
"That you’re an old hag? Yes."
Luka’s brow twitched, but before she could respond, Ranus raised his hand.
"Hold up for a second. Just before you lose it."
He moved his hand to the side and called out,
"Astravalor."
Cosmic energy rapidly gathered, and a long, ornate spear materialised in his grip. He stabbed it into the ground, then picked up the dice and gestured for Luka to speak.
"You can go ahead."
"..."
Luka silently glanced at the Rule Breaker before turning back to Ranus.
"You’re not the only one with a fancy weapon, you know?"
"True. But if I recall, Astravalor was forged from the same material as Starbreaker, which, unless I’m misremembering, chipped that fancy sword of yours before.
Feel free to try if you’re up for another chip."
Ranus’ words reminded Luka of the time she and the Progenitor Devil had clashed over a disagreement, a confrontation that had ended with Starbreaker chipping her main weapon.
Just then, she heard the dice roll, and Ranus, as he moved his final piece to the centre of the board, said,
"I win."
She glanced down at the board and saw that all his pieces had reached the centre while she still had two remaining outside.
"As agreed upon, that universe is now mine," Ranus added, activating his Conceptual Authority over Space.
A miniature model of the Second Multiverse appeared in his left palm, and with his other hand, he reached in and plucked one of the glowing specks of light.
At that same moment in reality, enormous hands formed from cosmic energy, manifesting and lifting a universe from its position in the actual Multiverse, removing it just as someone would move an egg from its slot in a crate.
Ranus then grabbed Astravalor, spun the weapon once, and it dissipated into sparkling light.
"Now then, it seems the couple I occasionally observe for entertainment is finally having their first tryst in years. I’m off to prevent the rest of the Cosmos from discovering their forbidden relationship."
"Tryst?"
Luka blinked in confusion, but a moment later, realisation dawned. She then asked,
"You’re one hell of a wingman. Why do you go so far for her?"
Her expression changed slightly, turning strange as she gave Ranus a skeptical look.
"Don’t tell me you’re in love with her? You, of all people, should know she’s already taken."
Ranus stood up from his seat, laughing like he found the suggestion ridiculous.
"Love? It’s nothing that deep. The only person I’ve ever felt that for feels the opposite toward me, because I am on the side of the same Force that ruined our once peaceful lives.
She even went and got herself entangled in this whole mess with the Eternals and Aggressors just to spite me."
Then, lowering his eyes to meet hers, he added,
"That’s right. You weren’t there."
His gaze grew distant, and though he was facing her, it was clear he wasn’t seeing her.
"I remember that day like it was yesterday. You, Aleksas, Syndra, Adamas, Quinn, and Astrel, holding the line against the spawn of the Void god, buying us the time to suppress Chaos using ’that power.’
Because I was the one closest to her that day, I noticed and realised something none of the others did. Maybe Hyperion knows. Maybe he doesn’t. Who can say?"
Ranus shrugged nonchalantly before continuing.
"Even though I’ve come to see her as a close friend over the past trillion years, it doesn’t change the fact that whatever I’ve felt toward her has always been rooted in ’pity’."
Luka’s expression turned incredulous at those words.
’Pity? He pities Gaia??? Why?’
Her brain couldn’t compute it.
But before she could voice her questions, Ranus went on.
"I should probably keep quiet now. Snakes are sharp, after all. If I say too much, you might figure out everything I’m thinking.
Makes me wonder who really has the mind-reading ability here."
Ranus had blatantly called Luka a snake with his words, prompting her to narrow her eyes into slits as she responded.
"You are one cheeky human. Daring to take such an attitude with a god?"
Her words made Ranus chuckle as he shook his head and said,
"The age when you tricked half the Cosmos into believing that only gods could achieve Higher Existentialism, and had mortals worship you, not knowing every race had that same potential, is long over, Luka."
’Though the fact that you managed to pull that off is exactly why I call you a snake.’
He kept that thought to himself, smirking as he added,
"But I suppose it’s just an old folks’ habit to keep reminiscing about the past."
"Get the fuck out of my house before I smack you in the face."
Ranus, a cheeky grin on his face, raised his hand and phased it clean through his own head.
"Not so sure you’d be able to do that..."
The moment those words left his mouth, his body vanished in a puff of smoke, a microsecond before the ludo dice came hurtling toward him.
Left behind, Luka clicked her tongue in irritation.
Her gaze shifted to the ludo board, though her mind wasn’t on the universe she had just lost.
’godslayer, huh? First, it’s Alexia, going around gathering and training his progeny for the boy’s sake. And now Ranus, giving this kind of evaluation of him.’
Crossing her long legs and rubbing her chin, she muttered,
"I wonder... just what should I do with this boy?"
