The room was filled with identities flying without facing any problems. The situation was about to change, everyone was prepared for their one last move.
The cultivation of identities proceeded as expected. Only two minutes remained. He had nothing to fear. He had acquired most of the blessings he wanted—enough to last several decades. Time was the only concern for him. His goal didn't seem to be far anymore.
He sensed a message concealed by the God of Concealment, designed to prevent him from reading it. The message was clearly for guiding the chosen apostle. But Aurelion had to guess who it was.
The room had gone silent.
"It can't be Zephyr; he's stage 5. It must be one of the other two."
Gambling felt like it was unavoidable. Based on his assessment, he chose Seraphina. He was upper 4th stage, and his personality resembled the God of Deception the most. He was the most viable candidate.
Valerius was close—smarter and stronger—but his defiant nature and tendency to question even the smallest thing made him unlikely to be chosen.
"Irritating." A single guess wasn't enough. He had to lock his identities to spy on both, even if it lengthened the time required. This ensured their safety, mainly Kaelen's."
While Aurelion was busy guessing who had been chosen to become an apostle, his vision blackened; the difference was in the range of his vision. He could see only as far as the center.
"A curse?"
"No—a betrayal."
The God of Identity had used Kaelen to affect Aurelion without his knowledge, preventing him from leaving the circle—else Kaelen would fall outside his sight. He sensed something else was off too, but he couldn't quite figure out what.
It prevented his identities from chasing Seraphina and Valerius. That was unacceptable. He made the safest decision for the situation he was in—and it failed.
He tried to break free by sending a message to god of identity through their void—no one else could access it. He waited for a response, but none came.
"No help after you do something like this? This makes you no different from all of them," he shouted as if only the god of identity could hear it. There was no reply.
Others laughed, thinking they had won; due to Aurelion's reaction, he felt like a kid facing hardship for the first time in life.
He waited at the same position, anticipating their move. This wasn't new to him. Not the room. Not the situation. He had faced this before, but could never retain those memories. Each time they haunted him, he asked the God of Identity to erase those memories by creating a new identity and removing the old one. All those identities now came running toward him because of the betrayal.
It had become his escape from reality; the method had only increased his suffering till now, his chase for those memories. Whenever he gets corrupted, his hunger for them increases. Now the pain was too much to handle at once. He recognized the similarity between something he had said to Seraphina before, "Never grant anyone the authority to define your state. The moment they can reach you, they can control you."
Escape was close, but his sole goal was to buy his cursed identities as much time as possible—to keep Kaelen out of others' hands, even if it meant killing him.
Everything seemed impossible to do. This betrayal was indirect. They needed each other; conflict between them would weaken both. Knowing this, the god of identity still did it.
Another flaw emerged. The barriers preventing messengers from fighting and breaking the balance had been broken. He couldn't sense any messengers either.
Breaking barriers had no value without messengers. It was just another question he couldn't answer.
Still, three against one is manageable, he thought.
Everything happened simultaneously: his vision returned, the messengers revealed their true forms, and Seraphina had upgraded. Under normal circumstances, he would have engaged, but Kaelen's safety was the priority here.
It accounted for why he was unable to sense messengers before. It was an unfavorable matchup. Aurelion had to protect not just himself but Kaelen as well. While being cursed and with his identities scattered, he lacked most of his powers.
He looked at his clock; he still had a bit more than one minute to wait.
There was no path to an ideal victory. Retreating was the only sensible choice. He gathered all of his identities and grabbed Kaelen by the waist.
Seraphina seized the moment to deceive Kaelen. Without Kaelen under his control, he couldn't teleport both of them.
The attention had shifted to Kaelen; even though it was just for a moment, the value it had in everyone's mind was tremendous; everyone in the room felt sorrow for Kaelen. He was just a kid dragged into all this, now treated as an object. His suffering over the last two days—something that would have made even someone as strong as Aurelion abandon the God of Identity. Many simply stood there, pitying him.
Kaelen had gone unconscious from facing too many curses in such a short time.
With no alternative choice, Aurelion used the blessings he had just received from the God of Corruption to fend them off and regain control of Kaelen.
The room flashed red. Demon-like beings emerged, born from the corruption of dead souls. Aurelion's hair turned white from the exhaustion of wielding his authority. The limits inside the statue room were too much to handle, even for him.
He managed to draw their attention away from Kaelen and himself. It was enough.
He corrupted Kaelen easily while the boy lay unconscious from Seraphina's pain.
His clock finally made a loud tick, signaling only one minute left.
His identities had already been drawn; there was no reason to stay.
He began teleporting through endless community voids, avoiding the individual ones. He had a clear sense of direction—having merged with Kaelen, he could see everything with full clarity.
Maybe the clarity in my decisions came from him, Aurelion thought. Acknowledgement was necessary.
He could sense any activity by the gods as long as he was in a void linked to others.
The system became clear: they weren't on some exoplanets; they were here, inside these places, these people. This was what linked them to the planet. They weren't mythical creatures—just rats hiding in voids, manipulating the outer world without ever acting directly.
He understood that someone like Kaelen wasn't their main target; they were just like Kaelen. They possessed the same power. It was almost laughable how they never left their voids out of fear.
He couldn't see anyone chasing him. Even the gods couldn't replicate what Kaelen did.