AMBROSIANine years passed. After defeating Belial, I settled down, married Nevras, and had a nice quiet life on the farm. The Void had closed, and the world was at peace, mostly. We had a girl, who Nevras ended up doing a lot of the raising for, since I was still too much of a tomboy. Still, it seems like some of me rubbed off on her, so she was truly a child I was proud of. As we were enjoying our life together, events were happening around us that were most troubling. I had retired, so my powers had returned to the Oracles.

    ESTHERIEL

    It has all been according to my plan! The Realm of Void has reverted to its proper place and Belial has been put out of his misery. Soon goodness will consume everything! Mwahahaha!!! *cough* Ugh, that was terrible. I guess people who want good to conquer shouldn''t do evil laughs, huh?

    I stood in midair overlooking the Earth, with my wings flapping to stay aloft and fixed in orbit. As you readers of this account may know, I recently left Heaven since God would do nothing to stop humans from suffering under the evil of Belial. Although I had left him, he refused to do the same. He interrupted my thoughts. Absolute good is not ideal, God said, You need to give humans free will. I had had enough. “Silence!” I snarled... I mean, I spoke sweetly, “I will replace you! My will shall become the Will of God, and all who do evil in my sight will be punished!” Although I only saw God''s body as a mass of three floating triangles, I could tell that God''s head shook. You shall wither and perish like leaves on a tree. Of angels, you shall be... God paused for dramatic effect, Mortal!!!!!!!

    AMBROSIA

    I thought it was over, but fate was to give me one more duty. As I slept, living with the knowledge that I was God meant that I now had a sort of secondary connection with God''s life. If God was just chilling out doing nothing, this didn''t mean much. But if God said something or saw something happening or did something, it was like a big toe moved. I knew about it. And whenever I slept, I became God. Just now, I pronounced that sentence on that angel. I didn''t watch God do it, I was literally inside God''s weird Triune body and he let me say anything I wanted. Of course, my actions have consequences. That overkill acting where I took an angel’s immortality, for example.

    I awoke in my bed. Nevras and I had bought a small mansion near Opening with the help of my father-in-law, thanks to a prize for beating Cthulhu. But we had to sell that one and move closer to Phoenix because of certain circumstances, so the new one was much less impressive. We also tried and failed to renovate the house, so the second one had some shabby spots. It was a small one-acre farm made mostly of straw and sticks, and any big bad wolf could blow that sucker down right away. Thanks to the (quite literal) magic of runes and spacial distortion, the house despite its L-shape instead was a large square room, which after doing a bit of carpentry work, we put up a small dividing wall for the bedroom for privacy. The front door, however, emptied into the bedroom, so its privacy was... limited. The bedroom had two beds. There’s our bed which has a proper frame, two mattresses, a set of eight pillows, all the fancy embroidered stuff that I''ve already forgotten the name of (and which we spent four minutes every day making). On the other hand, Tamashii has a simple futon mattress, no frame, no nothing, a rag of a blanket, and gets ornery whenever I suggest maybe it''s time to get a new bed. I guess she thinks having a nice bed would make her too complacent, because she''s always talking about going out on a great adventure like how we did. I nag her some to keep it made, but it usually ends up messed up every morning. The rest of that room has Nevras''s weapon collection in a small arsenal basket, and there’s a Glow Orb nearby. I''d like to say that this was also a gift from Nevras''s family but it wouldn''t be true. They have one in their castle, but along with their mirror, and their collection of First Materials (most of which were stolen by that merchant) they are too costly to replace easily. They gave us this house and the beds, but the Glow Orb was straight from the laboratory of Yazim Jianne. This was his original, after the one that caused the … incident with his wife, and he finally got to the point where he made them again after years of trauma. Poor guy. I think he''s still living in Opening. We should visit some time.

    In the rest of the house is the kitchen, and the... bathroom to the far right of the house. The bathroom is a wood frame around a hole in the ground. Well, technically, it is a toilet, but it''s a crude one that empties straight down when the handle is pulled. Nevras arranged some straw below, and imported some mycozoe, which wander around after consuming our ummm, waste, and turn it into high quality soil. It''s embarrassing, but we don''t have to send it to any sewage plants. Oh yes, that''s right. The world today has water purification, as we''ve kinda hit an industrial revolution of sorts now that alchemy has managed to break through a certain point, not to mention the way enchantment works now. First Materials are more widely available nowadays, so at the alchemical end, chemical reaction are easier to do. When the Universe Egg formed, the way reality works changed. Elias explained it as the New Earth kinda becoming more of a spiritual world. Everything nowadays feels more symbolic. Like, ummm, a bottle of water is still water, but it kinda tastes more like water. Or something.

    Since I am God now I understand this process, whereas before I would need Elias to explain it. But since I can''t explain it easily, I''ll borrow one of his expressions. There''s some cave that Plato came up with, and there’s people chained to the wall of the cave. But in the First Universe (AKA the Void Realm), everything is made in its true image. First Material always repairs itself since it''s basically the absolute blueprint of all we petty mortals see. This means it''s possible to chop a branch of a tree, and have First Wood from the tree regrow. In the old New Earth, First Material was only found when it was torn from the Void Realm, but now the Void left the surface of the Void Realm, and it became like an ozone layer, allowing the area to become the First Universe again. Alchemists went crazy when they discovered this, and arranged mining and logging expeditions. It was like killing the goose that laid golden eggs if they just took stuff rather than cutting pieces off, so they had to be careful though.

    We now have cement roads, advanced aqueducts, sulfuric hot springs, with the addition of First Ice, refrigeration that doesn''t involve unraveling time, though many people still do it that way. It doesn''t use electricity, although now with the lightning harvesters, that''s what many people have too. So now, toilets and sinks are piped using First Iron, and flush water downhill through a largely simple mechanism, where it is filtered by First Carbon before getting sent back out. Even before talking about enchantments, chemical reactions of all sorts create the modern world we know of today. But that''s not what happens with us.

    We get the water for crops from a series of water pumps. The pumps are made from elven, which along with its anti-creature properties, it turns out has some interesting water purification abilities. We have a large table for eating on, a stone and brick chimney with a skillet nearby, and a big cauldron which used to be Elias''s that I am currently using to make curry. Hanging off to the right of the chimney is a stone cutting board, and a First Iron knife. I still use it, only now I cut veggies with it. I''ve taken to using the Fire Ring to start fires and put them out, the second is harder to do with a roaring fire, but keeps the ring from powering out. To the left of that is a small shelf filled with herbs and spices, which doesn''t seem to be in any sort of order. To the left of that is a shelf filled with bed things, such as extra pillows and blankets. To the left of that is what looks like a broom. Actually, it''s the fishing pole that I discovered was made of Conception, which reforms to be any farm tool I want. I just used it last as a broom.

    Outside the house, carrots, onions, and cabbage are being farmed. We have a small forest and lake to the east. And we have a scarecrow that Tamashii named Mister Zuran. On the floor of our house are cheap harlequin novels, and kimchi. We eat kimchi and fish for most breakfasts. My adopted parents taught me to eat it, and now that I have a farm, that''s what we''re eating. The books... are mine. Don’t judge me!

    The breakfast table is occupied by two people already, my husband and my daughter. Nevras''s hair has grown out over the last few years. He was initially worried about how he looked when I met him, so as you know he had the whole heavy padded armor making him look muscular and such.. But as we spent time together as a married couple, he agreed to drop the whole manly man act. Nevras is a narrow waist, wide hips, and a small body in general. He now has two sets of clothes, one set is undersized male clothing and the other is for when Nevras feels kinda sexy. I encouraged him to grow his hair out. When Nevras feels more masculine, he combs it out straight, otherwise it goes into a braid. Tamashii''s pretty understanding of this, and doesn''t let anyone talk bad about her dad. As far as Tamashii is concerned, Nevras is Dad and Second Mom.

    Tamashii. Our daughter of nine, with her adorable purple hair in a long ponytail, at the head of the table munching on some weird meal that she had made herself. Most kids at nine don''t know how to cook properly, but it seems she was always in a rush to learn everything. We took good care of her to the best of my knowledge, but ever since she was about six, she had a drive to see new sights, to try new things. It won''t be too much longer before she wants to set out on her own adventure.

    TAMASHII

    Hey there. My name is Tamashii. Tamashii Rinne Brahman, Rinne after some Reaper gal that Mom swears she saw when she was wandering around and accessed some placed she shouldn''t. So, I''m new here and everything, but let me tell you what''s up. I know you won''t believe me but I''m kinda psychic and also super-smart for my age. You know that whole childhood amnesia thing? Didn''t really have it. At about two days old, I had this weird event. It was like a seizure, only it also gave me heart palpitations. They thought I was going into cardiac arrest. And I started bleeding through my eyes. At the end of all of it, they said that all of the windows in the building I was examined smashed to bits from a powerful psychokinetic burst. After that, I suddenly was fully able to talk, walk, swim, and everything else with no stupid toddler stumbling around phase. At one year, I could read any book, so I convinced my parents to take me to visit the Great Library. I had learned everything from mathematics up to just before trigonometry. I had studied medicine, architecture, economics, and when my peers were learning to like dinosaurs, I knew the diet and lifestyle of V. mongoliensis, as well as its date and area of discovery.

    But as smart as I am, as powerful as I am, it comes with a price. You see, I''ll never be normal. All of the kids my age are playing with dolls, or talking to each other about normal things for their age, while I... well, let’s just say I shatter dolls just by touching them the wrong way, and I''m probably more able to talk to people in their teens. But what teen wants to hang out with a nine year old? In other words, even if only intellectually, I could likely hold any job by age 2, I seemed to be emotionally stunted, just past the autistic stage. I''d stare too much. I had a self-centered way of speaking. I was outright rude to some people, and most importantly, I was all alone outside my family and their friends. I enjoyed talking to Elias, but well, he and Aqorm used to be kind of a thing, and she started to glare at me every now and then like she was jealous of something.

    And it got worse. Just as I thought maybe I''d have to dumb down myself to fit in, just when I believed I was already enough of a freak, my powers developed. It started when Mom was cutting wood. Her hand slipped, and she got a nasty cut on her wrist. They were gonna take her to the emergency room when I hugged her close, and suddenly the pain was gone. The wound was gone. People were mixed between deciding that I was a witch or something, and lining up for the famous miracle child. Oh yes, I got around some people then, but these weren''t what you''d call healthy social interactions. And then came the jealous children. I eventually learned that not only could I do Healing, but I also had the power of Empathy. I could transfer wounds, and it worked both ways. I couldn''t use it to bully anyone, but when I was concerned for someone I could take their wounds. If I was afraid of someone, I could give them my wounds. You can imagine, children annoyed at everything I could do, kicking or punching me... only to have my blows healed and all of my bruises and pain went to them. They predictably ran home to their parents, who decided to make an example of me. Only, it didn''t work that way. Even if they threw rocks at me, I simply transferred the pain away from me. By about age 6, they came after us with torches and pitchforks as a whole town.

    It was around this time King Charis decided to build us a house on the outskirts of Phoenix. We even planted a forest around it so people wouldn''t be able to find us easily. They didn''t. Ever since then, my parents have done their best to shelter me from people who might hurt me as I developed more psychic abilities. I understand, and I love them for it. But even so, I can''t help want some sort of adventure, much like they had. Little did I know that this very day, I was to get my wish.

    It started innocently enough. I released my phoenix this morning to go feed itself. We got this phoenix called Suzaku a long time ago, but sent it to the Aiken monastery for the Druids to watch after. Phoenixes were mostly self-feeding and in fact refused to coddled by others, but they did appreciate affection. “Cawww caww,” it said. It flew out the window, to return later. Phoenixes always came back, even if they died.

    So here I was, calmly eating my siri paya (don''t ask, you squeamish people) and my mom came up to me and told me flatly, “Make your bed. It''s a mess!” There wasn''t any exasperation in her voice, despite that this was a regular occurrence. To be clear, it''s not really that I''m a slob. I didn''t have a good bed and somehow ruin it, I insisted on this no-frills bed because I didn''t want to get too attached to home. If I saw my bed at home as messy and not terribly comfortable, I would have an incentive to move out. It was an easy matter to fold the blanket neatly under the mattress, fold it neatly over, center the blanket, and lay my pillows evenly across the bed. As my prerogative as a nine-year-old, I whined, “Awwww... Do I have to?” She nodded, without much reaction. Mom did love me, but she was sorta deadpan about it, and she knew when I was faking it. On my way back, I noticed Dad acting weird. Weirder than usual I mean, Dad sometimes was Second Mom, after all. But this was like he was possessed.

    She had barely got the words out, “Good morning, love. What''s our plan today?” Then it happened, his eyes got weirdly focused, and his voice was more serious than I had ever seen him in my company. Also, his mouth didn''t appear to be moving. He said, Ambrosia, you must not make the mistake of resting on your laurels. My mom, more than a bit surprised asked him, “Ummm, Nevras, what''s wrong with you? You sound weird.”

    In movies, sometimes you''ll see some kind of special effects when this sort of thing happens. Pretty much, whatever you''re imagining right now, we pretty much knew from all the weird lighting effects that Nevras was allowing God to speak through him. Just don''t ask me to explain it. I''m just a kid. sea??h thё n?vel_Fire.ηet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    He said, I am speaking through the heart of Nevras. I exist within all hearts, after all.  Mom sighed, “Not again... I thought I retired. I even lost my powers!” He responded, Yes, I believed it would interfere with your pursuit of a normal life to have unfathomable cosmic powers at all times. You will, of course need to regain them. She sighed even more if possible, “Could you at least tell me who I''m to stop this time? Some demon again?” He shook his head, Actually, it is one of my angels named Estheriel. She wants to rule the Heavens. She looked confused, “So one of your angels has turned like Lucifer, and wants to overthrow you?”

    He clarified, You misunderstand. She is too good. She is a zealot, who wants me to eliminate all evil from the universe. She asked, “That sounds good to me. What''s the problem?” God exposited for some time at this, The Oracle of Tao would understand better than most, but still you are human. Good is good only because evil exists. If humans are not given free will, they are puppets. Just as you could have at any point abandoned this quest as impossible, or pursued your dreams, you wouldn''t have been a powerful force for balance had you not had the decision to become the Oracle on your own, without darkness, humans cannot grow in opposition. So, will you carry out my will on Earth? Now, you would think most heroes of stories jump at the chance for adventures, but she started shaking her head vigorously. That is, until I shouted, “She does, she does!” And God said, Very well. I will return your loved one''s body to you now. Dad''s voice returned to normal, and he looked dazed as he asked, “What were you saying? I blanked out for a second.” All Mom had to say was, “...Remember nine years ago?” He groaned, quoting the Godfather film, “Another one? Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in! Alright then, if you''re going, I want to go.” I leaned on my Dad, knowing he was a soft touch, “Heeeey, can I come too? I missed out on the last one.” The concern showed in his face, but since he couldn''t say no to me, he said, “Ummm, talk to your mother?” Mom glared at him.

    Ugh. Mom would probably leave me at King Charis, I mean Grandpa''s house. So I did my very best puppy eyes. “If you two are going on another adventure, I wanna come!” She looked at me for quite a while, and then, apparently deciding leaving me somewhere alone, only to die in battle would be far more traumatizing than having me die not long after, so she gave in. She nodded, “Well, I guess since you''ve finished all your chores, you can come.” I said, “Yay!!!” Yes, I know, precocious child that I am, I still utter the words ''yay'' from time to time. I wrote a note in ancient Chinese to Suzaku telling it that we would be out for possibly weeks or months, and it should stay at Aiken monastery until we came to pick it up again. She paused, “Oh, and one more thing.” I had no time to even ask what it was before she pulled out her knife and cut my ponytail straight off. Dude! Messing with people''s hair isn''t cool. Anyway. It was adventure time.

    AMBROSIA

    Starting an adventure the second time is very different, after you''ve settled down and had kids. As we wandered out, we saw a few of our island''s many creatures. The majestic centaurs, the ridiculously weak strawmen, the tricksy fairies, and the dreaded leafy bunny were all still in attendance, even though many things about the world had changed.

    Michael, apparently had a child with Lilith, but seems to resent her for some reason. Michael is the natural parent of the first seraphim in millennia. But it feels like I missed some details. This girl is named Portia, and is probably more powerful than any of us. She''s got the cutest red hair, and seems to worship Tamashii. What a nice friend!

    Lilith and Aqorm have a half-demon child themselves, and they seem happy now that they are honest about their relationship. Their little girl is kind of interesting looking, blond hair and light skin, she has elf ears and has no wings or horns or tail, but those claws of hers... And those teeth are impressive. And her eyes are such a pretty shade of red. She''s beautiful, but I wonder what life will be like having her parents. Her name''s Sastraneth, but everyone just calls her Sastra. Whenever someone tries to pick on Tamashii, she basically has taken to being her bodyguard. At around Tamashii''s age, she''s already thinking about boys her age though, I wonder about her future...

    Elias is a godfather now, and he told me the last time we met that he fully plans to write a novel of these events someday. I just hope he doesn''t decide that he knows what I''m thinking, and write those parts!

    I would like to say that I know more about what’s going on with everyone. But the truth was, we had lost touch with many of our friends. While their kids visited, they had gotten busy with their own lives. They’d lost touch. And we were no better. Our lives had been in a rut for the last few years, and our marriage needed some adventure too.

    Outside our local life, Jesus Christ had taken the seat in Council for Kushiyama, and as such, many people expected him to usher in some sort of utopia. It''s pretty much a known that everyone has an idea that Jesus is on their side and against their enemies. I mean, come on, even the Koreans have paintings of Jesus. The liberals all see Jesus as some sort of champion of socialism by confusing widespread voluntary charity with state-run obligatory welfare, the conservatives take his request for his disciples to buy a sword to its logical extreme and somehow have him coexist with the likes of Ayn Rand, women make him champion of feminism, and so on. But Jesus is on everyone''s side, except those who saw sides in the first place like the Pharisees. He did little to change the nature of the Council, except to soften those who were so set in their ways that they were sabotaging what it was capable of. The Council, with his help, was still an anarchist world government; however, some of its hypocrisy was reduced. They did less to interfere in the lives of the citizens, they did less to tax or oppress the poor, they did more to genuinely provide justice. With the aid of effective screening, the peasantry came to the Council to tell their grievances, and had much greater of a say in how their countries were run than ever before. Ultimately though, the Council was all but disbanded. Jesus convinced the Council that the Council''s presence on this world was simply too much like the State, which they had seen firsthand during their fall, so unless there was an actual threat, they rarely met together anymore, preferring to deal with issues of their own town. Individual and local concerns now trumped global ones.

    Not only was the Council changed, but the world itself. After I kinda sorta got pregnant with the universe, the Universe Egg floated above the New Earth, as a reminder that existence was now a real thing. Not that anyone besides me knew what it was. In fact, the population generally thought that it had always been there.

    Pregnancy had no pain, since inside the body, new life was formed of energy rather than matter, only taking on matter outside the body. Tamashii was born in this way, she just exited as a ball of light, then a moment later she had a body. I''d like to also say that no animals were eaten any more either, and that we were vegetarians like in the vision of Revelation. But kinda like the whole wanting to have oceans, there were people from Texas. So, yeah this wasn''t happening, although now meat trees had been growing, along with fish of every kind, goats that could regrow after being eaten (so long as their bones were fine), and the Tree of Life now grew in seven locations besides Heaven itself. Even though many things were better, the world is always in balance, so those seven places were basically horrible ordeals. Hell now had demons with souls. As such, because it was still a miserable place where pain existed in high amounts, it was becoming a tourist destination, much to the chagrin of its ruler. The downside of all this was that a high human population was needed to qualify for Council seats, so this meant Satan, as overlord of Hell, could sit on Council along with Jesus. Not that he would, though.

    There were a few other small changes since I helped make the world real. Like, the whole deal with enchantments tying off mystic power was no longer a thing. As such, magical items were becoming so widespread that people had taken to calling them magitech. The mechanism used to make it impractical for mass production. Now, as I understand it, the runes are carved on an object, and it''s more like what computer coders call a reference or pointer. The enchantment doesn''t have its own source of magic, but rather a pool to draw from made up of ambient runes of that type. This allows magical items that don''t really release energy, like my calendar to be mass-produced. But it means fire swords run out of energy in a cave of ice. When I first became God, I upgraded any old enchantments to the new system, and taught humans how to do it. Since then, I haven''t been involved. Unless someone prays for a miracle, I let the system run.

    Not that most of this had much to do with me. I begin most days on my farm. My fishing pole, since it''s made from Conception, I turned into farming tools. It made me feel good to be working with my hands and growing stuff. Even though, yeah, I wasn''t as good at it as most of the population, who could grow stuff instantly. It was part of the drawbacks of being the Oracle. I was like other people in a lot of ways, but there were certain things that because of who I am, I simply cannot do.

    You''ve heard the expression, “God loves everyone, but I''m his favorite”? Well, it''s more like God is everyone, but I''m the one most like him, or something. God is the One and the Many. He can speak through people or temporarily take on human form. I used to think it was because of my destiny to have Oracle powers that I couldn''t do regular magic. But it''s simple. God can''t pray to himself. In order to use thaumaturgy, I would have to be one of the regular people, not well, you know. Anyway...

    Anyway, as usual, I''m off topic. As I say, we were starting out, and I was making sure Tamashii could handle herself, so I brought her to face some centaurs as a test. We took the boat over from our house to the island where Opening and Tsukuyomi Mountain were to do this. You know, the same centaurs that nearly killed Nevras, and we had no healer and I currently had no Oracle powers aside from my ability to dodge.