Side Story: Phixth and the never-ending stress of the world

“It’s about to start,” a god among the crowd spoke up, every deity there preparing for what was to come, but none more so than Phixth, with visions of chaos already swarming his thoughts.

“We just have to trust in our mortals,” the stone god told the rest of the crowd. “We haven’t spent so long raising them for something like this to lead to too much carnage.”

A few others among them echoed the sentiment that none of them actually believed as they all watched and waited as one mortal in particular began his task, modifying the first soul of the millions he’d be touching, with the waiting deities above put in charge of trying to manage whatever havoc would come of such things. It was going to be an incredible boost of power after all. One that would make what the vast majority of the world had accumulated until that point practically meaningless in comparison.

But they’re also getting over thirteen thousand points to their intelligence, Phixth tried to hold as a counterpoint to reassure himself. Surely that will help give them all the sense to not do anything too outrageous.

It was a small attempt at consolation that lost all meaning when he considered the nature of the boy who’d be giving it, one who himself had that attribute in the hundreds of thousands yet only seemed to grow in his madness with it, leaving a wave of nausea to pass the god as things began in earnest.

If there was one thing the mortal working had, it was speed as hundreds of people were swiftly modified, the space mages on hand teleporting everyone they could to empty out those crowded cities which was where the watching gods work truly began as they observed the reaction that came with it.

“Wait, what are they doing?” A god of flames and force asked, seeing the reaction below without immediately understanding the point, all while Phixth held his head in his hands.

“They’re running.”

“That’s not the end of the world yet, Phixth,” another said, trying to reassure him as the others saw his reaction. “Let them stretch their legs; we were expecting so much worse.”

“Can’t you feel it?” Phixth sighed, looking around them. “Every mortal down below, don’t just look at what they’re doing, peer into their thoughts and experience how they feel while doing it. They’re practically intoxicated from the power; running’s just the first outlet for it they have and it’s the weakest bit of growth they’ve all gotten by far. The fact that they already can’t control themselves just goes to show how much worse things are going to get before they get used to it.”

Really, he and everyone else could only hope that the death toll that would come with the change wouldn’t get too high, even if a few would be unavoidable as people either over or underestimated what they change meant for them, with that knowledge being the trade off to all of that. Initially, some of the more foolish down below would get hurt or lose their lives, but anyone who could manage to adapt to the change in themselves would be far more equipped for the third wave ahead, even if they wouldn’t be the ones fighting on the front lines. So long as they could use the power in their hands, the odds of survival once the next gate closed would explode to a point that the few losses they’d get before then would be worth it, even if there were other things they’d need to worry about in the meantime.

After all, there’s a big difference between a few people dying of their own carelessness and a fool managing to destroy an entire city.

With the second feeling all too possible. While some within the first groups who’d been modified had been teleported to areas that would get them closer to their towns and villages, others were being sent to the gate network to a far faster return back to their home cities and while plenty of them were choosing to stretch their legs like the others they’d seen initially, plenty had chosen different avenues to test their new power, intentionally or not.

In just the area Phixth was watching over alone, he could see people pushing through pull doors accidentally, one man intentionally trying to walk through a wall, just to see if he could, and others messing with city fixtures, just to see if they had the strength too. Public seating and trees alike were ripped from the ground, while others were jumping as high as they could to land on the roofs of different buildings, leaving more than a few to fall through ones that hadn’t been built to support that weight.

“They’ve all been given so much brainpower,” he grumbled as a sense of panic began to grow among the gods who’d been assigned to try to watch and manage things. “So why am I not seeing a single one of these fools trying to test that instead by going to a library?”

With the simple answer being that becoming better at using and retaining information, as valuable as such a thing was, was going to be less immediately satisfying to most down below compared to feats of raw power, but it still left him with a desire to shout from the heavens for them all to calm down and pick up a book. A desire he held himself back on, even if he was beginning to see actions that required proper intervention.

“You, stop casting fire magic like that!” he said sharply in one head as a mage spent half of their new mana supply to fill the sky above them with flames. “And you, no shaking an entire building as a joke, you blasted fool!”

All the gods around him were beginning to say much the same as people began testing their new mana supply, with the rules among them loosened for just such an event. Normally, the gods kept from talking to each other’s believers, with the world they’d created kept far more civil by not having any deity try to do any direct poaching. That was what the core members of their faith was for and allowed them all to be civil as they worked together for the greater good of the planet, even if they continued to look after themselves, but with what the change in strength meant for the world, the need for any god to reprimand any believe if they were to do something stupid enough needed to be accepted, at least for a first week or two after all of the soul modifying came to an end. None named themselves while doing it; such a compromise couldn’t be allowed to be tainted by anyone hoping to influence a person’s faith, but the command and sense of divinity did their jobs.

Everyone the deities rebuked would cease whatever foolish action they were trying to pull, letting them move on to the next of them they found that would be trying something equally as dumb, and with an entire planet of people to watch below them, none of them would be getting any rest for many days to come.

---

“Whose bright idea was it to turn this world into hell for two weeks?” Velmet grumbled, the sentiment being shared among the deities by the time what felt like their endless work had finally slowed.

With Ben spending ten days straight modifying souls, that was ten restless days for the gods to have no choice but to be ceaseless in the vigilance over the world, trying to prevent constant fires, both literal and metaphorical, but now, four days after the apostle himself was done, things had calmed down enough that they could finally breathe.

There was no doubt in any of their minds that they’d need to remain vigilant for a bit longer, there was bound to be someone down there who misjudged what they should be doing with their spells still, but at the very least, the majority had calmed down after only the first couple days of their change, needing to get the excitement and mania that had come with the explosive power out of their systems but largely returning to their normal lives once it was done.

Of course, there were also plenty who had no desire to return to their normal lives, but anyone who decided they needed to use their newfound strength for the planet could still be put to use. Even if it was late getting them to join any of the proper armies of the world, adventurers would still be included in any war plan to fight on the periphery of any gate to thin out whatever would make their way past the planets main combatants, and now, anyone who wanted to could do a perfectly fine job of filling such a role. Even those without any real combat or magic skills, so long as they could learn to hold a blade at even the zeroth level, the seven hundred points of strength they’d gained would more than cover the rest.

Hell, with that much strength, we could just focus on teaching them to punch instead and they’ll be able to put their fists through most demons they’d face, Phixth sighed to himself. But at least we’re done-

“Is it going to be even worse when it comes time to modify their souls a second time?” A goddess asked, almost as if they were determined to bring down the mood that had come with their breathing room and prompted endless reactions.

“There can’t be a second time; these idiots will end up destroying the world before any demons do!”

“We don’t know that for sure. Maybe they’ll be more ready to handle a second change after the first. Maybe-”

“Maybe they’ll all kill themselves the second they get more. I had to deal with a group trying to see if they could create a tornado of all things! Forget people punching holes in their walls, any more mana and-”

“We could always limit it to healers, right? At least anyone I saw with a light or life magic just used the extra mana to make their lives more bearable, minus the part where everyone else increased their workloads as much as they were increasing ours. The rest of the planet got its strength. For a second time, we can stand to be far more selective and-”

“Worry about all of that later,” Phixth silenced them all. “We have just finished, we can worry about the future after catching our breath. We’ll bring our concerns to the others after we arrange a proper meeting to discuss it, but with this largely done, we all have our own believers to get back to after being occupied for so long. If anything major comes up then spread the word, but until then, our jobs have simply changed for the time.”

Seeing them nod, one by one, each god left for their realms, to catch up with their core believers who would have been managing things while they were occupied and to help solve whatever problems had popped up in the interim, with Phixth going back to his own realm as well, sitting down before anything else.

He knew he should reach out, talk to his apostle, oracle, and high priest who were surely all waiting for him, but before whatever other chaos the world was going to try to throw at him, what he wanted most was just a moment where he could do nothing, not worry about the world and certainly not worry about what another round might mean for him.

Just a second of peace, Phixth told himself. Then I can move on to planning the most important thing. How to make sure it’s a different group of gods handling all of that if such a thing really is done again.

He certainly wasn’t going to put up with it twice, but with that cheery thought he forced himself to get back to work. For a being that had seen entire epochs come and go, he just had to see what would come of the next few months, and then, if they turned out in their favour, the next few years beyond it. Maybe then he’d be able to spend a decade or two truly relaxing, but until such a time, new tasks wouldn’t just stop.