Hah! Kill me? Who does that vermin think he is to threaten a god? Margn thought as he swirled through the new city created by that man, Zachary.

  As he soared over the town, he couldn't stop thinking the human had made a terrible mistake. But why couldn't he just overcome it and find another host to keep having his fun during the game?

  Something kept the god there, soaring, boiling with anger. If anyone could see him, they'd see a wave of blood slowly towering over their heads.

  Zachary had such an attunement with him—the man craved blood just like the god himself. However, he had too many principles. Not a thing the god hadn't worked around before.

  They always start with a few principles. Even Max had some strange memories locking him in place and making it impossible for him to keep going.

  Margn normally had the time to work around such principles. They were human at heart, like any other sapient species in the universe, so they could be stripped of their morality and embrace what really mattered: carnage.

  The feeling of life vanishing, the blood pouring and feeding Margn's thirst as hunger.

  And he was starving.

  He had tasted Zach's blood, and now that they couldn't be allies, all he could do was hope to taste it again in the future—as enemies.

  Margn heard their celebrations, their cheers of joy as they helped their families, and he couldn't help but feel that was pathetic.

  Maybe he should go to other sectors of the game and search for someone else. Taking a look at where the two who defied Zach had gone was also a good idea—maybe they could be a good fit.

  No. Too emotional… it would be like making the same mistake twice.

  For a god, Margn had his fair share of mistakes under his belt. It wasn't strange for other gods to say he lacked good judgment... Stupids, they'd see who lacked judgment when their golden blood was spilled.

  That was his ultimate goal—to kill a god. To taste their sweet blood. But that was impossible in his state.

  The laws of the multiverse were quite clear: a deity can't hurt another. It's hard for them to even meet each other. But all the times Margn had come across one god or another, he'd smelled their taste in the air.

  He knew instinctively that gods were delicious—sweeter than any race he'd ever found—and still he was locked behind the bars of desire.

  However, there was no place in the whole multiverse where raw power and mana were concentrated like in these games.

  The deity behind it was the most powerful Margn had come across in all the eons he'd been alive—nothing came even close.

  If someone or something could give him the ability to kill a god, it would be through the game. And he wouldn't be the one doing the killing—that, he knew.

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  So, it wasn't wise to keep soaring above the newly conquered town. Zachary was just a human, a newborn compared to Margn, and still, he was transfixed by the joy the man shared around him.

  “Triad.” The god scoffed at the name and at the concept behind it. One human. Two gods. Three races.

  He was surrounded by his friends. The female Myriad had unstripped her armor for the first time in days, and they were all getting ready to watch the show—eating, having fun, and not a droplet of blood had been spilled in the process.

  There were different sparks in there, emotions that made the god’s stomach twist and turn in disgust. Companionship, compassion—he could even sense love, thick in the air of the big house Zachary shared with his party.

  Nothing sickened him more than love—but nothing came close to hate. The feeling he deemed most important for the one who would wield his power.

  A desire to kill, to draw blood, to inflict pain. The more pain, the sweeter they'd be.

  Even better if the person had the desire to kill but not the hate. Those were rare, but Margn had found a few in previous editions. Those were the ones who made it farther into the game.

  Sometimes, they were boring—choosing to kill only when completely safe from harm, making the wait an eternal boredom.

  However, today wasn't a day to care about that. Today, he needed to fix his mistakes.

  Finding someone even emptier than Max would be the right decision. The man lied too much to himself, and the god couldn't stand that anymore. The potential was there, but potential was nothing more than a word used to describe someone who hadn't accomplished anything.

  Deciding that couldn't be his legacy, he flowed away from inside Zach's new house, determined to forget the man and find someone else to use.

  As soon as the god crossed the walls of the place, he noticed someone looking inside Zach's house.

  It was a human teenager, face all freckled and hair a deep orange.

  The young man had an empty gaze, as if he'd been contemplating a white wall for years and wasn't bothered by it one bit.

  That made the god curious—and curiosity was a sweet, sweet feeling.

  "What is going on inside this little lamb's mind?" Margn muttered to himself as he jumped inside the boy's mind.

  Rank F2, as high as Zachary, he realized. A mage with Earth skills... interesting. A title for a successful ambush, but nothing impressive in that regard.

  He had no gods behind him despite being quite strong—which wasn't uncommon, since most gods waited until the first tower to find their protégés. Not Margn, though. He preferred to take some risks here and there. The times he'd made it far in the game, he'd taken a risk.

  The boy's mind started to formulate clear ideas, scenarios, scenes the god couldn't see clearly since their connection wasn't established. However, as soon as the young man's voice echoed inside his mind, Margn was surprised.

  "How can I make it look like an accident? Who should I try first? The short woman... she seems jumpy. I wonder how her voice would sound when she started pleading."

  The boy's heart accelerated as his blood pumped. Margn's existence started to retort inside itself as the young man kept voicing his deepest desires.

  "The elf... she isn't that bad, but she'd need to be after the demon. It would be more impactful..." The young man chuckled and moved away from the house's window before anyone could catch him spying. He made his smile vanish as fast as it had appeared and looked down, the face of innocence as the vilest thoughts surged through his mind.

  "It will feel good to see him watch the elf die." He waved at Adriano, who moved close by and asked how they were doing, saying he could help if they wanted. The other man had tears in his eyes, but the boy didn't seem to notice or care—his thoughts were back on Zachary. "Besides, they all seem to have a lot of gear. I could use them after I'm done with them."

  The boy breathed deep, the thought of spilling their blood giving him a sense of direction and pleasure that made the god want to sigh in delight in return.

  "How can I be so lucky?" the god asked himself before appearing inside the boy's mind.

  "I have a proposal for you, John.”