Adam, the newly reborn God of Growth, stood on the pristine soil of his new world.

A sense of peace settled over him, a feeling he had not known for over a million years. The constant, crushing weight of being the sole protector of the multiverse, a burden he had carried since his birth, was finally gone.

He had seen the Sunny's power. He had witnessed his judgment. He had felt the terrifying, and reassuring scale of his abilities. His multiverse was in good hands.

He looked up at the new sun that Sunny had manifested for him, a warm and gentle star.

And then he decided that he would guide his new lifeforms, connect them with Thea, and watch them grow, not as a king of the Gods preparing for a war, but as a loving father, finally free to simply enjoy the act of creation.

Meanwhile, in his own God space, Sunny was not at peace. He was staring at a number, a figure so vast it felt like a joke.

[Faith Points: 5,300,000,000,000,000]

5.3 quadrillion.

"I need to quicken my pace…" Sunny thought, his voice a low, heavy rumble. The 1.1 quadrillion faith he had "boasted" about to Adam was not a lie, even though he have more than 5.3 quadrillion fsith.

That 1.1 quadrillion was the sum of his blessing sales, the share of 25% from the gods, and the massive faith generation from the lifeforms, so technically he didn't lie to Adam.

But the other 4.2 quadrillion… that was not profit. That was a loud bell.

He had felt it the moment his Gods of the Gods talent kicked in. It wasn't the warm, gentle flow of faith from his own, happy lifeforms.

This was a desperate, chaotic, terrified flood of energy. It was the collective terror of souls he had never met, screaming, praying to any unknown entity to save them.

"It's the demon gods," Sunny thought, his mind now cold and clear. "I'm sure of it."

Thea's particles, scattered across the multiverse, confirmed his fears.

He saw them: glimpses of Godless worlds, planets that had no protector. He saw a colossal, shadowy being, a true demon god, whose mere passage through a solar system was causing its planets to shake, triggering earthquakes and volcanoes.

He saw the lifeforms; terrified, being buried in ash and rubble, their final, desperate prayers a torrent of faith that flowed directly into his reserves.

Sunny felt a cold, familiar fury settle in his gut. This was why he needed to expand, why he needed to conquer this entire multiverse.

It was not just for power, but to save them. He had to place these Godless worlds under his God's Domain to protect them.

He immediately cut off his mental connection with Thea and decided that he would not tell Adam. The old God was finally at peace, just beginning to build his new life.

If Adam knew, if he saw these images of mortals suffering under the same evil he had fought for a billions of years, his new life would be over.

That righteous fire would reignite, and he would charge out alone to face an army of demon gods he was not yet strong enough to fight.

'Heck,' Sunny admitted to himself, 'if a truly strong demon god, one of the ancient ones, found either of us alone, we might not be their match. Not yet.'

He would not let his only true friend, his only equal, die a second time for his rage. This was a burden he would carry alone.

His gaze returned to the system panel, where the "fun activity"; the live broadcast of his demigods hunting demon demigods in the Realm of Advancement was still generating a steady stream of faith. The entire enterprise now felt… tainted.

"I guess it's time to end the show," Sunny said, his voice cold. He had earned enough faith from this spectacle. It was time to stop treating this war like a game.

He issued a single command through his domain. "Nexus. Finish them. All of them."

He could not, he decided, allow his own lifeforms to become like the jaded, bloodthirsty citizens of the Roman Coliseums he'd read about.

They needed to focus on progress, on science, on magic, on the true expansion of the empire.

"Thea," he commanded, "what is the status of the spaceship manufacturing?"

[Master, production is proceeding ahead of schedule,]

[The knowledge of the nuclear reactor was useful, but the scientists of Veridia found it. They have reverse-engineered a new power source based on the divine mana veins you provided for study. They call it the 'Cosmic Mana Generator.' It consumes ambient cosmic energy and converts it into pure, usable mana at the rate of an A-Grade mana vein.]

A slow, proud smile spread across Sunny's face. 'My people. They are geniuses.'

[The first prototype, the 'Star-Weaver I', has passed all warp-speed and long-duration tests. They are just finalizing the interior, modifying the blueprints to accommodate a thousand lifeforms for long-term colonization missions.]

"Excellent," Sunny said. This was the future. This was his grand, two-tiered plan for his empire.

Thea's portals would be the privilege of the elite; the demigods, the high-merit champions, the Gods themselves.

It was a status symbol, an instant, luxurious mode of travel to strive for.

But for the masses, for trade, for colonization, for the slow, steady, and safe expansion of his civilization… they would have these. They would have the Star-Weavers.

Now, he needed more. More progress, more comprehension, more hands.

He focused his will. A torrent of energy, one hundred trillion faith points, vanished from his reserves. A new, 13th clone of himself began to form.

Before the light of its creation had even faded, he did it again.

One quadrillion faith points.

The number was so vast that it took a minute to process so much faith. His 14th clone solidified, bowing its head in greeting.

"The next one will cost ten quadrillion," Sunny muttered, feeling a flicker of headache. "This talent is a glutton."

But it was worth every point. He now had a council of fourteen Gods, all of them were he himself.

It was time to put them to work.

"Two of you," he commanded, gesturing to clones 13 and 14, "will take over the blessing and divine bestowal operations. Your work will be endless, but it will fuel our empire."

The two clones nodded and vanished, teleporting to the newly constructed "Hall of Blessings" in the small universe.

"The remaining twelve of you," he said, his voice a low, serious rumble, "your task is the most important. You will go to the Arena of Epiphany. The time flow there, now under my God's Domain, is accelerated. A century for you would be just 8 hours for me."

He gave them their assignments: two would focus exclusively on breaking through to the SS-Grade of magic; three would dedicate themselves to the peak of body refining; and the remaining seven would have one, singular, all-consuming task.

"Comprehend the Law of Manifestation. Break its secrets. Achieve the SSS-Grade. Now, go."

A portal, a stable gateway to the Realm of Advancement, shimmered into existence.

The twelve clones, a identical council of power, walked towards it.

The instant the first clone's foot touched the threshold of the portal, all hell broke loose.

The entire Realm of Advancement, a construct of a million worlds, screamed.

The realm was Sunny's territory. The clones were Sunny.

The Arena of Epiphany began to shattered. The sky of the realm tore open, not in one place, but in a thousand, revealing the terrifying void beneath.

Time itself stuttered, accelerating, slowing, and stopping, all at once.

The entire Realm of Advancement, the new, central pillar of his empire, groaned, on the very brink of total collapse.

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