The Main Mod Gets on His Knees
Takeda might have been arrogant and cruel, but he was by no means a man without a plan. There was sound reasoning — and no small amount of confidence — backing his order to capture "that being," even after he had watched the video himself.
First, there was the matter of that being's identity. Did it truly need explaining? The power to imbue a spoken word with fatal authority and drive a person to suicide in an instant — only one kind of existence in this universe could wield something so transcendent.
A god. In recent ages, such beings had come to be called Constellations. Nothing lesser could ever pull off an ability like that.
But no god would lay waste to the very planet under its own dominion, which meant this was likely not the deity governing this planet or its star system. So what, then, was it? This world was home to a sealed, classified research facility belonging to the Galactic Empire. The answer came easily enough: "that being" was a divine entity artificially created in secret by the Empire itself.
Contrary to all of the Empire's expectations, something far too powerful had been born — so powerful that its mere presence had withered a world of lush forests and boundless seas into the wasteland below. And the Empire, in its boundless stupidity, had failed to control the god it made, leaving the thing free to wander its planet in the open. Idiots, every one of them.
But he was different. Takeda possessed every confidence that he could control that being.
"Nahash."
The moment he spoke the name into empty air, a window only he could see unfurled before Takeda's eyes and addressed him in measured, third-person prose. Nahash, the Serpent God — a crawling serpent who governed an entire star system, the wellspring of Takeda's confidence and the constellation lending him his strength. It had answered his call.
[ The Serpent God 'Nahash' asks his Awakened One what business he has. ]
"That power. If I truly channel your strength, you can keep it under control so that I can wield it... correct?"
[ The Serpent God 'Nahash' replies that he can, and asks what on earth could possibly be worrying him. ]
"Worry? Laughable. Do I look like the sort of man who worries? I simply prefer to prepare for every contingency."
[ The Serpent God 'Nahash' tells him to stop fretting over nothing, calling it merely the spawn of a false-claim-gallery troll. ]
"A gal... lery? The gods run a forum too?"
[ The Serpent God 'Nahash' declares that is none of his Awakened One's concern, and to get on with his job. ]
"Well. Fair enough."
Takeda gave a slight shrug, leaned against the viewport, and gazed down at the planet now reduced to scorched wasteland — thinking, all the while, of the being that would grant him wealth and power beyond anything he had ever known.
'Then why won't a single soul believe me!!!'
This wouldn't do. No matter how front-page-worthy the news, without proper verification it would never make it to a concept post!!
What I needed was attention.
'Should I actually go destroy a planet or something?' And just as I was seriously weighing the question...
an absolute deluge of comments came crashing down on my post all at once.
Huh?
A relentless barrage of personal attacks, raining down on me without pause!
Flustered, I had no choice but to scratch my cheek.
'Hm....'
Honestly, none of it was wrong, and it stung a little. No, wait — trolling aside, the false claims part was not true?! I really do have God-of-the-Universe-tier specs!
I could not stand for this.
The troll's secret technique, move number two: the counterattack. Just as I raised my hand to the keyboard, ready to fire back with 'And what does that make you, getting this worked up over a pathetic troll?'...
A gallery user bearing an orange star beside their nickname had appeared and left a comment on my post.
Hold on? If I remembered correctly, only one being in existence could ever earn a mark like that.
Sure enough — it was the Main Mod. The being said to be the god governing this very universe.
The instant the Main Mod posted, the very people who had been weeping and begging him to do something about me clamped their mouths shut as if they'd seen a ghost.
So this was... the power of the Main Mod?
And yet....
'I... I can't hold it in.'
In that very moment, one existence remained unbowed before the Main Mod's authority, fingers moving toward the keyboard on pure instinct.
Me.
'The spirit... the spirit of a troll!!'
In the end, driven by instinct, I simply had to reply to the Main Mod's comment!
.......
'Phew.'
Still, it felt satisfying. Besides, it wasn't even my comment — technically, it was my finger's comment. Which meant I was innocent.
*Ding—*
[ ★ GodOfTheUniverse has invited Anon to a private whisper. Do you accept? Y/N ]
But apparently the recipient of that reply didn't see things my way, because the Main Mod was now requesting a one-on-one meeting with me in dead earnest.
... Why did I suddenly feel like a student being summoned to the teacher's office?
Honestly, I didn't want to go.
But if I refused and got permanently banned, that would be a catastrophe of the highest order....
.......
... And so I accepted the God of the Universe's request and entered the whisper room.
+++++
I'd been swallowing nervously, braced for a lecture ending in a ban — and then, what was this?!
Far from lecturing me, the Main Mod was offering a heartfelt, full-throated apology!
And what an astonishingly groveling move it was!!
Wait, what is wrong with him?! Is this really the Main Mod?
At this rate he would genuinely send me a Grand Kowtow verification shot, so I hurried to rein him in and decided to hear him out slowly.
Hm... well, come to think of it, I had gone trolling, so even I had to admit their personal attacks had been somewhat excessive.
Still....
It seemed fairly obvious the Main Mod was bowing and scraping because he knew my divinity was overwhelmingly stronger than that of the other gods.
Hm... but was this really necessary for a being who ran the entire universe?
Fair point, honestly. I didn't have the faintest idea exactly what — or how much — I governed as a god.
The Main Mod stretched that reply out long and thin.
Why did that sentence read like someone fighting back tears? Surely just my imagination.
A request?
I answered without a moment's hesitation.
I mean, I wanted on the front page. Unless there was some way to prove my divinity, how exactly was I supposed to earn a concept post?
After that, I waited for the Main Mod's response.
Ten seconds. Thirty. A minute.
Ten minutes....
.......
'Why isn't he answering?'
After a solid thirty minutes of being left on read, I heaved a sigh and closed the gallery.
He'd reply eventually, surely.
And so, turning my eyes away from the gallery and lifting my head, what stood barring my view was....
'What is this?'
A blue... transparent wall.