bottle. She could see the culler bearing down on him with lightning speed, but when it caught up, she was still too far off to do anything but watch. Her knees began to buckle, and her first impulse was to shield her eyes from the horror, but instead, she found herself charging the beast with wild abandon. She thrashed about, screaming at the top of her lungs, punching her determined fists into hard muscle and bones.
Intent on its meal, the creature at first ignored her. But in a short while, having sated the worst of its hunger, it then snorted at Lily-not in fear, but in disgust of the repellant emanating from her pores-and scampered off.
Jacob marched through the inner sanctum swiftly enough to consider time, but without the undue energy costs of flight. Not long after entering the garden, three cullers charged from all sides in a coordinated attack. Jacob, having confirmed that the cullers were private property and not carrying modern weapons, decided to wait until they were only a few meters from him so he could be absolutely certain they meant him harm. Although it was unlikely that the cullers were capable of actually damaging Jacob, the angel nevertheless took the protective measure of detonating a bomb just above his own head. The concussion and heat of the blast fell well below the material threshold of Jacob’s nanofiber armor; however, the bomb detonation exhaled the cullers as raggedy, burning body parts.
Aside from this minor obstacle, there was no resistance to his investigation of the inner sanctum. Dr. Monsa presented Jacob with the evidence-four corpses consisting of one product and three humans. It was confirmed that all four of the deceased were demons guilty of aiding and abetting yet another demon. However, curiously, Jacob could not call up any records of who the missing demon was. He decided to do a sweep of the area.
That’s your target, you stupid tool! Katria sent her thought to the angel as high priority.
She couldn’t believe it. That blond bimbo bitch demon was standing there not three meters away and the damn machine insisted that she was human-that she was a player of “no interest to law enforcement.”
Check again! ordered Katria. She then spent the required points to get the Tool to do another visual, seismographic, and DNA scan on the girl.
She is the one. She has to be! Katria screamed in her mind.
After the second round of scans came back negative, Katria tried to get a third scan, at which point the angel terminated the blink and sent a generic error message. We apologize, but you are unworthy of access at this time.
“Fucking computers!” Katria shouted, startling a fellow player passing by on the otherwise tranquil path of the nectar orchard.
The final oranges and pinks streaked across the sky as the counterfeit sun set once again. Nocturnal photoflowers began to glow as their petals slowly unwrapped, lighting up the gardens below. Dr. Monsa smiled crookedly in the glow of dinner candles, as he always did, while the first course was served. The nightly ritual had begun.
“So, Daughter, if you wanted to become a god, how would you go about it?” By now Lily could expertly read her father’s misshapen expressions. He asked the question with pleasure. She knew that the doctor enjoyed nothing more than good food and a stimulating conversation with his “lambs.”
“To become a god, I’d want a monopoly on violence,” answered Sara, the doctor’s first concubine, from across the table.
“Yes, Sara,” replied the doctor, “although I wouldn’t say the OverSoul has a monopoly on violence. Nonetheless, she certainly does have a monopoly on the most effective violence, thanks to her modern weapons.”
“Ability to bestow everlasting life,” the priest offered.
“Yes, the flipside of effective violence is mastery over regenerative medicine. So let’s just lump those two together as godlike power over life and death. What else?” the doctor asked.
“Effective rulership,” Love_Monkey proposed confidently while glaring at Sara. “Provide an effective economic and religious framework under which subjects feel fulfilled and secure.”
The doctor nodded. “Right, through the Game you gain both. What else must our god do?”
“Prayer fulfillment,” BoBo fired.
“Oh, I’d squirrel that away with effective rulership. Prayers, as well as more mundane wants, are fulfilled by playing the Game well.”
“It’s distinct, Daddy!” BoBo protested.
“No, it’s part of the Game,” the doctor countered. “It was the Game that fulfilled my prayer for one of my Star Sisters to return to me. Hal can show you the night harvesting archives-”
“No, I will not!” Hal interrupted. “Those are classified. Only one designated analyst per major house is given that security clearance.”
“But you gave it to D_Light.” The doctor smiled crookedly.
“What I gave to that man resulted in my security credentials being revoked!” Hal started to choke. “My successor has learned from my mistake and will not repeat it!”
“Oh, and which one of your baldy lab friends has the mantle now?” BoBo asked.
“That’s classified too,” Hal retorted. “And night harvesting is a myth. Nothing more.”
BoBo’s mouth dropped open in mock surprise. “I didn’t know analysts could lie! Daddy, Hal must be a reject. We should sell him immediately!”
“Oh no, Hal is my favorite, and I like that he lies. It comes in handy sometimes.” The doctor clasped Hal by the arm, bending a tube in the process, which caused the analyst to wince.
“Okay,” the doctor said, “so we have power over life and death and effective rulership-”
“And prayer fulfillment,” BoBo added.
“Whatever,” the doctor said with a dismissive gesture.
“Yeah, whatever, Daddy. Send me the points! Prayer fulfillment lends credibility to the godhead. A god who does not answer prayers is not godlike.”
“All right already, and prayer fulfillment,” the doctor conceded wearily. “What else?”
“Omnipotent knowledge of one’s subjects, also done through night harvesting.” BoBo’s voice was excited.
“Very well,” the doctor said without enthusiasm.
“Yes, that’s two for me!” BoBo squealed.
“So you’ve given me four pillars of godhood. Give me another,” the doctor commanded.
The table was silent for a few long seconds.
“Lily?” the doctor asked.
“The ability to learn,” she answered without looking up from her plate.
“ Really? ” The doctor’s one eyebrow rose. “Now why would the mind of a god, presumably perfect, require learning?”
“Because change is a constant,” replied Lily. “Even if, theoretically, a mind could be made perfect for the conditions of today, sooner or later even God would need to change.”
“Fine then. How would she learn?” the doctor shot back.
Love_Monkey interjected with a confident tone, “Thanks to night harvesting, our collective consciousness is part of the OverSoul, and the Game is shifting all the time. That should provide change enough.”
The doctor frowned. “It is true that much change is done through this means, but the OverSoul has a core mind aside from the Game and its participants.”
“Core mind?” Love_Monkey inquired.
“Yes, most intelligent beings have a core mind-basic values, habits, and the like-which does not change easily. It makes up our personality and acts as the principle guide for our actions and beliefs. Likewise, the OverSoul has a core mind, although it might be better referred to as its ‘core tenets’ or ‘core rules.’”
“But,” interrupted Love_Monkey, “if I understand the nature of the OverSoul, she is not actually a single being, but a collection of billions of agents, ourselves included.”
“Like the Holy Trinity of old Catholicism-multiple entities that also represent the One?”
“That may be a stretch, BoBo,” the doctor replied with a chuckle. “However, I believe the overall design of
