A God in a Cage

God believed the invitation was generous.

His body had become tall, muscular, and packed with power. For the first time since awakening as Tengen's cast-off flesh, he felt close to the shape he had always imagined for himself.

He had once been incomplete.

His body carried remnants of Tengen's knowledge, but his soul lacked a piece that could never be repaired by flesh alone. That absence had twisted into obsession. He imagined Tengen's evolved form again and again until he became certain that form was his true destiny.

Then the stitched-forehead man had appeared.

Noritoshi Kamo, disgrace of the Big Three Sorcerer Families, looked at God once and understood the knot in his soul.

"Find a cursed spirit formed from human faith," Kamo had said. "Capture it. Absorb it. Your incomplete soul will be filled."

He had even helped construct the injection machine before leaving behind experimental data and disappearing.

Now God had done it.

The faith, the cursed womb, the false Orochi, the cult's sacrifices, all of it had fused inside him.

He was the only true god in this world.

Before spreading doctrine across the earth, there was one thing he had to do.

Subdue Ren Zenin.

Or kill him.

The dust cleared.

Ren stood where he had been, pale eyes lowered to the documents in his hand. It was as if the world contained only the paper, and God's arrival had failed to qualify as an event.

God's smile split wider.

He swung his fist like a war hammer.

The blow landed against a pale-blue wall of air.

The impact shook the collapsing tower.

Ren did not look up.

God stared at the barrier.

His full-strength strike had not broken it.

"I do not believe it."

He hit again.

"I am God."

Again.

"I am the greatest god in the world."

Again.

"I will crush you."

Fist met barrier over and over. The tower groaned under the exchange. Floors buckled. Walls split. Dust fell from above.

At last, a crack appeared in the pale-blue wall.

God's eyes lit.

"There."

He struck the crack with all the strength in his body.

The barrier shattered.

For one instant, joy filled him.

Then another pale-blue wall appeared behind it.

And another.

And another.

Eight layers stood between him and Ren.

God's expression twisted.

"Shameless. Utterly shameless."

He roared.

"I need more power. Give me power."

He called to the tower, trying to sacrifice every living believer inside it and draw their fanaticism into himself.

No one answered.

Half a minute passed.

No power came.

"Where are they? Where did everyone die?"

Rage fed him instead. His purple-red skin faded toward gray-white, and his body hardened like a grotesque statue. Strength rose again.

God laughed and smashed at the barriers.

Ren finished reading the files.

To him, they were closer to a toy manual than a revelation. There were countless ways to create an imaginary cursed spirit visible to ordinary humans. None were useful enough to matter at his current level.

He rubbed the bridge of his nose and happened to see the gray-white mass of God's fist coming toward him.

It would not hurt.

He simply disliked being splattered with the room's filth.

Ren vanished.

God's fist struck empty air.

A chill touched his back, and he spun around.

Ren stood behind him, looking at the swollen body with mild interest. Energy continued to surge outward from God, rising as if the more desperate he became, the more he could force from himself.

"So your power can still climb."

Ren raised one hand.

"The innate guides the heavenly circuit. Through the world's shifting currents, I become the sovereign. I am the ruler. I alone command."

Pale-blue light covered the room.

God's eyes widened.

He tried to move.

His body did not obey.

He tried to draw cursed energy.

Nothing answered.

He tried to speak.

His throat would not deliver even a groan.

What is this?

Who are you?

The questions screamed inside his skull, trapped behind unmoving flesh.

Regret came next.

If his body could have moved, he would have dropped to his knees and kissed Ren's feet. He would have begged. He would have promised anything.

All he could do was stare.

Ren looked at the massive body and made a decision.

He waved his hand.

The pale-blue array swallowed the space. Energy from the tower, the island, the sea wind, the lingering faith, and God himself poured into the array, then into God's body.

God felt his strength grow.

There was no joy in it.

His eyeballs trembled wildly in their sockets.

What are you doing?

Outside the tower, the island changed.

Dark clouds gathered overhead. Wind tore trees from their roots and spun them above the ground. Waves hammered the cliffs. Fishermen near the surrounding waters recorded the scene and sent it online before they understood what they were seeing.

"Is this the end of the world?"

"First earthquake, now a tsunami. Are we really the last humans?"

"Fake. I am in Osaka and the weather is clear."

"Everyone stay away from that area. Do not die chasing strange footage."

The comments slowed after that.

Tokyo had only just endured the so-called earthquake. Too many people had lost family. The words natural disaster no longer felt distant.

The video spread anyway.

In a classroom, Dorin Fuya sat in the back row, bored enough to search trending news on her phone.

Shock headline. Disaster footage. Possible end of the world.

She knew it was bait.

Her finger still opened it.

The video began with trees flying, waves climbing the island, and a sky that looked ready to crush the sea.

The helplessness of disaster reached through the screen.

The commercial district returned to Dorin's mind. Blood. Broken bodies. Serpent heads. Pale eyes.

"Ah..."

She clapped both hands over her mouth before she became the classroom's center of attention. Her phone slipped from her hands and landed on her pale thighs.

Her stomach lurched.

"Teacher. I am going to throw up."

She ran before permission came.

Koyuka, seated near the front, saw her face and stood immediately.

"Teacher, I will go with her."

The teacher sighed but let her go. Koyuka was one of the better students, and no one had the heart to stop her.

She found Dorin in the restroom, bent over the sink.

"What happened?"

Dorin handed her the phone.

Koyuka watched the footage. Her eyes widened.

The feeling was familiar.

Is he there?

If so, what kind of thing was he fighting this time?

Could he lose?

Ren's pale eyes rose in her memory, indifferent and inhuman, passing over the world as if everything in it were dust.

No.

If it was that man, he would not lose.

Dorin splashed water over her face and looked back at Koyuka. For a moment, she reached as if to pat Koyuka's head, then changed the motion into linking arms.

"Scary, right? I almost screamed in class. Luckily, I reacted fast."

"Are you all right?"

"It is the last period. We are leaving."

Dorin dragged her out in a glorious act of truancy.

Koyuka looked at her back and smiled helplessly.

"Do you think he is there?"

Dorin's shoulders trembled, but she kept walking. "What he? You are thinking about another man when I am right here?"

Her pace increased toward the nearest shopping area.

Koyuka sighed.

So dishonest.

If Dorin was not thinking of Ren, why did she keep pulling her toward every place he might possibly appear?

Back on the island, God's body had swollen beyond its own shape.

Blue light filled his skin. His height had increased enough to break through the already damaged ceiling. Power no longer felt like power. It felt like pressure before bursting.

Then the energy in the room vanished.

God slowly lifted both hands.

I survived?

Crack.

A clear sound passed through his body.

His skin split.

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