“Hand it all over!” shouted a man dressed in raggy bandit clothes, a bandana on his head, a cloak that half-covered his neck, and exposed, muscular arms full of scars. Clearly a bandit, and acting like a bandit by threatening with a dagger a lonely man walking on a dirt road, surrounded by a forest.

It was night time already, and the poor lonely man had committed the mistake of not staying in a town or finding a safe place to camp. He had even been foolish enough to travel on a road that had been reported as having dangerous bandits on it. So of course, he met with bandits.

Currently, there was only a trio of bandits flanking the man in every direction, so there was no way for him to run away; and even if he did, there were a handful of other bandits looking at the road from the forest to make sure that nothing strange happened.

There was, after all, a chance that the lonely man might just know magic and attack them, or there might be other people coming down the road, so they had to be ready to act. However, for this lonely man, there was no way that anything like that was going to happen. He was alone, there was nobody else coming, and the meager amount of magic that he knew was only good enough for doing chores around the house.

He was doomed… and yet…

“No! Please! Don’t do this! This is all I have! These few coins are all I got for feeding my family back in—”

A punch to the gut from the bandit in front caused the man to let out a breath and bend over. Doing so allowed the bandit to grab him by the back of the head, pulling him from the hair to stand back up.

“We ain’t playing games here, and we don’t give a rat’s ass about you or your family,” the bandit said, his face close to the lonely man’s pained expression, “Now, hand it over before we take it off your body.”

“P-please, we’ll starve if—”

And without warning, the bandit stabbed the lonely man, repeating the same motion over and over again until the lonely man sagged on the floor with a pool of blood forming under him.

What a shame. Such a thing was commonplace in this world. I was hoping he would do as the bandits asked and just hand over the coin. If he had life, he might have been able to do something to feed his wife and daughter. Perhaps hunt a boar or deer near his town… but then again, the bandits might’ve killed him anyway.

There was a possibility that I could’ve saved the man, but… I couldn’t interfere with the world—at least, not too much. The consequences of a God using his powers on any world could create even worse disasters than the ones that his hand could prevent.

Some Gods were very capable and able to enact their will without causing damage, and the most talented ones were able to raise worlds into better places, effectively creating a world where any God could descend and enjoy the fruits of that labor.

But that was a risky thing to do. Worlds without interference will eventually either get to the point where Godly beings could descend on them, or will create the proper environment to have new Gods born from it.

And that was my job in this world. I was here to look over it and ensure that it was going in the proper direction to either create a new God, or to become a proper Godly Paradise.

However, so far, worlds only created Godly beings, as the only proper Godly Paradise there was, was the place that I was born, Cielum. It was the only place where Gods could gather, enjoy their existence, talk to each other freely, battle without worries, and—most importantly of all—replenish their power.

This tiny world I was looking over, on the other hand, could hardly handle just a bit of Godly interference—not that I would do it anyway. There was no need for that. I just enjoyed watching over it, seeing the kind of lives that beings in this world had, and occasionally touching here and there if the world allowed it.

Touching was something that a God had to be careful with. Each world had a… sense… they weren’t sentient beings, but they reacted to our presence. Either they crumbled under us, or they tried to repel us. This world was of the later one, and it had already been tampered with enough.

I wasn’t the only God watching over it. There was another one, a Goddess—‘Was’ being the important bit. She got bored of the world and left me in charge of it, so at the moment it was just me. She didn’t directly interfere with the world, but she would whisper to the people of the world—to the people that she liked—causing them to create a whole religion around her, building statues, creating magic as she told them to, and even going to war on her name against those who didn’t follow her, in particular against—

“Demons!” someone shouted, and I shifted my attention to that place of the world.

It was a group of men in shiny armor, marching in a desolate forest full of crooked trees, fog in every direction, and dry grass under their feet. They were going in the direction of a cave. Leading them was a man with glossy blonde hair, cut short and swept to the side. He was riding on top of a big, muscular horse, and like the horse, he was donned in a golden armor that let everyone know that he was the most important figure in this place.

And it was obvious. He was a prince of the biggest empire in the world at the time, with both resources and power to display it.

As for what they were fighting… they weren’t demons. They were just mindless monsters that spawned from the mistakes of the world. In a sense, they were like cancer. Things that only moved on instinct, trying to feed and feed and gorge on the magic and creations of the world, regardless of the damage it could cause.

Why wouldn’t I get rid of them? Because despite that… Some of the wisest and most powerful Gods were born from such beings, so there was no need for me to do it. It was up to the world and the beings living in it if they allowed themselves to be devoured by it or not.

Though, if the God that came out of this world turned out to be dangerous, it wasn’t a problem for someone like me to easily dispatch it, so all I had to do was be on the lookout.

The monsters that this prince and his armies were facing looked like blobs of flesh, walking in deformed limbs that could be mistaken for human arms or feet; all skittering on the floor like bug’s legs as the many blood-shot eyes that covered their fleshy body turned to look at the incoming army.

Without fear or hesitation in the man’s sharp blue eyes, the prince jumped off the horse, spinning in the air as he unsheathed a white glowing sword from his hip, and slashed the first monster that stood in his way.

“Fear not, men!” he shouted, pointing the sword forward at the remaining monsters. “With the power of the Goddess protecting us, we shall prevail and cleanse this land of evil!”

The men shouted, raising their weapons in the air as they rushed, launched magic, arrows, and even a couple of weapons as they all brushed past the brave prince and into the horde of monsters.

It wasn’t a surprise that he, and his army of trained knights, would come on top of the fight, easily killing those mindless and weak beasts that threw themselves into their weapons. So after a few minutes, they were all surrounded by the bloody and charred corpses of the monsters.

A man with a young face approached the prince. “You Highness!” he said, doing some strange gesture with his hands, where he raised his straightened hand to the side and then up to his head, as if covering from the sun that was barely shining on them. “Good job! In just a few more days, we’ll be able to reclaim this land from the demons.”

The prince laughed in a rather pleasing manner, nodding as he did. “That is so. These lands may not look like much, but with some hard work, the good people of the Empire might be able to grow their families here.”

The young man smiled and raised his weapon to his shoulder. “We’re lucky to have you as our leader…” his expression changed to one of regret. “Too bad that your older brother got chosen as the crown prince instead.”

There wasn’t a sign of worry, anger, or offense on the prince’s face as he simply shook his head. “We all have different duties under the eyes of the Goddess. This is mine, and that is my brother’s. We shall do what we must.”

“Apologies, Your Highness. This servant spoke without knowing,” the knight followed up, bowing his head.

While the army was relishing in its victory, a loud roar was heard, and they all turned to look at the place where it came from. From the edges of the desolate forest, a larger fleshy being was approaching. It looked like a man that was the size of a few elephants stacked on top of each other, but its body was decayed, like a man that was about to die from starvation. It also had long thin limbs, all just like a starved human’s as it moved on all four.

Unlike a human, however, from the place where a neck would be, a long worm-like limb stretched, ending in nothing but a large gaping mouth, full of bloody teeth.

“By the Goddess!” shouted one of the knights. “What is that?!”

“Steady, men!” Followed up the prince, standing tall to face the large monster. “It shall fall under the radiance of—”

A silly young man couldn’t hold the fear that the monster caused on him, and shouted without the prince’s order, brandishing his Greatsword as he rushed to the large monster.

“No! Young Lord! You mustn’t!” shouted the prince, stretching a hand, hoping to stop the rushing man.

But it was too late. In a second, the monster’s head snapped and ate the young knight, splattering him in a mess of blood and armor pieces as it swallowed what it caught.

Quite silly from that knight to do that. This monster was literally blind, so it only knew what it was facing with every other sense, including a weak magic sense.

If the knight had taken it easier, stayed quiet and waited for the prince’s orders, he might still be alive…

As for the Prince, well, all I could do was watch and see how well he did.