The mist thickened, decreasing visibility. It made him feel the consequences of his work.
No one was trustable; it was a battle for authority. Seraphina and Valerius stood between divine powers.
The messengers had completely formed. But one stood out to him, the messenger of God of identity; who could have been there other than him? Still, he was pleased to see it.
The god of identity felt the same, and why would it not? Aurelion was doing something no other apostle has done in centuries.
Aurelion still couldn't be allowed to do as he wishes; he has lost his stability. The sudden release of so many had caused it; in return, it granted him perfect defense. Before someone could understand the current identities, new identities emerged. Even if they defeat the ones currently present, Aurelion would shed them before taking any loss.
The door opened.
Everyone shifted their focus onto it. It was zephyr who had entered with Kaelen and two guards.
The room was still being observed by Kaelen. Upon looking at Aurelion, his eyes sharpened, his face went pale, and his body loosened up, losing every bit of hope he had. This made him confident that he could control him; the others didn't know about this method. Still, how long can he use that method for? Kaelen will learn about his powers one day.
He manipulated Kaelen's identity into merging with his.
Kaelen's high authority neglected every change the gods tried to force on them.
Forced to move, Kaelen moved towards it at a slow pace.
Seraphina, Valerius, and Zephyr have proven their loyalty. If they had to stop Kaelen quickly, making one of them an apostle would be the best.
According to Aurelion's calculation, the cultivation of blessings and information would take 4 minutes, and it would take 5 minutes to take their identities.
If gods hadn't been using blessings and items to distract identities, it would have taken less than 1 minute.
Aurelion had to figure out who would become an apostle and stop him till he was done. Two identities followed Seraphina and Valerius, keeping track of them.
The god of deception sent a message. He sensed it but couldn't read it; the god of identity had interrupted Aureliom.
"What is the difference between you and them if you are just as hungry for power?" Aurelion said silently; the god of identity could still hear Aurelion.
No reply. It made clear sense now. That silence conveyed more meaning than the messenger's words would have ever.
The clear understanding between them kept their relation alive; both of them knew about the consequence of Aurelion getting too much, and even if the god of identities' goal was not to prevent those consequences but rather to keep power for himself, he still had that excuse ready.
He didn't have time to grieve; 3 and a half minutes were still left.
"You guys seem too calm for friends who are going to have one taken away from them." Aurelion said, bluffing, trying to buy time for his identities.
"We are co-workers, not friends, and this is our work," Zephyr lied, sensing some sort of lie mixed up in Aurelion's words. "Whatever it is that makes you think that you are ahead of us is wrong." His hands got out of his pocket.
"I am wrong?" he gave a forced, loud, unnatural laugh, annoying them. "I have seen this again and again: same god, same place, same me, and only you followers change."
"Same you?" Zephyr got on Aurelion's nerves with this one.
"That is not what you should be worrying about." Aurelion's face showed it all.
"You can't get through me that easily." Zephyr placed his hands back in his pocket.
He wasted their 30 seconds with that.
Aurelion still had a few secrets he could use. "Still, they will get rid of you."
Zephyr sensed it wasn't some bait again.
"You are still trying?" Seraphina shouted while deceiving his position, thinking it would fool Aurelion, as his identity kept track of all of his moves.
"I think it's time for the big reveal for you." Aurelion took a break analyzing how he could keep them hearing. "You two are in upper ranks of authority, while Zephyr is Stage 5, disposable."
"He fixed every mistake we made. How is he disposable?" Seraphina said confidently on his statement, trying to imitate how Zephyr shut down Aurelion before.
"You have been working so long, you think you improved and learned a lot, yet you act the same way."
"Why can't you get to your point, or do you not have one?" Seraphina fastened up the process. Valerius pulled him back and showed him Zephyr's face; he believed that Aurelion was right.
"There are many people who fix stuff, but are stage 3 found that commonly?"
That stage he was talking about spiked their curiosity. They looked at him expecting an explanation without demanding it.
Aurelion waited for as long as their patience did. When a person is born, they have a certain amount of authority divided into 8 stages. They aren't accurate, but they work just fine."
"What stage are we all?" Zephyr asked, accepting his fate.
Aurelion smiled. "As I already said, you are 5, your friends are 3, and I am 1."
"And the kid?"
"You are quick, but it won't matter once you die." Aurelion praised him while keeping the same pressure. "He is at the peak of stage 1, the highest ever found in a human."
The three of them stopped everything. Their movement turned slower, disconnecting them from the conversation.
"Have you never noticed how Zephyr sits behind a desk while you work actively?" Aurelion taunted their observation.
Still, he got nothing; deciding on what to give their attention was hard.
On one side there was corrupted Aurelion, who was giving them the truth but destroying the balance at the same time, and the beings who ran the world on the other side.
Seraphina and Valerius started the process with the same instructions. Aurelion still couldn't tell who was chosen to become an apostle.
2 minutes left.
The first strong move was performed. Just then, Zephyr stood there with his newly formed guards, transformed from some of the identities Aurelion had released.
Black gladiators' thin, sharp weapons and light armor barely covering the body made for assassination in one strike, the only effective choice he had.
As the soldiers marched towards him, Aurelion turned Kaelen into an energy machine, forming identities out of thin air.
Kaelen knelt down instinctively even though the pain was mental; maybe he was begging to be left alone.
The time left was 1 minute 40 sec, and in that short period of time, the room had gotten uninvited platoons of soldiers fighting.
Their only path was Kaelen — get to him before Aurelion finished what he'd started. Everyone in the room knew it. So did Aurelion. He watched them calculate and smiled, waiting for them to catch up to him.