Story by: Rhenhwa.
Virtual God's Online
Chapter 14: Velvet Strategist - The Satin Weaver
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. All characters, events, organizations, and settings depicted are entirely fictional and created for storytelling purposes.
***
Digital code rose from the ground in vertical strands, thin, flickering lines of pale blue, climbing to the height of an average person.
From within the framework, Alcor emerged.
Materialized.
Exiting the digital simulation, he stepped out into the loading chamber with a long, exhausted sigh.
"Haah…"
He took a step forward, eyes still a bit vacant from the clash. Then he looked up. Straight at the blonde-haired deity waiting for him.
"I'm… sorry."
Alcor averted his gaze, almost shyly, embarrassed by the fact that, after all the help he'd received. So he lowered his eyes.
"I... lost."
The words tasted bitter, but he said that.
Across from him, Lute responded with a slow exhale. Then—
"You fool!"
The outburst shattered the silence.
"Why—why—would you fight High Goddess Ageha of all people!? What are you, suicidal!?"
"…H-huh?"
Alcor flinched at the sudden volume spike, staring blankly.
Lute's finger shot toward him like a divine blade of accusation.
"Don't 'huh' me! I mean, sure, maybe it wasn't your fault, but come on! She's not someone you just fight..! Do you want to get eviscerated from existence!?"
Lute's voice cracked into manic exasperation.
The only thing stopping him from physically wrestling Alcor to the ground was the restraint coded into his temperament module.
After lashing out, the blonde deity paused, froze, then relented with a short sigh, massaging his forehead.
"Forget it. It doesn't matter anymore."
"You may have lost the war, but you most definitely won the battle."
Alxor blinked, tilting his head.
That, while he had an understanding of why he'd been dragged into the game, he was missing a lot of context.
Realizing that, Alcor opened his mouth, but before he could,
"Now hold it right there, young man."
Lute raised a hand dramatically, cutting him off.
"Before we get into all that—you have some explaining to do."
"Spare me a minute, will you?"
Alcor grimaced, hand held up, but it still didn't matter. The questions came anyway.
"What was that? That thing you fired! Don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about!"
"And how the hell did you use her authority!?"
Alcor tried to respond, but Lute was in interrogation mode.
He remembered a few things Lute had told him about how every authority has a technique influenced by the authority.
Naturally, it varied; however, they came to the wielder naturally.
As for the Starbringer sword, it was a weapon from the [Bringer series]. In human terms, it could be considered a [beginner-class weapon series].
It was no wonder it broke.
"I think I have authority over 'stars' and 'entropy'."
"Wait. So, you're a counterpart!"
"...What's a counterpart?"
Lute wasn't shocked by the question. Alcor was a newborn, after all. If anything, it was the discovery itself that shocked him.
"Light, dark. Life, death. Concepts like those always exist in duals. One idea pulling against the other."
"But deities like us, those who embody concepts beyond the surface, we aren't chained to that balance."
"For example, the ruler of the Celestials came much later than the ruler of the Infernals. But they're still opposites. They just… didn't need to arrive at the same time."
Back in the golden age,
this was long before time and space were simulated through Akasha's power, even before other deities ascended to this realm.
The ruler of the Infernals, along with some others, had been here long before others were born or ascended.
As for those who ascended, they already had dualistic counterparts before their ascension. Their cases were different.
"So… I'm the dualistic part of her?"
"Possibly so. Well, it's not like both of you are the only deities with the authority of stars. However, most are unlike hers, who has control over every star."
Alcor's Celestial Smasher was one of the principles of Ageha's authority, whereby she fuses the principles of a star's creation and destruction to create one collapsing, devastating point.
A weaponized singularity.
In other words…
"You're most definitely her dualistic counterpart."
Hearing everything, Alcor let out a confused blink.
It wasn't like he was confused; he followed everything he heard from his friend, and when he thought about it, somehow it made sense.
"But, being a dualistic counterpart of the goddess of star birth and death means you're a tribunal."
"...I think I understand a little now."
Alcor nodded. After all, throughout the entire fight, he saw her do her best to contain her expression.
But suddenly, Lute's eyes narrowed, not with suspicion, but, rather, mischief.
His thoughts trailed off to a different conclusion. One even more troubling.
Wait a minute...
If both were born in the Virtual World…
If both wielded cosmic authority over the same domain…
If they were twin expressions of the same metaphysical idea...
"...Doesn't that technically make Ageha your soulmate? You know, divinely speaking? She's your other half, right?"
Alcor stared at him.
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"Don't dodge it! You're bonded across dualistic cosmic law! You technically belong together!"
Lute leaned in further, as though he'd heard the best gossip in ages.
"I just got punched across simulated space seven times. Can we not?"
Meanwhile…
Far from the deep-sea sector, where Alcor's virtual star anchor floated, different regions of the virtual world thrived.
It wasn't centered around a single star. It was a cluster, bound together under a unified jurisdiction.
And it wasn't space as others knew it. No vast black velvet void. No cold, star-studded darkness.
Here, the entire sector gleamed with a creamy, ambient glow, as if the cosmos itself had taken on the color of polished ivory.
Soft light. No shadows. An entirely alien aesthetic, different from the rest of the universe. It was a statement.
And deep within one of those stars, deep within, was a room drowned with pink haze. The air carried a slow, floral drift, dense and perfumed.
Velvet cotton fell in long sheets, cloaking half the chamber in delicate folds. The room was part temple, part boudoir, luxurious to the point of aggression.
And somewhere in that soft fog—
A figure sat. Legs crossed.
Clothed only in a single drape that ran from her left shoulder to her right hip, glimmering faintly with simulated starlight.
Her silhouette was all that could be seen, voluptuous, and poised, however she was seething.
Rage was enough to describe her virtual fury.
"Accursed Goddess of Stars…" The words slipped through clenched teeth. "Always meddling…"
This was no idle muttering. This was resentment from the base of the hierarchy.
Unlike Ageha, whose strength allowed her to carve through reality with sheer will. She and deities like her had to operate differently.
There were deities far above her. Too high to challenge directly.
So she did what others in her position had done.
She spread her influence. Built networks. Threaded her reach through contracts, charm, and necessity.
In this world, strength was one kind of power.
But influence, the kind that made others act for you, speak for you, and protect you without knowing it, was another.
That was survival. And now—
Now that damn Ageha had stomped through a plan of hers she shouldn't have even glanced at.
"…Ageha."
That deity—Ageha—was the prime example of everything she despised.
She could trample systems, walk into sectors uninvited, ignore jurisdiction, and break protocol.
And the worst part? They would let it pass.
At first, they might question it, sending formal complaints, but in the end, they would excuse her.
Because she had the strength to rewrite outcomes.
"After all my preparations…" Her voice trembled with fury. "…even going so far as to owe Poseidon…"
Her nails dug into the velvet-draped armrest. Then—CRACK—she slammed her hand down, fracturing the wood beneath the fine cloth.
"Damn it all!"
The pink mist shifted around her like startled birds. The soft lighting of the room shifted erratically, reacting to her emotional spike.
"And now Mahasabha is nearby, too…"
The assembly, where all high and mighty deities convened. And whenever they did, things always changed.
Either for better or worse. Things always changed.
Before she could spiral further—
"My Lady."
A voice broke through the static. A male silhouette knelt before her, emerging from a downward stream of flickering data.
His cloak of blue light fluttered.
"I apologize. We—"
"Shut it."
Her voice snapped across the room like a whip. She didn't need to hear the rest. They had failed.
Naturally, such a promising deity had to either bow before her and be hers or be destroyed.
But he was different. And now, the entire Divine Council had witnessed his battle with Ageha.
Transcendental deities. All because of Ageha's interference. Like this, once someone was seen…
They couldn't be unseen.
She leaned forward, eyes narrowed, tone sharpening.
"…Fine." She inhaled slowly, then exhaled with grim resolve. "If there's no other way… then—"