Lv1 Skeleton

“What are you trying to make with a 19×19 board?”

“Just wait a while longer, I’m not done yet. Material Creation!”

I created about 400 round and flat black and white rocks.

“Are those black and white stones?”

“I nodded back and replied, If you truly believe yourself to be omnipotent and omniscient then defeat me in this game. If you do, I’ll quitely return to whence I came.”

“Why do I need to play along?”

Abaddon responded somewhat irritated.

“Two reasons. The first is that I still have a way to stop you, so this would be a better alternative for you.”

I signalled Lena to begin and together we created a 3D magic array around her.

“Whoa! What is this array supposed to do?”

“You’d best not make any sudden movements. If you do anything suspicious I’ll immediately activate it and send you back 20 billion years in the past. That much time should be more than enough for me to prepare some countermeasures.”

With a wave of my hand the array began to shine, demonstrating my readiness.

“Stop… stop! Do you also wish to be trapped in this place for the next 20 billion years? I know that you come from 20 billion years in the future, so if you were to send me back then you would lose your chance to return.”

“Why is that? I could just use the same array twice.”

“No, spells like these that tamper with time on a large scale cause severe damage to the space time continuum. If you were to use it on me, even if you were by some miracle be able to return to the future, you could never properly calculate the right period due to the severe fluctuations that would occur as a result.”

“Well at least the entire universe wouldn’t be destroyed, I could figure something out after that.”

Although I was pretending to be completely fine with that result, the truth was that Abaddon’s words had rattled me. He had a point about tampering with time and its consequences.

“Fine then I understand your first reason, what’s the second?”

“It’s simple enough, the second reason is that it doesn’t cost you anything. If I lose then I’ll simply return to the future and you can do as you wish.”

“And what if I lose?”

“Well I have to admit that you still have the upperhand in these negotiations, so it’ll only be a light penalty.”

“What kind of penalty?”

“To not destroy the universe until we play out a rematch.”

“Rematch? When will that occur?”

“When we next meet.”

I would have 20 billion years of preparation, surely in that time I would be able to find a way to defeat her. I also hoped that time would change her and that she wouldn’t make trouble in the future.

“Hmm, That’s not enough.”

“Not enough?”

“This is a duel upon which hinges the fate of the universe, so I’ll add another condition to spice it up. Whoever loses will have to give everything they own to the winner. I’ll simply trample over you all in victory, and bring you all down to your knees.”

Abaddon’s eyes radiated with confidence.

“You must truly believe yourself to be omniscient and omnipotent”

“Right, in fact you should already be proud simply by the fact that you’ve triggered the curiosity of such an almighty God.”

‘Well, even if one is a God, it doesn’t necessarily mean they are omnipotent.’

At this moment, I had perhaps underestimated Abaddon far too much.

“I’ll explain the rules of the game.”

Abaddon however, shook her head.

“No need, I already know them.”

“What?”

“You might have thought that this would be a game that you could best me in, but didn’t I tell you already? I’ve inherited the power of the Almighty himself! Although my ability to see far into the future isn’t always accurate, I have a full grasp of anything that occurs in the present. You seem to have an interesting chip on the back of your neck which had the rules to the game.”

Gulp!

I couldn’t help but swallow down nervously.

I had thought that she couldn’t possibly be omnipotent so I had chosen the game of Go. It was one in which A.I. excelled at so I felt that even if it was against a potent God, I should have a chance.

It seemed that this would now be an uphill battle.

‘She seems to grasp anything within this universe.’

I took some time to think things through before responding.

“How convenient.”

I finally let out, after a long period of silence.

“Ha ha ha~ things not going according to plan? You look quite depressed and your forehead is full of sweat.”

“Think what you want. I am just excited to play this game against a similar level player.

“Ha ha ha~! Good, if you’re that fired up then perhaps I can enjoy a challenge for the first time in my life.”

“But there is one more thing.”

“Oh, what is that?”

“I’ll start with four stones handicap.”

“Hahaha, are you that afraid of my omniscience and omnipotence?

I placed a black stone on each the corners of the 19×19 grid board.

“There is no komi, so you can begin anytime.”

(A komi of 6.5 points is given to the player with the white stones, to offset black’s advantage of getting the first move. However since there are handicap stones, then the komi is 0.5 points.)

Abaddon simply pointed towards and intersection and her white stone moved with a life of its own.

‘Hmm… it doesn’t seem that she was lying when she claimed to know the rules.’

“I wasn’t lying.”

I looked up at her in surprise.

“Didn’t I tell you? I know everything that happens within this universe.”

“Uh….”

We played a few more moves.

Our game which decided the fate of the universe continued, and it was not going favorably for me. Of course Lena helped out, but Abaddon seemed capable of predicting all the outcomes and was fiercely catching up.

I had vastly underestimate Abaddon. Because she reminded me of Lilinor, I thought I could win easily; however after just 150 moves I was already behind by 1 point.

‘Wow… despite having 4 stones handicap.’

“Of course, if you’d have placed five stones perhaps the result would have been different, but due to your arrogance you chose only four and any chances of winning flew out the window.”

Abaddon replied haughtily. This caused me to be quite frustrated and I developed a dirty strategy as a result.

“Indeed it’s as you say, wanting to win against you was my mistake, you are so right.” fre𝙚𝓌𝒆𝚋noѵel.c𝚘m

“Ah?”

Abaddon’s expression changed into that of surprise.

“Lena, let’s create a triple ko.”

(In Go, a ko is a situation where one side captures a stone, but there other side can’t immediately capture it back without place a move elsewhere first. There is a rare situation in which the life and death of a group is decided by three different ko. In such a case, black and white will alternate in capturing one of the three ko which can go on forever. This is known as a triple ko and is considered to result in a tie.)

“Let’s do this!”

“What are you doing!”

Abaddon shouted loudly.

“This is my answer.”

“You are a crazy.”

I had managed to create a triple ko, of course that was only possible due to Lena’s assistance. It was a situation where neither could back down from this ko, or they’d lose the game.

“That was scary for a second, luckily it worked out in the end.”

“Damn!” ƒr𝙚𝙚𝘸e𝚋𝐧૦ѵ𝒆𝒍.𝒄𝒐m

We kept capturing each other’s stones in the ko, and Abaddon was becoming more and more frustrated.

We kept this up for about 10 years worth of time, a testament to Abaddon’s stubbornness. During that time, even Abaddon’s subordinates which had had been released from the arrays and had come to watch the game, had grown bored and walked around the village aimlessly.

“Enough! This has become pointless,” Abaddon declared.

“Too true, how many times have we been recapturing the same stones?”

“It’s been 233,201 times, Johra.”

“Lena responded.”

“Did you hear that, Abaddon?”

“Shit!”

She helplessly swiped her claws at the desert sand. Despite her overwhelming power, she was still bound to the oath she had made and couldn’t go back on her word.

If this continued the result of the game would be a tie, which meant that neither of us had lost.

“You are a crazy!”

“How many times do you have to say that?”

“Fine, I concede. I resign, let’s have our rematch!”

I made sported my crooked smile.

‘I’ve succeeded in the end.’