A Chronometric Defect

[...]

Chrono » "Do you all get it, now? Love, you especially."

Love » "Yes, I get it."

Wrath » "FUCK YOU"

Lust » "Go eat Wrath, Chronovoid~. I'll watch~."

Chrono » "Not funny, Lust."

Lust » "Who said I was~ mmm~ joking~? Hehe."

Indolence » "ZzzzZZZZzZZz"

Chrono » "I'm curious, what does Indolence even do?"

Truth » "None of us know, Chronovoid."

Pride » "Aha, so you can lie, Truth. We know he sleeps."

Truth » "Damnit, Pride. You did this. I wasn't so—"

Chrono » "Isn't it fine? Just accept who you are, then use that acceptance as a launchpad for change."

Love » "Why is a mega-Abyssal giving us life tips?"

Chrono » "I'm not a mega-Abyssal. I'mma dragon. Rawr."

Love » "You sound like Pride."

Pride » "I resent that. At least I spell correctly."

Chrono » "You know you wanna rawr, Pride."

Pride » "I may have already, but you'll never know."

Chrono » "I see you! You definitely rawr'd."

Pride » "Ah. Right, I forgot you could do that."

Justice » "Do you intend on ascending, Chronovoid?"

Chrono » "Reah."

Wrath » "WHO THE HELL WANTS YOU H—"

[Wrath has been kicked.]

[Reason: Rawr.]

Love » "Wait, Chronovoid. You're not the chat admin."

Chrono » "So?"

Love » "Can you stop taking over everything?!"

Chrono » "No? Even if I wasn't a dragon, and I am, I'm also the embodiment of annihilation. Void."

Love » "What does that have to do with stealing my admin role?"

Chrono » "I didn't steal your admin role; you're still the admin."

Love » "Then how—"

Chrono » "I'm the chat."

Love » "GODDAMNIT!"

[Love (admin) has been kicked.]

[Reason: Still rawr.]

[Love (admin) has been added.]

Love » "Okay, look— never mind. Can you just... Stay down there? We like our god realm intact."

Chrono » "Love, dragons must always add to their hoard. Plus, that draconic philosophy conflicts with my nature as the embodiment of annihilation, so that's how I've decided to fight. I must conquer all, starting with myself. I can't avoid fate— not yet."

Envy » "You don't want your fate talent?"

Chrono » "I'll say no comment, Envy."

Truth » "I think he means he envies you."

Envy » "It's kinda my shtick, yeah?"

Chrono » "You seem pretty chill about it."

Envy » "I learned from Pride and Truth, mostly. I don't envy your nature as annihilation, so I cancel the two feelings out."

Chrono » "It's nice seeing you all aim for better."

Truth » "Well, not Deception. Or Gluttony."

Gluttony » "I resent that!"

Love » "Gluttony, when did you get here?"

Gluttony » "Chronovoid added me without asking."

Love » "He ate our chat."

Gluttony » "You can DO that?"

Chrono » "Reah. Dragon. Rawr."

Gluttony » "Envy, now I get it."

Envy » "Get what, Gluttony?"

Gluttony » "Why you have such a hard time with envy."

Envy » "Oh, yeah. You don't want to stop, right?"

Gluttony » "Envy is a concept. It's unavoidable. It's the same with food, but I can choose to not put any food in my maws."

Truth » "I don't think that's possible for you, Gluttony."

Gluttony » "It's not! So, I'm aiming to eat Chronovoid."

Pride » "Haha, sure."

Chrono » "Gluttony, I actually can't be eaten."

Gluttony » "Why not? I like a feisty meal."

Chrono » "No, I mean if you tried—"

Love » "He'd annihilate you."

Chrono » "Reah, it'd happen even if I let you eat me."

Gluttony » "Anti-food? That's plain wrong."

Chrono » "Wrong or right, what else are you doing?"

Gluttony » "What else?"

Chrono » "Besides setting your maws on the least satiating meal you could've possibly picked."

Gluttony » "I don't understand."

Chrono » "The reason I'm ascending isn't solely to fight against my fate. It's to change all of yours, as well. If you fixate on impossible goals, you can't change. I acknowledge you saved reality from the Abyssals, so I'm being lenient."

Justice » "He means 'I'm coming up there, young man. You better not be doing bad things.'"

Gluttony » "No chance. I'm older than him."

Chrono » "Just wait for the smackdown, then."

Gluttony » "You can't be serious. The little dragon I fed a few days ago is being so uppity?"

Chrono » "Maybe you should watch the video I sent."

Gluttony » "I did. You obviously faked it."

Chrono » "What? What is there to fake?"

Gluttony » "Even I don't have a maw that big, and I'm Gluttony. You're not a gluttony god."

Chrono » "Raaah, forget it. I notice you call yourselves 'sins' and 'virtues' but also refer to each other as 'gods.' What rank of god are each of you? Greed didn't know or care."

Truth » "I think we're between Rank four and eight? Why?"

Chrono » "When I first became Void, I lost my god rank. I'm not considered a 'god' anymore."

Love » "How is that possible? We're all gods."

[Chronomet (Dragon) is sending a file. Accept?]

[Yes] [No]

Love » "How does our mental chat have file sharing? That doesn't make sense."

Chrono » "I ate the chat, so you all are connected to me. Dragons do what they want! I send what I want."

Truth » "Like what you sent to Greed?"

Chrono » "I'm not sending THAT."

Truth » "Does the transfer stop if I press 'no?'"

Chrono » "That one does, yes."

Truth » "Siiiigh."

Love » "How do you keep getting us dead to rights before we even know what's happening?"

Chrono » "The swiftest way to fool any opponent is by planning your follies."

Truth » "Are you really...?"

Chrono » "No, I have a fate talent."

Love » "Ugh!"

Truth » "Can I LEAVE the chat?"

Chrono » "Yes, but I can always re-add you."

Truth » "Is this like what you did to Pride?"

Chrono » "Not exactly. It's one of the new talents I got from eating the Abyssal."

Love » "'One of,' he says."

Gluttony » "Never mind that. I'll accept."

Chrono » "Thanks, Gluttony."

»[Yes]«

Name: Chronovoid

Talents: Hidden

Lineage: Hidden

Rank: Chronovoid (Void)

Species: Annihilation Dragon

Weapon: I'mma Dragon (Rawr)

Stats:

Str: ∞ / 9.62 (334.5b)

Sta: ∞ / 9.44 (334.5b)

Int: ∞ / 1.93 (334.5b)

Wis: ∞ / 1.77 (334.5b)

Will: ∞ / 2.65 (445.7n)

Chrono » "Any questions?"

Gluttony » "Yeah, what's with the '∞' before the slash in your stats? I have that as my hunger stat."

Chrono » "You have a hunger stat?"

Gluttony » "Yes! It's important."

Chrono » "Uh, it's infinity."

Gluttony » "My hunger is indeed infinite. I meant that I'm curious what your layout means. I only have one set of stats."

Chrono » "Those used to represent how much stronger I'd become once my body finished absorbing what it consumed."

Gluttony » "Used to? Actually, I'm not sure I want to kn—"

Chrono » "Once I finish digesting what my annihilation maw devours, it'll open on its own and devour the rest of the universe. That is, unfortunately, what I've turned into. I ate a lot, though, so I'll be fine for a while... Probably."

Gluttony » "Then, your desire for stats is infinite."

Chrono » "I just didn't fix my status panel yet."

Gluttony » "You can change your status panel?"

Chrono » "Reah. Can't you?"

Gluttony » "No."

Chrono » "Roh."

Justice » "Why don't you keep tabs on how much is stored to avoid... Uh, devouring everything?"

Chrono » "Monitoring my stored quanta, rehm, excites me, I guess? This used to only apply to my Will when I manually observed it. I realized it also applies to my status panel, which is why I continued to devour reality after I ate the Abyssal. I was able to stop myself from finishing you all off by removing the status measurement."

Love » "So that's why you kept going after you ate it."

Chrono » "Rh, I literally couldn't stop eating."

Gluttony » "Here I thought I was fat."

Love » "You are, Gluttony. He's not fat; he's ridiculous."

Truth » "Why is your weapon..."

Chrono » "Cuz I'mma dragon!"

Love » "Dumb question, Truth."

Chrono » "There are no dumb questions, only questions which lack sufficient dragons and/or rawring."

Truth » "I don't think I need to ask about your rank. It seems you ate that, too."

Chrono » "Reah, Truth. Even my status isn't safe from the endless encroachment of my own power."

Love » "How lovely."

Chrono » "It means this dragon's gotta build the biggest hoard possible. Then I won't be able to accidentally eat it all."

Love » "That's not how that works."

Pride » "I'm so proud of my god."

Love » "You would be, Pride."

Chrono » "I have another question for you all. What are the god ranks based on?"

Truth » "A Rank one god goes up to a one hundred thousand stat exponent, a Rank two god up to ten billion, a Rank three up to one quadrillion—"

Chrono » "I know, I ate Greed. I mean why?"

Truth » "Why is it five orders of ten per rank?"

Chrono » "Reah."

Truth » "My best guess is that it's fairly opaque to measure individual stats up here. Each rank is five zeroes in the stat exponent for your lowest stat to make it easier to measure. Rank one is ten to the power of five, Rank two is ten to the power of ten, and so on. Though this also means some gods of the same Rank are vastly stronger than others. Some are magicians, some are warriors, and some are all-rounders."

Chrono » "Reh, I got that. I meant why use this scaling?"

Truth » "Oh. Why does each rank rise by five orders of magnitude?"

Chrono » "Reah, sorry."

Truth » "It's easier to get stronger when you're already strong, since the limitations of the lower universe don't apply up here. The only real limitation is what you—"

Gluttony » "Consume!"

Truth » "I was going to say 'can use,' Gluttony, but in Chronovoid's case, that's fitting."

Chrono » "Then putting aside Wrath and Deception, who seem fairly unwilling to change—"

Wrath » "I am NOT UNWILLING to CHANGE!"

Love » "I thought you kicked him."

Chrono » "Oops? Your chat lied. Speaking of, Deception's here too, but he hasn't said anything."

Truth » "He never does."

Deception » "~Ha ha! Exceeeeept~"

Truth » "Except right now, apparently."

Deception » "I will never change, Chronovoid! You cannot fool me, for I am Deception!"

Chrono » "If you'll never change, does that mean you'll change? Reh, is this a double-back?"

Love » "Chronovoid, it's impossible. Don't even try."

Deception » "Everything is possible UNTIL you try!"

Love » "See what I mean?"

Chrono » "No, he has a point. Trying something specific removes all other possibilities. Deception is fundamentally what we do when we focus on a specific thing: we remove all other possibilities by deceiving ourselves into seeing a single one. Reah, mental focus is the process of directed ignorance."

Deception » "Ho ho? You understand so much, and yet speak so loosely! Is it not a contradiction?!"

Chrono » "The more you explain with fewer words, the less you can explain in detail. Same basic concept."

[Deception has left the chat.]

Chrono » "No you didn't. I am the chat, remember? You can't fool me, Deception."

Deception » "That's not fair..."

Wrath » "WOW! I've never seen ANYONE put DECEPTION on the ropes! SCREW YOU DECEPTION!"

Truth » "Deception regularly pisses off Wrath."

Chrono » "I'd guess he's used to getting away with logic traps and fallacies. Deception as a concept is part of how we observe reality. All you sins and virtues represent a view of reality. So long as it's a view of reality and not one detached from reality? You remain comprehensible."

Deception » "I am comprehensively incomprehensible!"

Chrono » "You can lie to yourself, but others may see through those lies if they try hard enough."

Deception » "Noooo..."

Wrath » "HA HA! I LIKE YOU Chronovoid! THAT'S never happened EITHER!"

Chrono » "Well, thank you Wrath. I like your forceful attitude toward speaking your mind."

Wrath » "EVERYTHING MAKES ME ANGRY!"

Chrono » "That's why it's important to keep talking. So long as we keep talking, even Deception may find himself unmasked."

Deception » "Wait— hold that thought. What you've been saying is that we sins and virtues represent a view of reality, which makes us comprehensible because we must live within that same reality."

Wrath » "WHAT'S THIS all about, DECEPTION?!"

Chrono » "Rah, he summarized my words."

Deception » "What about you, then?"

Chrono » "What about me?"

Deception » "You're void."

Chrono » "Damnit."

Deception » "Yea."

[...]