A fresh canvas materialized, completely new, on the boy's hand. He raised his brush and with hunger in his eyes, started painting the canvas but just then the canvas detonated in a sudden, silent burst of light.
The boy blinked, stunned, and looked up at Zigeyr. His voice broke like a child's as he stammered, "I… I w-want to p-paint."
"I already permitted you once," Zigeyr said coldly. "Now remain still." He flicked his wrist, and from the void appeared black chains. They immediately snapped into being and flew toward the boy. They wrapped around his wrists and ankles, sank through skin and bone, and binded his very soul, ignoring any flesh. The brush in his hand was seized and bound by the same chains.
The boy's expression curdled. He poured everything he had into a single motion to reach the brush, to reclaim what was part of himself. He was strong. Strong enough to crush mid-tier Gods with his raw strength alone but even that strength could not pull apart the Chains of Void.
He screamed. He tried to recall the brush into his own soul the way he always had; the brush had always been a part of his soul and always answered his command. But this time it was unable to break through from the chains. Every attempt only fed the bindings, which drank his energy like a parasite. Soon, the boy exhausted all his strength ang gave up on resistance.
Zigeyr watched with the faintest amusement. "You don't have to worry about not being able to paint. Soon, I will let you paint as much as you want." Then he vanished and silence returned back to this confined space.
On the streets of Nai City, Plea Nation,
Zigeyr strolled with a packet of crisps in one hand with Ked following behind him.
"Master," Ked said, "we have already annexed three neighboring states into Aliana. Shall we press on?"
"No," Zigeyr replied, tearing a crisp and eating slowly. "For now we do something different. Begin a ban on other religious practices. Make Yani the state faith. If anyone is caught practicing another religion,torture and then execution them. Their families will be punished as well. And forbid emigration. Those who flee will suffer the same fate."
Ked stopped mid-step, astonished. "Master—this is extreme. Imposing such measures will ignite rebellions. It will damage the people's loyalty and faith."
Zigeyr shrugged as if considering a trivial inconvenience and continued to eat. "You are right that the policy will provoke unrest. But if we do nothing, all our victories will be hollow. The annexed peoples will keep their old faiths. If I had time, I would let conversion happen slowly. I do not have time. If they keep practicing their faith even a little then they will just accelerate other's recovery. Besides chaos strengthens me. Rebellions, street fights, executions; all that strife will accelerates my recovery. The economy may collapse, but with six Quasi-Supreme gods backing Aliana, the nation will not fall."
Ked listened and bowed his head. What Zigeyr said was true. Gods across the world were beginning to act the same way. Theocracies would rise by decree. But Ked also understood an additional consequence: blood and discord would spike, and with it, Zigeyr's power would bloom.
Aliana was changing fast. Since the prime minister's fateful meeting with Zigeyr, the state had ceased to be merely a nation; it was becoming a theocracy, only that the priest was the god himself. Yani doctrine which was enforced by law, stood a step ahead of every rival faith whose gods are still in slumber.
A billboard flickered as they passed: a breaking broadcast rolled over the city.
Breaking: The Republic of Luglucia has announced that it will abandon democracy for a theocracy. From today onwards, it will be called Xaatinia. Xaatinism will be the state religion. Public practice of other faiths is banned and punishable by death. The new papal authority has also announced plans to unify Xaatist-majority regions under a common banner.
Ked watched the screen in a grave silence. "It begins," he said.
Zigeyr shrugged and tossed the empty packet to the curb. "Our only immediate rival now is Xuhuna, the Goddess of Destruction," he said, and they drifted on.
A stray dog nosed the discarded packet and found a few crisps still inside. The pieces were oddly something that looked like texture, tiny ridges like a mouth, shapes like eyes. And when the dog swallowed one, it choked, staggered, and then collapsed, still. The passersby were too hurried to notice.
When someone finally glanced inside the packet, they recoiled in disgust and horrorn The crisps were patterned with grotesque, miniature impressions like eyes, nose and mouths. A subsonic, almost inaudible mumbling came from the packet, like dry lips whispering pleas. The crumbs appeared to beg for consumption.