Where Stars Go Mad

Tianzun remained in the air after glaring at the numerous great old ones within the cosmos and his gaze settled on a particular old acquaintance he had a grudge with. 

One particular goddess who had attempted to burn him to ash and did kill him once. 

He watched as Morgan took the dying Artoria into Avalon while he gazed at the sun. If Tianzun had to self-reflect upon what was the strongest anchor of his humanity, he would argue that it was his pettiness. 

In an instant he found himself in space through the authority of the Door. A normal person would simply see a sun. However, he saw that grinning bitch who hadn't even noticed him. 

From within his cloak, sinister tentacles made of worms emerged, each carrying symbols and scriptures of eldritch knowledge. Amaterasu soon noticed something enter her divine realm. The cannibalistic temple of no return. 

Yet what was supposed to be impenetrable had been broken so easily. No, not broken. Amaterasu's eyes narrowed as her temple's doors simply opened with no resistance. 

She had never approved of this person's entry yet here they were. Danger signals rung throughout her head. Yet her pride demanded she stand her ground. 

Even after being defeated by the white titan, that was it. That was the sole defeat she would accept simply because Sefar had a bullshit skill of energy absorption and conversion. Attacks would be converted into fuel for Sefar's own use. 

But why would there ever be a second Sefar? 

The last door opened by itself leading to the temple's innermost sanctuary. Her eyes widened as she recognised the wretched monocle and that disgusting color scheme of yellow and black. 

"YOU!" She roared. 

Tianzun gave her the same smile as the day he disappeared and died. He grinned and lied, "You aren't the only one with a separate avatar you know? It hurt when you killed me." 

Amaterasu's nine tails flared with magical energy. Each tail was filled a massive vortex of energy containing the light of the sun. 

Tianzun came here for one simple reason, that wasn't to kill Amaterasu. No it was to make her suffer, dying was just one step. Why not live a lifetime of suffering? 

"I'm here to collect a debt, more specifically... I think those tails are beautiful. I want a few for my junk pile collection." Tianzun pointed at the nine fluffy tails behind her. 

No words were said as all nine tails flashed with immense magical energy output in order to burn him alive. 

Amaterasu sighed in relief but wariness as she saw the ashes of the body. He body slumped in relaxation as her thoughts of caution had been stolen. 

What Amaterasu had killed was a blink made real through the usage of deceit. "Did you have fun?" A calm voice caused her to flinch as she swiped with her claws at the black figure. 

"You!" Amaterasu glared as she decided to unleash the power of the sun within the temple only for her to forget what she was doing. Tianzun had applied blind stupidity for a moment as Amaterasu soon shook it off. 

Her power was real but she was more prone to make lapses in judgement. 

With the application of the previous blind stupidity, Tianzun made a simple hand gesture that looked as if it was super amazing. 

Amaterasu's eyes followed the hands as Tianzun returned the thoughts of caution he had stolen previously. 

In that instant Amaterasu became incredibly cautious and turned her head to look for a potential surprise attack. 

Multiple Tianzun's soon appeared and each of them attempted theft in order to steal the tails from Amaterasu. 

Many failures occurred but in a howl of defiance the nine tailed fox of the sun had become eight tails. 

She realised that the source of the theft was from the avatars. An omnidirectional blast was aimed at the entire temple only to have zero effect as grafting had taken place to in front of a black hole. 

Tianzun had grown sick and tired of an opponent that couldn't fight back. A logical loophole from symbolism had been exploited. 

Amaterasu was a goddess of the sun and her entire being is symbolic of the sun. Therefore a black hole should have suppressive effects on her. 

The lights from the tails were gradually being snuffed out as her power waned. 

The previous tail that was stolen had been sealed using Door's authority. He would seal each and every single one of them and leave just one for her to cry on. 

His maddened grin permeated the entire cosmos as he gazed at the surrounding Great Old Ones. Amaterasu was a divine spirit, a goddess of earth. She instinctively recognised the comparisons. 

"You are a Great Old One." She spat through her teeth. Usually she'd have a chance against an outer deity. But judging by the outer deities eyeing her flesh yet not daring to come close, Tianzun was not a regular Great Old One. 

It was at that moment she noticed his eyes shift from her to another being in the near cosmos. The avatars nearby continued to inflict theft and fooling. While Amaterasu watched as Tianzun started participating in two battles simultaneously. 

She roared again as another tail was stripped from her. Her divine realm failed to materialise as the space had been locked and fooled. The divine realm was summoned, just not summoned in the right place. 

Instead of being summoned to Amaterasu it had been summoned in front of Tianzun who was tormenting a giant squid. 

In that instant the main body had appeared and through numerous consecutive thefts, had stolen her fate. 

Using a simple loophole, fate equated to the identity. A simple act of fooling had caused the squid to dull in judgement believing that Amaterasu was the one attacking it. 

In this way, in the future. Amaterasu would be the target of this deity while he would reap the benefits. 

The temple flared in response as Tianzun bypassed the permissions in order to use it as he released the same death ray that Amaterasu had prepared before. 

To add insult numerous beams of supernova explosions occurred as more avatars were created to continuously steal thoughts of escaping and thoughts of retaliating while blind stupidity was applied. 

Tianzun grinned as he brought out a glass contained filled with sea water that had been sacrificed to him via marionette back on earth. 

Out of all the outer deities, this one looked the funniest. He was just unlucky he met an asshole. 

Amaterasu had observed the battles and realised that this was not someone who had a bullshit ability like Sefar. 

This was the embodiment of bullshit. Kill everything in sight, and the avatars are still alive. Swipe at one and it turns out to be fake. Blow everything up and they reappear in an instant. 

Cockroaches the lot of them. 

She lamented at her fate of even picking a fight with his incarnation back in China. She had been reduced to three tails. The rest of the five had been sealed and sent up to Sefirah Castle. 

Tianzun soon returned as Amaterasu's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. Within the aquarium he was holding was the same outer god that he had been fighting. An outer god had been sealed inside an aquarium just like that? 

Amaterasu watched as one last theft was performed and another tail was taken leaving her only one left. 

Tianzun looked at her shriveled up form before giving her the same shit eating grin she gave him before. "I thought about sealing you into some oil lamp and turning you into a perpetual light source, but I think you'll enjoy the future instead." 

Tianzun snapped his fingers as they reappeared near earth and Amaterasu was sent back to the sun along with her temple. 

What he had seen was very satisfying, he would wait until she was at her lowest before appearing again and giving her a shit eating grin. 

Tianzun returned back to the fallen Camelot as he removed the grafting and stared at the sun. It's UV rays had lessened significantly. He pondered a bit remembering Amaterasu's fear. A prideful goddess had been reduced to a mere speck. 

Perhaps he should seal Ishtar into a gem and pawn it off for some treasures to put into his junk pile. 

His gaze returned to Sefirah Castle where the eight stolen tails emitting the same energy had been strung up as lights and one had been used as a pillow. 

"Doesn't that mean I've prevented humans from dying due to cancerous rays?" He thought to himself while the sun, embodiment of heat, seemed to shiver. 

//Next Chapter: Church of Mysteries//