Chapter 603: Zephyr, Lord of the Changing Eclipse

With that, Ash went back into the Discord to double-check if he had missed anything pertaining to the design of the characters.

He scrolled through the channels again, his thumb moving across the screen with quiet focus.

The void around them felt still and intimate, the soft glow of the phone was just about the only light source as Elysia leaned against his shoulder, watching silently.

However, they quite literally didn’t mention it.

Ash leaned back slightly, a faint, amused scoff slipping out.

"Perhaps they forgot such things," he muttered. After a few more checks, he spotted it.

He paused, then chuckled softly.

"He doesn’t want to be a humanoid?" he said, his voice tinged with surprise.

"Well, as you say... let’s make you into a cat."

At those words, he turned his attention back to the silhouettes.

The three blank, shrouded figures hovered in the void — dark, featureless shapes waiting to be given form. Ash studied the first one, the one meant for EclipseTeller.

Elysia raised a brow, her golden eyes sparkling with amusement as she looked at him.

"Do you think he’s being serious?" she asked, a light laugh in her voice. "And NovelGeek didn’t seem to ask them anything about it either."

Ash smiled, clearly enjoying himself.

"It matters not... if he was joking or serious." He said, "Because now, he will become a cat!"

He focused on the first silhouette.

HUMM!!!

With a wave of his hand, the dark shape shifted and condensed, transforming into a sleek, black cat with glossy fur that seemed to absorb light.

The cat floated in the air, its form elegant yet lazy, with piercing white eyes that already carried a hint of effortless nonchalance.

Ash then spoke in the Language of Gods, his voice resonating with divine authority as he bestowed the Star Name.

"Zephyr."

The name settled into the cat’s being, a golden glow briefly flashing around it before fading. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

He went on, outlining the powers with deliberate clarity. These weren’t just fictional characters, after all—they were readers.

He had no intention of giving them the standard framework found in Pantheos, particularly since they’d already contributed some of their own ideas.

Apart from their Star Name, they wouldn’t have a God or Constellation Star, meaning they wouldn’t inherently possess any innate abilities.

Still, Star Names were never just arbitrary labels; they came from Minx, the Akashic Records, or Ash himself, and that alone made them far more significant than simple names.

"Lord of the Changing Eclipse, you shall dwell in a constant state of effortless nonchalance. The less you exert yourself, the greater your strength will grow," he proclaimed, continuing to outline the foundation of EclipseTeller’s powers.

It was straightforward yet utterly absurd.

As Discord user EclipseTeller described, his abilities were meant to center around bad jokes, darkness, and an unshakable sense of laziness.

With Ash as the creator behind it all, he was determined to make each of these beings as overpowered as possible.

In short, the more he relaxed, joked around, or acted like he didn’t care, the more Pantheos itself seemed to bend and twist in his favor.

With this name, he became the First User and the Embodiment of the First Darkness—exactly as ominous as it sounded.

This was tied directly to the very first nonexistence Ash had brought into being within Pantheos.

This essentially granted him dominion over all aspects of Darkness and even a measure of control over nonexistence itself.

Beyond that, he could quite literally fade into the background of the narrative, becoming nothing more than unnoticed static when he wished.

On top of it all, Ash had turned his terrible jokes into actual weapons.

With each groan-worthy pun or painfully bad dad joke, a fleeting Authority of Pantheos would spring into existence for a brief moment.

Now, the black cat—Zephyr—hovered in place, its shape fully realized yet still devoid of sentience.

Ash had chosen not to breathe life into it just yet, preferring to wait until he knew exactly how the readers envisioned its design.

Elysia watched the sleek black cat silhouette float in the air, her golden eyes sparkling with amusement.

"This isn’t bad at all," she said with a soft chuckle. "I remember seeing something on NovelGeek’s Webnovel... Powerstones and Golden Tickets. They should give us a pat on the back and bless us graciously..."

She then looked up toward the sky, as if addressing the readers directly, and winked playfully.

"Right?"

Ash chuckled, shaking his head as he looked at her.

"Cut it out," he said, though his tone was fond.

He paused for a moment, a random thought crossing his mind.

"The Coliseum tournament... it hadn’t started yet," he murmured. "I still haven’t gotten word from Klaus that he’s killed Male and the Merchant."

Elysia tilted her head, her voice steady as she stated the obvious.

"Well... how can it even begin if no Realities exist anymore? That means there are no champions left who could possibly go there."

This was clearly the result of Nia and Ouroboros both devouring recklessly, but that wasn’t the only cause.

Ash had openly declared that all Realities would collapse the next time they appeared, so in a way, the delay was partly his fault.

He couldn’t deny that he’d gotten distracted, spending too much time with his women and letting the real problem slip from his mind.

With a wry smile, he realized just how much he’d let himself drift from dealing with it all.

Then, with a single glance, his reddish-purple eyes cut through Pantheos, slicing straight to the Coliseum like a knife through silk.

The grand arena floated in the void, its massive structure humming with tension.

Klaus hovered high above it all, his pure white hair and eyes blending into the background as he waited with laidback patience, his presence completely unnoticed by those below.

Seeing all of them waiting so patiently, Ash blinked once.

In that instant, four to five new champions materialized in the arena — figures he had created on a whim, each one radiating unique, powerful auras that made the other champions look on in surprise.

The moment they appeared, a grand explosion erupted above the Coliseum — a brilliant, colorful firework display of light and energy that lit up the entire void, signaling the true beginning of the final selection.

Ash pulled his attention away, his focus shifting back to the Discord as he turned to the second reader.