The universe is a fickle thing to look after, from millions of galaxies to billions of star systems to trillions of planets- It's all endless, and it must be supervised with a watchful eye to not go out of balance. Within the Kepler Galaxy, the Pantheon faction resides, with Iokaci as its God of Order, one of the leaders. His task is to ensure that the flow of events stays balanced, and by that extent he is the deity of time.

Aged around 11 millennia, Iokaci is the longest standing deity in the entirety of their history. Whilst Iokaci has already shown signs of old age, he does currently not have any offspring or anyone in mind to pass his powers onto. It seems likely he will reincarnate at some point, although it's unknown when.

The God of Order stands firmly in his belief not to tinker with one's power beyond their comprehension. He wouldn't ever dare to fool around with the universe's timeline, regarding time as something feeble to be protected. In the eons that he'd lived, he'd always fulfilled his job well. However, his age would eventually catch up with him.. And Iokaci was frankly running out of time to pass on his knowledge. What was one to do in this situation?

Iokaci had seen the Pantheon go through eons of development. From deities coming and going, to the Divine Divide, his observant eye stored it all into his memory as if a walking relic. He adapted to a serious and stoic attitude as he got older, and at some point started tutoring younger deities about their origins and responsibilities. The deity is so old, he'd been able to tutor multiple generations, such as Aphrodite, and later the so-called problematic Fenrir. One of his most famous teachings, was to never misuse one's powers. After the Divine Divide had happened, he could use that event as a prime example. Iokaci was and still is regarded as one of the wisest gods, although perhaps to a fault.

— WALKING TIME ANOMALY —

About 350 years ago, Iokaci started feeling weaker. As if he was detoriating. As if he was getting... Old, wrinkly, and ready to go lie on a deathbed. The God of Order wasn't ready for that. Despite his long-lived life, Iokaci didn't want to leave. He felt he was too important. Too wise. Too good to pass up. He hated not knowing if the next God of Order would be as great as he was. He hated not knowing what would happen in the future. He hated not knowing what would happen once he was gone. These thoughts started spiralling into his mind, deeper and further down.

They got so ingrained, that it would plant the beginnings of a fright. A panic. A phobia of death.

What was one to do in this situation?

Iokaci had sworn an oath. An oath to never go beyond one's limits, for horrible consequences could happen. So, Iokaci sat. Pondering, thinking, about all the possible solutions just to live a little longer. Hours of research spent in the grand libraries, looking at scrolls written eons ago. Iokaci didn't dare ask anyone. Nobody was to know. How sick of a joke would it be, that the oldest Pantheon deity was afraid of dying? With no answers to be found anywhere he looked, Iokaci felt more and more hopeless. It took an extremely long sequence of thinking and reasoning- But, eventually, Iokaci decided the only answer was to break his own oath.

Time travel.

The God of Order knew he could access this power, but never utilised it as to not tinker with the universe itself. It never was tempting enough, until this point. Death was knocking on the door, and Iokaci needed to do everything he could to delay it a little further. And if he could, he could look into a way to become immortal, if it were possible. So, hidden away somewhere in his own chambers, he took several nights to handpick a perfect location and time to teleport to. With careful preparation, Iokaci casted the spell, and ended up a few centuries after the Divine Divide.

Throughout the history of Pantheon, there were a few cases of deities passing to something unknown. Iokaci figured these were the best opportunities. To leap into someone's final moments, and take their life force. It was already determined by fate that they'd die. If anything, Iokaci was doing them a favour by reusing their soul and energy. He was doing them a service. He stopped their harshed breathing, their feelings of anguish, their suffering. And so, the first trip he'd made, was to the last time such a death was recorded- Medeis, the previous Goddess of Creation. In her final moments, she'd died giving birth to her second child. A perfect opportunity. Medeis was already fated for death, there would be nothing to worry about. Iokaci felt replenished, and returned to his own time and place without issue, without consequence. Life would go on, as per usual.

Until it didn't, again.

It was roughly 50 years later, when Iokaci once again felt that itch of hunger. So, Iokaci jumped once again. And again, another five decades later. And again, and again- Until he'd jumped seven times, and it'd been 350 years since he first felt his soul draining. Ironically enough, the amount of mysterious deaths within the Pantheon, was seven as well. Iokaci just waved it off as a strange coincidence.

Little did the deity know, that he himself was causing these deaths thanks to a self-fulfilling prophecy. Had Iokaci never time-travelled to take a dying deity's life source, these deities would've lived. The God of Order wouldn't notice any consequences to his actions, until several hundred years in the future. For now, Iokaci had filled his itch recently once again, and would remain satisfied yet again at outliving any other Pantheon deity. His problem to solve next time, was to find other dying deities. The seventh unknown death was the last, and Iokaci would have to strategise next time whom to save the pain of death from.

— END OF DAWN —

His hunger would be satisfied more than usual, thanks to the End Of Dawn events. Demonic forces would spread throughout the universe, and the Pantheon would be attacked by none other than Rastakhan himself, resurrected by his demonic offspring. During the worst of times, with deities against demons left and right, Iokaci had an idea.

He didn't have to worry about time travel if there were plenty of sacrifices available in that moment- And so, Iokaci would fight amongst the demons, amongst the chaos no one caught the God of Order taking deific energies for himself here and there. He felt so replenished, so powerful, so alive! It was a gold mine of resources, and Iokaci could've had it all, if it weren't for the galactical events suddenly reversed as if it were nothing.

It was then that Iokaci, much like the entire Pantheon, learned there were deities even grander than them- Looking over the entire universe, called Overseers. The damage redone and most deities returned- Save for the ones, coincidentally, that Iokaci had absorbed. The God of Order paid it no heed, for they were minor titles anyway- They'd be replaced in no time. No one had seen the truth, or would figure out the truth- And the God of Order could sit back relaxed for a while, as he'd satiated his hunger plenty.

He would be the oldest deity in the entire Pantheon, escaping death while he was at it, for as long as he could. If it meant bending the rules, changing the universe and reaching the impossible, then so be it.

— FUTURE ARC —

For several hundred years, Iokaci went on fine. By then, he was pulverising the record of the longest Pantheon deity ever lived, a record he held proudly and was determined to keep going. However, all of that fell into shambles, when a few Pantheon deities noticed something was off about the wormholes within the Kepler Galaxy. An unnatural amount of these galactical shortcuts had popped up, even more so recently than in the centuries prior. When a deity had gone into one, they were gone.. For a short time.

After return, said deity proclaimed the wormhole was unnatural. While they normally were supposed to send one to a different place only, the Kepler wormholes sent the user to a different time also. Once this was revealed to the Essence of Pantheon, least to say they were furious. How could Iokaci, the God of Order, miss an event of such importance? These wormholes were nothing but trouble, especially since no one knew how long they'd been there. Some would throw the user as back as several millennia, which would trouble the universe timeline tremendously if a mortal entered it.

Outside the Pantheon's knowledge, mortals did enter these wormholes. From the moment they started, ongoing to the present. The grandest example would've been the Norinae faction leaving their old home planet, after a century-long war had come to an end. The majority of this faction was teleported ten millennia into the past, turning their new home into a prosperous and technologically-advanced galaxy. Others were teleported into the future, such as that one lost space explorer.

Once it was proven Iokaci couldn't fix the wormholes by himself, several deities banded together to attempt it. When this failed also, the other Essences took it upon themselves to try and find a fix. To no avail. It was as if every wormhole closed, opened another one. And there were at this point thousands, if not way more, floating around within the Kepler Galaxy. Whilst the solar system the Pantheon lived in was still untouched, the wormholes were all over systems where mortals lived. It was a mystery that scratched everyone's minds, and almost no one dared explore the danger zones.

Almost no one.

One particular deity, once he heard of the time-warping wormholes, had hoped to take this as an opportunity. Not to solve the issue as his first goal, but as second. His first objective was to utilise these wormholes, and perhaps then, perhaps then Pavonine could meet the mother he'd lost.  After gaining the Essence's permission, the young God of Strategy left off to investigate, alongside a few other curious minds. While the others were set to solve the mystery, Pavonine hopped wormholes as if there was no tomorrow. The deity didn't get to his destination immediately.

The first time he saw his mother alive, was exactly the point when she was about to die. Pavonine wanted to leave. Leave, leave this place and time, and never come back. It was the wrong time- But Pavonine's instincts yelled at him to stay and watch. The event ingrained in his mind now forever, he now fully felt the pain his sister and father had to endure. But something was off. A portal opened. Something, or rather someone came through.

Pavonine's blood ran cold.

The Essences were immediately alerted, and all the events that followed, happened in such a quick blur. Iokaci was condemned, to be stripped of his powers and to be killed. Not banished. Not again, after they'd made the mistake with Rastakhan, and he miraculously ended up alive. However, the God of Order was nowhere to be found. He'd gone into the wormholes himself, to escape punishment. The entirety of Pantheon was ordered to go into this maze of spacetime as groups, and find said deity. It was a game of cat and mouse. Finding a needle in a haystack. It felt impossible.

As Iokaci kept consuming souls from the past, not caring whether they were sickly or healthy, the consequences would be immediate in the present. Deities left and right fell, their corpses floating away into space or to be sucked in by a wormhole. Taking these life forces strengthened Iokaci, in order to take on the Pantheon. Iokaci refused to end up as Rastakhan or worse. He hadn't lived! He hadn't lived all there was to live yet! He hadn't lived to his full potential, and Iokaci was determined to protect his existence with all he had.

The more he consumed, the more he transformed. By the time he'd consumed nearly a thousand deific souls, Iokaci didn't look like himself anymore. He'd mutated into something utterly horrific beyond anyone's comprehension. Rastakhan's demonic transformation after living in the hellscape, was child's play in comparison. There was hunger to be satisfied, and souls didn't cut it anymore. Iokaci started consuming wormholes, causing deities to be stuck in the past and future, and causing plenty time anomalies at once. It was as if time was being ripped from space itself. The God of Order crawled out of his wormholes, as if he'd created his own domain within the cracks of the universe, consuming whatever was in front of him. As if he were a parasite.

Looming over the deities in the present, as if they were nothing but mere ants, Iokaci had transformed into a vicious, vile Eldritch-esque being. Nothing about the God of Order was recognisable anymore. His eyes and mouths had multiplied and mutated, leaving out hollow, loud screams of presumably the consumed. His limbs, long and bone-thin, with sharp claws able to grab any deity to serve as a snack. To say he was a monstrosity, would be a mere compliment. It all felt hopeless. The leftover deities, while still many yet with plenty casualties, had not enough power to rid of Iokaci. It was obvious Iokaci had surpassed the power of many divine beings. The only thing that could seemingly defeat him, would be an Overseer, or perhaps.. A paradox.

With an extremely small timeframe, as more and more deities and wormholes were consumed- Iokaci had nearly become a black hole- A small group had gone into the past. This group consisted of Pavonine, his sister Ao Pachikame and their father Koa. Searching. Franctically. Within the Pantheon grounds, for one particular god in the past. Once he was found, way before any of his itches began, the gods took his power on the spot. Killed him, as if he were nothing but dust. As the wormholes were closing in on themselves, the three deities made it back to the present just in time- Save for Koa losing a limb.

Iokaci let out a deafening screech, as he could feel his insides imploding on themselves. As if they were all eons old stars, exploding into supernovas to die.

It hurt. It hurt, so much. It hurt, so fucking much, and Iokaci had never felt a pain like this before in his entire existence.

Everything was screaming and collapsing and fading away all at once, and before anyone knew what was happening, Iokaci was gone. The screaming was gone. The wormholes were gone. There was no trace to be found, as if Iokaci had never existed.

With that, it was a bittersweet victory. The deific graveyard received its second historical expansion, to fill spaces for the fallen gods. It was unknown where the majority of them were, and whether they were alive. All that was known, was that they were gone and considered dead in the present. The God of Order's life force was safely guarded for a few years, before they dared and let it reincarnate into a new being. Iokaci, once seen as the wisest, had all his traces erased and was now only a chapter in the Pantheon history. No one ever figured out why Iokaci had pulled his stunt, but if he wanted to end it with a bang, he sure had done so.