394 Side Chapter; Athenas Schemes (1/2)
In the Pantheon of Jupiter, the Father of the Sky and Great God of Light and Stars, Apollo was being treated by several Gods that were present.
Due to the alliances with the Supreme Goddess of Life and Origin Pantheon, some Gods that possessed Life Attribute Magic and Healing Magic were present, with their help alongside some other Gods that were knowledgeable in Soul Attribute, Apollo was finally put into an induced sleep, its pain grew dimmer as the internal injury on its soul was barely healed.
Fufluns, the God of Fruitful Life, and subordinate God of the Goddess of Life and Origin cleaned the cold sweat that dripped from his forehead. He had the appearance of a young boy, with yellow skin and flowers growing over its head as if they were hair, alongside dazzling emerald eyes.
”It is stable now… I still can't understand what attacked him… Did someone closer to Apollo felt any strange presence lurking around him?” he asked.
The gods surrounding him, some who had come to help and others that were just watching as bystanders began to speak with each other, all of them said that no anomalies were happening in the Divine Realm.
If such a mysterious presence lurked inside, Jupiter would have been the first to detect it, as this is its Divine Realm, an extension of himself. Most Gods are usually omniscient in their Divine Realms, and a Great God such as Jupiter was not the exception.
”No… there wasn't any strange presence at all, I can assure you of this… whatever attacked Apollo was through space itself” confirmed Jupiter, hiding the truth about him suspecting Kireina to be the cause behind this attack.
Europa, Jupiter's eldest daughter and the Goddess of Moonlight, nodded in agreement.
Even if they were blatantly lying, any god below their position would never dare to doubt their words.
”Fufluns-sama… what exactly happened to Apollo's Divine Soul?” asked Venia, the Demigod of Holy Righteousness. He was the closest to Apollo when this happened but never felt any ominous or dangerous presence lurking around. He was shocked by the events and thought that if he had been unfortunate, such a thing would have happened to him instead.
”Simply put… Apollo's soul was chopped…” said Fufluns, his emerald eyes glancing at the sleeping God of Light, who had the appearance of a young man in his early twenties with blonde hair and aquamarine eyes.
”C-Chopped?!”
”Y-You mean…”
”It was bitten?”
”Who could do such a thing… to bite a God's soul?”
The Gods were bewildered, fearful about this new menace lurking around, capable of eating a god without it even noticing.
”Such a curse exists?!”
”A curse that inhibits the regeneration of our souls…”
Feronia, the Goddess of Wildlife and Abundance, a subordinate God of the Supreme Goddess of Life and Origin decided to speak.
”Aside from the direct damage into his soul, his physical condition was healthy and fine… nothing else on his physical body was damaged, it was only his soul… The most frightening part is that the part that was bitten was chopped off from his Soul, making Apollo lose a little bit of Divine Energy and a part of its Divinity” she said.
”Could it be…? When Apollo was about to lift off the Blessing of one of his chosen Champions was the time when he was 'attacked' by something…” analyzed Athena, the Goddess of Wisdom and sister of Apollo. She resembled a mature woman in her later twenties, with long blue hair, golden eyes, and an owl resting in her left shoulder.
”Athena-sama… do you mean?” asked Fufluns.
”Indeed… It could be the 'monster', or perhaps, one of her abilities… although this is only my conjecture” she added.
The gods surrounding the Goddess of Wisdom gasped.
Athena had also blessed her own Champion, Ismena, the Princess of the Athetosea Kingdom, which was later brainwashed and stolen by Kireina.
Athena thought that Kireina's actions were unforgivable as she saw how she made her champion her sex slave and afterward her concubine, impregnating her with her devil's seed. When Ismena evolved into a Fairy-type Chaos Human, she lost all connections with Athena.
As she saw how her brother was damaged after trying to lift the blessing put into one his champion, which was seduced by the 'monster' daughter and then blessed by Kireina,
she feared that if she tried to do the same with Ismena, she would receive a similar fate.
The excruciating pain of having one's soul bitten and cursed, which made even Gods, who are above all mortals scream in pain pathetically.
Athena had blessed another Champion previously, which was born in one of the Vast Plains Nomads Tribes but was eaten by Kireina, even when it was a mere child.
Athena only saw Kireina as a repulsive monster that pleasured herself in the suffering of others. Unaware of the fact that Kireina does atrocities only to ensure her safety and that of her children, eating the nomads was 'necessary' to grow stronger. Although she would not be able to deny that she was curious about their flavor.
”My daughter's divinity is Wisdom itself…! The 'monster' probably did this to my son! I knew it! I knew that Apollo's recklessness would one day bite him back… sigh, my foolish child” muttered Zeus, he was both angry, sad, and a little bit happy after seeing Apollo get 'what he deserved'… He hoped that his 'foolish son', could learn something from this, and help him defeat the 'monster'.
Jupiter and Europa decided to intervene, interrupting the theories of the gods, which already began to be the same as theirs.
”Athena, Flufuns, Feronia, that's enough. Those conjectures are only that, conjectures, theories, we cannot confirm anything for now, as we don't have the meanings to do so. Whatever attacked Apollo must be investigated, yes, but it should be done after the meeting is finished. And after asking our master's about such a course of action. Supreme Gods possess abilities that surpass nay common sense that we gods have, they may be able to find clearer clues than us”
Athena nodded, but deep inside she knew that Jupiter and Europa were trying to cover up the truth for some underhanded reason.
(”Could it be? Does Jupiter want the 'monster' to only be killed by the Supreme God's champions instead of us intervening and finishing the 'monster' quickly? What kind of mentality is this? Are they prioritizing the fulfillment of the Supremes instead of our lives? Why are they so sure of their victory…? Or perhaps… the System Master is moving the strings? Even with my Wisdom Divinity and my Transcendental Skill 'Calculation', I cannot guess everything if there isn't enough evidence… What kind of deal is the System Master having with the Supreme Gods?!”)
Athena was rapidly using Divine Energy to activate her Transcendental Divine Skill 'Calculation', which lets her calculate the possibility of hundreds of events using the evidence, and knowledge that she has accumulated.
However, there were many possibilities of what the truth could be… The System Master having deals or moving the strings was a big possibility, especially because it was already known by most gods that he was supporting Kireina for some reason.
But it could also be the Supreme Gods being arrogant and not caring enough about mortals to even put intent into defeating them personally or by using other Gods… This is because Gods have lived for hundreds of thousands of years, their lives are so long compared to mortals that the mentality of the ”letting them do chaos until they die” was always present.
Only gods of the second generation who were incredibly young compared to the rest had warier personalities regarding mortals, and usually still held bonds with them and deeply cared about them, even if there were countless other Realms were more mortals roamed.
Just as Jupiter had said in their meeting, if they were to just intervene, waste Divine Energy, resources and power while risking other innocent mortals just to defeat a single being in the millions that exist, they would come out as selfish, foolish, and paranoiac.
Kireina's existence did not mean the end of the world, neither of the Realms, Supreme Gods who were in charge of several Realms knew this already. Several other individuals similar to her had existed before, but they never caused the end of a Realm, neither that of the world, at most, civilizations would be wiped out, but that was within their expectations.
Through their long lives, the gods have seen civilizations rise and fall constantly, seeing one fall again due to a Realm Menace triumphing in a Scripted Event was already something normal.