Chapter 485: End of Meeting

Chapter 485: Chapter 485: End of Meeting

Chapter 485 – End of Meeting

"A new Age of Gods, you say, Usurper?"

A voice interrupted Vorn’s sickening amusement.

He focused back on the current situation, and on the woman hovering in front of him.

He had almost forgotten that, for once, he was not inside his Gate, but outside, in the Divine Continent of Temperance, at a meeting he had not wanted.

The surroundings were a blank space with nothing but swirls of jade in many colors, forming different shapes at random... or maybe not.

The woman in front of him wore a long ashen-grey robe embroidered with jade all over.

Her long, navy-blue hair was gathered into six tiers, each held by a jade pin. She looked at him with translucent eyes, a cold frown on her exceptionally well-drawn eyebrows.

Raising the hand holding a blue jar to her colorless lips, she looked at Vorn over the rim of her jar and spoke again, all while drinking. "How can you smile when hearing the news of a new Pantheon’s creation? One special enough that the Eye gave it... what? Secrecy? That’s most certainly ridiculous."

"Why wouldn’t I smile, Hecate?" Vorn said, shaking his head. "Only you and your fellow gods who are already part of a Pantheon would feel threatened by this event. For a god like me, all alone, this is the best news in a while. And the Abyss knows we don’t get that often."

"Why?" Hecate, Lady of the Crossroads, hissed, slamming her jar down on the table nestled between her and Vorn. "Do you think that if we, the pantheons, are threatened in any way, gods like you will remain neutral? Usurper, you cannot be that stupid."

"And I am not. That, Hecate, I am sure you know by now. But you have it all wrong if you believe that what I wish is to be neutral," the Lord of Death snickered openly, his face still hidden behind his Hood, beneath which no god or goddess had ever managed to see. "I do not wish that, Lady. What I wish is for this whole game to be like nothing before. I want as much disturbance as possible, and if that disturbance is caused by the birth of another Pantheon, then I shall smile."

"All of that to plan your disgusting little schemes," Hecate spat. "Tell me, what is next? Stealing another Authority? Declaring war with your Deathless Armies? Tell me, Usurper of Death, just what do you wish to achieve by using this budding chaos?"

"I will seek what I wish to seek. Please, don’t waste your unlimited time peering into my affairs."

"Victory, then, is that what you seek?"

"A vague concept." Vorn shook his head. "What I seek is something you can’t understand. So let’s not delve into this territory any longer. Instead, tell me if you have any news concerning the request I shared with you, Hecate."

The Lady of the Crossroads stared at the Lord of Death with narrowed eyes, then sighed. "You mean the one to track an Artifact?"

"That one."

"Well, bad news for you, Lord of Death. I couldn’t find anything with my Authority," Hecate said. "Which can only mean one of three things: either the one hiding the artifact is using an Authority higher than mine; or the artifact has been destroyed, and you can’t find something that no longer exists; or the third, and I am delighted to share that it is the most likely outcome, the artifact has been used, and is thus no longer an artifact."

The goddess then grinned mockingly at Vorn’s suddenly solemn presence.

"Fantastic. This is what I love to see. The Usurper failing to obtain what he wants. Oh, what did you just say? Oh yes,"

She lifted her jar and made an exaggerated ’santé’ at him, finishing her words.

"What a delight."

The Lord of Death said nothing at the provocative gesture.

However, if Hecate was right and the artifact had already been used by those who called themselves the Fallen,

’Have I lost the last trace of the Worm?’

Now, that was terribly bad news.

And the Lord of Death didn’t usually take this kind of news with a smile on his face.

...

Meanwhile, other parts of the divine realm were in complete upheaval.

And the most volatile and tense of all these places was the Greek Empire, situated on a high mountain capped with unending snow.

Inside the Empire, more precisely in the meeting room of the Greek Gods, almost all the gods were present, either sitting or standing, their faces marred by different kinds of feelings.

Even so, all of them shared the same apprehension and confusion, and most certainly the same suspicion, in their godly hearts.

One of them, a big man whose whole body was made of golden lightning, his eyes shaped like lightning bolts, stood in the middle of the meeting room.

He swept his gaze over his brothers and sisters, and even his daughters and sons, and parted his lips.

"Persephone has left us." Zeus’s voice rumbled like distant thunder. "And minutes later, we receive news of the creation of a new Pantheon. I am not trying to explain or prove anything to you. Everything is already clear and obvious. I have only one thing to say today, in this room where I killed my father,"

His divine presence flared.

Artemis, Hera, Ares, Poseidon, and even Aphrodite all watched Zeus in his wrathful state, and knew that what he was about to say would not be words of peace.

And they were right.

"From now on, Persephone is a Traitor to the Greek Empire, just like Hermes. And I do not need to tell you what we do to traitors."

With those words, Zeus disappeared in a bolt of lightning, his last words echoing through the chamber.

"I need information about The Last House. Immediately."

...

While the divine realms were shaken, the members of The Last House found themselves summoned to the Divine Continent of Patience, inside their Territory shielded by Secrecy.

Ananke, Tysche, Marvela, and even Persephone were all there, hovering side by side in the air, watching the Upstream River of translucent water flowing in the opposite direction, surrounded by a wide expanse of green where all kinds of harmless divine beasts wandered.

The sky was a clear blue, the atmosphere strangely peaceful and cozy.

"Before we start populating this Territory," Ananke whispered, looking at her fellow goddesses, "how about we take the time to set some foundational rules? I wouldn’t want us to end up like most Pantheons – broken, spiteful, and wishing for one another’s end. Right?"

The goddesses nodded, though Marvela glared at Persephone, who didn’t even bother to look at her.

Her mind was elsewhere, and she accepted whatever the other three goddesses said.

Because she wasn’t there for any of this.

She was there for Adonis, now Cassius, and to save herself from losing her Authority. And for that, maybe she would find a way with her new companions.

’Vorn, I will not let myself be devoured like Hades. That, you can be sure of. And for that,’

Her eyebrows creased slightly.

’Where is that Persephone you wish to replace me with?’

...

"This is the end of the meeting," Cassius said. Isolde was at his side, and he was looking calmly at his sect members. "But this is only the beginning of our Sect. We have our Main goals, but there are smaller ones along the way, which we must achieve in order to get closer to our desired outcome."

"And on that matter," Isolde added, "I think it’s very important that we put effort into making the Church of the Reader grow. The more it grows, the more we, the Fallen, will benefit from it. Strengthening the Pantheon must be our main goal in the near future."

"Only the Queen’s Church?" Sarah inquired.

"Mainly." Cassius nodded. "The others already have their Churches and believers. They are just not close enough to us to take advantage of them. But surely, one day."

They nodded, finding no problem with that.

"Then, if everything is settled, I welcome you once more into the Fallen, Mars and Saturn." Cassius smiled faintly. "Now, shall we try to catch some sleep?"

He looked up at the sky, which was slowly lightening.

"It’s already Monday, and that’s a school day."

—End of Chapter 485—