Several months have passed.
As planned, I gave fifty High-Grade Divine Crystals to Hela to reach Pinnace Intermediate God and see if she had a chance to reach Greater God before the Great War. Unfortunately for me, she told me to reach Greater God; she would need to condense new Divine Authority.
For Innate Gods, this was impossible, as they gain Divine Authority only when they ascend to godhood. For them, the only way to acquire new Divine Authority was to obtain and absorb the Divine Spark of another god of the same or similar alignment.
Hela was able to reach Intermediate God without acquiring new Divine Authority for a simple reason, as she was once god, that lost godhood.
“So, have you found suitable targets who have the same Divine Authority as you?”
I asked Hela, who was sitting across from me; this time, she was not wearing her black-green battle armor but rather typical Asgardian clothes that usually female aristocrats over there wore. I had to admit; that she looked gorgeous.
“Yes. First, two could be ruled out immediately, as they are Hades, Osiris, and Izanami. They are also out-of-question Gods, namely Seth, Anubis, and Morrigan. But I have found a target… apparently, Ereshkigal is still alive even after the Sumerian Pantheon was massacred and is hiding in the Underworld… somewhere around Sunset Monster Mountain Range. If we are able to find her, killing her is a simple thing. If I get the Divine Spark, I can bring out her Divine Authority and assimilate it within a decade perfectly.”
Hela explained her plan to me.
All Gods she named were major gods in the Underworld. Especially Hades, Izanami, and Osiris, as all three of them were top-tier Greater Gods with immense Divine Power reserves and terrifying might, not to mention endless armies standing behind them.
“Ereshkigal? Didn’t she have been granted control over the Underworld by the World’s Will?”
I asked, surprised.
“Indeed, she holds one of the parts.”
If that is the truth, then even I could get something out of killing her. In the Underworld, there existed a group of gods that had been granted control over the Underworld and could, to a certain degree, warp reality in the Underworld and become stronger.
They were called Gods of the Underworld. For example, Hades, Izanami, and Osiris were one. Ereshkigal was another one. For my future plans, I needed to have all four control parts of the Underworld, and for now, getting one from Ereshikgal was the best to start.
Hades, Izanami, and Osiris were looking for her frantically from the moment she disappeared when her Pantheon fell. If one of those three would get her control part, then with enough time, he would be able to overpower the other two.
“Then it is splendid, as I planned to visit Sunset Monster Mountain Range in the near future, to enter the inner layer to hunt for Monarch Level monsters.”
I said it was decided we would venture into the Sunset Monster Mountain Range. Getting Hela going with me is for the best, as she was stronger than most Monarch Level monsters, so I would have another security over my head during my trip there.
“Zeoticus, I heard some disturbing news from Japan. Evidently, Shinto Gods have descended among humans and have started strictly enforcing their faith and germinating loyal followers. They even established official organizations to spread their faith, Cult of Shinto headed by High Priest Ryuzen.”
As Hela said that, I was deeply surprised.
Obviously, Amaterasu was much smarter than she looked to be. Shinto Pantheon didn’t have a unified religious organization, which made spreading and grooming the faith very hard. Truth to be told, not many Pantheons did something like this, with the exception of Yahweh and maybe some, as it was too troublesome and the gods were lazy.
“Smart move… they are preparing for the future. They don’t wish to lose the majority of their followers to advancement in technology when humans would gradually forget gods.”
I said.
“Also, they have been making moves on weak Pantheons in pacific Asia, annihilating several of them. While the strongest god they killed was only Intermediate God, they ended three Pantheons, and altogether 70 Gods have fallen. They are also spreading their faith to other humans that are out of reach Hindu or Celestial Court.”
Even expansion?
In the future, Shinto Pantheon will probably be pretty strong. Compared to other Pantheons that will fall with the passage of time, such as Olympians, as mortals won’t be worshipping them, they would get an enormous advantage.
Of course, I wonder, now that Olympians will be making a move against Church, they may be able to spread their faith more and keep it alive much longer compared to what it was in history.
However, I wonder, as even right now, their faith is not that strong among mortals.
“Observe them carefully; they could easily turn into our enemies. Especially in the future…”
I said seriously.
“Of course. If possible, I plan to sabotage them and weaken their influence without them tracking it back to us. If Takamagahara grows too strong, it would be detrimental for development in the Underworld.”
What Hela said was right.
The stronger Shinto Pantheon was, the more troublesome it would be to take down Izanami and take her Control Sequence of the Underworld.
On the other side, I didn’t have similar concerns about Hades or Osiris.
Egyptian Pantheon fell a very long time ago, and their gods had retreated to seclusion centuries ago when their influence in the Draconic Deus was rooted out. They wouldn’t spend too much of their already non-existent resource on saving one god.
In regard to Hades, while the Olympians were a stronger and deeper foundation, the relationship between Zeus and Hades was terrible at best, so even if Hades is attacked, Zeus won’t send any help too fast, as he would want Hades to suffer a great loss first.
So if an attack is made quickly and Hades is killed before reinforcements arrive, all good.
