He was still reading when a system notification arrived from the GM.
[Because you suppressed the Evil Pantheon, Merc, the Goddess of Curses, has greatly increased her favorability towards you.]
Haru stared at it. So, Christine's curse, the one that had turned her from a Sea Clan member into the current 'Medusa', was apparently cast by someone named Merc. And she had just decided that now was an excellent time to remind Haru she bore him no ill will.
He hadn't known that this Goddess of Curses even existed until thirty seconds ago, and given what he'd just done to the Evil Pantheon, her caution was understandable. The favorability boost was a preemptive apology from someone who had done the math and didn't like the answer.
The curse itself had long since fused irreversibly with Christine's soul and there was nothing to undo it. Haru looked at Christine, the serpentine crown, the inhuman beauty, the three hundred thousand years of effort that had gotten her exactly this far and no further.
He remembered the first time they'd met. She'd been a Peak High Goddess then too while he'd been a newly ascended Lower True God. He'd even needed Astral City's full power just to make her take him seriously. Today, she was still a Peak High Goddess while he stood as a peak Supreme God, to whom she pledged her allegiance.
"For now." He said, "Stay in the Great Aetherium. Train alongside the Angels and the Imperial Gods. The opportunity you're looking for is here."
"Yes, Your Majesty." The relief in her voice was quiet but real.
He turned to the Beast Gods, "Return to the Endless Continent. The war against the Light Empire would begin soon. The Beast Gods shall participate as well. Use this time to improve your strength."
He looked them over, "Twenty High Gods for a Pantheon with millions of Gods is not enough. Most of your people will be cannon fodder in the Divine War if we don't fix that."
And since their kills now fed his own exp bank, fixing it was very much his problem too.
The Beast Gods bowed and withdrew, already thinking about what was coming. They had a new lens for it now. The Gods of the Light Empire weren't enemies to fear. They were 'exp' banks.
…
Obrys, the Titan Pantheon's base, occupied a vast stretch of the void. It was not a simple planet but something closer to a mini-universe unto itself. At its heart floated a continent of impossible scale, Obrys' main body. Its sky was crowded with celestial bodies of every kind: life-bearing planets, mineral-rich planets, stars burning at the edge of the atmosphere.
Sacred mountains rose across the land in the hundreds, and the tallest of them, more than a million meters of sheer stone, held Varkath's temple at its peak.
Inside that temple, the mood was thunderous in every sense. More than a hundred Thunder Titans filled the hall, every one of them a High God, every one of them thousands of meters tall, purple lightning coiling around their bodies like living things. The Thunder Titans were the Throneveil Shrine's direct descendants, a true God Class Race, and they were proud of it. Right now, that heritage felt a bit inadequate.
The atmosphere in the temple was ugly. Varkath sat at the highest throne with one arm newly regrown and a very visible gap where his hammer should have been. Every Titan in the hall felt it, the humiliation radiating from their lord like heat.
In the Ancient Era, Varkath had faced the Demon Monarchs themselves and kept his limbs. Today, an Angel of the Great Aetherium had taken his arm and his weapon, and even managed to walk away.
"This cannot stand." A Thunder Titan rose from his throne, his voice shaking the walls, "We declare war. We take back the artifact. We make the Great Aetherium bow."
The hall erupted in agreement, thunderous voices layered upon thunderous voices, the sky above Obrys splitting with purple lightning as if the realm itself was answering.
Then an older Titan spoke, "We must make them pay, but not now."
"Kragthar." Someone spat the name like an accusation, "Are you afraid?"
The old Titan, Kragthar, didn't flinch, "In the Ancient Era, I stood against thousands of Dimensional Demons without retreating. Don't speak to me about fear." He let that sit, then turned to Varkath, "Your Majesty, the Great Aetherium just destroyed the entire Evil Pantheon. Five Supreme Gods, nearly one and a half million Evil Gods, all fallen. Not even one of them escaped."
Silence.
"Six Supreme Gods now stand under that empire's banner. Two of them, their emperor himself and the Angel Celestia, hold Peak Supreme God Tier strength. Celestia alone defeated you, Your Majesty. With the full Great Aetherium arrayed against us, and only two Supreme Gods on our side, one of them still in retreat, a direct assault means catastrophic losses."
He paused, "And we still need Obrys intact for the Battle of Planets."
The war cries died. The Titans who'd been ready to march sat back down, one by one, looking at the floor.
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