The whole area went quiet. Tens of millions of spectators looked at what remained of the battlefield and processed the same fact at different speeds: all five Supreme Gods were gone. Not one had escaped.
The three Evil Gods—Malakar, Skarion, and Micteya. Zakaria Nekrosi, the Lich Lord and Mordra, the Goddess of Darkness. All five sealed. All five waiting for the Holy Grail.
The Evil Pantheon, as a functioning power, was gone. Eighty percent of their forces had been on this battlefield. Whatever remained, scattered across the universe, would be leaderless wanderers. Without any patron Supreme God or unified direction, they would have no ability to threaten anyone. The Nature Pantheon could stop worrying about them entirely.
The Lich Pantheon and the Dark Pantheon had lost their patrons through association rather than enmity, which made it worse somehow.
"The illustrious Evil Pantheon." Someone said, "Destroyed in a single battle."
"And the Great Aetherium will resurrect all five of them. Their souls are sealed, not destroyed. Apparently they have only disappeared temporarily."
"So the Endless Continent loses nothing. It's as if those five pledged their allegiance to the Great Aetherium."
"Umm, if you think about it, the Endless Continent actually profited. Wouldn't His Majesty ascend to the peak through this battle? Also I'm sure many of the Angels would ascend as well."
The Gods who had reason to fear the Great Aetherium, the Dark Pantheon—the Lich Pantheon, the Light Empire—didn't stay for the rest of the discussion. They left quickly and quietly, each heading back to whatever conversation awaited them at home.
The Light Empire's Gods had a specific conversation to prepare for: how to tell Asher that the math had changed completely, and whether there was any version of this where they didn't declare war and die.
Aurelyss also gave the order to the Elf Empire's delegation to return. She'd come prepared to fight, but as she saw Yvonne intercept the allied forces in the beginning, she understood what it meant. Haru was confident enough to keep the exp for his own army, so she'd stayed back and watched.
"Return to the empire." She said, "Prepare for the upcoming Divine War."
The Gods of the Elf Empire fell in behind her. Aurelyss kept her eyes forward. She and Haru were allies, the covenant was genuine. But the [God King's Throne] was something else. That competition had no allies, only rivals, and Haru was now the most dangerous rival in the field.
'Let's see who has the last laugh.'
…
The Beast God Pantheon and the Nature Pantheon who'd held position outside the battlefield throughout the entire battle watched the last of the other factions leave and stayed.
They were the Great Aetherium's allies. They'd wait until the battle was finally over.
Behind Christine, the Beast Gods watched Haru's distant figure with expressions that she recognized and couldn't quite object to. The Beast God Pantheon had been without a Supreme God for a long time. The 'Lord of War' Wojciech had led thousands of Gods of War into an attack on a planet nicknamed the 'Immortal Dimension' and none of them had come back.
Adrian was said to have been imprisoned and not yet released. This Pantheon had been hoping for a patron ever since and although they weren't saying anything, Christine could see what they were thinking. She didn't blame them because she was thinking something similar.
On the other side, the Goddesses of Nature were having their own version of the same conversation.
"In less than two months, His Majesty stands at the pinnacle of the Endless Continent." The Goddess of Wisdom said, "At the peak, with his nearly two hundred sources of Divine Laws and his Lord Artifacts, even Her Holiness Elunara might not outperform him at the same level."
The other Goddesses didn't argue. The facts had been established clearly enough over the last few hours. From the afar, the Castle Lords' voices drifted over.
"We don't just want to win the upcoming Imperial War, we want to beat the Demons first, then enter the Abyss, then conquer thousands of planets. Under Lord Haru's command, we will become the overlords of the entire universe!"
The Beast Gods and Nature Pantheon fell quiet.
'Overlords of the entire universe…'
They'd thought Haru's goals were ambitious. The Castle Faction apparently considered 'the entire universe' a reasonable medium-term objective.
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