It is the job of the racial council to determine if the race is ready to take on the risk that will come with ending the era of the gods. Their permission will make the difference between a quick success and a pyrrhic victory in the endeavor. But Ghoto doesn’t care about all that. He just wanted to fight, and fighting the other families of the race is not allowed. He learned that lesson the hard way. But no one was going to complain if he vents his frustration on the divine alliance.
The divine alliance is a renegade nation established for the spreading of faith in gods. There are only empires, kingdoms, or nations legalized by the racial council in the entire plane. Faith has been suppressed because the battle sage monkeys don’t like it in general. They would rather worship their great ancestors and heroes, there is even an empire that was created just for that. Because of the long lifespans due to refinement, the people of the race have a good memory of the acts and sacrifices of their heroes, the fact that someone has dared to elevate himself to their level and allows others to deify him is just plain pompous and disrespectful to the real heroes who sacrificed themselves for the progress of their people. That’s why the worship of gods is outlawed in the Virut plane, but it is not actively enforced in some areas. The divine alliance is such a place. It is dubbed the dwelling place of the gods. It will become the target of his ire.
“It is a good thing that they are bunched together. I won’t need to crawl to each church at this snail’s speed.” He complained again as the plane constrained his speed. He actually has to physically move from one place to another. It was a hassle, really. He usually rides on the waves of destruction, which destroy everything in his path, even distance and space are no exception. But now he has to move himself. Even the wind was trying to buffer him.
“Truly kicking a man when he is down. Thankfully, there are some people stupid enough to cross the racial council.” He muttered.
Not everyone in the race accepts the governing power of the racial council. It is impossible for there to be unanimous support for them because everyone has free will. Funny enough, the segment of the population that doesn’t agree with the racial council are the people that the gods like to target. These people are generally weak, most of them possess strength that is beneath the level of transcendence. The bulk of them are not even mana entities, just people at the body forging stage or vitality core. The gods’ ability to bless these weak people with strength is why the gods haven’t died out yet.
The stronger the person, the stronger the quality of faith that can be acquired from that person, but those above the level of transcendence do not need gods, except to kill them for their divinity. This set of people agrees with the racial council in general too. The gods can’t bless people above transcendence and these people won’t bow to their peers, even if they are gods. So the gods make do with quantity over quality.
There will be some outliers but Guntu doesn’t care. He hopes there are a lot of these strong ones to provide a worthy battle. He plans to go to the divine alliance and destroy all their churches. All of them. It will probably take months to complete but he won’t give up unless he is explicitly asked by the racial council to stop. Guntu is only troublesome, he is not stupid. That’s why he fears the racial council as much as he respects them.
The divine alliance is located at the edge of the plane, far away from the control of the racial council, so it took Guntu a long while before he arrived. He hated having to limit his speed to ten times the speed of sound but he bore with it. When he reached the border of the region he found out that there was an army already waiting for him. The prey had already arrayed themselves before him. He smiled in glee.
“Dinner is served.”
Earlier in the day. A few moments before Guntu made his declaration. In the divine plane.
The divine plane is said to encompass the main plane, but it is actually smaller than the main plane. It is about a hundredth of the total surface area of the plane. There is a single city on the ground, the divine city. The divine city is where people that come to the divine plane will appear, either believers or unbelievers. Above the city are layers of firmaments that hold the divine kingdoms of the gods. The believers and faithful petitioners are the only ones allowed in the divine kingdoms. The divine kingdom of a god is the personal territory of that god, it is also where the afterlife of their believers will be spent.
In one of the divine kingdoms placed higher above the sprawling metropolis below. The grand god of justice Xanc(Stone cold) was playing a board game with the High goddess of fate, Sito(Lazy ants). These two golden beings of light were relaxing and whiling away their time with a spirited game of Yudo within an opulent temple made from the most precious of materials. You can even taste the wealth in the very air. It seemed that gods and mortals don’t breathe the same kind of air. Not that gods need to breathe, but the air around them is charged with power and authority. Sito stopped playing all of a sudden. Her eyes glazed over and lost focus.
Then she sighed and said, “I sense the convergence of destiny in the strings of fate. The end is near.”
The god of justice, Xanc exclaimed. “Sito no cheating. You promised you wouldn’t use your powers of prophecy. I can sense that you just did. Not fair.”
Sito explained gently. “It’s not about our game. I just saw something that will affect the fate of all gods. I sense a disaster is coming for us.”
Xanc could sense that she was speaking the truth but he didn’t believe her. “Is the god of trickery here somewhere. Are you trying to trick me again? I thought you promised that you won’t cheat at all.”
They had done something like that to him in the past. They would use the power of trickery to deceive his sense of justice and warp his ability to tell truth apart from lies. There was no way he would fall for that again.
“I’m not lying,” Sito said.
“Yes, I believe you.” Xanc snickered.
Sito sighed. “I don’t need you to believe me.”
Xanc brought out a golden sheet with some terms and their signatures written on it. “This contract here says otherwise.”
Sito ignored him and brought out a piece of runic stone. She spoke to the stone. “By my authority, Sito, the Seer.” Then she crushed the stone.
Xanc didn’t try to stop her. “You are really willing to go so far for your ruse. I’ll see how far you will take it this time. Is it so bad for you to accept your inferiority? It is shameless of a god to be a sore loser.”
He was about to start his rant about the detriments of cheating when he received an emergency summons of the highest priority. This usually occurs when a god crushes the emergency stone, identical to the one that Sito crushed earlier. The same Rune on the stone started flashing around him but he was only mildly surprised.
‘They are going so far for this con. But I won’t be conned so easily.’ he thought to himself.
He shook his head and said. “This seems so life-like. I am disappointed that you would go so far just to evade your responsibility.”
“Why do I even hang out with you? Justice is so pigheaded. Believe whatever you want to believe. I am going.” Sito said before tapping the similarly glowing Rune floating around her. She disappeared immediately.
Xanc was startled when she disappeared without a trace. He hadn’t given her permission to exit his divine kingdom, so he should be able to retain her here considering that he is stronger than her. He started to believe her, just a little.
“Could this be another prank?” He asked uncertainly.
He examined the flashing Rune. It represents a call to council to all the gods about a matter of uttermost importance. Either it was real or they were pulling all the stops to prank him again. They enjoyed targeting him the most for some reason he didn’t know. It was like an inside joke to try and trick justice.
There is a cabal of gods that have made it something of a past time to pester him. This entire thing reeked of them.