Chapter 38
"What price are we talking about ?" Dominion asked, her voice akin to a gentle echo that was mind-crafted into existence yet reaching every corner of the room.
"Ummm," an uncertain voice came out of the goddess's mouth. Looking a bit stumped and confused at how fast they transitioned to the talk of payment. But in the end, she wasn't a little girl, so just a second of confusion lingered before dissipating. "I do not mean to be rude, but I don't think you have enough authority," she said. Causing the somewhat pleasant atmosphere to come to a grinding halt.
Yet, it wasn't because of Dominion's emotion, because she felt neither anger nor anger towards Iris for the words that she spoke, for she was above such petty emotions. Even if she wasn't, the information that she already had would have removed those emotions.
She knew that the faction that woman belonged to, specifically Greek mythology, was a place where ignorance and stupidity infested the deepest root.
One of the main gods of Olympus, Ares, God of War, is an ignorant and foolish brute who severely dislikes tactics and deception, to the point that despite his long existence, his strategic knowledge is akin to that of a mortal soldier. A major cause of his failures and humiliation that he endured throughout his whole life.
Diomedes, a mortal man, severely wounded him due to his brutishness and carelessness.
No gods take battle advice from him, for he would only say, 'Attack harder' and 'Attack faster.' If they fail, he would say they are too weak.
Athena was better than him in every possible way except his strength, which was the only indication and the reason he is still one of the great gods.
Though despite his failures, in the end, his love and passion for slaughter and ruin made him strong and mighty enough to stand up and fight for Olympus in times of need.
On the other hand, Aphrodite, the goddess of love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion, and procreation, was an utter waste of space according to Dominion's own personal opinion.
She can't fight, she can't smith, and she can't even create a worthy battle creature that they could use despite her concepts.
She can't gather intelligence or do any specific tasks decently, though by mortal standards, she would be capable, but by the supernatural world's standards, specifically the highest-tier supernatural standards?. No, not even by a distant gust of wind.
She only sleeps around like a harlot, tarnishing their faction's name further and further.
According to Dominion-gathered intelligence, she knows that Aphrodite has slept with almost every race in the whole wide world, be it centaur, elf, orc, or even goblin. Dominion won't put it past her that the goddess probably slept with mindless animals.
Thinking of sex fiends, Dominion couldn't forget Zeus, the male equivalent of Aphrodite, a man whose sexual urges easily bypass race limitations. As he even raped a considerable number of women in his animal form, sometimes a bull, sometimes even a swan.
Dominion just couldn't understand how they could be so... flawed.
"Nonetheless," Dominion thought as she focused her attention on Iris.
"Please, do not worry. For this association, I was granted a great amount of authority," Dominion said as she willed her real body, the one that was still outside, to flare her own holy energy. Instantly, the shadow of the creature who was still outside subtly shifts and grows the slightest bit bigger in the eyes of Iris.
Boooooom
With a blowing of wind and flickering of lights, a peak ultimate tier being's energy reserve blows apart the curtain, barely concealing the creature that stood outside.
The decoration that adorned the room shook, and some fell as Iris's hair blew in the wind that was created.
Iris's eyes widened, and her mouth parted the slightest bit before closing again, possibly thinking that she had underestimated the angel that was in front of her, Dominion. And that the being who stood in front of her was not one to be underestimated.
A false assumption
Dominion thinks. While Dominion does have an energy reserve at a Peak ultimate tier, it is due to her massive body and enlarged energy-accommodating capability that her father granted. He didn't grant her any sort of effective combat capability to fully utilize it. Though he did grant her the capability of enhancing and boosting other beings, influencing the minds of beings to change their decisions or blunt certain aspects of them, and a great acting capability.
But Iris doesn't know that, and Dominion doesn't plan on revealing it to her.
"I see," Iris spoke as she gazed at Dominion with a new glint.
A glint that wasn't previously there and appeared when she revealed her supposed might.
"Truly a little child," Dominion thinks as she waits for the request to reveal itself.
"King Zeus doesn't need or desire something in particular. If you wish, it could be high-grade magical ores, weapons, knowledge, or a sacred gear," Iris spoke. Dominion raised her eyebrow in surprise at her bravery or foolishness in mentioning something as precious as sacred gear with so little care.
Another thing that Iris notices as she instantly corrects herself. "Not the whole sacred gear itself nor high-ranking ones, just the chance for a person we wished to be granted a decent sacred gear until his/her eventual death."
"Mmmm," Dominion muttered, a gesture of confirmation.
"Though that does sound appealing, unfortunately, it is unnecessary; only the promise of non-interference from God Zeus would be appreciated," Dominion said.
"How so ?" Iris questioned Dominion the next second, her voice confused and slightly rushed.
Dominion slightly shifted and moved her body in a way that would represent a human's confidence and pride that almost seemed overflowing, a deliberate gesture that Dominion made. "In my personal opinion, I feel no need for us to go to such 'lengths.'"
Iris's body shifts, and a slight frown adorns her beautiful face as a shade covers her face. "Length? Mmm," She spoke and didn't say anything more.
Dominion, with a learned human's calm and silent confidence gesture, continued the talk. "Though we appreciate the gesture and wouldn't forget it," she said.
Dominion watched as the 'goddess' in front of her raised her gaze to meet hers and started locking gazes with her created illusion, her mind no doubt whirling and trying to find any meaning in her action.
Though if Dominion could give tips to the 'Goddess' in front of her, it would be to look at the action and interest of Heaven instead of meaning and words. For she was affected by a simple strategy that humans called [the art of strategic devaluation].
From the very beginning, when she first entered heaven, Dominion started this tactic, originally to show a strong front to make her hesitate from doing anything drastic, now used to undervalue the promise of full non-interference.
She subtly and silently showed many of her brothers, most of them high-class, to show that her father had started creating them and that the number that was created was many, to say the least. Not any of her ultimate class brothers, of course, because the number was very few due to the strength that her father currently recovered, so she removed most of her ultimate class brothers wholly to make her question if they were hiding them. And what else are they hiding?
And the wait that the 'Goddess' in front of her had to endure also had some part in her less-than-perfect state of mind.
The state of mind that Dominion wanted for her future enemies. Yes, future enemies, not neutral bystanders nor possible allies, only future enemies, for she was sure that they would one day fight and that she would one day kill her for wearing the crown of a god despite her meager capability and pathetic mindset.
Then, after that long wait, she very, very subtly used her ability [Endless Devotion] to confuse and delude her mind while also using the illusionary human's body language of both mouth and movement to confirm her guess of Heaven, specifically her father having fully recovered, or at least close to recovering.
Now, in the eyes of the goddess before her, the value of the promise of full non-interference had diminished greatly. For she now believes that angels and the heavens had already recovered to such an extent that their involvement in the war would be highly unlikely, even without a formal pact. Thus, the promise had become little more than empty words. A symbolic gesture, if you will.
Dominion then moved to the next part of her plan of [Bait and Switch]. She, in the conversation that soon followed, subtly and silently baited that Heaven is willing to become a close ally of the Greeks and help them with their diminishing faith, in other words, their diminished strength, which was caused by humans' technological advancement that wasn't guided and supervised by any competent entity, or any, for that matter.
And that seemed to get the attention of Iris, the goddess who sat in front of her, as her attention and the focus that she paid had increased, and the number of words that were being exchanged increased in number.
The number of times Iris asked her about what would happen and their plan increased, yet Dominion was careful not to ever say anything that would one day work against her father by not declaring anything or refuting her as she led her on.
And for reasons that were unknown to her, it worked better than expected, making Dominion question the value that God places in faith and devotion. And to also be more disappointed and disgusted by the fact that God, of all beings, needed faith to keep their strength from diminishing due to the absence and disappearance of the primordial essence.
"Dominion, we... I will bring this offer to King Zeus myself," Iris said, quite possibly realizing that Dominion was leading her on and that her wanting any definite answer was futile, but willing to pay for devotees that they gave.
.
Heck, if King Zeus was unwilling to make this trade, Iris didn't mind using the treasures and her own assistance in the war to gain a few churches of her own. After all, even her strength had diminished quite a bit compared to her ancient past.
Why not build a few churches of her own? a being might ask, and Iris would open her mouth and say Even if she did not mention the required skills to create and maintain the church, other races, especially those who didn't want to see gods back in their full capability, would not give her any chance. That's not mentioning what tricks other gods would do to her church. Maybe they will bless her followers with bad luck and wish for their lives to be filled with misfortune and poverty.
And if Heaven, now one of the strongest factions in the world, did this in their own territory, other factions wouldn't dare do something they would do to her; after all, the Biblical God isn't known for his mercy or kindness towards those who slight him. Even if some ignorant, foolish beings had attacked his church, his zealot devotees and angels would make sure that the beings who attacked, along with their families, would be buried and burned at the stake.
If she remembers correctly, she knew he once said it in the ancient past. [Only by the shedding of the sinner's blood shall the blasphemy they have wrought be cleansed.]
[Author's note: The reason other races didn't attack the church of the Biblical god while he was down is because he was deemed dead, and the existence of the church would not affect any god, so they let the hornet's nest that is the church of the Biblical god be. After all, who would be willing to be stung and poisoned to death for no great reason? Though there were a few beings who did try to destroy it, the church and heaven finished them off.
(Dominion)
Dominion now finally shifts to her last tactic of [Appealing to Shared Values] by weaving a faint string of interest to tie them to their chariot of war. After all, who would be willing to help them get zealots and more divine energy correspondingly if there is no Heaven ?.
Though this plan of hers would be slow, with multiple visits to Greece and connections that needed to be woven, for the day, what she had done was enough.
Now only the finishing touches are needed. Which are some little things like what would be deemed interfering and in which territory do they not want the war to reach, .etc.. Which took a bit longer than she expected, but after an hour, they finished and parted ways.
For Iris, it would probably not be long before she came here again. Until then, Dominion would be waiting.
Patiently and calmly, after all, haste only makes waste, and Dominion didn't want anything to become... waste.
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Thamior sat waiting.
His pure white armor fully covered every inch of his features as he silently read a history book. And simply one that a normal priest or nun would learn during their training.
"It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High:
To show forth thy loving kindness in the morning and thy faithfulness every ....." sentence wove.
He didn't read this because it was of interest to him or would aid him. Simply because he was trying to be more thorough in his first...mission. A perfectionist part of him wanted to do every possible thing to decrease the chances of failure, no matter how small it was.
"Brother Thamior, everything is set." One of his brothers, a two-meter-tall, peak high-class angel, spoke from beside him.
Thamior closed the book that he was reading and got up from his chair. Chair groaned and let out a relieved hum in sync with his moment as it grew almost an inch after he parted.
Then he silently got out of the house that he was in and looked at the humongous chapel in the distance. Yes, a chapel. For he wasn't here to cleanse the filth that was devils and falls that filled the world. No, he was here to cut off the tumor that grew from the church. An infested, rotting part that had gone unchecked for far too long.
In other words, he is in the Vatican, Earth's representative of heaven.
Several of his younger brothers, who were also in the Ultimate tier, are scattered around each important region to oversee the development around the world, to make sure everything proceeds according to his will. And after they cleansed off each section, they would report to the commander of this mission, Uriel, the Flame of God.
A mighty angel of colossal strength and equally monstrous capability, Thamior would admit, but for reasons unknown to him, he didn't want him to be the commander. For some small part of him saw himself as the only being worthy of kneeling under his creator's feet. But the other part of him, the one that was utterly loyal to his father and his cause, madly screamed and tore open those thoughts to smithereens until they were nothing but an afterthought.
The humid air of the outside, along with the gentle wind that follows along, rustles his clothes and gently wraps around his neck as it blows. "What a beautiful sight it once was," Thamior mutters as his mind wanders to the past when he was once a feeble human, meaninglessly gazing at this very location, gazing at the chapel for hours on end, and then wandering through the land thereafter, seeking witches to hunt down and burn at the stake.
No
He wouldn't call it an utterly meaningless action, far from it; the action he had done and the thing he had done as a human, no, as humans, had helped his father and made heaven a bit better than it would have been without him.
It's just that it was an ineffective effort, an effort that, no matter how many times he had done it, would have brought nothing, nor helped his father, nor relieved him of the torment he had to endure for centuries.
When he was a human, he should have been scouring the land, looking for any signs or traces of him. But he...
He...
Thamior shook his head as he waved off the fog of confusion that once again visited his mind. Things like this had happened quite frequently after his birth, but now, they had considerably reduced in number. And he expects it to disappear in a few months.
Thamior raised his hand and shot a massive golden fireball towards the sky as he commanded his brothers to begin the purge. Yes, a purge, not an assault nor an attack, a pure purge.
Because there is nothing that could even raise their weapon against them in this city.
For his father had already captured several key targets, the ones that the church would severely suffer without, and reinforced their loyalty. Silently and covertly.
Though through it all, he saw two Seraphim, specifically Gabriel and Raphael, wearing an emotion that is almost borderline heresy on their faces. A fact that he remembered deeply in his heart.
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Authors's note : Sorry guys, exams are coming up and i can't spend as much as time as i wanted to. Though, do not worry, i am not abandoning the novel, hell, i will probally continue the novel even if only one of you guys are reading it.