Kuranes rose to her feet, her aura was blazing with power, but Rowan could sense the weakness inside her, there was a wound in her soul that had not healed.

She could hide it from the others, but Rowan could sense the panic in the soul of this goddess, and he knew this was his work, rejecting the Kuranes’ name had nearly destroyed this goddess.

The God King waved his hands dismissively, “Yes, yes… follow the plans I gave you, i want you all to be God Kings in the coming years, and then I will be able to impact partial Wills to you all, strengthening your Vaults and preparing for the next moves from the Trickster.”

Golgoth spread his hands wide open and revealed hundreds of Spatial tears that led to various mysterious locations

” I will begin allocating a hundred Labyrinth coins to all of you every year, and you are also free to trade between yourselves for whatever treasures you might need without any cost, but it must be strictly essential to the god, I’m aware that some of you hoard treasures that are essential to the others for their advancement, and such foolish actions stop this instant.”

” As punishment for such misdeeds, you will give up the treasures needed by the other gods to them for elevation, without any cost involved.”

The faces of Kuranes and Tiberius went a bit pale when they heard this announcement, while Boreas, Volgim, and Bacchus broke out with large smiles, the God King couldn’t care less about their reaction as he continued,

“You have bigger worries ahead, and anyone that I find guilty of going against my wishes shall be dealt with in a manner that will break the foul hearts of a demon. Hear me well, gods of Trion, I shall not suffer a fool to live.”

From the Demeanor of the God King, he was about to dismiss the gods, clearly, he had summoned them just to check the status of their vault, but Rowan could not allow the conversation to end when he was on the verge of cracking the secrets about his father.

The summoning to the Fields of Elysium were rare events and the next time the God King might call on the gods again could be a decade from now, that was too long for him to find out the truth. With time running out, he could not patiently plan for such events to naturally occur.

He needed to call attention to this problem, but in a way that was suited for the conversation.

Boreas cleared his throat drawing the attention of everyone here including the God King, “Apologies if I’m out of line, but if the Trickster is already convincing such a mighty figure such as this Great Worm, then don’t you think it might be necessary for us to make a connection of our own? If the universe is dying, are we strong enough to fight against anyone who is capable of such an action? Perhaps it is time to spread our Dominion to the rest of the galaxy.”

Kuranes snickered in apparent disdain, and the angered gaze of Tiberius fell upon Boreas for questioning the God King, Rowan almost rolled his eyes in annoyance, wishing to smack this battle-hungry god on his shiny bald head.

Volgim a close supporter of Boreas, showed his support by nodding at him, Bacchus silently agreed with a blink of his eye, Horush did not indicate any stand and was busy trimming his fingernails, while Minerva seemed distracted, she kept looking around her in a subtle manner.

Her eyes were entirely white and filled with cracks as if it was a broken mirror, with no pupils, It was impossible to determine if she was looking around, but Rowan could see that her eyes were furiously scanning through the bodies of all the gods here, and whatever she was discovering was only making her more perplexed.’

‘Interesting,’ Rowan thought to himself, ‘it is almost as if she could sense there is something wrong here or someone extra among our numbers, but she is unable to verify the result of her senses. How is she able to do this when the God King cannot detect me?’

“I think this is a relevant line of inquiry, God King,” Minerva unexpectedly chimed in, “even if we all become God Kings and are granted greater powers by you, I do not see how it is possible for us to be able to stand against someone who can kill a universe. We should reach across the stars and gather more powers to our fold, any extra hands would surely help.”

The God King went still, his pacing figure that had been exploding around in manic energy just stopped with no indication, before turning to Minerva.

Rowan could hear the sneer in his voice as he looked upon Minerva, “I had thought that this question would come from no other than you Minerva,” he turned to Boreas, “but I see your way of thinking is beginning to spread… pity. You had lost faith long ago, but don’t drag the rest of your brothers and sisters along your lonely path.”

Fully focusing on Boreas, the voice of the God King went soft, “Boreas my brother, I know that you may think that the troubles before us are greater than you can ever imagine or fight against, but I can reassure you that there is no way that Trion would ever fall when it is under my watch. Go along with the plans I have given you and perform your duties diligently, and when the end of days arrives, I shall present the head of the traitor to you all. We already have a powerful ally in this fight, although you cannot see them yet, do not be concerned with the matters of the Great Worm, he cannot be deceived for long.”

Boreas bowed his head towards the God King and followed the rest of the gods out of the hall.

Rowan frowned, this was far less information than he wanted, but he had been able to glean a certain amount of knowledge from the God King, but he wanted to know who was this hidden ally of Trion and how they could affect his plans.

Kuranes and Tiberius looked at Boreas with annoyance before both of them vanished after leaving the Temple of the God King, Horush and Bacchus shortly followed making no single observation throughout this meeting, and Volgim waited behind, his eyes signifying he wanted to talk to Boreas.

Minerva also waited at the gate, her eyes darting between Boreas and Volgim until she smiled and vanished as well.

“Did you see the face of that bitch Kuranes, I wished I had asked that question earlier and stolen all their thunder, good thing you are the God of Thunder” Volgim laughed aloud and slapped Boreas in the back, the action caused a booming sound like a thunderclap.

Bad puns alike, Rowan immediately felt a fondness for this god, it was a shame he was likely the next to die, it would have been better if he was last.

Volgim continued talking unaware that he had been marked for death, “They always want to suck up to the God King, do you know that they increased the rotation of Destruction around their Vaults by a hundredfold for the last million years and they never told anyone the secrets of how they remained sane!”

‘Is that so?’ Rowan thought he was very interested in the methods these two gods used in manipulating the Destructive energies around their vaults.

Volgim unaware of the precious nugget of information he had just given Rowan continued to speak,

“The both of them have obtained a hundred times more Labyrinth Coins than us, and using all that resources they have acquired all the best treasures including those that are uniquely suited for both of us. Finally, we would be able to take back what is ours from them as the field of play is equalized. How they must be shaking in their boots with anger to see the work of their hands over the last million years come to nothing from a single statement from the God King.”

The politics of the gods of Trion were most likely fascinating, but Rowan had bigger fishes to fry, and gods to kill. He grinned back at Volgim, slapping him on the back also, and vanished, followed immediately by the startled Volgim, he had expected more enthusiasm from Boreas.

The location where they once stood appeared empty except that for an instant that was almost impossible to perceive, a small finger appeared on the ground before melting into the soil, leaving no traces of its presence behind.

This content is taken from fr(e)ewebn(o)vel.