Everything was going wrong. First there was that uppity demon lord showing up, then there were those abnormal monsters that evolved to a rank that surpassed what mortals were capable of dealing with, and now there was some horror from the beyond stepping in and poaching her worshipers. Just two centuries ago this world was a calm and stable feeding ground for her and her pantheon, but now it was a deadlocked warzone that just seemed to bleed out worshipers.
Sol was a powerful god, she was the head of her pantheon and the unquestioned top of this world, yet somehow things were spiraling out of her ability to control.
She spent her time constantly putting out fires for her followers and trying to stem the countless deaths of her faithful that occurred daily. Sol’s own power reserves were even beginning to deplete, and at this rate she would need to take more direct action to ensure the safety of her investments. To make matters worse, her sister seemed utterly content to let the world implode on itself. Luna was more interested in searching for her mysterious ‘Truth’ than she was in managing the world they relied on for survival. It was as if her sister couldn’t understand that without the power this world’s faithful provided them they would end up either eaten or enslaved by the devils of the abyss.
Sol was frustrated and feeling profoundly alone in her struggle to keep her small pantheon afloat. She had to display confidence to her worshipers, though internally she was beginning to have major doubts. The horror that had invaded her world had power that totally eclipsed anything she had ever known, and the only thing that allowed her a modicum of hope was that only a tiny portion of that power actually came to her world.
Sol wasn’t a fool, she knew the old stories about the things that lived in the deepest depths of the abyss. The eldritch were beings that even the arrogant devils avoided with all their might, they were things that could neither be fought nor reasoned with. The eldritch were beyond the understanding of even higher beings, they were alien things that kept to themselves and were left alone out of the pure terror they inspired. Sol had never heard of an eldritch leaving the depths of the abyss in any meaningful way before, yet now there was one that had come to her world.
Gods were like shepherds, they guarded and tended to their worshipers so that those worshipers could in turn nourish them when they needed. Sol was now a shepherd plagued by two packs of wolves and an unknown monster that all eyed her precious flock. To say that the goddess was stressed by her situation would be a profound understatement.
There were still a few cards left for Sol to play however, and she still had a trump card she could use if things became truly dire. The spread of the eldritch being’s cult could be traced back to her own faithful, that meant that one of her own must have come into contact with the vessel of the eldritch being. It should be possible to track down who the black sheep was in her flock and trace back who that black sheep came into contact with to turn them against her. The unfortunate matter was until the cultist was found from amongst her priesthood they could spread the eldritch corruption to more of her followers.
The corruption spread through a method that was not too unlike a vampire’s glamor, so warning her faithful to take specific countermeasures against such an influence should help slow the spread of the cult. What could be done about the actual vessel the eldritch being was inhabiting was beyond her, but destroying the mortal shell it was inhabiting shouldn’t be impossible.
Sol had other more pressing matters to concern herself with than the unknown that was the Eldritch, the forces of that pesky demon lord were an immediate threat to her worshipers. She simply didn’t have the luxury to devote the time and resources to truly deal with the eldritch invader, she had to preserve her worshipers from the demonic and monstrous forces that threatened them.
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There were too many forces arrayed against her, too many fronts to fight on. Ultimately as terrifying as the thought of an eldritch being running free in her world was, Sol considered the amount of damage it could cause if left alone and determined that it was less then what either the demons or monsters would cause if she devoted all her forces to confronting the Eldritch.
***
Argos was pacing in his throne room, his mind troubled by the many matters weighing on it. Argos was neither the strongest nor the most trusted of demon lords, but despite that he was the one who obtained the opportunity to conquer a mortal world. How he got here or why were questions Argos could not answer with certainty, however he suspected it had more than a little to do with the eldritch that had come to this world.
Argos was sure that his presence on this world was part of some ploy by the horror from beyond the abyss, but that was fine. He was a demon, and as a demon Argos’ entire life had been full of ploys and plots by beings stronger or smarter than him. Whatever the Eldritch wanted with him was irrelevant in Argos’ mind, he simply needed to stay out of the horror’s way and continue pursuing his goals of conquest and evolution.
This world was full of life and opportunity, rich in resources whose existences would be impossible in the abyss he once called home. Here Argos had grown an army by corrupting and enslaving mortals, he had increased his power by harvesting souls, and he had obtained a new dominion. Earth had been kind to Argos, though his stay on this wonderful world had not been without troubles.
Argos was at war with the mortals, a pair of parasitic gods, and some troublesome monsters that grew too strong to be taken lightly. The situation was simultaneously fun and frustrating. As a demon he loved nothing more than to indulge in his desires, and one of the chief desires of a demon was conflict. He quite enjoyed this war he found himself embroiled in, but it was this very conflict that prevented him from claiming the entire world for himself.
Argos stopped pacing and sat on his crimson throne. Stroking his chin in thought he contemplated his next moves.
Argos had lived a long and dangerous life in the abyss, and he had survived by being clever enough to choose the right actions at the right moments. Here on Earth he was facing four separate factions. The holy kingdom of Eden was the tool of the gods, everyone that lived in that kingdom were hopeless fanatics that would fight him to the end for their twin goddesses. The Haven Empire was a more secular nation made up of many different races working as one, sadly he had not been able to seed any spies in any sort of important position within this nation so he knew the least about it of all the factions. The wilds of the north were overrun with monsters and at the core of the lands were the monsters that made up the Zen army of monsters. The only faction that wasn’t a major concern was the Avalon Empire as it was a human centric nation that was hampered by a mostly corrupt or inept nobility.
Argos’ spies ensured that he would have intelligence on Haven, Avalon, and the wilds whenever he needed it. Still even with the advantage in strategic intelligence Argos was not confident in his ability to actually destroy one of the factions. Perhaps he could stomp out one of the factions if the other three stayed out of things, but the precarious balance that was being maintained by all five factions wouldn’t allow that. If he fully committed his forces to any one front then the other factions would step in to take advantage of said maneuver and feed him a loss.
Instead of frontal confrontations Argos had put his faith into a more subtle approach, infiltrations and assassinations seemed like a more solid tactic. It would take time and Argos would have to sacrifice many forces to maintain the façade of being a direct and frontal threat, but ultimately Argos felt that those sacrifices would be worth it.
He already had some agents in key positions, so usurping the power of a faction would only be a matter of patience and persistence.
The only matter that could be a problem was the strange happenings going on in Avalon in these past few years. It was as if there was some undercurrent of tension that was coming from the nation, and his own agents in the nation have reported strange political maneuvers from both the nobility and the church. Argos decided that he would simply send a few more agents to the Avalon capital to see if they could track down what was going on in the human empire.