Wyxnos was having a bad day. He could count the days that weren't bad and those were too few, too far in-between. Basically, they were the days when the Anomaly was in the process of being reborn, growing up, and leveling before she started to turn the world upside down. Now she'd done it. The System recognized another deity adding the Surrogate Goddess of the Kin, Windemere, and Auvani to the Pantheon. Already the tithes of divinity were being paid to her.
Loki's plan had many layers. All curses he added to the Anomaly had a reverse entry registered in the System, ready to spring up when and if she broke them. And now he couldn't touch them, because the System required a majority vote of the Administrators.
Things were going out of control and his only hope was to obtain the "System Egg". If he did, he could leave everything behind and start anew in another world, without anyone's interference. But the System wouldn't give him the "Egg". He couldn't be too conspicuous in his attempts or the others would notice. He couldn't handle the wrath of the whole pantheon and that was the reason he had to play the two-faced game. Sophistry and double meanings were part of his toolbox. It wasn't his fault people couldn't understand the intricacies of logical thought.
Inquiries from the whole pantheon were sent his way. He wasn't a messenger God but everyone's gut reaction was to blame the IT guy, a truth from Earth that they brought with them. He opened his laptop and started a conference call with the other Gods. The laptop wasn't real but old habits die hard. They grew on Skype and IM apps. That paradigm was comfortable for them.
"I warned you," Wyxnos said haughtily. "Push the Anomaly too far, and she will snap and attempt something ridiculous. This time, it was Angela-- The Broodmother that fucked up. No, you'll listen to me until the end before I unmute all of you. The Broodmother requested me, five hundred years ago, that I grant one of her followers a specific Perk. {Fate Magic Affinity}. They did nothing with it and I forgot. Two weeks ago, they used a spell on the Anomaly, the specifics are on your screen right now. Bundeus and her captured a soul illegally, the [Queen] of Windemere. Then they used that spell to kill the Anomaly. They failed. Now she reacted. I tried to stop her but the other Administrators blocked me. My suggestion is to leave her alone. You are unmuted."
He pressed the mute button on his keyboard and let the other deities rage on. Wyxnos was tired and couldn't care less. The Anomaly now harvested Faith for herself. She could attack their temples, their priests, their holy sites and drain them dry if she wanted to.
Mortal means of killing her were scarce and became fewer by the day. The spell that the dragon [Saint] used should've obliterated her, and yet she lived. He was amazed at how fast Loki plugged that hole. Maybe they'd wasted their only good shot at removing her from their world. Should they try it again? Empower the spell with divine magic and shoot it to overpower her resistances?
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
"No," he spoke to himself. "There's Loki's promise when the Anomaly and Bundi dueled in Virturia. We need to deal with her through mortal means. I wish to see if one of those idiots is willing to sacrifice another level 200 [Saint]."
He waited, watching the other Gods' mouths move on the mute screen. When they all started to glower at him, he unmuted it.
"Have we reached a conclusion?" Wyxnos asked.
"Damn bastard had us on mute," Queltphion spat.
"Yes, we reached a conclusion," Galbarar declared. "The Broodmother is to be banished to the Material World and sent to fight the Anomaly. Should she win, we'll proceed with the plan to trap the Anomaly's soul in an artifact. If she loses, she dies."
The deity in question obviously didn't want that. The Broodmother was in her human form and jumped out of her chair and away from her computer.
"No. I'm not doing it!"
Her reaction was understandable. She wasn't a warrior like her late husband. Though she could fight in her dragon form, she lacked the instincts and muscle memory to use that form to the best of her ability. Worse yet, the Anomaly had everything she didn't and a build to fight bigger creatures. Sending her down to fight was basically giving her as a sacrifice to placate the Anomaly.
"We cannot allow Haru to hunt dragons indiscriminately," Zacheia said. "My [Priestess] is with her most of the time, and she prayed to me about a prophetic dream Haru had. A fight between Haru and your dragons will cause too much collateral damage."
"True," Queltphion remarked. "I can simulate the battle with my Domain, and what Zacheia fears is very probable."
"Give me some time to prepare!" The Broodmother whimpered.
"I will instruct my [Priestess] and [Saintess] to keep an eye on Haru, I'll go as far as to tell them to counsel her against doing that," Zacheia said. "If she decides to go on her hunt regardless, we'll send you immediately."
"Otherwise, you'll have a thousand years. Then we'll banish you," Galbarar sentenced. "Unless she is below her current level, then we'll wait. It wouldn't be fair to send you after a child."
"We won't know when and where she'll reincarnate anyway," Rabhorktaar added. "But I disagree with Galbarar. She's capable of evading an ambush even without any levels. Let's do it this way. The Broodmother may choose to go any time she wants, but she can't come back once she does. We'll have the System sent Haru or her future incarnations a notification informing her of what happened. If the set time Galbarar declared elapses, she'll be banished to the Material World, and the notification fires anyway."
Another thumbnail portrait opened and Loki appeared. "I like what Rabhorktaar proposed. Let's do it that way. Fair warning, Dragon Lady. The more you wait, the stronger she'll get."
"Agreed," Galbarar said and other Gods echoed his decision.
The dice were cast. Wyxnos could only hope everyone's attention was away from him while he searched for the way to unlock the "Egg".