71. The funny thing..._The Castle in the middle of nowhere.

I slowly turned my gaze on Zeus, who took a deep breath, and I could almost see him loosening his proverbial collar. This situation was embarrassing enough, but I already knew he was going to drop even bigger bullshit. I sighed in anticipation of yet another amazing display of...

"I don't really have much control over my worshippers." He swallowed nervously.

...incompetence? Maybe I'm too harsh right now. But this was a display of things not working as they should, at least in my opinion.

"Why?" Irene asked a very good and probably complicated question.

"He stopped paying attention to what his followers were doing a few hundred years ago, so they unwittingly stopped believing in him, per se. Their tradition and scriptures are completely different from what they should be." Hera grimly smiled.

I sighed heavily. So it was incompetence.

"What about the rest of you?" I asked, still rubbing my temples.

"Oh, we are good. My followers are few, but all of them will listen to the priests if needed." Hera sighed, so there probably was a catch. "But even if I order them to gather in Avalon right now, they will arrive here no quicker than six months from now."

"How many people, goddess?" Sigismund stopped taking notes and bowed politely. "We will have to prepare some plans for sheltering and feeding all of those people."

"No more than ten thousand dispersed around the entire continent." She replied quietly.

"In my case, that will be... Four. Five, if Miss Opal is interested in becoming my priestess." Zephyr grinned carelessly. I looked at Hestia, who started patting Gloria's head with care and affection.

"All of my faithful are now safe in Avalon."

"So... Let me get this straight..." I rested my elbows on the table and put together the fingertips of my hands. "Somewhere there is an evil so great that none of you can fight it."

"That's right." Zephyr nodded.

"Zephyr was sealed for the last three thousand years."

"Correct." Zephyr shrugged.

"Hestia, you were too weak to do anything? Your church is one of the greatest right after Zeus's."

"Yes, and so I heard. However, they are not worshipping anyone; they build their faith around some idea of what I should be in their opinion and without their faith, I was unable to intervene... But thanks to Gloria, I finally started regaining my strength. I will try to regain control over my church, but I'm afraid they are now worshipping just the structure and hierarchy." She finally looked into my eyes.

My poker face skill hit maximal level a long time ago. I looked at Hera, who probably understood that my calm was very much illusory.

"Hera, in three thousand years, managed to gather about ten thousand followers... And Zeus..." I looked at him far longer than anyone could accept as comfortable.

He was young, not a white-bearded dude so much depicted by the Greeks myths. His black short and curly hair matched well his athletic body, but the eyes showed he was not a mortal man. Deep and pupilless eyes, blue like the calmest sky of a cloudless day, looked at me from his smiling and careless face. I must admit- it was a face that made you want to genuinely like this guy. But the only thing I genuinely wanted to do was to kick his irresponsible ass. And kick it for so long that my leg falls off. I don't know why, but I suspected they also needed people to survive. I need people's mana, they probably need their faith, and yet, this ...ugh!

"How do you generate mana? From your followers?" I looked dead straight into his eyes.

"Not mana directly, but they power us with their faith. So...Yes... That will be correct." Zeus nervously rubbed his hands together.

"Out of everyone here, you, Zeus, are the most careless and irresponsible person." I sighed and slammed my fist on the table. "You allowed your followers to... No, you know what? Fuck it. I understand Zephyr, who was sealed, and Hestia, who still looks as if she is about to fall over and sleep for the next few years. Maybe I even understand Hera, and why it's hard for her to gain followers. But YOU?!"

"Sorry..." He lowered his head and the other gods turned their heads away from him.

"Oh great! Have you heard that Amber? Luna? Irene? He is sorry!" I slowly stood up and slammed on the table with the open palm of my hand. On the surface of the table, one of the models presenting one hundred fifty thousand Cridian soldiers laying siege to Avalon showed up. This was one of the possible war scenarios, according to my predictions. "You heard that, Sigismund? Knys? Lanka? Gloria? Zeus is fucking sorry!" I pointed at the model. "All these people will be marching on Avalon in a few weeks, maybe two months! Most of them will fucking die just because of you!" I pointed straight between Zeus's eyes. "I don't care why you are here in this world, but it's now your world! And you quite literally fucked it up! And now these people are going to die, fighting an unnecessary war. Just because you were thinking for the last few thousand years with your dick."

The dead silence in the room was deafening. No one dared to take a breath, and I saw the shock on the face of Zeus. He pursed his lips and clenched his hands together so hard they lost colour.

"But it's okay! You are sorry!" I angrily added.

"I know you are angry. I know I am guilty. But what do you expect me to do? I manifested before them and no one saw me! They do not believe in me, so they can't see me."

"So, why do we see you? I never once believed in you! I thought you were just a myth, not real!"

"You don't have to. Dungeons simply work like this."

I slowly exhaled and looked at the faces of the people and gods gathered around the table. No one was smiling, my residents and Gloria were deeply saddened. My Queens were not angry anymore, just resigned, like people who are about to be crushed by depression. Hestia was sobbing silently and Zephyr was holding the cup of tea in both of his hands as if it was his lifeline. Hera was breathing slowly, and I was not sure if she took everything I said to her heart, even if I scolded Zeus, or if she was just scared of my outburst. However, I was keen to give her the benefit of the doubt.

"What do you plan to do now?" I sat down and crossed my arms. He was guilty, but I couldn't ignore them or make them my enemies. For now, I shook them, but I don't believe they are going to change just because I scolded them.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"I don't know! This is the main problem."

"You should start from the beginning," Luna said carefully. "Gather followers. Look for any priest still hearing you."

"Yes... I should do that." He sighed heavily.

"So what exactly do you want? You wouldn't have shown up in Avalon without any plan, no matter how desperate it was," Amber asked them very quietly.

"We wanted to know if we can count on your help in case the Dark Empire of Gavell starts a second war," Zeus asked me, looking straight into my eyes.

"Oh yes. Rest assured, I will be ready. The question is, what will become of you?" I sighed and leaned in my chair. "Let's put all the cards on the table. No backstabbing, no bullshit. If I want to save this world, I will need your power. We need each other."

"That is true, Lord Theon." Hestia nodded and asked softly. "What do you propose?"

I looked at Irene, who sighed slowly and tapped her lips a few times. She slowly stood up and, still lost in thought, she walked towards the large wall map of the Cridian Kingdom. She looked at the lands already conquered by her husband and other regions, nominally controlled by the forces of Avalon.

"You must work hard and swiftly. Gather what you can and try to stop this needless bloodshed." She reluctantly started. "The true enemy is elsewhere..."

"Vow to be my allies and friends. Vow to always stand in the defence of Avalon. And I will allow you to use my kingdom as your place of refuge." I ended for her.

"We promise." Hestia and Zephyr raised and looked at me with gratitude. Zeus stood up with hesitation, but when he spoke, his voice was full of certainty and as solid as iron. "As do I! To hell with it, Theon! I swear to be your ally, for good and bad! I will shed my blood in the defence of this world if necessary!"

"I also give you my word as a goddess to stand in the defence of this world. I promise to defend the Avalon until the day Eriar awakens and will walk this world among us!" Hera looked at others who smiled, relieved, and added silently. "Let us all hope this day never comes..."

Zeus, Hera, Hestia and Zephyr pledge to bless and protect Avalon. They plead their friendship to the champion of Eriar, Theon Avalon. Theon is obliged to provide sanctuary for allied gods and their true followers. The alliance was formed to protect the world of Nilmerthis.

<**error** Greetings sunshines... I am awake and I watch you all very closely! **error**>

Theon Avalon, The Righteous Dungeon, The Champion of Eriar, The Chosen of Archangel, and The Bringer of Equilibrium meets all of the requirements and can now lead an Alliance.

I nodded slowly, looking at their shock. Nilmerthis... So that's how this world is called.

"Oh, yes... I maybe forgot to mention. Eriar is long awakened."

•••

The meeting lasted for the next five hours, during which we discussed most of the expectations and duties we would have. Sigismund and Knys were initially invited as my civil advisors because I thought that these...gods...had a lot of followers and some logistics would be needed to be employed to not overcrowd Avalon. While logistics indeed was needed, it covered an absolutely different topic. My initial idea to create a smaller temple in Everlight that would serve all the allied gods was approved by Irene, and she had the last word in any matter concerning religion. The temple would serve as an anchor- a place where at least some of the allied gods' influence remains and where they can manifest and convince people of this world to believe in them. It would also have to be appropriately big to facilitate the pantheon. At first, I wanted to ask Ian to pilot this project, but he had another idea. That's why Sigismund and Knys would be in charge of building that temple, without the active help of my residents. Verni, Bjorn, Ragnar or Ian wanted to test their apprentices in some enormous task, so this project was perfect.

No matter how stupid this sounds, I'm hopping on that train- according to terms we agreed upon, one of the four allied gods will always be somewhere in Avalon, protecting us from the dark gods' influence. The allied gods can't use their powers to actively fight in wars waged on the surface, but their blessings are no joke. A few hour long buffs they can give to the people of the world will be excellent assets in the battles to come. But as I said, they will be focused mainly on fighting dark gods and tracing their minions. The worst part about the dark gods is the fact they do not want to destroy this world. They want to use this world as a huge temple of their own and change its inhabitants into miserable slaves and bloody sacrifices. I'm pretty sure I have heard about a similar idea somewhere; I'm looking at you, Ruinous forces of Chaos. In any way, I'm not a fan of the concept, so I am going to fight.

Irene tasked Lanka and Gloria with coordinating the Allied Gods Temple project, while she focused on creating protocols about religions in Avalon. I’m not going to question it, I am going to proclaim it. Gloria pledged her fealty to me and became my resident, cutting off all ties to the Cridian Kingdom. That being said, the time has come to turn words into actions. We were standing in the office exchanging handshakes.

"I am happy you turned out to be a reasonable champion." Hera smiled at me. She then turned towards Irene and took out a golden armour. "Take this, Saintess. It will guard you even if I am away."

MYTHICAL grade Item

The holy golden light of the heavens always shines brightly in the souls of those marked by the divine. This armour was made to protect Heaven's chosen from any harm.