Theon and Thessa sat within a large house, one that had been provided for them in Sanctum courtesy of the Goddess of Cities. In truth, neither of them had any form of production related abilities that they could use with their domains, so they were essentially unemployed within this world. All that they could do was exchange favors for faith. That said, Thessa had quite the remarkable following in Fyor, so she was able to earn a steady stream of energy.
It was her brother, the God of Balance that found his own power gradually declining. Throughout the years, he had made far less notable contributions to the world than his sister, which led to the situation where she began to outshine him. However, he was not ashamed of this, but rather proud.
Asking the God of Balance to interfere with a mundane problem would only exacerbate the issue by causing the enemy to become stronger to match his level. The true way for him to shine was by fighting a foe stronger than himself, one who he could force onto a weaker playing field. Theon was at once both the weakest and strongest type of deity.
Him and his sister sat in their house, watching the news being projected onto their wall. With their increasingly sedentary lifestyle, they often found themselves watching the news, looking for some form of major event that they could take part in. If not for Theon’s power being ill-suited for exploration, the two of them likely would have taken to the stars long ago to journey on their own.
“We interrupt this regular broadcast to bring you important information.” The voice of the anchorwoman was cut off, a kitsune with black hair appearing in the projection. She had a solemn look on her face, one that forced Theon to pay more attention to this report. “We have recently learned that there is a high probability of a powerful god approaching Deckan.”
“This god is of a hostile race, the very same that previously attacked Deckan many years ago.” Thessa tensed up when she heard that, recalling the appearance of the galactic fleet. “It is estimated that he will arrive in approximately two weeks. This is a mobilization request from the goddess Udona.”
“The enemy possesses the ability to absorb attacks that pass through a barrier covering his body, and can then turn those attacks back against the attacker. If you are the type to use attacks of this nature, please do not respond to this request, as your presence will likely add further danger to the others. However, if you are the type to use indirect abilities that would not be caught in such a barrier, it is requested that you participate.”
“As compensation for this endeavor, the goddess has prepared faith equivalent to twenty thousand of her tokens, to be distributed to those who participate. The rewards will be given out based on their contribution to the fight, with the goddesses Ryone and Accalia overseeing the ordeal to ensure fairness.”
The face of the kitsune woman continued to stare at them from the projection for quite a while after her announcement before suddenly flickering out. Afterwards, the projection returned to the normal news report, as if nothing had happened. Clearly, the newscasters they were watching were not even aware that they had been interrupted.
This message was broadcast throughout the entirety of Sanctum, using the planet’s divine network as the medium. It was shown on every form of display connected to this network without exception, showing just how much importance was placed on this first mobilization request.
Hearing the information about the enemy, Theon smiled wide, feeling that it was finally his chance to act. Even disregarding the promised reward, which was extremely substantial, it would be the perfect chance for him to make his name known. He pulled out his crystal terminal, and was prepared to look up information on how to accept the request.
What surprised him was that there was a blinking icon waiting on his startup screen, one that he had never personally installed. With its title being something as obvious as ‘Mobilization Sign-Up’, he didn’t have to wonder what its source was. If anything, he was thankful that the Greater Pantheon had made joining this operation so easy for deities like himself.
“You should sign up too, Thessa.” He encouraged his sister with a smile. “Haven’t you been practicing how to perform indirect attacks ever since that last battle against these guys?”
Thessa hesitated for a moment before nodding, pulling out her own crystal and registering. Each of these crystals had their personal information recorded in them since their initial activation, so they did not have to fill out things such as their names or divine domains, as all of that was taken care of for them. Of course, it was pointless for someone to try to steal that information to use it for nefarious purposes, given that it was public knowledge, and not something as secretive as a bank password.
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Ashley sat within a dark office, staring at the holographic screen in front of her. This screen was rapidly filling with a list of names, people who were choosing to sign up for the upcoming mobilization request. Seeing some of their domains, she couldn’t help but let out a low groan. “Gah… I told her that advertising the reward would backfire… What’s a God of Navigation going to do to help in this fight?”
As she thought about that, she began highlighting certain names. Those who appeared to simply be joining the event to get some free faith were marked red, while those who had questionable abilities were marked as orange. These groups would be specifically monitored by Keliope once the fight began. If their actions only resulted in harming the rest of the defending party, their contribution would be judged to be negative.
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For those finding themselves in such a position, not only would they not get any rewards, but some of their own faith would be deducted as a penalty. This was something that Ashley had personally suggested as a compromise when Udona insisted on including the reward in the broadcast. “Let’s see if leeches like this keep interfering with future requests…” She muttered to herself as she kept highlighting the names.
Naturally, as this was her suggestion, it was also determined to be her that was in charge of filtering through the list of applicants to find those who were likely to earn such negative contribution. It was unfortunate, but the goddesses did not have the desire to personally screen everyone’s training method to uncover their abilities one by one. Besides, if they were able to set up a system using this as the foundation in the future, it would be possible to automate the process of such requests.
If that did happen, automated requests would naturally not be overseen by a group of deities measuring everyone’s contribution. Ashley was already working on such a system now, using the quest system as the foundation. However, it would be hard to tell how long such a system would take to complete, as there were many facets that she had to create herself, with this event serving as a test run to see if the idea of it would even work.
“Huh?” Suddenly, one of the names on the list caught Ashley’s attention, as it was someone that she had not personally seen before, yet had heard much about in the past. “Sinclair’s joining?” She hesitated when she saw his name, before ultimately highlighting it orange.
While it wasn’t clear that the God of the Lost would be a detriment to their team, it was also hard to say how he would use his domain to fight. There was always the concern that his domain would force him to lose a fight or a gamble, depending on how the person himself perceives their abilities. There were known cases already of people interpreting their domains as curses, and those curses becoming reality due to the nature of divine energy.
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Udona stared at the floating city which hovered high above the planet Earth. Though it existed far outside of the atmosphere, enough so that many people mistook it for a star on a clear night, it was bustling with activity. Udona could see thousands of people walking the streets merrily, going about their business as if everything was ordinary.
If someone hadn’t known beforehand, they would never believe that each of those people were only a ghost, a projection created through divine power that was granted new life within the city. And as she watched, she seemed to hesitate, torn between approaching the city or going back from whence she came.
As she was getting ready to turn around and leave, she caught sight of a woman resting in one of the rooms of the central palace. A kitsune woman who was slowly brushing her hair near an open window, staring out into the city. Udona’s breath caught in her throat when she saw that, her resolve to leave shaken. Closing her eyes, she made up her mind to approach.
Her body passed through the barrier surrounding the city as if it didn’t exist, and she quickly came to appear within that room. When she did, the woman turned around, and immediately threw her brush towards Udona with a heavy pout. “About time you stop by!” She said indignantly.
Udona had not been expecting that sort of reaction, and the brush hit her squarely on the forehead. Obviously, a wooden brush would not do any damage to the body of a Greater Goddess. Regardless, she brought her hands up to her head and crouched down dramatically, as if she had been struck a mortal blow.
“I mean, really? Do you think we haven’t seen you hovering outside the city?” The kitsune asked, walking over and placing her hands squarely on her hips, looking down at Udona. “You just show up, watch for a while, and then leave. You don’t have any time to say hi to an old friend?”
“I-It’s not--” Udona’s embarrassed words were cut off as the other suddenly dropped to her knees, wrapping her arms around the greater goddess. “Bria…” She muttered softly.
“Really… why didn’t you actually come in before… it’s been too long.” Udona could feel Bria’s shoulders shaking, and so she stopped the wounded act, bringing her arms up to hold onto her friend as well.
“I’m sorry…” Udona whispered, her arms tightening. It had taken a lot of time for her to accept Bria’s death. Whenever she came to ‘visit’, she would always be reminded of those memories. The time that they spent together… and the time that she watched her friend die in front of her.
To the goddess, it had become harder and harder to approach Bria as time passed, because accepting her friend’s death meant accepting that she wasn’t there anymore. Bria was dead, and there was no getting around that. What she was holding now was an illusion, one created from a recording of Bria’s soul taken prior to her death. Udona knew that it wasn’t the same thing as the real Bria, but… it was still her friend.
As the Goddess of Life, Udona could clearly tell that this Bria both was and wasn’t alive. She was a shadow sustained by a special power. And sometimes… just sometimes, she wished she didn’t have the ability to sense that. She wished she could just lose herself in the idea that Bria was still truly there, that her friend hadn’t perished in her attempt at ascension.
But… now that she was here, now that Bria was holding her and crying into her shoulder, a different thought crossed her mind. So what if this wasn’t the same Bria that she watched perish? So what if she was stuck on the precipice between being alive and dead? This was Bria… at least, some form of her. She had thoughts and feelings, a heart that was infinitely close to the Bria she knew.
Didn’t that Bria deserve her friend? “I’m sorry…” Udona’s voice became softer when she came to that thought, realizing that she had been depriving Bria of one of her oldest friends for so long. “I’m here…”
“Yeah, I see that, dummy.” Bria laughed sadly, pulling back and wiping her eyes. “Tell me you at least brought a game for us to play for a bit? This place might make us feel alive again, but it’s really hard to get something new from the outside world to spice things up.”
“Uh…” Udona briefly panicked, realizing she hadn’t brought anything of the sort. Thankfully, she was the Goddess of Entertainment as well. Conjuring a game or ten on the spot was a simple matter for her. “Yes, I definitely prepared some games for us. Definitely.”
Bria rolled her reddened eyes, a small grin tugging at her lips. She was just glad to finally have her friend back, with Udona being just as awkward as she remembered.