In a world filled with dark clouds and black lightning showering the environment constantly, the Divine Realm of Geggoron, the Demon Demigod roared in excruciating pain.
"G-GRRRRRAAAAA…!"
He had tried to obtain the memories of his split souls so he could gather some intel from Kireina and her wives fight… but something strange interrupted him from obtaining such info.
The pain he was suffering was severe, and he could not even gather any information this time.
To make it even worse, Geggoron already concluded that every Split Soul was eaten by Kireina, while none of her party, absolutely none of them ended up perishing... It was ridiculous for Geggoron.
Even when he gave them those artifacts to auto-destruct themselves in hopes of damaging Kireina's wives… it was futile.
"Ungh…! Gaaahh… T-That Kireina… and her group… are all of them as strong as her?! And they even destroyed my split souls, which should be something impossible for mere mortals! They cannot damage souls… unless Kireina is capable of sharing the Divinity Devouring Skill with them? Or worse, they already have it?! So, it is not just her who is a problematic mortal, her entire family of fiends is! …This is getting out of hands…!"
However, Geggoron saw that he did not have many options. He was mostly a Lone God, he had connections with other Lone Gods, but these connections were not friends or allies, he could not rely on their help at all.
Even worst, if he were to call them, they would probably backstab him and grab all the benefits if they managed to defeat Kireina, he could not trust anyone.
Geggoron's divinity was Hate, distrust, and Nightmares. He used Nightmares to brainwash mortals and instill Hate into them, so they could become berserk warriors ready to die for his cause.
However, because of such Divinity, Geggoron was also greedy, selfish, and impulsive. He could not let others take what he was aiming for, even if they could help him out defeat her, he couldn't let the possibility of them stealing all of his hard efforts.
He was alone into this… or so he thought.
But there was also Athena, who was 'backing him'. She had given him all these special artifacts that her split souls were using, and there was a special one.
An artifact crafted by Hephaestus himself, the God of Crafting and Blacksmithing. Capable of granting a mortal vessel possessed by a divine entity the full extent of the powers of that entity.
If that were to be possible, the power that gods would exert when possessing mortals could be even greater and destructive… and if the artifact was capable of doing as it promised, the mortal could also become capable of supporting the god's entire existence and merge with it completely, becoming a true mortal vessel and be capable of learning powerful skills and techniques. Similar to Zudig, the Dragon Zombie Demigod.
But why would Athena give him such a powerful artifact?
Geggoron was the God of Hateful Distrust, and he did not trust Athena at all.
It was most likely to try it out, so Athena and Hephaestus could detect the artifact's flaws through Geggoron, serving as a guinea pig for their experiment.
Geggoron was deeply enraged and wary about this and decided to only use the artifacts on strong split souls instead of himself. He would never descend and possess a vessel with his original divine soul, as Kireina would be most likely lurking around, waiting for him.
If the artifacts were to fail and Kireina were to defeat him… he would be devoured mercilessly.
At least Geggoron knew that Kireina could never enter his Divine Realm unless he were to invite her and open a portal right before her nose.
She was a mortal, after all, she had a series of insane skills and abilities, and could even damage gods, but she did not have the basic capabilities of what made gods.
Such as Divine Realms, Divine Energy Production, and a wide variety of Divine Techniques.
She only had a few tools, but was not a true God… or was it?
Certainly, Geggoron had no idea about Kireina's ability to create an Inner Realm inside her soul, which was remarkably similar to Divine Realms and perhaps even better as she was capable of creating dungeons inside of them…
And he also did not know that just recently, she obtained a Pseudo Demi Divinity about Dreams and Nightmares after eating many Split Souls of Geggoron.
Geggoron only concluded that Kireina had some Space Attribute Magic spells capable of connecting her to her Empire, and this was how she moved the citizens of Moonfang.
"Although this is getting out of hands… There are still many tools for me to use against her! Yes, perhaps she might have conquered Moonfang and stolen all the citizens that worshiped me, but Sunclaw remains within my control! I will receive her with open arms with a massive army of monstrosities, and the talented warriors possessed by my Split Souls… I have not gone all out yet, Kireina! I will make sure to make you regret becoming my enemy, and those Beast Gods mercenary!" roared Geggoron, his entire dark body expanded around his Divine Realm as he began to grab on the different Divine Beasts that he was nourishing, extracting their flesh…
"Even though that despicable fiend killed the monstrosity that was being developed to be my perfect mortal vessel, I still can use Divine Beasts Flesh into the unstable vessels of my Split Souls, so whenever they mutate, their strength will increase exponentially! …even if I cannot create the perfect mortal body, I can create an army of monstrosities as strong as Living Deities! Gahahahaha! Do you want to save these dogs so much, don't you, Kireina?! Well, it would be terrible if they were to all mutate before you could even save them! What will you do?! What will you do then?! I cannot wait to see her face! As she despairs, I shall take her life and those of her allies, they shall become excellent vessels! Gahahaha!"
Geggoron laughed maliciously as he used this opportunity while Kireina was still in Moonfang to release a large domain inside of the capital of Sunclaw, commanding his Split Souls Vessels to do as he said, the royal family of two of the four heroes of Sunclaw began to 'mutate' the citizens by infusing small quantities of Divinity into their bodies.
The people could not resist, as most of them fell immediately unconscious when Geggoron released that domain, its pressure was overwhelming for most of the common folk.
Geggoron then began to spread Divine Beast Flesh to every promising monstrosity, alongside the artifacts to the vessels possessing the largest Split Souls.
Through this arduous task, he began to spend large amounts of Divine Energy, but the Demon Demigod was sure that it would bring fruitful results. Even if he had to sacrifice all of his worshippers, he was betting everything on this.
Meanwhile, inside of Marnet, the Beast Demigod of Canines and Dog Beastmen Divine Realm, the Living Deities, and the Demigod himself felt the terrible presence of their children slowly transforming and mutating… losing their natures and having their bloodlines corrupted, alongside their souls.
"What is happening to our children?!"
"Father, what is going on?!"
"That damned Geggoron, is he really going to convert the entire population?! Our children!"
"As he went insane?! If he does that he will be left with no worshipers!"
"I can't take this, father, we must descend! Kireina has not reached Sunclaw yet…! We must hurry before it's too late!!!"
The different Living Deities, children of Marnet and father or mothers of the varied subspecies of Dog Beastmen, from Foxes, Wild Dogs, Wolves, Hyena, Coyote, and more implored their father to let them intervene.
Marnet was sweating intensively, if Kireina were to take too long, not even one of his children would be left, it would truly an atrocious event…
"Don't be foolish! If you go down, you will only be devoured by Geggoron, just like it almost happened to Mohini! We must trust in Kireina, I will contact her through Agatheina, even if I have… even if I have to pay with another piece of my soul if I can convince her to hurry up…!"
"Wait, father, you have weakened yourself enough…!" muttered one of his children.
"We will help, even if we are so weak that Geggoron can just eat us… at least, let us cooperate!" said another.
"Father, you must not give more of your soul, if you do, you will fall into a long slumber until you recover…"
"We are all the progenitor of our children. We shall offer Kireina, our only possible savior, a piece of our soul, our divinity!"
"Let's do it!"
"Ugh…! It hurts… but if it's for my children…!"
An incredible spectacle of self-sacrifice was unfolded in front of Marnet. The Living Deity, his strongest children were still nothing compared to Geggoron. Understanding this fact, they decided to take a piece of their souls and divinities, using such compensation to incentive Kireina to act quickly.
Kireina had already made all of them understand that she had a slow phase most of the time, and if she were to be annoyed by them to hurry up, she might end up being angered and reject helping them.
The best way to approach her, according to Morpheus and Agatheina, was to give her incentives. And the one she enjoyed the most was the divinities of gods.
Even if it pained them deeply and hurt their pride, Marnet's children wanted the safety of their children above everything else. Although the pieces were small or they would end up falling into a slumber as well, when they all gathered, they were many.
Marnet, after all, had a dozen of Living Deity Children, even if their cooperation was small, if all gathered together, it became a respectable 'incentive' for Kireina.
After hearing such news from Marnet's mouth, Agatheina could not help but release a chuckle of maliciousness. After all, she was the goddess who was the most enamored by Kireina, she wanted to give her everything, and seeing all these Living Deities self-sacrificing themselves for the sake of her help granted her a lot of pleasure.
"It seems that your children had finally understood, Marnet! The greatness of Kireina-sama! The only one that can help you out! Very well, such offerings will greatly please my beloved and supreme Master! Fufufu~" laughed Agatheina, taking on the dozens of flask filled with divinities made into elixirs, and contacting Kireina through the artifact that she gave to her previously.
Although Agatheina blessed Kireina, she couldn't speak telepathically with her without Kireina's permission, so it was better to still use the artifact in times where she couldn't wait for Kireina to notice her voice, which would often be heard as murmurs in Kireina's mind, which had a natural ability to block most of Gods interventions.
Although Kireina was surprised by Jormungandr or Morpheus in the past, she had managed to develop a special mental barrier, and after increasing her ability to manipulate dreams, she also generated an automatic barrier made out of dreams, so not even by using Freyja's services the gods could contact her.
They all needed to contact Agatheina directly. This way, Agatheina became something very similar to a secretary or a mediator of Kireina with every God that wanted her help… she had developed a businesswoman personality, and was always quite greedy for God's cooperation in nourishing Kireina's strength.
She would receive any God with open arms… as long as they brought incentives and offerings for Kireina beforehand.
She glanced at the dozens of flasks with a mischievous smile.
"Fufufu, Kireina-sama will be so happy after seeing this gift inside of her Item Box!" she laughed.
"Indeed, it shall please Kireina-sama!" said Bovdohr, the Demigod of Eclipses.
"Haah~ I want to see Kireina-sama's beautiful smile! I can't wait for it~!" said Nomera, the Demigoddess of Eclipses.
"Ah, these three get pretty scary when they showcase their obsession with Kireina…" muttered Levana, the Beast Demigoddess of Bats and Bat Beastmen, granddaughter of Agatheina. She was a bit concerned about her grandmother… she had changed way too much since Kireina appeared in her life. And now with these two new demigods, which were just as fanatical, it seems that her fanatism had increased even further.
"Well… as long as she is happy…" she concluded.
