While the forces in Rae 5 were working to rebuild the space stations that had been damaged after the first wave of attacks, the situation in the other layers of the Anomaly Region, where the Koleska and the Defence Fleet were fighting, was much less optimistic.
"Divine One, we cannot keep sending the Generals into combat like this. The Mortal Insects have devised a way to truly destroy them. They are not even returning as the reformative vessels. Whatever method the humans have devised, it is worse than what they managed to do before the final battles of the last engagement." A serpentine creature addressed the gathered crowd.
The Gods had gathered to discuss the situation with the battle against the mortals, and the mood was quite sombre. Most of them didn't pay any attention at all to the situation, and only lent power to their fleets of loyal species.
They had made them from samples taken from the mortal species, and then combined them with their own powers to create new species to serve and entertain them.
A formless black cloud flickered with lights as it turned its attention toward the speaker. "Those fragments are disposable. Soon, I will have recovered enough to stabilize my form, and they will no longer matter. The time of the mortals is at its end, and this time they will not stop me."
The gathered Gods bowed down under the oppressive weight of the creature's attention.
It was the greatest of them, a God which had absorbed the powers of another of their kind, giving it powers far beyond any other, save for the madman of the Green Tide.
"Did our effort succeed?" One of the other Gods, a light elemental god that embodied the aspects of stability between the stars, asked curiously.
It was one of the many whose aspects didn't involve living creatures. It cared nothing about the battle, but the Divine One before them had the power to suppress it if there was any hint of disloyalty, so it was eager for the situation to be over and done with so it could get back to observing the stars and return to the prime layer.
Until this idiotic battle ended and the Divine One recovered, it was forbidden for them to return to that layer, and there were no stars here to observe. The God was living in their own personal hell, but the choice had been made millions of years ago, and it couldn't be unmade now.
"It did. I have all the energy I need, and my power is returning. Soon, I will be able to revive, and then I will be able to escape the dead zone and retake my rightful place." The formless cloud responded.
"What of the Violent One? It has been interfering in our affairs." One of the others asked.
"It cares about nothing but violence. As long as there are battles to be fought, it won't interfere in our business. The fact that it managed to gain so much power is an affront to our entire species. After its pet mortals have been eliminated, I will take care of it personally."
The Gathering of Gods sensed great amusement in their midst at those words, and immediately they were prepared for battle.
"Are you not going to come out?" The formless cloud asked.
"Do I need to come there in person? Do you think that you are my match? Don't forget where your power went the last time that you died." The booming voice of the Myceloid God laughed.
"And now my power is back. You have amused yourself with the mortals for long enough. It is time to purge their virus from the universe." The formless cloud insisted.
"Do what you want. But I am warning you now that you will lose again, and I won't be so kind as to allow you a chance to recover. You have played this game long enough, and I am sick of watching you try. But more than that, I am sick of watching you lose, you pathetic creature." The Myceloid God taunted its kinfolk.
It wasn't alone on the side of the mortals. Though the others were in hiding as much as the rebels were. They were hiding from the Rebels, while the rebels were hiding from the Myceloid God and the Mortals.
The Myceloid God's mind withdrew from their territory, forced out by the combined might of the rebel Gods. They were greatly concerned that the mortal lovers would band together and use their might to stop the battles before the Divine One could fully recover.
Without the battles, the flow of energy from the Prime Layer would stop, and the Divine One would be stuck in limbo, cut off from the essential natural laws that were allowing it to recover. That would be a disaster, and without the flow of power, it could easily be stripped of its power again and forced to start over once more.
As the rebel gods resumed their meeting on the status of the ongoing battle and the awakening of the Divine One, the Myceloid God watched its people battle against the Cathedral Ships and some of the mortal species, while keeping tabs on what was happening in the meeting.
They never learned, it decided. They were incapable of it, and they would do the same things over and over until they were all gone, or they finally managed to win and eliminate the Mortal Races. There was always the chance that they would win, but lately, the Myceloid God was finding them more entertaining, and was reconsidering its position of neutrality in the conflict.
The Cathedral Ships were always so surprised when his green tide attacked them, though they should know by now that he wasn't actually on their side. But the mortals, they just took it in stride. They understood that combat was combat, and that it served its own purpose, not just as an expression of political alliances.
It would have to wait and see. If not this time, then perhaps the next time that the rebels tried to rise up. That should be soon enough, it thought. A few million more years were no big deal.
