Chapter 968: Shiro-Hime.
"That is..." Victor coughed lightly to indicate he was recovering from the shock. "That is quite surprising..."
Victor's words echoed the thoughts of everyone present. They had pondered many possibilities of what Hela wanted. But none of these possibilities considered that the goddess wanted to sell the pantheon.
It is worth noting that the land where the pantheon stood was highly significant, especially due to the recent fusion of the underworld. The authority one would gain with this land was unprecedented.
"I am curious." A beautiful, cold voice resonated around them. The group looked towards the voice, their eyes falling on Violet.
With just one glance from the gods, they realized how beautiful she was. It wasn't an irregular beauty like that of Aphrodite and Victor, where their entire existence was perfect to behold, but still, she did not lose to them.
The reason for this was obvious: she was a dragoness, and she also had Victor's blessing of beauty. Not only she had it, all of Victor's wives had this blessing from him.
Victor pampered his wives greatly, so such an act was not strange coming from him.
"Why did you decide this?"
"It is too much trouble for what it's worth to go through for a mere piece of land." Hela spoke disdainfully, not to Violet, but to the entire situation she was in.
"Not to mention, I bet that once the pantheons learned of my situation, even with the non-interference agreement until at least the sector rose in level, I would suffer interference from your part, those present here."
Her eyes looked at each god with a cold gaze. Faced with this gaze, the gods did not shrink or show anything visible. After all, even if they didn't openly say it, Hela's words were correct.
Conflicts couldn't happen 'publicly,' but as long as no one found out and it didn't become something large-scale, it was all right, wasn't it?
In the end, it was obvious that they would always prioritize their own interests, although they didn't have supernaturally powerful intelligence like Victor's, she knew that some of the pantheons were forming secret alliances, as was the case with the Celts and Hinduism.
In fact, it could be said that after Victor, the only faction that was growing significantly was the pantheon led by Shiva... Yes, Shiva. Despite being the God King, Indra's words didn't carry the same weight as Shiva's.
All the supernatural beings who were cautious against The Dragon Nest, and its leader Victor Alucar – Elderblood were seeking Shiva to form an alliance.
The reason for this was because of Shiva's own existence, and Kali, whom the beings believed to be of the same caliber as Victor.
An idea that was certainly correct NOW, but not in the future, it is worth noting that Victor is only a New god who has not fully developed his divinity, at the moment, when he develops his divinities more, not even Shiva and Kali could be compared to him by anyone.
A notion that was incredibly foolish to Hela, but she couldn't blame them, after all, they hadn't had an 'out-of-this-world' [Literally] experience like the other Victor, and recently interacted enough with the current Victor to see how abnormal he was.
Shiva, and Kali on the same level as Victor? Pfft, please, they are far inferior compared to Victor. The difference wasn't just about being strong or not.
It was EVERYTHING else. Victor had a stronger faction. Super powerful wives whose strongest were as abnormal as he, gods from various pantheons as his subordinates, did she forget to mention the true dragons? In terms of leadership, subordinates, potential, influence, appearance, all other beings felt quite... inadequate.
Because of this, when Hela thought about her decision to sell the Nordic pantheon, she saw that it was indeed the best decision she could make, then after selling the pantheon, all she had to do was join the Dragon Nest as a lifelong mercenary, or something like that, and enjoy her peace.
There's a small bonus that for some reason, Fenrir, Jormungand, and surprisingly even the END Dragon got along very well with Victor.
Although the dragon is understandable, after all, Victor is the Progenitor of the blood dragons, essentially in status, he was much older than the Elder Dragon.
'Dragon Emperor...' Hela had a sudden thought, a title she found quite fitting for Victor, a title that would join the long list of titles that beings themselves gave to him.
'Come to think of it, why do these beings like to give titles to powerful gods?' Hela thought. 'Perhaps that's a way they admire the strong.'
As her mind wandered in this way, she realized why Jormungand liked Victor, it was because his brother was a snake, and Victor was essentially the progenitor of all reptiles.
Waking up to reality, Hela continued: "... My goals have been accomplished, I have taken everything I promised Odin I would take."
"I wanted my revenge, and I got it. The rest is just an extra."
"So you are already satisfied, and now you just want to enjoy your revenge." Violet spoke as for a moment, she looked at Thor with a disgusted face due to the position he was in.
Hela smiled gently indicating to everyone that she liked Violet's expression towards Thor. As a dragon, she naturally respects strength a lot, this was her most basic instinct, to see someone who lost their powerful status only filled her with disdain.
"Revenge is a dish that must be savored slowly." Hela spoke. "I bet everyone here can agree with me on that."
Although not expressing themselves, the gods internally agreed with Hela. After all, everyone present here, even Shiva, had some kind of conflict in their long lives.
Except for the heavenly father, of course, he didn't believe in slow revenge, he just prefers to end it all quickly and not worry about it anymore. He wasn't that sadistic.
"I understand... So, what will be the procedure for interested parties to want to buy the pantheon?" Violet asked.
"As I initially said, offer me treasures, divine materials, anything. If I think I like it, I will give you the key to the Nordic pantheon."
"So it's not an auction, but rather an exchange of your interests, huh." Violet spoke.
"You could say that," Hela nodded, what Violet said wasn't exactly wrong; she already had everything she wanted from the Nordic pantheon, and all the materials from that place were properly stored in a safe place, as were the treasures... Ridiculously lower than she had expected.
It was obvious that Victor's faction had stolen some treasures while she was at war, a fact that made her even more irritated. Therefore, she wanted to be... Compensated.
"Hmm~" Violet's eyes shimmered slightly, and in the next moment, she moved.
Unconsciously, all those who were not in Victor's faction tensed slightly at Violet's hand movement. The woman who stood incredibly erect in a posture like a true lady for some reason made everyone tense; it must be the fact that she was Victor's 'main' wife, they mistakenly thought.
Little did they know that it was more than that, these two months hadn't gone in vain; the wives had also developed, in terms of divinity, there was little Victor could do to help them other than nourishing their souls, after all, divinity is a journey of self-discovery.
What they were feeling now was the remnants of Violet's divinity.
<Order>
This was Violet's divinity, and like all those related to Victor, it wasn't a common divinity, but something more. Instead of something as simple as just Order, she had Order, and Obsession.
These two simple divinities represented the woman known as Violet well; after all, she was obsessive enough to do anything for her husband, even to burn the world for him, but at the same time had enough order not to burn those close to him, like his first wife and empress; she must keep everything in order for her husband to spoil her so that her obsession is satisfied.
These two divinities intertwined so well that it was very strange; the Order that should be a divinity that needed to maintain the universe in 'balance' was changed to something that kept the existence of everyone around Victor in an obsessive and at the same time chaotic order, unconsciously driving Victor's Yandere divinity.
Victor's Yandere divinity was feeding Violet's Obsessive Order, and this made the two work incredibly well together.
Consequently, Victor's wives became even more obsessive than before... Which for everyone else would be a big problem, but for Victor, it was very welcome.
Again, such a proportional increase in obsession could cause various conflicts to occur, but nothing had happened or changed; everything was chaotically normal as it always was.
Of course, most of this fact is due to Victor knowing very well how to pamper and satisfy his wives, and he knew how to punish them when they crossed the line. Although he rarely needed to do so, after all, the disappointment he would feel from the girls is even more frightening to them than the punishment they would receive.
Women like Natashia, Agnes, Maria, Roberta, Aphrodite, and Violet herself, who constantly bickered around, knew very well when not to overdo it and just be a big enough fight for Victor to punish them... Something they began to actively seek after experiencing the punishment.
These remnants of two divinities within Violet naturally caused discomfort around the gods; because of this, everyone felt strange momentarily.
They knew they were feeling a divinity, but they didn't know what it was; they had never seen anything like it, something so... Wrong. It was as if someone took a concept like pure Love and corrupted it to become something more that they didn't know.
Violet made a gesture as if picking up a chess piece with her finger, and in the next moment, a black piece resembling a very macabre rook appeared in her hand; she placed this rook piece on the table.
All the gods looked at that 'tower' with a horrified look; the amount of dangerous divinities mixed there was too perilous. Soul, Death, END, Begin, Life, and even they could feel traces of War, destruction, and time.
That chess-like piece was a divine artifact of the highest level! And this woman touched it so casually like that.
Even Hela recoiled in front of that piece, but the reason was different; the reason was that she felt the traces of the END of her brother Fenrir, it's an unknown END god, probably being parts of Typhoon's body. This was the only END god she didn't know personally.
'So it was for the creation of this that Victor wanted my brother's help.' Hela thought.
"I offer you the Nightmare Tower, a recently created growth artifact by one of our forge gods Hephaestus, and my husband." Thanatos was involved in the endeavor as well, as were Fenrir and Typhoon, but that was irrelevant information now.
The gods looked at Victor who continued to sit and smile naturally, knowing that this artifact had the hands of not only Victor but also the god Hephaestus made it quite desirable and unique for everyone. The simple fact that such a small artifact could contain so many different divinities made them question the sanities of all the old gods present.
Even The Limbo Guy himself was surprised, but for a different reason. 'That tower is... Like a planet, its own dimension, where no one can die, and if they die they are reborn without any problem, even in the process of death the soul would be nourished to become stronger. A place that exists in an eternal loop.'
The creation in front of him was worthy enough to be called the creation of an artifact made by primordials, composing concepts that they also had in their prison, the concept of the eternal loop was not something he thought he would see outside of his domain. But what slightly frightened him the most was that this was not made by a primordial but by a god!
"... Nightmare Tower? Growth artifact...?" Hela asked. "What is this?"
"As the name suggests, it's one of our artifacts that we use for training."
These words caught everyone's attention even more; could this be the secret of Victor's faction's strength? These thoughts passed through everyone's minds.
"Inside this tower, there is a space that is in constant eternal loop with adversaries and the most difficult beasts faced by my husband, a place created for training, even if you die here, all that will happen is you being revived, and your soul will be nourished. You may just not gain fighting experience, as a possible enlightenment for divinity... Oh, of course, with the recent update, the time scale inside the tower is 1000 years in there is 7 days out here."
"This is a personal artifact that my family and I use for training."
...The words took a full 10 seconds to be absorbed by these powerful gods; they were so shocked by the existence of such an artifact that they literally had no reaction.
Suddenly, understanding hit everyone; if what the empress said was true, the artifact on the table had immeasurable value; it was something akin to a nuclear bomb for countries, something that completely changes the power game.
The greedy eyes of the gods turned to the artifact; even Shiva himself was not exempt from this. If he had this artifact in his hands, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that he could solve their faction's strength issues.
The Heavenly Father looked at the artifact, which could be described as an even greater creation than one made by a creation god, and then looked at Victor. Unlike everyone else, he didn't focus on the artifact itself, but on the person responsible for its creation.
'I need to somehow marry Ariel or other angels to him as soon as possible.' Being on Victor's side was simply a game-changer.
The reason he wasn't greedy for the artifact? It was because he focused on the words said by Violet, 'recent update'. These words meant only one thing: this tower could be further improved in the future, into a version that would be even stronger than this.
The Heavenly Father looked at Amaterasu and Haruna, seeing their lack of reaction, which only meant that they already knew about it. It was proof of the Heavenly Father's previous thoughts: being Victor's wife was the greatest benefit to him.
"What do you think?" Violet asked with a gentle smile, seemingly ignorant of the gods' reaction, which she wasn't, after all, all of this was planned.
"... This is a very useful artifact."
The gods restrained themselves from rolling their eyes; a very useful artifact?! This could literally change the entire game! Such a powerful tool!
"But unfortunately, I'm not interested," Hela spoke with incredible difficulty, as if she really wasn't interested.
'Damn it, if it weren't for Victor's instructions, I would have accepted!' She growled internally.
"I see... It's a shame... Then... Hmm..." Violet picks up the artifact, and it disappears; in the next moment, she retrieves a large science fiction spaceship and places it on the table.
"Strategic continental ship, Shiro-Hime. My personal ship, equipped with the latest updates from our faction, capable of traveling in space, self-sustaining, and with a cannon that can blow up an entire planet into cosmic dust with just a button, the core is made from a yellow star, effectively with infinite energy."
"A wonderful technological beauty that blends runes and science."
"... What do you think?" Violet asked with a smile.
Again, the whole meeting fell silent in the face of Violet's outrageous words.
Victor laughed inwardly at everyone's expression. 'My beloved wife doesn't mess around.' To be honest, Victor himself was shocked when Velnorah presented the first prototype of this ship; he didn't expect her to work so quickly.
But he should have expected that, after all, she could control technology being a technomancer, she could literally build several ships with a wave of her hand as long as she had the resources to do so, she said it took her a long time to build because she had problems stabilizing the star of an isolated form that did not generate gravitational fields, and because of the runes themselves, after all, she was not proficient in runes.
Not to mention that it took her even longer because she wanted to do all the finishing work herself, after all, it was the first ship that would be a gift to the empress, if she asked for help from Scathach or Dun Scaith, the process would be faster.
Apart from that fact, the rest was easy, the ship's hull was literally built in 3 days with the combination of Velnorah and Hephaestus.
If she accepted outside help, she could have finished everything in a week.
And how long did it take Velnora to build the ship alone?
45 days… Just 45 days. Something that will get even faster when it automates the entire process.
'No wonder my wife's race dominated her sector, they are very competent… If they had infinite resources, and the information she has now, Velnorah wouldn't have lost the first moment she went to a higher level sector.' Victor thought.
.....
