When Tiamat heard Sol’s words, she nodded to herself, acknowledging that fact.
“Now that I realize that it’s time for you to go, I must admit that I am feeling rather reluctant to part with my grandson.”
“Gonna miss me?”
“As surprising as it sounds. Indeed. I believe I will be missing you dearly.”
He grinned, giggling a fit after hearing those surprising words. No matter how much joy he felt, however, the answer he received left him a bit speechless. Something that Tiamat did not miss.
“Cat got your tongue, huh? Hahaha…”
“*Cough* Sorry *Ahem* I must say… I am quite surprised by that reply, if I had to be honest.”
“And so am I, dear Sol, so am I…”
“Is it perhaps because…I am Blaze’s son?”
“Huh…? I believe that's not the case. You and Blaze may have some traits in common, but for the most part, you are totally different from your mother. I have no reason to keep comparing her with you. Why the sudden question, however?"
Seeing as how Tiamat was genuinely confused, he could only release a sheepish chuckle as he scratched his head in awkwardness.
He was so used to people's feelings regarding him stemming from what they usually felt towards his parents that he must have projected some of his insecurities towards Tiamat too.
“Either way, there is no reason to miss me, grandma. As soon as I complete the third trial of the goddesses, I will be able to move as I want from the Mortal realm to the Astral realm.”
“I already said I hate being called grandma. Call me Big sis.
Secondly, I understand that you will be able to come and go as you wish sooner or later. But, the flow of time in the Astral realm should enter a new cycle soon. Let’s hope it doesn’t go to a 1:100 rate though.”
The flow of time in the Astral realm was not constant, as it should be obvious already. It was in a flux compared to the Mortal realm and changed in unpredictable patterns. Sometimes increasing and sometimes doing the opposite.
The current cycle was 1 to 12. But you could never anticipate how the flow would change in the next cycle.
Sol nodded and began to walk, observing the room in all its splendor and bleak solitude.
“You know, I am rather curious. Be it you or Gabriel and I guess the other Divine Beasts, why do you always take those giants' throne rooms and live alone there while observing people in your realm? Some kind of god’s complex?”
Tiamat shrugged, “Why do kings have a throne room?”
“To inspire fear and reverence as well as a feeling of awe and inferiority in the hearts of the retainers.”
“Bingo.”
“But you don’t need all that, right?”
“I don’t. But it doesn’t mean those feelings aren’t necessary. Feelings of awe, love, worship, or even fear, all those powerful feelings are necessary to develop the territory until it potentially reaches the rank of the Fabled Divine kingdom. At least that is the theory most Divine beasts decided to work on.”
Unlike other demigods, Divine beasts were bound and limited by the divinity of the goddess from their birth. So they had to find a different way to elevate their kingdom to a state that would help them reach true divinity and finally ascend.
Sol massaged his temple.
‘Well, this isn’t much of a surprise. *sigh*...’
From the moment the faith coins were presented to him, he understood the importance of those things in the greater scheme of things. Why would goddesses need faith coins? Why were faith coins necessary to strengthen a Territory?
One needed enough feelings of faith to light up the divine spark and create the divine kingdom.
Sol summarized that the birth of a new god would be pretty hard to accomplish with just that, if not impossible in its entirety just by pursuing this harrowing path as long as the seven goddesses were present.
He also realized how devious the goddesses must have been to implement such a heretical system that only played to their advantages.
In all seven kingdoms, it was basically obligatory to learn religion from birth. After all, the seven kingdoms were all creations of the goddesses. The goddesses of sins reigned over the royalty running the kingdoms while those of Virtues reigned over the churches.
As such one could say that all the seven kingdoms were Theocracies in their own right. There were no two ways about this.
The amount of faith received from this alone was astonishing. Then you had all the 14 divine beasts and their children. Then all the people needed to create faith coins in order to live.
Summarizing it, Sol could deduce two ways to become a god.
The first one was to gather enough faith and the second one was to embody a concept. Most likely both of those two conditions were a prerequisite simultaneously to finally ascend.
Sol thought this far before shaking his head,
“Stop trying to distract me.”
“Tch!”
Tiamat clicked her tongue. She really thought she could have continued this discussion for a while longer.
“Why do you want me to come down?”
“This is a day you created to honor the dead and enjoy our victory, right? You are the leader, so of course, you must attend.”
His lips were pulled into a small smile, “I want to do some good deeds before leaving this place. Don’t you think it would be interesting to at least try to make the relationship with your children a little better?”
Tiamat pondered silently, not answering for some time. “Truthfully, I don't really care.”
She wasn’t one to be swayed by sentiments. While she loved her children in her one way, she would be the first to recognize that she was in no way parent material much less worthy to be a mother. She had always considered her children more like subordinates she cared for than small children she needed to take care of.
Was she wrong?
Most likely yes. She would be the first to recognize that her way was not the best.
Did her children hate her?
Most likely no. But the bitterness in their hearts was unmistakable. Tiamat had never hidden that she was the kind to play favorites and she didn’t plan to change herself in order to please someone else.
Some may call her selfish, detestable and many such profane names, all of them just might be true, but she was who she was. She would not have it any other way.
“So basically. You are doing what the goddesses did to you?”
Tiamat stopped and looked deeply into Sol's eyes, her tone a bit different from its usual laid-back self, “What do you mean?”
“*Shrug* The goddesses created you guys as weapons, used you, and manipulated you. Before Lucifer rebelled, you guys were basically glorified slaves and even now the situation only became slightly better.”
“You are right.”
“Then… What is the difference between you and them? You created more weapons of war, never really cared for their opinions, never raised nor took care of them, but still expect them to fight and die for you.”
He grinned, “You guys are truly horrible people, you know?”
Tiamat stayed silent before a smile graced her lips. “So what? I am indeed horrible. I never pretended to be the opposite. I am not a hypocrite, at least, if that's what you're aiming to establish through your talks.”
“Then why not become even more horrible? Come down with me, act as if you really cared for them. Pass some time with them, take care of them, and love them. Then they will be even more willing to fight and die for you.”
Tiamat was stumped, she looked incredulously at Sol before exploding in laughter,
“Do you even hear what you are saying?”
“I do. But am I wrong? True zealots do not come from fear but because of the absolute faith and belief that exists in their hearts. If you are really such a horrible person, why not use their feeling?”
He grinned, “Of course, if the reality is that deep down you love your children but distance yourself because you do not want to use their feelings for your own use and manipulate them, then tell me. In that case you should still come down so that you can spend some time with those you love.”
“So, either way, I still need to come down, don't I?”
“Indeed. Whether it’s from a logical or an emotional standpoint, there are no downsides and only advantages. So why stay here and observe when you can follow me and have some fun?”
He stretched his hand toward Tiamat with a confident smile, to which Tiamat answered with a troubled smirk.
Standing up, she took his hand, overlapping it with hers, “Do not believe that your sophistry managed to convince me?”
“Oh. Do not worry, I would never presume so.”
Sol knew that his arguments were not that convincing. Though they were pretty funny he must say. If Tiamat really did not want to come, then nothing he said would have changed her opinion.
The fact of the matter though was that she did want to come and all she needed was an excuse. An excuse that Sol gave her.
“Let’s go.”
———
When Tiamat appeared on the beach, the silence that spread was suffocating. Sol nearly laughed out loud when he saw some dragons nearly spit the food in their mouth or try to run.
Thankfully, Kiyohime managed to calm down everyone as she approached Tiamat and gave her a silent hug.
The cheer that followed were deafening in the truest sense of the way and the party entered a new crescendo. It was like all of them were injected with some super drugs, that forced them to fight harder in the following contest.
All so that they could show off to Tiamat.
It was so much that when Nabu and Sekhmet appeared, while people gave an uncomfortable glance in Nabu's direction, they mostly stayed quiet. After all, if Tiamat herself did not mind them being here, who were they to think differently?
The highlight of the day came when they made a contest for the best swimsuit and Tiamat participated in it.
Everyone had their breath taken away.
Tiamat's bikini was in no way lewd, despite showing most of her skin. The aura she emitted was simply so overpowering that people didn’t even dare to have lewd thoughts about her.
The one to win this contest was surprisingly Skuld. Sol couldn't help but praise how ballsy the judges were and he laughed when Skuld began to taunt Tiamat about her victory.
It ended with her being thrown around like some rag doll but from the way she still laughed, he summarized that it was worth it in her eyes.
Skuld also managed to convince Verdandi to come and while she wasn’t as active as Skuld, it seemed that she still managed to have some fun.
It would have been perfect if Sheherazade was also present. Sadly, she was still evolving and couldn’t be disturbed. He was sure that Isis would tease her about how she missed this day for quite a long time.
In the end, Tiamat released her control, and the fake sun and the blue sky slowly vanished before being replaced by the starry night, thereby signaling the end of the party.
For one day, everyone forgot the worries that plagued their heart.
For one day, people had fun together, irrespective of who they were or how large the difference in power or influence was.
It was a fun day. Truly a day Sol believed he would never forget.
He wished that in the future, he would be able to bring forth something even better.
It was on those thoughts that Sol decided to go back to his small house and sleep. After all, he would soon leave.
But what he saw when he arrived made all thoughts of sleeping vanish from his mind.
(AN: Honestly, I wish I could expand this arc more. There are so many things I wanted to show. Perhaps expand more on Tiamat and her children's relationship. But it would take another ten chapters and I don’t think you guys would like this. Now the true last arc of this vol. Time for some *plot*.)
