Chapter 829 – One of our gods (Patreon)

Phoebe smiled, seemingly unbothered by the sting in Percy’s voice. She glanced at the scarred fields surrounding the mountain before gesturing at the amber lake the wasps had produced.

“Machaon is dead, and you’ve registered another Extreme spell – one that lets you fight something like six grades above your own under the right circumstances,” she pointed out. “I understand that the past few years haven’t been pleasant, but it’s difficult to argue with the results.”

“It’s not the war I’m complaining about,” Percy replied. The titaness raised an eyebrow, prompting him to elaborate. “You wanted me to deal with the Great Houses by myself. Fine. I would have honestly preferred for you to execute their leaders and spare us all the bloodshed sixteen years ago, but I understood your reasoning. The problem is that they weren’t the only enemies I’ve made in that time, and the others might not be so easy for you to squash.”

“Meaning?”

“Have you heard of a mind god called Baphomet?”

“You didn’t…” Phoebe’s smile vanished. “How?”

Percy hadn’t needed that reaction to confirm how serious his encounter with the goat deity had been, but it certainly didn’t make him feel any better.

“While you were having fun watching me struggle against the nobles, I accidentally pissed a couple of greater springs off, which led to them hiring Baphomet to crawl into my head. I almost killed Micky with my own hands and only managed to break out of the possession by activating the Void Decree and stealing the mind cores from the bastard’s minions. The problem is that he learned about my bloodline, the Ring of Sacrilege, the Dance, my extra mana cores, and even the Fungal Spire. I’ve spent years trying to tell you, but you were nowhere to be seen and kept ignoring…”

Percy’s voice trailed off as he remembered that all of it was still his fault. Aje and the Attendant had warned him against auctioning the secret of the cyan powder off, yet Percy had gone ahead with it anyway, convinced that his precautions would be enough. And all of that for a prize that he had yet to even claim. Sure, Percy was a little angry at Phoebe for ignoring him for so many years, but he was in no position to blame anyone else.

“Sorry,” he muttered, some of the heat leaving his voice. “I’m the one who caused this mess. I just wanted to inform you about it sooner rather than later, because I don’t think that this is something I should keep handling by myself.”

The titaness studied him for a moment before nodding, her gaze firm but calm. “Tell me everything.”

She sat down atop the glowing cap of the mushroom, her plain, tattered rags painting quite a stark contrast against its colourful surface. Patting the spot right next to her, she invited Percy to join.

Some cracking sounds emanating from deep below them suggested that the stem of the enormous fungus might have not survived Micky’s take-off as unscathed as Percy had thought, so they would probably have to remove the mushroom entirely before it toppled over and caused widespread damage on the settlement. However, Phoebe gave Percy a look suggesting that she would handle this herself before she left.

Sitting next to the beautiful goddess, Percy recounted his experiences over the past couple of decades, explaining everything about not just the void tournament, the auctions he had participated in, and his brush with Catharis, but also all the other noteworthy places he had visited.

He only avoided saying anything about Melodia because he was still under a spectral contract that prevented him from revealing any information about the giant myriapede. Luckily, everything else was fair game, and the titaness didn’t press him to share anything that he didn’t volunteer.

Phoebe’s expression remained mostly unperturbed, though even a deity as old and seasoned as her failed to remain entirely calm when Percy went over his time in the void tournament and the Sapphire Pavilion, or his interactions with Ishkuria, Baphomet, and even Remior’s projection.

“That explains a lot of things…” she muttered after he was done. “You were right to reach out. I should have heard you out sooner, but I genuinely thought that you were trying to get me to end the war for you, and I didn’t want to ruin this training opportunity. For what it’s worth, I doubt a decade or two would have made much of a difference. I agree with the ring’s assessment that we should have a few millennia at a minimum left before Baphomet recovers.”

Percy exhaled in relief. He’d been clinging to that reassurance for years, though hearing Phoebe agree with Zoris about the timescale certainly helped him relax slightly.

“Where does that leave us?” he asked. “Do you think that other factions will kill him and solve our problem?”

“It’s hard to know whether anyone has even learned of his injuries, since even the part about another party hiring him to possess you is nothing but speculation,” Phoebe reminded him. “We should keep an ear out for news about Catharis regardless, though we should also start working toward a more reliable solution.”

“Such as?”

The titaness fell silent for a few seconds.

“It’s such a pity I can’t just duplicate myself,” she complained with a sigh. “I’m not trying to brag, but an Eighteenth Circle deity is generally strong enough to compete even against the top brass of a faction like Catharis. That’s one of the reasons I felt comfortable letting you explore the universe as you pleased, since most of the deities you might accidentally lead here would be people I could handle. But we don’t have the numbers to resist such a powerful world in its entirety.”

Percy winced. Evidently, he’d managed to exceed her expectations in more ways than one. “Remior’s other gods…?”

She shook her head. “Kronos is the only one stronger than me. Having acquired and mastered two common elements on top of his time affinity and lived for over three million years, he reached the Nineteenth Circle. But he’s currently in stasis. The rest of our reserves are only at the Fifteenth Circle, with only a couple of outliers at the Seventeenth Circle, since most of them didn’t know as much about the broader universe, nor the Elemental Acquisition stage back when they had been awake. Almost all of them had ascended with single elements too, since affinity-granting treasures used to be even harder for our demigods to get their hands on. The younger ones who are currently operating in the Divine Order are generally more talented but haven’t caught up to their predecessors yet. That’s why we rarely risk travelling to the Sapphire Pavilion’s auctions or competing for valuable resources. I could do both of those things myself, but I don’t want to leave our planet defenceless while I’m gone.”

Percy’s appreciation for the titaness climbed higher than ever before after realizing how much stronger she was than most of their other deities. She would eventually surpass even Kronos, since she was already working on her third common element and still had a couple of passive promotions to look forward to. However, it looked like progressing as far into the Elemental Acquisition stage as Phoebe had was quite rare even among deities who were aware of its existence.

Remior would eventually obtain a Twenty-First Circle goddess in Phoebe, but they only had a few thousand years left – not millions – and a single powerful goddess wouldn’t be enough to fend off a high-ranking greater spring like Catharis anyway.

“It’s fine,” Phoebe said, snapping Percy out of his worrying. “We’re not out of options yet, and we’ve got plenty of time to come up with a solution. We can always evacuate our people to a new planet and look for a way to mask your karmic signature if the worst comes to pass.”

Percy felt the colour drain from his face upon hearing the deity’s suggestion, but she wasn’t done. “I doubt it’ll even come to that. If Catharis doesn’t get destroyed by a third party, we can try joining the Void Hand.”

Percy stared at her, waiting for the punchline.

None came.

“You want us to join a peak faction? Is that even possible?” he asked, voicing his doubts.

“They accept new members if they consider them valuable enough,” Phoebe explained.

“They also destroy weaker factions left and right. Hell, the greedy bastards have even stabbed one of their founding members in the back,” he protested.

“I’m aware,” the titaness confirmed, her expression remaining serious. “Which is why we’ll need to be really careful about the image we project. We’ll have to look both valuable enough, and more valuable as willing allies than conquered foes. It doesn’t matter how easily they can crush us if we tie most of the benefits we can provide to our survival. But that’s all in the future anyway. No sense in panicking over our options this early in the game.”

Percy frowned, turning the idea over in his head. He’d spent years trying to squeeze the benefits out of the alliance without revealing who he was or where he came from. The thought of openly inviting their attention felt wrong, even if he could see the appeal of placing Remior under the protection of a peak faction.

At the same time, being able to openly participate in their tournaments or claiming the Decree Ishkuria had promised him would be so much easier if they joined. Besides, Percy understood that the universe wasn’t black and white. For all the assholes in the alliance, there were decent people like Nawko, Ishkuria, Zurvanai, and the others he had interacted with during the tournament.

Percy’s gaze drifted toward the ruined battlefield again. Remior clearly had plenty of assholes of its own, and he wasn’t even sure that he could exclude himself from their ranks after all the people he had just killed – justified or not. He didn’t have to approve of everything the Void Hand had done to recognize that joining them might keep his people alive.

“Like I said, these are last resorts that I was able to come up with only minutes after learning about the problem. I’m sure we can think of something better in the coming centuries,” Phoebe reiterated, not sounding nearly as concerned as Percy. “Let me worry about this issue and focus on your own growth for the time being. There’s no longer any mortal who can challenge you on Remior, and you’ll even possess strength on par with a deity as soon as you replenish the hive’s population, so it’s probably time for you to join the Divine Order as one of our gods.”

Percy couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow, somewhat surprised that Phoebe would extend such an honour to him so prematurely.