ProbablyATurnip

CH1095 (Patreon)

Published:

2026-06-18 17:38:50

Edited:

2026-07-30 16:00:45

Imported:

Content

With arrangements made, an emergency meeting was called, bringing all of the gods together soon again after their last one concluded, much to the confusion of the majority who weren’t aware of the purpose behind it. No matter how anyone felt about what had happened, they’d already reached a conclusion but, given the level of priority it was being marked with, none of them avoided it, all of them expecting some new detail of Ben’s damnation to come to light.

“What’s this about, then?” One asked Phixth, the god who’d sent the word, given the respect he had among them and the work he would do ensured the rest were liable to listen, even as the stone god shrugged.

“Myriad wanted it called and said it was important.”

“Seriously? But-”

“If you’re all going to insist on ignoring the murder of his apostle, you can at least have enough respect to sit there and listen to his grievances,” Phixth said with cold finality, his own opinions of his fellow gods at an all time low and drove the rest of the crowd to silence. “If he wants to curse out every single one of us, then the very least we can do is sit here and take it. It’s far less than what’s deserved.”

“Maybe we should be talking about the terrorism one of us is allowing to take place across the world instead,” another said as eyes were cast to Anailia. “All of this anger over the loss of one mortal, yet now dozens are being held hostage.”

“A hostage implies my daughter wants something in exchange for them,” Anailia responded, wearing a thin smile. “What she’s actually doing is deciding if they should live or die.”

“And you’re just allowing that?”

“Of course. If we now have the freedom to kill one another’s believers with impunity, then how could I possibly stop someone who isn’t even among my core three, let alone everyone she commands who gives me no faith.”

“The girl’s completely snapped. No matter how you feel, as her goddess, you need to step in-”

“You’d demand a widow to tell her child to forgive her lover's murder?” Anailia asked, her eyes flashing with rage. “No, Thera can work out her anger in whatever manner suits her best, and I will support her in it until she’s done, and if anyone else here objects or interferes, then I will fight you to the last and be more than happy myself to show why we had our rules about not laying hands on one another’s followers in the first place.”

Weaker gods flinched back while stronger ones grimaced. They all knew they couldn’t afford to fight Anailia, and as a love goddess, she was taking matters more seriously than most. If it came to it, she’d have no qualms about carrying out those threats, for all the damage it would do, leaving the issue settled no matter how any of them felt about it. Perhaps if they had a consensus, they could force her hand, but too many were happy to let Thera act how she would, given what happened, and considering that the damage was exclusively held by the people directly related to the twenty who’d driven her to her current madness, the fact that she was containing her rage lowered the priority for others still. So what if she was destroying their churches and monuments? Plenty there believed the gods responsible deserved far worse, and while many viewed taking their core believers to decide whether or not they should live or die as going too far, no one was equipped to stop her.

Still, it seemed like some among them wanted to say more, to try to convince Anailia to stop the madness of her believer, but lost the chance to. Among the crowd, Myriad rose, pulling all attention to himself.

“If you could all ignore what my apostle’s partner has been up to for at least a few minutes, there’s a different matter I’d like to give our attention,” Myriad told them, with only some among them noticing that he seemed far too composed, given how he’d been only a little while earlier, beginning to feel a worry of their own about just what the cube would do after what had happened. From their perspective, Myriad had lost the person who’d changed his life for the better, and while still not among the most powerful there, had to have stored a decent supply of faith. At least enough to cause a small disaster of his own, be it down on the world or the heavens above, but that wasn’t what they got. Instead, before them, another appeared, grinning broadly and sinking stomachs across the room.

“‘Sup, fuckers. Miss me?”

Immediately the crowd erupted into chaos, both excitement and fear as they all tried to talk over each other in reaction. Ben had escaped from hell. No matter what else they thought, that fact was plain before them, along with all it implied as more among them began to accept the truth. There was nothing they could do to stop the boy.

But Ben wasn’t feeling so patient. They could discuss his survival all they wanted later; he still had his grievances, and he wasn’t going to let them go so casually, leaving a single word to leave his lips.

“Silence.”

Instantly, all of them stopped talking, and all of them felt the horror behind it. That hadn’t been an act of their own wills, but of Ben’s, suppressing them all with his sacrilege and his mind as he stared, making sure that none would start again before he went on.

“Let’s make things clear first, shall we? I’m going to give you all a chance.”

“To do what? Phixth asked, taking on the role of dealing with Ben like it was second nature to him at that point, even as he felt his own bit of genuine fear at the mortal’s wrath.

“To convince me I should let them live,” he said, snapping and bringing forth the twenty gods who’d damned him, knives stabbing through their flesh and their bodies broken, the once incredibly proud deities left crying and begging for mercy at his feet in a way that left the others there feeling sick, while copies of Ben stood at each one's side, ready to slay them. “And to convince me not to do the same to every god here who thought they should be treated with kid gloves for my murder.”

“You can’t be serious,” another god said before screaming, a new Ben appearing at that one’s back with a knife in hand and sliced off an ear, the other deities there left to watch in horror as it was placed in Ben’s mouth and slid down his throat.

“I’ve never been more serious. You’re dealing with a mind reader. I know who was on my side and I know who isn’t, and if you think I’ll have troubles dealing with a couple hundred more gods when these ones were nothing to me then you’re all far too optimistic. So, convince me or try your luck now, because I’ll be happy enough to see this world without anyone here who would accept my murder.”

Two there started to get up but, seeing no one else move, quickly sat down again. All of them could see the state of the gods at his feet, blubbering and screaming for help and mercy, and even if they believed enough of them would be able to take him on, without all of them willing to move, it was plain enough that they didn’t stand a chance.

“Alright,” Phixth said, nodding his way. “You’ve made your point well enough, Ben. We’re willing to negotiate with you-”

“Wrong,” Ben told him. “Phixth, you’ve always tried to treat me fairly, and I respect that. You’re in the group that has nothing to fear from me, but if you’re going to be speaking for the ones who are, you need to be aware of this. This isn’t a negotiation. We are long past the point where anyone has the chance to bargain with me in good faith. These are terms of surrender. You want these twenty to live, along with the rest that were secretly cheering them on? Then I’m outlining my terms, and you can all either agree to them or not.”

“I don’t actually care much about whether the ones who attacked you live or die,” Phixth said with a shocking level of honesty, leaving looks of betrayal on their beaten faces. “But as for the others… unless any object, I will speak on their behalf.”

“Excellent. In that case, let’s make it clear just who we’re talking about first,” Ben said, actualizing marks above every guilty party’s head, leaving nearly half of the gods there who’d actively tried to lower the punishment of his attackers or celebrated his death revealed to the rest of them. “There we are, every god who means nothing to me and every god this world would be better off without. If you’re not marked, then congratulations; that means you still have the right to negotiate with me in good faith.”

“And what you’d want for the rest’s safety?” Phixth asked.

“Oh, you know how I am. My greed knows no end. But, if you aren’t going to speak for the ones that directly attacked me, let’s start with them first,” Ben said, hoisting them up in the air and repairing just enough of the mental damage he’d caused to keep them coherent. “All of you, decide now. Either live, giving every drop of faith you gain to Myriad for the next ten thousand years, along with all of your church’s current funds, while also giving me and Thera your complete blessings, or die. The choice is yours.”

Ben could simply take their blessings if he wanted, and if they chose death, then he’d be more than willing to rip apart their souls to benefit as many people as they could, but, surprisingly to him, that wasn’t the point of contention among them as Eneth screamed.

“Take all of the faith we have? Do you see what he’s trying to do? We warned you what he was like, WE WARNED YOU ALL ALONG AND STILL-”

A knife shoved through his jaw silenced him as the other gods flinched at his brutality, but Ben ignored it, focusing on Myriad instead.

“What’s so bad about taking all of their faith? You live without any for thousands of years.”

“I actually shared a minimum amount of faith that naturally generated from the world and gained some from the casual and occasional prayer from people who’d see my statues at the communal churches, and with nothing to do, given how weak I was, it was easy enough to let it pile up a bit to keep me from getting too uncomfortable,” his god explained.

“So what? Will a lack of faith kill them?”

“... Hard to say for certain, but what it will undeniably do is trap them. Without faith, they won’t be able to interact with the lower realm at all, which would stop them from claiming any future faith as well. They’ll be confined to their realms, potentially forever.”

“Is that all? That’s fine then. If it seems like they’re dying, then someone up here is free to share a drop or two to keep them going, and if it won’t kill them, then they have nothing to complain about.”

“You’d be destroying our churches!” Olensia screamed. “Our followers would disappear-”

That god’s mouth was silenced with a knife as well, holding it shut as Ben stared at them all. “Who gives a shit? You’ll be alive, and if you've done a good enough job with your believers, then who knows? Maybe some of the descendants of the ones who currently exist will still remember you and think to give you a prayer in that time. The other option is death. Now choose. You have three seconds.”

Even if they wanted to maintain some dignity, they were far past the point of pride. No matter what it meant for them, they didn’t want to know what else he might do to them before he would let them die, leaving the group begging at his feet.

“WE’LL DO IT! We’ll do it, so please let us be!” they cried while Ben stared down at them.

“Good. In that case, don’t clutter up my status while you’re doing it. You’re each giving me and my partner your full blessings, but wrap them all together into… let's call it the defeated pantheon’s blessing. I think that would suit you all to a t.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, he could feel every god in that space react, and a quick look in their surrounding minds had revealed why. Gods could be grouped in different ways. Gods who hailed from the same world could immediately be seen as belonging to the same group by others among the divine, but on that shared world, it had seemed that deities would naturally form pantheons with others who shared their same nature. A curious discovery, but one that had lacked meaning until then. Ben’s meaningless words had just changed that though. As soon as he said it, the ones he addressed had become the defeated pantheon in a way that the rest there could immediately understand, adding a new dimension to their fears.

Are they really worried I might name them something stupid and they’ll be forced to live with whatever moniker I pick forever… Okay, that actually does sound like it would be kind of funny.

Still, he held himself back, at least for the time, and motioned for them to continue, leaving notifications to ring out in his head as he claimed the equivalent of two tower blessings.

“There, are you satisfied?” Eneth asked once the weapons covering him were ripped away, the god well and truly defeated as he stared at the ground, only forced to look up as Ben gripped his face and pulled the lizard’s eyes to meet his own.

“No. You tried to murder me. I’ll never be satisfied as long as you’re all alive, still able to look forward to the future. Even if I’m letting you live, I’ll see your faiths destroyed and your worshipers all turning their backs on you. I’ll leave every one of you with nothing.”

“Why?” Plyzar cried, the very god who’d sacrifice one of his churches for the trick they’d pulled. “You’ve won! Why can’t you just stop?”

“Because every one of you is my enemy, and I’m willing to show as much mercy as I receive in turn.”

With that extra bonus on top of everything else, a grin came to his face that left others in terror, not knowing its source. All it did was make them wonder, if Ben was willing to go that far on the gods who’d tried to harm him, what would his limits be on the ones who had stood in the way of proper punishment themselves.

“Alright,” he said, letting his focus turn back to the rest of the crowd. “I’ll make this simple. As of now, I have the rights of both mortals and gods. Whenever those rights conflict, I’ll be taking the more beneficial one for me.”

“Acceptable,” Phixth said, and how could it not be? None could deny that Ben had turned himself into the strongest being on the planet. The boy had surpassed any normal understanding of godhood. If that was what he wanted, then he was in the position to get it, with no other gods trying to argue, forced to accept that new reality.

“Two,” Ben went on. “I always try to pick fair prices for my work. If the collective gods of this world ever want anything from me again, you’ll pay what I ask for without argument. As for the gods here who were willing to treat my death seriously and who have acted with me in good faith in the past, all of you will individually be allowed to properly negotiate my terms, if you would ever like to hire me again.”

“Very well,” Phixth went on, not expecting to have to strike too many more deals with the mortal in the little time they had left before the third wave, but was willing to pay the price if it came up and saw others agree, whether thinking they could handle the cost or else assuming they could just avoid hiring him altogether. “But I doubt that’s all.”

“Right you are, Phixth! That’s why I like you; you’re easy to work with. And probably why others keep dumping you with annoying tasks, like dealing with little old me.”

“So, what else then?”

“Simple. The first two demands involved all of the gods, and they were really just there to ensure my best treatment. Now we get to the meat of things. The others, why don’t we call you the coward pantheon for simplicity's sake, who tried to let these other pieces of shit off the hook,” Ben said, copies of him kicking the twenty at his feet for good measure. “I’m going to make this simple. Bend the knee, kiss the ring.”

“... What exactly is that supposed to mean?”

“A proper offering,” Ben laughed. “Since they weren’t directly involved in what happened, I won’t give them the exact same treatment, but there's no doubt they weren’t taking what happened to me seriously. For as long as I live, give twenty percent of your faith to Myriad, including whatever you currently hold-”

Faces immediately dropped among those who’d just been bundled into the coward pantheon, but that wasn’t the complaint that drove tempers to explode and left him cut off compared to the rest he asked for.

“Twenty percent is outrageous!” One yelled at him. “Our faith is for the good of the world-”

The complaint ended in another scream, the god losing their snout to Ben’s actualized blade, only for it to be snacked on by an instance of Ben while a different one answered.

“Don’t worry. For as long as the war goes on, Myriad will simply pay the faith cost using whatever he gains from you all during it, and this is fairly obviously for the sake of handling the invasion as well. How could I possibly trust any of you to be responsible for what you have when you were each so accepting of the defeated gods spending what they’d saved to not only get rid of me, but release even more evil ghosts onto the world than what we already had to deal with the last time someone opened a portal to hell? Faith that should have been spent to defend the world instead went to making it worse. No, I’m judging you by the company you keep, and what I’ve seen is that you all shouldn’t be trusted to manage your faith accordingly. Now, as I was saying before being so rudely interrupted, all of the coward gods will contribute the same fractions of your souls that you would have spent toward a normal tower blessing each, for me and Thera as well. Come on now, first act as a new pantheon, isn’t that just grand?”

Fragments of that many divine souls shaped to strengthen him would be worth around five tower blessings, added on to the equivalent of two he’d just gotten from the defeated gods to bring him ever closer to even more of his goals, and he felt the gods who’d have to pay the price react.

As strong as he’d become, more than a few wanted to believe he was still just an upstart mortal, despite the evidence he’d already shown to the contrary, and with looks exchanged between a few of them, he could feel the idea going around that, even if twenty hadn’t been enough, nearly half of the gods of that world would be, leaving him to break them of that notion.

Instantly, all of them felt points at the back of their necks where more Ben’s now stood, one for each of them, with more just as easy to send, and all at once, the feeling of defiance vanished. There were only so many ways to show he outclassed them, but none more meaningful than showing just how easy it would be for him to attack before any of them could react and, forced to accept their new pantheon and their broader faith, did as he commanded, leaving yet more notifications to ring out in his head.

“That’s what I thought,” Ben told them, indifferent to their feelings, as some were lost in fear and others ground their teeth in defeat, before giving them all a wide smile. “But hey, you can all take comfort. As long as you stay on my good side and treat the mortals of this world with love and respect equal to what you’d expect them to give any god, then I’ll let you all keep pretending that you’re the real rulers of this world.”

Having gotten everything he’d wanted and impressed upon the divine that the pecking order of that planet had just changed, he bought the meeting to a close, once more showing the power he had over all of them by sending them each back to their realms, cementing the proper level of fear he wanted in his power as he did.