Guild Wars

Chapter 1281: Duty or Desire?

Despite the obvious mockery and disdain drowning him from all corners, Poseidon remained calm and even smirked slightly.

"You’d better consider my offer properly because I am not just the Foreign Affairs Elder; I am also the God of the Seas and all Maritime Life."

Poseidon’s smirk curled to the edges of his ears as his eyes narrowed, tilting his head upwards. "You have an empire on the main plane, huh? Would be a shame if every single sea creature swarmed your lands till death, don’t you think?"

Immediately, the laughter stopped from Draco, whose face hardened as he stood up. This was a threat he could not afford to ignore, as the seas of the main plane were more than three times the size of the landmass, with more than a billion times the population.

The opening of the sea route had already highlighted many of the difficulties of maritime relations for main plane factions, while his venture to the Vault of the Deep also showed that Poseidon’s control over the seas was absolute.

Ever since his avatar had been ambushed by THAT creature in the unmapped zones, requiring Rila to forcibly break her Origin Goddess seal in order to escape—not even fight it, but actually escape!—Draco did not dare underestimate the main plane anymore.

Seeing that his threat actually elicited a response, Poseidon was excited, as if injected with chicken blood. "Now you know your mistake? But it’s too late! My simple and gentle terms have changed! Now, you will have to kneel at my feet and lick my toes while calling me your superior lord!"

Poseidon’s eyes turned to Gabriel, and a hint of long-suppressed desire showed up. "Not only that, but you must make Gabriel bend over right here and receive my seed in full view of everyone, with you especially being forced to watch!"

A sharp intake of breath sounded from the gathered True Gods, their hearts chilling at the cruelty of the Foreign Affairs Elder. To make such demands was akin to killing Draco on the spot, and they couldn’t help but look at him with pity.

Who asked you to provoke the God of the Seas?

"Or you can reject. Do you have a token that makes you the clan leader of the Sea Race? Oh wait, that token is here with me, ahahaha!" Poseidon, as if seeing victory at hand, could not hold back and roared with laughter as he took out a sea-blue token.

YOINK!

Poseidon cried out in pain as he held his right hand, from which the entire palm had been ripped off. He raised his head to glance at Draco, who was holding his profusely bleeding hand that still held the token with a look of interest, as if seeing something new.

"Y-You! Give me back my hand!" Poseidon shouted with anger as he stymied the bleeding immediately and glared at Draco hatefully.

Draco pried the token from the detached hand and threw the appendage back while pocketing the item. "Don’t worry, I have no use for trash. As for your position as the God of the seas, I hereby revoke it and grant it to my own guild member, Omega Raider. He will do far better than you."

"What do you mean by—ARGH!"

Poseidon immediately began to question Draco but was silenced by a bolt of lightning that struck the True God from Draco’s pointed fingertip. He then folded his arms and glanced at the rest of the pantheon, who did not dare make a move since this fellow could even deal with Supreme Law True Gods now.

"I am taking away Gabriel. Who else objects?" Draco asked casually, his aura pressing down on the entire council chamber, as if daring someone to give him a reason to strike.

Justicar opened his mouth many times but closed it, while Ulido sighed deeply, seeming to age a hundred years in an instant. Since when had the Supreme Pantheon been bullied like this since its inception? Not only did the grey rot erupt during their era, but one of their elders was directly abducted by a bandit of a True God, while it was likely that the city would succumb to the grey rot and cease to exist.

They were unprecedented sinners!

"Draco…" Gabriel began softly, walking up to Draco with a troubled look.

Immediately, Draco’s cold expression softened greatly, becoming a gentle smile as he caressed Gabriel’s cheek. "Don’t worry, I won’t hurt anyone, nor will I shortchange the pantheon."

"I will drop the moon 10 times in the lands surrounding the Supreme Pantheon, which should buy you all about 50 to 100 years of buffer time. Make sure to work on increasing your strength and reconnect with your faction in the main plane, the Church of Light, to start recruiting and training new True Gods," Draco said casually, causing the faces of everyone to light up.

Even Luther and Poseidon, who were in agony, seemed to feel much better. There was no helping it—dying to the grey rot and being beaten up by Draco were two different things, so if the fellow was willing to resolve this issue, then that was great!

The Supreme Pantheon, and in fact, the entire Divine Realm at the time, were mostly at war and competing with each other when the grey rot suddenly dropped and spread crazily, catching everyone off guard. Coupled with its lack of benefit to NPCs, it caused countless losses and snowballed in strength.

Having a hundred years as a buffer was enough for those who had been using their laws day and night to fight on the frontlines to actually sit down and comprehend a bit more, maybe rising a level or two. This would increase their survivability when it came time to fight the grey rot again, allowing them to push back on their own.

In that case, losing the Punishment Hall Elder and her angels, while painful due to her beauty, strength, and benevolence, was still a profit for them!

"How is it? Is this good enough?" Draco did not pay attention to any of the pantheon members and spoke to Gabriel.

Gabriel was silent. It wasn’t about whether it was enough or not, but rather the conflict she was suffering within. She was the Angel Queen, and all those who came before her had served as Punishment Hall Elder, controlling the judiciary of the Supreme Pantheon with absolute fairness and adherence to the law.

Even she, who was a bit abnormal among the angel queens of history due to her slight misandry, was still unwilling to be biased, even when her own angels were mistreated. It would have been so easy for her to slaughter them and subject them to the harshest punishments, but she was able to resist in the face of her duty.

Yet, in the face of spending her life with Draco, her entire being ached for it so badly that, for the first time in her life, she was actually considering abandoning her duty!

Even worse, despite knowing this, she was still unable to resolutely stick to her task. She had lived for the pantheon since the day she was born, eventually taking the mantle from her own mother—the former angel queen—and having held it for hundreds of years to this day.

Fighting the grey rot, leading the angels, and fulfilling her duties as Punishment Hall Elder had been all she ever did in her life, and she planned to do so until she died… until she met Draco that day ten years ago.

It was then that she unwillingly realized that there was more to life, and especially that she greedily wanted more from life. Since then, she had wavered greatly, becoming irritable the more time passed, not only because of longing but because of the conflict.

After all, if Draco asked her to leave with him one day, would she do it? If he asked her to betray the pantheon, would she do it? If he came back and married her within the pantheon, could she be biased in handling matters concerning him or not?

Should she live for herself? Or should she stay true to her duty at the cost of her happiness?

Just as Gabriel felt her brain was about to explode, she felt a hand on her back that gently comforted her. "Why don’t you talk to your angels about it? Here, this is a special ring that will allow you to come to where my family is located when you’ve made your decision."

He handed her a copy of the Morningstar Heart, which was a set of special rings that linked the core members of the family together, allowing them to borrow his power at any time or teleport to each other. Gabriel took the ring slowly and seemed to be deeply moved, unsure what to say.

She felt bad for not being able to give Draco an answer right away and for being wishy-washy about her desires. However, she didn’t know that Draco had long understood her nature and only came today to lay the foundation. If she wanted to come, that was fine; if she didn’t, he would not lose any sleep over it.

He had long passed his era of seeking beauties everywhere, being thoroughly satisfied with what he had at home. It was simply because Gabriel’s condition was similar to Rina of that era that he decided to pass by this time.

He glanced at the rest of the council that had easily been suppressed by him alone and smirked. "Well, dear friends, if you want to seek my services or submit to a higher authority, you can always come to the Divine Umbra Pantheon in the central area of the Divine Realm."

Resolutely, Draco turned his back and casually walked out of the council room, all eyes on his back as he left. Gabriel especially felt distraught, feeling like she was making a huge mistake by doing this but also unable to make the decisive choice.

Duty or desire?

She could not choose either.

And that was why no one would remember her name.

.........….

Draco exited the cathedral, which was the main church of the Supreme Pantheon, and looked at the multitude of angels gathered in front, chatting with each other and wondering what was going on. When they saw Draco come out, they became silent and focused on him with looks of curiosity.

Draco shrugged helplessly. "I tried to take her away and even beat up most of the other True Gods, but she couldn’t make a choice."

The angels were left speechless. Half of them had to hurriedly hold the rest, who looked like they wanted to barge in there and give Gabriel a piece of their mind. After all, not being True Gods, they experienced a whole different treatment within the Supreme Pantheon, of which Gabriel only knew a small part due to her position.

Now that their chance to become free of the shackles that bound them was here, she actually couldn’t decide?!

Draco smiled as he shook his head. This situation was exactly like a person who had joined a company as a manager straight from college graduation versus a person who worked as a low-level employee for years. The manager would be loyal to the company, thinking they were a fundamental part of it, while the low-level employee was on the negative scale in terms of loyalty.

In fact, the company was lucky that such an employee didn’t even betray them, much less work diligently or sacrifice themselves for it.

Draco didn’t say any more and simply left the area. After all, he had more important things to do, like work on Refinement as well as his other duties, so this short interlude meant very little to him.

When he reappeared, he was at the Divine Umbra Pantheon’s Church. He checked in with his people before heading into the Inner Universe, arriving on his favorite barren planet that was already more than 10% iron and continuing his tiresome work.