Chapter 192: Pantheons

Chapter 192: Chapter 192: Pantheons

Some time had passed since Ophis’s visit, and although Damon had quickly returned to his usual responsibilities, the day of the meeting had finally arrived.

The chosen location did not belong to any pantheon. It was a neutral dimension, separated from the human world and stable enough to withstand the simultaneous presence of some of the most powerful deities still walking the world.

At its center stood a massive circular structure surrounded by white columns, while an equally large table occupied much of the main hall. There were no thrones, religious symbols, or decorations belonging to any particular faction, so no one would have an excuse to claim another pantheon was being favored.

Damon entered accompanied by Hades and Hestia. He had considered bringing Poseidon, but quickly dismissed the idea. His brother was powerful, there was no doubt about that, but Hestia was not only stronger, she had also spent millennia keeping herself out of nearly everything related to Olympus.

He had decided to give her at least a little exposure. Hestia had not protested when he told her, though judging by how hard she had tried to convince him Poseidon was the better choice, Damon suspected she would have preferred not to come.

The three of them took the section reserved for the Greek Pantheon while the other delegations continued to arrive. One of the first groups Damon recognized was the Norse.

Odin was obviously leading the delegation, accompanied by Thor and Hela. The old god was the kind of person you only had to look at once to know he had lived far too long and probably knew more than he was willing to say. On top of that, he had enough power to back up all that experience.

Thor, however, was probably the one who stood out the most physically. It wasn’t as if Damon had never seen fat gods before, because he definitely had, but Thor was special in his own way. The massive Norseman took up more space than necessary even while seated, though the presence coming from him made it clear that beneath all that mass was still one of Asgard’s most powerful gods.

His attention eventually settled briefly on Hela. The goddess was far more reserved than her two companions and, judging by her expression, clearly did not want to be there. She was beautiful, with a body worthy of a goddess and features that, if Damon had to describe them quickly, reminded him of the gothic style he had seen among humans.

Hela eventually noticed him watching her, and her eyes met the redhead’s. The Goddess of Death immediately narrowed her eyes.

Damon looked away as though nothing had happened. He had absolutely no intention of starting off on the wrong foot when the damn meeting had not even begun yet.

Not too far away were the Aztecs. Quetzalcoatl had come accompanied by Xolotl and Tlaloc. The golden-haired goddess met Damon’s eyes not long after entering, but neither of them made any attempt to approach the other.

A simple nod from the redhead was enough, and Quetzalcoatl returned it before continuing toward the area reserved for her pantheon. The Aztecs could be grateful to him and even support him in certain matters, but they were still independent. Damon had no intention of turning them into an extension of Olympus, and he was certain Quetzalcoatl had no desire to give that impression either.

The Egyptians were considerably more interesting. Their delegation consisted of three gods that anyone with even a basic knowledge of mythology would easily recognize: Amun-Ra, Horus, and Set.

Damon had never had any contact with the Egyptian Pantheon. In fact, he could not remember ever exchanging so much as a single word with anyone belonging to that faction, which said a lot about just how isolated they were, even by divine standards. They could go centuries without directly involving themselves in mortal or supernatural affairs outside their domains and, on many occasions, barely made their presence known even within their own territories.

In a way, the Egyptians were probably the best example of what Olympus would have become if the Greeks had followed Zeus’s old rules about staying out of mortal affairs to the letter. The difference was that the Egyptians had taken that philosophy even further.

Even so, no one in the room made the mistake of confusing isolation with weakness. Damon could feel that easily from where he sat.

The three gods were top-tier monsters, capable of facing Primordial-class beings directly. As Damon knew very well, one did not need to be a Primordial to possess enough power to fight one, and Egypt had an absurd number of gods capable of doing exactly that. Amun-Ra, Horus, and Set alone were enough to place their faction among the most dangerous gathered in that dimension.

And there was only one other pantheon capable of giving him a similar impression.

Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva; none other than the Trimurti.

Damon did not need to think about it for long to understand why the Hindu Pantheon carried the reputation it did. The amount of power gathered among those three was ridiculous even by the standards of the gods present.

If he had to rank the pantheons by strength, he would probably place the Hindus and Egyptians in the top two spots. Deciding which one belonged in first place was far more difficult. Shinto would come next, followed by the Norse, Greece, and the Biblical Pantheon, though those positions could shift depending on exactly how one measured each faction’s strength. Finally came the Aztecs, at least among the groups Damon considered important enough to include in that comparison.

The Japanese arrived shortly afterward and, to the surprise of absolutely no one familiar with the current relationship between the two factions, ended up taking a section close to the Greeks, making the close bond between both pantheons clear.

The calculating looks that began coming his way did not bother him. He couldn’t blame them either. There was no other pair of major pantheons currently maintaining a relationship as close as Greece and Shinto, and Damon had no intention of pretending otherwise just to make everyone else comfortable.

Naturally, there were other gods scattered throughout the world. Remnants of ancient Sumerian religions still existed, along with a handful of Celtic deities and other smaller groups surviving in different regions, but none currently possessed enough weight to sit at that table as equals to the factions present.

He pushed those thoughts aside when the last figures entered the hall... Michael led the Biblical Pantheon’s delegation, accompanied by Gabriel and Metatron. At first glance, there was nothing particularly strange about the group, aside from one very obvious absence.

Damon knew perfectly well why God was not here.... However, he had no intention of putting the angels under everyone’s scrutiny simply because he knew that information. If Heaven had still not chosen to make it public, Damon saw no reason to be the one to open his mouth in the middle of a meeting like this.

Some might also wonder why the Devils and Fallen Angels were not present alongside them, but the answer was simple. Both factions could be powerful and form part of the Biblical Pantheon’s history, but they were not the ones who represented it. The true owners of that religion had always been God and His angels.

The Devils and Fallen Angels were, in simple terms, rebels who had been successful enough to expand and become major powers in their own right. That could grant them influence, territory, and an enormous amount of power, but it did not automatically give them a seat as representatives of the Biblical Pantheon at a meeting of pantheons.

Damon rested one arm on the table as he looked around the hall once more. It definitely wasn’t a bad gathering. Now he just hoped it wouldn’t turn into a complete waste of time.

"Well... I think we can begin."

Michael’s voice gradually caused the conversations around the table to die down. The Archangel remained seated at the front of the Biblical delegation with a calm demeanor that would have been convincing to anyone who wasn’t paying close attention.

To Damon, however, the god’s nervousness was obvious, and honestly, he couldn’t blame him. This was Damon’s first time attending a meeting like this, but it wasn’t the first time he had heard about them. Amaterasu had told him more than once how they worked and, in those days, it had usually been the Biblical God who led the discussions whenever the major factions gathered.

Michael was used to leading Heaven, but sitting across from some of the most powerful divine leaders in the world was something else entirely. Even so, he seemed determined to do well, and Damon gave him credit for that. The angel had more guts than his pretty face suggested.

"First, I’d like to thank all of you for attending," Michael began. "I’ll try not to drag this out any longer than necessary. Over the past few months, we’ve recorded an increase in supernatural incidents that have begun directly affecting the human world."

The Archangel mentioned clashes between minor factions, creatures abandoning established territories, and conflicts that had ended up involving humans. Nothing especially unusual. Those kinds of problems had existed practically from the moment the different factions decided to hide the supernatural world from mortals. Still, Michael was right about one thing: keeping it hidden was becoming more difficult by the day.

"A few centuries ago, all you had to do was make sure no one important survived to tell the story, and eventually it would become a myth or a legend," Shiva commented casually. "I used to be able to destroy a mountain in India, and a hundred years later no one knew whether it had actually happened. Now I do anything and there are twenty phones pointed at me."

A few smiles appeared around the table.

"And there are more humans every time I look," Shiva continued with a sigh. "I swear, every time I stop paying attention for a century, India somehow gains another hundred million."

Vishnu smiled. "Maybe you should stop sleeping so much."

Shiva gave his companion a flat look as the laughter around the hall began to die down.

Michael nodded, silently grateful to the Hindu god for easing some of the tension in the room. "Exactly. That’s why I believe all of us need to maintain a little more control over what happens within our territories. I’m not suggesting new restrictions or the creation of some joint authority. We simply need to avoid unnecessary incidents."

"Each pantheon should be capable of controlling its own domains," Amun-Ra replied calmly.

The statement made it clear that he agreed with Michael, but it also conveyed something equally simple: as long as everyone else’s problems stayed out of Egypt, he couldn’t care less.

"Exactly, Lord Amun-Ra," Michael replied with a small smile that failed to completely hide his discomfort.

He could still remember some of the conflicts his father had had with the Egyptians in ancient times. Whenever God and the deities of Egypt disagreed, neither side had ever been particularly shy about making it known. Remembering those events now felt very different, mainly because his father was no longer alive.

If relations with Egypt ever deteriorated to the point of becoming a genuine conflict again, Michael wasn’t even sure how Heaven would respond without him. It was no longer simply a matter of protecting the angels; a confrontation on that scale could directly affect Christianity and its believers.

Fortunately, Amun-Ra showed no intention of reviving old hostilities. Horus gave no indication of hostility either.

Set was another story..... Michael could feel the God of Chaos’s eyes on him from across the table and, no matter how much he tried to ignore it, that attention was anything but friendly.

The Archangel had enough sense to continue with more general topics rather than stir the waters unnecessarily. Creatures crossing into other regions without permission and local conflicts that risked drawing too much attention from the human world occupied a good portion of the conversation that followed.

For his part, Damon was starting to understand why Hades had shown so little interest from the beginning. Then again, now that he thought about it, his brother almost always acted that way.

Today he was simply a little more bored than usual. Apparently, even the God of the Underworld had his limits.

Michael eventually changed the subject. "We also need to discuss Khaos Brigade." That drew a little more attention from around the table. "Khaos Brigade is a terrorist organization that has significantly increased its activity and, more importantly, we know Ophis is leading the group for reasons we still don’t understand," the Archangel continued seriously.

The mere mention of the Dragon God made the atmosphere more serious. Even Shiva knew perfectly well how dangerous the Dragon God of Infinity could be, though in his own opinion, he could still handle her without too much trouble.

At least, that was what he believed.

Damon had to suppress a small laugh. After speaking with Ophis personally, saying she truly led Khaos Brigade was generous..... Even so, he chose not to say anything about it.

Quetzalcoatl, noticing that the redhead made no attempt to correct Michael, remained silent as well. In Damon’s opinion, he gained nothing by freely handing over information that only he and the Aztecs possessed. If the others wanted to figure out what kind of relationship Ophis truly had with Khaos Brigade, they could do it themselves.

"Grigori and the Greek Pantheon can confirm the problems Khaos Brigade has caused," Michael added, addressing Damon as though he expected him to contribute something.

Set spoke before he could... "And?" The simple question left Michael speechless for a moment.

There was no particular contempt for Grigori in the Egyptian god’s tone. He simply did not seem to understand why he should care. To Damon, that reaction confirmed what he already suspected about most of those present: unless a problem directly affected their territories or interests, they were unlikely to lose any sleep over it.

Michael, naturally, did not have the luxury of thinking that way. "I’m not only concerned about Grigori," he explained. "I’m concerned about the precedent. If Khaos Brigade begins freely interfering within foreign territories, eventually one of those incidents could involve more than one faction."

Odin found the perfect opportunity to intervene. "Michael is right."

Damon’s attention shifted toward the All-Father, who settled comfortably into his seat before continuing. "It doesn’t matter whether one considers Grigori important or not. No outside force should be able to enter another faction’s territory and interfere in matters that do not concern them."

Michael seemed grateful for the support.

Damon, on the other hand, could already see exactly where the conversation was going, and he did not like what the Norse god was implying in the slightest..... Yeah, maybe not everyone is like the Egyptian leader.

"Today it may be Grigori," Odin continued calmly. "Tomorrow it could be Asgard, Egypt, or any other territory represented at this table. If we begin accepting that anyone with enough power can cross a border, impose their will, and leave without consequence, then meetings like this begin to lose their purpose."

When he finished, Odin focused directly on Damon, making it perfectly clear who he had been talking about.

Damon held his gaze without flinching. "If you have something to say to me, Odin, you can say it to my face. There’s no need to dance around it."

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