Chapter 126: Ch 125: The Council

The other priests immediately began speaking over one another, their earlier attempts at maintaining a polite expression completely disappearing as they pointed their fingers toward Aiden and accused him of deliberately causing a dispute.

"You are the one creating trouble here! We invited you as a fellow priest, and this is how you repay us?"

"You have insulted the council and refused to follow our rules. Such behaviour cannot be tolerated!"

"Priest Aiden, by refusing to cooperate and creating conflict during an important gathering, you have shown that you are nothing more than a traitor to the local gods!"

"Your goddess is to be blamed. She should have better sense than to allow someone like you outside. But maybe she is just as bad as you are."

The final accusation caused Aiden to stare at them for a few seconds before he let out a long and exhausted sigh. He could take insults to himself, but not to Goddess Apophis.

’Aiden, may I kill them now?’

’Not yet, my goddess. I would like to deal with them myself first.’

Aiden rubbed his forehead before looking at the priests with an expression that was no longer amused.

"I came here intending to make friends. I genuinely thought that meeting the other priests and gods would be a good opportunity to understand this world better and perhaps establish some useful relationships."

He paused for a moment before his expression turned cold.

"But instead of welcoming me, you tried to prevent me from reaching this hall, handed me a contract that would place my goddess beneath your council, and now you are calling me a traitor because I refused to accept it."

Aiden slowly stood from his seat.

"So, if you really want to pick a fight with me, then fine. I will give you the fight you are asking for."

The atmosphere inside the meeting hall instantly became heavy, and several priests took an instinctive step backward.

Aiden smiled.

"Just remember that you were the ones who started this."

Aiden was the one who threw the first punch. Well, in this case, he took out a gun and shot at the priest.

He did not shoot to kill, but to injure and subdue. The shot rang out loudly, and everyone looked at his weapon in shock.

"What is that? A new invention from your goddess? Do you think you are the only one with a divine weapon?"

The priests quickly took out their own weapons in order to try and fight against Aiden. But since they all did not have enough devotion, they lacked the strength to use long-ranged weapons.

It was really easy for Aiden to dodge their attacks when the other priests finally tried to hit him. All he had to do was dodge to the side, and he was done.

But unfortunately, the more he dodged, the angrier the priests got.

"Hey, can’t you sit still and allow us to hit you once? It will only hurt for a minute-"

Aiden shot the priest who got too close in the leg, causing him to collapse as well. He was getting tired of this, so he rapidly shot at the other priests as well, causing most of them to collapse.

"Tsk, you went from quantity over quality, but what did you expect to achieve without any faith? Or did you just believe that I was a scum like you without my goddess’s protection?"

Aiden asked and then kicked the fallen priest in the stomach to drive his point across.

There were over a dozen or so priests around, but no one was able to match him in strength.

"So, what are you going to do now? Go back to your gods with your tails tucked between your legs and tell them that I refused to cooperate because you insulted my goddess? You better choose your options carefully because I am not a patient person."

Aiden pointed out, but the fallen priests were already looking half-dead.

The door opened as another, younger priest entered the room with tea and snacks. But he dropped the tray as soon as he noticed what was going on here.

"W-W-What happened?"

He asked, looking at Aiden. But that was only because Aiden was the only one conscious here right now.

"Don’t worry about it. These people ate something bad and were knocked unconscious as a result. I arrived late, so I was safe. I have checked up on them, and I can assure you that they will all wake up soon."

Aiden confirmed, making the new priest nod in suspicion. He did not seem to believe Aiden fully, but he had no way to confirm what happened here either.

In the end, he decided that it was better not to ask what happened here. The affairs of gods were not something for someone like him to know about anyway.

"I see. In that case, I will ask everyone to stay away from here for now. I hope you have a fruitful meeting going ahead."

The priest bowed his head and quickly made his way out. He no longer had a need to stick around here.

As for Aiden...well, he had a mess to clean up. And by that, he meant he was going to take over this council and make sure they all worked for him now.

Not that it was going to be a problem. All these priests were just figureheads put forward by others. They had no real power anyway.

Aiden looked around the meeting hall before letting out a tired sigh, wondering how much trouble he would have to deal with before this meeting was finally over.

’At least they will be easier to deal with now that they understand their position.’

’You are being too kind, Aiden.’

Goddess Apophis sounded amused as she remained wrapped around his neck.

’I would have simply killed them.’

Aiden smiled at her words before he began dragging the unconscious priests toward their seats.

"Unfortunately, my goddess, I still need information from them. If I want to understand how this council works, then I need someone to explain it to me."