God of What? 31 (Patreon)

God of What?

Chapter 31

-VB-

Apollo

He wasn’t sure why Freya wanted his help when she had a familia better, bigger, and more influential than his own. He was not, however, going to complain. His dear Freya wanted his help! He obviously could help her with something that was bothering her, so he would.

And that was the only reason he was going to do it for until he found the girl Freya wanted to remove from Hestia’s familia.

What a pure girl. What a gorgeous girl. What a kind girl.

He must have her.

And so he planned with his familia to bring another member into their folds. To bring someone new who would enjoy the love of their familia!

The problem, he quickly found out, was that Hestia Familia was not a traditional one deity-one familia but an unorthodox joint familia with two deities in one familia.

Yes! Two deities in one familia!

It was an almost heretical concept, at least until he heard a version of the explanation Hestia apparently gave to Hephaestus.

She, Hestia, was a goddess of the hearth and family. Marris, the other god, was a god of “transformation.” She took care of some of the internal work, and he took care of the rest. They did work instead of just letting their children perform those menial roles.

Again, it was unorthodox, but Apollo understood at least a little about why it was the way it was.

This, unfortunately, also made this operation a little tricky. Unlike Hestia, who only had one child, Marris had many children, two of whom were suspected to be Level 2 or close to leveling up to Level 2. There were also rumors about Marris’s first child, “Yor” - what an ugly name for a man -, having done many heinous deeds in the dungeon and achieving feats Level 1 adventurers should not be able to do.

It was, after all, rare for a recent adventurer to dive down deep enough to have encountered and defeated a minotaur on paper, according to one of his informants within the Guild.

He was a threat.

Yes, he was not a threat to his familia’s captain, Hyakinthos Cilo, who was a Level 3 adventurer with plenty of combat experience. However, not all of his children were level 3. In fact, only Hyakinthos was  Level 3. Everyone else was Level 2, which made them his executives under the captain, or lower, which made them regular members of the familia.

If Marris’s captain was a Level 2, which meant he had to be some kind of a genius on par with the Sword Princess of Loki Familia, then everyone but his captain would be in danger as soon as the operation was carried out.

This meant that this could not end with just bringing Bell to the Apollo Familia.

It had to end wit the joint Hestia-Marris familia.

It had to be a war game with the stakes of the loser’s familia dissolving and their gods banished from Orario for 99 years.

Yes, it was the perfect plan, and if Bell, one of their better fighters, could not show up because she was indisposed of?

It would just be an easier war game.

“What do you think?” he asked Hyakinthos, and the captain of his familia and the first of his children, hummed with his closed eyes.

“It is a wise plan, My God,” he replied with a nod. “We would have to be careful, however. Hestia is a known friend of Hephaestus Familia. If this becomes a problem before the war game, then they will impose sanctions on us.”

“Not one they can enforce indefinitely once we win the war game,” Apollo replied with a smile. “She has to think about her own children’s future.”

“This is true.”

All around the table where the executives sat with the two of them, he saw nods as his children gave their approval.

This was how things were run in the Apollo Familia. No one, not even he, was above them in totality. Their opinions and approval mattered. No plan would ever be taken unless his familia agreed to it in the first place.

As much as he admired and loved Freya, she came second to his children.

Clunk.

Everyone’s eyes snapped to the door of the familia’s private meeting room.

Hyakinthos stood up, put his hands on his blade hanging from his waist, and slowly made his way over to the door. He paused a foot before the door, and then lunged forward. With a slam, he pushed over the door wide open.

He looked around the other side of the doorway, which was a hallway, and then came back in.

“... There’s nothing.”

“Check again,” he ordered.

And his captain did so, moving out of the room and into the hallway. Hyakinthos moved out of Apollo’s sight after only a few steps.

All they heard were the silent footsteps of their captain.

And then a thud.

His executives rushed out of the room with their weapons drawn and into the hallway. One of them screamed when they saw their captain and rushed over. Apollo too shot up from his chair and rushed out of the room.

He saw Hyakinthos lying on the ground in the dimly lit hallway.

“Kinth? Kinth! Wak-!” Daphne shouted before abruptly stopping when her hands got on his neck. “... Kinth?” She shook him roughly before paling harshly.

“Daph, what’s wrong?” Lissos, his other executive, asked as he walked up to them.

“K-Kinth’s dead.”

“... What?!” Apollo shouted.

He rushed over and -.

His hands, which now rested over Hyakinthos’s neck, felt no pulse.

Soon, his hands moved down to his chest. No pulse.

Dead.

His captain. His first child. The boy he pulled out of the orphanages.

Dead.

He collapsed to the side, his breathing rising to hyperventilation.

“H-How? W-Wh-?”

And then Lissos fell over.

Daphne and he jolted in place and stared at Lissos. Daphne rushed over. Tears began to fall onto her trembling hands.

“H-He’s dead.”

“We’re under attack-” Apollo began to speak but then Daphne froze for just a second… and then fell over.

Apollo stared at his three children.

Dead.

And then -.

His chest suddenly hurt. Hurt too much but he couldn’t move.

He managed to only let out a gasp before he fell over backward.

What?

How?

Why…?

Darkness closed in on him.

‘My children…. My children…’

Why…?

And then he knew no more.

-VB-

Janice

She(?) hummed while keeping her control over the wind firmly in place over the Apollo Familia manor.

The aerosol neurotoxin the original made had a half-life of two hours once exposed to the air - or more specifically to oxygen. All she had to do was keep the air confined to the manor for the entire night. After that, the concentration of the nerve toxin would be too low to have a meaningful effect.

“Happy now?” she asked the first clone.

Yor grunted.

He had done the deed of throwing the nerve gas containing bag into the manor. He had to do it multiple times, too, because one bag, which was about the size of a fist, was not enough to cover the entire manor.

“Yes,” he replied.

“Then that’s all that matters,” she replied. “Remember what dad said.”

‘““Family first. The world can burn,””’ they - and everyone else watching through the hive link - said at the same time.