879.5 Brutal (Patreon)

“I have to admit...that was brutal,” Hephaestus praised the little blacksmith’s performance

Picking up popcorn lathered in ambrosia syrup from an automaton server, he gave Seth a well-meaning nod. It was a sign of peace, a sign that the blacksmith god had finally forgiven the god of Chaos for influencing the path of the little blacksmith in the direction of a demonic bard.

Seeing the bard's talent and the kind of instrument he had fashioned with his own skills, Hephaestus had to admit that this might have been the way it was meant to be all along. Only the Moerae knew the fabric of fate, even he as a god could only guess the possibilities of the future paths.

The god of chaos gave him and disinterested look. He was Seth, the God of chaos, the Desert, and Storms, what would the blacksmith’s acknowledgment mean to him? Yet, when he turned away a small smile played around his lips.

“Aww, look at you two get along. But aren’t we forgetting something?” Hades rained on their parade. Persephone could only smile to herself, at one of her husband's few childish moments. They were gods, the façade of Mussa’Practish the demonic gatekeeper couldn’t deceive their eyes.

“Right, he got the attention of one of the Monarchs...” Bes answered the god of the underworld’s question ponderingly. Although they did not follow the same system of power, the Monarchs of Hell could be called equal to high-ranking gods like Hades, Seth, or Hephaestus.

While gods spread their influence by sowing faith to grow and consolidate their power, Demons spread their influence to hunt and gain hold of souls to grow. This often left Gods and Demons on two opposing sides, as one side needed lively happy believers, while the other side wanted nothing more than to have those people dead and their souls in their pockets.

It was often a clash of interests. Of course, there were also gods on good terms with demons. Those generally seen as evil gods, or gods of war were often on good terms with demons, as they were all dealing in the business of killing and suffering, making the line between gods and demons ambiguous at times.

“Should we invite them for a talk? To ascertain their purposes” Apollo suggested. As mentioned, gods were not naturally locked in a legendary battle for supremacy with demons. Most of them treated each other in a business-like fashion without holding any deep grudges. Of course, there were also exceptions to that.

“Apollo, are you sure you are the right one to act as a chaperone for the little blacksmith right now?” Hermes teased his brother. Apollo’s escapades and amours were a fixed part of his myths.  Apollo couldn’t deny it, so he could only look at Hermes reproachingly.

“... Don’t worry, I will go meet Paimon,” the system god suddenly interjected solemnly. He had been uncharacteristically quiet this whole time but suddenly offered to play Chaperone for the blacksmith.

Or was he? Hades examined the figure of the system god, that had lost some of his wantonness. It was not often one could see the god of the system get serious about something other than his rules. The god of the underworld doubted that this was just about the relationship between Paymon and Seth.

“Are you going right now?” Hades asked the faceless god in colorful robes.

“Ah, yes. I will leave now. I doubt you would start breaking rules while I'm gone.”

The god's incarnation really stood up and left the cinema dimension, which left many of them more surprised than the sudden seriousness. Most powerful gods had many incarnations, like clones, and they would usually leave simple tasks to them.

But instead of simply leaving it to another incarnation to get in contact with Paymon, this one was leaving to do it itself. Doing something this inefficient, was a sign that the System God may have been even more pissed and out of it than they expected.

“Oh right, congratulations for finally deciding on your chosen, Maahes. Sorry, I was a little distracted,” Bes suddenly interrupted the silence.

Bes, as the divine patron of Fin, had been the only one with a pair of eyes in the city until Seth arrived there. This meant he was still the only one who knew that Maahes had finally chosen Mike.

“Thanks, I felt a little pressure, when he was suddenly overcome by a divine skill of Dionysus,” the massive, lion-headed warrior answered with an awkward smile.

“My divine skill? I didn’t even make a pre-selection on Urth, yet” Someone behind them said, as the smell of wine wafted over. A god from the third row was leaning forward, speaking to them.

“Dionysus, you were here?” Hermes asked, surprised, seeing their brother so “far” in the back. The third row was still quite close to the screen, compared to the 42 rows that came after it.

“I only woke for the finale,” he answered Hermes. “I have no idea who this Mike even is,” he said in the direction of Maahes.

“I was not paying attention at that time, but he was definitely your <Rage of Dionysus>,” the lion argued. Cluelessly, the god of wine stared at the lion as his eyes turned unfocused. He suddenly spoke up when his eyes regained focus.

“Ah, one of my incarnations blessed a piece of jewelry for Hephaestus's little blacksmith with that skill some time ago. Your protegee must have used it. My hands are clean,” Dionysus said with a satisfied smile.

“So chose hastily again...” Maahes mumbled. He was not very lucky with his choices in the past.

“I think you took way too long to decide this time,” Bes said.

“It is pretty clear Mike will make it big with the blacksmith’s help. It's your past experiences that held you back from making the right choice earlier. It’s a good thing this misunderstanding forced you to finalize your choice.”

“I guess you are right...”

“Of course, he is. What you have to do from now on is to invest in the little cat boy. You didn’t have a good champion in ages. You shouldn’t hold back now,” Hephaestus advised. “You finally have a chosen with a direct connection to a master blacksmith. I think you know what to do,” the blacksmith god didn’t miss the chance to make this an opportunity for the little blacksmith.

Although he had his private chosen, a different incarnation was watching over Cormac Payl in Mount Agra. This incarnation was solely for cheering on Seth on Urth and it also did the PR work, if the chance was given.

“Hrmm, I feel like you have an ulterior motive in saying that, but I also think you are right. I will have to check what I can do for Mike...” the god of storms and war said and started pondering how he could give his chosen blessed materials.

“You can just look for fitting stuff and give him a quest to procure it for a ritual. It's not much different from what I've been doing,” Seth suddenly gave  Maahes some advice. It was a fact that it was harder to materialize a special material than to noble an already existing material through their blessing.

“that's actually a good idea,” Maahes looked at him in surprise. It was a piece of quite sensible advice from the god of chaos.  “I will have to check, whether there are any good materials on Urth that will fit my requirements,” he added as a moody harrump interrupted them The two gods of storm looked at Wepwawet, who looked at them like they were wronged.

“Why didn't you mention that a little earlier?” they asked forlornly. Wepwawet hat used a lot of their power to give Lydia two special materials for her holy items because they did not think of this power-efficient solution.

Seth stared at them for a moment, before giving a bright, charismatic smile.

“You were acting so lively at the time, who am I to stop you? How would I know you are short on power when you acted like that without a moment of hesitation?” the god of chaos teased the other god for their impulsive behavior.

Wepwawet could only swallow their regrets, It really wasn't Seth's fault this time, that they had acted on impulse. They could only hope Lydia would show some good results, to make up for their expense...