Chapter 5: Council of Deities

The spectacled young man looks around the large chamber. In the middle, there is room for six or seven people to sit at the bottom. But outwardly, there is room for dozens of delegates to sit down and have discussions. The room was built like a large antechamber, designed for the passionate usage of politicians. He surveys the room as they seat themselves in comfy, black cushion chairs.

“Welcome, weary travelers. We welcome you to this meeting.” Some mummering in agreement can be heard. Tony continues.

“Our first topic of note is...” Tony scrolls down the tablet he is holding, looking at reports he has received from his partners that reside around this planet. Their homeworld was an information gateway. Everything that happened on every far-off planet, he knew about it.

Often, his subordinates collected local data from far reaches of the realms and sent reports back, from their starships. He oversaw an information gathering organization known as ROOT. They were the root of the trees, after all.

“Wild monsters. There has been an alarming report of a surge of monster births, as well as attacks on human settlements across the galaxy. We have increased battle droid production in our home solar system, Sola, but it is clearly not enough to keep up with the excessive number of incidents that have happened in the last few years. The number of minor casualty reports has increased greatly, while the number of major casualty reports has risen more than I would like to admit.” Tony looks crestfallen.

Despite their best efforts, it seemed difficult to guarantee safety to people that lived on the far reaches or edges of the realm. Most of the security was stationed around the inner solar systems in their galaxy, while some patrols did their best to manage the outskirts. Death was always a present concern in their minds. The others seemed concerned, perhaps even frustrated. The feeling of being powerless swept through the room.

The divine hammer remains silent, for a moment, then she speaks.

“I have done my best to convince the stubborn ones to move closer. To protect the young ones that can’t protect themselves. But I am increasingly strained by the day; overtaxed and overburdened. Not only am I trying to manage our realm, but I am also sending protection to others. I am also partially managing the Celestial Realm, as my sister has proven useless in that regard.”

“And I have been to Mid-Earth as well. As much as we all here would want to be, we can’t be everyone at once.” She sighs, then looks at Tony again.

“Tony, tell us more about your findings from the reports you have received.” He nods, then continues.

“The rising monster population has created an arms race, in the creation of machines for protection and for weapons of war. Some factions have taken it upon themselves to arm themselves without our consent.”

Tony does not say it clearly, but the builder knows. There is an illegal, black-market group of criminals that will sell dangerous weapons to the highest bidder. Not only are these weapons untested, but they are also highly fragile and known to absorb the life force of the user.

They prey on the innocent and backstab anyone that speaks their name. Thus, she and the others haven’t been able to figure out the name of their group. All they know is that they are cultists, people that worship destruction. And every one of their members has a red eyed, silver skin snake tattooed on their left arm. All of them, to the builder, seem almost corrupted. Like something is whispering to them in their mind. Something is edging them towards pure annihilation. A voice interrupts her train of thought.

“You don’t have to skirt around it. We are all aware of them. The snake cultists. Or at least what I call them.” The god of the Underrealm lets out a small smirking, almost amused at the thought of them.

“Something funny, Hekta?”

“That isn’t my name, Divi.” Her smile turns into a scowl within a moment. The Divine hammer isn’t pleased by her behavior. Hekta was an old nickname, one she gained from her youth, she thought.

“I did not appreciate that old little nickname of yours.” She spits out with a little venom.

Hekta was always a pain to deal with since they were young, the builder thinks. She continues speaking.

“Then try taking this a little more seriously. People depend on us, we are the leaders, the ones they look to for guidance and protection.”

“They can hardly protect themselves without you swooping in to save them or one of your little drones. How will they manage without you? Or in fact all of us? The realms would be in pure chaos without us.” Hekta sighs. The builder continues speaking, ignoring her complaints.

“But back on topic; yes, Tony, we are aware of the cultists. The ones always murmuring something about a snake god’s revival.”

“Yes. They have been supplying people, without our permission, dangerous weapons. Do you have any suggestions on how we deal with them, Goddess of the Under Realm? Since you are so keen on speaking.” The builder’s expression relaxes a bit, but she is still quite focused on the matter.

“We can try interrogating some of them, if we can capture them. Alive.”

“I won’t rule it out but knowing you, you will try some extreme methods to get your information. Try thinking of something a little more...ethical.” The woman of dark skin sighs but continues speaking.

“We could also lay out a trap. Bait them. Pose as willing buyers to draw them out. That would take more time, which we are slowly running out of. But it could possibly work.” She says in an unamused tone.

“That was a good idea, we will have to discuss that later. Does anyone else have other suggestions?”

The builder turns her eyes away from her scowling friend towards the others, who are listening intently. Sillis begins speaking earnestly.

“That is one potential angle we can approach them from. Perhaps, we could form an elite task squad that has the sole purpose of monitoring these cultists, reporting their movements and tracking them to investigate, observe and build a layout of their organization structure. I will leave the naming of said group to you, my friend.” Sillis motions towards the builder, who then nods. She then looks at the others.

“No one else has anything to say on this matter? Then great. Onward towards the next one.” She motions towards Tony again.

“Warp gates. The most effective method of travelling around the realm, and between them, but the hardest to maintain.”

“Each month, we must mine about 5 trillion kylithium crystal ore to maintain the one hundred or so warp gates we have functional now. Our great friend here,” Tony points at the golden-haired android goddess.

“Is still working on a newer, more experimental model that requires a mere fraction of our daily usage of crystals and in fact, might be able to use other materials to power them. But until that can reach completion, we have yet another problem. We are running out of places to mine. These crystals are a finite resource, and it has become harder to find new moons that contain them over time. We could travel without the gates but.” Tony sighs.

“Our spaceships can still travel without the gates, through hyperspace, but it is quite a bit slower. About three to four times slower, if I check the math here properly...” Tony raises his glasses, scrolling down his screen. Ellis, who remained quiet the entire time, begins talking.

“The gates, though a wondrous feat of technology produced by our lovely builder, can’t last forever. Especially with other illicit gates that are not nearly as safe.” She is pondering in thought.

“I would suggest more of a proper multi realm pathway that connects all realms and can be controlled by us easily.” Ellis speaks but the builder shrugs.

“It’s a great, theoretical idea. One I, in fact, thought of in my youth. But I don’t know how to build it or make it safe enough that anyone besides the six of us, the god machines, can travel between the realms daily. I can only lament my lack of skill.” She sighs.

“The real problem isn’t making the path but maintaining it, for I would say, the foreseeable future. Our realms, as you might know, are divided between barriers of normally impassable space” She stands up, pressing a couple buttons on a pad she has. A large virtual screen appears, showing them what she is talking about. A large map of the heavenly star realm appears and on it, there are locations for the gates she maintains. She continues speaking.

“I connect different realms by creating gates in areas or places that have less of that, let’s say, ‘wall,’ in between them.” She moves her fingers along the virtual screen and a patch connects the gates to each other. The paths can also connect to other realms. Another screen appears, showing the gates in the other realms and their pathways.

“Thus, making travel between the realms easier. There are other ways to pass through realms, but you don’t want to try them. Believe me, I tried em. Almost died three times that day.” She continues speaking, looking at Ellis, who is focused on her. She still seems a bit tense, for somewhat obvious reasons, she thinks.

“So you are asking me to create a dimensional pathway that can withstand that crazy dimensional wall, as well as protect ordinary folk from just being crushed into pieces the moment they step foot on it. Ellis, I know you mean well, but I deem this to be impossible.”

“Not practical with our current level of technology and my knowledge. Perhaps one day I’ll create some kind of material or some vessel that can withstand that.” She kind of just shrugs while Ellis looks mildly defeated. The builder waves her hands, making all of the digital screens vanish into nothingness.

“I knew you were going to say that. But I wanted to try. I can tell we need something else. Something that the people can use easily.”

“I know how you feel. I worry too. But that’s why we are here, having this council. We are making answers for tomorrow.” She waits for one of the others to speak and Tony piques up.

“If I may suggest, what we could do, for now, optimize the output of our current systems on the gate to reduce power draw. As well increase the efficiency in crystal usage per volume used.”

“Well, guess I’ll be busy wandering around those things, again. Not the first time.” She looks around, for confirmation, then nods at Tony.

He continues onto the next topic of discussion. “Ah, our next topic. Star breaker.”

A cacophony of sighs and sounds of disappointment can be heard around the room. The builder herself seemingly deflates to the bottom of her chair. Desperately trying to forget about her sister at this very moment.

“You know this was coming, stop slumping in your chair!” Tony throws his tablet at his boss, hitting her square in the head. She tumbles on the floor, pretending to be in pain.

“God damn it, let me pretend like I don’t know her. Please, just for one more minute.”

“No.”

“Another ten seconds?” She smiles gleefully. Tony seems to be getting angrier by the second.

“If you don’t get up in ten seconds—” She quickly climbs back up into her seat and into a proper sitting position. Tony, to her, is fiercer than any cyber beast she fought before.

“Alright, alright! What about my sister?” She mouths out, frustrated as usual when thinking about her sister.

“Where do we even begin? Her not being HERE, probably off terrorizing some poor bear folk on a far-reaching planet. Star breaker, who has made no attempt to send us reports, making us guess where she is. Usually by observing the mess she leaves us in her wake. The fact her assistant is here speaks volumes, if you ask me.” Tony looks towards Silis, who merely nods towards him.

“Your guess is as good as mine. She hardly talks to me or remembers I exist, on most days. Today, I was lucky, she said she was hunting wild beasts...But I can’t be sure that’s all she will do. Once in a while she swings by.” He looks back towards the builder.

“Oh and I didn’t forget about you two scuffling the other day! I nearly forgot, planning this meeting was more important. Until I saw a report on my desk last night. And a bill for the damage. How do you two cost us so much money all the time? I swear, sometimes I think your age is a lie.” Tony grumbles.

“I don’t know what you are talking about, we just had a friendly little bout.” The builder whistles, almost forgetting she just got her ass beaten flat by her sister. As usual.

“If murdering each other is a ‘bout.’ Try to fight somewhere else that isn’t owned by a merchant, next time?” He sighs knowing his words will fall on deaf ears. He can’t stop their fights merely with words. He knows how combative Star Breaker is.

And he knows, secretly, his boss cis too. She simply just restrains herself for her own good, luckily for him and the others. He continues talking.

“But more importantly, she should be here. With us. What on earth is she doing now?” Tony seems baffled, confused by Star breaker’s actions.

“I’d say she’s hiding something from us but.” He looks at the builder who just eyeballs him.

“I’ll keep my speculation to myself. Whatever she isn’t telling us is for our own good, I suppose.”

“Honestly, one of the only things I approve of about my sister. But enough about her. We danced around other topics but let’s get to the meat, everyone. Where is our missing earth goddess?” The mood in the room, which became lighter, now has sunken back to where it started from. Ellis stands up, distraught.

“I don’t know. I last spoke to her about six months ago. She was investigating something on a desert planet in the Sol solar system. After that I lost contact with her.” She sighs.

“After that, I began sending search parties in vain. It was like she had mysteriously vanished. Even though her StarTec communicator was lost, we haven’t been able to find it at all.” The builder nods grimly. She had built many things, marvels of technology and one of them was the StarTec communicator, a communication device that powered itself by using minimal amounts of energy in the surrounding environment.

It was able to communicate anywhere in the six realms, which was a necessity. It was necessary for the heads of the realm to stay in contact on a private channel, in case anything happened to them. It seems to the builder her fear was realized, and her location was unknown.

Along with the StarTec communicators, every drone manufactured and deployed was equipped with a basic radar system, as well as a memory circuit that recorded data. This data was transferred to a giant mainframe on the moon of her home planet, which recorded and sifted through all the transmitted information. The drones were vital not only as a tool to protect the common folk from the dangers of daily life but also served as a radar network.

Mapping out the topology of different worlds, providing vital information about the composition and chemical makeup of different worlds, as well as creating a somewhat semi-accurate real-time map of each realm. So, it was clear to her that the culprit behind the Earth goddess’s disappearance planned this in advance.

The builder sighs again, then speaks.

“It is almost impressive, really. To not only destroy her communicator, but to dismantle every drone in that system and nearby solar systems at the same time, to prevent us from locating the perpetrator. It is unlikely that one person alone would be able to do this. Highly unlikely, in fact, impossible.” Ellis speaks again.

“I have my speculations, but I think the most likely culprit is...one of us.” She dares not look at anyone else as she says this, but the room remains silent. The air around them feels heavier by the minute.

“That is the most probable cause of her disappearance. Since I have rigorously tested my machines before deployment. And these are not machines that are capable of sentient thought or action without command, my question is. Who would do this? And why? What do they have to gain from kidnapping the Earth goddess?” She says, seemingly frustrated at the situation.

The goddess of death, who remained silent to this moment, coughs.

“U-u-u-m. Perhaps this c-c-culprit wants us to spend time looking for her, distracted, while she plots something else?” She mumbles out. The builder looks towards her, intrigued.

“What can they accomplish while we are searching for her? It’s not like all of us are going to scour that system at once.” The frail woman speaks once more, after listening to her friend.

“Maybe what she wants isn’t looking for her but to b-b-be stuck in chaos. Disorder, confusion.” She murmurs out.

“Explain. I am intrigued by your thoughts on this matter.” The divine hammer rests her right hand against her face, fascinated by her words.

“M-mm-m. By having become more frustrated by being unable to find her, she can sow the seeds of chaos in our minds. Then, once she can tell for sure we are distracted, she will attempt to separate us, one by one, and keep us from working together. She truly desires Chaos unlike—” She is cut off by the dark skinned Hekta.

“Hahaha! Funny, indeed. But how will you prove who is the culprit? We are lacking critical information; we don’t have any physical evidence to confirm who did this.” She seems troubled, as well. The builder turns towards her.

“Well, you know what they say. All we need is some way to lure them out. Some way to prove that he or she was the suspect in this crime. Are you offering to be the bait, knight of the under Realm?” She merely shrugs in agreement.

“If that’s what is needed. I am, as always, sworn to our people. I will be the one that exposes this crook, if I need to.” The divine hammer then turns her attention towards everyone else in the room, seeking their input.

“Please. Don’t hesitate to offer suggestions or ideas on how we can find her. I have already tried searching the memory banks in the drones stationed near the affected systems to no avail. All of that data was wiped, as well, during that time.” Silis looks at her, then speaks firmly.

“Perhaps the cultists were the ones that kidnapped our missing lady.” She says.

“That was my first thought too, but there aren’t many cultists in the area. The system is filled with desert planets, home to a nomad like folk that simply wander the desert and live off the land. They reject our technology as well as that from the cultists, so it is unlikely they are responsible for her disappearance.” Ellis piques up, turning towards Silis.

“Furthermore, it was at the behest of the desert folk that she investigated that planet anyway. Something strange was happening to those monsters.” She says, conflicted. The builder eyes here inquisitively.

“What do you mean, ‘strange’?” Ellis stands up, taking a deep breath.

“It was observed that the cyber beasts forming on that planet were evolving or perhaps, corrupting the natural habitat along with animals that lived there. The normal sandworms that lived on the planet, which the Nomads hunted as prey, were being corrupted. Changing into silvery, skinned monsters. That had red, beady eyes. And each corrupted worm further corrupted the rest near them, as well as corrupting the land. Almost as if they were feeding off the land, absorbing it into themselves. Luckily, she and I managed to cull the population of corrupted beasts before they spread too quickly on a nearby planet. Then, as she received another distress signal, she decided to check out the planet...and we have now arrived at the present. So no, I do not think the cultist played any part in this. At least for now. They surely could benefit from her disappearance, obviously.”

Finally, she sits down from her standing position and slumps downward, tired from the beginning of her speech. Every word Ellis spoke further increased her anxiety and despair. The builder, seeing her stress on her face, begins to take the lead once again in conversation.

“I think we’ve probed Ellis’s mind enough for the moment, so you can relax. I will say that we will continue searching for her in rotations. I will continue providing some of my drone force to maintain protection in the earthen realm. Until we find her, we cannot relax our guard. We must stay united at this time.” The builder can hear some mummering from the others, but she does not ask for any further advice. She believes they need to move on the next topic in this meeting. It has gone on for so long and we have so much more to go, she thinks to herself. Tony picks up his thrown tablet, brushing it off, and continues onto the next item of discussion.

“Alright. The next order of business. Money. If I look at our earnings right...” Tony starts to talk about the monetary spending and surplus of incoming, due to increased trade from the gates and enterprising business taking shops around the gates. The divine hammer, however, loses focus. She doesn’t really care much about the money flowing in and out of her realm. The android doesn’t even need money to do what she wants

A while ago, Tony’s far ancestors pestered her to create a universal monetary system for trade. At about the same time they created their democratic society, appointing elected officials based on the will of the people

Ten thousand years goes by so fast, at least to her.

Before then, the living mortals bartered with trade of valuable goods such as ores, mined crystals, gold. It seemed very inconvenient until she, together with the brightest of their generation, created a universal money system called star tokens or Starkens, as most people called them. It proved to be very popular, she remembers.

After the advent of that, she spent a long-time excavating ruins of the previous civilization that lived in this realm, seeking to uncover more knowledge about them. While searching, she finally found a broken model of a star gate.

That was only fifty years ago though. It was quite difficult to find anything of value

Much of the ruins she found were either damaged or sealed off, making it difficult to obtain relics from the past. But she did find a couple. She studied the star gate and reverse engineered it to create a lesser but still moderately functional warp gate that is being used today. Her focus, lost in her thoughts, wanes further.

She could feel herself falling asleep from the sheer boredom of listening to Tony ramble about the merchants from the Celestial realm, furious about losing some of their money. Unlike in her realm, her sister did little to influence the structure of a functional society

Leading it to become a place of noble, wealthy men and many many poor wealthless serfs that practically served the rich.

Yet another reason she did not like her sister; she cared little for the people she was supposed to serve. Only serving to frustrate the Divine hammer even further.

Drifting in her thoughts, she can finally see the darkness of sleep take hold of her. But it was not darkness that awaited her.

It was, strangely, a woman holding a book. A silver haired woman, with hollow blue eyes and pale white skin. She wore colorful robes, adorned with strange symbols of sorts. Arranged in some kind of pattern.

In her right hand was a book that had words. But she could not perceive what they meant. Those words floating endlessly around her book

And her left hand, were some kind of chains? They were connected to her but flowing outwards, like they were coming out of her.

These chains. She could see them. Somehow, she saw everyone else in her room, including herself. She did not know how or why but she could. Divi could see the chains.

Somehow, she could see herself and everyone else in the room, even though she was asleep. Was she dreaming?

Every one of them had them connected to her head, strangely. It was almost as if the chains were controlling them.

“What...what is this? What are these things?”

“It is the one thing you cannot escape. That which is unseeable but also unavoidable.” The builder turns to this woman, confused. “Which is what?” She remains silent, only angering her. The builder stares at her, getting angrier by the second.

“Give me an answer, god damn it! And in fact, who the hell are you?” She walks up to the robed woman but somehow can’t reach her. The Divine Hammer is pushed back, unable to move forward.

“What is this? Are you watching us like this daily? Creep.” She spits out but again nothing is returned, only silence.

The woman is busy reading her book and uninterested in the words of the Divine hammer. She speaks with finality.

“I care not for your words but your actions.”

“Show me your true potential.”

“Show me the strength of one of the chosen.” She begins to vanish, turning into nothingness.

“We will meet again, young Star Warrior.” Disappearing from her view, leaving her with nothing to stare out. The chains have vanished in her mind. For now.

The builder stirs out of her sleep, waking back up. To every pair of eyes in the room staring at her. Including Tony’s.

“Enjoying your nap, are you?” Tony cracks his knuckles

“I didn’t nap, I swear. It was just pretend sleep!”

“We all heard you snoring!” Tony, with all of his might, punches her on her noggin, making her wince.

“Ouch!” She groans in pain. Tony is once again frustrated at her.

“Aaaaah, the amount of shit I put up from y’all gods...without me, you would be lost.” He groans, complaining. She just shrugs.

“What would we do without you, dear assistant Tony?”

“Be far worse off, I’d imagine. How did you manage before I was born, anyway? I’ve only read some reports about your. Antics.” The builder just stares at the top of the ceiling of the room with little expression on her face.

“As we all do. I just found ways to get by, we managed, we scraped by.” She quickly thinks of the past, her long thirty thousand years. Far before she ever met Anthony.

“I remember building the first commercial spaceship vessel and watching my first assistant, Leo, fly it. Before that, I was winging it mostly solo, besides these meetings.” She kind of shrugs.

“I can’t remember. Time flies. Yesterday, I felt like the place here was a small city. Now look at it.” She reminiscences briefly for a moment. Tony clears his throat, getting her to focus back into the meeting.

“You can save that for later. We have many more topics to go through.” As Tony begins to speak again. He is interrupted. This time by something of concern. A loud noise can be heard, echoing through the room, putting all of them on high alert.

Alerts are popping up all over the room.

A drone bursts into the large room, flying towards them with ill news.

“Warning, Warning! A large monster has penetrated the planetary defense system! It is heading straight towards this city!” The drone almost yells into their ears. Suddenly the builder snaps out of her drowsy state and is on full alert.

“What about our defense systems? We should have large, unmanned combat drones that can intercept and destroy these sorts of things. And more importantly, how did it get so close to us without setting off our radar systems? This is ridiculous.”

“Large Silver eyed cyber beast has invaded space from the northwest sector of this star system. It immediately devoured three asteroid objects within two hours, destroyed our detection drones, then quickly slammed into the planetary shield system. Unmanned large machines attempted to intercept but were destroyed upon initial contact. The beast also disrupted our communication systems planet side, resulting in this delayed relay of information.” The news hits them like a truck. However, the builder manages to stay calm. She is thinking.

“Damn. Any video feed on this thing?” A screen appears in front of them from a stand, surveying their interloper. It is a giant, silver-eyed snake. It is the size of a skyscraper that appears to be around ten kilometers in length and three kilometers in width, based on local scanners. It is in the air and quickly descends upon the capital city. It lands with a colossal earthquake, violently shaking the ground.

Everyone inside the room feels it.

Luckily, their floating island was unharmed by the shockwaves but...the rest of Aegis wasn’t so lucky. Some ground damage can be seen on camera monitoring the outside edges of the city.

“Where is it heading?!” Tony yells out, concerned. The drone responds

“Heading north towards this location...Warning! Detecting high energy particle accumulation. The beast is preparing an energy blast. Brace for impact.” Reacting quickly, the divine hammer forcibly grabs Tony and throws him towards the floor. She stands in front of him, Ellis, the death god and Sillis. The goddess of the under realm stands next to her in tandem.

“We are deploying an extended energy barrier around this island!” The Divine hammer yells. “We don’t have time to seek shelter; tell the other people in this building not to leave, Tony! Now.” She screams loudly, uncharacteristically of her usual, calm self. This was truly a terrible turn of events, Tony thought in his mind.

Tony grabs a communication device on his waist, wasting no time typing in instructions for the other government workers to stay put. There was simply not enough time for them to avoid this unexpected attack. The only thing they could do is hunker down and brace for impact. He could only assume the worst. “I have messaged them. How much time till impact?” The builder scans the creature using her visor, which detects the energy building in its jaw.

“We have sixty seconds. Brace yourselves.” The ball of energy begins reaching its zenith, damaging some electronics and nearby drones in the air. People outside have already seen the snake and are running for cover.

“Ten seconds.”

The beam has fully charged and blasts towards them.

Pure energy simply vaporizes every living and non-living thing in a three-kilometer radius.

Tall buildings are burnt to ash; the living have become melted flesh. And the energy soars towards the floating island, colliding with the energy shield erected by the two gods. The pure collision causes a rippling explosion, evaporating everything else outside into dust. A blinding white light engulfs them, blinding everyone on the island.