Chapter 1047 Counterattack part 2

"...W-why do you have Freya's Divine Core?" Hephaestus asked nervously as just seeing it in Kisuke's hand physically hurt her. Only when Freya fused with it was she able to let out a breath of relief.

"Well, things happened."

"Things happened, you say... You don't get to hold something that could be crushed in one hand and instantly kill its owner with just some things happening."

The others watched Freya as she was engulfed with pink light and Divine Aura started exiting her body. As a Deity's Divine Avatar is something that holds its Divine Core, anything that holds its Divine Core is considered a Divine Avatar. And with the Heaven's System the only restriction right now is bringing down their Divine Avatars thanks to Chaos' machinations, once in the Lower World, the system's influence over them became almost nonexistent.

Freya didn't wait and spread out her Divine Aura containing her power as a Goddess of Love, filling Hestia's barrier with her own color. Thankfully, she kept Kisuke's words in mind and just took over the children's minds and overpower Chaos' influence just enough before immediately dispelling her power so that they wouldn't lose their minds over her.

Soon enough, lights returned to everyone's eyes and as if just waking up from a bad dream, they started panting for air, "W-what just happened...?" Lefiya asked herself, still distraught and confused.

Though before the pink aura disappeared, it visibly concentrated on Kisuke which shocked the other Gods as they knew how dangerous that was.

Freya just wanted to tease and test him, but even after increasing the intensity of her 'Charm', Kisuke's expression didn't even change, and became disappointed.

"Kisuke puts the most importance on the integrity of his mind so he has a lot of defenses against abilities and things that can influence it," Yoruichi explained while grinning at her.

Freya finally completely dispelled her 'Charm' and turned her attention back to the children while pouting.

"Welcome back, everyone." Kisuke greeted them and they all looked at him with fear-filled eyes, "I know you all want to rest and relax but we don't have any time for that, for obvious reasons. All of you need to fight and there will be no exceptions. Well, you technically also have the choice of running away but you'd need to dig deep and stay in that hole for as long as the war lasts."

They were silent. Although they knew the right answer, it wasn't an easy one. After all, they'll be going against the God that they revered their whole lives. On top of that, things happened so fast that they haven't even fully processed what was going on.

But as Kisuke expected, Bell was the first one to step out and ask a question, "What about the rest of the Lower World? What's going to happen to those who can't fight?"

It was an obvious question since only a small fraction of the whole world could actually put up a fight and the large majority are just normal citizens, living their day-to-day lives away from any conflict. Now that an unprecedented danger encompasses the whole world as if horns of the apocalypse, what's going to happen to them?

"Everyone will be put in danger and there's nothing really we could do to save them. Many are going to lose their lives from battles that could happen all around the world." Kisuke immediately answered without sugarcoating anything.

And as a result, everyone looked down, imagining the horrors that are about to go down.

"That's why your cooperation is important," Kisuke added, which made everyone focus their attention on him again.

"What do you mean?"

"Instead of creating conflict everywhere and dragging innocent souls into danger, what if we create an army and force them to defend their base, essentially pooling all their numbers into a single area where they won't be able to hurt as much."

"Wait! You mean that we're initiating the attack!?" Demeter panicky asked.

Instead of Kisuke, it was Kali who replied to her question with a heavy voice, "That might be our only choice if we don't want to let this war spread. Besides, I would rather die fighting than die hiding like a rat."

Hermes then asked Yoruichi, "I can tell that you're very proficient with Spatial Magic. Is it possible to increase our number by gathering people?"

But before Yoruichi could answer, Loki interrupted, "That could work, but I'm against it. We'll have the same problem as the enemy is having now if we haphazardly invite others just to increase our numbers. Who knows, maybe before we could even start we'll die at the hands of bad actors."

"I have the same opinion as Loki," Odin also spoke up, "But we could also invite a few trustworthy people to our side."

A full-blown discussion started among the Gods but the problem of numbers isn't going to go anywhere as they are now.

Kisuke let them talk to each other and turned to Riveria, "I'll leave the others to you. Thankfully, you have experience teaching at the Ouroboros Academy. Just teach them what you think will be useful."

Riveria nodded and she already had an idea of what to teach everyone, 'For top fighters, defensive techniques since what they need is to survive to protect the others. For the rest, ritual-type Magic to cover the lack of offense and simple but broader defense.'

"Well then, I have nothing else to do here for now it seems. I'll go rest now."

"Wait." Astarte grabbed his sleeve, "Are you really going to leave us like this?"

"As much as I would like to, I have nothing to offer in your conversation. It's your world so you know much more about where to get people so I'll leave it to you guys."

Astarte wanted to ask further questions but Kisuke stopped her by sending her a mental message, [And obviously, I have my own hidden cards that I can't reveal to everyone. After all, it's not just the risk of bringing in a traitor that is the problem, but a traitor already existing in this group.]

Astarte froze and let go of Kisuke.

Kisuke didn't say it out loud because he didn't need an unnecessary divide within their current group, 'If there's really one, then I have to bring out my ace as late as possible. In the next three days, I would have to focus on finding that guy.'

But despite their current standing, he couldn't help but get excited at the surprises he prepared for everyone as if he was preparing some pranks.