16 The Great God Of Life

Taking a sip of the ambrosia in the intricately designed porcelain cup Zohar watched expressionlessly as his friend squirmed in his seat.

Moving anxiously as he twiddled his fingers, the perfect picture of flustered and agitated.

But despite this, the cold god did not speak letting the god of death fret on his own. And seeing this behavior Emidio could not help but curse inside, how could've such a person be the god of life. He was clearly suited for being the god of death instead.

Maybe they were misplaced when their powers were bestowed. How infuriating.

However much Lord Emidio cried on the inside Lord Zohar was not bothered. Rather he enjoyed the peaceful atmosphere.

While he felt it was comfortable the other clearly felt himself sitting on pins and needles, but despite all this, he could not complain, for this was all his fault.

Why ever did he think it was a bright idea to discuss his problems with this person?

"So, what do you think about the prophecy?" He started, feeling the waters for the moment. But the cold look then landed on him made Emidio smile embarrassed. Having clearly been seen through he still did not take back his question, instead directed his curious eyes to the other party ignoring the feeling of facing death himself.

He was clearly the overload of death! Then why this amount of fear facing the one who ruled over life? He was curious but did not have the guts to inquire.

The great god of death was rather timid in this regard.

"The prophecy? It is fancier than the previous ones. Personally, I do not think anything of it." Came the careless answer to his question.

And Emidio did not pursue more, remembering the warning the three fates issued him. Even then he could not curb his curiosity and now it seemed that the god in question had no particular interest in it either.

But whether all this was true or false nobody knew.

Thinking this Emidio tactfully changed the subject.

"What do you think of the state of the mortal world then?" He asked peering at the raven-haired god.

The mortal world had taken a turn that had not been seen for the past millennium. The savagery spreading around was really alarming.

"What happens in the mortal world is not our problem, we only have to care for the circumstances that come later. An being the gods of life and death it matters even less to us." Zohar murmured coldly, the heartlessness sending a chill down Emidio's spine.

But it was not wholly unexpected, gods were such beings. They live in the heavens and the mortal world was just another realm to them. The beings living there was just another way for them to gain power.

"The immortals in there will have to take care of it," Zohar added before expressionlessly taking another sip of the delicious ambrosia.

"Yes, that is true." Emidio nodded, inwardly sighing in disappointment, having not found the peculiar reaction from Zohar he was expecting for.

This was becoming rather troubling.

~~<<>>~~<<>>~~<<>>~~

The days passing had blurred together. Nothing important, or entertaining except for the momentary relief of watching humans happened at the academy.

And as days passed by Lilith's emotions became even more volatile. The laziness, physical need to rest or sleep all day had practically diminished to nothing. Instead, she felt on edge at every single thing that was happening.

And to make matters worse there was this nagging feeling as if she'd forgotten something again.

Frequently happening since the upheaval of her emotions.

One moment she would be gazing at the sky in the gardens of the academy then suddenly she would wonder what she was doing here.

The muddleheadedness and the stress of thinking had made her want to lash out but with difficulty, Lilith had been able to reign in the terror.

The rest of the sins were no better.

In their case instead of feeling the opposite of their sins, their sinful desires seemed to have manifested more, and the urge to cause mischief was so apparent that sometimes unwittingly they would heavily influence some unsuspecting soul in the academy making them run around with different emotions.

It had been especially frequent now with the Seven Virtues out of school.

For some reason, the seven had packed up and left, and weeks had passed since their absence with no news. Of course, this did not matter to Lilith since she did not particularly care for any of them but both Amara and Lucien were minutely worried.

Both Jasper and Celene, though followed being virtuous to the dot, were responsible personal. They would not just leave if there was no pressing matter seeking their attention.

And since coming to the academy the seven sins' outside intel had been almost non-existent.

The mighty God who had taken it upon himself to keep an eye on them was not any help either. The man either was there to admonish them, punish them, or give some work for them.

Sometimes it left them feeling like being his lackeys instead of the six sins of the three realms.

"Lilith! We've been summoned by the big one." Lilith then heard the hurried voice of Amara who suddenly appeared beside her.

"Oh," Lilith muttered non committedly before following after teleporting away leaving behind a shocked Amara.

The mistress of Lust could not comprehend what happened to her cute little sister to be so bland. Her ruby eyes had been lost somewhere far away and at that moment Amara feared that if she'd not come here on time, then maybe Lilu's physical body may as well have gone very far away.

Shuddering at her silly thoughts Amara vanished away appearing at Pride's room where the rest were gathered waiting for the 'great one' to make his appearance.

It had always been like this. Whenever Lord Zohar felt like conversing he would either appear amidst our fun or summon us to Pride's place. The two had a villainous, friendly relationship.

Lilith quietly moved next to Aaro who was lying on the couch. She sat at the edge before resting her head on his chest seeking her twin's comfort and without questions Aaro provided his hand gently petting her hair comfortingly.

It did not take long for the great god to appear.

Light shining in the room as an imagery silhouette of his beautiful visage made its presence known.

Unlike the seven virtues who stood in respect, at the presence of their guardian goddess the seven currently present did not have such notions. They simply remained where they were; Aaro and Lilith on the couch, Nicholos behind his study table, Amara sitting with her legs crossed on the bed, Damien leaning against a wall, Col, as usual, filling his stomach sitting at the edge of Nicholos's desk and Lucien half reclining behind Amara on the bed.

None of them seemed to respect the great god of life even a bit.

But Zohar unlike the other god would have done did not flare up, instead, he simply looked at them with his cold silver eyes. His eyes moved upon each and everyone then on Lilith, where it laid a little more than necessary before finally resting on Nicholos.

"These past months your behavior had been relatively mild." He started making the rest present, especially Col roll their eyes.

"And so it is fine if your sentence is made more lenient," He posed and while the sins acted as if they did not care, their ears were strained to the maximum to hear what he was about to say next, waiting for the inevitable but to come their way.

"But," As expected.

"You are required to do something."

"Ahh, there it is. Admit it, all this is simply because you want to issue some orders." In a rare moment of rashness, Lilith blurted out, her heart filling with a wave of unknown anger at the sight of the god.

Stifled laughter spread through the room before silence descended with one look from the god, everyone now sitting straighter except for Aaro and Lilith.

But contrary to what everyone believed the god did not hiss in anger or anything, instead, he simply ignored the girl before moving on to the matter he came for.

Lilith who had been staring at the person felt an indescribable twinge of pain in her heart before she dismissed it.

This was nothing new, he'd always acted like that. So why now? All these bloody doubts?! Despite her inner struggle Lilith paid attention to what was being said, even when her heart seemed to yearn for something else.

"These days you may have felt an increment in the number of sinful emotions you have been absorbing. It is because the outside world has reached a chaotic period. While everything seems to be happening in secret, nobody is unaware of the matters. The mortals are up to something calamitic and while you would like more than anything for that to happen I need you to put a stop to it and you will have no need to attend the academy again."

It was Nicholos who followed up with a question.

"So you want us to solve mortal matters in return for nothing?" He asked looking a bit amused. And then Lilith followed up, the pair up to their usual negotiations.

"Even if we refuse this, in another few months we would be released from here anyway, so what does it matter if we are released now or in another few months? Don't you think our 'reward' is a little too cheap?" Zohar could feel the ire hidden in the words and with difficulty he brought his eyes lay on her ruby ones.

A jolt of warmth and pain entering his heart at the sight. But the god was a master of hiding his emotions so even with the emotional turmoil within him he did not reveal anything, instead, he spoke, for the first time in years, directly to her face.

"You have not changed." The words jolted into the room like a bomb startling the life out of the beings inside, especially Lilith who looked at the culprit with wide eyes.

"What do you mean?" She questioned now sitting straight her chin held up in challenge. While both Aaro and Nicholos who were on in the inside story averted their eyes.

"The mistress of Sloth, even with her lack of desire for anything materialistic and emotional, still always looks for the benefits on every occasion. Quite bizarre don't you think?" He spoke leisurely, hands behind his back, but the provocation was unmistakable.

"Don't change the subject." Lilith deflected wondering what had gotten to the god.

Then as if a switch had been flipped Zohar straightened once again addressing the rest.

"Solve the problem, your rewards will be duly awarded." With that, the undulations of magic vanished, the silhouette of the god of life disappearing.

Lilith too stalked off, unable to calm down the anger in her chest while the rest look at after the two with slack jaws.

"What did just happen?" Col asked dumbly looking at others receiving a shrug from Lucien.

While Amara exclaimed, "I must be hallucinating because I swear I felt an intense level of attraction in the air just now." This brought out two pair of coughs and Nicholos's quick dismissal, and orders on reporting promptly on tomorrow morning.

Still feeling unsatisfied with the lack of information Amara and Col followed the rest out, their hearts filled with a load of questions.

~~<<>>~~<<>>~~<<>>~~

Returning his subconscious back to the heavens Zohar let out a soft sigh. He might have agreed with the rest to stay out of the mortal world, and he had not missed the underlying schemes some of them have taken part in.

But he did not need to intervene for anything, enough immortals were residing on the mortal realm to take care of happening there.

What the god's motive in doing everything was a mystery, he was quite a complicated character.

Does he care for the mortal world or not? Only the great god of Life himself might know.