Chapter 4 – A spectacular show

Walking down the aisle of the hall the conversation between the five continued.

"Let us get this matter over with quickly. We have more important matters to deal with!" The calm and soothing voice said with an irrefutable tone.

"Of course Zeus. Poseidon's silence on this matter already made it very clear." Sneering the husky voice commented.

"Do not mistake my silence for incompetence Hades. I'm sure you have received the report from Hermes." Calm like a lake but choppy like the surface of the sea in a storm. No one could tell what lay at the depths of this man. A mystery like the oceans themselves.

"You three brothers will never get along. But Poseidon is right! Odin's Valkyrie faction is gaining momentum and is the biggest threat to Olympus. Who knows when those war hungry barbarians will declare war?" It truly was a marvel how this woman could be so serious but her allure would only grow. Any normal man would have lost his morals in front of this beauty a few times through each of her sentences.

"Sister Aphrodite, it is not all bad. The angels and bodhisattva factions still remain adamant on holding the peace quo. The Brahman faction is a bunch of wanderers and shouldn't pose any problems for now. Whereas, the eastern gods are in constant turmoil. They are too busy fighting each other to bother or be a bother for any others." Tyche explained after calculating the probabilities. When she spoke her voice would be clear as water but there would always be a veil of fog over the deeper meaning in them. "the demon faction may be the only variable. Only fools would trust them. But sometimes it is the fools who win."

"Tch. Only the fiends are corrupted enough to deal with them." Zeus clicked his tongue seemingly disgusted by the mere idea of dealing with the demon faction. "leave it be for now. We will talk about this later! Let's get Hades to send this soul on its way to the underworld realm first." He said shaking his head. It seemed even gods had their fair share of troubles.

"with pleasure…" before he could complete his sentence his eyes landed on the four little kids sitting around the pedestal and giggling animatedly " …What are you little runts doing here!" With a glare, Hades immediately berated the kids.

Seeing the one uncle that they all feared, glaring at them with a livid expression, the kids immediately stood up with pale faces and words illuded them. "we..we…"

"Hades are you only good for scaring kids?" Aphrodite chided from the side and with a gentle smile waved the kids to come over to her. "come here little ones."

"You!..." Hades wanted to say more but his actions had already spoken so he kept quiet.

Eros seeing his mother, ran toward her and jumped into her embrace while the other two girls grabbed onto her two feet and hid behind. She was wearing a frilly and long plain white robe which allowed the girls to hide behind. Apollo ran to her too but he couldn't let go of his little pride so he stood beside her with teary eyes but maintained a determined expression.

Seeing the kids run to her Aphrodite picked up Eros and then placed a palm on Apollos head, patting it gently. Shielding them from their scary uncle. After consoling them a bit, the kids finally regained their colour.

Athena went up to Zeus and asked "father what is going to happen to this soul? I and the others have taken a real liking to it! He is a very interesting man. Brother Apollo and sister Artemis also feel the same." Following her, the twins also came up and started barraging their father with compliments for the soul.

Zeus was just about to ask them what they were doing around the soul before his three kids came over to him voluntarily, full of excitement. Listening to them he could deduce that they meddled with the soul and had read its memories. "I guess I should be glad that the mortal wasn't an indecent one." Mumbling to himself he breathed a sigh of relief. He could tell the kids were not telling him the whole truth but what's the worse they could do? It was good enough that they hadn't been tainted by the vile mortal world.

"Fine! Fine! You want something, don't you? Just Tell me what it is. I will not say no unless it is too unruly. You have my word!" Zeus had always doted on Athena and was immensely proud of his son Apollo. Though he showed no specific emotions for Artemis, he trusted her the most! For these three kids that he valued so highly, how could he not succumb to their sugary words?

"what are you doing Zeus?!" Hades was promised the soul and now these kids had stolen the rights to it in front of his face after he had berated them. Even though it really was not such a big deal to him. He couldn't help but feel discontent.

On the contrary, completely disregarding him the kid's eyes lit up and smiles bloomed on their cute little faces. "father we only hope that you can do a small favour for us and make a body for this human mortal. You all are the greatest gods ever! How could building the body of a mere mortal be something that would inconvenience you in the least?" Athena struck while the iron was hot. Her words only got sweeter and sweeter with every line. She truly knew how to tug on the heartstrings of her father.

Zeus really did love this daughter of his and she wasn't wrong. It was truly a simple matter for them to make up a body. "Hades how can we call ourselves supreme and rule over all the realms if we cannot even grant our own children such small favour's?" lowering the pitch of his voice a bit, Zeus asked his brother in a tone that could not be refuted.

Hades knew he would only seem petty if he continued. Realizing where this was going and being the type of man that would never accrue loses without justification he added "Fine! It is not as if I said I wouldn't allow it. I would have just preferred to be the one to grant them the favour. Since the soul was in my custody! Hmph. You little runts should rejoice because I will help in granting this favour."

Seeing his elder brother acting like this Zeus couldn't help but shake his head in dismay. He recovered quickly and said " it is decided then… but first, let me make some things clear. We will give him a body but it will be that of an infant. This is dictated by the heavens will and cannot be negated. Second, As a mortal, he cannot be kept here and will be sent down to one of the connected mortal worlds. If you understand these points and are still willing to have this human soul regain a body, only then will we continue." Coming to an end he put on a serious expression in hopes that these kids would think this through and make a decision. He hoped that they would learn something from this experience.

But as soon as he finished all four kids agreed without thinking about it for a second. 'When did these kids become so selfless and compassionate?' Even though there was absolutely no merit to them in this mortal gaining a body. 'whatever it can only be a good thing, right?' he thought to himself.

"Okay, Hades you may begin." Seeing the anticipation in their eyes he couldn't delay any longer.

Hades stepped up to the centre where the pedestal was placed. Not saying a word he gestured upward with his palm and the soul floated upward and came right in front of him. ' hmm, lets put on a show for these kids' he thought to himself and a complacent smirk crept its way onto his face.

To create a normal mortal body it would require him to only pull together sufficient magitoms. Magitoms were the building blocks of higher worlds. It was what decided the spirituality of a world and the various attributes it would be capable of housing. A high level of magitom could sustain and give birth to even beings at the level of Hades and rest. Thus it was considered the basic building blocks of the universe.

Gods on the level of Hades had the authorization to use magitoms to create inferior species. This included humans. So, in essence, all he had to do was give a command and the surrounding magitoms would do the work and before the heavens will granted the body a soul, he had to sneak in the soul in front of him.

This was a beyond simple task for someone of his capability. So to put on a show he first covered the soul in a black mist of death and got flames of the underworld to dance around the mist.

Seeing that the kid's eyes had widened into the shape and exuded a glow like a full moon. He finally gave the order for the body to form after a few more minutes of teasing them. The body formed quickly and he snuck the soul into the body. Ready to call back the flames and mist, the body instantly disintegrated. Not understanding what happened he gave the order a few more times but nothing changed. As soon as a body would form around the soul it would disintegrate no matter how much he increased the magitoms that went into the creation of the body.

Looking over at the kids, he could see impatience starting to bud on their expressions and cold sweat dripped down his forehead. He was beyond glad that he had decided to be flamboyant and cover the process up with his mist.

Putting that aside. He needed to come up with a solution and fast. Looking towards Zeus, he beckoned him over. Initially, Zeus was sceptical and thought his brother might play some tricks with the soul, but after listening to the account of the body disintegrating he started to think his brother was going senile. ' Such a simple task and you are making excuses. Does he think we've all become fools and will believe him? Letting him take the soul away?' Soon, however, after giving it a try himself and getting the same result a cold drop of sweat slowly dripped down his forehead too.

The two brothers were left stumped. They were in their prime and still could not create a basic mortal body. If news of this got out they would be the laughing stock of all the factions!

Looking into each other's eyes they saw unerring resolve and both reached a common consensus. Maybe for the first time, without a word, the two agreed soundlessly. 'If we are gonna go down… Let's drag everyone down with us!' Frenzy flashed in their eyes and both of them simultaneously turned their heads to look at their third brother.

Looking at his two brothers who would go fight a hoard of celestial beasts merrily without a single thought of backing down nor drip a drop of sweat while doing it, now sweating like they had run a marathon and looking at him with fanatic eyes that suggested he was the next prey. The usually stoic Poseidon felt a chill go down his spine.

This was the curse of having someone look up to you. Though it did put you up on a pedestal, it also gave one responsibility. And these two men were in this position. Hades gloated of his capability and Zeus was a father who had given his word so confidently.

They could no longer back out.