Chapter 690 - Side Chapter: Dark Steppes Issues ----- A powerful and pressuring presence was slowly awakening within the Dark Steppes, expanding its authority, and changing everything that the Gods that inhabited this area of the Realm knew about. The Plants began to transform into monstrous creatures, the animals and small monsters mutated, becoming gigantic beasts of several heads, limbs, and monstrous appearances. And the air and the atmosphere of the place was slowly becoming strong and pressuring over the Gods and the mortals they took care of, while it strengthened any creature that had mutated through them. Jorgrakog, the Demon God of Aberrant Mutation was finally loosening his seal, and his Divinity expanded widely across the landscape, his maniac laugh could be heard by the Dark Steppes Gods, who trembled in concern and fear over such a powerful God. Because most of these Gods were not battle-oriented and were also quite particularly weak in battle, many of them did not stand a chance against such a God as Jorgrakog, a being that had once put even the Central Continent Gods on a stalemate. His Divinity was mighty and overbearing, his ability to change his environment and create a 'Mutated World' where anything alive became monstrous and chaotic was his specialty, and such power strengthened him as well. The more he mutated and expanded his 'Mutated World', the stronger he grew, and to make it worse, he would acquire a significant boost on his strength whenever he was to be within such domain, to the point that the necessity for Divine Energy to stay in the surface was minimal, making him one of the few gods with such an ability to ignore one of the greatest weaknesses of the Gods after Genesis was split into Realms. Because the Realms were shrouded with Miasma, a contaminated type of Mana and other energies, the Gods would need to constantly spend Divine Energy to remain on the surface. Alongside this, many other laws within the Gods belonged to large Pantheons, such as 'not interfering with mortals', and the like, making Gods have a difficult time when it came to interfering with mortal affairs. However, Jorgrakog was different, his Divinity and physiology let him survive in Miasma and even thrive on it, his 'Mutated World' was a Domain created by his own Divinity and the Miasma that he constantly exuded around himself through his leaked Divine Aura. As long as he kept expanding his Domain around everywhere, he would become even stronger and become able to remain on the surface alongside mortals without much cost in Divine Energy. However, the Dark Steppes Pantheon of Gods were concerned, they knew that Jorgrakog was breaking from his seal slowly, but they were surprised when his progress was hastened greatly by unforeseen circ.u.mstances. The Dark Steppes Gods had noticed that Hephaestus, alongside his children and wife, have been wandering around the Dark Steppes through their Divine Realms, planning something. Because of this, the Dark Steppes Gods once again gathered to converse about such issues, while considering their next plans. "This really smells fishy… Ah, no pun intended…" said Garathun, the Demon Demigod of Gills and Swamp Fishes, a giant catfish, a fat and giant fish with a wide-body and long whiskers, with crimson eyes and a jaw filled with sharp teeth resembling razors. "It seems that Hephaestus is actively helping Jorgrakog break through his seal… The same seal that he and his father, alongside other Gods put into him… Why would they ever help their former enemies? This is ridiculous…" said Geodredeot, the Demon Demigod of Swamps and Scaled Creatures, a god resembling a giant alligator with rock-like green scales, a long jaw filled with sharp teeth and whose legs seemed to have adapted to swim better in water, resembling the fin of fish. "Why would he help a former enemy, you ask? Does he wants to destroy us, perhaps?" asked Saphentine, the Demon Demigod of Long and Binding Creatures, a giant snake, a reptile that lives in swamps and lacks venom on their fangs, a boa constrictor. It was covered in thin scales and had a giant jaw which seemed intimidating, despite this god not being an aggressive nor battle-oriented one. "But why? What have we done to them? We have been living our lives peacefully in here! Why would they want to destroy us now? We have been slowly maintaining this place, so we could be isolated from the outside world, to live peacefully while seeing our mortal children grow… What have we done wrong to deserve their hate?" wondered Salalotl, the Demon Demigod of Sticky Skin and Gooey Creatures, a giant Demon Demigod with the appearance of a dark green salamander, with a large and wide jaw, small legs and feet, and thin skin, covered in sticky goo. It resembled not a conventional salamander but a prehistoric relative to it, with various features that seemed ancient. "Indeed, this all sounds fishy, just as I said!" said Garathun. "It is really quite troubling and puzzling to me… We not only have Jorgrakog slowly turning everything we have worked in a land of chaos… but we also have these strong Gods from the central continent wanting to hasten our destruction…? At this rate, if Kireina-sama does not come here, we will have to run away…" said Ghiotl, the Demon Demigoddess of Treacherous Venom, a giant, purple-colored floating squid which had one single crimson eye and hundreds of tentacles. Each of her tentacles seemed to have an orifice where poisonous gas was exuded each time it exhaled. "To be honest… I suspect a reason why could had Hephaestus from all Gods decided to come here and mess with us…" muttered Othairth, the Dragon Goddess of Poisonous Eyes, a 'small', around twenty meters tall dragon. Her front limbs were made into wings, and she had two heads, each one only had one large pink-colored eye, her scales were purple, and she had a venomous needle at the tip of her long tail. "You do, newcomer?" asked Saphentine. "Please do tell… We are quite concerned, any idea would be appreciated…" said Garathun. "Indeed…" said Salalotl. "Please, Othairth-san…" said Ghiotl. "W-Well, have you all read about that notice lately? The notice regarding Hephaestus and… Kireina?" asked Othairth. "Notice? I didn't know about that…" "No? I rarely visit the Interdimensional Merchant Shop, nor I have the Divine Energy Crystals to spend there…" "Me neither, what was it?" "I am just a clueless as everyone else…" The Demon Gods of the Dark Steppes were extremely poor Demigods, many of them didn't have any currency to spare in information, nor they glanced at the Interdimensional Merchant Shop often. Due to this, they often were very misinformed about the outside world and what was currently happening. However, for them, such things were fine, as they did not want to learn about such things either. Living in isolation, they only desired peace and tranquility, and all of them had grown accustomed to not interfering with the events outside of their domain. However, Othairth, a Dragon Goddess that belonged to the Central Continent Pantheon knew a lot of such things and was accustomed to purchase information and 'news' from other anonymous Gods. One of such news was regarding Hephaestus and Kireina, which began to be divulged by Hephaestus himself a few days ago. "Well, this news is about how Kireina, somehow, entered one of Hephaestus Dream Worlds, a special space created through the powers of Freyja, the Great Goddess of Dreams and Nightmares… And she not only just entered it but stole the daughter of Hephaestus that was peacefully living within… This had made Hephaestus greatly enraged, as he said that he loved his daughter very much…" said Othairth. "Eh?! Kireina-sama would do such a thing?" "Unbelievable…" "Why would she try to mess with such a strong God, who belongs to an even stronger family of gods?!" "She's insane…" "What was on her mind when she did such a thing?!" The Dark Steppes Gods reacted in several forms, but all of them agreed on something. Kireina was insane. In their pacifist minds, it was inconceivable for them to taunt nor do such things to other Gods, they found Kireina rather insane, and a bit irresponsible. "Wait a minute… Do you mean that Kireina-sama is being plotted against by Hephaestus? Is this why is he here? Has the predicted that we called her for help, and is waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike her down whenever she reaches our domain?" wondered Ghiotl. "That's awful…" "So he's trying to use Jorgrakog for that?!" "I believe Hephaestus might be just as insane as Kireina…" "No, he's even more insane!" Ghiotl quickly figured out that Hephaestus might have known about them asking for her help indirectly, and a bit directly through the two Beast Demigoddess not present at the moment, Dhyellele, the Beast Demigoddess of Rodents and Savaphe, the Beast Demigoddess of Land Turtles. Although their pleads for help seem to not have reached her yet, as she had been ignoring them for a few weeks now, and since then, they had been considering escaping this place while saving the mortals inside of their Divine Realms… However, if they were to escape, there would not be anywhere for them to go, and they would be drifting around the Realm inside of their Divine Realms, waiting for that mysterious God who liked to invade the Divine Realms of Lone Gods. This is why they wanted to join Kireina through this request as well, to get into a Pantheon where they could be protected if possible. "But wait… Does that mean that he thinks that Kireina will come here?" asked Saphentine. "How could he figure that out? We had kept our requests a secret!" said Ghiotl. "Yeah, even Dhyellele and Savaphe are being discrete… well, a bit," said Salalotl. "Sigh… This is indeed quite troubling," said Garathun. "There… could be a way for him to have found out such info, even without knowing about our requests," said Othairth. "I-Is that so?" asked Ghiotl. "Yes, there are certain Gods in the Central Continent that can predict the future to a certain extent, or even glance at it," said Othairth, recalling such Gods being used to predict enemy force movements. "There are such strong and absurd divinities out there?!" asked Garathun. "Indeed, Garathun-san. There is a Goddess that I recall might hold a grudge against Kireina, particularly because she has one of her blessed future Heroines as part of her allies… That would be Baltis, Demigoddess of Stargazing Eyes!" said Othairth. "That's bad news…" said Salalotl. "I feel overwhelmed, it was never our intention to get involved in such disputes!" said Saphentine. "Trouble… I don't want trouble… This is scary…" said Garathun. "Hey, man up! We are deep into this issue now… There is no going back!" said Geodredeot, who was one of the few fighters within the group. "No… I don't want to fight… It hurts…" said Garathun. "Sigh… Is there no other way around it? We should simply run away… It is not like fighting would bring us anything, and we'll most likely be defeated," said Saphentine. "Yeah, we are not as strong as the Hephaestus family! And if you add that damn Jorgrakog, it's even worst! It's an impossible match!" said Salalotl. "Everyone, please calm down, we can still talk things through… There is still some time left before things finally break down… but I believe that Kireina-sama might come…" said Ghiotl. "I-Is that so?" asked Salalotl. "If Hephaestus saw that in the future, it would happen, isn't it already confirmed? Also, I am pretty sure that he might be waiting for her to come to finally begin his attacks… So we might be sparred until then…" said Ghiotl. "Oh… that's… I didn't think about that…" said Garathun. "I see… Yet, I still feel like we should prepare somehow, even if by a little!" said Geodredeot. "That's true. At the very least, let us prepare a few Divine Techniques and Divine Constructions…" said Othairth. "Let's also use this time to reinforce our barrier… And let's also hope for Dhyellele and Savaphe to accomplish their goal…" said Ghiotl. "Sigh… Yeah, although I have not much faith in them…" said Garathun. -----