Chapter 552: A wave of changes. 2 "Oh…" Aphrodite's mind began to reset, and she started remembering what she had come here for. "Freya and Loki want to talk to Victor." "The Norse gods?" Scathach narrowed her eyes. "Yes, but now this is a subject to be discussed in the future." "We have more important things to do now." "Oh? We do?" Scathach raised an eyebrow, amused, as the goddess casually entered the group. Aphrodite ignored Scathach's amused tone and spoke. "Darling." "Hmm?" Victor, who was stroking Natashia, and Ruby, who had at some point placed her head between his left shoulder, looked at Aphrodite. "Create a faction." "......" Victor's movements suddenly stopped, and he looked at the goddess with a slightly shocked look, a look that soon changed to seriousness. The same happened with the girls present. Ruby and Violet stopped acting lazily, stepped away from Victor, and sat upright as the two women looked up at the goddess. They weren't the only ones. Even Natashia, who was looking like a sleepy kitten, opened her eyes and sat up in bed with a serious look. "Explanations are lacking. Why did you say that suddenly, Aphrodite?" Victor wasn't stupid. If she said something as big as creating a faction, it's because she must have her reasons... Reasons that, if it's what Victor suspected, meant that the situation was worse than he imagined. The goddess of beauty, who was currently shifting focus from her divinity to love, smiled lovingly and contentedly for her husband. 'Yes, he seems to understand the consequences of my words. That's good.' She wanted to laugh so much now, feeling extremely satisfied. Seeing that all the group's attention was on her, Aphrodite began to explain: "Diablo is making big waves in the world." "Waves that will drag everyone with them." "The seven hells, the underworld gods of each pantheon, thousands of hordes of beings aligned with the 'dark' side of the scale are uniting." "That is the view of the current state of the Greek Underworld." Aphrodite lifted her finger up, and a pink-colored screen appeared for everyone. And on that floating screen, everyone saw the state of Chaos which was the underworld. The souls were all scattered, 'death' was not happening in that place, all levels of the underworld hell were in chaos, the gates of the underworld were open, and the souls were fleeing, while the guard dog 'Cerberus' could not be seen anywhere. Chaos. This was the exact picture of the Greek underworld. "Tartarus has been opened, Hades is gone, and the titans that Zeus defeated in the great war are rising again." "Persephone, together with the gods of the underworld, are doing their best to contain the wrath of those imprisoned in Tartarus and prevent them from escaping completely, but... This is proving an almost impossible task." The image changed again, and this time a goddess that Victor knew well was shown. She was in a precarious state, full of wounds, and being held by a man and a woman, while in front of her was a being carrying a scythe, a scythe he knew very well. "Persephone." Agnes growled, and the surrounding area started to get hotter. Not only was she uneasy, even Violet wasn't left out, the only relatively 'calm' one was Victor, but his blood-red eyes couldn't be hidden. Sensing her husband's emotions, she quickly changed her mind. She didn't need to discuss this now, or she would get burned in the process as well. The subject of Persephone was, after all, a sore subject for Victor, Agnes, and Violet. "Thanatos, Persephone, Empusa, and Hypnos are doing their best to contain the damage, even the underworld torturers are helping, but as seen, they won't succeed, the titans will flee, and probably, another civil war will break out on Olympus. " "And this time… The allies Zeus made in the great war will turn against him because of his paranoia." The image changed, and a monstrous being with several hundred arms and heads appeared. "Repeating the history of the past, the children of Gaia and Uranus who once helped Kronos fulfill his destiny and were imprisoned by the same, the same children who were rescued by Zeus, son of Kronos, and imprisoned in Tartarus again by Zeus himself ... They came back." "And they are furious." ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! The thunderous roar of the giant beings was heard, and it sent chills through everyone present without exception. Even Aphrodite was affected. "Hecatonchires." "Beings to be pitied, beings that have been used and discarded, and this time, they won't rest without seeing it all burn." Silence fell around until Scathach broke it. "... How did they escape from Tartarus? Is this not the deepest place in the Greek underworld?" "Honestly, I don't know. Hades helped? It's a probability, but knowing that fool, I highly doubt he did it... He, of all people, knows that if the entities that are trapped in Tartarus get out, not even his kingdom will be safe from his wrath." Aphrodite shuddered slightly as she remembered a creature that was the daughter of Gaia and Tartarus itself, a being that came to be created with the sole purpose of destroying Olympus... And she almost succeeded. "That's why I said that, Victor." Aphrodite turned her gaze to Victor. "Nothing involving the first-generation gods is to be trusted, especially Nyx and Gaia." "The radius of influence of these goddesses extends to a vast range. They are, after all, the oldest goddesses, and even Erebus is not left out. Never trust these beings." Victor nodded, understanding Aphrodite's concerns now, and he felt sweet inside. Another silence fell around, and everyone was silent, trying to digest what they had just seen. Aphrodite smiled slightly as she felt Victor's emotions for her. And Victor laughed too, when he sensed Aphrodite's amusement. They understood each other now on a profound level. Soon seriousness returned to Aphrodite's face, and she said: "Not just the Greek pantheon. I have information from the Norse pantheon that says Valhalla and Helheim are in a similar state." "Even the Takamagahara hell of Shinto mythology and the hell of the Hindu and Egyptian pantheons are in a similar state." "All seven hells that souls go to are in a confused state." "... And my guess? Diablo is involved. This all started when he made his move, and it's too much of a coincidence to be considered 'lucky'." "...This is a bigger scheme than I thought..." Scathach muttered. "Just how long has he been planning this? Hundreds? Thousands of years?" Violet, who was calmer, now spoke. "Demons and Gods have an extremely long lifespan. If they have focus, they can do it." Ruby spoke. "The problem is precisely that." Agnes pointed and continued: "How can a demon be so patient?" "...." Everyone was silent and couldn't help but agree with Agnes' thoughts. Can demons, beings who represent the sins of mankind, and their leader who was literally created by all of mankind's ills, be so patient? Is this not a virtue? "… Where is Lucifer?" Natashia made an important point. Everyone looked at Aphrodite. The goddess just shook her head: "I don't know. The last contact I had with Lucifer was in India when I went to visit Kali. He was having an orgy with men, women, demons, and some fallen angels there." "...." Everyone didn't know how to react to that information. "But I doubt anything happened to the bastard. He's just that charismatic, and he must be in some hidden realm having another orgy or something." Aphrodite spoke. "Haah, if Lucifer came back, at least half of Diablo's faction would join him." Natashia continued. "I wouldn't count on that man's help." "I am not." "I just wanted him to cause chaos and possible civil war, his presence could cause that, and that would destabilize Diablo's plans." "... Wouldn't a being who planned a move for thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of years, take precautions against his most troublesome opponent?" Victor spoke for the first time, and everyone's attention was drawn to him. "Yeah, whatever the plan, Diablo is prepared." "..." Natashia pouted. Speaking like that, Victor seemed to be scolding her! Victor pulled Natashia's waist, laid her on his chest, and started stroking her head. And that brought a smile to Natashia's face. Continuing as if nothing had happened: "A proof of that is Lilith. The woman was completely different when we saw her for the first time." "A proud demon like Lilith acting as a faithful subordinate? And even more, that demon is a progenitor." Victor's eyes glinted in disdain, "And I know personally how innate the pride of the 'progenitor' race is." "Following your former enemy, the one who chained you up like that… And her attitude at that meeting…" Victor's eyes glowed blood red: "It is inadmissible." They all felt a slight chill down their spines when they saw Victor's discontent. This feeling came from the depths of Victor's being since, for him, the very act of witnessing a progenitor in that state was repulsive. "Bow your head to your former enemy? And act passively? That is not the attitude of a progenitor." "..." All the girls unconsciously nodded in agreement with Victor. The reason for this? They all had experiences with certain progenitors. The older ones, like Natashia, Scathach, and Agnes, had experience with Vlad. That old man never bowed his head to anyone. Everyone understood that; even in the situation where his daughter was kidnapped, he just didn't act because he prioritized his country, and he seemed to have some confidence that his daughter would be okay. But if Diablo went any further, a 5000-year-old progenitor would knock on his door. And that just proved how cunning the demon was. He knew where to squeeze and what situations to create. "Something is wrong with Lilith, my instincts say so, I don't know what it is, but I wouldn't doubt she was being controlled." Aphrodite thought a little more from a god's point of view and said: "... A progenitor demon and an evil goddess like Lilith is simply too important to be killed. She is, after all, mother of demons, the goddess of demons for a reason..." "A god who has the concept of a race in her divinity, and at the same time a progenitor..." Aphrodite opened her eyes slightly as she understood something: "With the right conditions, Lilith can create new demons… Demon Duke level demons." "What are the conditions?" Ruby asked seriously. And Aphrodite's response sent shivers down everyone's spines. "An ingredient that is quite important for the beings of the seven hells as a whole." "Souls." "… Well, fuck." Violet couldn't help but mumble. And everyone agreed with her. After all, just how many souls did Diablo have now? If you count the human population and the divine population, of course... Future expectations were not good... This was an event that was dragging everyone into it. "The world is changing, Diablo is making waves, and we must make a decision..." Aphrodite started to speak in a serious tone, and everyone looked at her. "Wrong. Victor must make a decision." The goddess looks at Victor: "Darling… My Love." "Are you going to sit there and get swept along by this wave?" They all looked at Victor, and not even a few seconds later, those who had a deep connection with him smiled, sensing their feelings. Scathach had no such connection, but she knew Victor so well she just had to ask herself a simple question: 'Would I just stand by and play other people's games while I get dragged into this?' The answer to that question was clear. 'Of course not.' She flashed a predatory smile. "Of course not." Victor responded with a smile matching Scathach's. ............ Edited By: IsUnavailable If you want to support me so that I can pay artists to illustrate the characters in my novel, visit my pa treon: Pa treon.com/VictorWeismann More characters images in: https://discord.gg/4FETZAf Like it? Add to library! Don't forget to vote to support the book if you like it.