233 I'm Not That Kind Of A Loser
“Well… I won’t hide it from you,” he calmly shrugged as if he was speaking about someone else’s problem, “things don’t look that good in the shrine right now.”
“A war between you and Hades?” I asked.
“It’s not just about that, we aren’t the only two fighting,” he shook his head before adding with his calm tone and attitude, “it all started with a new special being that joined our shrine a few decades before.”
I kept my silence while listening to his interesting tale.
“First each shrine should have a boss. The first act to destroy a shrine is to take such a mighty figure down. Of course doing such a thing isn’t feasible or easy, but it’s not that impossible either.”
“The head of the shrine was taken down?!!” I asked with surprise and he nodded.
“Don’t be surprised, he fell at one of the big wars between the two universes,” his words painted a darker picture about the reality of that war, “after all supreme beings aren’t only limited to our universe.”
“I see,” I simply responded and he didn’t delve too much about what happened.
“Take the shrine of war as an example, you already know it’s gone, right?”
“Your man told me this,” I wasn’t that informative to know such deep secrets or facts. All I got was that intel from the lower god he sent.
And he nodded in response.
“They first lost their leader a couple hundred years ago, or perhaps over a thousand years ago. Anyway, during the three hundred years that followed, the special beings there fought among themselves to claim such a prestigious seat.”
“And they killed themselves?”
“The right question should be how to ascend from a rank to a higher rank as a special being, or what the likes of you would call gods,” his words were on the mark again before adding:
“There are two different ways with no other shortcuts, one is to do exceptional services at the ongoing onslaught in that war. That’s the path I selected for myself.”
“And the other one?” I didn’t show any reaction to what he just said. I had to know the second option to determine if what he chose was right or wrong.
“The second is to devour other special beings on the same rank as you, ending up with additional energy gained from them, enough to make you cross the insurmountable gap from ranks like myself and Hades and the head of the shrine rank.”
“And that’s the path Hades selected, right?” my eyes shone in realisation.
“It’s not a wrong path to take to be honest, especially when putting into consideration it’s much easier and a lot safer than the other path.” ρꪖꪕᦔꪖꪕꪫꪣꫀꪶ
I nodded and this time I felt more admiration towards him.
Indeed setting the goal of making great things at such chaotic and realistically dangerous war even for such a formidable god wasn’t an easy path to venture.
But it also held another meaning, another small point that told me this god in front of me was putting the greater good of the shrine above his own interests at least.
“This is the way the war shrine fell?”
“Yes,” he nodded, “back then most of the strongest special beings there got killed by others. I didn’t get the whole truth but from what I know so far I can say for sure these killings had many suspicious actions.”
“The hostile universe?”
“Who else?” he shrugged, “even if another shrine belonging to another race tried to meddle in, they wouldn’t be able to destroy such a formidable and ancient shrine like a war shrine. After all, shrines have existed since the early moments of our universe.”
“If they had such power, they could have killed that shrine a long time ago.”
“Indeed,” he nodded in agreement to my statement, “I also can’t put my fellow Hades in fault. After all, such a path I selected had a very low success rate and very terrifying death rate to whoever selected it.”
I nodded in understanding. He was right in his evaluation for sure.
Such a place where even the head of such a mighty shrine fell must be a real hell in this life.
“So, we are fighting, and not only the two of us. Hades selected me once he knew about my real intentions.”
“Don’t tell me I joined the losing side,” I laughed while my words carried a far more serious meaning.
“I’m not that kind of a loser,” Sith laughed back, “selecting that path doesn’t mean I’m weak or that passive. If he wants to come to me, he is most welcome to do so.”
He said it in a light tone amidst his laugh, yet his words carried their own weight. This god… he wasn’t really that weak or even fazed by this challenge from Hades.
“Anyway,” he returned to his calm demeanor, “I’m here to accept you to the shrine and take you under my wing. I initially thought to let you serve first under one of my underlings. Yet putting into consideration your grand plan and your guaranteed spot amongst the top hundred humans, it makes more sense to let you serve directly under me.”
“Thanks for such honour,” I slightly bowed my head in respect.
“Don’t celebrate too soon,” yet what he said next made me pause and look up at him in question. “I’m not that free like other special beings, so I won’t even be present to watch your play on your channel.”
I could understand this point so I remained silent while he added:
“Also you aren’t the only promising human I have. In fact the other hundred humans all share the same value like yourself. So you won’t be able to get as much support from me as other sponsors will do.”
“That…” I knew he was busy, but leaving me behind like this was too much. How would I gain anything back from his support then?