In the divine plane. Few minutes before the massacre of the gods.
Xanc's vision returned to his body. The death of his avatar was a big loss because divine energy is becoming scarce to acquire these days. Each divine avatar costs a god a fixed amount of divine energy which depends on the level of their strength.
A god can create as many avatars as they want but they don't have unlimited storage for divine energy. That means on a good day, they have a limit to what they can make in a day but they just had to wait to recover their energy. But now, they have to be frugal with their consumption of divine energy.
Only celestial gods have an unlimited storage of divine energy but the amount they have will be based on their accumulation. Things are not looking good for them considering that Ode the God King was recently the only celestial god. The rest don't have enough time to accumulate much.
Even though they lost terribly in the main plane, faith was still trickling in. People still believed in them, although in small pockets. He was thinking about making another avatar to go down and retaliate but he stopped. He has to think of the bigger picture.
"I have my Match today. I can't waste energy." He thought in consideration.
No matter how much he hated Ghoto, he had to prioritize his upcoming match to become a celestial.
The matchups have been going on a steady schedule in order to curb chaos. It will be his turn soon, but he wasn't worried. He had been paired with a weak grand god so the fight will be easy. He just had to conserve his energy.
If even he was having problems with energy, then the new grand god must be bankrupt of it.
He hated Ghoto. He really did. Xanc and Mihila had history. They were childhood friends, they both didn't have any bloodlines. They both struggled to make progress in a world that had deemed those without bloodlines a weakness. They had a lot in common, including their unyielding determination. They struggle together back in the day and helped each other out. It was comradeship that Xanc hoped would blossom into more.
But everything changed when Ghoto came along. Ghoto had a bloodline which he used to his advantage in swaying Mihila to him. The bloodline may be weak and largely unawakened but it is one. Xanc's budding romantic relationship with Mihila was crushed in its cradle by Ghoto. He wasn't even given the opportunity to ask her out. Maybe she would have accepted or rejected, but he believes deserved that much.
"Enjoy your remaining time alive for now, Ghoto. I'll be back. Justice always strikes back and will eventually catch up to evil-doers." He muttered with conviction.
He hates Ghoto and all those with bloodlines. He let his hatred spur him and energize him. He would take no chances with his upcoming opponent. He will crush the other grand god, absorb him and become a complete god, a celestial.
As he was contemplating the sweet, sweet revenge he would get to enact on Ghoto, something started to happen within the divine plane. It started with wild energy fluctuations and sounds of things crumbling.
He almost didn't recognize the sound but then he remembered that it had occurred some weeks ago when they had their first skirmish. The same strange thing had happened then they experienced their first disastrous defeat at the hand of that Origin god.
"But we have been careful. We always run away at the first sight of that calamity." He fumbled for a reason for this disastrous event.
It is funny how gods are at one moment talking about their honor, dignity, blasphemy, and justice. The next moment, that same god is asking why they are dying when they have been playing the game of hide and seek so well, like willy moles hiding from a mallet.
He was shocked standing. It just didn't make sense to him, they were incredibly cautious, so how did the mallet smash so many of them at once? He looked out his divine kingdom to see many divine kingdoms failing into the void. The divine kingdoms were smaller or larger than his but they were all crumbling the same.
"More gods have died." He said.
His voice was shaking. He almost couldn't believe it. They had made sure to avoid that origin god before they deployed their avatars. They had learned their lesson from last time so they remained fearful of that kind of power in order not to suffer such a disaster again. The death of gods is unprecedented but now it has occurred twice and in a large amount. And less than a year between the two events. At this rate, the gods will be wiped out.
For the first time since the war started, Xanc truly felt fear. Fear finally got through his thick skull and dense mind. He also realized that he might have just escaped death which was an absurd phenomenon. Gods shouldn't escape death because they should have to fear death. Xanc had never felt a threat to his life in more than 40 Origin cycles. It made him feel sick experiencing that fear now.
A mandatory council meeting was broadcasted to all the remaining gods through a flashing Rune. He accepted the invitation and appeared within the colosseum of the gods. The gods that appeared were panicking. Xanc noticed that only those that didn't participate in the battle and those that were defeated earlier like him were still alive.
"Silence." Ode shouted.
'The god King seemed to have grown stronger.' Xanc noticed.
He was not wrong. Ode had become stronger. He has become worthy of the name Celestial supreme. The name and the power that came with it only fully activated after he became a king of other celestials. He was now flanked by 21 other celestials. The more celestials he ruled over, the higher the power boost he got from his position. But the power boost will not come into effect in a fight against other gods, only outsiders will make it activate. So another celestial god can challenge him for the position of supreme.
That aside. Ode was tired. He was tired, worried, and fearful. He had watched the battle from his seat up on high but even he didn't know how the gods died. He saw no trace of any attacking origin god and no trace of the assailant. All he saw was the gods popping out of existence, both in the form of their avatars and later in the divine plane. It was a massacre of the gods with repercussions far higher than their defeat in the main plane and he still didn't know how it happened.
"How many of you are alive now?" He asked.
But he wasn't hopeful. The main force of the gods has become only him and the few celestials beside him. He was grateful he hadn't sent them to battle. There were several reasons for that decision. He was afraid of them dying if he sent them to the battle, there would be no major difference between them and grand gods even if they sent their avatars, they were also very weak right now. The new celestials are currently at their lowest, he wanted them to accumulate energy since they can save all the divine energy they produce. Grand gods couldn't so it was better to put their limited energy pool to use.
The number of gods alive was abysmal. 5 grand gods, 20 high gods, 130 mid gods, and 210 low gods. They had lost more than 90 percent of their numbers but strangely enough, their major prowess was still conserved. The other gods were becoming useless as less faith reached them. In a couple of days, they will be just for show. And the worse part is that he won't be able to make more celestials because a lot of grand gods had died. So no more progress in their strength. The army of the main plane doesn't need to do anything and the strength of the gods will continue to dwindle.
"Does anyone know what happened down there?" Ode asked in hopes that someone would have discovered something. The only god that survived raised his hand.
Ode gave him permission. "Speak."
The mid god stood up. "I don't know exactly what happened. I can only say something was wrong with the wind. It felt like something creepy was going on."
Ode shook his head. 'When did gods start using the word Creepy? When did we become so afraid?' He lamented. Suddenly he noticed something. He felt that something was wrong, he could have ignored the feeling but the entire divine plane was warning him of imminent danger. Thanks to the deepening of his connection with the divine plane he was able to notice that there was a foreign force within the Colosseum.
"Show yourself." He stood up and released all his power.
The other gods were startled, they hadn't sensed anything so they found the god king's behavior to be very odd. Who could sneak into the colosseum? Only gods can come here after all.