Now they are certain that the god is not a Celestial and has a domain related to stealth or secrecy. They can use that to narrow down the possible culprits and track the new god. The other gods joined in the conversation. A common point has been established, so they could join in. It is also important to be active in trying to catch the culprit. Being silent right now will not look good for them.
The hall became noisy as the gods gave suggestions and corroborated information.
"Enough of that. What do we do about the kidnapped demigods?" Harkam shouted to get everyone's attention.
He doesn't care about the new god. Some of his fears have been alleviated now that he knows it is not a Celestial god but something has yet to be done to improve the situation. The situation might not be as bad as he thought, but it is still bad.
"Calm down. We can't do anything as of yet. The ant queen will get in touch with us in a few days as they said. Until then we wait." Stelios spoke.
Harkam did not like that solution. "Wait, that's what you want us to do? When did we become tolerant of terrorists holding the entire pantheon back?"
Stelios began to get annoyed. He snapped at Harkam, "What do you want us to do? They have a god and the ant queen is a demigod. They will surely know if we try anything. Should we send our full force? Or don't you care about losing your opportunity for a divine lord?"
Harkam had to relax after hearing that. There is a lot that can be done to the ant colony. Even though they can't send the really strong mana entities, they can send in transcendents. The old and strong mana entities are at least 50 meters tall with some of them reaching 100 meters. They are too big for the tunnels. But transcendents can modulate their size and will fit in perfectly. Then they will be able to destroy every resistance.
A demigod ant queen is not a threat to the pantheon of giants. Even the god on their side is not a threat. It is just a grand god. One grand god cannot cause much impact on the pantheon or else that god won't be hiding. Even a celestial won't matter because the celestial supreme practically kills them for sport. It is the things that have become possible because of an ant demigod that is a threat to the gods. But taking rash actions right now can lead to the death of the demigods.
"Just relax. The fact that they haven't been killed means that the ants want something. We will find out and then we will decide then." The grand goddess of power and might said to him.
Harkam calmed down only because she is right. He isn't a fan of staying down and doing nothing, but if it will guarantee Tanya's life, he will do it.
He didn't get to calm down for long before another god dropped a bombshell.
The god of knowledge spoke. "Don't mind them Harkam. Stelios isn't as worried as you because his demigod managed to escape."
The god of knowledge is a giant made out of folds of paper. Even his fingers are constructed with layers of paper. The individual sheets of paper are white but aren't blank. They are filled with written knowledge. All the knowledge that the god of knowledge possesses is written on the sheets and they are a lot. One will be to get access to all that knowledge as long as they have the sheets of paper, can decipher them, and can read the language of the deciphered content.
"What? That dwarf sun god escaped? How did that happen?" Harkam asked hurriedly.
He is stunned that someone escaped but not that it is Helios. If anyone can escape, it had to be him, and Harkam knows that too even though he won't admit to it. The fact that someone escaped also means they might be able to get more information about the situation of the ant mound.
Stelios didn't get riled up by the god of knowledge. He knows that the know-it-all is trying to sow discord but for the sake of the important information that Helios has, he will keep his calm.
Except he doesn't know what happened to Helios. Helios didn't go with his team so Stelios couldn't spy on him without his priests around. But he can't tell the gods that or they will start suspecting Helios of being unique. He gave them an excuse for his lack of information.
"He was shrouded by the divine power of the hidden god when he entered the ant mound so I don't know what happened to him. I haven't spoken to him. Let us all meet him and hear what he has to say about what he experienced."
That surprised them. What Stelios said made it seem like the hidden god had targeted him. Apparently the hidden god had gotten his attention on Helios as soon as killed a royal guard. That feat wasn't considered much back then but it has become special in light of recent events.
None of the demigods killed a royal guard. They still didn't kill one as a group when all 85 of them fought 3 royal guards at the entrance of the ant mound. The son of the sun god managed to do something none of them could do. He had been shrouded from view right from the start and still, he escaped. They found it to be an impressive performance on Helios's part and want to know what happened in full. They prefer a live feed of the situation but they will have to do with his report.
Helios's POV.
Helios took the long way into the ant mound. His blazing figure streaked through the air. He knew which entrances are supposed to be unguarded. His aim is a particular one that is out of the way and won't be easily noticed. He found it and descended. Then he entered the large entrance and continued to his objective within the ant mound.
He was swarmed with ants as soon as he entered. They were so packed tightly like a living wall of ants. He didn't panic. He activated another set of runes on his body. The divine power of his core flowed into his body and activated the runes.
He said, "Let there be light."
A golden sphere appeared around him. It expanded into an area 10 meters away from him. Every ant that crossed the boundary of the golden ring turned to ashes. Then he continued pushing his way through the ant blockade.
The golden ring is his domain. A mana entity should have an innate domain but giants of order don't have normal ones. Instead of a domain that helps a mana entity to perceive, control, or communicate with mana better, giants of order have a domain that negates the activity of mana. Thanks to divine power, they are able to acquire special domains through the help of Stigmata and runes.
While priests sort for that divine power from Gods, he looked into his own divine core for his own source of divine power. It might be weak compared to priests but having a superior knowledge of runes and a large supply of mana to his core has made his domain more powerful than those of priests.
It needed complete harmonization with his core but he has already achieved that the first year after his birth. That achievement is old news to him. If not for the law fragments in his body, he would have already achieved harmonization with the world.
"I wonder how the strike team is doing?" He asked himself.
An image of them pushing the royal guards past the opening of the entrance and down the tunnel of the ant mound appeared in his mind. It is the current development of the strike team.
"All of them and they can't take care of three royal guards. Either these demigods are too weak or the royal guards are stronger than I estimated." He shook his head in pity.
He knows that the royal guards are stronger than normal. He also knows that they are pretending to be weak in their fight with the demigods. If the demigods are strong enough, they should be able to actually threaten the lives of the royal guards which will make them show their full power to protect themselves. But since there is no danger to their lives, the royal guards will continue to pretend and draw the demigods in towards the trap that they have planned at the first intersection.
"And they are older than me too."
It's not the demigods' fault for their poor performance. Most of them are less than 200 years old. Even the ones that can harness the divine power in their core like Tanya are only average among giants of orders that are mana entities. Meanwhile the priest of the church of the sun that is more than 1000 years old couldn't match him.