Chapter 953: Souls Overcrowding.
While Victor was on temporary vacation, his Wives and subordinates were not idle.
Violet's group was responsible for collecting resources to be gained in Asgard. The group led by Leona was organizing the new Beings who would move to the former Egyptian Pantheon.
Meanwhile, the Demon Wives were working to keep Hell up and running. As all of them held high political positions, they were all occupied at the moment, all due to the sudden influx of Souls entering Hell.
"In the name of my Darling, what is happening here? Why are there so many Souls!?" Lily growled in frustration. As the General responsible for maintaining all the Hells where sinners went after death, she found herself overwhelmed by the sudden huge influx of Souls.
The flow was so great that she had no choice but to call Persephone, Aline, and Lilith to help her. As Rulers, these three women were working three times as hard to accommodate for the number of judged Souls.
To make matters worse, these Souls were foolish, and their Sins were usually related to the rape of the vulnerable of both sexes and the murder of innocents. Were these horrible sins? Yes, they were. But the problem was that... Most of these new Souls were warriors who had committed these acts during wars and invasions centuries ago! Literally in the era when the Vikings were most active on Earth!
"I finally made it... I finally reached Valhalla!... Huh... This isn't Valhalla?"
Lily slapped her hand on her face when she heard that voice. She had lost count of how many times she had heard this. This was her current biggest source of stress; these were literally Souls from another Religion! Ancient Souls that, for some reason, had not been judged yet.
How the Hell should she punish these Beings? They literally did nothing wrong according to their customs. If this were in the Norse Pantheon, these Beings who died in battle would have already reached Valhalla and become soldiers of Odin. For this reason, she sought the help of the Rulers, as they had a more neutral mindset regarding this.
Hearing the noise of men and women screaming and acting like headless chickens, she exuded her Power at its full might, causing all the Souls here to tremble, while her Draconic Eyes glowed with anger.
"Get in line. Now!"
"Y-Yes!"
Lily sighed. Normally, common Souls such as these would be dispatched automatically by The System, while in specific cases, some would be judged by the Rulers. All Lily had to do next was to do her job and punish the Sinners who had received their judgment.
But due to the sudden influx of ancient warrior Souls, this could not be applied immediately. This situation led to discussions about whether or not to change the rules.
By the Rules' standards, anything that tainted the Soul was considered a sin. In other words, even if an individual killed someone, if that death was in self-defense or because that person was their enemy, their Soul would not be tainted, and they would be free of sin.
By default, the Rulers were neutral Beings who only cared about the state of Beings' Souls. 'Sin' was relative, usually based on the culture of Beings or the rules of their society. Therefore, it was necessary for the Rulers to remain neutral; they were independent Beings above common Mortal rules.
But the problem with this was that it created a massive amount of work for them, as The System had categorized all these warrior Souls as specific cases for the Rulers to judge, as they had performed various actions in life that could or could not taint their Souls.
Combining this fact with the enormous number of Souls that kept coming in... This situation resulted in a workload that would last for over 200 years! And this number kept increasing as more Souls came in!
Now, from the Primordials' perspective, this was not a problem at all. After all, they didn't have labor laws here; they just wanted you to do your job and keep The System running no matter how long it took.
But for the girls, this was very impractical. If they had to work indefinitely like this, when would they have time to spend with Victor? When would they have time to do all those delightful things with him!? In the eyes of these women, this situation was a big FUCK NO!
Lilith was the only one worried about something else. As a woman who enjoyed the conveniences of modern society, she feared becoming so busy that she wouldn't have time to do anything else!
'This is Hell!' Lilith shouted in her mind when she saw the long line of Souls waiting to be judged; for her, this sight was the definition of a Hellish nightmare.
Due to this situation, an emergency meeting was called by The Administrators of Hell.
"What in the world is happening here!? Why are Souls from the Norse Hell coming here?" Lily slammed her hand on the table in irritation.
Initially, she didn't understand what was happening, but after 20 minutes of organizing everything, she realized an unusually abnormal flow of Souls coming from The Norse Pantheon, Souls that should have already been judged by the Rulers of that specific Hell, but for some reason had not, was entering their jurisdiction. Some of these Souls were warriors who were over 2000 to 3000 years old; they had died a long time ago.
These Souls could be considered the first Vikings, the early inhabitants of Northern Europe and Scandinavia.
Currently in the room were Lily, Lilith, Persephone, Aline, and Helena, who was in command while the King was away; she was literally the Queen taking care of everything.
"Calm down, Lily. Yelling won't help anyone," Helena spoke.
"Ugh, you say that because you didn't have to deal with a bunch of noisy men and women," Lily grumbled.
Aline, Persephone, and Lilith sighed when they heard what Lily said. They shared the same opinion as Lily; these Souls were very irritating.
Helena rolled her eyes and then looked at the group. She completely ignored what Lily had said. "I'm not sure what's happening, but I might have some ideas."
Helena put her hand on her wrist and tapped some buttons on her gauntlet; the next moment, a hologram appeared, showing recent events involving Victor and his actions in the Norse Pantheon.
The women responsible for running Hell read the very detailed report written by Velnorah, and silence fell in the room as they read the entire report. This silence lasted for a full 5 minutes until Lilith broke the silence by speaking.
"Hmm... I don't understand. Does this irregular flow of Souls have something to do with Victor?"
"Probably," Helena didn't give a definite answer. "As we know, whenever our King gets involved in something, problems tend to happen, and the only significant event that occurred recently that would justify this intense increase in Souls is this... Of course, there could have been an incident that we are not aware of. Though, that is a very slim possibility, considering that we have eyes and ears in practically all known Dimensions and Subdimensions."
"But of course, this possibility cannot be completely ignored until we have everything under control."
"... Wait a second... Our King healed Hela... He used his Power to heal the woman in charge of The Norse Hell," Aline began speaking as her brain worked on a possibility.
"Tell us what's on your mind, Aline," Helena said.
"... As we know, despite not having an official position as a Ruler of this Hell, Victor is still the owner of this Dimension; the proof of this is that Hell is literally within his Soul. I think that by healing Hela, a small connection was formed between the two Dimensions and the Souls that are entering our Hell are likely those that Odin didn't want in Valhalla, alongside the Souls that Hela had likely hidden away to serve as soldiers in the war she is waging."
'The problem with this reasoning is that I find it practically impossible for My King to make such a connection and not know about it. So, is this situation a part of his plan? But if it was his plan, why didn't he tell us anything?' Aline thought but didn't voice these thoughts aloud. Instead, she continued with her previous reasoning.
"The reason these Souls are coming here must be that they are 'dying' in battle, but instead of returning to the Norse Hell as it should normally happen, due to the connection between the two Dimensions, some of these Souls are coming to our Hell."
Helena raised an eyebrow when she heard Aline's words; her assumptions seemed very plausible. Because of that, she decided to contact Violet.
She touched her wrist again, and this time, another hologram appeared beside the report.
"Yes?"
"Lady Violet, there has been a situation in Hell. A huge influx of Souls is coming from the Norse Pantheon and filling our Hell with Souls. Aline made assumptions that this is happening due to the actions of My King in recent events. Please give us images of what is happening in Asgard right now."
Violet's eyebrows narrowed slightly when she heard what Helena said. "... Give me a moment."
"Meanwhile, send me a report of what's happening in Hell," Violet requested.
"It's easier if I just show you personally what's going on." Helena clicked more buttons on her gauntlet, and the next moment, a hologram showing live images of what was happening in Hell was displayed to everyone on the other end of the line.
"... So many Souls..." Anna's shocked voice was heard.
"I see your workload has suddenly increased, huh," Aphrodite remarked.
"We practically have a workload of 200 years on our hands, and that number keeps increasing as more Souls arrive," Persephone spoke.
"Ugh, it's tough being you," Aphrodite sympathized.
Persephone just huffed and said nothing. Now that they essentially shared the same man, the conflict between the two of them had been resolved. They didn't like each other, but they could live in peace.
It was a situation similar to the past but different at the same time. After all, Victor was not Adonis, he was not weak, and he could easily handle the two troublesome women. Not to mention that Aphrodite and Persephone themselves were different from the past.
"Sending images." Velnorah's voice was heard, and the next moment, a hologram of Nyx's view was seen by everyone present.
And then they saw an army of pure darkness attacking Gods, Goddesses, Demigods, Valkyries, and even Humans who had ascended to Valhalla; there were even some armor-clad golem-like Beings in the midst of this group.
On the horizon, the group could see a Giant Wolf, a Serpent that was much larger than the Wolf, and a Dragon flying in the air.
Atop the Dragon's head was a woman with long curly black hair and sapphire green eyes; she was wearing battle attire, and in her right hand was a staff that sent shivers down the spines of all who looked intensely at her.
A war of the Gods was taking place, or more specifically, Ragnarok was finally occurring.
"The war has just begun, but both sides are only sending their less powerful soldiers," Scathach began to explain.
"You could say they are waiting for each other to make a big move, or they are waiting for some hidden plans to yield results. In any case, the war won't end anytime soon."
"Nyx, observe the current conflict," Scathach ordered.
"Aye, Ma'am." Nyx looked to where the conflict was taking place, and they saw the metal golems attacking Hela's Army of Darkness.
...