Chapter 954: Soul Overcrowding. 2
"Aye, Ma'am." Nyx looked to where the conflict was occurring, and they saw the metal golems attacking Hela's Army of Darkness.
With their Draconic Eyes, everyone present saw what happened when soldiers from both sides died. In the case of Hela's Army of Darkness, tainted black Souls would emerge from the fallen and fly back somewhere.
The same happened with the metal golems, indicating that they were not just lifeless golems.
"Nyx, you can see it, right? Follow the Souls, find out where they're going," Scathach ordered.
"Okay." Nyx's wings opened, and she flew towards the Souls.
Everyone observed that each time one of them 'died,' the Souls from both sides would ascend to the sky. In the case of Hela's tainted Souls, they would return to her staff, and then a new Being would be created, essentially forming an immortal army.
Meanwhile, the same process occurred with the metal golems, with the only difference being the final destination. They didn't return to Asgard; instead, they moved forward, heading to Hela's Helheim... Or at least that's what should have happened.
The Souls of the metal golems were being diverted from their path to Victor's Hell.
"... My theory was partly wrong," Aline said as she watched the entire process. If Victor truly had a connection with Hela, the black Souls of Hela's army should have also been sent to Victor's Hell, but that wasn't happening.
'What's really going on then?' Aline couldn't understand, not even her Ruler's knowledge could explain what was happening right in front of her.
"Which theory are you talking about, Aline?" Aphrodite asked.
"Initially, I believed the Nordic Souls were coming to our Hell because our King had healed Hela, and in doing so had formed some sort of connection between them. After all, My King is The Ruler of Hell. But this assumption is completely wrong. Darling wouldn't do such a thing and keep it from us," Aline couldn't imagine Victor making a move that would stress his Wives without making plans to help them; he loved his Wives too much to make such a foolish move.
"Thus, my assumption fell apart when I saw this scene. If I were correct, the tainted Souls from Hela's army should also be coming to our Hell, yet only the Souls of Odin's metal golems are coming here," Aline sighed.
"In Norse Tradition, warriors who weren't granted the Eternal Honor of entering Valhalla and becoming an Einherjar, a warrior of Odin, would become tools for the next Ragnarok. In this case, the tools they became are the metal golems we're seeing right now," Aphrodite began to explain.
"All of these golems are possessed by the Souls of those who were not worthy to enter Valhalla but were competent enough to become automated warriors."
"What a stupid decision," Scathach couldn't help but say upon hearing what Aphrodite said. "Every warrior has the potential to become stronger. Instead of turning them into mindless automatons, they should have trained these warriors and created a squad of powerful Beings."
The girls nodded in agreement. The Gods had enough territory to sustain an entire planet, not to mention that thanks to the Divinity of Nature-related Gods, their Dimension would never run out of life unless something extremely specific, like what occurred in the previous events involving The End Dragon, occurred. Therefore, they had no plausible justification for relegating these Souls to become automated golems.
It would be more efficient to establish a hierarchy where those warriors who couldn't enter Valhalla could prove themselves again in a conflict or war to gain the status of Odin's Chosen Warriors.
In this way, those who didn't make it to Valhalla would have another chance to prove themselves, and knowing the mentality of these warriors, this course of actions would definitely succeed.
After all, despite not being accepted into Valhalla directly, they were worthy enough to reach at least The Gates of Asgard, something an ordinary Soul could not do since ordinary Souls, coming from those who were not warriors, would go straight to Hela's Hell.
Yes, if you were a Norseman, and you lived your life peacefully and died peacefully, you wouldn't be worthy of entering the Norse 'Paradise'; you would go straight to Hell, where you would be judged by The Ruler or The System.
Odin was essentially stealing Souls of good quality and adding them to his army, and he had been doing this for thousands of years. As for the Souls he deemed unworthy, he was literally transforming them into metal golems. Common Humans who were civilians received even worse treatment. They were sent straight to Hellhelm. Due to these actions, the Norse Pantheon had become a militaristic place where only warriors had privileges.
The entire Norse System was in disarray due to this policy, but somehow, it still functioned, and the Primordials did not interfere.
Of course, this non-interference had Odin's hand in it as well. As a God-King and a very powerful God, he could also see The System, and he knew not to interfere too much to avoid causing problems for himself. Because of this, he occasionally sent a large number of Souls he had stored to The System to ensure that everything ran smoothly.
"Different cultures, Scathach. As a woman who has traveled the world, you know very well that some cultures can make decisions that, from our perspectives, seem foolish. But to them, based on where they grew up, it's the right decision," Aphrodite spoke.
Even the Greeks had made various foolish decisions like this in the past, such as sacrificing their own people to please the Gods.
"I know, but it's still a foolish decision," Scathach said. She understood very well what Aphrodite was talking about. After all, in her travels to learn Martial Arts in the past, she had seen many foolish decisions made by powerful Beings too stubborn to change their minds, a common trait among all Beings with strength.
As a warrior, Scathach was completely against preventing warriors from becoming stronger. Transforming warriors into mindless automatons with no opportunity to grow in strength was completely against her principles.
"Hmm..." Velnorah touched her chin as she analyzed the images in front of her. She was searching her memory to see if she had seen something similar during her Rule.
As the second Empress, she had access to all the data her mother had stored during her Rule. When she was younger, she had read all these documents and stored them in her mind. It was a significant amount of information, but to her, with a mind much more powerful than any other Being, it was insignificant.
"Oh, I remember something..." Velnorah's words caught everyone's attention.
"It rarely occurs, but if a Death God from one Pantheon has more Authority than a Death God from another, the more powerful one can 'steal' the Souls belonging to another Pantheon."
Essentially, all Death Gods within a Sector had an equivalent level of Authority. This was intentionally done to prevent such a thing from happening.
An example of this was evident on Earth: Thanatos, The Greek God of Death, Azrael, The Angel of Death of The Heavenly Father, and Hela, The Goddess of Death of The Norse Underworld all had the same Authority over Death, as they were the main Death Gods of their respective Pantheons.
Even though Hela was a Third-Generation Goddess, she was still very powerful due to the circumstances of her existence. It could be said that because of these circumstances, she had also gained an additional Divinity, which was Time.
"Authority, huh..." Eleonor said. "Is it because Darling is a God of Negativity, and because of that, Souls are entering his Hell instead of their intended one?"
"If that were the case, he would be taking Souls from other Pantheons as well," Aphrodite denied. "Victor is a God of Negativity; essentially speaking, he can use all the Divinities that use Negativity as their primary Energy source, but the concept of 'Death' is directly related to the Primordial Entity, Death."
"Ugh... Why is everything related to Darling so complicated?" Eleonor grumbled. She felt frustrated that even after becoming a Dragon and having access to various experienced individuals, no one could understand what was happening.
"There's no use thinking about it now," Violet took charge of the discussion. "All we need to understand is that the Souls of the metal golems are coming to Darling's Hell, and this is causing an overcrowding problem."
"We need to solve this problem while also taking care of matters in the Norse Pantheon."
Scathach nodded. "Violet is correct. We can think about this later. Any assumptions now would be redundant, considering we don't have enough information to provide a correct answer."
"Which brings us to the question, how are you going to deal with the overcrowding problem?" Scathach looked at Helena.
"We have no choice but to request a Rule Change in The Automated System. Instead of including only normal Humans with simple choices, we will also include warriors on that list. This way, the number of Souls that require judgment from a Ruler will significantly decrease," Helena said.
As Rulers of a Hell, Lilith, Persephone, and Aline could request a change in the Rules from The System. Of course, due to their limited Authority, this request was only restricted to the processing of Souls.
They were not like Victor, who had considerable Authority over The System due to being a very unique existence.
"Will this change be permanent, or will you withdraw it later?" Scathach asked.
"We will have to withdraw it in the future, considering that all our future warriors who die will go through our Hell. We need to have this control if we want an immortal army that never dies," Helena said.
"But at the same time, I am tempted to leave it as it is in case a situation like this occurs again in the future."
"... Hmm, why don't you change how the automation process works? For example, can't you create a filter that identifies our warriors from the other Souls?" Violet suggested.
"That's impossible," Helena denied.
"Why?" Violet questioned.
"We don't have enough Authority," Helena explained.
"Even with three Rulers?" Violet raised a curious eyebrow.
"The reason for having three Rulers is to ensure that The System functions correctly, considering this is a very large Hell where the Souls of many future Beings will come. In terms of Authority, all three of us combined all have the same Authority as a normal Ruler."
"... More quantity, but the Authority is the same, huh... I guess the only one who can solve this problem is Victor."
"Considering he is the owner of the entire Dimension, that's likely our only option," Helena said.
"Hmm, anyway, Darling is enjoying his vacation now; let him rest a bit. If the situation gets out of control, we can call him, but for now, let's solve the problems to the best of our abilities," Violet stated.
And they all agreed with this thought. Calling Victor to solve a problem for them was just too embarrassing; it hurt their pride. All of them here were capable women, and they were proud of it. They could very well handle this problem.
Although they shared the same sentiment, Scathach, Violet, and Velnorah had a more pragmatic mindset, especially Velnorah. If the situation got out of control, she would call someone capable who could solve the problem, and in this case, that person was Victor.
"Let's get back to work," Violet ordered. "Helena, stay on the line; we will coordinate our actions."
"Yes, Lady Violet."
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