Chapter 986: A New Day, A New Year, A New Generation of Powerful Beings... But the Same Old Victor Hasn't Changed.
A new day, a new year, and as always the world began to turn. To the surprise of many, the past 2 years had been rather calm.
Many expected that after the fall of Asgard, which was subsequently acquired by the Hindu Pantheon, making it the second Pantheon in Authority only to The Dragon Nest, some sort of event causing a great stir in the Supernatural Community would occur, but... Nothing happened; the world was recovering well, much more than before, according to some researchers.
After the Demon Invasion on the day of the Apocalypse, it was somewhat evident that the planet was recovering. This evidence became even stronger when the garbage that was at the bottom of the sea began to be expelled to the surface at the same time as it was melting into nothingness.
Not only the sea garbage, but buried garbage also began to be expelled from the Earth and disappear. It was as if the Earth were, of its own volition, cleaning itself of the garbage produced by Humanity; the planet was now as healthy as it was in the time of the dinosaurs, all pollution had 'mysteriously' been deleted from existence.
Those with deep connections to the Supernatural World knew that this was the work of a single Being, a Being who caused a stir due to their thunderous rise, the Leader of The Dragon Nest Pantheon, Victor Alucard, now known as Victor ElderBlood.
Because of this, they did not dare to 'take credit' for this 'feat'; Mortals clearly knew that the Supernatural was involved, but they did not know 'who' was involved.
But of course, there are always fools who try to take credit for themselves at the expense of others' work. There would always be such people in any reality, and here was no different, as many 'clever' Gods boasted that they were responsible for it.
The result of their actions?
HE visited him. It is needless to say who HE is, but unlike what Mortals with little information thought, the EMPEROR HIMSELF did not visit them; his subordinates did.
After all, such a small matter was not deserving of the greatness of his Being; those who should do this work are his subordinates.
Unlike the Mortal World where 'brave' men and women could hide behind a computer screen and believe themselves free to say whatever they want, here it is different. Every action has a reaction, and proclaiming The Emperor's work as your own is enough to annoy many people serving Him.
The Blanks visited these Gods. Unlike before, they were not just simple Noble Vampires, but Dragonoids, Beings second only to True Dragons in potential.
The Gods who dared to take the Emperor's achievements for themselves were all publicly humiliated; the image of the True Dragon Kaguya surrounded by Dragonoids with similar appearances to hers ran throughout the world, as did her words that spread throughout the Supernatural World in a matter of minutes.
"My Husband is a generous man; he will not do anything against Beings who take credit for his efforts for themselves... But we are different; his Wives exist to protect his pride... No, our pride. While he is focused on more important things for the future, we will protect it from all the trash."
Kaguya grabbed the Hindu Pantheon God by the head and lifted him up. "Anyone who threatens our pride will be eliminated, whether you are an ally or not."
Kaguya's arm turned into pure Darkness as it transformed into a scaly arm of a Dark Dragon. In the next second, Black Fire, a mixture of Darkness and her own Fire Elements, erupted from her hand, reducing the God's head to atoms.
In this simple manner, the God was eliminated while all the Gods of the Hindu Pantheon watched helplessly, unable to do anything. Shiva and Indra were among them.
They wanted to do something, but they knew that if they raised a hand against Kaguya, who was the Emperor's Wife, Victor's entire Faction would come down on them without hesitation.
This situation might seem a bit wrong; after all, they were 'temporary allies,' right? But that was far from the truth. This entire situation was a demonstration, just to prove a point.
It didn't matter if they were an ally, enemy, or unknown. If the Emperor's Pride was targeted, THEY would come for them, and no one could do anything to stop them.
The proof of this was Kaguya herself, now in the midst of the Hindu Pantheon, obliterating a very important God out of existence, effectively eliminating him forever without the possibility of Reincarnating into the 'same' Being.
The only fact that relieved some Gods was that she hadn't killed him with the Concept of The End or something similar; she simply erased him with Dragon Fire, which, in theory, was something akin to the Powers of Destruction but slightly weaker. The God was eliminated, but his Essence would return to be reformed into a God with a completely different mindset; he was basically being reborn... Although this rebirth would happen far into the future.
"Know that The Emperor is the one aiding the planet in cooperation with the World Tree, Yggdrasil; any 'unnatural' garbage will be automatically eliminated from existence. The Emperor is fixing the mistakes that Humanity caused for itself out of greed." Kaguya's disdainful face was seen, a face of pure disgust that invoked shivers of fear in some people and certain 'exciting' feelings in others with peculiar tastes.
Which was quite normal, after all, The Emperor's Wife was very beautiful.
"You Mortals should be grateful."
After saying these words, Kaguya left, and a single hooded Being appeared in her place.
A Being that no one knew, but from now on, they would be known to all.
He was very tall, measuring two and a half meters, and his entire body was covered in full plate armor. Behind him, 12 wings made of darkness that seemed to swallow all the light around him extended slightly while his face remained concealed, with only an endless darkness residing in its place.
However, for some reason, everyone near this Being, upon continuously looking at the mass of darkness beneath his hood, could see hundreds of thousands of eyes underneath, and this sight made some Gods scream in horror.
Their screams were ignored by all, and eventually were silenced by 'something' that no one could discern. This 'something' merely existed there as if it were outside of Existence, but despite not seeing exactly what it was, all the Gods could see the silhouette of what seemed to be a very large feline beast resembling a panther or something similar to a tiger.
"Shiva, a message from My Lord." War's wings opened completely, and an unknown Energy that none of them had felt before spread, and soon 'Victor's' voice was heard, but this voice seemed very different from what Shiva remembered. It sounded older... Older and heavier.
If that were possible.
"Control your people, Shiva. Out of respect for you, I will let this pass, but there will be no second chances. Remember these words well because the next time my Herald comes to you... It will be the end of you and your Pantheon."
At the moment these words were spoken, the oppressive atmosphere vanished along with the Herald and the members of the Blank Clan.
Indra, along with some other Gods, fell to the ground as they greedily sucked in the air for their starved lungs, feeling a weight in their hearts like never before.
"... What was that? Are we really going to let this slide?"
"What choice do we have? Do you really want to confront that?" Shiva spoke in a neutral tone, but to his wife who was beside him, it was clear that he was irritated; he felt quite insulted.
Indra thought of War and immediately shook his head; he didn't know what that Being was, but he definitely didn't want to face it.
"Wasn't this all a bit too much? Doing all this just because someone took credit for the Emperor's work?" A younger God asked with visible disturbance on his face.
"Foolish." Shiva shook his head. "He is an Emperor, a God-Emperor to be more precise. Do you think he would stand idly by while people tarnished his name? Especially a God with significant influence?"
"In the past, Monarchs and Gods killed for much less; this issue was only prolonged because it is 'us' he's dealing with."
"Were it another Faction, their soldiers would have simply eliminated the Being without making such a fuss."
"All this happened because he knew that the moment his Wife entered our Pantheon, all the Gods would be alerted... So, he left things in check in case we decided to attack."
"I feel sorry for Ganesha for going through this..." Another God spoke.
"He was just a victim of his greed to acquire more influence in the Mortal World." Shiva looked at Indra with a visibly fixed gaze, clearly annoyed for those who knew him; it was obvious that Indra's dirty hand was in this situation.
After all, he was quite dissatisfied with Shiva's increasingly growing status. Indra was losing more and more space as time went by. It had reached the point that when asked who the God-King of the Hindu Pantheon was, most would say it was Shiva and not Indra.
This situation left the Lightning God quite irritated and desperate to do anything to gain more 'control' of the situation.
'I have to put him in his place; I can't let him run loose anymore. This fool might do something that provokes the Dragon's wrath, and if that day comes... May the Primordial Chaos have mercy on us. Because he won't.'
'... It's good that the whole process will be much easier due to the declaration of the Emperor's Wife...' Shiva opened his eyes widely when only now he understood Victor's hidden intentions. It wasn't that Victor didn't take action against the Pantheon out of 'respect' for him.
He had chosen to do nothing to the Pantheon to give a 'reason' for Shiva to take all control for himself. By saying that the Emperor himself respects him, he would gain even more control over everything.
'I should have realized this the moment she spoke... But I was shocked by the events that my brain didn't function properly.' Shiva clicked his tongue in light of these events; it was obvious that even Victor couldn't end the Hindu Pantheon even if he wanted to. After all, they were in the same boat due to the upcoming Sector's Evolution event.
Indra flinched under Shiva's gaze but didn't express anything visibly; he simply stood up, dusted off his clothes, and 'composed' himself from the recent events.
This incident spread like wildfire the next day. Living up to one of his Divinities, The God-Emperor was helping Nature recover. This fact and event led to more and more believers flocking to his Religion, which, despite having a 'dark' theme, and whose priests and believers wore sinister-looking clothes, were no longer seen with negative eyes, mainly because the Religion had helped society to recover significantly in recent years.
Incredibly, even after the boom of new believers, the percentage of women was still higher than that of men. Thirty percent of the believers were men, with the rest being women.
Although, this number was only in the Outer Circle. The Inner Circle, which was composed of Supernatural Beings and the most 'loyal' Devotees, who dedicated their entire lives to the Emperor, were composed only of women of various different Races.
These 'Elites' dedicated their bodies and Souls to the Emperor, and they would do anything for him. True to his mindset, Victor often directly rewarded these dedicated Souls for their services.
The rewards varied according to the desires of the recipient, but generally, women asked for a 'Blessing' to feel even closer to the Emperor, something that Victor readily accepted.
As a God with various Divine Concepts, he could give Blessings to the entire current Human Population, which was around 1 billion, and still have Energy to spare. In fact, if he wanted to, he could even Bless the entire planet without running out of Energy.
At this point, being linked with various planets and World Trees, it was practically impossible for him to run out of Energy.
He didn't just have Samar and Nightingale as his linked World Trees, but Earth itself as well. He was basically the owner of these three planets.
.....