TGS - Chapter 172

Chapter 172: A Chance Encounter

Yes, the Wolf God Huracan had slipped away during his battle with En.

The God of the Sky had clearly not anticipated this.

Although the Wolf God didn't act much like a god-king, he was indeed the newly promoted leader of the Sanur pantheon. The unification of the tribes determined his status and also granted him a natural power that surpassed his kin.

Of course, compared to En's title as King of the Gods, Huracan's status as a god-king was somewhat watered down.

En had enough power to defeat him, with the destruction of his divine core being the top priority. However, the Wolf God had apparently never intended to fight with all his might from the very beginning. He transformed into a giant wolf to fight the hurricane and lightning, but his true body quietly slipped out of the battle space amidst the chaos, taking his divine core with him.

He seized the opportunity perfectly. Even En didn't realize at first that the Wolf God's true body had fled mid-battle, which gave him time to get away.

Therefore, En's side was actually the first to finish their battle.

After dispersing the giant wolf and finding no divine core, the God of the Sky was exasperated. Considering that the Wolf God might head to another battle space to fight alongside the foreign gods, he spread out his divine power to search for Huracan's trail while also looking for the other gods' battlefields.

Lotus understood the sequence of events. Her divine power gathered into an arrow pointing in one direction. "Anmila is in this direction. Her opponent is the Vulture God." Another arrow formed. "Suriel is nearby. He should still be fighting the God of Mountains."

En said, "It's very likely Huracan went to find the Vulture God."

As he spoke, his divine power converged into a thread, sensing in the direction Lotus had indicated. At the same time, Lotus briefly explained the situation with the Wild Fox God and Adia.

Regarding the former's death, En showed no reaction, though his eyes seemed to hold a hint of relief... although seeing such an emotion on an infant's face was truly speechless-making.

Adia's situation, however, made En's brow furrow slightly. "Perseus stripped her of some of her senses?"

Lotus nodded.

En: "That's a bit troublesome. The senses stripped from Adia can recover on their own, but it requires a significant amount of time. Suojia has fallen for that trick before."

Lotus: "How long did it take to recover?"

"Not long. Three to five hundred years."

Lotus: "..."

Not long at all.

En manipulated the wind to float higher. His two small, pale hands kneaded a ball of air, flattening and rounding it as if changing its shape with the rhythm of his thoughts. "It's not that there are no other ways. Kill Perseus, and the sensory loss she caused will naturally be undone."

"However, I don't recommend you face her alone."

The reason was self-evident.

Lotus nodded, the image of those deep blue, night-like eyes flashing before her.

If she had the chance, the Goddess of the Mind had to die.

Just then, En paused. "Found it."

His divine power touched a spatial rift hidden in the void, one that led to Anmila and the Vulture God's battlefield.

Passing through the rift, the world changed abruptly. All they could see was a dense darkness and a silver, full moon hanging high in the sky.

The two gods and one raven who had rushed over had likely only arrived in time to witness the end of the battle.

For in this pitch-black darkness, the tragic cry of a vulture suddenly rang out. Immediately after, the darkness receded, and the soft, bright light of the silver moon illuminated the battlefield.

The remaining darkness was all gathered in the center of the battlefield, trapping a giant vulture whose feathers were as sharp as steel needles. With another cry, the darkness tore off both of the vulture's wings.

Anmila hovered opposite it, coldly raising a hand and making a grasping motion.

As if it were that very hand, the darkness crushed the vulture's divine core.

The massive avian body subsequently dissolved into ash.

The Moon Goddess withdrew the darkness and moonlight, then slowly turned around.

"What are you all doing here?" A look of confusion appeared on her aloof face.

Lotus silently lowered the hand she had readied to form an ice blade. "We came to check on the situation. Well done, Anmila."

It seemed that after fleeing, the Wolf God Huracan had not come to help the Vulture God, even though the vulture was one of his only two remaining kindred gods.

The Wild Fox God had died at Lotus's hands, and the Wild Bull God had been no match for the Death God, Emute. The Wolf God's only remaining companions were the vulture and the sheep—of course, now only the Sheep God was left.

Could he have gone to find the Sheep God, Sheli Pu?

Lotus thought for a moment, her brow furrowed.

Sheli Pu, that sheep-headed Sanur god, was still nowhere to be found. If she also participated in this round of the divine battle, one of the Solancian gods would have to face two foreign gods at once, which would obviously be much more difficult.

Before long, this round of battles came to an end.

The Sun God had nearly been defeated by the Kasnie God of Mountains. Fortunately, the Solancian pantheon's rescue party arrived in force. Seeing that the situation was turning against him, the God of Mountains left his shadow behind as a decoy while his true body hastily retreated.

When they found him, Suriel's entire divine body was pinned beneath a virtual Xitings Mountain Range in the battle space, with only his brilliantly golden-haired head sticking out.

"Please, give me a hand."

Suriel struggled, twisting his head from side to side, his hair flying about.

Anmila rescued the pitiful Sun God and patted his shoulder sympathetically. "What happened?"

Suriel: "...I hate dust clouds."

The sand and dust had smothered his fire, causing Suriel no end of trouble in the preceding battle. The exasperated Sun God had said to the God of Mountains, "You keep kicking up sand. Are you Suojia? Can't you fight with moves befitting the title of God of Mountains?"

The God of Mountains: "No."

Suriel was left speechless. And yet, not long after, the God of Mountains seized an opportunity to move the Xitings Mountains and pin the Sun God beneath them. Whenever the sun's fire burned through the mountain, the God of Mountains would move rocks from elsewhere to patch it up.

Every stone and every grain of sand tried to dig out the sun's divine core.

If the God of Mountains hadn't seen the other Solancian gods and decisively chosen to flee, Suriel might really have been worn down to his death.

After Suriel, Suojia and Nierde also regrouped with them one after another.

The former's opponent was the Kasnie God of the Ocean. As a goddess born in the same era as En and an earth goddess with numerous believers, Suojia had more than enough power to completely suppress the sea god. The deity who ruled the ocean did not escape death, dissolving into seafoam above the water's surface.

The latter's opponent was the Beast God. The unlucky Beast God was forced to undergo a baptism of knowledge that nearly broke his entire being. He managed to escape after having one of his ears sliced off.

The battle spaces weren't completely sealed; one could enter and leave as they pleased. A god like Nierde, who wasn't known for his speed, could only watch helplessly as the Beast God fled at a speed far exceeding a cheetah's, unable to catch up even if he wanted to.

Taking a headcount of the gods.

Excluding Adia and Suriel, who had lost their ability to fight, the Solancian side still had six major gods who retained their combat strength.

As for the Kasnie side, the God of the Ocean was destroyed, while the God of Mountains, the Beast God, and the Goddess of the Mind remained. The Sanur had only two gods left: the Wolf God and the Sheep God.

Six against five, and two members of the opposing side had already been defeated once.

Logically speaking, as long as they didn't split up from now on, with En and Suojia to keep Perseus and the Wolf God occupied, the Solancian pantheon's victory was assured.

Perseus should have been well aware of this.

And yet... she didn't seem worried at all.

Not only was she not worried, she even had the presence of mind to express goodwill toward Lotus—if those words could be considered goodwill. Her composed demeanor and unchanging smile seemed to indicate that the Goddess of the Mind had something to rely on.

What could Perseus be relying on?

Or was it merely a facade of having everything under control?

Lotus couldn't find an answer for the time being and turned to look at En.

"If a civilization's pantheon is destroyed in a divine battle, but that nation's mortals are still holding the upper hand in their war, or have not yet been defeated, what happens?"

En looked at Suojia, and Suojia looked at En.

"I believe it would affect certain human combat factors." In the end, it was the God of Wisdom who stepped forward to answer, though his tone carried a hint of uncertainty.

"There are certain conditions, which humans call combat factors—things like the weather, climate, season, flood season... These factors, which have the greatest impact on war, follow certain patterns but cannot be fully predicted by mortals, nor can they be determined by human will or ability."

"Under normal circumstances, even gods cannot interfere with them at will." Nierde paused, the pages of the book in his hand turning without any wind. "But if the opposing pantheon is completely destroyed, it means the enemy nation's 'luck' has dissipated, so—"

So, if the enemy pantheon is wiped out, the surviving gods can use their power to influence combat factors—the weather and the terrain.

In warfare, especially in tactical planning, even factors like whether it rains on a given day or a change in wind direction can be critical.

And a commander, no matter how skilled in battle, is still constrained by the environment. It is difficult to turn the tables in an unfavorable environment, and a sudden environmental change after a tactical plan has already been set is an even more devastating blow.

Even a brilliant strategist like Alyuin could not guarantee victory in the face of nature's whims.

The reason war is finite and unpredictable has never been a choice made by humanity, but an inevitability determined by nature.

This inevitability, humans call the will of heaven.

Lotus understood, yet an even greater doubt arose in her.

If that was the case, then no matter what advantage the Kasnie army held, Perseus had no reason to be so composed.

After all, as long as the Kasnie pantheon was destroyed, any advantage the enemy army possessed would turn into a disadvantage—warfare in this era was far more dependent on natural conditions than in later ages.

And then there were the words of 【Spacetime】 in her slumbering dream. The opportunity to return to the modern era would only appear once, but if the enemy was easily defeated and the war progressed smoothly, how would that opportunity ever arise?

Lotus lowered the hand that had been fiddling with her bracelet, pressing her lips together in silence.

---

Meanwhile, on her way to the Princess's side, the Snow Goddess incarnation followed her senses and ran headlong into the sheep-headed goddess.

Lotus: "..."

Sheli Pu: "..."

The Sheep God jumped in fright, her sheep ears twitching up in alarm.

To avoid attracting Perseus, the Snow Goddess incarnation had concealed her divine power fluctuations. The Sheep God, for her part, had grown more and more cautious the closer she got to Solancia, also hiding her divine presence.

As a result, neither had detected the other, and they had simply run into each other.

The Sanur wasteland was flat and vast. Such a low-probability event could hardly be called a narrow path encounter. In any case, both gods fell into a temporary silence.

Three seconds later, Lotus asked, "You are the Sanur Sheep God?"

The sentence was a question, but the tone was an affirmation. At the same time, countless transparent rings of water appeared around her, clearly indicating her intent to fight.

Sheli Pu turned and ran.

Within Solancia's borders, Lotus's true body half-lowered her eyelashes and transferred most of her divine power to her incarnation.

Perhaps the Sheep God was not skilled in combat, but she was a high-ranking god nonetheless. Wary of the Wolf God and the Goddess of the Mind, who could pop out at any moment, Lotus decided to use most of her power to end the fight quickly.

And so, not long after.

The Sheep God transformed into a fluffy, cloud-like sheep, bound tightly from head to tail by rings of water. Her four hooves were trussed together by a water rope, looking small, helpless, and pitiful. "Baa—Baa!"

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