SON OF THE HERO KING

[Divine Realm]

The divine realm was usually a very peaceful place filled with endless fog. It gave off such an impression that nothing in existence could ever disturb the peace of that holy place.

But for once, the fog became dark and heavy, as if feeling the anger of the powerful residents living in that plane facing each other for the first time since the dawn of time itself.

Sitting on the rectangular table filled with 15 Chairs, Luxuria looked at her side and growled menacingly, quite uncharacteristically as a goddess such as herself…

“I hope you can explain what happened back there.”

She did not raise her voice but the threat mixed beneath it was noticeable to everyone that was present in this gathering.

“I did nothing wrong. I simply used my right as it was intended.”

Luxuria forced herself to calm down as she knew that Invidia had indeed respected the rules of their sisterhood and that there was nothing she could really do about that. Invidia was in the right, she had done nothing wrong.

“Why do you hate Sol so much.”

“Firstly, you are wrong about something. I do not hate him.”

Like how humans would not waste any of their precious time feeling hatred for animals or bugs, there was no way Invidia would waste time hating such a miserable and transient being as a puny mortal.

“So why?”

“Though I do not really hate him, only someone foolish would raise a venomous snake that might bite them at any moment.”

Her words were clear cut and to the point, “Sister. That mortal is too dangerous to let him continue growing. He needs to be put down— Now!”

Even the smallest bug could carry the deadliest poison that could be fatal to the beings at the top of the food chain. Even small rodents could cause the death of millions of people if left unchecked. History had already shown that nothing in existence can be underestimated or else you would have to face the consequences.

“Open your eyes, sisters. Your obsession with that mortal might doom us all.”

Luxuria gritted her teeth as she stood up from her seat with a furious set of motions,

“I thought it was our common goal to create a god! Isn’t it why we created Echidna? Isn’t it why we even allowed the existence of the G.O.D project as well as created the witches? So why!?”

In the end, it became hard for her to control her emotions, even as the almighty goddess that she was, and her power began to fill the surroundings, showing how agitated she was.

But the one who answered was surprisingly Acedia, the goddess of sloth.

“Only mother wants this— and I guess you, as well.”

She spoke slowly as if she could fall asleep at any moment. But as her words spread out, Luxuria was startled to realize that outside of a few frowns, the others did not particularly seem likely to reject the words of Invidia.

“Do you see now?”

Invidia spread her hands wide, “We were the youngest and the weakest out of them all. Our powers mostly came from living being’s emotions. Something useless when facing other gods— But now?”

“Now, the universe is our playground. Father is dead and our mothers are asleep. We won against Ymir and all the others were killed during the Twilight of the Gods. We are now the strongest in existence. We are the rulers of this universe. Why do you even wish to add another one to share our power?”

Industria—The goddess of Diligence, shook her head, “Even though I agree with you. We still have our duty to listen to Mother.”

“I did listen. But look at all the results until now, shall we?”

She rose a finger.

“Lucifer was the first one we gave a Soul from that place. What was the result?”

Luxuria gritted her teeth, “Rebellion.”

“Not just rebellion. We even lost most of the control we have over divine beasts because of him. But let’s continue shall we?”

“Castitas. You brought a soul into the Phoenix Realm in the past, right? I think his name was Sinbad. What was the result?”

Castitas fidgeted a little, “Rebellion.”

“Indeed. Poor, poor Gabriel. I think she was completely traumatized as a result.”

She snickered and focused on Superbia once again, “After Lucifer we had Apsu. Result?”

Superbia gritted her teeth, “He brought an army of dragons and other divine beasts against us.”

Invidia smirked, “Not long ago I brought Anubis. As a result, we lost a great part of the realm of Afterlife. Hah.”

She shook her head, “You should know. At the end of the day. Whether mortals join Chaos or Order, it doesn’t particularly matter to us. Because at the end of the day, they stay mere mortals beneath us. But there is always a group of pesky pests that tries to leave the game board and face us and surpass our control.”

“Sinbad nearly obtained the concept of [Famine]. Pretty weak, if all things considered. But still dangerous. Lucifer wanted to become [Light]. Can you imagine how strong he would have become if he was able to wield a concept as dangerous as that? What about Apsu, huh? [War]? What do you think would have happened to us if he became a god embodying that concept?”

Castitas shuddered slightly at that thought. Apsu had been quite barbaric, to say the least. If he became a god of war, he would have been nearly unbeatable.

“Then we have Anubis with his growing dominion over [Death]. Can you even imagine? Death was an absolute bastard because she could give long-lasting damage to the gods. She was nearly at the same level as Ymir. How could I have ever imagined that this random soul I choose would be born with a spark of divinity that embodied the concept of Death?”

Invidia seethed in anger and frustration. She had never even entertained the thought of creating a god. This was why, even after reincarnating Anubis, she did not make him her Blessed. She hoped that he would simply die after a set amount of time. But the man was born with the literal Book of Death inside of him.

The place was silent. The goddesses had been quite dismissive of Invidia’s worries at first. But the more she spoke, the more she took control of the situation.

“Finally we have the new toy of our sister. Sol.”

She chortled out loud after having mentioned that name that was the reason for her growing annoyance, “None of us really put effort into creating a new god. But look at the result. Now imagine what will happen with that mortal. Think about how much she invested in that mortal. Even though the chances are supremely small. Do we really want to deal with another rebellion?”

“Hmmm… I don’t think Sol would have attacked us first—”

Castitas timidly raised her hand. She did not really like the current atmosphere that much. She hated seeing her sisters like this.

“—Don’t be naive!”

Invidia was angry beyond reason. No one could stop her today.

“Why do we always react rather than preempt? Why should we assume that our well-being will depend on whether he is feeling charitable if he becomes a god? We should step on him now. Erase all traces of his existence and even extinguish his soul just to be sure.”

“We can’t hurt mortals.”

Temperatia – the goddess of temperance, was one of the few to not be affected by the current atmosphere that Invidia had built up.

Directly attacking mortals was strictly forbidden. This wasn’t just a rule they had come up with. It was a law of Order set by their Mother Herself.

Of course, the keyword was ‘Directly’. There were many ways to move around this fact and someone as cunning as Invidia knew how to use them.

“As long as he does not go against my decree, I will have no reason to harm him for now.”

She decided to take a step back.

She had already accomplished her goal of raising the awareness of her sisters on the danger that was Sol.

She knew that most of them would not act now. Their sense of time was simply too different from mortals. Taking hundred years to think about one problem was the norm for them.

But what she did here now was enough.

She just needed to wait now. Like a hunter after placing a trap or a fisher dangling a delicious bait for their prey.

She was sure that the prey named Sol Dragona Luxuria would jump head first in that trap as he had no other choice and once this happened, she would have a righteous cause on her back to extinguish the existence of that pest.

“Don’t you think Mother has a reason as to why she wanted the birth of a new god? What if you are making a mistake.”

Gula – the goddess of gluttony, spoke quietly. Out of everyone present, she was the most dangerous. Her concept by itself was too far-reaching. But Invidia was not deterred by her in the slightest.

She knew that Gula and her twin Temperatia were the most invested in a creation of a god after Luxuria. The two had even united their power to create a unique entity like Echidna. But the result was a failure in the end.

“I will not act like I know what Mother’s goal is. But ideally, we need someone we can control. Not a liability that will stab us in the back.”

“I see.”

Gula seemed to lose interest as she stood up and vanished followed by Temperatia.

This seemed to signal the end of their reunion. No matter what they thought, as long as Invidia did not break the rules, they would stay neutral and just observe.

This was a fight between Luxuria and Invidia and they were happy to stay as bystanders.

Of course, the name Sol Dragona Luxuria was firmly etched in their minds now. This was the third time that a reunion ended up being about that mortal. They had no choice now but to pay attention to him.

Whether this was a good or bad thing for them was something to think of in the future.

(AN: Book 3 is named Divine Realm for a reason. Heh. Anyways, I really hesitated about this chapter. I believe I gave too many hints. Ngl, when I woke up, in my head I was like. Okay, gotta write about Sol's POV. Then I blanked out. Two hours later, I looked at what I wrote and I grabbed my head. Fuck. But no way I am going to erase 1700+ words. Either way, Vol. 11 is reaching its climax. Man the pressure is big. I took a look at the comments and I am sweating hard. I feel like I will be hunted down with pitchforks and fire if I fuck up this volume.)

(EN: I know where you live so don’t be surprised if that joke at the end really comes true.)