—–
As the night fell, Kireina decided to contact the gods through Agatheina's artifact, to mostly give them an update of the situation and to ask if any of them had any idea who could these gods infiltrated inside the Dungeon be.
"Zombie Dragon Divine Beasts?! And Kireina-sama, you and your family triumphed against all of them?!" asked Levana, the Beast Demigoddess of Bats and Bat Beastmen, granddaughter of Agatheina, the Vampire Goddess of Blood.
"Yes, I already told you for the tenth time, it was a well… not challenging, more like 'interesting', they were able to take more than one hit! …Sometimes" said Kireina.
"…And I barely can take a group of Divine Beasts… Sometimes I need the help of my grandmother…" said Levana.
"But that's because you're not good at fighting, my sister…" said Marnet, the Beast Demigod of Canines and Dog Beastmen.
"Well, all of us are good at something different, to everything is fighting… though, in this world, it is quite important to have some kind of self-defense technique… We'll be training Levana from now on with Merveim" said Maeralya, the Beast Demigoddess of Felines and Cat Beastmen after knowing of Levana's weakness.
"Anyways, let us not go off-topic when we are speaking about something of utmost importance… First of all, from where did these Divine Beasts even come from, Kireina-sama?" asked Morpheus, the Beast Demigod of Horses and Centaurs.
"I have no clue, they just appeared instead of Begudhur's Parasite Clones… And such Clones mysteriously disappeared just before they appeared out of the blue. I suspect that they must have been left by the two gods that I sensed with my Aura at that moment, but just as they showed up, they disappeared, completely out of the blue…" Kireina said.
"This is infuriating! Who are those two gods that dare come in our master's path?! And they are hostile! It is simply obvious by how they released those Divine Beasts to maintain Kireina-sama occupied or even try to kill her! Most likely, they thought that she wouldn't be capable of surviving against Divine Beasts…" said Agatheina with an angered voice.
"Who could they be? What kind of Gods would be reckless enough to come into Kireina-sama's path?" asked Bovdohr, the Demigod of Eclipses.
"It must be some kind of god that has powers capable of hiding their presence… but even then, they should have been noticed by Nyzzet if they entered in the Dungeon, as they would be also moving their Divine Realms with them, right?" asked Nomera, the Demigoddess of Dawns.
Nyzzet was present, but as always, he would often remain silent until he was called.
"Ah! Well, yes, I could not sense their presence at all! I swear! And if they even entered my Realm, I would surely know, as the Dungeon itself would try to reject their presences! Dungeons are similar to Divine Realms, if we don't allow it, Gods shouldn't be capable of trespassing it unless they use an enormous amount of power or Divine Technique, and if they ever used such a thing, I would surely know about it due to the grand commotion provoked" said Nyzzet.
"It is hard to believe you from all things, seeing how irresponsible you are about… pretty much everything except your mortal children," said Hodhyl, the Wyvern Goddess of Nature.
"Don't worry too much, we have been training with him ever since Kireina-sama told him to get stronger alongside Kaggoth-chan" said Merveim, the Wyvern God of Strength.
"Yep, I can confirm it~," said Kaggoth, the Demon Demigoddess of Carapaces and Aquatic Invertebrates.
"Then it must not be his fault that he didn't know… again…" said Agatheina.
"But then what kind of god could that have been? A god capable of getting inside Dungeons without having to use force?" asked Levana.
"Hmm… Well, there might be a few gods that can do that. But are there any in this Realm…? There is the Great God of Dungeons, and various Gods of the Space-Attribute… but they're elusive…" said Agatheina.
"Space Attribute Gods?! Fighting one would be… rather dangerous" said Nyzzet.
"They're the only ones that come to my mind that could be capable of infiltrating inside dungeons without alerting the Gods governing it- Oh…" said Agatheina.
"Agatheina?" I asked.
"Zudig…" said Agatheina.
"Wait, that Zombie?!" asked Merveim.
"Yes, Merveim. Don't you remember? Zudig acquired the body of a Legendary Hero and became something… similar to Kireina-sama, a faker! And it was said by those other Dragon Gods that he even acquired the ability to steal dungeons! And then, the Divine Beasts were Dragon Zombies, right? It all makes sense now!" said Agatheina, she also enlightened my mind.
"That's… right," said Morpheus.
"It is Zudig then… With the body of a mortal, he should be capable of entering a Dungeon without letting Nyzzet realize!" said Marnet.
"But then… he's being accompanied by a Space-Attribute God? How could that insane undead even get a reliable ally?" wondered Merveim.
"We don't know yet… but maybe he did some kind of treaty with it?" asked Maeralya.
"Wait… I… I remember something" said Nyzzet.
"You do?! Spit it out!" said Hodhyl.
"Eep! S-Sister, please do not yell at me… And it is something that I just remember from before all of this! There were dozens of rumors that I heard or bought in the Interdimensional Merchant Shop about a strange God that was recruiting Lone Gods. He had somehow the abilities to break through the Divine Realms of other gods, and through the assistance of these Lone Gods, he attacked such Divine Realms, stole all the resources, and even captured the Lone God inside the Divine Realm… often taking its Divine Core and Physical Body, and even selling them in the Interdimensional Merchant Shop for exorbitant prices! What he did with the Souls… is Unknown… But God Souls are immortal, even if they are chopped into pieces and sealed… The only way to 'kill' a god is by assimilating its soul through special techniques… or simply by eating it through the Divinity Devouring Skill that Kireina-sama has" said Nyzzet.
Gods were immortal and incapable of completely killing each other, but could steal each other powers, seal each other or divide each other into pieces, letting the affected gods into permanent states of slumber, similarly to Megusan's case.
The killing of gods was rare, and even in the Ragnarök, Gods rarely died but entered in states similar to comas, some were even sealed and then used as the base for the creation of new Realms.
Some gods had all of their power stolen and fell into eternal slumbers, slowly being assimilated by the world.
And some gods had their souls divided into pieces, each piece is sealed separately or assimilated by other gods through special techniques… however, the direct killing of a god was incredibly rare, but it was rumored that Supreme Gods had achieved the capacity of doing it.
However, recently, it was discovered a way to eat gods in the literal sense of it, not just stealing and absorbing their powers, but eating them entirely, and that was discovered through Kireina's unique existence.
And Zudig, who most likely acquired a similar Skill to her, could be said to be the second to have acquired this forbidden power.
"So there is such a god…" said Merveim.
"I honestly did not know about it," said Hodhyl.
"I… heard a few rumors, but never thought that we would someday actually see him! As he often only targeted Lone Gods without any allies" said Kaggoth.
"That god… so he could be it? I have heard about him as well. And I know his name. He is a Demon God by the name of Kheseerad, the trespasser… His Divinity let him trespass any kind of space, it's an incredibly powerful ability, he can ignore almost any law in the world through it, entering Divine Realms or opening cracks into them for others to enter as well… This God originated from a different Realm, and has been being chased by many Pantheons, due to his dangerous powers and the offenses he had committed too many Pantheons by entering the Divine Realms of their members and stealing their resources… or even straight-up capturing the gods themselves… He is a well-known black-market seller of Gods' Divine Cores and Physical Bodies, though he does not sell the souls, it is said that he collects them," said Agatheina, revealing all the useful information she had about such a God.
"So, he somehow teamed up with that rat of Zudig? It's hard to imagine someone trusting in that guy" said Merveim, who had a few experiences with Zudig.
Zudig was a dragon that was not from his family, as he was not the children of Tiamat, but was adopted by their Pantheon due to his Dragon Bloodline nonetheless… only for it to wreck a lot of havoc in the Pantheon, ending in the 'death' of the Dragon Demigod of Freezing Winds, which was preyed upon by Zudig's powers, and had its soul assimilated by his Divinity, which let him eat the 'life' of others, just like a Zombie. Although he was not capable of acquiring Skills like Kireina through that.
There were a few such Gods like Zudig who could assimilate or eat the souls of Divine power, as long as they were of his similar or weaker strength. But there were many variations of such power, and not all of them worked properly.
Sometimes the soul eaten would have a divinity that did not match in the one that ate it, weakening the god instead of strengthening it, for this reason, these Gods could not simply eat whatever, they needed to find those that shared divinity with similarities to them…
However, Kireina was able to ignore all such conditions and eat whatever she wanted, and get power from it no matter what, without inflicting any negative outcome into her soul or body… or at least nothing 'life-threatening'.
"Yeah, but there should be a common goal that they want to reach… by going towards Begudhur?" asked Hodhyl.
"If Zudig has hypothetically similar skills to Kireina-sama… What is stopping him from having Divinity Devouring and desiring to eat Begudhur? That must be his goal… and perhaps Kheseerad will benefit from this as well… This is rather infuriating, they think that they can simply steal Kireina-sama's prey just like that?!" asked Agatheina in anger.
"Well… they might want that due to Begudhur's unique Divinity, if Zudig is capable of eating it similarly to Kireina-sama and then assimilate it into his Divinity… his powers would skyrocket and the possibilities of what he is capable of achieving would become insanely wide…" muttered Morpheus.
"Kireina-sama if you ever plan on clashing against them… We will fully support you!" said Agatheina.
"That's right… though it would be hard for us to help her if she's inside the Dungeon of Nyzzet…" said Hodhyl.
"I can let you in with my authority! I do not want that Zudig to steal my dungeon… I bet he's also planning that!" said Nyzzet.
"Alright, but you're also coming with us," said Merveim.
"EH?! W-Wait, that's not part of the plan!" said Nyzzet.
"It is obvious that you should be the first one to descend and help Kireina-sama, Nyzzet. It is your dungeon, your own domain, you can even materialize there almost freely" said Agatheina.
"I-I should…? But what if that Zudig eats me?!" asked Nyzzet.
"You bear the pain of being eaten and strike back! Protect Kireina-sama!" said Agatheina with a furious voice.
"Eep!" muttered Nyzzet.
"Nyzzet is still not well prepared for fighting, he would only become an obstacle, and would just bother me and my family, don't worry, I will call my servants as well. Nyzzet, at the very least, bless the Elder Dragons so they can be a bit stronger" said Kireina.
Kireina asked Nyzzet a simple favor of blessing the Elder Dragons at the very least, but the other gods had another idea.
"If you're such a coward, they also offer them your Descent Skill!" said Merveim.
"Descent…?! But that would be quite dangerous still…" muttered Nyzzet.
"Descent Skill?" asked Kireina.
"A Descent Skill is a power that a God can give to their blessed champion, letting it take upon a part of the God's Divine Soul inside their bodies for a small lapse of time, increasing all of their capabilities during that time, such power was used by the Heroes that sealed Begudhur," said Agatheina.
"I see… Then that would be highly appreciated. And for the rest, do not come to help me. I can handle things on my own with my family and servants, I am sure that many gods are just waiting for the opportunity of you leaving my domain to attack it, so keep yourselves there if possible… If things really become problematic, I will make sure to run away and then plan a new course of action afterward," said Kireina.
"Fine…" said Nyzzet.
"That's… makes sense, very well then, Kireina-sama… but let us also give you and your family our descent skills, so we can at least grant you a bit of our strength to you," said Agatheina, as the other gods agreed with her.
"Thanks for understanding," said Kireina.
Kireina decided to contact her servants and to prepare them for tomorrow morning, where she would most likely reach the last Nation governed by an Elder Dragon and then finally confront the Gods.
After dealing with this, she chose to take a nap until the morning alongside her wives and children.
—–
