—–
Dionysos felt something odd.
He was just resting inside of his Divine Realm when things turned… weird.
Out of nowhere, he felt like… something was missing.
He had suddenly lost his connection, his divine connection with his sons Pan and the others, the ones guarding Azuma.
But it wasn't due to them dying, they had disconnected from Zeus doing.
He, unlike other Gods, held a different perception of such things, and noticed better than others such as Hermes…
He quickly wanted to ask his father what was going on exactly and why did he disconnect him from his children…
But Dyonisos couldn't help but have a weird feeling about all of this…
Something weird was going on, definitely.
But he decided to consult his father before anything else, as Dyonisos was a man with a gentle heart, he would never doubt his father's decisions without getting to know his side of the story.
So, he rushed to Apollo's Divine Realm and was greeted by all of his other siblings, who led him to Apollo's palace.
Dionysus did indeed found this weird, why were all his siblings gathered in the same place? This often never happens…
Nonetheless, they explained an explanation that shattered his heart.
"Father is in a critical state… we are waiting for some Gods of the central continent to come back…" sighed Hermes.
"I did what I could, but even after suppressing Kireina's small clones eating him away, the damage was still there, it will be hard to recover completely," sighed Apollo.
"We have been with him, sharing our Divine Energy so he could feel better," said Artemis.
"It has been some arduous hours… Grr… I can't wait to meet Kireina again and slaughter her!" said Aphrodite.
"I see how it is… How sad… Well, let's go meet him. I am sure I can help a bit on my own," said Dyonisos, taking the bait just as easy as all the other stupid siblings…
And so, Dyonisos walked right inside the temple, meet Zeus and…
Flash!
Several walls of light were erected around the palace…
Dionysos glanced at his sickly father with contempt, until he realized that a Divine Formation was suddenly set around, and his heart began to beat faster.
"E-Eh? A Divine Formation?" he asked with concern and utter disbelief.
"Well, well, what do you think of our work, brother?" asked Hermes.
"Eh? H-Hermes?" asked Dyonisos.
"With you done, we'll only need to eat mother," said Artemis.
"Sadly, Ares is not here… But well, who cares?" chuckled Athena.
"W-What? What are you even talking about?!" asked Dyonisos.
"Still don't get it? You're pretty slow…" sighed Zeus.
"It doesn't matter if Ares is not here anyways, the cute Scarlet ate him," said Aphrodite.
"Indeed, Scarlet-chan is growing stronger each day," said Athena with a smile.
Dionysos didn't get any of this conversation… Who was even Scarlet and why did his siblings not cared about the death of their brother Ares?!
It was all too ridiculous!
"What is going on?! Just explain to me! Why is there a Divine Formation?!" roared Dyonisos, he couldn't trust these people anymore, not only their way of speech, but even their personalities, and presences, even their auras had changed! There was something very wrong with all of this! Very wrong!
"Hahaha, you don't need to worry… It will be over soon," laughed Zeus, as his entire body shapeshifted into a mass of flesh, tentacles, jaws, eyes, all of it with crimson-red veins all over, gibbering and pulsating!
"GYYAAH! Father?! You're… not father!" cried Dyonisos, glaring at "Zeus" with utter horror, as he tried to attack him… but there was no result! Power wouldn't come out of his soul!
"E-Eh?!" he cried, as he suddenly realized that hundreds of tiny chains were entangling his soul, sealing his divine powers!
Dionysos then saw with horror as all of his siblings around him shapeshifted, turning into mutant horrors, masses of flesh and tentacles, large jaws, tongues, and more!
His eyes grew in utter despair as Zeus entangled his body with his tentacles, and his siblings quickly jumped towards him!
"GYYAAAAAAHHH! WAAAIT! WHAT… IS GOING ONNNNNN?!"
"You will soon know!" laughed Zeus, as he and his children ravaged Dyonisos soul, eating it!
After a few minutes, the Dyonisos that came out of the palace were no longer the same as before.
And with this… all of Zeus' Family, at least the main children, were all… converted.
"Yet another prize for the main body…" said Dyonisos with a smile.
"Indeed. Now, we should call Zeus wife, right?" asked Hermes.
"Oh, mother! Haha! I am sure she will be a nice meal," laughed Aphrodite.
"Indeed… Let us call her immediately…" laughed Zeus.
Meanwhile, within a different Divine Realm close within the central continent, a beautiful woman with long brown hair, healthy white skin, and shiny golden eyes sipped some aromatic tea while sighing.
"Hm… Something is off… Why have they not contacted me yet? It has been a few hours since the whole thing started…" she sighed.
This simple-looking yet charming and motherly woman was Heras, the Goddess of Motherhood, Heras.
Heras was born as the daughter of the deceased Titan Great God that served the Supreme God of Time, Cronos, who had fathered her with the Titaness Goddess Rhea, who was the daughter of Gaia. Rhea was still alive, albeit she had not spoken with her daughter for the last dozens of years due to being busy serving the supreme Goddess of Life and Origin, her grandmother.
Heras has suffered greatly in the Ragnarök and due to Zeus not protecting her as much as he should have, she was caught in an enemy attack and had her body destroyed and her soul shattered.
However, Zeus gathered her soul pieces and successfully revived after hundreds of years, and it has been around 3000 years since she comes back as a Goddess, albeit she has lived fairly well since then, she often felt quite empty… as she desired to grow stronger, but Zeus often limited her growth as he didn't saw the need for her to grow stronger, as he planned to never let her fight ever again…
She often spoke with some of her children, often those that were not part of the main Olympus Pantheon, where Zeus' strongest children gathered… or well, they once did.
The "main children" of Zeus didn't hate her or something, they simply had too big of families to care as much, the same was for her, she didn't particularly care for them, and she was quite the jealous wife, so she often didn't like how Zeus had children with other women, which even included his own sisters.
The worst part was that Hephaestus and Ares, her two children that were within the Olympus Pantheon had… perished.
Nonetheless, she had felt the painful death of both of them, and she was grieving within her chambers, as the living deities that attended her heard her sobs of sadness and rage over her bed.
She wanted revenge above everything, yet Zeus was not delivering it! Why was he taking so long? Why did he let Ares die so abruptly?!
As she sobbed and cried, a sudden call from Zeus startled her, as she began to scold him for his irresponsibility as a father.
"Zeus!!! Why are you not doing anything yet?! Kill Kireina! Bring me her head! She had taken down my two… my two… my two little boys! How can you be so fucking calm after all of that?! HURRY UP AND SLAUGHTER HER!" roared Heras.
"Calm down, Heras! There is something very important I need to inform you, so please come to Apollo's Divine Realm!" said Zeus.
"What is so important for you to delay Kireina's assassination?!" asked Heras.
"Believe me and come!" said Zeus.
Heras sighed, without knowing what Zeus was up to this time, she decided to simply do as he asked and went into Apollo's Divine Realm, flying inside the castle and storming it.
"ZEUS!" she roared.
"Ah… Heras!" said Zeus, greeting Heras by opening his arms and hugging her.
At the same time, a Divine Formation was formed, which Heras suddenly realized and was taken aback by…
"Zeus… take your arms away from me… What is going on? Answer me!" said Heras, demanding as ever, however, when she glared at Zeus, she saw his face slowly splitting over, as red flesh below it emerged, countless sharp fangs appeared, and Heras's face was paralyzed!
"W-Wha…"
"It was easier than I thought!" laughed Zeus, as Heras suddenly saw Zeus' entire body expand around her, which she was not able to evade in time!
CRUNCH!
Darkness, the last thing she saw was darkness…
And then… she suddenly appeared in another place, a world of brilliance, a golden palace where many familiar faces greeted her…
"What is… this? Eh?" she wondered glaring at Zeus, Apollo, and many others, even Hephaestus was here, and Ares, who was formed by the little fragments eaten by Kireina that Scarlet gave her.
"Welcome, mother… If you're here… it most likely means that you were eaten…" sighed Hephaestus.
"My… boy!" cried Heras, hugging Hephaestus without asking any other question.
"You're alive! You're alive! But… how? How can this be?" asked Heras while crying.
"It will be hard to explain… but listen well," said Apollo.
"If you're here I suppose Kireina is not stopping with our family… Indeed, she is something we can't really win. We should have never bothered her to begin with… but fear not, even if we are devoured, we will emerge here… a world of peace for us to amend for our sins and enjoy simpler lives without being bound by our past mistakes or our accursed divinities…" said Ares.
"Ares… you're the real Ares…" said Heras.
"Indeed he is…" sighed Dyonisos.
"Father is not here though, he is gone for… Kireina's clone controlling his body fooled us all though… I can't believe I fell for such a stupid trick… I thought I was the most intelligent of all of you," laughed Hermes.
"Wouldn't that be me?" asked Athena.
"I believe you fell before me, sister…. So no," chuckled Hermes, as Athena squinted her eyes while glaring at Hermes.
"I am pretty sure that I figured it out before all of you!" said Athena while crossing her arms.
"Aw come on, don't get mad…" laughed Artemis, hugging Athena, and kissing her.
Heras watched at the relaxed Gods with awe… just what was this? Why were they so relieved even while being dead here and imprisoned in this strange place?
However, these thoughts only lasted a few seconds before she was already guided and enlightened by Kireina without her even being here.
Her mind suddenly understood that there was no point in fighting such a being as Kireina, who was akin to a force of nature at this point…
And that she would bring true peace to the world by conquering it and devouring it all, making it all be reborn inside her Divine Realm…
She simply had skipped all the way to the end, and could now relax and never have any more worries, to be a simple person, and to live a simple life in this beautiful and relaxed world.
Was this brainwashing? Not really, it was simply a revelation of the truth, it was not a change of her thoughts through inserted lies or changes of the attitude of emotions… this was merely a revelation of the truth.
Perhaps, within this revelation, there was a bit of nihilism sparkled over it. Now that she had died and that anyone that died would come here… perhaps it didn't really make any sense to care anymore about anything other than to enjoy the present and this opportunity.
Zeus was not here because Kireina had decided that he was not worth the sympathy, and she also agreed, Zeus was an asshole, and she didn't even love him anymore… so she felt almost no pain on this.
Actually, she was happy to see Hephaestus and Ares here for now, and decided to spend more time with her sons, the ones she had been grieving and crying for very long…
She hoped that if any of her children were to be eaten by Kireina, that she in her benevolent heart could send their cleansed residual souls in here, to meet her once more.
—–
