Foolish Brother Odin

Chapter 444 Superfluous Souls

Zeus may appear fierce, but no one knows that this seemingly righteous and virtuous god-king is currently in a bizarre state of mind where he imagines a virgin being forced into love but gradually falling into the arms of another god, while the old father, heartbroken at missing out on his daughter, dares not speak out but is repeatedly excited in his fantasies.

Of course, Zeus may be unreliable in everyday matters, but he is clear-headed when it comes to important things.

Zeus was frustrated; he felt like a paperhanger, constantly patching things up in this drafty, sprawling house called the "Olympian Pantheon."

Some might ask, why can't this dilapidated house be demolished and rebuilt?
It really doesn’t work!

Gaia, the foundation, is a traitor! Uranus, the ceiling, is a traitor too!
If a house has no foundation and no ceiling, is it still a house?

Compared to these two, Apollo, this potential traitor, is nothing at all.

With the entire pantheon filled with potential rebels... hasn't Apollo rebelled yet?
Even if Hera, that wicked woman, went to great lengths to hint at Zeus, Zeus was like an ostrich burying its head in the sand—he couldn't see it! He simply couldn't see it! You could bite my ass off and I still wouldn't see it!

It can't be said that Zeus did nothing; he was still holding back, vowing to do something big!
However, his current state is not suitable for him to unleash his trump card.

Zeus commanded the Greek gods to shrink back.

"The gods have decreed—in order to resist the vile Aesir, abandon this city and retreat to the designated place." Priests from different Greek city-states relayed this order.

shrink?

Where should we shrink to?
This order left the public bewildered.

In a sense, the Greek world had a somewhat decentralized character.

Even though Athens was the capital of Greece, it wasn't a true royal capital. It was the territory of Athena, not the territory of other Greek gods. Just as Apollo's followers wouldn't eagerly retreat to Athens, the Athenians wouldn't flee to Sparta.

Different city-states had different centers, which inevitably led to a situation where each fought its own battles.

Zeus's demand for mortals to shrink back was simply to prevent Tangs from gaining more leverage. For an elemental god like him who lived off the elements, the faith of mortals was irrelevant.

Those truly affected were the faith-based deities like Hestia and Hermes, who relied on mortal activities to generate faith and then refined it into divine power.

From this perspective, the foundation of the Olympian gods was still constantly crumbling.

On the other hand, Zeus did not come away empty-handed.

There will always be casualties in a war between gods. Even the most powerful pantheons have a lot of mediocre ones, especially the South Asian gods among the Aesir.

Recently, many of the multi-headed serpents [Neq] that originally belonged to the Khmer pantheon have been killed.

Next, some important kills include Pyu Shauthi, a Burmese man who was the son of the sun god and the dragon and was killed by the Greek sun god Helios.

Then the seven-headed serpent god Naga, of Cambodian descent, was killed by Eos, the goddess of dawn.

The Slavic fire god Svarlorg fell to the Greek goddess of dawn, Og.

……

Deaths and injuries are inevitable.

Especially when both are true gods, if you are unlucky enough to encounter a god who is more restrained, you may not be able to escape even if you want to.

The Aesir alone lost 7 major and minor gods and 19 minor gods, including one old, pure-blooded Aesir god. The Greeks lost even more: 11 gods including Ozyus, the god of sorrow; Nemesis, the goddess of righteous indignation and retribution; and Aurora, the sea goddess; as well as 38 slave gods.

It seems that Greece is suffering a huge loss. Lately, as the losses have increased, the Palace of Pleasure in Asgard has lost some of its lively atmosphere.

Thor, who was usually the most boisterous, was unusually quiet, huddled in a corner drinking alone.

"Thor, are you unhappy?"

Hearing the voice, Thor turned around in surprise and found it was his father, Downs. Thor was so stunned that he didn't even notice the surrounding gods bowing to Downs.

Downs raised his hand, and Helen, hailed as the most beautiful handmaid, hurriedly and forcefully offered him a glass of whiskey. The enormous goblet used by the Asgardians was still too large for her, a delicate handmaid.

Towns clinked glasses with Thor and silently drank it all in one gulp.

“Father God, we have also suffered many losses.”

Downs said calmly, "There will always be losses in war."

Thor said with a hint of disappointment, "I used to think that the high casualties were because I didn't fight well enough."

Downs smiled calmly: "As long as the God-King and the Chief God who are charging ahead fight well enough, the gods who are following us won't suffer any losses? My child, I don't remember ever teaching you such a naive idea."

"No, Father God, of course I know the reasoning. It's just that I can't get used to it."

"You'd better get used to it quickly. After all, the Greek gods are a massive pantheon fully capable of fighting the Aesir. Losses are normal." Downs changed the subject: "Or is it that I used tricks or other means in the past to inflict too few losses on the Aesir, giving you the illusion that you can defeat any opposing pantheon without taking any damage?"

"..."

"Let's abandon these unrealistic fantasies. We must prepare for the worst-case scenario: a battle that could last for years, or even a century."

“Understood, Father!” Thor raised the goblet filled by the light elf maidens, clinked glasses with Downs, and drank it all in one gulp.

The two Protoss races are now locked in a fierce battle, much like two thick-skinned giants fighting each other. Neither can kill the other in one fell swoop; they can only reduce the other's health in the frenzied struggle.

Whoever inflicts more wounds on the other, whoever makes the other bleed more, is more likely to become the final victor.

The battle, which lasted for nearly three months, has temporarily come to an end with Greece suffering a heavy defeat on the field.

During this period, more than one million people were captured or rebelled throughout the Greek world. Most of them were slaves of the Greeks, and the Greeks, who were the foundation of the Greek city-states, also suffered losses of more than 300,000, with countless others killed or wounded as a result.

Anyway, Hades' underworld has been very busy lately.

The fall of Thanatos, the god of death, caused a chain of terrible consequences.

When Hades, the god of the underworld, had to be distracted by mundane tasks, his fighting prowess was significantly affected.

Hades explained this to Zeus in the following way.

"The Underworld is full! A large number of souls have been roughly sorted and thrown into various places without careful screening. In fact, almost every place in the Underworld that can hold souls is almost full. Unless there are enough places to guide souls to reincarnation. Remember, where there is life, there is death! Too many dead will also affect the living."

Birth?
How can it be so easy?

Where could Zeus find so many fertile women all of a sudden?
Zeus was adept at creating humans.

But we need to find enough mothers!
Zeus made a decision: "The extra souls can be sent to Tartarus first."

(End of this chapter)