Foolish Brother Odin

Chapter 485 Hedgehogs Huddling Together for Warmth
When Downs received the message, it was almost time for the space portal to completely close. The thick, mutated star sector effectively blocked any form of communication between the two world clusters. In the coming period, the only ones who could influence the Greek world were Odin and his group.

This is Zeus's last chance to turn the tide, his final window of opportunity.

It's true: once this opportunity is gone, it's gone forever.

In theory, if Zeus could bridge the differences among the three generations of Olympian gods, completely unify the power of the Titans, and gather all the first-generation gods such as Nyx, the goddess of night, and combine the power of the four generations of gods, sweeping away Odin and the rebellious slave gods, and turning all the small worlds into 'cannonballs' to deal with the attack of the World Tree of Kinlunga, then the Greek pantheon could still fight against the Aesir.

However, this only exists in theory.

Therefore, Downs was not at all annoyed by the possibility of a reconciliation between Zeus and the Titans.

"Isn't Your Majesty worried that things will get worse?" Athena obediently leaned closer, pressing her transformable front armor against Downs' chest.

Towns smirked: "I've heard of banding together for warmth, but I've never seen hedgehogs banding together for warmth before."

Upon hearing this, Athena let out a rare knowing laugh: "Hahaha! Your Majesty's description is truly apt."

The main reason she was willing to surrender early was that she was certain that Zeus could not reconcile his differences with her father, or even her grandfather.

Even cooperation between two strangers with no conflict of interest but a common enemy is fraught with difficulties, let alone cooperation between two people who have long been mortal enemies.

Zeus had fundamental conflicts with not only Cronus, but even with his great-grandfather Uranus. Zeus's most proficient divine magic was thunder, and thunder magic heavily relied on the power of the sky and wind.

Uranus was already the sky itself in the Greek world. The sky was only so big, and recently, it had been impacted by multiple asteroids and even smaller worlds, shrinking its territory both broadly and narrowly. Under these circumstances, how much divine power could Zeus obtain from Uranus?

It sounds nice to call it cooperation, but it's really about taking a loss.

This fundamental conflict between the divine realms is irreconcilable.

Zeus is similar to his father and the second generation of Titans. While Cronus was indeed the god of agriculture, after his overthrow, the position of god of agriculture was taken by Demeter. For Zeus to cooperate with Cronus, he would inevitably need to get Demeter and other key subordinates to relinquish their divine positions.

If Downs is not mistaken, Zeus might at most relinquish the divine positions of Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Hercules, and Helios—the captured or defecting kings of the gods. As for the remaining divine positions, Zeus will not budge an inch.

Zeus, having missed the best opportunity to strike the Aesir, had no other choice!
We can only lie low and take it one step at a time.

Having confirmed that the spatial passage was completely closed, Downs stood up, looking down at the once-fawning faces of the three goddesses of Olympus, a victor's smile spreading across his face.

"Let's go! To the Golden Palace!"

"Yes!" the three goddesses replied in unison.

Before long, in the main hall of the Golden Palace, as Brunhilde called out the name, thousands of gods bowed in unison to welcome His Majesty the God-Emperor Downs.

The perceptive gods noticed that behind the God-Emperor, the three goddesses from Olympus were now ranked ahead of the goddess of slavery, Amaterasu, and that Frey had a new subordinate god behind him—the former Olympian god of light, Apollo.

This situation is quite delicate.

Anyone with a modicum of political acumen would understand: their Emperor Downs has begun the conquest and integration of the Olympian pantheon. This means that a decisive battle with the Olympian pantheon is imminent.

The gods' hearts grew even more fervent.

Towns sat down on the throne with an air of authority, and beckoned Helmod to step forward and announce the results of the current round:

"In this round of battle between the Aesir and the Olympians, our side forced four of their god-kings to surrender, killed one god-king Hercules, killed 18 chief gods including the sun god Helios, captured three chief gods including the goddess of rest Macaria, and killed secondary gods..."

"We have acquired two of the seven seas of Atlantis in the Greek world, with an ocean area of ​​approximately 2,000 square kilometers and an average water depth of 1024 meters; we have also acquired a continent with an area of ​​1.23 million square kilometers; and we have removed 300 million cubic meters of wind elements..."

"By the time the spatial passage disappeared, we had temporarily taken control of all the subordinate worlds of the Greek world and forced their slave gods to temporarily rebel and submit to the command of the third-party god-king Odin..."

As Helmod read the proclamation, the eyes of the gods in the hall grew even more fervent.

Everyone was focused on the battle, and often only felt that their own team was winning, but lacked a holistic understanding.

After summarizing the results, everyone realized that in this round of confrontation, everyone had won in both substance and appearance.

Seeing that Zeus was still fighting with his father, everyone had a feeling that the Aesir would definitely win the next decisive battle.

Whether everyone's achievements will elevate their status to a higher level depends on the next decisive battle.

After Helmod finished reading and stepped aside, Towns spoke.

"Our victory in this round is not the end of the war, but the Aesir believe in rewarding merit and punishing wrongdoing! Part of the rewards for this round can be distributed in advance. I must make it clear that the war situation is dynamic. If the spoils we have obtained are taken back, then don't blame me for degrading the relevant gods."

“Of course,” said Enki, the god of the sea and wisdom.

The gods all agreed.

Previously, the biggest difference between the Aesir and the Olympian gods was the total amount of elemental energy they possessed. Thanks to Odin's timely release of Cronus to annoy Zeus, the Aesir achieved an unexpected and great success.

First, there's the addition of the [Sky] and [Wind] elements. These elements were directly bestowed upon Thor, who made the greatest contribution, by Downs, which will further enhance the power of the God of Thunder.

Secondly, there was the increase in water element brought by the two seas. Although Downs also served as the god of water, Enki and the goddess of the lake were already his two chief gods. Crucially, their divine domains had expanded significantly, to the point that they couldn't manage them all. Downs decisively allowed Enki to also separate his divine duties, establishing seven seas as well. Besides Enki himself ruling Vanaheim as the sea god, the other six seas were distributed to those gods who had previously held ocean-related divine positions.

Finally, there was the continent that Gilgamesh had seized with the sword Ea. Downs incorporated this continent into the world of Kinlunga and merged it with Helheim, the underworld. It's somewhat ironic that Helheim, due to the surge in mortal deaths, was finally becoming overwhelmed and needed to expand its physical space.

What surprised the gods the most was that Downs had Helmod announce—

"Hela, the goddess of the underworld, is commendable for her loyalty and bravery, and has made outstanding contributions in battle. Therefore, she is hereby promoted to the rank of Goddess Queen!"

(End of this chapter)