Chapter 14 - The Day Draws Nearer

As if to mock the words Apollo spoke, the three months passed far too fast. A lot faster than he could have ever expected. He was not the only one who thought this, many others felt time passed way too quickly.

It wasn't long ago they were all counting down the remaining months left and suddenly they were counting days, based on multiple predictions, most assumed the child would be born on the last week if the year.

When she heard that various powers were putting their intelligence teams to work to calculate the time she would birth the prophesied child, Cattleya shook her head in disappointment saying.

"Are you all just jobless or what? You have got other serious problems to deal with, both internal and external and yet you decided to put your intelligence into calculating when someone's gonna give birth? Idiots."

Her words served as a provocation towards the ones involved however, they decided to hold themselves back from falling for her provocative words and whatever schemes she could have planned for them if they did.

At this point in time the entirety of the hell universe was on high alert. Even Cattleya knew better than to waltz around carelessly, she could even feel that the protection granted to her from the law of casualty was currently weakening by the day.

She guessed this was because she was close to fulfilling the role she was given. If she could feel the protection weakening, then there's no way that someone else who's perceptive enough would not possess the ability to do the same.

If it gets out that the protection she received is weakening, various powers would definitely take advantage of this time to make attempts on her life, not caring for the consequences. The gods were belligerent beings, at least most of them were.

The mere existence of something or someone that could potentially threaten their rule was not a situation that they could afford to accept. They always made sure any and every potential threats to their rule they could find are thoroughly taken care of and not given a chance to rise up.

In some situations, the gods of certain pantheons had even gone as far as to kill off all the members of a certain race, simply because a small group of people who belonged to that race, took part in a coup to overthrow the god in control of that world. If they went that far for those who merely participated, what could they have possibly done to the instigators?

Most definitely deeds too horrible to be spoken of. Things so cruel and viscous that eternal torment and soul torture would pale in comparison. These actions are sometimes taken in public places to strike fear in the hearts of any who harbored the same train of thoughts.

However, some of the time, these were instead sources of motivation for new groups plotting rebellions to rise up.

This did not only apply to the gods. Other races also have the same problems or rebellions and threats to their rule and many chose to solve them the same way the gods do. Very few times do such rebellions succeed. The rebellion of the six eldest Olympian gods against their father, the Titan of Time, Kronos is a good example of one of those few times. Similar situations have played out in many worlds yet only a small percentage of the end on positive notes.

As the time drew nearer, more questions were asked concerning the prophesied child.

"Would he have the same protection as his mother?"

"Would he really be the only one of his kind?"

"Would he actually possess the strength to kill the gods?"

These and many more were asked, however there was no one to give them the answers they desired. Eventually they gave up on asking questions and quietly waited for the day of black sun to arrive.

The 'Black Sun' spoken about in the prophecy had been said to refer an eclipse. A Solar eclipse, one that occurs when a portion of a world is engulfed in a shadow cast by its Moon which fully or partially blocks sunlight.

This occurs when its Sun, Moon and the world itself are aligned. As this was a situation that involved the celestial bodies such as the suns and moons, the various sun and moon gods and beings who were in charge of the solar and lunar aspects of of their respective pantheons, planned to have a meeting to discuss some issues both they and many others were concerned about.

Using the neutral zone as a perfect meeting point, the various deities representing their various pantheons arrived one by one at the banquet hall prepared for the meeting by the of the leaders of the Alliance.

The hall had a set-up of a standard banquet hall included numerous circular tables and short seats that encouraged relaxation. Copious amounts of food adorned the tables so well that their surfaces were barely visible. The food was typically arranged in platters and bowls produced of ceramic material such as faience, which was typically a greenish-blue color.

The attendees reveled in entertainment provided by acrobats, dancers, jugglers and vocalists. Music of all varieties completed the ambiance of these events, with musicians playing instruments such as drums and the harp as they feasted on the meals prepared for them.

The security was at its highest level since the formation of the alliance as if even one of the attendees was to be harmed, it could spell disaster for the alliance as they would face the wrath of the attendee's pantheon and its allies. Such a situation was less than desirable so the best of the dwarven warriors with strengths at the deity realm were selected as guards.

Solar Deities such as, Amun-Ra of Egito (portugeese for Egypt), Mawu of Dahomey, Inti of the Inca Empire, Belenos of the Gauls, Amaterasu-Ōmikami of the Shinto, Sol of Romersk and lunar deities like Artemis of Olympus, Diana of Romania, Mani of Asgard, Losna of the Etruscan and many more were in attendance. After the feasts were completed, the time for these great solar and lunar deities to discuss the greater matters at hand had come.

Seeing as no one wanted to take the mantle and officially begin the meeting, Apollo took it upon himself to begin.

"I thank you all for taking time to come here today. As we are all aware, a prophecy was delivered to most of the oracles or their equivalents in your respective pantheons, one about a being who could possess the power to potentially end all gods."

As he spoke many showed signs of vexation, some even cursed at him for speaking about the prophecy while many just simply looked on.

"Quiet, why don't you all act befitting of the status you possess."

A solemn voice resounded across the hall, silencing all those who were talking. The one who spoke was an old man, wearing visibly expensive golden robes, with the image of a sun disk inside a cobra printed on it. He also wore a hat that looked similar to the head of a falcon.

At first some wanted to rage at the person who dared to tell them to be quiet however, after seeing and realizing who he was, they all shut their mouths.

As one of the few Masters in attendance, nobody wanted to get on his bad side. He was known as Amun-Ra or Amun-Re, the leader of the Egito pantheon and its chief sun god. Seeing they had all kept quiet after hearing him speak, he looked towards Apollo and told him to continue speaking.

"Carry on, young Olympian."

Nodding lightly towards him , Apollo did exactly as he said.

"I know not about you all, however, i most definitely did not come here to talk about the prophecy, that is something we already know is unavoidable. What i came here for is to talk about the effects of the prophecy being fulfilled and the effects it might have on us solar and lunar deities."

"You mean about how it talks about the day of 'Black Sun'?" a voice asked, to which Apollo responded with a slightly more respectful tone,

"It is as you say, Lady Amaterasu." Continuing he said,

"We all have most likely already figured out that the 'Black sun' is obviously talking about an eclipse, a phenomenon that involves the suns and the moons, and an unnatural one at that, one we most likely would not be able to control. As it is out of our control, i fear it may come with problems that may affect us."

"Before we begin thinking about the problems it may bring, why don't we think about where it will begin, and if it will affect all our respective pantheons, or just those of the ones closely related to this prophecy. Lets start with that shall we."

Sol, the one known as the personification of the sun in the Romersk pantheon asked while looking around. Multiple gods nodded as his words made sense. They had no idea how the eclipse would come about, or what areas it would affect. They began to speak of various suggestions and theories.

"If it's going to start, i believe it will begin from the areas related to the parents of the child that is to be born, so it's most likely going to begin from Hell."

"Don't forget that children have not one but two parents, what about the unknown father of the child?"

"By that logic, the eclipse would begin in two areas, each related to the parents of the child."

"Why are you all assuming that the prophecy would span across all our territories in the first place?"

"Of course it would, there would not be any need for us to be told about the 'Black Sun' in the first place if we would not be able to notice it."

"I see, that makes sense, the fact that the prophecy mentioned it means that it would be significant enough to be seen across all worlds."

"What about the other stars that can be seen from the ground, would they be affected."

"Obviously not, not all stars would be affected as not all stars act as suns for worlds in the first place."

"Even so, that's a matter for the deities who control stars to deal with, our jobs only have to deal with stars that act as suns."

Seeing as the hall had become noisy once again due to many speaking at the same time, Ra once again spoke out to put an end to the noise.

"Quiet!"

As they all reflexively quieted down, they expected him to pass on the baton back to Apollo who was standing in the middle of the hall. Contrary to their expectations he continued speaking,

"I heard the suggestions, theories and questions most of you have put forward, they are all reasonable however, we cannot address them all, Let us deal with the ones of the greatest importance and call it a day."

Other high-ranking solar and lunar deities agreed with his words as they began to address the more important issues.

Firstly it was decided that they all be split into groups, these groups were decided according to how close the distance between the pantheons was.

Each group was given artifacts that help them communicate with each other better. Moving on they also agreed that there shall be multiple eclipses across all worlds and not just the ones in the areas related to the parents of the prophesied child.

As all things start from somewhere, they agreed on the idea that the mass eclipses would begin in the areas related to the parents of the child. They also agreed to be secretly vigilant as this could help them figure out who the father of the child is and what pantheon he comes from.

There was the possibility of the father being one of the sun gods present in the meeting however, devising ways to deal with all possible scenarios was too time consuming so they decided to ignore it.

They also agreed to not interfere with the eclipses, as solar and lunar deities, they possessed a myriad of abilities and duties.

As most things have a set lifespan, the same applies to the sun and moon, in the event that the sun of a world or a system or worlds had met the end of its lifespan, it was the duty of the sun god to select a new star to replace the dying one, in order to do this they needed to be able to move the stars.

The same scenario applied to the moons of various worlds. Using this ability, they could also stop the occurrence of eclipses that happened, even if it was already halfway through the its occurrence.

As they had already confirmed that the principle of casualty was involved in this matter, they came to the conclusion that interfering with the eclipse would not be left without repercussions.

The repercussions ranged from losing a bit of their divinities to losing their authorities as solar and lunar gods, a worst case scenario they all wanted to avoid.

After a few more discussions and a closing feast, they dispersed and returned to their respective pantheons to await the day of 'Black Sun'.