Chapter 972: Closed Negotiations.

Chapter 972: Closed Negotiations.

The silence that fell in the meeting room was deafening. Shiva, the god of destruction, stared at Hela, the Norse goddess of the underworld, with a very serious look, a look that few people rarely saw.

Even Indra himself was surprised by this facet of Shiva that he didn't know existed.

The only ones seemingly unconcerned with all this were Victor, Violet, Amaterasu, and Haruna. The four formed a small group in the corner, watching everything while eating popcorn and drinking soda.

Not a very dignified appearance for an 'Emperor', but Victor didn't care. He never followed the stigmas that other beings imposed on him; he followed his own path. The same applied to Haruna, Violet, and recently Amaterasu had joined this club.

As a dragon, she had come to love her freedom very much. Thinking back to her past when she was locked in her temple and only went out occasionally, she snorted disdainfully. She wanted to beat her past self for unnecessarily limiting herself like that.

Although she couldn't blame her young self too much; after all, it was a cultural thing, not to mention that she really didn't feel like going out and enjoying her freedom.

So even though she had the power to dictate her own freedom, she did nothing. After all, the decision to do nothing and remain in her cell was her own. A self-imposed prison.

The Limbo Guy, the heavenly father, and the God King of the Celtic pantheon felt his lips tighten when he saw Victor's relaxed posture. They wanted to tell them to be serious and behave appropriately for their positions, but who could tell them that?

They weren't crazy.

The silence lasted for a long 7 minutes, and throughout that time, Shiva and Hela never stopped staring at each other. Shiva looked at the woman with a clear threat, and Hela looked at him with the same look.

Despite doing all this for Victor's scheme, which would benefit her too, she was also a proud woman! She was the woman who dared to challenge Odin and defeat him!

Her pride didn't allow her to look away now, not when someone who thought themselves superior looked at her with such eyes. Fueled by her sister's desire, the END's Cobra wrapped around Hela's neck also looked at Shiva, challenging the god of destruction to attack her sister.

Damn the consequences, and so what if he was in the territory of a primordial!? If that god attacked her sister, he would feel her venom!

Even though he seemed the most carefree of the siblings, he felt a great attachment to Hela. After all, of their dysfunctional family, she was the only one who was there for them.

Everyone conveniently ignored Thor, who was still in his dog position. It was as if he were invisible, and no one missed his presence, he thought. A thought that was far from the truth.

At this moment, Shiva was weighing the pros and cons. With the essence of dreams and madness, he theoretically could help a god of his pantheon gain more power; the value of these essences was immeasurable. Even in the future, he may or may not acquire these concepts for himself... something he highly doubts will happen considering he has possessed this item for thousands of years and has never been able to acquire another concept for himself.

Shiva wasn't thinking about pros and cons; he was fighting against his desire for possession. After all, he had earned these items with great effort and felt very uncomfortable giving them easily to someone else... even if it was to use to gain an entire pantheon.

In other words, it was his ego that he was fighting now, not something as basic as the pros and cons of his pantheon.

If it were for cold and cruel logic, he had no real short-term or long-term use for these essences. Logically, the pantheon was more valuable than these essences; that was the cold logic. But sometimes, logic wasn't heard by the emotional, especially for a god.

It might seem like Shiva is an indifferent god who doesn't care about anything, but that's far from the truth. He doesn't care about anything that doesn't involve him. Despite being previously considered the strongest god, he wasn't a holy or gentle entity.

Just like Victor, he has desires, ambitions, and thoughts. The only difference is that he knows how to hide his intentions very well, and his title as the strongest god shields him from weaker beings trying to 'oppose' him. After all, nobody would want to be destroyed by his godhood of destruction, which could only be countered by the divine Creation of the heavenly father.

But at this moment, someone was doing just that, someone was opposing him, someone who could be as dangerous as him, a woman who had various END beasts that even Shiva himself wouldn't casually fight.

"This is boring... Can you two stop this staring contest? It's been 8 minutes, and unlike some gods here, I'm a very busy man. If you want to continue this staring match, I suggest you do it elsewhere," Victor spoke while munching on popcorn.

Hela and Shiva looked at Victor, visibly their faces tensed at how Victor was dressed. He was wearing a futuristic-looking 3D glasses, holding a popcorn packet in his hand. He wasn't the only one like this; Haruna, Amaterasu, and Violet were the same.

Hela felt very unjustly treated now. She was doing all this for this man! And he's taking it all in amusement... Sure, she would benefit from this too, but that didn't help diminish her bad mood!

Shiva, on the other hand, just looked at Victor with the same eyes he looked at Hela. Shiva was highly suspicious of the whole situation; the whole situation smelled of setup, and obviously, his suspicions went to Victor. Not so kind thoughts were passing through Shiva's mind now, but unlike the goddess Hela who returned that gaze to Shiva, there was no staring match or anything similar. Victor was different from Hela; what followed was merely an interested observation from Victor.

"Heh~? Are you sure you want to continue this, Shiva?"

"... What are you talking about?"

"Fufufufu, don't pretend to be a fool. You know very well that I can sense emotions, and even your divinity can't shield itself from mine," Victor chuckled in amusement. Then, he took off the glasses, and his draconic eyes looked at Shiva.

Something he highly doubted happened. So there's only one explanation, the same explanation that everyone deduced a few minutes ago, Victor's faction found a method to prevent other gods from knowing the progress of their 'competitors.'

The consequences of this will go far beyond just knowing if new gods have been born or not. Gods with the same concept are rivals by nature, and usually gods who have a greater understanding of the concept will prevent gods with less understanding of the same concept from further progressing their divinity.

But... What if they couldn't sense this progress? What if they suddenly wake up one day, and there's a new god who has the same concept as them, and who can make them lose their authority within the concept itself? That was a very scary thought.

After all, if there was one thing that gods most disliked, it was lack of control. Because of this, many felt uncomfortable with Victor's existence because they couldn't control his actions.

Victor internally laughed when he felt Shiva's shock and horror. 'Sometimes being too clever is a bad thing, Shiva.'

Feeling her husband's happiness, Haruna, Amaterasu, and Violet looked at him for a few seconds, then smiled.

'I'll have to compensate Nyx later, she's doing a great job,' Victor thought.

"Why are you watching us? Get back to the negotiation so this meeting can end as soon as possible, I have things to do. Like feeding the planet, for example."

For a moment, everyone's mind wandered, and the image of Victor feeding the personification of the planet with his... thing... appeared in their minds.

"Whoa, I must say you really have dirty minds."

They paled when they heard Victor's amused voice.

"I didn't expect this from you, heavenly father."

"This... This... This is a misunderstanding!" The heavenly father became hysterical.

"Wait, how do you know what we're thinking?" The God King of the Celtic pantheon spoke.

"I didn't know; I just felt your emotions and deduced it through your behavior," Victor laughed.

They fell silent. To be fair, they had just heard that he was married to two world trees... So, diverting thoughts in that direction wasn't unexpected.

"Because of the demon war, there are several deep places on the planet that have miasma. Although we solved most of the problems at the last meeting and our joint action, there are still contaminated places. I will help Yggdrasil with her personal request and solve this problem. Consequently, I will do a complete cleaning on the planet, making all the garbage from the sea disappear, bringing back extinct animals, etc. You know, all that community work."

"... That's truly wonderful action, Victor," the heavenly father spoke.

Victor shrugged. "If I'm going to do a job, I always do my best; it's normal for me."

'This work ethic might have elevated him to be the strongest being in this sector,' everyone thought.

"... And then? Lord Shiva, do you accept or not? Stop wasting our time," Hela spoke as if the fault were his.

And to be fair, it was really his fault for being silent for so long.

Shiva bit his lips in frustration, and the next moment he let out a big sigh: "I accept."

"Finally." A contract appeared in front of Shiva, and a key appeared in Hela's hand. "Here's the key to the Nordic pantheon; sign the contract, and give me the essences, and the pantheon is yours."

Shiva didn't say anything; he just took the contract and read it... Finishing reading, and seeing that the contract was a simple purchase and sale contract, he signed, and the next moment three essences appeared in his hand.

Hela practically threw the key to the entire Nordic pantheon to Shiva and took the three essences.

"It was good doing business with you, Shiva. I hope our future dealings will be smooth."

"Yes," he spoke neutrally while thinking internally: 'I never want to see you in my life again, woman!' Shiva snarled internally.

...