"Mother! What the fuck does this mean?!" A blinding red light flashed in the dark precinct, as the sound of a man slamming a table startled some present. As the sound subsided, so did the light.

"I did whatever pleased me. That's all." In the middle of the divine space, atop the granite inner sanctum, was a semi-naked girl, dressed in revealing black clothes, fidgeting with her hair. As she spoke, slithers of pink and purple lightning flashed through the entire space, enlightening the 16 edges of the windrose pattern on the ground.

"Mother, you cannot go and just make Gods at will like this! It's a severe danger to this world." Calmly, Lest spoke, contrasting the Fire God's behavior. "We are just worried about the stability of this realm. The rose is already unbalanced for a long time."

"So I know. Sometimes you forget who created You and this world in the first place." Lester's face tensed up hearing her words, his pure white light completely distorted by the mere fragments of her's.

"But Mother!"

"Enough."

"Tsc." Lester clicked his tongue, as the hateful voice of the Goddess of Life silenced him.

"We are missing a cardinal. And it has been a very long time. Mother's creation of a Duality is not gonna affect any of it." Mia spoke once again, bathing the temple in a warm orange light like the sun's.

"Instead, we should be thankful, for the chance of one day filling the gap left by Tensai..." A sleepy voice sounded from a distant corner, a faint purple and bluish glaze covering the temple.

"You've left slumber? That's odd..." A happy girl said from somewhere else, bathing the room in green.

"Woey! Yes! It's been a while, hasn't it." The sleepy voice turned bright and gentle, the colors darkening into a purplish naval blue, like that of the night's sky.

"Make this a serious conversation. Stop pretending everything is fine." A serious womanly voice spoke for the first time in millenia, making the whole Conservative Faction furrow their brows.

"Instead of complaining about such small things. Mia, Lest, what the hell is going on between the two of you?" As the beautiful girl spoke, the air became tenser, as with her words, countless miasma feelers darted in the opposite directions, East and West, bathed in a thick essence that made the Gods themselves shiver. "The opposition of Life and Light is a dangerous thing. Reflect on your doings." And as if it was just a taunt, the feelers vanished, the essence dispersing through the entire room, making some of the gods feel their chest tightening. "Do not make me intervene. I gave you and the Seconds  the power to rule this world. But I can also take it away." And, as she snapped her fingers, the entire temple vanished, together with her, leaving behind only the wind rose, and the seven Gods at its edges.

"See what you did?! Now Mother's acting again! What are you gonna do if she decides to pull one of her tricks again?!" As Mia yelled, the darkness that surrounded the space started to vanish, together with the overwhelming presence that was now gone.

"Oh... Don't you think her ways are better than ours?" Lest sneered, angering Mia further.

"Lest, you went too far this time. Even I am feeling my presence waver. You must stop the meaningless killing."

"Says the mermaid girl that thinks my believers building a canal is a deadly sin. Shut the fuck up, Lorei."

"What did you say?!"

As tensions rose, the windrose grew more colorful.

Three of the eight axles shone brightly, South, East and West. The northern axle lay dormant, after the death of Tensai Apeliontes, a million years ago, by the hands of Pharn and Lest. The Cardinals missing one of them, and chaos having retaken a small fraction of her power.

"You need to calm the hell down. Jesus, you're noisy." Lofy spoke again, with her sleepiness restored, as the Intercardinals slowly lit up.

The Seven Greater Gods were once again assembled, this time, to discuss something way beyond themselves.

"Now, let's talk about Mother's return." With Mia's words and the seven lights equally bright, the Gods discussed of a power so strong and unreliable, they themselves could seldom fathom.

-------------------

"They're moving..."

"Yes, My Lord." It took me a while, but I convinced him to drop most of the annoying bootlicking.

"Should we go, then?" I asked, looking at Bleart's nervousness. As I stood up, he soon followed suit. "Should we take the others?"

"Yes. The more, the better."

"Ok." I set the dark goblins forward, my heart pounding in my chest. The small distance between where we were and the end of the cave felt like an eternal via crucis. the girls were still talking about me, I guess. But this was getting more and more complicated. Now, the amount of Goblins accompanying the Goblin King was much higher than before, most of them clad in armor or robes... Guess they're setting themselves up for an invasion already. "Bleart, who goes first? Us or the rest?"

"Send them ahead, gives us time to think and may surprise them."

"Roger." The time we spent talking had given me a decent amount of EP, enough for me to get myself a couple more Goblins. I couldn't have them all come, since I still needed some to guard the girls and to take care of the torture dungeon. But all I could muster were here, some rushing past me, on their way out.

By the time we reached the entrance, all the 30 goblins had left. And awaited, closing off the dungeon entrance, as we slowly made our way there, to be greeted by the Goblin king himself, his hand high up, stopping his men from engaging.

"I am the Commander of Hordes, Abzuban. I am the Goblin King of the everlasting horde. Who the hell are you?" My eyes widened, as immediately after I left the cave, a deep voice spoke to me in the clear anglicized language I knew from Mihara, that of a human.

DarkGodEM

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