In a plane beyond the physical, a council of gods has gathered around an ethereal round table. Their bodies, neither flesh nor souls, floated above their seats as clouds of varied smoke. Some more bright than the others, some carrying a hue of malice and the others a pinkish blush–it was hard to differentiate one from the other, and yet, having been around each other for so long, their voice alone was enough to carry their conversation forward.
"I knew this plan was as scrappy as it gets, but who the hell listens to me!" Screaming through his raging smoke cloud, Valcan–the god of wraths and dragons let his dissent be known.
"And you had a better idea, I'm guessing?" Jestrus retorted, his voice carrying the same hint of sarcasm as ever.
"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU SAY TO ME?!" Although Valcan's temper rose, there was little he could do without actually being there. Only present through voice and not even his soul, the god, much like everyone else, was too distrustful to be present amongst his own in the flesh.
"Will you two calm down for a moment? Let us just think!" Jumping into the quarrel, Lolath tried to gain control of the situation. But as an honorary god of balance between good and evil, his voice carried little weight–perhaps the least in the council.
"Squabble later! That abomination of a goddess has her eyes set on one of my colonies, we need to do something before it's razed to the ground!" Spoke the god of hope, Asmareth–half sibling to the goddess of mockery and the god of the colony Erika had been tasked to raze. His anxiety had been welling up for a while, as already, the priestess, all by herself, was traveling through the desert to get to one of the cities.
"A lone woman runs you wild, tsk! No wonder you're such a wuss~" Wolcenya mocked the hopeless god of so-called hope. It was almost–no, truly comical that a man meant to inspire hope was soiling his pants at the mere mention of direct retaliation.
"I have to agree with Wolcenya here, besides…" A light chuckle echoed through the plane as the goddess of commerce, Mesmerazia, began to talk. "Wasn't this your genius idea to poke the wasp's nest? To send our chosen otherworlders into that accursed kingdom?"
Sharing a laugh at Asmareth's angst, the two goddesses laughed out their hearts, all the while, worry took even greater hold of everyone else. Even as their laughter died, the other gods remained quiet in pondering, and the only thing that could be heard was the grunting of the god of hope as anger bubbled through his mind.
"We still have seven more otherworlders–the more competent ones, maybe we should send them to handle the priestess?" Ivor suggested, genuinely trying to help.
However, Nuxsuem–the god of dimension and the very person who snatched the otherworlders from their home world, couldn't have disagreed more.
"They still need time to mature. Their powers have the potential to be greater than anyone in our world, we shouldn't waste their lives by sending them to every suicide mission that we can think of!"
"Is that even true? The whole 'stronger than anyone else' part, you've been saying it since forever…" Scoffing at his words, Fortuna rolled her eyes. Everyone's attention quickly turned to her, and being a slut to the scrying eye, she chuckled and then added. "Not everyone is Nightsilver, not everyone from Gaia is going to be a monster of a human man. I say we send them and watch how much they can handle, I'm up for making any bets, ahaha~"
"Always looking to gamble," audibly clicking his tongue, Orion–the god of creation decided to simply stay out of this mess. Disappearing into nothing at all, he left the council meeting to attend to other matters at once.
"Can the priestess truly rival a city, alone?" Finally, spoke the god of Ambition and foresight, Kleismeth. Having listened to everyone's mind, he figured the priestess was quite the big deal; however, with Athenia's eyes always being on her and her chosen, the gods could never truly see them in battle–at least not unless their chosen were also around them.
"Whether she can or not is not the question–I just don't want her to sway my people's faith, that's all!" Even through the smoke cloud, the sound of Asmareth slamming his fist on a table could be heard by everyone. The girls laughed and Valcan cursed at him again, but once their voices settled–the eldest of them all, hammered onto them, his opinion.
"Send one of your chosen to protect the city–someone from our own world and not the otherworlders, they still need more training." As Hamleth's voice rumbled through the plane, everyone fell quiet, but even his decree was met with questioning.
"But what if they die too? Then what's the point?!" At this point, Asmareth's voice was piercing everyone's skull. His constant complaining had gotten old quite quickly.
"If they die, then they were unworthy to serve a god on the council anyway. Still, at least their death would help us determine the strength of this so-called 'Death Priestess'." Silence took over the council yet again. Everyone had something to say, but going against the head of the seat–the god of law himself, was the last they could do before being kicked off and backstabbed in some way.
Hamleth was in a way a beacon for them to come together and reluctantly place their trust in each other through him. And like a proxy of sorts, the god of law watched over everyone, ensuring nobody stepped out of line and tried to disrupt the powerful hold they had over Atlaris.
"If that is all, then this council is adjourned!" Waiting for everyone's cloud to disappear, Hamleth stayed behind in the plane to keep the gods from latching onto each other's throats. At first, Asmareth didn't wanna leave as he had the most to lose, but once the tension in the room turned to him, the god of hope caved and disappeared to work on sending one of his chosen to the desert edge city.
In the meantime, everyone else would return to their throne and work their chosen to their bone so that they may come at least close to the strength that Raven and his group possessed. Having no true gauge of their strength, however, they knew nothing about what to expect. Thus, this assault on Asmareth's city would serve them greatly. Both in judging their opponent's strength and in coming up with opposing tactics.
Needless to say, while one member of the council wished for victory to grace his chosen, the others wished for him to fail. Something, the god of hope, expected, but there was nothing he could do as the mere kick felt worse than losing a few thousand people of his faith.
'I can't let this one priestess push me around so much!!' He thought to himself. And in retort, he chose the strongest paladin of his faith–a man who could fell an army on his own. Even so, what would be the result of his encounter with the priestess? That remained unknown even through the infinite stretch of multiple realities.