298 AC, Inside The Great Leviathan…
As the merfolk lunged upon the group, Trios dodged their attacks masterfully while Kobo crashed their heads with his big hands. On the other hand, Gerold swung his staff which only the god knows where he took it out.
Tridents of the merfolk were not able to pierce the skin of Trios and Kobo but still, they could harm Gerold so he was the one who needed to be extra careful.
The shrieks of the merfolk begin to diminish as the groaning sounds of their squirming bodies on the ground increase each passing moment. However, with the last shriek from one of the merfolk, a roar sounded throughout the belly of the leviathan.
The roar was so thundering that Kobo and Gerold's ears began to bleed as they collapsed onto the ground. Gerold raised his head with great difficulty and saw the fish on the throne was already on his feet and was roaring with all his might.
A moment later, Trios entered Gerold's vision and he saw him running towards the fish with his staff at hand. Gerold looked at the ground and, indeed, didn't see his staff. Trios was already upon the fish and was swinging the staff towards it.
The sound of roar faded as the fish dodged the attack. Gerold rose from the ground and watched the fight between the two gods. Trios was attacking with a great might but still, his attacks were weak against the might of the fish-headed god, Dagon.
With Trios losing his worshippers, his old might was gone forever and as the ruler of the Shivering Sea, Dagon was more powerful than him.
Dagon flipped his hand and a great force came out of his body and knocked Trios to the ground. Trios tried to stand up but the force was still holding him on the ground.
"Dagon, what madness took hold of you? Is this how you welcome your friends!?" Seeing he was powerless, Trios resorted to talking instead of using brute force.
Darkness took hold of Dagon's eyes as he sneered. "Friends, where were these friends when they invaded my lands! Where were these friends when they raised my people from death!" With each word, he closed on Trios as he took the fallen staff from the ground.
"The Shivering Sea has no friends, only enemies!" Dagon raised the staff to stab it to Trios' crotch but when tried to down it with all his power, he found that he was not able to move it. Instead, the staff jumped out of his hands and flew towards his fallen soldiers.
Dagon saw a man with a young face take hold of the staff and snorted. He went back to his throne and took a trident from behind it. He went back to Trios to finish the job.
"Dagon, stop! We can talk about this!" Trios screamed while holding his crotch and turned his head to Gerold. "Quick, do something!"
Gerold was confused as he did not know why Trios was crying. He was a god and gods were immortals so him dying was not something possible. Dagon also looked at the man who Trios demanded help from but saw nothing special in him.
"Really, a human? What is he going to do, beg for your life?" Dagon snorted. "Today, you're going to die and your soul will be mine, Trios!" Dagon raised the trident to air and as just he was going to stab Trios, a voice stopped him.
"Souls!" Trios bellowed out seeing Dagon stop, "Yes, souls! Do you see that human? He is head of a religion so he could bring you, souls! Of course, with you killing me none of them would be possible."
Dagon squinted his eyes and looked at Gerold then he lowered the trident. "Speak…"
"Yes, yes… He could bring you a thousand… no, ten thousand souls, just for you!" Trios fidgeted on the ground. "Of course, he could also bring you a million of souls but…"
Dagon licked his lips but Trios continued, "Only if you play a game with us."
"What game?" Dagon asked.
"Well, according to the law, it is us who is going to determine the rules so…" Trios begin chattering endlessly.
Dagon was getting irritated with all the talk so he hit the hilt of his trident on the ground and growled lowly.
Trios raised his hands as a gesture of surrender. "Okay, okay… We will flip coins and if you win, you will get a million souls while if I win you will let us go and give me your crown. What do you say?"
"Hmm." That was the only sound coming out of Dagon as Trios took out a coin from his pocket.
"So who is going to throw it?" Trios asked.
Dagon tilted his head towards Gerold as he said, "The human shall."
Trios pursed his lips as he invited Gerold with a gesture. Gerold went to them with careful steps as he was not confident enough to take on this God if things came to fighting.
"Tails or heads?" Trios gave the coin to Gerold while asking Dagon.
"Heads," Dagon said with greed in his eyes while Gerold played with the coin between his fingers. Gerold put the coin on top of his thumb and took a deep breath.
He tossed the coin up into the air as the coin began flipping on its own. Soon, it began falling to the ground as Gerold backed away. The coin collided with the ground as a smile grew on Trios' face when he saw it was the tails looking upwards but the smile did not linger too long as the fleshy ground beneath the coin folded and flipped it.
Trios' eyes were wide open as a smirk came upon Dagon's face. "I won."
"No, wait!" Trios yelled.
Dagon squinted his eyes upon hearing those words. "Are you refusing to obey the law?" he asked.
Trios shivered but a nervous smile was on his face. "The game is not over yet, after all, you never let me speak all the rules. I was going to say that it will be the best of the three."
Dagon harrumphed but there was nothing he could do as, indeed, he refused to listen so he turned his head to the human, again. "Toss it," he said.
Gerold gulped down the heart that was going up to his throat as he picked the coin from the ground and tossed it to the air.
This time, the coin stayed in the air longer than the first one and its fall was slow as a leaf in the wind and this confused Gerold as he looked around to find the reason for that and saw that Dagon's eyes glowed darkly. However, Trios was also not going to sit back. He threw his head back and sneezed at the coin.
The coin slapped to the ground hard and when Trios saw that it was tails looking upwards, he took it from the ground immediately. "Hahaha, it is tails!"
Gerold was dumbstruck as the two gods were playing like children on the street. However, he was slowly getting an understanding as to date, he did not see a fair play between the gods. All of them were cheaters.
Gerold took the coin from Trios and looked at it while thinking that maybe only by deceiving others they could become gods. He looked at both of them but saw different emotions from them. One of them was looking at him with greed while the other one was looking at him with expectation.
Gerold tossed the coin to the air but this time nothing supernatural happened as the coin fell to the ground. Though it fell to its edge and stood upright, the ground began folding again and the coin fell onto its head side. However, this time Trios threw himself to the ground while yelling, "Ayoooo, my leg. Gerold, why did you hit my leg?!"
Gerold was stunned as he did not do anything but when he looked down, he saw the tails were looking upwards and Trios picking up the coin with a big smile on his face.
"Hahaha, I won!" Trios raised the coin in the air and began dancing like a clown but his dance was cut short as Dagon roared and raised his trident to the air while shouting, "You cheated!"
"Wait, the law…" Trios protested but it was too late as the trident came upon him but an invisible shield formed around Trios and knocked Dagon back.
Dagon fell to the ground and the crown on his head rolled from his head and wheeled. Seeing this, Trios ran forward and kicked the crown away and knelt beside Dagon and shook him.
"Dagon, Dagon… wake up, Dagon!" Trios said.
Dagon groaned and opened his eyes. "Trios… what are you doing here?" he said, weakly. "I… I… why am I on the ground?" he asked as he looked upon himself.
"Don't you tell me, you don't remember anything! You nearly killed me!" There was a confused look on Dagon's face while Trios was shaking him.
"Kill you, who, me?" Dagon pointed to himself and asked.
Gerold did not know whether to laugh or cry at their conversation as the cruel god that was planning to kill them and suck their soul was gone and instead, a mellow and meek god was in front of him.
The change on the god was too obvious and from the looks, the only thing that could cause this was the crown. Gerold went towards the crown and picked it up and examined it. It was a normal crown, except there was a small pebble embedded on top of it.
Gerold recognized this black pebble as a black stone like the one he got from R'hllor. However, this one was smaller in size and its lustre was also not too much.
"My crown!!" While Gerold was examining the black pebble, he heard a voice from his side. He turned his head to see Trios holding Dagon who was trying to reach the crown. Gerold quickly took out the pebble and threw the crown towards them.
Dagon took the crown like it was his lifeline and hugged it. "My precious…" His words came out like a crooked creature.
Trios was a little bit worried when he saw Dagon's actions. "Dagon, you know the law. Now, give me the crown." He tried to take the crown but Dagon was unwilling. Though, in the end, he relented and gave the crown.
Gerold went near to them and asked while pointing the pebble on his hand, "Trios, is this what I think it is?"
"Aye, though it looks a bit less powerful than the other one," Trios said.
"What is that?" Dagon was confused as he asked. "Wait a minute, is that a black stone?!"
"Looks like you've got yourself into a big trouble, my friend." Trios sighed and spoke while patting Dagon's back. "I knew that you were a little bit rebellious as you did not like that you were not elected as a Keeper but this… this a whole new level, even for you."
Dagon swathed his hand away and looked at his crown but when he saw that the pebble was not there, he understood the situation. "What the fuck, that pebble was red when the crown was given to me! Damn, fuckin' merfolk. Do they have to wash everything in blood before offering to me!"
Seeing the confused looks they were giving to him, Dagon explained, "This crown was offered to me as their last ruler passed away. According to their culture, when the king dies whatever he wears will be offered to the gods after it is washed by the king's own blood to show that their king was pious. However, from what I heard these idiots found their after two days of his death so when they tried to wash it with his blood, it became sticky and dried up too quickly. And you can guess what happened later."
"Anyway, were you not sealed in a statue or something, how did you come here?" Dagon asked.
"Well, I was sealed in a statue but Gerold, here, released me." Trios pointed to Gerold. "However, there was a catch. This one here tries to convert everyone in his god's name."
"God's... which one?" Dagon asked.
"Well… let's say the first one," Trios answered cryptically. "Anyways, I gave up my temple to him as I lost in the game but instead of sending me to my realm, I wanted to stay by his side. You know the boredom of the realms, it gets lonely after some time so we busted some asses on the way and in the end, a call for help came from those humans that call themselves…" Trios turned to Gerold. "What was their name, again?"
"Its Ibbenese." Gerold answered.
"Yes, it is. Well, the Ibbenese high priest called us for help as none of their ships could sail on the Shivering Sea."
"Wait, wait… You say they called for help and you guys came just like that?" Dagon was surprised as no man would do something without anything in return.
Trios fake coughed, "About that… Well, the high priest offered to convert all the people so…"
Dagon snorted upon hearing his words and cast an angry glare at Gerold but in the end, he sighed. "I don't know whether to be angry or grateful. On one hand, you are converting my worshippers but on the other hand, you saved me from being damned. Nevertheless, your help was a great boon for me so I won't dwell on this matter. However…" Dagon took off a bracelet from his arm and gave it to Gerold. "Every merit has its own rewards and I won't let people speak about me being ungrateful. Here, take this. This will hide you from the eye of the gods as long as you wear it."
Trios slapped his thigh. "I knew it, no wonder none could find you. So you were hiding using this."
Gerold took the bracelet and looked at the engravings on it. There were some runes in weird shapes but the bracelet looked like a normal iron one. Nevertheless, this was indeed a great boon for Gerold and he was going to use it to its full extent.
"Sooo… how are we going to return?" Gerold asked.
Dagon raised an eyebrow. "What's the rush, if you come to my home then you need to be welcomed as befitting as a guest of Dagon, you will leave here with full bellies. Though, it looks like your friend already started." He pointed at Kobo.
Kobo was gnawing on the bones of some merfolk as he innocently raised his head to look at them.
Four days later…
Gerold was back at Ibben and already the plans were being made regarding the conversion of the isles. While he was fixing the problem, him going to the Shivering Sea to solve it was already spread around the city so when people saw him coming back and giving the good news to the high priest, some were already ready to be converted as the fishing was their lifeline, to them from gods to money everything was related to it.
The temple was already being converted to the liking of Gerold and though some people did not want to convert, they were "convinced" by Gerold and the high priest.
The high priest was given supervision over the religious matter of the Ibben and already, deals were being made with local merchants and nobles. And holy guards were being deployed to train local guards for the temple.
It was time for Gerold to return as he had still lots of things to do in Essos and Westeros. The plans regarding the Seven Kingdoms were giving fruit and he needed to be there to supervise them personally. Meanwhile, Trios was going on another trip to give the stone to the Keepers.