"WHERE THE HELL WERE YOU?! YOU'VE BEEN GONE A MONTH!" Alice screams as she hugs me.
"I'm sorry I was gone so long. I had to deal with Apollo." I say as I wrap my arms around her. "Once he was dealt with I lost track of time when I started adjusting his domain in heaven to my own liking."
"Whoa, hold on. You took Apollo's domain?... In heaven?" Alice asks as she breaks our embrace and looks me in the eyes.
"Well, I first took his divinity and then his life so it's all mine now."
"Are you sure that's how it works?" She asks, worried about any possible consequences.
"I don't care if that's not how it works. That's how things are and if any of these puny gods have a problem with it, they can either be quiet or suffer the same fate as Apollo." I say maliciously.
"Oh kay... you should probably go play demon genocide as quickly as possible because that almost sounded like you want some of these gods to oppose you so you'll have an excuse to kill them."
"Right. My bad. I'll try to keep it in check."
"Haha." Alice suddenly starts chuckling as we're walking home.
"What?"
"I'm a vampire who's married to a God of the Sun. I just think that's pretty funny."
"Yeah, hilarious..." I say somewhat sarcastically.
-----
"So you're saying that immediately after Zeus and Hera lost almost their entire Familias, Freya and Loki started going against them?" I ask Alice as we're eating breakfast. "That is messed up. I knew they were both cowardly, scheming, backstabbing, untrustworthy snakes. But that's crazy."
"Right?! I thought so too. Which is why I offered to go into the dungeon together for a while." Alice says while she's drinking a bloodbag of Fenrir positive. "Ever since you turned almost every God and Goddess in Orario against us, nobody seems to care much that we're now the most powerful Familia around.
The only ones who don't avoid us like the plague or refuse to do business with us are the Familias of the Gods whose lives you saved last month."
"I see. Well, it's not like we need them anyway. I ensured that we are entirely self-sufficient. I did that so we could afford to make a few enemies."
"Sure, just don't make a habit of it." Alice says. "When are you leaving?"
"In a few days, I think."
"Really? I almost thought you'd be going today."
"No, I still want to do a few things. After breakfast, I'm going to see Hecate and Hephaestus."
"Alright, I'm taking the children to the dungeon today on an educational excursion. Just the first two floors though, don't worry."
"Ah, so that's why they're eating quietly without causing a ruckus. I thought something was odd about that." I say as I look at the children quietly and obediently eating their breakfast.
-----
A while later Sleipnir lands in front of Hecate's mansion.
I walk inside and her Familia members greet me politely as they've all gotten used to me visiting sporadically.
Spot, the Chienthrope captain of the Hecate Familia immediately approaches me. "Lord Fenrir?" He says, surprised to see me. "I'm afraid Lady Hecate is not here."
"I see. Could you tell me where I can find her?"
"Well, uhm... yes. She's in the Tower of Babel."
"Ah, she's visiting Hephaestus. Good, I needed them both anyways. Thank you, Spot."
"No, wait." Spot says hastily before I walk away. "She's not with Lady Hephaestus. She's in an emergency Denatus."
"Huh... a Denatus. And I wasn't invited." I say somewhat maliciously.
I walk outside and get on Sleipnir. "To the tower."
Sleipnir immediately takes off in the direction of towards the entrance to the Tower of Babel.
"No, upwards, to the top floor."
---
"He killed Apollo! We can't just turn a blind eye to this. He must face justice." Astraea says with conviction.
"Oh, come on! Apollo was a bottom feeding idiot. If Fenrir hadn't insulted most of you right afterwards, none of you would've disagreed with his assessment of Apollo." Hephaestus says.
"What do you suggest then? We just continue as though nothing happened?" Astraea asks.
"While we cannot ignore it, we also cannot do what we'd normally do. We usually just banish gods from the city if we want them gone. I sense that's not an option here." A tall, old man with long, blue hair suddenly says. He's sitting in the back of the room, completely relaxed with his arms crossed. On his chest he wears a symbol of a golden trident.
He continues. "As much as I'm loathe to say it, Apollo was a truly powerful god. And yet, somehow Fenrir managed to enter Apollo's own domain, kill him and leave completely unscathed. Not to mention the fact that he has a way to travel to and from heaven whenever he desires.
Can anyone here honestly say that they could do the same?"
"Then what do you suggest, Poseidon?" Astraea asks.
"I think we should have a conversation with him. Hear what he has to say. I think we have more to gain from keeping him on friendly..." *BOOOMM!!!*
Suddenly there's a large explosion, sending rubble and dust through the room.
A few seconds later, the dust gets sucked out of the room, revealing a large, black, winged horse with fiery eyes and a burning mane. On top of the horse is Fenrir.
"Knock knock.
I assume my invitation got lost somehow." I say as I get down from Sleipnir's back.
"I JUST FIXED THAT BLOODY WALL!" Goibniu screams angrily as he immediately starts assessing the damage.
"And a great job you did. It took much more force to blast it open this time." I say nonchalantly as I walk to the middle of the room while Sleipnir flies back outside.
"That's because I had to reinforce the entire floor! It took me a whole month!"
"And now you can do it again. I just got you more work. You're welcome."
To stop himself from flying in a murderous rage, Goibniu leaves the room muttering profanities and curses at me under his breath.
"You killed Apollo. Have you anything to say for yourself?" Astraea says in an accusatory tone.
"I sent him to heaven instead of killing him, which I told him, he should consider me being merciful.
Apparently he wasn't very grateful to me for sparing his life because the moment me, my wife and a handful of gods stepped out of this tower together, he tried to kill me with a concentrated burst of sunlight.
I then took measures to ensure he could never harm me or my loved ones ever again, which regrettably involved me ripping his heart from his chest." I say as I notice quite a few gods flinching in their seats. "I gave him ample opportunity to change his ways or at least leave me and mine alone over the last four years. And when he crossed the line, I gave him one final chance, which he himself chose to squander.
So, as you see, there has been no injustice here."
"Yes there has. Murder isn't justice, it never is. Maybe you found yourself in a situation where your only viable option was to kill, but it was still a failure on your part. A failure to find a better solution.
Nonviolence requires not only physical courage but great intelligence. Anything else is a failure in both moral and practical terms." Astraea argues passionately as all the other gods and goddesses watch on. Some of them nodding in agreement to her words.
"When Apollo attacked me outside this tower he could have killed six gods and my wife, simply because they were standing close to me.
He showed a clear disregard for innocent bystanders. What else would he have done if I had simply shrugged off the attack and went home to go about my day and practice nonviolence?
He would have destroyed countless lives in his murderous rage.
So how was stopping him a failure in both moral and practical terms? Is it not both moral and practical to preserve the lives of the greater number?"
"Killing Apollo may be the only solution that you could find at the time. But it is a failure to find the better solution. Why? Because killing is wrong. If you don't believe that, what did you have against Apollo in the first place? To say 'killing justifies killing,' is a logical absurdism. It is like capital punishment, killing the killer because it is wrong to kill.
I understand that you were faced with circumstances where nothing better than killing could be thought of, but it was a failure. A failure to find the alternative."
"I have killed a great many people in my life. The first time I did it, it was me or him, and I killed him to protect my own life.
Since then I have killed to prevent myself being killed and killed to stop others from being killed.
I feel no elation, shame or personal failure from that. I had a right, as a warrior on the battlefield, to defend myself and others from aggressors.
I have the same right if my friends and family are being targeted by a malevolent god.
You can come up with as many arguments for nonviolence as you like, but none of them are going to help in a real-life situation, because that is when we have to make immediate judgments on right and wrong, and immediate decisions on how to act.
In a perfect world I would agree with you Astraea. But unfortunately this is no such world.
I have seen brutality and destruction, including the senseless slaughter and dehumanization of women and children. That is why I believe killing can be justified. And if I am able to, I will kill any number of people to prevent other innocent people from dying."
"You'd just be fueling a perpetual cycle of violence that way.
We are gods, we have the power to create this perfect world you speak of. We can show the people of this world that it can all be better, but it has to start with us.
I won't asks you to stop believing what you believe, but could you at least promise that next time you'll try?"
After a few seconds of quiet contemplation I respond. "Alright, I can try. But I make no promises."
"That's all I ask." Astraea says as she smiles kindly.
---
After the Denatus, Hephaestus, Hecate and I are in Hephaestus's workshop.
"Do you realize how she just helped you?" Hecate asks.
"What do you mean?"
"The gods were very tense over the last month, seeing as one of them was killed by you." Hecate explains. "Having that argument with Astraea in front of all of them showed them that you're not entirely unreasonable."
"I think it put a lot of their minds at ease." Hephaestus says. "But, on to business now. What did you call us here for?"
"Yes, of course. Remember when I told you I'll one day ask you to make me something special from Aegis? Well, today is the day."
"Then what do you need me for?" Hecate asks.
"Aegis, while indestructible, can not be enchanted. I want you and I to find a way to do so anyway."
"And what exactly are we making?" Hephaestus asks.
"Something similar to this, but way better." I say as I put Apollo's Sunsword handle on a workbench. "I already have a few ideas in mind, but mostly I want it to be able to use absolutely any kind of energy I want it to."
"I've never heard of such a weapon. It will be quite the challenge." Hephaestus says excitedly.
"Well, I actually came across something similar to it, some time ago." I say as I take Fauxdin's spear Gungnir out of my storage space. "This spear can channel any kind of energy through it and expel it in a concentrated blast."
"That is beautiful craftsmanship." Hephaestus says as she caresses the spear. "I'm in! Let's get to work!"
"Very well, I enjoy the challenge. I'm in as well." Hecate says. "But I suggest we take the equipment we need from here and move to my brewing chamber. It has that temporal barrier. That way we'll be able to work for a hundred days in the span of one."
"Good idea, let's go." I say as we immediately make preparations.
"Hey Fenrir? What do you need this weapon for anyway?" Hephaestus asks curiously.
"I'm going to a world that is entirely overrun by demons and then wage a one man war."
""WHAT?!""