For some inexplicable reason, it couldn't be anything I said/did, Indra seemed upset.
Well, I was assuming based on the fact that his Divinity was soaked in anger and pressing down on everything.
Jeanne was doing fine. With a glance, I could tell this was enough not to bother her too much. She was a Heroic Spirit, she was a being that could stand in front of Gods, even if she herself was not capable of defeating them.
However, a lot of the other people in the hall seemed to be struggling.
I admit I am someone who does things on a whim sometimes, but I like to think I take responsibility for my actions. I intentionally riled him up in a room full of people, I may as well lend a hand.
My Spiritual Pressure seeped out, offsetting Indra's own presence that was bearing down on everyone else.
I met his gaze and tilted my head with a smile.
He certainly got even more frustrated.
I took a few steps forward, and he jerked his sunglasses off, scowling deeply as his long strides matched mine.
My Divinity came bubbling up.
Sparks began to dance between his fingers.
However, I felt my desire to fight suddenly vanish as soon as Indra came to an abrupt halt. Not for any reason on his part, but because there was an ordinary looking walking stick barring his path.
"All-Father." Indra glared at Odin out of the corner of his eye. The Norse God was holding up his seemingly mundane stick to block the path of Indra. "I hope you have a good explanation for this." His tone was even, though the underlying threat indicative of how he felt.
"Did you forget where you are?" Odin snorted. "But if you want a fight, I don't mind going a few rounds." As soon as she said that, the 'ordinary' walking stick flashed briefly, revealing its true form briefly. It was merely a flicker, but the existence of the Divine Weapon was enough to show how serious he was.
Even Indra hesitated for a moment.
A glance towards the others he arrived with showed that they weren't exactly in the best position themselves.
I didn't recognize everyone present; Hindu Mythology was not my forte. But there was a distinct difference in attire between the Hindu Gods he brought along and the Norse Gods who were standing right next to them, basically daring them to move.
Indra frowned and redirected his attention to Odin.
Odin didn't look perturbed, and his own power descended upon Indra in response.
The whole building began to shake even more, and it honestly looked like a fight was about to break out.
"Now boys, do you really have to do that here?" An enchanting voice carried over the room, immediately dispersing the accumulated power that was colliding between the two Gods.
And it was not because she asked them to stop nicely.
Both Indra and Odin looked at who spoke.
A woman wearing a traditional Chinese Hanfu, light green robes that looked elegant and hid most of her curves. She had long? black hair with a hint of matching green within her bangs, and a few marks beneath her eyes almost like tattoos but much more natural.
Her eyes, as well, were not normal but almost serpentine, which made sense considering that there was a snake-like tail dancing behind her.
Flanked on either side were two women wearing clothes also traditional to the Mythological portion of China.
Swords hung at their wastes and veils covered their faces. They both emitted an icy aura, ready to fight if it came down to it.
They were by no means weak. Granted, they paled in comparison to the woman they looked to be protecting by their movements, but that wasn't much of an insult considering the woman herself had an Aura that wasn't inferior to either Odin or Indra.
Indra snorted, withdrawing his power.
Odin also relaxed, lowering his stick.
The All-Father harrumphed, turning away from the Hindu God.
The two groups seemingly took that as cue to separate.
The silence that permeated the room was deafening. It seems like everyone was holding their breaths at the breakout of a fight, only for it to be suddenly dashed twice over.
It made it all the more interesting, because the mystery woman turned her gaze to me and casually strode over.
She didn't initially speak, but she gave me a scrutinizing gaze.
The context clues were enough, I knew who this Goddess was.
I clasped my hands and performed the proper greeting from her homeland. "Greetings, Mother Nuwa."
The corners of her lips curled and her eyes nearly sparkled in amusement. "You were able to guess my identity?"
"It would be strange if I couldn't based on everything."
Goddess Nuwa, the mythological stories differ from place to place, but they all seem to agree on one fact. Nuwa was the Chinese Goddess who created Humanity. Frankly, I can't think of a single story that paints her in a bad light.
If there was ever an ideal Goddess to worship, perhaps it would be her.
What made it doubly funny is that she's actually a Demon.
A Demon in the Chinese sense, not like the Christianity version. The difference being that a 'Demon' there wasn't immediately labeled 'evil' but merely a different form of existence. Granted, most stories paint Eastern Demons in a bad light for good reason, but that only shows her own character.
Both a Demon and a Goddess, and a Mother of humanity. Not to mention, she was one of the strongest beings on the planet and had no hostility towards me.
Regardless of anything else, I felt she deserved respect.
She took a fan out of her sleeve and unfurled it, holding it up in front of her face, but her eyes were still visible, flashing in amusement. "I've heard of you too."
"Only good things I hope." I put on my most charming smile.
"When one hears only good things about a person, they tend to be propagated lies." She responded.
"Oh? And what if they truly live up to their supposed reputation?" I asked.
"When such a thing occurs, I will have to reevaluate my thoughts on the matter."
"Then what are your new thoughts?" I grinned.
She giggled, snapping her fan shut. "Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, this is not one of those situations."
"I immediately deny any bad rumors you've heard about me." I said with a completely serious face. "But what are they, for the record?"
"The usual." She waved her hand flippantly, almost like she was sighing. "An upstart Mortal that treads upon the Heavens. A Devil that doesn't know its place. An Abomination that should be put down." Her words were a tad sharp on that last bit, and her eyes turned heavy, as if she was looking for my reaction.
"Neat." I replied rather dismissively.
She merely looked humored by my response. There wasn't an ounce of hostility coming from her, it was clear she was just trying to take my measure and had no ill will against me. "Many are keeping their eyes on you. Be wary of any invitations you receive."
"I will keep your words to heart." I politely lowered my head in thanks.
She smiled rather warmly. Like a Mother looking at their child. "And who is this young woman?" She asked as Jeanne clung to my side.
"Hello, Goddess Nuwa." Jeanne politely introduced herself. "I'm Jeanne D'Arc."
Nuwa's eyes narrowed at her, looking rather contemplative. "Do you want to follow me back to my Immortal Palace? I can guarantee that you will reach the same level as these two in a few centuries." She gestured to the two women on either side of her. "You have such a pure heart, your cultivation would soar with some guidance."
"C-Cultivation?" Jeanne blinked. 'I, um….thank you for your offer, but I don't think that's something for me?" Jeanne managed to force out, looking a bit awkward.
"Trying to steal one of Yahweh's chosen, Nuwa?" Sun Wukong casually strode up. "You should know better than that." He chuckled. "Don't feign ignorance either, it's pretty obvious which marks are his or not."
"Tsk." Nuwa slapped the fan into the palm of her hand. "Monkey King."
"Goddess." Sun Wukong greeted back.
It was…curt, but there wasn't really any true hostility.
"I'm surprised you showed up. I thought the Emperor would send one of his Generals at a minimum, if not coming himself." Sun Wukong stated.
"I volunteered." She said simply.
Sun Wukong nodded and turned to me. "Couldn't help yourself, could you?"
"He started it." I crossed my arms.
The Monkey King just laughed. "I can't blame you; I was the same way back when I was younger."
"That's an understatement." Nuwa snorted, turning away. "I'll see you inside, Monkey King. And child…" She cast one last look my way. "Take care not to bite off more than you can chew. It's human nature to seek Immortality, but Immortals don't like it when Mortals act outside of their control."
We watched her walk off and head towards the entrance to another room followed by her two 'guards'.
Sun Wukong patted my shoulder. "I would love to talk about a few things, but Indra won't like it if he sees us being chummy for too long."
"Always a pleasure." I smiled.
The Old Monkey grinned and he glanced at Jeanne. "Be careful."
I nodded, knowing what he was implying. He didn't know about my matters, but at the same time, it was obvious from his perspective whoJeanne was.
He also went towards that separate room.
"Drink?" I asked towards Jeanne.
She nodded absentmindedly.
I managed to flag down one of the waiters going around with a tray of drinks on it. I was surprised how quickly everyone recovered from the little….incident, but then again, these weren't regular 'people'.
I grabbed two glasses of champagne and handed one to Jeanne.
Taking a sip, It wasn't bad. Not the best thing I've ever had, but certainly above average.
And I watched Jeanne curiously as she took a sip.
"What?" She looked at me after tasting it.
"I didn't know if you ever drank or not."
"I've had alcohol before!" She puffed up cutely.
"Really?"
"Of course!"
"Am I allowed to find that strange?"
"What's strange about it? It was common for people to drink in my time."
"I guess I just pictured my Jeanne as being so pure and naive that she's never even tasted Alcohol before." I shrugged.
"D-don't make it sound like I'm a child." She pouted. "I've had drinks before…." She huffed, taking another sip. "Its not bad…."
"What's your favorite?"
"Favorite?" She repeated, looking deep in thought. "um…I actually don't know. I never really cared…I didn't mind anything offered to me, but I never really made an effort to intentionally try different wines."
"Hmm, we'll have to experiment in the future." I wonder if I can get the Saintess drunk? That might be fun to do. "But enough of that for now, let's go mingle."
"What do you have in mind?" She tilted her head.
It was clear that people were still arriving, and the ones in particular that Jeanne wanted to meet weren't quite here yet.
So..
"Wanna go meet the All-father?"
Jeanne lit up and smiled. "He seemed nice!"
Honestly….he was pretty cool.
I held my arm out again and she happily accepted it.
Odin turned around as we approached. And it was rather easy since, while everyone else seemed to recover from multiple Gods flexing their power, they were still wary and keeping their distance.
"All-Father." I greeted politely. It was both public and a more 'formal' event, thus, I was keeping to standard greetings even if we were more familiar with each other.
"Brat." He grunted, ignoring all of the formalities. "And who's this?" His eyes lit up. "Nice wide hips, long legs….good full chest too. Not bad, a solid 9.5 out of 10."
"W-what!?" Jeanne squeaked out.
"Father…" A man adorned in armor slumped his shoulders and sighed, but I ignored him for now.
"Excuse me?" I raised an eyebrow.
"What, do you have something to say?" Odin narrowed his eyes.
"Jeanne is my companion, I will have to defend her honor." I met his gaze. "She's easily a 10/10, I demand you correct yourself."
"Neeeeh!?" Jeanne's face flushed quickly. "Why is that what you focus on!"
"I stand by what I said." Odin crossed his arms.
"I will fight you on this." I said with complete seriousness.
"Hooh, you want a piece of me brat?" Odin held his arms out.
"Well, I don't make it a habit of beating up the elderly, but I suppose I can make an exception this time." I was ready to throw hands, but a soft little hand suddenly pulled on my cheek. "Oww, oww."
"Stop picking fights!" Jeanne chastised me.
"Father, please stop causing trouble." The armored man put a rather tight grip on Odin's shoulder.
"Bah." He slapped the hand away, but settled down. "Hey brat, wanna trade with me? If I have a wet blanket, I'd rather it be with boobs."
"Get your own." I grabbed Jeanne protectively, ignoring the squeak she made.
"Hmph." Odin huffed. "Anyways, introduction? Brat, this is my son, Vidar." He gestured towards the one who was able to calm Odin down.
"I have heard many tales about you." He held his hand out.
I took it, and immediately his Divinity pulsed out. I allowed mine to meet it as we had a small little 'battle' for a brief moment.
The God clicked his tongue and retracted his hand. "Father, I will be leaving to join the others. Please do not dwell here for long."
"Yeah, yeah." Odin waved it off. "Take Tyr with you as well." He poked the other God who was silently standing at the side with his 'stick'.
Odin's son, nodded, and waved his hand, the two Norse Gods followed where Nuwa and Sun Wukong disappeared too.
"Did I do something to piss him off?" I looked at Odin?"
"Nah, that means he likes you." Odin shook his head.
"Sorry if I don't believe you." I said dryly.
"He's just pissed that you aren't one of ours." Odin chuckled. "Believe me, you'd be able to pick up the fake smile and insincere small talk if he really didn't like you."
"Huh…" I just mentally shrugged. "That's who you left the Throne to then? I'm surprised, it's not like I didn't know who Vidar was, but his name isn't as…renowned as your other Sons."
Odin grumbled. "He's the best for the spot. Despite some of the idiots around, he has a head for sitting on the throne. He knows how to balance action and passiveness, which I can't stay the same about Thor."
"Let me guess, Thor is the epitome of every problem is a Nail and he has a literal Hammer for the job?"
Odin let out a long sigh. "I hate that you guessed right."
I felt myself sympathizing with him.
"Good head, good heart, but my boy takes the simplest solutions to every problem." Odin said, shaking his head. "It's not that he can't be smart, but he chooses to take the blunt and direct method to every problem."
"What about Baldur?" I asked.
Almost as soon as I did, I sort of regretted it because Odin's expression changed. "Ah…" He let out a long breath. "Aye, Baldur would have taken the throne, but after he lost his wife…he doesn't have the will for such things anymore." He quickly shifted back. "But enough about that, let's talk about this lovely woman you brought along with you."
"Me?" Jeanne's eyes widened.
"You realize what's going to happen, right?" Odin looked back up to me. "It's not hard to do the math here, brat."
I shrugged. "Jeanne wanted to meet some Angels, I was hardly going to interfere with that."
"Wait….am I causing you problems?" Jeanne looked up at me in concern.
"Nope."
"Wilhelm." Jeanne's tone became more strict. "Don't lie to me. Am I going to cause you problems?"
"Jeanne, I brought you here knowing full well what might happen. You're not going to cause me any problems, because I don't think it's a problem." I reassured her.
Was it going to open me up for some potentially uncomfortable questions? Sure.
Was it also going to make Jeanne happy? Almost certainly, which was much higher up on my priorities list right now.
"Will…."
"Now, kiss." Odin said, observing from the side.
"Neh!?" Jeanne squeaked, turning a bright shade of red again.
"And you ruined the mood."
Odin just cackled. "Sorry brat, sometimes I can't read the atmosphere, me being elderly and all."
"Touche." I acknowledged. "You know, I'm honestly impressed with how quickly you threw this all together. How many days had it been since we talked about it?"
"Eh, I can't take all the credit. I'm good at networking, don't get me wrong, but everyone was pretty much waiting for an opportunity like this." Odin replied.
"Really? Most Factions don't like interacting."
"They aren't stupid either." Odin grunted. "Especially with the crap we pulled on Indra – which is why he's here too, if you were wondering. Indra got attacked in his home, that made some people scared."
"I'm assuming that more people are coming?"
"Mmm, a few." He nodded. "You met Nuwa already. Besides them and the ones from the Peace conference, there might be a few others."
"Honestly was surprised to meet her." I replied absentmindedly.
"She doesn't pop up often. Kind of surprised she's here too, if I'm being honest."
"Didn't expect any representation from the Celestial Bureaucracy?"
"Hmm? No, not that. If Indra showed up, it was a given that they would pop up too. They have a sort of rivalry with each other. The Buddhists act as a neutral party between them so they never escalate too much. But since their Pantheons are so intertwined, it often causes problems."
Right, with all the myths between them, it's a right mess isn't it?
"Nuwa herself doesn't usually appear." Odin spoke again, clarifying. "It makes sense though. If the Jade Emperor, or one of his Generals came, they'd be butting heads with the Old Monkey or Indra the entire time."
Made sense, but I didn't really have a comment.
"I thought this was supposed to be about the 'younger generation'. Seems like a lot of Gods popping up for that.
"It is, and it isn't. The brats are around here too. Got some from our side of the fence too, don't know where they went, but you should see them pop up at some point tonight. But the grown ups are having our own talks while the kids get to know each other."
"So…throwing the kids into the kiddie pool to have their own slap fights while the adults have the adult pool to fight?"
"Sounds about right." He didn't deny it. "Which pool you gonna join, brat?"
"Oh, I get a choice?" I snorted.
"You're in a weird spot. Everyone knows that you're strong, strong enough to sit at the adult table. But you're also what….20-something?"
"Fair." I didn't disagree with his assessment. "Considering that I'm not actually going to participate, and I'm just here to decline further invitations, I may as well stick around here and let you handle everything up top."
"Figured it would be something like that. A shame, It'd be fun to watch Indra seethe the entire time." Odin didn't seem to care either way. "Then watch over the kids, make sure they don't get into too much trouble. Don't really bother if people start fighting, heck , it's expected, but just make sure it doesn't go too far."
"Will do." I nodded.
Guess I was on babysitting duty.
"Alright, I'll let ya get back to your date."
"I-it's not a date!" Jeanne squeaked.
Odin ignored her, just laughing as he walked away.
I looked around, and things basically returned to normal. There was a bit of soft music playing, with people chatting and networking, hell there were even some people dancing which made me perk up.
I held my arm out to Jeanne. "Would you like to dance?"
She smiled, about to take my hand, but her eyes widened and she went stiff, nearly trembling. I followed her gaze, and realized what was making her act this way.
Bright white wings that seemed to illuminate the building as they entered.
Two Archangels stood at the entrance with various other people accompanying them, but that seemed irrelevant at the moment.
Because just as Jeanne was looking at them, the two stared back, their gazes locked firmly onto Jeanne.
….I guess we didn't have to worry about her finally meeting the Angels, because they were coming right for her.
[***]
A/N
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