—3rd Person POV, Melromarc—
Walking into their study, Mirellia and Aultcray sat down to have their weekly meeting. Having many topics to discuss this week, the first thing Mirellia wanted to talk about was the preparations for the upcoming war with the Wave Organization. As Mirellia had left her husband to tend to military affairs again, having earned her trust back, she wanted an update on where things stood.
"Everything is on schedule and thankfully on budget thanks to craftsmen in Cole's territory. We have not had any delays in shipments like we once had so it has made things much easier for us.", Aultcray informed her, "I have been receiving almost weekly updates from the other nations as well and they are on schedule, however, Faubrey has gone silent. Over the past three weeks, they have not responded to any of the messages we have sent them. If they do not begin responding soon, it will begin to disrupt our plans."
"Hmm…", Mirellia pondered, "Do my Shadows have any intelligence for us?"
Glancing over to a dark corner of the room, an agent stepped out to give her a report. Pulling out a magic tablet, something Cole had provided the Shadows, the agent quickly accessed the most recent details on the nation in question.
"Nothing appears to be out of place in Faubrey at this time. Our agents have not reported any anomalies in the country or its capital.", the agent stated confirming information as she spoke, "Unfortunately the castle's security has made getting intelligence from within the Royal Castle difficult. As far as we have been able to gather, nothing is amiss from the outside."
"They are not replying to Silvelt or Zeltoble either?", Mirellia asked her husband.
"Shieldfreeden has also had no luck either.", Aultcray acknowledged, "My concern is they are still angry about us backing out of marrying Malty to their King. Even though we have paid them substantial restitution for that, their fat oaf of a King may not be satisfied with that. While it may be causing us issues now, I am grateful to not have him as a son-in-law."
"Hehe, I agree with you on that.", Mirellia agreed having sat with him in many meetings, "As we need all the help we can get in this war, I will take one of Cole's Flying Dragons and go meet with the King of Faubrey personally. We cannot let petty squabbles between us break this alliance just before the eve of battle."
Rising from his seat, Aultcray offered to go himself in her place. Stating that the issue potentially boiled down to his error in judgment, his pride would not allow his wife to fix this a second time. Agreeing that it would be better for him to go, Mirellia asked if this would disrupt preparations for war.
"I have capable men in charge of preparations already so being gone for a few days will not hinder anything. All that will need to be done is a review of the daily inventory reports and approvals for any potential materials we need.", Aultcray informed her as he rose from his seat, "I will take a few of my trusted men with me as bodyguards. If you need any assistance here, I think we should begin leaning on Melty to aid you. Now that things are stable in our nation, we ought to think about educating her properly so she does not follow in her father's footsteps."
"Yet again, I agree with you there.", Mirellia said with a pleased smile, "Please be safe and keep an eye out for Takt. Cole mentioned that he may try to disrupt our preparations so this may be a trap."
"I have plans in place for that potential eventuality.", Aultcray acknowledged, "If you could, please have your Shadows prepare any information they have and have it available for us when we arrive. There should be an inn called the Prancing Pony still in operation there. That is where we will bunk during our stay in Faubrey. One of my men has a sister that runs the facility so they can be trusted."
Turning to her agent, Mirellia ordered that this be done for her husband. Acknowledging the order the agent promptly left to relay this command to the field agents in Faubrey. Leaving the room after that, Aultcray went to gather a few men so they could prepare to leave.
—Cole POV, Next Day—
Arriving at Yasaka's Village bright and early, I had been summoned to meet with Odin, Zeus, Indra, and Sun Wukong. Showing up without warning, their sudden appearance startled the villagers and caused Yasaka to hit her button before letting them open their mouths. Instantly appearing in front of her with an unamused expression, three of the deities immediately backed away in fear.
"Haha, watching your reactions never gets old.", Odin laughed at their expense, "My apologies for the unannounced visit Cole. These three showed up at my doorstep this morning pleading with me to set up a meeting with you. They are hoping to potentially strike some sort of deal with you to preserve their Pantheons and Realms. Is there any way you could meet with them right now? I would have sent a messenger to see you, but they insisted now was the best time for them."
Turning to the villagers and representatives currently watching from a distance, I assured them that I would take care of this. Turning back to Yasaka, I gave her a good morning kiss and said I would take them away from here so everyone could relax again. Watching her tails start wagging violently alongside her flushed face, she thanked me and immediately fled back into her home squealing like a teenage girl.
"Now works for me, how about we change venues to a more suitable place? I do not want to cause the villagers any more undo stress due to your presence here.", I said teleporting us to a 50's style diner that my family and I frequented.
Getting us a table for five, the staff promptly got us seated and took our drink orders. Starting with coffee and water, so they could review the menus, the waitress nodded her head and went to put a fresh pot on. Turning to the five men who were completely disorientated by our surroundings, Indra asked where we were.
"This is the world I call home, I am the only deity that lives here.", I informed them as I sat my menu down, "Please look over the menu, order what you want, and then we can talk business."
Bringing us our drinks a few minutes later, the five of us ordered what we wanted and handed the menus back to her. Adding cream and sugar to my coffee, Indra and Sun Wukong asked what the beverage was as they took a sniff of it.
"It is called coffee, I have it every morning to jumpstart my day…though at this point it is just out of habit.", I chuckled with amusement, "Some people prefer it with cream and/or sugar to take the bitterness away."
Taking a sip to see for themselves, the men ended up adding cream and sugar as well to make it palatable for themselves. Once they were comfortable, I started negotiations as they were too nervous to do it themselves.
"First off, I would like to thank the Hindu and Buddha Pantheons for walking away from the incident the other day outside the High Kobold Domain. It is a welcome change of pace to find that your groups are sensible people…unlike Susanoo and his lot.", I laughed, "Anyways, I had already been thinking about a way to take some of your religious believers here and divert their prayers and offerings to you. Would that be enough to entice you to leave the small factions alone?"
"That depends, how many followers do our religions have here?", Indra asked.
"To be frank, even though you have no deity counterparts here both of your religions sit at around a billion followers each.", I admitted watching for their reactions, "Would this be sufficient for you?"
"A…a billion…you mean with a b?", Sun Wukong gulped as his sunglasses slid down his nose a bit.
Acknowledging that I said a billion, both men immediately reached their hands out in acceptance. Telling me that they had roughly four to five hundred million followers before the factions started leaving them, they were more than happy to have a billion each. Swearing on their lives to not bother any of them again, both men inquired if there were any other conditions.
"I think it would be a good idea to offer them minor blessings for their fellowship and offerings. Things like minor luck, prosperity, and enlightenment would be the extent of what I would ask of you.", I stated.
"Those sorts of blessings are cheap, we would not need to provide protection for them?", Indra inquired.
"No, as I live here I would handle their protection.", I answered, "All you would need to do is leave the small factions alone and provide minor blessings to your followers. As for Zeus and Odin, your religions have come and gone thousands of years ago. I have a method I could use to provide you similar power to theirs from people that simply know your name and what you are the deity of. This would put you at approximately the same output as five to six hundred million believers. It is less because prayers and offerings would not be coming to you. The flip side is, you would just need to leave the small factions alone as no blessings would be needed."
"That could change thought right? If the Hindu and Buddha followers are receiving blessings, people may start praying and offering up things to us.", Odin remarked.
"Absolutely, we could change it over to their terms should that become the case.", I agreed.
"Six hundred million is more than plenty for us!", Zeus accepted without hesitation.
Agreeing with his friend, Odin was happy to accept the offer as well. Quickly through a Magic Transfer Circle up, I prepared the transfer of energies to the four Pantheons. Confirming that everything was ready to go, I slid contracts in front of them for them to sign. Keeping things straightforward, as I hated fine print bullshit, I bullet-pointed out their requirements and the rules for the connections to stay open. Reading over the terms, the four signed the documents and I opened up the taps to their Pantheons.
Immediately feeling the power begin to rush into their Realms, the four let out a sigh of relief as they now no longer needed to worry about extinction. Stowing the documents away as the food arrived, Odin and Zeus looked at their overflowing plates with approval. Digging in without a sound, they began scarfing the food down with delight.
"I hate to ask this, but did you kill the deities of this world?", Sun Wukong asked before taking a bite of his sandwich.
"No, there have never been any deities here before my arrival.", I stated, "The Omniverse Deities do not always put Divine Entities in every world they create. This world happens to be one of those that have religions but no actual deities here to provide blessings/guidance."
Nodding his head with relief, Indra asked if I would offer this to the Shinto Pantheon as well. Shaking my head in response, I told him that they were on their own as they burned that bridge.
"That rat bastard wants to plow Yasaka, and eventually leave her to raise his child alone.", I grumbled eating my burger, "I hope he fucking chokes on a bone, and dies!"
"You mean an animal bone right?", Zeus clarified.
"I will leave that up to your interpretation.", I snickered as the other men started choking up with laughter.
"Boy would love to see that happen.", Odin cracked up, "I bet Amaterasu might make that happen when they start going downhill. If she does, I hope we all get to see it happen."
With the serious talks over, we began talking about the current world we were in and potentially setting up trade with my territories.