After hearing Seshat's demand for Apollo, the gods and goddesses began yelling with no end in sight as such a demand hadn't been made for years as the one thing above all else none of the deities wanted to change was getting sent back to Tenkai and having to go back to endlessly judging souls of the departed mortals from various worlds.
"Seshat! I will not even entertain such a foolish idea!" Apollo screeched like a small dog.
And the Leopard goddess Seshat cared little for the yapping screeching coming from Apollo as she shrugged. "Well in that case I suppose I can settle for banishing you from Orario for eternity." Seshat offered with a cold smile but in reality, if Apollo didn't have a Familia of superhumans constantly guarding him... Accidents can happen on the road.
The surrounding gods all settled down at Seshat's new demand as in reality, it wasn't nearly as bad as there was a great number of gods within Genkai's lands although Orario was the center of the world. But it was also one of the most cutthroat places in the world despite its attempt to keep a civil demeanor. So, in the wise words of the deities who decided to stay out of Orario's bullshit.
'Why play PVP with all the tryhards, when PVE is already hard enough in the countryside.'
Granted whatever Familia he created outside of Orario would never amount to anything he could create with the dungeon helping fuel an adventure's growth. but people have gotten to level four outside Orario so it wasn't a death sentence for a Familia.
Apollo hearing Seshat's new demand paused thinking for a moment before he spoke. "Fine then regardless of the game's end, Jake is not allowed to summon a Monster Rex as he obviously won't be able to control it. So should he do so, it will be automatically counted as him forfeiting!" He said loudly much to the groans of the gods who wanted to see such a spectacle. "You bastards just think about your own Familia, if you had to fight him in a Wargame wouldn't you want the same rule!" Apollo added making the assembled gods shut up and grimace at the thought.
"Irrelevant... Jake can and will deal with all the wretches within your Familia without an uncontrollable monster getting in his way more than attacking your members." Seshat snorted before looking at Loki. "Choose the game format. I tire of looking at that tomato soup-themed buffoon." Seshat said coldly losing her sadistic veneer she put on as she looked at Loki with a bit of respect.
Loki looked to Apollo who nodded, and she just shrugged as she dipped her hands into the box containing slips of paper that held the details for the game format the Wargame would be based on.
"Huh... Well, Apollo chose a number between one and ten." Loki asked making Seshat frown as that meant that it was a more objective-based game than a pure combative one.
"Hmm... One as there is only one sun in the sky!" Apollo said as he folded his arms across his chest while staring at Loki with a serious face.
Loki hummed before she clapped her hands. "Well well well guys... The Wargame of the Seshat Familia's Jake Bariss versus Apollo's remaining Familia is... Capture the Flag with Seshat's Familia defending the flag, Haha!" Loki cackled ecstatically but Seshat didn't scream about how Jake had to unfairly guard a flag against dozens of Apollo members.
She just stood up from her seat as she stared at Apollo from across the table as the cheering in the room at such an interesting game format was decided as the room silenced down waiting for Seshat to say something. "Good luck having your Familia swim through lava you disgrace of a god." And with that sentence said she spun on her heel as she strode out of the meeting room uncaring of the gods, she was acquainted with that who wanted to speak to her. She had done her part in signing the Apollo Familia's death warrant.
"Hmph, they don't wish to speak to me. They just want some of Jake's weapons or accessories... Astounds me how the fools haven't gotten obsessed with the accessories that give minor Skills in of themselves. But how could I be surprised that foolish mortals and gods all just focused on his metal poking sticks that don't break!" Seshat snorted rolling her eyes as she got into the same elevator that would take her down to where Jake was hopefully waiting for her.
A couple of minutes later as she came out of the divine's only elevator, she saw Jake talking to an elfish waif of a girl who was clad in a fully covering white dress with her hands covered in gloves and even her neckline was being covered in a dark body glove making Seshat's nose scrunch up in disgust at the sight and thought of wearing such restrictive clothes.
"Jake, I thought you said Beatrice was going to be the only stray you would consider taking in!" Seshat called out with a hidden mischievous smile as she put on a more natural curious smile when she walked into the small private sitting room the Guild put next to the elevators so adventurers could wait for their gods to exit the elevators without just standing in a crowd outside for them.
-
Hearing Seshat's words I almost collapsed in relief at my excuse to finally get away from the very definition of a gaslit girl. For the last half an hour while I had been picking up stuff for my crafting, I had the distinct joy to be guided around the Tower of Babel by the woman known within the adventurer circle as Dionysius's Banshee.
Or the incarnation of bad luck who has led her Familia to being wiped out along with literally dozens of other parties that dared take the level four into the dungeon.
I didn't know how much she knew about her so-called run of bad luck but I knew her dear Dionysus got her Familia and friends killed to push her to the depths of despair because she had a skill that made her both stronger and grow faster dependent on her level of despair. That, and she was half monster after Dionysus grafted the monster's flesh into her body under the promise that it would make her stronger so none of her friends would die anymore.
Yeah, fat lot that did, and thus we were left with a partially broken by despair elf who hung on her precious Dionysus words... And the damned god was actually one of the leaders of Evilus.
So, seeing Seshat come out of the elevator I was exhilarated, to say the least, to escape from the psycho elf who was tripping over her words and obviously trying to get closer to me like how Heith Velvet from Freya's Familia tried to.
"Wait! Don't leave. I wanted to talk to Lady Seshat about a transfer to the Seshat Familia!" Filvis Challia said dramatically and Seshat's face broke into an eager grin at my utterly dismayed face with her going as far as taking Filvis Chalia's glove-bound hand into her own as she looked into the dull wine-red wine-colored eyes of the elf.
"Ohya... And what do you want with my Familia you broken girl?" Seshat bluntly asked and I tensed with my knife being deposited out of my inventory and into my hand as I prepared to chuck the knife into the girl's face if she attempted to hurt my goddess after being pointed out as the broke thing she was.
But instead, Filvis just smiled sadly as she shook her head. "Ah, you are one of those gods that can see souls." She started with her smile turning wry before she continued. "Well, my god has thrown me out. I did nothing to betray him, and he has wiped my Falna clear of his divinity..." Filvis bowed her head to the slightly shorter goddess as she took a deep breath as my mind whirled on why the hell hadn't Seshat called her out on lying. Why in the hell would Dionysus throw aside someone who could fight Ottar for a while?
Granted Filvus hadn't done anything at all for Evilus yet as Dionysus hasn't even made an appearance as Enyo yet, nor has he even attacked Orario or Loki's adventurers with his plant monsters as Loki's expedition wasn't slated to leave for another couple days. So maybe I shouldn't judge people for the terrorism they may do in the future...
'Yeah no I am not that soft-hearted!' I thought strongly but as I watched Seshat's reactions to Filvus's sob story I realized that I was dealing with a goddess who had her whims.
Then Seshat got to my main concerns as she saw my poker face that didn't hide how I wasn't happy with this, so she coughed. "So Filvis Chalia are you joining my Familia with the honest intention of joining our family and do not plan on bringing harm to the ones within?" She asked seriously as she paid close attention to the dark-haired elf who sighed.
"I swear upon my name and the sacred forests that I desire to join the Seshat Familia while it's still low on numbers so I can make a good difference. I want to join to have a family backing me. And... I just want somewhere people won't hold my title of Banshee against me." She said with her voice choking up.
The moment Seshat nodded with her leopard ears flapping about I knew I was doomed. "Alright, I can tell you are telling the truth in everything you said... So, Jake pull down the shaders so I can slap my tramp stamp on her before another Familia can snap up a talented level four!" Seshat said excitedly.