Chapter 196 - INTERLUDE. Peace And Order
After a quick series of inquiries, God of Rogues found out that everyone truly left the place. While he was gone, Goddess of Wizards finally walked out, explained what happened to her, and led a massive search party to the mortal realm.
It would've been much easier if she could find Devourer with spells, but according to what his angels told God of Rogues, Devourer had found some ways to block any attempts to divine his position that way. God of Rogues even knew what way exactly that was, but kept that to himself.
In absence of an easy way, gods were left to look under every rock, which was what they did, returning only occasionally for rest.
Meanwhile, the only deity left in Heaven was God of Monks, and before going to the mortal realm himself, God of Rogues went to pay him a visit.
The part of Heaven where God of Monks ruled was designed to inspire feelings of peace and quiet joy in one's soul. Green grass of the length that wasn't too short or too tall, stone gardens and carefully arranged waterfalls. Wind chimes played a quiet melody that was of the same volume no matter where you went.
It always creeped God of Rogues out. He wasn't a big lover of nature in the first place, and when things were so meticulously arranged, he felt like someone already put him into a jail cell. The God of Monk's place was a stark contrast to the much wilder, though also monitored, groves of Goddess of Druids.
Though, God of Rogues' favourite place was always his own—the city that he built to be the best, though it wasn't the biggest city in the world.
God of Monks meditated on an artificial hill when God of Rogues reached him. The rogue knew that the other god was perfectly aware of the presence of a guest, even though God of Monks completely ignored it.
"I returned after how many months in Hell, and you can't even have decency to greet me? Come on." God of Rogues flailed his hands, annoyed. "You were always preaching about politeness, and now can't muster any for me?"
"You interrupt my meditation and my schedule," God of Monks responded calmly, opening his eyes to throw God of Rogues a reproachful look.
God of Rogues exhaled through his nose. The plan crystallised in his head—the plan to get rid of that nuisance. How many years passed, and the rigid bald prick kept acting like he, God of Rogues, was just an insect beneath his feet.
'Feeding him to the overgrown insect called Devourer would be an amazing irony,' God of Rogues thought. The idea brightened his mood a little, enough to avoid a full-blown argument and move to the topic he originally came for.
"Forget about your schedule for a moment, alright? This is more important. I come, and everyone has left. Angels say Devourer had killed Goddess of Wizards—I found that hard to believe. Just as hard as the idea of them all pulling their lazy assess from Heaven to look for Devourer in the mortal realm!"
With a sigh, God of Monks stood up from his meditation pose and gestured for God of Rogues to follow. "Since you insist on pestering me, we shall continue somewhere more private."
"Somewhere more private" was one of the God of Monks "humble" abodes. What looked like a simple wooden house on the surface, for a knowledgeable person—and God of Rogues was very knowledgeable when it came to prices—was a palace in its own right.
Every material in it was exquisite, top-tier, highest-level stuff. The wood was from Phoenix Tree, which was a unique chaos creature—well, tree—that grew in Goddess of Druids' main grove to turn into ash and be reborn from a single acorn every ten hundred years. The silk on the walls and drapes was from a protected (by Goddess of Druids again) species of spiders… And so on and so forth.
God of Rogues wondered if these all things were even any better than normal ones. He distinctly remembered that Phoenix Wood was three times more burnable than normal wood. It had an interesting orange-ish colour, he supposed.
After siting down, God of Monks spoke solemnly, "It is true that Goddess of Wizards had been murdered, and it is true that the murdered was Devourer. His crimes only gain count… Because of him and the traumatic experience that he turned her death into, Goddess of Wizards didn't even dare to leave her rooms for an entire week."
God of Rogues hummed sympathetically, but inwardly he thought that this all sounded just like the sort of bullshit God of Monks would believe in. God of Rogues knew better. For one, he himself remembered being killed more than once at the beginning of times. Neither time was clean, and neither time did he secluded himself afterwards. He had to fight. The same applied to all the gods… And God of Rogues refused to believe that of all of them, Goddess of Wizards will grow THAT soft even after all this time.
Shame looked more probable. Still, this was too short of a time for shame. With shame, Goddess of Wizards wouldn't have stopped searching for Devourer with spells on her own until much, much later.
God of Rogues noted that inconsistency and kept listening.
"After that, of course, the Twelve could not wait anymore. I was left to keep order; the others search the mortal realm day and night for Devourer. You should join them, God of Rogues."
"Yeah, and speaking of, I really wondered why didn't you call for me earlier. Did you really despise the sight of my face so much?"
"Do not put the blame on me and do not put the blame on others. We all believed that your mission of gathering information was important. Now, as we speak, I hope that your return means that it ended in success.. I hope that whatever you found will aid us in our search."