Slightly above the atmosphere of the planet, multiple beings made entirely of light were moving in some very strange ways, to qualify what they were doing. Never once two of those made contact with each other, and there were very clear frontiers between each other that none bypassed. If most were very large and were moving fluidly, one was in such bad shape that even its light was particularly dim.

"Ah shit, here we go again. Look at that, another group of strangers arrived on this planet. What is so important here that they are always things like that that happened?" If the Oracle of Avenio could have heard the telepathic conversation, he would have almost immediately recognized that voice. The God protector of their country, such a wise and generous entity was speaking like a shady seller.

"I don't know. I just hope that they will not do the same as the last ones a while ago. It would be a shame for one of us for sure, am I right Aria?" The stares, if such being could stare at something, were all directed to the extremely feeble god. She had suffered the worst fate amongst everyone that was surrounding this world, and such comments were extremely familiar to her.

"Laugh while you can, fools! I will just remind you that now, I have nearly nothing to lose, unlike you. And who knows, maybe one day, after suffering the same way I did, you will relapse your guard and be swallowed all." The last thousand of year, she was put in an extremely dangerous position. Unlike her current form that could be still described as a god, she had been reduced to just a fraction of it.

Gods are by definition, voracious eaters, and cannibalism is a form of eating in the end. The only reason why no one dared to try to consume the remnant of Aria was the fact that she could kill herself extremely easily. And the self-combustion of a god was powerful enough to kill the one trying to eat it at that moment. Fortunately, they were still acquaintances and the others didn't try too much, allowing Aria to survive. Even if she had lost a lot of the good spots where souls often left the planet, it was still enough for her to slowly repair her elemental body.

"Enough. We have not escaped the grip of the Ancients to let foreigners steal our world. We will deal with them as we did previously. It will only be slightly harder this time, they are far more discreet and are not splitting their group. And whether you liked it or not, Aria and her believers were extremely helpful." The biggest god spoke harshly, but none contradicted him. Even they had to take centuries to completely regain the amount of energy they spend to deal with the Dark Gods. Because of this, a few wanted to leave, fearing that this situation will happen again and again.

"Leave if you want, that will only make more souls for us. Good luck finding a planet with that many humans, what could possibly go wrong, it's not like you will only reach worlds filled with dwarves?" Several gods expressed their disgust hearing the term dwarves, one of the worst creatures ever created. They are incapable of utilizing magic and had an extremely hard time even feeling mana. But the worst part was not even that, they had a very nasty soul and for some, not even one.

In their regards, the more a race was familiar with mana, the better the soul will be. After that, you also have the specificity of the race, with the humans being one of the most sought beings for the gods, with them being numerous and capable. On the complete opposite, the dwarves with their horrible soul were despised. As for the soulless, they did not even want to talk about that. This caused the vampire to be as hated as the dwarves, even when their affinity with mana was extremely good. It was not that they were soulless, but they intentionally fractured their souls, making it the same for the gods.

So in the end, nobody left. After all, it was a gamble to let go of such a wonderful world for an uncertain future. But to protect it, they had to once more sacrifice a bit of themselves. Feeling extremely despondent about doing such, they still couldn't find another option. Until Oslo proposed something extremely stupid, even for their standards.

"What if we just talk to them?" After such an idiotic statement was pronounced, everyone laughed. And then, wondered why they didn't think about that. As much as it sounded stupid, there was nothing against such action. Only Aria was totally adamant against that, but no one truly cared about her opinion. She was the weakest of them all, only surviving because they couldn't kill her.

"Fine, do it!" The largest entity in the cold space approved it, only for Oslo to have better shut his mouth. If he knew it would have ended like that, with only him consuming his energy to establish a communication, he would have convinced another god to tell the idea instead of him. Reluctantly, he created a projection on the planet, right in front of the base of those demons.

He didn't have to wait for very long, and soon, the small child that seemed to be the leader appeared in the outside. Even if it was quite costly to permanently use their powers to see what was happening down there, they still shouldered the cost to understand how big was the threat. The problem was that they could receive from the souls' information about the shape-shifting man, the red giant, the blue man, and the succubus. But absolutely nothing on that child.

Because of this, they estimated that it was like that time when the Dark Gods roamed the land. There was also one man that stole souls from them, and a few others that were destroying the souls. Without the later, they wouldn't be able to eat anything, meaning that as a result, they gave powers to mortals on this world. And will most likely do it again if he couldn't convince the other party to not do that anymore.

Leilade looked at the breath-taking man in front of her. He was absolutely perfect, no other adjective could describe him, and would have looked almost human, if not for his gold skin. Seeing this, she could guess who had come to pay them a visit. Truthfully, she was puzzled by this sudden arrival, knowing far too well how the gods disliked above anything else having to use their energy. And this projection had to cost something. Trying something, she threw a name, randomly.

"Oslo I guess? Why are the gods interested in this world?"

Oslo was completely shocked by it. "How was it possible for a mortal to know about him, no, before even that, how did she find out he was a god?" If Leilade would have learned this thought, she would have gladly laughed, as much as when she managed to beat Candaith to the ground. Besides a god, who would be looking like that, and with a golden skin to add. And who would be right in front of her like that, it's not like they had killed everyone that came nearby previously.

Because the projection was still accurate with the emotions, she saw that handsome jaw dropped and his mouth agape. Waiting a few seconds and still not seeing him react, she wondered if it was really shocking. Similar to the Ancients, the Demonic Empire was very prone at hunting gods, besides the demonic ones. So, she never had the chance to interact with one, but seeing this, she could only think of them as weaklings. After all, they were the leeches of the universe.

"If you have something to say, say it. Otherwise, we don't have the entire day." Finally waking up from his stupor, the gorgeous god tried to straighten himself as much as possible. It was comical for anyone looking at the scene, and only him thought it made him look bigger. Next time, he should have chosen a size at least taller than Meridiana, since he was only surpassing Leilade.

"Hum, Hum. Can you stop what you are doing?"

BWHAHAHAHAHAHA

The loud laugh of Ymir leaked out of the base, only making Leilade shake her head once more. She revised her opinion from weakling to idiotic weakling. At what moment someone came in front of the base of their enemy and asked them to stop. If they had made some preparations, they could have at least completely sucked the energy out of the projection. But they were not expecting this at all. On the other hand, Oslo did not know what he did wrong. Finding in his memories an important word, he tried once more.

"Can you stop what you are doing? Please?"

HIHIHAHA

The laugh only grew louder, with Ymir joining the fray. Even the Empress was harboring a helpless smile. She had seen stupidity, but that was way back in the past. It had been a long time since she had lost the opportunity to not interact with responsible beings but with those under them, especially those lacking in the intelligence department. Or, for the rare cases, she still met them, it was only to kill them.

"Ok."

"Oh."

Now, he was looking like a dog that lost his bone. A few seconds later, the god began to fade and finally, disappeared. She was really wondering if she was not dreaming, for this to have happened.

(I can confirm. It's real, Outlander. All those stories, about how wise and powerful gods are. Mere fictions and mirages. But I just didn't know it was to that degree. Maybe they are mentally impaired? I mean, I have some records about gods besides the Venerable Ones, and they at least were self-conscient about their nature.)

"The more we stay here, the weirder the situation turns. The presence of the Ancients, of a Saksa. A direct conversation with a god, what else can still happen?" While thinking this, she realized for the first time that something didn't add up at all. The Heroes, the last one, something-something the Archmage. No matter how she much she searched the memories of her victims, she could not find his names or which God blessed him. And why he was still alive.

The energy that was provided to him to fight the Dark Gods would never be replenished, it would be an impossible thought for a god to think about doing such a thing. Leaking such an important amount for so many years, for no reason at all? No one was benevolent to that point, especially them. "So how did he survived?" Her question was left unanswered.

As for the other gods that were waiting for the return of Oslo, they could only be gladly surprised. He did manage to talk with the demons, against all odds, so there was a possibility for them to stop doing what they were doing. It was a false hope they all convinced themselves, just by hearing a single confirmation, but if they could avoid losing energy, it was worth it. Only Aria looked with contempt at them, not thinking the same. But she was far too weak to do anything at the moment, not even talking about actually giving a blessing to someone on the planet.