"Do you think you've made a good choice, choosing that human to be your paladin?" a black skinned man, draped in a majestic robe, asked the crimson skinned women, who was hiding half of her burnt and 'dead' face with the hoodie attached to her robes, "You do remember that he annihilated your last paladin even with overwhelming odds... Immortal one's paladin should not be taken lightly under any circumstance."

"You worry too much, Surtr²." The woman replied, her eyes fixed upon the man who was now her paladin, the Ex-Brigadier General of zone 4, the one who will enforce her will upon the residents of this planet, that is, if he lives long enough to become her vassal. Right now, He was busy fighting a couple of ogres with just his fists, as a part of his training.

"We, the lesser Gods, are rarely allowed to participate in the Game of Gods, for such a lively planet. We cannot let them take this world away from us, we have to win this 'game' or else we might not live long enough. And it's only possible if all five of the lesser Gods join their hands together... maybe then we can defeat the higher Gods, for the first time in millions of years."

"Yes. We shall be the ones to rule over humans. But what about him, Hel¹? He hasn't joined us yet... four of us can't confront the higher Gods. The immortal one will destroy us all! Just like he destroyed, The Forgotten..." Surtr expressed his worries to Hel, who was also known as the Goddess of death.

She hated Shiva, from the bottom of her soul, because Shiva had killed the love of her life and forbid anyone from ever taking his name again. As usual, no one dared to question Shiva, an entity who was respected like a divine deity even among the higher Gods.

It all happened millions of years ago, in the realm of Gods, when her husband, who was now referred as 'The Forgotten', started questioning the Higher Gods about their unfair treatment of the lesser Gods in regards of the 'prayers' they receive from various worlds across the universe, which was like a power source which gave them the divine powers that they had, essentially meaning the more prayers a God received, the stronger the God will become. Sadly the lesser Gods couldn't directly receive the prayers from the mortal species as they were considered to be the 'servants' of the higher Gods and had to live off of whatever the Higher Gods threw their way.

The Forgotten pointed out that it was them, the lesser Gods, who did all the work around the universe and were 'True Gods' of the universe as they were the ones taking care of various planets. Hence, they should receive a greater share of the 'prayers' but the higher Gods laughed it off and ignored him or gave him vague replies, he simply wasn't important enough for them to waste their time. The Forgotten, then in a fit of rage, demanded the higher Gods to give them the respect and prayers that they deserved or else the lesser Gods would revolt against them. Hel tried to talk some sense into her husband but sadly... he didn't listen. The lesser God threatened the Higher Gods... many Gods didn't take it well and began plotting a way to suppress the Lesser Gods once and for all.

The Forgotten knew that a war between Gods would disturb the balance of the universe that they had sacrificed their blood and sweat to achieve, and that the higher Gods would do anything to prevent that because they won't be able to receive the prayers from the mortals.

Due to these facts, The Forgotten expected his demands would be fulfilled in no time, but to his surprise, nothing happened, the higher Gods stopped giving them the little bit of power that they have been so far.

The Forgotten saw this as an act of war and assembled an army of the Lesser Gods and prepared for a Godly war that would've inevitably ended the reign of the Higher Gods. Little did he know he was doing exactly what the Higher Gods wanted him to do, by assembling an army he had dug his own grave. The Higher Gods knew they would have a hard time defeating the Lesser Gods on their own and thus had planned to do something horrible.

This is where Shiva, the sworn protector of the universe had to step in. Shiva had always been ascetic and hence would often spend months even years at times to meditate inside the darkest and deepest mountain caves, completely cut off from the rest of the universe. No one was allowed to disturb him while he was in that state, no one except Nandi³, The War God of the Minotaurs and Shiva's most loyal and trusted follower. Even so, Nandi would only disturb Shiva if and only if the hard-earned peace of the universe was threatened by someone. Shiva didn't care about the political matters between the Gods and wouldn't help the Higher Gods for their own gain, Shiva only brandished his weapon if the universe itself was in danger, and the higher Gods knew about it, so after The Forgotten had assembled an army, they tried and convinced Nandi that the universe was danger and The Forgotten was the one threatening to destroy the universe.

Nandi, then hesitantly awoke the supreme being from his slumber and walked him through the recent happenings. Enraged by the insolence of a Lesser God, Shiva took his Trident and left his domain to slay the heretic.

No one knew what happened next but right before the war was about to break out, Shiva reappeared with The Forgotten's severed head fixed on his Trident. Thanks to Shiva, the war ended before it started. The Higher Gods were happy with the outcome but deep down they were scared of him as well. If somehow Shiva got to know about the lies they had told him and manipulate him into killing The Forgotten and save their sorry assess in the process, no one would be able to save them from the rage of the Immortal one.

Thankfully, they didn't have to worry about it. The only ones who could've informed him were The Lesser Gods, but the strength and rage of Shiva had silenced the Lesser Gods for good. None of them knew about the true relationship between the Higher Gods and Shiva and thought since Shiva was a Higher God himself thus he had sided with the Higher Gods and was helping them. Furthermore, they were already scared out of wits and didn't want to die themselves. So they kept to themselves and refused to talk against with Shiva or any other Higher God in that matter. After this conflict, The Higher Gods gave another nickname to Shiva, 'Bholenath', meaning the one who is easily fooled and trusts everyone.

Hel, Surtr and the other Lesser Gods didn't know that Shiva, himself had been tricked into killing The Forgotten and silently started blaming him for their misery.

But the revolt had opened the eyes of the Higher Gods. Now they knew that the Lesser Gods were dangerous enemies, thus to keep them under control, the Higher Gods decided to include a selected few among the lesser Gods to accompany them in the 'Game of Gods'. A 'Game' which the higher Gods used to play among themselves to battle for the worlds that offered them the highest amount of Prayers. The winner of this 'game' won the world and would have the royalty over the prayers from that world. This way they could give the Lesser Gods the 'opportunity' to defeat them and earn 'prayers' for themselves. It was because of this 'Game of Gods' that the dungeons started popping up on the surface of Earth, the thinking behind it was pretty simple... in face of danger, mortals start offering more and more prayers to the Gods and fear of death and destruction was the best way to force someone to pray.

But it was all a scam. No matter what the Lesser Gods tried to do, they had never won a single world. The Higher Gods were simply too powerful. Thus the lesser Gods hatched a new plan.

'If we killed off all the Paladins of the Higher Gods then they would be disqualified from the Game, and since the Higher Gods are forbidden from entering the realm of the mortals, it won't be easy for them to make a new paladin and start over.' Hel thought and smiled, 'This time, we won't be the ones losing this battle. Even if it means going against the immortal one.'

The Xenoic energy emitted by the Higher Gods was too much for the mortal realm to handle and thus the Higher Gods weren't able to visit the mortal realm. This was also the reason behind the existence of the Lesser Gods. As they didn't have much Xenoic energy, they could freely roam around the mortal realm and take care of the mortals. The mortals then offered prayers to the Higher Gods who then paid a small fraction of these prayers to the Lesser Gods, but if a Lesser God became greedy they killed him or her without any hesitation... That was the truth behind the Gods, Earth, and monsters.

****

Author's note:

1. Hel: In the Poetic Edda, Prose Edda, and Heimskringla, Hel is referred to as a daughter of Loki. Hel is described as having been appointed by the god Odin as ruler of a realm of the same name, located in Niflheim, and is the Goddess of Death in Norse mythology. Actually it's said that she's a Giant, but I didn't want her to look like that in my novel so please don't imagine her like that.

2. Surtr: Surtr (or Surt) is the King of Fire in Norse mythology, the Lord of the Fire-Giants of the realm of Muspellheim. In the beginning, there was only the blackness of Ginnungagap, and then Surt appeared out of the blackness with his flaming sword and touched land, and it lit up and became the Realm of Fire. I've tried to depict him here as if his fire had burnt out and he's a weak version of the actual Surtr.

3. Nandi: Nandi is the gate-guardian deity of Kailasa, the abode of Lord Shiva. He is usually depicted as a bull. That's why, I decided to depict him as a minotaur, because that's the only mythical creature (as far as I know) which resembles a bull.

At last I hope I didn't offend anyone or any religion, and I'm terribly sorry if I did. This is a work of fiction so I hope you understand that. Thank you for reading!