“Lalalalalalalala Lalalala~ Lalalalala Lalalala~”

Lavenna was humming a quick tune and dancing, quite literally, in the air. Her jet-black wings were also swaying along with the rhythm and her tiny feet were madly dashing across the air in her mother’s study. The ceiling was very high and there were few obstructions, so she was able to freely circle in the air and around the tall bookshelves and the huge chandelier that hung imposingly in the middle of the study.

Heralfia was also trying to catch up with Lavenna, while dancing and laughing.

When Heralfia was about to catch up with Lavenna, the latter suddenly changed the trajectory and made three full circles around Heralfia, still singing the tune. Then she grabbed onto her mother’s shoulders, though judging by Heralfia’s petite physique, she looked more like the older sister than mother, and both began spinning wildly, raising a small storm that scattered numerous sheets of paper across the study.

When Lavenna let go, both she and Heralfia were flung to opposite sides of the room but prevented themselves from crashing into walls, skillfully controlling their own trajectories.

“I thought you called me here because you wanted to make a new artifact today.”

Heralfia said after she landed gracefully on the floor.

“Um? Yeas, there was also that. I was thinking… and I decided that it’s about time to finish up that game we had with the gods.”

Lavenna still hasn’t landed. Somehow it seemed that gravity around her stopped working, as she was steadily floating upside down, her hair was moving in different directions in individual locks and her pink dress’ countless ribbons and frills were all swaying back and fro randomly while keeping the overall shape intact. Her wings were folded behind her back properly and staying still.

“It’s probably only you who thinks that it’s a game, Lavenna. To me, it’s a life and death battle every time, you know? Anyway, why finish it now?”

“You have never been in danger though? The artifact I made for you… even if you didn’t know how to operate it, it would still be far more than enough to shield you from those small fries”, Lavenna explained in a smug tone, “Anyway, back to the topic, I’m reaching the point in my recovery when I can actually start repairing my soul directly, instead of waiting. In fact, it’s better for me to do so to avoid problems in the future, so I can’t really waste my time on that bunch of fools.”

Heralfia already came to the conclusion that her daughter actually hunted the gods that came after her for fun and, while Heralfia was no stranger to gore and cruelty, the treatment said gods received caused even her to wince a few times. Still, she didn’t mind it and followed along with Lavenna, as her moral principles ultimately came down to one sentence “If Lavenna is fine with it, so am I”.

She still didn’t understand how they were going to stop the gods from aiming after them. From what she has gathered gods will have a natural urge to be wary and have a very bad impression of Lavenna, as her craft affected, in one way or another, their source of life in a negative way.

Running was obviously not an option; the reincarnated witch was far too prideful to hide from beings that were probably comparable to kittens in terms of danger in her eyes.

So came the question

“How are we going to deal with the rest of gods?”

“Why, I’ll blow them all up in one go, of course! I prepared the presents for the people who actually might give me a headache too, so they won’t bother me later.”

Heralfia could only tilt her head in confusion and wait for her daughter to explain.

Obviously, Lavenna was waiting for exactly this reaction, as she started speaking with a beaming innocent smile, while her body began to float off to the side

“I will modify the Asylum, so it will cause a huge explosion that will only affect a certain area and the “Pantheon”, as they call it, will go down in flames with all the gods in it.”

“I see. But won’t it cause a bigger mess? I mean, no matter how low your opinion of them and their importance is, they still are gods. I’m sure that their deaths will cause some waves to rise. And what about presents and what not? I still don’t get it.”

Lavenna bumped into a wall, missing a small oil painting that hung there by a few meters and bounced back. She stayed unaffected by that and continued to speak.

“Oh, I’m sure it will affect the world in many ways. I’m sure that there will be a lot of blood spilt and I am more than certain that some nasty things that will threaten the world’s population will appear too. So what? It doesn’t matter to me. With their scale of action, I’m sure it isn’t anything that will cause us any trouble, right? As for the presents, well let me explain a bit about Divinity to you.”

Heralfia was taken aback a bit by the cold and uncaring attitude her daughter showed while she explained her reasoning. But then she felt that Lavenna was right. The matters those gods from the Pantheon weren’t very important to the two of them. And gods were the ones who brought it upon themselves by antagonizing her little treasure. Heralfia returned her attention to what Lavenna was talking about.

“So, you see, there’re four kinds of gods out there. In my previous life, we called referred to them as Earth Gods, Elder Gods, Ancient Gods and True Gods. So far we have only seen the weakest type: the Earth Gods. They have their own rankings such as low-level gods, mid-level gods and high-level gods and within that realm of power they can master their own powers and rise in levels. There’re many Earth Gods and they have a certain degree of authority over the plane, but the best they can do is some space manipulation. You will likely not find an Earth God that can travel between worlds, so even their space manipulation is only at that level.

“Elder Gods differ from Earth Gods on a fundamental level. They are self-aware and know where their powers come from, why they have been created and they have a deeper understanding of their own nature, allowing them to use magic that defies what you call “common sense”. They all have their own ways of doing things, so their Divinities are unique to them too. In terms of my previous world, they would be comparable to wizards and sorcerers. I may be able to easily suppress a wizard when I’m in peak condition but right now it would be a bit challenging. Those gods are the ones I’m going to try and make peace with. Well, while I’m at it, I might as well explain all the types of gods there’re. Ancient Gods are existences comparable to me at my peak. They have almost full authority over the laws of their planes and are therefore extremely rare. Most of them don’t have the same type of sentience we have, so interaction with them is quite troublesome.

“And True Gods are beings of myth. No one has ever confirmed their existence but there’re a few signs that they are there. The rulers of existence itself, those who lord over ideals and concepts, the only Gods worthy of their titles. Not bound by planes, they control planes and fates of the universe, no the multiverse even. Not even I know what they are like but it’s generally considered to be appropriate to mention them when talking about gods.”

“And how are you going to appease those Elder Gods?”

“Simple. Do you know what Earth Gods lack that separates them from Elder Gods? It’s the Divinity they have. There’s that thing that lets Gods control the laws of the plane they’re in, it’s called divine energy. Earth Gods have meagre amounts of it, while Elder Gods have a lot and it’s unique to them too, so assimilating another god’s divine energy is very hard. That’s why I’ll make it so the divine energy won’t dissipate but will be absorbed by the strongest Earth Gods in the Pantheon. They, of course, won’t be able to make that energy truly theirs, but they will become Elder Gods temporarily, so when other Elders find them they’ll see that there’s a bunch of easy-to-pick divine energy which is certainly unnatural. They’ll investigate into it and understand that I’m the one who left it. Obviously, they will see that I left it for others to pick, so they’ll see my intentions!”

“I think they will want to take advantage of you and it will bring a lot of headaches.”

“Don’t underestimate them. If just killing a bunch of gods would let them harvest a lot of divine energy all the Earth Gods would be growing on farms. They’ll be wary of me and what I can do to them. Unlike the Earth Gods, they’ll see I’m a lot more powerful than I seem and they won’t be my match. My soul does affect the plane after all. They won’t see it but they’ll feel it. Besides, I’ve already shown that I’m not easily threatened and schemed against as the Earth Gods have shown already. So, they’ll see my present as a kind gesture, like me saying “let’s get along and not cause problems to each other, shall we?” Trust me, Earth Gods may be stupid and impulsive and easily controlled by their nature but Elder Gods are existences comparable to witches and wizards in both wisdom and power. None shall be reckless. And if they will, it’s not like I won’t be able to act.”

“I see.”

Only then did Heralfia see that the actions Lavenna has been taking all have a clear purpose. She wouldn’t do unnecessary things, no matter how hard she tries to make it seem otherwise. Lavenna was an ancient existence that has lived through and experienced a lot, so she wouldn’t act recklessly.

Still, there was a small prickling pain in Heralfia’s chest now that she realized that Lavenna didn’t see informing Heralfia of her plans as something necessary.

‘Perhaps she did it because I would only get in the way? Maybe I would foil her plans?’

Heralfia couldn’t help but have such thoughts. It was obvious that their relationship wasn’t something that could be perfected in some short years, no matter how close they were, but knowing that there was a need to work on it was already a step forward. Such things couldn’t be forced and Lavenna didn’t despise or hate Heralfia, so the relationship between the two wasn’t bad. It just needed more work. The six thousand years Heralfia has lived allowed her to understand this much.

So, the preparations for the plan began.