When Sha crushed into the massive iron portal, a huge boom rang out and a fierce shockwave destroyed multiple smaller trees that were scattered around the square. Yet the portal did not bulge at all.

How could a treasured gate that represented humanities most exhaled and powerful council bulge under the power of a mere sealed fox god? This gate has blocked the attacks of many, many powerful beings and even though it had sometimes been repaired after those attacks it had survived too many frenzied assaults in all those millennia.

But Sha did not care about the incredible background of the portal, nor did he care about the unimaginable history that was connected to it. In fact, he did not think at all- his mind was thrown into a chaos of raging ire.

Over and over again he attacked the gate, each attack more powerful than the last until it started to show actual effect on the gate. A few small scratches and dents appeared where his body slammed into the old metal. If this continued at some point he really would leave a mark on this incredible pierce of art.

It seemed like this was nothing the countless gods within the tower could allow and suddenly the gates opened with a low thundering sound, giving Sha way into the building.

There was no doubt about the fact that this was a trap and that Sha would die if he entered, but Sha did not care about it. Without any hesitation he strode into the darkness on the other side.

It seemed like from the moment he had left his temple he had already discarded his life. If the great war hadn't happened, if the great god Ji had not been attacked by the council and peace continued to exist at least on the surface of the world, perhaps he would have remained quiet, collecting his various rare beasts and beings. Maybe when enough time had passed he would have forgotten about the matter and found tranquility again.

But there was no maybe in this matter. When the world went into chaos and the swords were sharpened they had rekindled something Sha had sealed within him.

There were no regrets as he heard the portal close behind him.

In the distance the sleeping lady sighed.

"I pity that cub, in the end he could not let go of the past.", As she said so she broke the arm of the goddess she pressed onto the ground.

A muffled cry came from the despairing women. Tears had long since washed away any divine pride from her face and now she had become docile, hoping to avoid any more pain. Yet the sleeping lady was merciless.

Suddenly another goddess entered through a door and handed a towel to the sleeping lady. It was Lilith who had long since resigned to her fate, silently avoiding the other goddess’s eyes.

The sleeping lady took the towel and wiped off the sweat she had accumulated.

“So that bastard is still at her side?”, she asked the weeping goddess on the ground. She nodded profusely, afraid to feel even more pain if she did not answer the questions of this female demon fast enough.

“H-he returned about thirty years ago, but they kept it hidden for the most time!”

The sleeping lady’s expression turned a little grave and she seemed to think about something.

“I hope he won’t notice… But we should have hidden it well enough.”, she mumbled lowly. Then she refocused on the goddess. For a mere moment a look of hesitation appeared on her plump face. It almost immediately turned into grim coldness.

“I truly hope you can rest in peace.”, using her bare hands she cleanly severed the goddess’s head. Two shocked, lifeless eyes stared at her in disbelieve. A person vomited, overwhelmed by the sight. It was Lilith who had turned extremely pale as she tried to control herself.

The sleeping lady calmly stood up.

“Clean this up and send her head to that goddamn god of truth!”, without taking another glance she left the room.

Lilith trembled a little as she began to drag the lifeless female body out of the room. She could feel the warmth slowly seeping out of the body. In the end she vomited again.

Inside the famous skyscraper of the human council an old man suddenly turned dark red. For a second, he seemed to be confused, then the confusion turned into fury, anger and finally hate. His eyes reddened, and his veins bulged. For a short moment an awe-inspiring might exploded from his body and shocked the other gods inside the tower. They could sense that a very powerful member of the council had suddenly become very angry.

“FUCK THIS BITCH!”, his voice traveled through the entire building and echoed outside.

“How dare she? HOW DARE SHE KILL MY GRANDDAUGHTER?!”, he seemed to have completely lost his reasoning as he lividly shouted into the air. Terrifying killing intent radiated all around him and send shivers down the spines of the other gods.

Suddenly another presence exploded out inside the tower and spread out to rapidly suppress the old man’s presence. A almost impossibly beautiful woman walked out of the shadows of a hallway and towards the old man. When he saw her, he seemed to calm down a little.

“They killed her.”, he said hatefully. His voice was still a little bit loud resulting in a hint of displeasure in the woman’s eyes.

Despite that she simply nodded. “I know.”, there was a faint trace of sadness within her voice.

“I have to avenge her!”, the old man said heavily. His breathing was still a little rough from the outburst of rage.

“I know.”, she calmly replied again. “You will have enough chances in the upcoming battle.”

The old man nodded darkly but there was a spark of unwillingness to wait. He wanted to rip this damned fat goddess into shreds!

“How far have their preparations proceeded?”, the lady of the council suddenly asked.

The old man paused for a moment and seemed to put the issue with his dead granddaughter on the side. “I am not sure.”, he said after a short while of thinking. There was a bit of an ugly look on his face.

“You are not sure?”, she lady repeated almost a little comedically. Her eyebrows rose in disbelieve.

“How can a god of knowledge not know about something of this scale?!”

Now somewhat calm the old man shook his head in annoyance. “I may be a god of knowledge who of all beings in the universe knows most about present and the past, but even for me there are certain limitations and certain boundaries that I simply cannot overcome.

I know about the thoughts and actions of all mortal beings, I know whenever a coin falls to the ground, I know when a new child is born, or a couple is getting married, I even know of every single speck of dust that has ever fallen on the surface of the moon, but I cannot do the same for the gods! The divine is the only thing I cannot get a grasp on! My ability is neither able to see a god’s inner thoughts nor his actions. The most I can do is monitor the mortals that are around those gods and find out what they know about the god’s current situation.

Unfortunately for us, our enemies are currently extremely meticulous in keeping away from the mortals and hiding their actions from my eyes. I can only try to use clues and little anomalies to find out about their current state of things.”

“So, what do you know?”, the lady asked bluntly.

The old man was dissatisfied with the lady’s treatment towards him. His eyes narrowed and a strange expression, proud and archaic appeared on his face.

“I hope you do not forget that it is due to my support that many of the gods have decided to follow you.”, there was a faint warning hidden within his words and a tint of threatening.

‘If you do not treat me in accordance of my importance I will just leave and take half of the human gods with me!’

This sort of message openly being implied by his words.

The lady of the council’s expression turned sour.

“There is no need for this is there?”, she said somewhat more respectful then before. It was obvious that she could not allow to lose this old god’s support.

The old man harrumphed and looked pleased.

“We should just both treat each other with the required respect!”, he said now calm. Then his look turned serious.

“I cannot talk with certainty, but it seems that the faction under that fat slut has already finished gathering inside the city. However, they will wait until the other three factions have arrived before engaging into the last battle.“, his words caused the lady to frown.

“What about the heavenly dragons?”, she asked worriedly.

He shook his head.

“They are the most mysterious of the whole lot, I could not find out anything about them. Even the location of Tian Long is unknown!

But what is even more worrying are the Buddhists!”, he said gravely.

“It seems that Sakra is more decisive than we thought. They do not only mobilize the deva’s of his heaven, but also a vast amount of bodhisattva’s all around the planet!”

“How many?”, the lady asked.

He once again shook his head. “If it wasn’t for the large quantity of them I wouldn’t even have known about it.”

She sighed.

“It seems that this battle will be harder then I imagined it to be.”, her words were heavy, but the look in her eyes made clear that she still believed in their own victory.

The old man also sighed.

“We had no choice in this matter. If we took the other four factions in again it wouldn’t have been long and we would have once in again lost our power in the council! After all those years and everything we did for our kind, how can we allow this to happen this easily? Furthermore, I am not convinced that they really would have not held a grudge because of that time.”

Both remained quiet for some time.

“Was it really wise to leave him alive?”, the old man suddenly asked.

The lady looked at him and was silent for a moment.

“I couldn’t bring myself to kill him.”, she seemed to be thoughtful.