Balthazar was in a foul mood. Barely seven years ago, he had met with his divine brethren. He would have been fine with not seeing them for several more decades, at least. Somehow, Gun had managed to royally screw things up enough that they even had to go so far as meeting in their avatars instead of their divine essence. It was a massive waste of his time. Not to mention the actual issue at hand.

"Balthy! It's so good to see you! Are you taller? Did you cut your hair? Is that new armor? Why are you wearing armor? Are one and Gun going to fight? What did he do anyway? Balthy?"

Balthazar suppressed a massive sigh. "Hello, Hemel. It's nice to see you too." He wasn't even going to attempt to engage her. Trying to answer just fuelled the fire.

“Hemel, stop pestering Balthazar. Can't you tell he's about to explode?" A much more amused and less energetic voice followed.

Just as Hemel's avatar alighted on the floor of the atrium, a pool of water coalesced to allow ]ing Sakana's avatar to step out of the watery portal. Balthazar observed them both. It had been centuries since he had seen their avatars. He found it mildly amusing that, for all that they had very different personalities, both had similar forms when they occupied mortal bodies. Tall, thin-figured, and with long luscious locks. The only difference was in the coloring. Sakanna had both darker skin and darker hair but with piercing blue eyes. On the other hand, Hemel was much lighter in tone, with sunny yellow braids in some fancy hairstyle.

"You would do well to follow your own advice, Sakanna," Balthazar warned.

"Oh, so testy. I thought you'd be happier, seeing as Gun's the one in trouble."

"Not at this much cost. My dislike for Gun is no secret, and I fully admit that were circumstances different, I might enjoy this. However, Gun's actions have brought about problems for all of us."

A slightly bewildered look crossed Sakana's face. "That's… uncharacteristically candid of you."

"Now is not the time for my usual caution. I think you fail to realize how serious this is."

Sakanna did not respond, merely taking her seat at the meeting table. Hemel had already sat and was staring into space. Balthazar stared down at the pearly white surface of the adamantine table, seeing his own frowning reflection. His comments to Sakanna were true, as far as he was concerned. He hated being here, especially now, considering how many of his plans required adjustments now. He had only started to fix the damage Gun had inadvertently caused.

His dark thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of three more of their number, almost simultaneously. A plant from nothing, its massive petals opened to reveal Levity stepping out. A hole opened in the floor, something that would be impossible for most anything, considering the strength of the divinely reinforced adamantine the whole building was made of. Considering Aarde had made the atrium, Balthazar thought it reasonable the man could pass through his own defenses. The god of earth stepped out of the hole.

Lastly, Grim. As always, the man simply appeared in his seat. Death required no transportation after all. It was already everywhere. He was wearing a formal and straightforward suit instead of the more casual dress of everyone else. Besides Balthazar, who had come in his best armor in anticipation of Gun throwing a fit, everyone else was wearing whatever suited them. Hemel was in a sundress. In sunny colors, appropriately. Sakanna was wearing a purple fitted top and black pants. Aarde, as ever, was in overalls with a blacksmith's apron draped over a broad shoulder. Balthazar always thought that the bearded man could do some serious damage on the battlefield if he had the slightest interest in combat.

Several minutes passed by. Sakanna and Levity made small talk about trade. Hemel hung all over Aarde as he showed her various bits of art he had made. Grim said and did nothing. It was exactly how these meetings always went. Except for their missing member.

Balthazar frowned, or rather, his previous frown intensified. "Where is he? He can't possibly be thinking of ignoring us." He muttered. Gun was many things, but cowardly and unpunctual were not among them. Balthazar had been expecting a lot of bluster and justifications, not the man simply ignoring the summons. They had all agreed that whenever an atrium meeting was called, they would all attend. Especially since this gathering was specifically to discipline him.

A slight static in the air was the only warning before a world-crushing, body-breaking pressure fell down on the atrium. The only reason Balthazar didn't collapse, bleeding from every bodily orifice, was a combination of his avatars' resilient body, his supreme armor, and the restraint of the one creating the pressure. He could feel it, just at the edge of his divine awareness. A sense of bottomless might held back ever so carefully.

Gun's avatar slammed into his seat, bleeding from every bodily orifice. He was stripped of his trademark bloodsteel platemail, wearing only a sleeveless shirt and compression shorts, assumedly what he had had on under his armor. Both articles were soaked, positively dripping, in blood. He looked ridiculous, the godly ichor dying his clothing a shiny gold. He coughed up a wad of bloody phlegm onto the table. "Fuck."

A sharp clap echoed through the room. "Alright, listen up, pay attention, everyone."

Balthazar looked up toward the noise. Floating in midair, looking much the same as she had all those ages ago, was the Overseer, wearing a t-shirt with the words 'This is my Ass-Kicking Shirt' and a stylized foot kicking a bare butt on it. For once in his life, Balthazar agreed with Gun. They were fucked.

"This shitbag," She gestured toward Gun's bleeding avatar, "Was caught trying to kill his own messed up Calling through improper use of an enhanced champion. In response, I have added an addendum to the clause governing champion use in our agreement."

The pertinent clause appeared before Balthazar, the new addition highlighted.

All champion designations and empowerment must be approved by the Overseer.

Looking around, Balthazar could tell that everyone else had gotten the same message. Grim seemed utterly unphased. Surprisingly Aarde looked upset. Balthazar hadn't thought he even used champions.

The Overseer seemed to have noticed as well. "Aarde, you may continue to use empowered champions for mining. Resource gathering is considered benign, and it is your own prana. The matter under consideration is the use of empowerment as a combat exploit. See article 8 sub-clause 4."

Aarde smiled and nodded. Balthazar frowned. He didn't seem to be under nearly as much pressure. In fact, as far as Balthazar could tell, he, Levity, and Sakanna were the only ones being continually crushed into their seats.

"You are correct, Balthazar. The only ones being subjected to punishment are those who had previously violated the spirit of the agreement."

Balthazar's eyes widened. Could she…? The knowing smirk on her face confirmed it. She still went a step further.

"I know everything, Balthazar. I am called the Overseer for a reason."

"Would you be open to negotiation? To just one-sidedly change the agreement-" The power on him ramped up by an order of magnitude. Balthazar felt his bones grinding together as the pressure threatened to overwhelm him. He could barely breathe.

Argentia landed on the table, standing in front of Balthazar. She leaned over him, staring him dead in the eye. "I think you have a misconception about the nature of the agreement. You do not get to make decisions about what is and is not fair. This is not a contract between equals. You didn't want to die, and we saved your lives. Now you owe us a debt. The agreement was a way for you to pay back that debt. Now I'm saying you were skimping out on the payment we were owed."

She reached down and grabbed ahold of the chest plate of Balthazar's armor. With a screeching, cracking groan, her fingers dug into the enchanted dragon bone and lifted his eleven-foot frame out of his chair. "If you won't pay the debt how we say, when we say, then I will collect the original price."

The dragon plate cracked and finally shattered under the immeasurable pressure slowly crushing it, dropping Balthazar back into his seat. Argentia stared down at him, not an ounce of mercy or leniency in her eyes. "We own you. So no, there will be no negotiation. Be grateful I don't scatter your divine essence across five dimensions and crush every single shrine and church that pays you worship." She glared around the table, focusing on Gun for an extra moment, causing the war god to flinch like a beaten dog. "That's all, continue your little tea party or whatever. And leave Melody alone, or I might decide to 'reinterpret' the agreement again."

Then she was gone.

"Gahh, why do I feel like we got shaken down by the divine version of the mob?"

"Shut the fuck up, Gun," Balthazar growled, brushing the bits of bone dust that used to be his strongest armor off his shirt. His avatar still felt like it was recovering. He could hardly move, and he had little confidence in standing. Whatever that force had been seemed to ignore the healing power his body normally held.

"She was very scary. Why did we make a deal with her again?"

"Because we had to live, dear," Aarde answered before Balthaqzar could snap at Hemel's question.

"Yes, though I do regret it now. I wonder if whatever our enemy could have done to us is as bad as being under her thumb." Levity laughed darkly.

"There's no way to know." Balthazar sighed. "Allowing them to take our memories of the incident was our real mistake. We can no longer make a proper value assessment. I fear we may have traded a bad situation for a worse one in our desperation."

"No."

Everyone in the room turned to stare at Grim.

"No to what? No, we didn't make our situation worse?"

A slow nod.

Balthazar snorted. "That's easy for you to say. You don't have or need champions. The rest of us have to work for a living."

Grim just shook his head sadly.

"Well, all in favor of punishing Gun for getting us into this mess?" Balthazar was going to walk out of here with some kind of benefit, even if this whole trip had been a painful, vaguely humiliating waste of time.

"Yes."

"Yeah."

"What did he do?"

"I don't care."

"That's three in agreement." Balthazar rolled his eyes at Hemel's and Aarde's non-responses. "Grim, you're the designated arbiter. Whatever you feel is appropriate." He didn't like Grim for a multitude of reasons, but the death god was uncompromisingly neutral and fair. Whatever punishment Gun received, it would be fitting. Considering the consequences, that would be a heavy price.

"Well, I'd love to stay, but I have several ongoing projects and a war to run." With a flash of divine power and a bit of prana, Balthazar teleported his avatar out of the sub-dimensional space the atrium was hidden in. For the first time that day, he smiled. He couldn't wait to hear what Gun's punishment was. It was too bad that Grim would probably take several days to come to his decision. In the meantime, Gun would be under restriction, and his forces without leadership and divine support.

Balthazar's smile grew. "Oh, I'm definitely going to kick his ass off my continent."