“Has anyone seen Bob lately?” Brigit goddess of the Tuatha Dé Danann asked the other gods seated at the table.

The room which used to be crowded had become decidedly less so, as more decided to fall to Earth. Either creating temples or just living their lives. In some ways it was nice, in others it sparked a feeling of terror they hadn’t felt in years. This was a change no one had seen coming, and while a few welcomed it as the change of pace they all desperately desired…

To her, it brought only a sense of foreboding.

“I believe he is busy helping Gaia with something,” Odin told the table, stroking his eye patch. “Without him around and our champions mostly ignoring our calls for battle and quests, this game has grown stale. I propose a change.”

Arinna, the Hittite Sun goddess spoke up. “Speak for yourself. Mine and Shiva’s champions respond most willingly to quests we give them.”

The Hindu goddess of learning and knowledge, Saraswati chuckled. “She is right. You just need to know your champion better. Even my champion completes my quests for knowledge, though I admit something odd is happening with her right now.”

“What about you Brigit? Are you happy with your champion ignoring your calls?” Odin pressed, singling her out instead of looking to Zeus.

“I…” She hesitated, drawing her fingernails along the smooth leather material of her pants in thought. “I haven’t given it much thought, one way or the other. I could give her more personalized quests that they could accomplish while doing their normal activities easily enough. Forcing these other quests on our champions might not be the best method to go about playing the game.”

It was Zeus, ever the curious one who proved to be their downfall. “What kind of change did you have in mind?”

“We can’t add anyone to our side of the gameboard as it were,” Odin began slowly, looking at each of the gathered gods in the room before continuing. “However, I believe there are now a few slots available for the Shadow player side. Last I counted, there have only been a couple of gods to actively play on that side and a few others became fallen gods when the option presented itself.”

Set, one of the Egyptian gods of Chaos, and a member of the Shadow side, pushed off the wall. “This is true, but only Gaia or Bob have the authority to give one of us access to the champion system.”

“I have not forgotten; I am merely suggesting that we contact Gaia and request she expand the players on your side. Unlike Bob, we can still get in touch with her.”

The Morrighan shook her head. “I do not believe that the Gaia will be amenable to this idea. Her dealings with us have been strained since she awoke. Bob was the one best equipped to deal with her for obvious reasons, but he seems to have vanished.”

Odin growled. He hated when anyone doubted his plans, even if they were gods. “Fine, why don’t you come up with something, then?” He snarled at her.

“I already have. With Brigit’s blessing, since I am a part of her pantheon, I plan to become a fallen one. The way I see it, down there I will have far more options for entertainment. Even giving up a portion of my power and divinity, I will still be stronger than most beings down there. With time, I should be able to reclaim my position as a goddess in their eyes if only as a pseudo-one this time around.”

The rest of the gods and goddesses in attendance stirred at her words. Part of the reason they had created the game was for entertainment and in the hopes of regaining their lost power. Many of them had already given up on that particular dream. They knew it was never going to happen, at least not with Gaia in control of everything.

She hated them all after what they had done to her.

“It might not be the worse thing to have a temple created in my name and have some cute priestesses cleaning my statue.” A flabby god muttered from the corner.

Everyone took a step away from him, determined to ignore the pervert.

“The Morrighan is right, by staying up here we’re just letting the others get a head start on us!” Another goddess shouted emphatically. “We need to go down and gather our strength while the humans and monsters are still relatively weak!”

There was a resounding cry of agreement as more of the gods and goddesses who had been unable to make up their minds did so in an instant.

Brigit nodded to the Morrighan and gave her a discreet wink. “Very well, you may go down. See if you can gather the rest of our pantheon together in one place. Let’s see if we can begin rebuilding the Tuatha Dé Danann. We must be prepared for whatever Gaia might do.” The curly red-haired, green-eyed goddess said. “She is right. The World Spirit will hold a grudge against us. We had best plan for other eventualities.”

Zeus sighed and turned to his people and gave them a nod. “I agree with the Danann Queen. Do the same when you get down below. We should begin establishing Mount Olympus again, with each pantheon declaring their individual kingdoms.”

Saraswati and Shiva shared a glance. “I believe that will work as a broad concept for now. The details can be worked out between us all later. I believe that it would also be appropriate to have Charles create a town in each of our little kingdoms as a way for us to stay connected. The rest of our towns can belong to our own networks, while the one he creates will be the special hub of information and trade. What do you think?”

A disgruntled Odin slammed his hand on the table. “There isn’t enough room for all of us down there! In case you have all forgotten, we were never all down there at the same time.”

A ghostly form of a buxom clay giant with blonde dreadlocks appeared above the middle of the table. “You don’t need to worry about room, Odin. I have been expanding, things were getting a little tight after I absorbed my little divine present from Alaria.

“The Earth is slowly getting bigger. For now, I have the extra material being brought in from all the dungeons I collected. It is so much less messy and destructive doing it this way.” Gaia’s gravelly voice echoed through the chamber, stunning the gods who hadn’t been aware she was listening.

“A-are you fine with us descending to Earth?” The perverted god from before dared to speak up.

Gaia stared at him with a disgusted expression on her clay face. “I do not care about everyone else. You, however, will not be getting a temple, and I believe I will also make sure that certain parts of your anatomy don’t work.”

The god blanched and shivered. “May-maybe I’ll just stay up here. Yeah, that seems like a good idea. It’s so peaceful, you know?” He turned to face the corner and began muttering to himself.

“The rest of you know what to do. Swear the oath to me, and I’ll bring you down now. Those of you who want to be part of the temple system must swear a different oath.”

The Morrighan stepped forward. “I’ll swear the oath now, to descend… to become a fallen