The Era of Humans (1)
After that, well, there's no need to go into the details of what happened next. We punished the gods involved in the mess, and while we were at it, dealt with most of the others according to plan. The gods essential to the world swore oaths not to cause trouble, then went into temporary suspension. In the end, after cleaning house in the Pantheon, we successfully purged all the problematic ones.
But in exchange...
"Many gods can no longer issue oracles, causing chaos in temples everywhere. The pilgrims of the Life Temple are doing their best to sort things out, but..."
A girl who looked just like me—minus the horns and with white hair—spoke in a calm voice. She handled the duties of the Life Goddess... an upgraded version of the automated prayer-processing system that had managed countless human prayers on my behalf, now modeled after Hades in the underworld. The result was this girl, born as a fragment spirit of the Life Goddess.
The main difference from Hades? She had a proper body. I'd only given her one avatar made of mana, but still.
Hm... I wonder if Hades would prefer a body with that kind of freedom? I'll ask later.
"The more the pilgrims work, the more faith flows to the Life Goddess, and the more people pray. Which means more work for me in the end."
"Sorry about that."
"No need to apologize. It was all calmly decided by the great and supreme Life Goddess, after all. Surely the merciful goddess who watches over all life didn't just impulsively beat down every god, conquer the Pantheon, and declare herself the best without a thought."
"It was impulsive, but not without thought. And you're being pretty harsh there, aren't you?"
"You're right. Being your fragment spirit, maybe I'm starting to take after the original. If there's a problem with me, you'd better blame the source, no?"
The white girl drove in her critical hits with a serene expression. I let out a sigh.
Really... she'd started as a machine-like doll that just listened to prayers and responded on repeat. How did she end up like this?
Of course, I admit my impulsiveness played a part!
"If you had time for that kind of impulsiveness, you could at least give me a proper name. I'm still going by 'Automated Prayer-Processing System'—that lifeless label."
"S-sorry. I've been busy with other things..."
Upgrading her like Hades had boosted prayer-processing efficiency, which was great, but her sense of self was getting too strong. Well, I couldn't keep calling her "Automated Prayer-Processing System" forever.
A name... hm. I needed to come up with a good one.
"How about... Asherat... Asherat? What do you think of Asherat?"
"Asherat... Not bad. I'll gratefully accept that name. Please call me Asherat from now on, instead of that stiff 'Automated Prayer-Processing System.'"
Asherat bowed politely. Good. It was a name I'd tossed out lightly, but she seemed to like it—her lips curved up just a bit.
Her workload as Life Goddess was only going to grow, after all. No room for problems with this one.
Of course not.
Like that, decades slipped by.
It feels rushed, but what can you do? I was swamped with work, and time just vanished in the blink of an eye.
Still, the focus paid off... The chaos from the absent gods was mostly resolved. And the new hires pitched in hard.
"Here. Final docs for your review. Sign after checking."
The winged goddesses—no, these faith-depleted beings who could barely qualify as goddesses anymore—were flitting about everywhere.
"You've worked hard, Freya."
"No big deal. If working keeps me alive, I'll do as much as needed."
The golden-haired goddess, Freya, gave an awkward smile.
Freya and the Valkyries, who had vanished when the Aesir gods fell, now served the Life Goddess. They'd shed the name Valkyrie for a new one: angels.
"You're not even thinking of rebelling anymore. So obedient—it's great."
"S-sorry about back then. Witnessing the Aesir—our family—perish made us sensitive."
There'd been some resistance at first, but it was sorted now. Sealed the most rebellious Valkyrie and dropped her to the mortal world, and the rest fell in line like obedient pups.
What was her name? Brynhildr or something? The sealed one's.
Thanks to that, the remaining Valkyries turned tame as trained dogs, flying around as servants to the Life Goddess.
"Still, I'm glad to have you all. Especially blessing newborn lives—I couldn't check every one myself."
As faith in the Life Goddess grew, demands for blessings on newborns surged. People used to pray to their own gods, but now it all came to me.
Hm. The Life Temples had ballooned into the Life Church.
A bit much, maybe... but if that's what they wanted.
Especially the dragons in the upper echelons of the Life Church... They'd compiled my words, actions, and thoughts into books. Talk about packaging—the scriptures were something else.
"Couldn't the Life Goddess bless every newborn if she wanted?"
"Hm... Maybe back then. But it's tricky now."
Zeus's final moments. He'd cursed me: "The Life Goddess shall never set foot in a world teeming with life again."
Because of that curse, whenever I tried entering the human world for Life Goddess duties... I got bounced back? Like hitting an invisible wall.
It only applied to Life Goddess work, though. Sneaking around incognito, as the Dragon Maiden, or handling other divinities like the Primordial Creation Dragon? No issue.
Honestly, a curse I could shatter on a whim—like a single hair's worth of power. But it was a perfect excuse to cut down on mortal trips.
Plus, it let me recruit Freya and the Valkyries, tweak them into angels, and dump all the fieldwork on them.
Asherat was thrilled with the reduced mortal-world burden too.
"Anyway, it's a chance we couldn't pass up. Work's heavy, but no more looking over our shoulders."
I nodded at Freya's words.
The (former) Valkyries—now angels—had swapped soul-stealing for handing pure souls from cloud whales to newborns. They blessed infants, checked for past-life memories, and left a tiny fingertip mark on the philtrum if all clear.
Cases of past-life recall at birth? Virtually gone now.
Truly, more work means more hands—that's the way.
"Hey. Enough chatter—focus on work."
"Yes!"
Freya replied energetically to Asherat and flew off to her tasks.
"Goddess, you focus too."
"Eh, my stuff's low-priority—I can dump it on you if needed. You handled it fine when I stepped out before."
"That's the problem! Why am I doing your work? Faith's even piling up on me now!"
"Worked out great, didn't it? Time for you to go independent?"
"You know if I do, all my work dumps back on you, right?"
"Yep. Regrettably, can't let you go!"
"I wasn't planning to leave anyway. Sigh."
I chuckled softly at Asherat's sigh.
"You should take a break sometimes. How about bringing Hades from the underworld? He's my fragment too—practically your brother."
"And the backlog while I'm off?"
"I'll handle it. Back in the day, I managed Life Goddess duties solo when no one was around."
"That was when life was scarcer. Not comparable now."
Well, true.
With hundreds of interfering gods gone, dozens of survivors sealed in the Pantheon, watched by twelve guardian gods and their leader Sirius... No more divine meddling on earth.
Humanity walking the earth began to flourish wildly.
Made you wonder if gods were meant to keep life from overflowing the world.
It exploded in numbers.
