Dungeon Prowler : One Man Army

"Bahn, do you believe him?" the one asking Bahn was young and vigorous, he seemed to be an influential god, because even though he spoke slowly and in a low voice, everyone else in the place quieted down and listened.

"I do", Bahn nodded, his gaze stopped at the end of the room, a god was clenching his fist and gritting his teeth like mil stones, the god's complexion grew increasing purple and vicious. Bahn knew the god was going to fight as soon as the meeting adjourned, he pitied that god, wrath and pride were very bad among the combination of sins.

"Then we should test him once, talk to him some more and see if he has what it takes", said some god of wisdom, who immediately glared at Bahn, Bahn had shaken his head immediately, most of these gods had not noticed that they have already lost the fight.

"Break the board, if the chess match is lost, break the chessboard before he can deliver the fatal strike" surprisingly the wrathful god had noticed as well.

"Then you go test him, War, if you kill him, we win, if you fail to get close enough, come back" the influential quiet god spoke, his voice as gentle and steady as ever.

"Presumably he came out because he already won, no need to talk about that, if we can not even get close, then let us follow him, there is nothing bad about it, following some rules is not as bad as being wiped out or enslaved", Bahn agreed, "we have been preparing for the culling and the chance to lose it all, I would prefer to save this universe, it is only some rules, our Fate will still be ours, we just have to join up with others. If the culling came anyway, having allies is good enough, if it never came, we have already won more than we lost"

"What does he get from just our allegiance, there must be more to this", some god asked suddenly. The answer came from a devilish looking god.

"It matters not, his gains are not related to us, our survival is the question, the deal he gave us is very acceptable, presumably his gains are aligned with our well being, if that is true, then we have no reason to reject, even the fight is not worth it, I agree to join him, if the year ends without a consensus my devils will join him regardless, if the consensus is to fight back, we will stick with the majority, just reach a decision before then"

There were some nods and murmurs, these leaders among the gods were not easily persuaded, then a bailiff announced " through the agreement of the majority of divine leader, if no consensus was formed before the period of a year, any faction can freely choose to join the invader or not, secondly, War and his faction will wage war on the invader while trying to avoid any loss, if the campaign is a loss he would retreat as soon as possible"

The gods dispersed soon after, leaving behind only Bahn and the quiet god.

"Mir, what do you think?" Bahn had not heard this god speak of his true thoughts in the meeting, thus he decided to ask when they were alone.

"We should join him, he invaded us and we could not even find him before he showed himself to us, he is expecting us to fight back, and he also has some power to actually invade us with nothing but an assistant and a realm, if we could even get past his realm, I would consider it a victory".

Bahn sighed and stood up from his chair, passed a bottle of strange-looking wine to Mir. "glad to see you are still as smart as before, he brought gifts, I will go prepare the surrender of control to him, let's meet again soon".

Mir was almost stunned but still looked away, after he was left alone, he opened the gifted bottle of wine and drank alone, with a hint of melancholy tainting the serene atmosphere.

War walked in after making sure Mir was alone, he too sat and drank with him, the two seemed to be more in tune then they let the world see, especially the eternally, wrathful War.

"It hurts to know that I will lose even before the battle is started, makes me feel worthless" there was a hint of frailty that War would never let show in the words he spoke. The words Bahn had left were enough for him to understand how unattainable that victory was.

Mir looked at his drinking friend and smiled, his voice still low and dignified "you will fight as best as you can, if you can reach him, we can get better terms, your next battle is not about if we surrender, that is already preordained, it is about gaining a bit of an advantage, if he alone could come by and invade us, we surely should not meet up with the full force".

"These invaders are also trying to prevent their universe from entering the culling, maybe he wants to do something to force the hands of the primordials, anyway, even if he came seeking an alliance instead of allegiance, we would have fought as well, the less we lose now, the more we can spare later on, this invader knows that and that is why he came to talk instead of barging in with his weapons drawn".

Mir nodded, War was smart enough to strategise otherwise he would not have been named after something that can never be won without strategic thinking.

"When you go against him, don't fret about losing men just fight as if it is the culling we are facing, do your best, get us a better deal, at least we want the privilege to separate when we feel like it, otherwise, hopefully, he won't pose harsher terms if we could do nothing".

The words Mir left behind were extremely discouraging to many, but to War, they were enough to ignite his battle spirit, if not fighting for the right to live free, then what did they become gods for? To become slaves? NEVER!