Chapter 126

To a degree, Athenia had seen how things would unfold for the hero's party, yet the progress they'd made in a month had left even her staggered. She'd expected them to grow stronger, far more than they were, but to level a region of corruption to the ground–was beyond her foresight's capabilities.

'Father would've seen it coming.' She thought, pondering over her next move. The thing that made the most sense to her after a month-long contemplation, was coming clean to her chosen about her true identity and somehow getting them to continue following her commands. 'As if it'll be so easy. Their mind has been twisted, but their judgment has grown more shrewd.

An attempt to coax them into doing what I want without giving them a stake in this struggle would blow up in my face sooner or later.'

The chips had to fall on the table, from every single one of them. They needed something of their own motivating them, in addition to their quest to cleanse the world of evil forces.

'What could it be?' For Raven it was clear, he loved women and control, as well as his own egoistic self. His dream of a harem and being the richest king was not that impossible for Athenia to grant but if he had everything there would be no need for him to continue the struggle.

As for the others, their desires were a lot more complex. Aria the dark elf, truly wishes for little and the only mark she desires to achieve was her quest for power. Something there was little Athenia could directly help with. Mel and Amedith were the same, though they'd grown stronger their bond had turned weak, making it inevitable for them to fall apart eventually.

But could Athenia aid by mending their relationship somehow? Not in the least.

'I'm not my mother, I'm a goddess of cunning not fixing infidelity.' Moving on to Erika, Athenia knew that the priestess was the only one on a clear path to continue following her. The powers granted by Asmodia had strengthened her faith in Aphrodite, which in turn made her far more willing to continue on the current path.

'Being lax internally, the priestess may be the only one who won't question my order and simply follow it.'

"So what do you say I should do?" Sitting across herself, Athenia looked into her clone's eyes. "Tell them everything about the problems I have and the noble cause they're truly fighting for. Or just give them a reason to keep them from losing interest in saving their own world?"

"If I knew, why would I ask me?" Her clone replied, a tinge of sass reflected in her voice.

"Patronizing as always."

"I can say the very same for you."

"You're a bitch to talk to."

"I know." The conversation was obviously leading nowhere, and somehow her clone was winning the argument with her sass.

Glaring down her clone, Athenia wanted to choke herself out. However, as the clone noticed her rage, she playfully covered her upper body with her hands and teasingly responded.

"Never seen a pair of nice tits you pervert? Go on, shoo~ Grow a pair yourself," and that was the last thing the clone could muster before Athenia squeezed her fist and popped her clone like a blister. Splashed with her golden blood, she began wiping it all off, but then, in the middle of the cleanup, a moment of enlightenment struck her in the head.

"My blood…" Looking at her hand glistening with liquid gold, Athenia finally came up with an idea. "Divinity, what mortal won't desire it? The grand power to mold the world with their fingers, with nothing more than just a thought. If they can grant me my wishes, the gods and their council they–"

Sealing her lips as her mind delved deeper into the possibilities, what she came up with sounded like the perfect plan. At least, perfect in the sense that she would gain new heavenly underlings while also destroying the reign of other gods. Divinity, if nobody was looking over her shoulders, she could make her own council of demi-gods subservient to her.

But before that could ever happen, she had to make sure that the party defeats the forces of evil and reduces the influence and ultimately the other god's reign of Nerva's world.

The only issue with her plan? The possibility of another holy war, something she herself had been trying to avoid so far.

"I need a messenger, someone who could help me bribe the other gods to my side," if only she had someone who could connect with the other deities she could easily negotiate influence so long as she held the most power over Nerva's body.

'Their churches must have a way for Erika to connect with them, although being my mother's devout she would probably be turned away at the gates.' All that was left was for the party to find a weak link to somehow get into other god's churches. And after that? Athenia let them know how to connect with the other gods and relay her message.

'Divinity, bribes, and influence, those are the three pillars that I must erect to grow more influential not just on Nerva, but in the heavens as well.'

With plenty of rough edges in her plans to stand out, Athenia sunk back into her throne and kept pondering over every possible possibility given the circumstances so far. Upon exploring which, she ran into yet another trouble, an unstable leader, someone unfit to be the hero.

'I can't shift the title unless he dies. That title is more than just mere decoration for it to be left with him either. And given the circumstances…' Bringing up her seeing screen, Athenia glanced over what everyone from the party was busy doing currently. 'This doesn't seem ideal, if this continues, he might snap and well. Ughh…I chose you for a reason, Amedith.'

Peering into the hero's past, a past that not even he remembered, she found herself looking at a child held in the arms of a woman wedding to a long-dead magus.

'A creature of mana, so pure the gods envied them to extinction. The last of his line, and he's too less of a man to even keep his woman.' Watching what was unfolding at the Succubus's maze, Athenia knew that she would have to find a loophole for the transfer of title.