Chapter 232

Afterwards, the events that unfolded… well, there’s no real need to go into painstaking detail, is there?

With this matter, I punished the gods involved and, while I was at it, dealt with most of the other gods as planned. The gods necessary for the world were made to swear they wouldn’t cause any more trouble before being temporarily put on hold.

In doing so, I managed to successfully weed out all the problematic deities after a thorough cleansing of the Divine Hall.

However, in exchange…

“Many gods can no longer deliver oracles, causing chaos among various temples. Thankfully, the Pilgrims of the Temple of Life are striving hard to bring order back to the situation….”

A girl resembling me but without horns, her hair pure white, spoke calmly.

As the Goddess of Life, my duty—handling the numerous prayers of countless humans—was once managed by an Automated Prayer Processing System. After upgrading it Hades-style, the result was this girl, a fragment of the Goddess of Life’s soul given form.

Unlike Hades, she has a proper physical body. All I did was lend her one avatar crafted from magic power…

Hmm… Would it be better if Hades also had a body like hers? I’ll ask him later.

“As the pilgrims work harder, faith in the Goddess of Life grows, along with the number of people praying. Ultimately, that means more work for me.”

“I’m sorry about that.”

“No, you don’t need to apologize. Everything you’ve done was calm and well-thought-out, coming from the great and almighty Goddess of Life. Surely, the benevolent Goddess who oversees all life wouldn’t have randomly knocked down all the gods just to declare herself the best and conquer the Divine Hall, right?”

“Well, it was a bit impulsive, but not thoughtless! And you’re kinda harsh, aren’t you?”

“That’s true. As a fragment, I might be taking after the original. If there’s a problem with me, shouldn’t you blame the original?”

The calm girl delivered a silent blow as she spoke. Watching her, I sighed.

Honestly… When I first created her, she was just a machine-like entity meant to listen and respond to prayers endlessly. How did she end up like this?

Of course, I admit my actions were a little too hasty!

“You have time for such sudden moves, but you haven’t even given me a proper name yet. I’m still stuck with that mechanical title: Automated Prayer Processing System.”

“Ah, sorry. I’ve been preoccupied with other things…”

Thanks to the Hades-like upgrade, her prayer-processing performance improved, but maybe her sense of self became too strong. Still, we can’t keep calling her ‘Automated Prayer Processing System’ forever. A name… Hmm. I should come up with something good.

“Hmm… Ashera… Asherat? How about Asherat?”

“Asherat… Not bad. I humbly accept the name. Please call me Asherat from now on, instead of that rigid Automated Prayer Processing System.”

Asherat bowed respectfully. Good. Though it was a name picked off the top of my head, seeing the slight upward curve of her lips, it seems she likes it.

With the increase in duties as the Goddess of Life expected in the future, I can’t afford to have issues with this child. No way.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Years passed.

It feels like everything went by too quickly, but what can you do? There was just so much to handle that time flew by unnoticed.

Still, focusing on the tasks paid off—chaos caused by the absence of several gods was appropriately mitigated.

Moreover, the newly appointed staff worked diligently.

“Here. These are the documents awaiting final approval. Please review and sign them.”

Winged goddesses—well, their status as goddesses has diminished significantly due to the drop in faith—were flying around here and there.

“Thank you for your hard work, Freyja.”

“Not at all. If this work helps us survive, I’m happy to do it.”

The golden-haired goddess Freyja smiled awkwardly.

When the Aesir fell, Freyja and the Valkyries disappeared. Now, they serve the Goddess of Life.

They’ve abandoned the name “Valkyrie,” adopting “Angels” as their new identity.

“Now there’s no more rebellion. We’re obedient, which is great.”

“W-well, I apologize for back then. Witnessing the downfall of the Aesir, our family, made the Valkyries a bit sensitive.”

There was some resistance initially, but it’s all resolved now.

I sealed and banished the most rebellious Valkyrie to the mortal realm, and the others started behaving immediately.

What was her name again? Brünnhilde? The Valkyrie I sealed?

Thanks to that, the remaining Valkyries turned tame like well-behaved dogs, helping the Goddess of Life as faithful servants, flying around everywhere.

“Still, I’m glad you’re here. Especially since I couldn’t personally oversee the blessings given to newborns anymore.”

As faith in the Goddess of Life grew, more people sought blessings for newly born children.

Previously, they prayed to their own deities for protection, but now everyone comes to me. Thanks to that, the Temple of Life expanded immensely. It’s now known as the Church of Life.

Though it might seem excessive, what can you do? They wanted it that way. Especially the dragons in the upper echelons of the Church of Life—they compiled every word I said, every action I took, into books.

Their embellishments made it look like a holy scripture. A very holy scripture.

“Can’t the Goddess of Life simply bless all newborn babies if She wishes?”

“Hmm… In the past, maybe. But now, it’s troublesome.”

At Zeus’s final moment, he cursed me: “The Goddess of Life will never set foot in the world of the living again.”

Because of that curse, whenever I try to enter the human world as the Goddess of Life, I get bounced back. Like hitting an invisible wall.

Of course, this only happens when I’m performing duties as the Goddess of Life. Otherwise, if I disguise myself, pretend to be a Dragon Priestess, or act as the Creator Dragon God, there’s no issue.

Honestly, it’s a weak curse—like a single strand of hair—but using it as an excuse let me reduce my trips to the mortal world.

And with the excuse that I can’t go to Earth, I brought Freyja and the Valkyries, remodeled them into angels, and handed over all earthly duties to them.

This significantly reduced Asherat’s burden, making her quite pleased.

“Anyway, this opportunity is important for us too. Sure, the workload is heavy, but now we can work without worrying about anything.”

Freyja’s words made me nod. (Former) Valkyries – (Current) Angels used to steal souls from the Grim Reaper, but now they receive clean souls from the Cloud Whale and place them into newborns.

While blessing the newborns, they check for memories of past lives, confirm there are no issues, and leave a small fingerprint mark on the bridge of the nose as proof.

Thanks to this, cases where children were born with memories of their previous lives have almost completely disappeared.

Indeed, increasing manpower is the best solution when work piles up.

“Hey, stop chatting and focus on your work!”

“Yes ma’am!”

Responding energetically to Asherat’s command, Freyja returned to her duties.

“Your Divinity should focus on your work too.”

“Pfft, my tasks are simple enough that I could pass them to you if needed. You’ve handled them perfectly fine when I was away.”

“That’s exactly the problem! Why should I do Your Divinity’s work?! Now even faith is gathering toward me!”

“That’s good, isn’t it? Maybe it’s time for you to become independent?”

“Do you know what would happen if I left? All the work I’m doing would flood back to the Goddess of Life!”

“Yep. That’s why… I can’t let you go!”

“I never planned to leave anyway. Sigh.”

Watching Asherat sigh, I chuckled softly.

“You should take breaks sometimes. How about bringing Hades from the Underworld to cover for you? Technically, he’s another fragment of mine, so you two are like sisters.”

“What about the pile-up of work during my break?”

“That part… Well, I’ll handle it. Believe it or not, I still manage the Goddess of Life duties when no one’s around.”

“That was when there was far less life compared to now. It’s incomparable.”

True enough.

With hundreds or thousands of interfering gods gone, dozens of surviving gods imprisoned in the Divine Hall, twelve Guardian Deities prepared to watch over them, and Sirius, the captain of the guardians overseeing the hall…

No gods remain to disturb the mortal world.

Those who walk upon the land began to flourish greatly.

Perhaps gods existed merely to suppress the overwhelming growth of life on earth? The population exploded.