Once again: how many die, and what the "quality" of the dead is—this determines how much divine power the death god can gain from that instance of \[Death].
If there were no cycle of life and soul, it would be a one-shot deal.
The amount of \[Death] occurring in the Greek world sets both the growth and the ceiling of Hades's divine power.
On this point, the Greek world has almost no chance of catching up to Ginnungagap. The mortal population base says it all—unless the Olympians somehow abduct hundreds of millions of Ginnungagap's people and other creatures, haul them to the Greek world, and slaughter them all there. Otherwise, in most scenarios, Hades is destined to be suppressed by Hel.
The total \[Death] in a world is a roughly fixed number, determined by the number of living.
\[Ocean] is different.
Except for those mythical true dead seas that have only water and no life, most oceans themselves can provide inexhaustible divine power to the god of the sea.
There aren't many sapient creatures in seawater; low-intelligence life contributes a trivial trickle of power—but the numbers are overwhelming. In Atlantis alone, tiny krill may number in the tens of trillions, or weigh over a hundred million tons!
As the base food for most marine life, krill feed vast fish populations and complete the oceanic food chain.
All of Atlantis's bounty brings Poseidon a near-endless supply of divine power.
That's why Thalos planned to target Poseidon first.
After a round of discussion, the plan was basically set.
What remained was patching gaps and shoring up weak points.
Thalos swept his gaze over the God-Kings. "After these battles, you should have a read on your own combat power. Since we'll deploy targeted tactics, the enemy will do the same. Baldr, Brigid, and Yekaterina—you three handle defense on Ginnungagap's lower tier. Don't go to the neutral zones."
Frigga hesitated to speak, but when she saw her scrawny son Baldr looking visibly relieved, she could only sigh and hold her tongue.
Her fine eldest boy just didn't measure up. Not that pure-blood Æsir are weak—Heimdall, with even purer blood, can still really fight, can't he?
The other two goddess-kings wore similar expressions.
Sometimes that's how it is—until you take a beating in the field, you don't realize how green you are.
Brigid was better off—at least she fought at true-god level. Yekaterina was purely a command type, unsuited to charging the front lines. By keeping the three siblings back, Thalos meant to leverage home-field advantage so their strength would count for more.
What Thalos didn't expect was that the "dog-head" and Enkidu also requested to stay.
Anubis's voice buzzed. "Father-God! I preside over judgment in Helheim, and I excel at law and warding. In neutral or hostile worlds, my divine power won't fully manifest. I request to remain."
Enkidu's reasoning was similar. But Thalos knew Enkidu was deliberately yielding to Gilgamesh. The Sumerian contingent's support was limited—rather than splitting resources for two, better to leave them all to the Golden One!
Which meant that among the six God-Kings, the Golden One would be the one to stand out.
Luckily, this wasn't a crown-prince contest. Even if Gilgamesh became acknowledged as the strongest God-King, it wouldn't change the Æsir's political balance—at most, other branch pantheons would have fewer political resources to claim.
Thalos fixed his gaze on Gilgamesh. "My son, be careful. Thor, Hel, and Tyr are all veterans. Among peers, you are the breakthrough point."
The Golden One straightened. "I beg Father-King, on the eve of battle, lend me two more \[World-Swords]."
"Granted." With a single word, Thalos settled it. He thought for a moment, then, with a hint of mischief: "I've got it—I'll grant you an extra divine office."
"Ah?" The Golden One was stunned. A divine office isn't something you can cram for at the last minute. An unfamiliar domain can backfire in combat.
"Don't worry. It will suit you."
The Æsir were tailoring their plans; the Olympians were doing the same.
In the temple on the sacred mountain, the gods argued fiercely over which Æsir God-King was the weaker target. In the coming battle, if they failed again to notch results, the slave gods below might become unmanageable.
Zeus wasn't afraid of the slave gods themselves. What concerned him was that if an entire vassal pantheon rebelled and he had to wipe them out, who would then manage those subordinate worlds and refine enough tribute power for Olympus? That would be a problem.
With slave gods falling in droves, the power drawn from vassal worlds was shrinking visibly to the naked eye.
That was very bad.
On whom to focus fire, Ares first proposed taking down Thor. "That thunder god Thor—his defense has to be the weakest."
Thunder, after all—everyone gets it.
A pure thunder god is the quintessential glass cannon.
While he can one-shot the enemy, he can be one-shot himself.
Athena shook her head. "No. Though Thor's only domain is lightning, he carries a \[World-Sword], and his body's toughness rivals a Titan's."
That one sentence left the gods silent.
As the Æsir crown prince, Thor's privileges were infuriatingly high—and they believed he had captured Artemis (the Olympians had it wrong; they thought the huntress was taken by Thor).
Poseidon floated a name. "Tyr?"
Hades immediately vetoed it. "The war god of a great pantheon won't be weak."
Right, Ares?!
Poseidon shot Ares a look and held his tongue.
Athena said carefully, "I propose prioritizing the kill on Gilgamesh. Because his domain is \[God of Wealth]!"
Wealth—say no more.
Have you seen Hermes? With the \[Commerce] domain, the guy fights at true-god level.
Ahem. With God-King resources, producing true-god performance. If he weren't known to be a messenger and runner, you'd call him the shame of God-Kings.
Anyway.
Zeus and the other God-Kings quickly reached consensus—they would snipe Gilgamesh.
"Apollo, you'll stay this time." Zeus spoke in a soothing tone, resting a hand on Apollo's shoulder with fatherly warmth.
"Yes…" Apollo bowed.
He knew his relationship with his father could never return to what it was. So long as Queen Hera stood between them, the rift between him and the Olympians would only widen.
Another god might already be planning an exit.
Apollo would not—because he was the god of light!
Zeus and his cohort schemed to the hilt, yet none of them imagined that Thalos's target… was Poseidon.
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