After the gathering led by Odin ended, the Supreme Gods, including myself, moved to another location for a separate meeting. Essentially, we were the ones who would lead this place after Odin's destruction.
Seated around me at the head of the table were Zeus, Allah, Thor, Pangu, Chiyou, Mitra, and Ra.
The names of the current Supreme Gods were famous god names from Earth's past. But the Supreme Gods themselves didn't really know what their names meant. Moreover, gods absolutely never brought up the past, to the point where even asking each other about it was taboo.
Anyway, for gods, while romance might exist, the concept of marriage didn't, so there was no such thing as family as a community of shared destiny. What's the point of marriage when you can't have children? Especially given how most gods hated being tied down, nobody ever mentioned marriage. So no matter how close you were with another god, if you really got down to it, they were ultimately strangers.
"So instead of everyone just sitting here quietly, how about we come up with some countermeasures?"
Ra opened the floodgates, apparently displeased that everyone was just sizing each other up.
"Are countermeasures really necessary? We should just let things flow naturally..."
Allah responded to Ra's words in a leisurely tone.
"That's exactly it! Aren't gods the ones who change that natural flow? How we'll restrict them and who'll take on that role—isn't that why we're all gathered here?"
At Allah's words, Ra spoke up again as if frustrated.
"Ah! Don't get so worked up. We didn't gather here to argue, did we? From what I can see, Allah was just stating his opinion, but you're coming on way too strong."
Pangu jumped in, trying to mediate.
"You call that an opinion and you're taking his side?"
"What do you mean, taking sides, Mitra!"
"Judging by how you're raising your voice, looks like I hit a nerve, huh?"
Is this really a meeting of Supreme Gods? Even after living through eons, their mental age always stays the same...
"That's enough, everyone."
At my single word, they shut their mouths as if they'd never been bickering and arguing with each other. Rather than following my words because I'm the only woman among the Supreme Gods, it's because they're conscious of the immense power I possess.
They still remember clearly who killed Armageddon, the leader of Chaos, right before their eyes.
"Lady Artemis, do you have any bright ideas?"
"Let's keep things as they are, with an eight-member Supreme God council deciding policy together. One person ruling alone—only Odin could do that. I don't even want to think about someone else taking that seat."
Everyone nodded. They wanted the huge prize that was Valhalla, but sharing it seemed like the best option.
They didn't dare say it out loud because they were conscious of me, but since I brought it up myself, they had no reason to object.
"Then it's settled. Let's end the meeting now."
"Sounds good. Thanks for your hard work, everyone."
"Good work."
As if this was what everyone wanted, they exchanged pleasantries and left the conference room. I followed behind the Supreme Gods as well.
After leaving the building made of massive pillars of light, Luna and Ariel were waiting for me at the door.
"Sorry. Did you wait long?"
"No."
Luna shook her head, denying it.
"Luna will probably receive Supreme God status soon too."
"Probably."
Her face was full of anticipation. Ah, am I finally going to be free from only seeing gloomy male gods? Well, it's only an occasional meeting anyway...
"Oh! Lady Artemis, did you know?"
"Hmm?"
At Luna's sudden words, I asked with a puzzled expression.
"There's this game that's been popular in the divine realm lately."
"A game?"
In other words, entertainment. Naturally, I asked with an interested expression. The dry life of the divine realm makes you thirsty for entertainment.
"Hmm~ Guess you don't know about it. It's called Abyss—a dimension built on one of the dimensional systems that Odin created. Originally, it was made as an official dimension, but because Odin's strength ran out, it ended up half-finished."
"Why's that?"
"Because Odin invested the massive karma collected this time to complete the dimension. But because it was completed so late, it got warped into something strange."
"What do you mean by strange?"
"The negation of divinity. It became a space where divine intervention is impossible."
"Hmm..."
That sounded like a dimension corrupted by Chaos. Did she guess my concern?
"But Odin said that while there's no Chaos interference, since the case is special, let's leave it be, and many gods in Valhalla observed it. And they created an interesting system."
"Interesting system?"
"Yes. The avatar system."
Avatar...
"Think of it as a kind of recreational concept. Escaping from the body of a transcendent being and living while wearing the shell of an ordinary organism."
"But didn't you say it was a recently completed dimension?"
Naturally, what's the point of recreation in a place with nothing...
"No. It was already a created dimension, just incomplete. It was just completed now. You know what completion means, right?"
"Ah..."
Only then did I nod. Completion meant stabilization. It meant a system that had been running incompletely had reached stability. This meant it had found order and had its own causality.
"But why can't gods intervene?"
"Odin seems to think it's related to Yggdrasil."
The primordial World Tree. There was definitely a possibility. The secret of the World Tree... My eyes lit up. That was the realm of immense power called Creation, beyond Supreme Gods.
A realm of the unknown not permitted to current gods. And I was the being closest to that realm of Creation.
Naturally, it would be strange not to be greedy for it. But if Luna was explaining this to me, many gods must already know about it.
But why didn't I know about it? Of course, the biggest reason was that I didn't visit Valhalla often.
But even finding out late, it wasn't a problem for me. After all, the realm of Creation was a realm allowed to those who were prepared. If fate connected us, I could access it anytime.
"I see. So did Odin permit the avatar system?"
"If it wasn't tacit approval, the gods wouldn't have tried it. Anyway, many gods have been using it for years now."
Years... Sure, short by human standards, but by gods' standards, it's like a blink of an eye.
"Hmm. Sounds like Luna already has an avatar too?"
"Yes~"
And then I spent a while listening to Luna's explanation of the avatar system.
The Abyss dimension. Like most dimensions, there existed galaxies with numerous civilizations. Among them were places similar to the modern era I'd lived in, and highly advanced civilizations with far more developed science. And there were civilizations where magic and swords ruled the world, and civilizations with very primitive cultures.
And not all those civilizations were built by humans alone. All of this was no different from other dimensions, but still, one thing—divinity had no power there.
In other words, directly exercising physical force with a god's body was impossible. Of course, even in normal dimensions, prolonged descent is impossible to prevent dimensional collapse, but in this Abyss, even that brief moment is impossible.
So what is the avatar system?
Simply put, it meant creating another body for yourself in this Abyss dimension. This is possible within the limits of not breaking Abyss's laws. In other words, being newly born is impossible, but you can take over a body destined to die.
Or there's a method of making a contract with a living being, but I'm certain this is a method used by demon gods who can only access indirectly, rather than gods who can directly interfere with the Abyss dimension.
Opposite to obtaining a body, the method of making a contract and controlling the contractor might give you vicarious satisfaction as a third person, but it's hard to feel direct fulfillment.
But this avatar system can't be made just any old way. You have to find a body that matches your wavelength, so it requires quite a delicate selection process and takes a lot of time. But from a god's perspective, with time to spare, that level of waiting was nothing.
And finally, with the expectation that I could resolve this lust, I returned to Astarte with Ariel.