In the divine domain, separated from the mortal world, everything was in chaos. A god was killed by a wooden arrow and lines to restrooms extended till the horizon. Due to the high demand restrooms began appearing everywhere. The toilet business was booming. No being was spared from Igno’s undetectable virus. Even the almighty god of purity was attached to its toilet.

No matter how much power the gods used the situation did not change. Instead, it caused the situation to become worse. Because the world mainly relied on magic, science was not developed. Without science, analyzing the virus was impossible. Even if it was detectable. If they somehow did, then they would learn that Igno, being the asshole he was, had created the virus to be dependent on divine energy.

The divinity of the world was shooting their own foot trying to cure their illnesses. Their only escape was towards the mortal realm, where divine energy was lacking. With the only solution towards the world of mortals, the two sides would eventually clash. It did not help that a war was brewing. The death of a god was no small matter, well to the four it was not. Because of such reasons, a meeting of high tier gods was taking place… in a restroom.

To be exact, it was a large conference room with many accessible restrooms nearby. It could be considered a room with stalls isolated from each other. As the gods held care in their image, the main room consisted of pure white stone and golden decorations. In the center of the room was a large marble table with twelve chairs around it. At each spot, a god of grand power sat. Currently one of the seats was vacant.

The main goal of the conference was their future plans in the mortal world. Finding a way to deal with the current epidemic was secondary. Many of the gods had thought the rise of four master religion caused them to receive reduced prayers. With reduced prayers comes a reduced stream of belief magic.

Belief magic is a type of energy produced by every sentient being and was malleable. The nature of belief magic was a blank slate. In its purest form, it was the essence of creation. It could alter fate and produce miracles. This form of magic energy was created when a being places trust in anything. Be it a shield, another person, a sword, or charms, anything could receive and contain the energy.

Even if it was easily created and everywhere the amount was insignificant. The amount of energy produced by an average individual could not alter reality. If multiple people were involved the creation of belief magic was multiplied. Mental strength also plays a large part in its creation. Doubt and hesitation are the restraints to its mass production.

Because belief magic was pliable and able to do anything it was addicting. Even the so-called gods were weak to it. Withdraw symptoms should not be taken lightly.

“I know everyone is starving, but it is a must. Hold this meeting is our utmost priority,” spoke the god of knowledge.

“Yes, we know,” replied the god of wealth.

“Why don’t we just invade the mortal realm?” suggested the goddess of chaos.

Shaking her head, the goddess of strategy disagreed, “We should stay away from that-“

“Stop with your morals!” retorted the goddess of combat, “Not only are we losing believers, everyone is gathered around restrooms. Nothing productive is happening.”

“I agree,” god of defense nodded, “We do not know what the cause of the illnesses. Also, no level of healing magic seems to be able to fix it. From what I had heard, the angels in the mortal world aren’t affected by the illness.”

“Even he agrees,” god of production pointed, “With the given circumstances we are forced to descend. Even one of us was assassinated in the middle of an arch-angels troop.”

“By descending, many more problems would arise,” spoke the goddess of beauty.

“It doesn’t help that religion of the four whatever has power. All of us heard the messages. A formal war at a particular location. There’s a high chance it is a trap,” said the goddess of life, “Your thoughts, your majesty?”

The current god of gods, the ruler of the divine domain sat quietly. A dark expression covered his face. During the entire conference, he had not spoken a single word as he was in deep thought. In the current situation, the divine realm was being cornered. Most of the populous desired to go to war against the unknown enemy. In spite of their desires, there were too many unknowns if they waged a holy war.

“If I'm not mistaken, our enemies this time aren’t mortals,” spoke the god of gods, “Desyra of Desires, Sors of Fate, Menor of Memories, and Igno of Unknown.”

“Who are they? Unknown or fallen gods?” asked the god of knowledge, having no knowledge of the four odd names.

“It’s the people my daughter created the religion after. Even if the four masters in her religion are stealth, hunting, prediction, and wisdom. The true nature of the individuals is much vaguer.”

“Desires, fate, memories, and the unknown,” the goddess of strategy pondered, “Are they gods created by the new religion? If so why don’t we invite them here?”

“No, they are not gods. In truth, I don’t know if they are mortal, immortal or something else. To receive respect from my daughter is no easy task. You all had heard of her odd leap in power, so they are peculiar.”

“They don’t seem that strong,” the goddess of combat laughed, “If it’s only those four then our numbers can suppress them.”

“You combat freak, have you heard about the explosion the other day?” said the god of defense.

“ANYWAYS, the current productivity is at a halt with no relief in sight. Also if we don’t act our subordinates would get rowdy as one of our own has fallen,” said the god of knowledge, “We don’t have a choice with the declaration of war spreading among the angels.”

“There’s got to be another way. Foresight could not see anything in the future. No war, no conflict, no harmony, just void. Do you believe we would have a chance at victory?” stated the goddess of strategy.

Falling into a debate, the gods and goddesses wagered the pros and cons. Most of them hade align themselves with war faction. While a few feared the possibility seen by the god of foresight. No matter how stubborn both sides were, one side had to cave in. The ones to do so were the doves, who desired no conflict.

With the engagements arranged everyone prepared to leave. The god of gods spoke one last thing: “Be careful, even if we are gods we can still die. Don’t underestimate the four. My daughter told me they stood at the peak of their respective powers. Who knows what they could do. Especially the one called Menor.”

“Don’t worry your majesty. That person is of memories, so they probably only work with mind manipulation. Such a simple thing won’t be the end of us,” proudly stated the goddess of combat, “If he’s the strongest then the others would be weaker.”

Seeing the backs of his subordinates, the gods of gods sighed. He did not know things would unfold. His intuition told him he would be forced to participate but he hoped he would not. Getting up he remembered a single line of text from when he first appeared:

Death is to forget, and a true death is to be forgotten.

Back in the distant past too far to recall, that phrase was spread to many worlds. Yet it was covered by time and soon forgotten as it said itself. Its true purpose was to guide, but now it represents something else.

In the mortal world, Memora had finished dispatching the few selected troops and mercenaries. She sent them to the battlefield, beforehand, making sure they were hidden under the earth. As she knew how to use spacial displacement so she was in no rush.

She waited for her father and her companions. She wanted to make sure the four would not run in and prematurely strike. They eventually arrived an hour before the scheduled time.

“Where have you guys been?” Memora asked.

“A bit of reading,” Menor replied.

“A stroll,” Sors said.

“Talked to Astra,” Desyra said.

“Sleeping,” Igno yawned.

“Ignoring Sors, it doesn’t seem any of you caused any problems yet,” Memora said, “So through detection magic, the divinity had agreed with our proposal, kinda. A few armies were sent around the area to set up ambushes. Luckily their mental state was damaged for some reason. Their numbers surpass- I don’t know, maybe a trillion at least. Belief magic is being to create an unstable core-like structure. They’re probably using it to create an endless stream of fodder… What did you guys do? ”

The four turned away from Memora as she explained the situation. Apparently, the locations that Menor, Sors, and Desyra had gone to do their business were full of pests. They thought it would be a great warm-up before the war. The only reason Memora did not know this was because they had isolated the areas.

“Well that takes care of the ambushes,” said Memora, depressed. She had a perfect plan to bait the ambushes, however, it was all for naught.

After a bit more talking, they all agreed to a simple plan. Igno would deal with the endless fodder. Desyra was to take care of the armies, while Sors and Menor dealt with the gods and goddesses. The plan for everyone else was just to survive. If unexpected things happen they would have to adapt.

With all things set and done they headed to the battlefield. Arriving at the area they saw a flat and endless field of stone. There were no obstacles that blocked the horizon. No mountains, no trees, not a single bit of shrubbery. Only the cloudless sky and the flat ground could be seen. Oddly enough there was neither a sun nor stars, but everything was lit. It was as if the sky rained light upon the world with no glares.

“How deep does this go?” Igno asked.

“A few kilometers,” Memora answered. “It’ll grow deeper when divine magic is present.”

Laughing, Igno spoke, “Great minds think alike.”

“Hm? Since when did we have the same level of intelligence?”

“I lowered mine to compensate for yours.”

“Proves that you can only become dumber.”

“Hey! You two, they’re here,” Sors called.

In the far distance waves of angels emerged. The magic balance of the world had fallen from equilibrium, igniting the magic systems of the sub-space. Divinity had a very bad habit of emitting divine energy. Not long after the sky was blocked by the countless winged humanoids. Along the ground, a sea of beasts covered the earth. Leading the charge was a group of gods.

The normal humans were overwhelmed by the immense pressure and fainted. With a displeased look Memora sent them away and revoked their pay.

“So it's nine vs... I’m going to say a lot,” Desyra observed. “They need to bring more numbers.”

“It’s exactly 29,306,752,084,391,673,290 disregarding the, to be, endless golems.” Sors shrugged.

“They’re gonna fall for it,” Igno said, wiping the drool from his mouth.

“I guess warfare on this scale is rare outside of a non-dimensional community.” Menor snickered.

“U-umm, Furias are you sure we would win this?” Imata asked, nervously.

“You girls don’t have to worry,” Memora answered, “Just stick close to me. Father and the bunch would draw most of the agro.”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Vendra prayed.

Throwing pills to the old heroes, Desyra told them they should quickly consume those. The pills would be able to protect them for the entire war.

Menor who took the role as the representative walked towards the opponent. From their side, they sent a goddess, the goddess of strategy. As the goddess was at least two times his height Menor looked puny. Without a worry he greeted her.

Exchanging a few pleasantries the goddess requested a truce. She had no desire to waste lives. Unfortunately, Menor did not care. Even with reasonable arguments that his small groups of fighters were vastly outnumbered. When his stubbornness was obvious the goddess sighed, she could not understand how such a being could be so confident. Menor laughed and called it idiocy.

“You really are a fool,” spoke the goddess.

“To fool the fool one must play the fool to fool the fool who wants to fool you,” Menor spoke.

“You believe us to be fools?”

“Of course you all deserted your home just because of a simple poison.”

“So you caused it,” she glared

“Not exactly,” Menor replied glancing at Igno.

With the peace talk resulting in failure, the two representatives returned to their forces. One had a displeased look while the other was carefree. The thoughts of the two sides had never aligned. The side of the nine’s goal was to mess around, while the seamlessly ending forces of the gods were forced.

As depicted in all of time, the first move initiated the war. Being the, oh so kind, android she was, Sors conducted the opening move. She extended her arms and swung them towards the ground. As her fists flew down various panels on her arms popped open. Heat ruptured from her body.

When the opponent saw her actions they quickly retaliated. The goddess of combat yelled for the angels to deliver divine retribution against the “foolish mortals”. With her words, every single angel, no matter their standing, threw spears of divine energy at the four. The light produced by the endless streams of spears turned the world white.

The approaching barrage of light held the destructive force that could wipe out an entire continent, moving faster than light. However small smiles appeared on Memora’s and the four’s faces. Before the spears could reach them, an invisible barrier appeared. Like a rubber ball against a wall, the spears were reflected back into the sky. The concentrated attack had turned into a barrage of anti-air bullet hell of divine energy.

Due to Memora’s devious nature, when the spears were reflected their destructive force and speed had increased a hundredfold. The once sky covering army of angels began to fall like flies. As light could travel at near an instant not a single divine entity could avoid them.

Along with the blinding light, the ground suddenly evaporated, never having the chance of becoming liquid. The heat produced from the ground incinerated any living being standing on it. Black ash was the only thing that remained of those who died. Not even those of divinity could endure such unimaginable temperatures.

In less than a minute the once overwhelming armies that covered both the sky and the land vanished. The only remaining survivors were the gods, goddesses, and the highest tier of divine beasts and angels. Even they were heavily wounded. While the four, the old heroes, and Memora had not received the slightest bit of damage.

After the light faded the barren field of stone had turned into a sea of achromatized lava. Clouds of ash filled the air and blocked the sky. Where the four stood was an immense tree of grey. Its falling leaves of pure white mixed with the black ash gave the impression of nihility and dread.

When the stone was going through sublimation Memora had raised a tree that feasted on heat and cinders. Due to its original habitat, it held a ghostly appearance. Its roots had spread far and wide creating bridges above the white flames underneath.

“Oh damn, OH DAMN!” Sors shouted stretching her limbs, “That felt so damn good!”

Shivering, Desyra replied, “Oh my, does that actually feel that good?”

“Do you understand the joy of releasing the amount of pressure that was built up in this body,” Sors spoke, freezing after hearing laughter. “At least we now know who has an indecent mind.”

“Um…” Igno attempted to stifle his chuckle, “They’re reviving!”

“This tree is sturdy,” Menor commented, “Did you develop it based on the theories around heat resistance?”

“It’s just something I threw together,” Memora answered in glee after being praised.

“You guys ignore me now?” Igno muttered.

“Nope,” Sors answered, raising a sleek rifle.

On the other’s side, no one could have expected such an attack. The once mighty army that could shake the world had vanished. Fear and despair filled their minds. Underestimating the enemy was an understatement, it was as if the immortal world of the heavens were mortals facing gods.

With heavy breaths, the goddess of combat huffed, “Those… those bastards…”

Having long fell into insanity, the goddess of chaos laughed, “Ha-haha hahaha! This-HAHAHAHA. This…”

“…” The god of defense was silent. He failed his duty.

With a surge of divine energy, the goddess of life released an enormous amount of power. Another flash of light filled the desaturated world. When vision was returned, countless angels and divine beasts were revived. However, as a consequence, the goddess of life fell to her knees. Coughing golden blood she had no energy left to move. Even using all of her power she could only revive half of the casualties and healed everyone’s wounds. Unknown to her, the sub-world had weakened every person in it. Luckily she was able to revive the stronger half of the heavenly army.

Running up to the goddess of life, the goddess of strategy said, “Rest, you need to rest don’t try to do anymore-“

PENG!

Before she could finish her words a single bullet had hit the goddess of life’s head. Losing all strength in her body the goddess fell to the ground. The shot was not lethal, but the goddess’s body began to be petrified. Soon the goddess of life became a statue. Nothing in their power could revert the process.

Everyone turned their heads to where the bullet was shot. Off in the distance, they saw Sors with a long pipe in her hand. Smoke was rising from the nozzle. She was sneering.

Another god had fallen and their forces reduced. Angst had spread through the ranks. Could they win? Could they even survive to see another day?

“Why are our knees on the ground!” the goddess of combat shouted, standing up, “Where was our might!? Where was our pride!? Since when did we cower!? Are we not the army who pushed back the devil!? Are we not the ones that still stood after a sea of corpses!? ARE WE WEAK!?”

“NO!” A thunderous cry rang out.

“HAD THE TRANQUIL DAYS MADE US RUST?!”

“NO!”

“HAD WE ONCE FLED FROM OUR FOES?!”

“NO!”

“WE HAVE NOT! SO WHY ARE WE CONSUMED BY FEAR! FACE DEATH AND LIVE FOR HONOR AND ETERNAL GLORY! FIGHT TILL THE LAST LIGHT FADES! LIKE THE ANCIENT WAR OF DAY AND NIGHT! MAY THE RADIANT LIGHT BURN UNTIL THE END OF DAYS!”

“AS THE DIVINE WILLS!”

With a world-shaking cheer, the blanket of despair burnt away. Throwing away all fear every divine being charged forward. Leading the forces the goddess of combat darted forward. Her single speech cleared the clouded minds of her allies. Even the other gods felt the rush of adrenaline.

Knowing the heavens may fall nothing would be restrained. The god of defense and the god of production retreated to the backlines. They prepare the spell of endless troops. The goddess of strategy and the god of knowledge sustain communication between all forces and commanded them. Everyone else prepared to engage. Not everyone charged out at once. If they did friendly fire was guaranteed.

Above the stampede of heavenly beasts and angels, the skies illuminated. With the combined might of the divine army, the goddess of combat’s divine blessing covered the field. Under the light, all of the forces of the heavens had their powers elevated. Their full might was on display. The restrictions given by the sub-world was cleansed.

Watching the approaching enemies, the four walked forward.

“Come,” Igno licked his lips, “May you be reminded of the fear of the unknown.”

“Foolish,” Desyra giggled, “Your desire to win and survive just makes me stronger.”

“Time to dance,” said Sors, “Fate was never on your side.”

“These lines,” Menor muttered, “Whatever, ignorance is truly bliss.”

Charging to meet the opposition the four split up. Each of them headed off in a different direction. Igno’s body transformed into a suit of light armor with oceans of acid leaving his body. Sors’ attire shined and changed into a fairly loose, short-sleeved dress. In her hands were a revolver and a saber of air. Desyra had forgone her coat and was left in skin tight clothes. Around her, countless blades danced through the air. Menor kept his mundane outfit, but appearing in the area around him cyan flames danced. While his eyes were void of all emotions.

As the four left for battle, Memora and the old hero party held a variety of reactions.

“Do you have a transformation like that?” Furias asked.

“…” Memora stayed quiet.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Furias smiled, “Anyways looks like our old friends are coming. Imata, Astra lets go. Um… Vendra stick with Memora.”