The Cursed Swordsman

Chapter 11: Desperate

———

As Claus and his army had been preparing to mobilize in the coming spring, the Gods had to call an emergency meeting to deal with this threat. But of course, as with all divine meetings, the lesser gods and goddesses were shouting and freaking out, not listening to a word of what Hae, the organizer of the meetings, was saying at all.

"Order! Guys! I said order!" Hae shouts loudly trying to get everyone to calm down so they can do something with this meeting instead of panic. But it clearly wasn't working at all.

Fed up with all the noise and lack of productivity, Veto stands up from his chair and walks up to one of the Gods freaking out the most. "SHUT UP!!!!!" He roars and punches the god in front of him, sending him out of the room and subsequently getting everyone's attention. "Finally." He says and takes his seat again.

Everyone went silent. After all, that was the first time Veto had ever raised his voice that loudly before. "Um...thank you, Mr. Veto." Hae says and brings out her notes. "Okay everyone, we have a lot to get through. We need to do something about these crazies running around." She says.

"And what you expect we do?! Run at him and let him kill us all?!" A minor god complains.

"It's a thing call strategy. I don't know if you've heard of it." Damien says as he plops a stack of papers on the huge table. "I've printed out information sheets of everyone in the enemy army. I don't expect any of you to read them, but at least take them so you at least put up a fight."

"Someone's awfully confident in themselves." Enya growls. "You think you can beat this guy, small fry?" She asked.

"I doubt you can either, muscle head." Damien spits her insult back at her and places a packet of papers in front of her. "I don't even know if you can read, but try to keep up anyway."

"Tsk..." Enya groans and leans back in her chair, her huge frame making it creak.

"Should we really be doing this now? Lacie is not here to help us out at the moment." Aella says with a sigh.

"That can't be helped. She's locked herself in her temple, and doesn't seem interested in coming out." Hae says.

"And what of Tine? Last I heard, she was attacked by this madman." Cerys asked. "She's your student, Damien."

"Tine is alive. Last I saw her, she went to Lacie's temple to thank her for saving her, but I haven't seen her since myself." Damien says.

"Okay. So what's the plan?" Aileus asked.

"I'm glad you asked, my sunny friend." Damien says. "Simple. We pick them off one by one until we stand a chance against Claus."

"That's it?" Enya asked.

"Got a better idea?" Veto asked. "For someone so opposed to what everyone says, you haven't offered much in the way of action."

Enya growls and stands up. "This is a waste of my time." She says.

"If you don't wish to die, I suggest you stay seated." Aileus says.

"Yeah? Why should I listen to what you runts have to say? We outnumber the bastards. Let's just crush them!" She slams the wall and walks out.

"She's a dead woman." Veto sighs and leans in his chair.

"I feel like we're also blowing this way out of proportion." Damien says, looking to all the minor and unnamed gods and goddesses. "He's just one man. Once we remove his tricky generals out of the picture, he can't possibly handle every god in the multiverse." He says. "So we need to take decisive action and make a move."

"Agreed." Veto nods.

Once everyone realizes that what Damien said was true, they nod along, and slowly start to calm down. "Okay, seems everyone is on board. What's the plan?" Aileus smiles.

"Well, we're gods. We have people that can control the weather. If they decide to dig in for the winter, then we'll make things worse for them." Damien says with a smile and turns to a blue haired woman in the room.

"Me?" She asked.

"You're the Goddess of the North, Lumi. Snow is your thing." Cerys says.

"Tres bien, Monsieur Damien." A French Goddess spoke up.

"Thank you, Madam Roux."

"What about the generals? They're probably more trouble than the foot soldiers. I would know." Aileus says.

"I fought a pair myself. Only one was a problem, but even then, she was easy to manipulate." Aella says with a wicked grin.

"I call dibs on Kheios and Sharp. I still need my rematch against those two." Aileus says with a smirk.

"You'll get your grudge match. But right now, we play the waiting game and wear their soldiers out with a harsh winter." Damien says, matching Aileus's smirk. "Eponine, don't bless the Temple of Storms with a good harvest this winter! As much as it pains me to say this, but we have some people to starve."

"Heh. You got it." Eponine, the Goddess of Abundance, leans back in her chair with a grin.

"Then I guess that means it's meeting adjourned!" Hae says with a smile. "Good job everyone, be sure to grab a cookie on the way out! This holiday season, everyone has vacation!"

———

As Damien returns to his temple, he's greeted by Ava at the doors. "Welcome back, Lord Damien! How was the meeting?" She asked with a smile.

"Surprisingly productive for once." Damien sighs and walks by her.

"May I ask what happened? Or is that stepping out of line?" Ava asked curiously as she followed behind him.

"Sorry, but I can't disclose that. After all, it's a pretty strict rule between gods." Damien says.

"Ahh, I see..." Ava pouts and continues to follow him and soon starts to help him with his research. "Lord Damien? About those packets of paper you had me print out. You're sure you got every person in that army?" She asked.

"Haha. I'm sure. I'm not the God of Wisdom for nothing, you know. Here, you can have a look for yourself." Damien said as he handed her a packet.

Ava smiles and begins skimming through it. She was actually surprised by how much detail there was on the pages. Once she reached the last page, her surprise turned into horror. "Uhh...Lord Damien? Why am...I in this packet?" She asked with a nervous smile. She even double checked the page and noticed there was red stamp in the top corner saying "Captured" in bold red.

Damien said nothing, and only smiled. "Like I said. I'm not the God of Wisdom for nothing." He says.