บท 13: An Uproar as the day draws nearer (NEW)

The rumors of Cattleya being the mother of the prophesied 'child of destruction' spread like wildfire. It caused an uproar among all those who heard, naturally some did not believe this but after being shown the appearance of a five-month pregnant Cattleya, their disbelief quickly turned into belief.

Various pantheons had various reactions to this and of course, some decided to make an attempt on Cattleya's life.

The assassins definitely did not expect chains of causality to burst out of thin air and drag them into an unknown void.

A public assassination attempt revealed the law of causality's protection on her life causing the gods to feel aggrieved.

This discovery then led many beings to ask the question of how her identity was discovered, however, it did not take them long to find out that she was the one who spread the information herself.

This made many gods enraged as they felt she led them by the nose, sadly, they could do nothing but sit back and bite their thumbs as any hostile action would be met with the repercussions of causality.

Some felt that although they could do nothing to her, her family members, loved ones, and close associates were not off-limits. Unfortunately, all attacks and attempts on their lives were complete failures as the strengths of the beings Cattleya was surrounded by were nothing to scoff at.

Her brother, Creusery, showed the world once again why he was known by the moniker of 'Black Phoenix', with his excellent flame control that turned all the assailants to ashes in seconds.

Creuserey and Cattleya were born from different mothers and for the devil race, although they valued bloodlines, they were not as elitist as other races that do so. As such, both of them were accepted without issue even though they both were not pureblood devils.

Cattleya's mother was the Grand Duchess of the Leviathan Devils, the Devil of Envy, Inglis. She inherited her mother's energy manipulation talents along with her father's talent for the sword. She was skilled enough to be considered one of the most proficient swordswomen in the Devildom, save the Devils of the Duchy of Asmodeus.

Creusery's mother was one of the strongest phoenixes hell has ever known. He inherited her powerful flames and mastery over all forms of fire. Mixed with his devil blood, his flames turned a deep black color, unlike his mother's bright red.

His black flames were due to his 'Annihilation' ability that he possessed a member of the Devilian royal family, that allowed him to burn almost anything, ignoring their defenses, either magical, physical, or spiritual. Of course, he could also select what he wanted to be burnt and what he wanted to remain untouched.

The attacks on Cattleya's mother ended up with the assailants being used as test subjects for various magical and alchemical experiments of hers. She even asked for more to be sent her way as she needed more test subjects.

Although things would have been so easy in the event of a full-scale war, no one was foolish enough to start one against the devils of hell in this delicate time.

The other universes controlled by the devils, and other enemies of the gods in the forms of giants, titans, fallen celestials, demons, and many more all anticipated the birth of a child that could end the arrogance of the god race.

Another matter that was brought up was that of the identity of the child's father but Cattleya only gave vague answers, leaving everyone in suspense.

Of course, in secret, Cattleya and her dark-haired best friend met on more than just one occasion.

"So mind telling me why you decided to reveal that you were carrying the child spoken of in that damn prophecy?"

He asked with a look of pure curiosity as he didn't seem even the slightest bit angry about the issue.

"If they were going to find out eventually, why not tell them earlier, it changes nothing."

Cattleya shrugged her shoulders as she replied. Her companion, however, interpreted her words a bit differently.

"So you were bored and wanted to cause some chaos so you took advantage of the fact that they were all scrambling for information on the prophesied child's parents and used it to cause greater chaos."

"Exactly, you know my thought process so well."

"Hard not to when I've known you for a millennium. I've also had to personally experience the results of some of your weird thought processes."

As he said that, he recalled a few of the ridiculous situations she had put him through over the decades before sighing in exasperation. The duo then continued their meal as they moved on to other topics.

◇　◇　◇

While the culprit of the chaos was enjoying a meal with her best friend, others were counting down the days to when the child of prophecy would be born. One of them was Apollo, the Olympian god of the sun.

"If she got pregnant in spring, I'd say we should be expecting the child's birth in winter."

He sighed lightly before continuing,

"It's currently late autumn, we've only got about three months left, these are gonna turn out to be a very long set of three months."

◇　◇　◇

As if to mock the words spoken by Apollo, the three months passed by a lot faster than he could have ever expected. Naturally, he was not alone in his thoughts.

Not long ago they were counting down in months, now they were counting down in weeks. Based on their predictions, they expected the child to be born during the last week of the year or the first week of the next.

At this point in time, the entirety of the Hell universe was on high alert. Even Cattleya knew better than to waltz around carelessly, even more so when she noticed the protection of causality getting weaker by the day.

If she could feel the protection weakening, who's to say that others could not, provided they were perceptive enough. If word of this got out, the gods would take this chance to end her once and for all, not caring for the consequences.

As the predicted time drew nearer, many asked questions concerning the unborn child.

"Would he have the same protection as his mother?"

"Would he really be the only one of his kind?"

"Would he actually possess the strength to kill the gods?"

These and many more were asked, however, there was no one to give them the answers they desired. Eventually, they gave up on asking questions and quietly waited for the day of black sun to arrive.

◇　◇　◇

Many solar deities guessed the 'black sun' spoken about in the prophecy to be an eclipse.

A Solar eclipse, one that occurred when a portion of a planet was engulfed in a shadow cast by its moon, which fully or partially blocks sunlight.

This occurred when the sun, moon, and the planet itself are aligned. Since it was a situation that involved the celestial bodies such as the suns and moons, the various sun and moon gods, alongside allies of the god race who were in charge of the solar and lunar aspects of their various pantheons, these beings planned a meeting to discuss the issues they were concerned about.

The 'Neutral Zone' was the best place for such a discussion to be held, the various gods representing their pantheons arrived one by one at the large banquet hall prepared by the six leaders of the Neutral Zone alliance.

The hall had a set up of a standard banquet hall with copious amounts of food adorning the tables so well that their surfaces were barely visible. The attendees were entertained by various acrobats, dancers, and vocalists with music of all varieties completing the ambiance of the event.

As for security, it was on the highest level it had ever been since the formation of the alliance as if even one of the attendees was to be harmed in any way, it could spell disaster for the alliance.

Solar gods such as Mawu of Dahomey, Inti of the Inca Empire, Belenos of the Gauls, Amaterasu-Ōmikami of the Shinto, Sol of Romersk, and even a Master like Amun-Ra of Egito (Portuguese for Egypt). Lunar gods like Artemis of Olympus, Diana of Romania, Mani of Asgard, Losna of the Etruscan, and many more were in attendance.

Presiding over the meeting was Apollo, who received the backing of Amun-Ra, silencing all the other gods who felt he was not suitable to do that. They discussed how the 'black sun' spoken about in the prophecy was obviously an eclipse and an unnatural one at that.

After all, the prophecy specified 'all gods of all worlds' and as solar and lunar gods, they knew fully well how impossible it was for all worlds to have solar eclipses on the same day.

They understood that the prophecy would have also not mentioned the 'black sun' in the first place if they would not be able to notice it when it happened, this further reinforced their belief that the 'black sun' would be a simultaneous eclipse occurring on all worlds.

Another thing they concluded on, was the starting point of the eclipse. They agreed that it would most likely begin in two areas, each related to the parents of the prophesied child.

Hell, for the mother and the Universe the unknown father of the child was from.

They had many things to discuss and spent nearly three days addressing all those issues. In the end, they all made a decision.

Firstly, they were to be split into groups that were decided according to how close the distance between the universes were.

Specially constructed artifacts were given to the members of each group, enabling them to communicate with them better despite the trillions of light-years of distance between them.

Since they had agreed that the mass eclipses would begin in the areas related to the parents of the prophesied child, they agreed to be secretly vigilant so they could figure out what universe and pantheon the father of the child was from.

There was the possibility of the father being one of the sun gods present in the meeting however, devising ways to deal with all possible scenarios was too time-consuming so they decided to ignore it.

Lastly, they agreed to not interfere with the mass eclipses even if they might be able to for fear of unknown repercussions from the law of causality that had been confirmed on multiple occasions, to be dedicated to protecting the child's mother.

Who knew if the eclipses were some sort of requirement for the child's birth? Interfering would not be a wise idea.

These gods all knew that the child being able to end them all was only a possibility, still, the matter of the child's birth was 100% certain.

After a closing feast, they dispersed to their respective pantheons to await the day of 'Black Sun'.

◇　◇　◇

"How do you know what the gods discussed in their meeting?"

"Obviously because your father had spies among them, what other reason could it possibly be?"

Cattleya replied to Arthur's question with a yawn as she laid down on the couch of the game room. On the couch opposite hers, Arthur and Layla were seated, listening intently to her telling of the events that happened before Arthur's birth.

"So next up is the 'Day of Black sun', huh?"

"Yep..."