The Red Hand

"Kitty, you didn't come home last night." Yumi stood over the Catkagi, who sat on a chair looking sad. From the outside one might think that the Priestess was getting ready to scold Akagi, but Halifax and Amakusa were well aware that there were few instances in which Yumi would ever be upset with Akagi.

"Mew~" Akagi gave a sad meow, pretending to beg for forgiveness for her sins.

"I missed out on my kitty snuggles! How was I supposed to sleep without my fluffy pillow?" Yumi said dramatically. "It was so cold sleeping alone! How could you do this to me?!?" She fake cried.

"MEW!" Akagi meowed as she opened her arms up for a hug. “Uppies?”

"What? Do you think I'd be swayed by such a simple offering?" Yumi turned away in a huff, declining the uppies, barely.

"MEW!" Seeing that uppies wasn't working, Akagi instead dove at Yumi, tackling her to the floor and rubbing her face against her. "MEW! MEW!"

"What am I watching?" Elariel was drying her hair as she sat on the edge of her bed. Catkagi was already an anomoly to her, but seeing a Demon Lord act like this caused her to reevaluate everything.

{If only Vikes was a kitty that just wanted pets... Or wait, was he?} (Elarile)

"Oh you know, the usual." Halifax said as she finished putting on her coat. “Kitty acting like kitty is normal around here.”

"Just ignore those two. They're both crazy and you don't want to involve yourself with their stupidity." Amakusa spoke from the bathroom. "And also. How the hell do beastkin wash their ears?!? This is so annoying! Turn me back so I can bathe properly!"

{I THOUGHT THIS WAS JUST AN ILLUSION, SO WHY DOES IT FEEL SO REAL?!?} (Amakusa)

"MEW!" Akagi gave a meow as she sat triumphantly on top of Yumi's stomach, denying the pet's request for less floof.

"Cats..." Amakusa grumbled.

"I don't mind helping you wash up." Halifax snickered. "I've cleaned plenty of beastkin ears in my time, and I wouldn't mind giving you some nice pets."

"Come in here, and I'll shove one sword body into the other!" Amakusa hissed, understanding her fate if Halifax was permitted to enter.

"And here I thought that Shiroe would've been interested in you." Elariel commented as she straightened her hair. "Her eyes lit up the one time I spoke of a Divine Blade of legend, so to hear her deny a request to be touched by such an amazing blade is quite strange." She chuckled.

"That was until I found out that said blade was crazy!" Amakusa yelled. "I don't need more of that! And also, I'd rather TOUCH the blade, not have it touch me!"

"Now that I think of it, why didn't you force Halifax into this whole fight?" Akagi said as she got off Yumi and hopped onto the empty bed. "I would've figured a Hero wielding a Divine Blade would've been a boost of morale." Her question caused Halifax to furrow her brow.

{I... Yeah... I'd never heard anything from them, and just tried to avoid their gaze but... But they could've easily made me...} (Halifax)

"As much as I hate to admit it, there was talk of it." Elariel started, but raised her hand to stop Halifax from interrupting. "However, there was a concern regarding the use of not just Halifax but any Divine weapon for such a task." She glanced at the Sword in question.

"Oh, goodie, so that means you would've forced me to take part in a second genocide." Halifax's right hand clenched in frustration.

{AGAIN?!? YOU'D MAKE ME KILL FOR YOU AGAIN?!?} (Halifax)

"For the record I was not in favor of it, and many of the other Gods found the idea of forcing you to do something like that again to be unpalatable." Elariel gave a bitter smile, knowing that their morality wasn't really the main deciding factor.

"Oh yeah sure. The first forced genocide was totally okay, but a second one, nah we don't approve of that one." Halifax rolled her eyes. "I see how it is."

"I'm getting the feeling that the concern you were talking about had nothing to do with Halifax's compliance." Akagi noticed that Elariel was attempting to hide something based on her facial expression.

"You're correct. The issue stems from the fact that Divine Weapons are forged from the Gods themselves, hence why they are unable to harm us." Elariel explained that technically Halifax nor any of her 'siblings' could be used to harm any of the Gods. At least, barring a Demon Lord suppressing such a restriction as Akagi had done prior. "Ordinarily they are not permitted to roam the material world freely because we consider them too close to our own existence, not to mention that they're simply too powerful to be permitted free reign." Elariel shook her head. Divine Weapons were usually kept within the Heavenly Realm so as to not permit their unauthorized use. "When we were initially discussing how to handle the 'Spirit Issue', the idea of using the Divine Weapons was broached. However, we quickly hit some problems."

"Like?" Akagi asked as Yumi moved to the side of the room and answered a call on her radio.

Elariel seemed like she didn't want to answer, and it took Halifax jumping in for the conversation to restart.

"It's because of Olathal, isn't it." Halifax's comment caused Elariel to look sad and guilty.

{Yeah, that's it, isn't it?} (Halifax)

"That was our biggest concern, yes." Elariel nodded. "Having a repeat of that was not desirable, and the risk of it happening again was deemed too great."

"Who is this waffle person?" Akagi asked, intentionally getting the name wrong.

"Olathal..." Halifax sighed, deciding not to continue correcting the cat. "He was another Divine weapon, a trident, and around three hundred years ago, the Demon Lord Cult captured him and transformed him into a Demonic weapon."

{All this talk of waffles makes me want some... I wonder if we can get some after the assassination?} (Akagi)

"It was a massive blunder on our part. We sent his wielder to investigate some of their activities, but he ended up being caught in a trap and corrupted." Elariel explained. "We didn't realize what happened at first, but in short order, other Divine Weapons were captured and corrupted in the same way. Eventually, things go so dire that Gale granted permission for Cynthala to incarnate in an attempt to crush the Cult and recover the weapons..." She trailed off.

"But they ended up killing her." Halifax clicked her tongue. "It was the first time a God had died since Vikes' rampage, and it sent shock waves through the Pantheon."

{Oh to have been a fly on that wall. I heard Esquire was hopping mad about that fuck up.} (Halifax)

"So let me guess, you were worried that the Spirits might be able to do the same things." Akagi surmised their reasoning.

"That was the primary reason, yes." Elariel nodded. "It was always assumed that a Divine Weapon could kill a God, but until that day, there was no definitive proof." They'd made them unable to harm Gods for that specific reasoning and never dreamed that somebody could corrupt them so as to allow them to strike down a Divine being while also bypassing that protection.

{Now that I think about it, we never did figure out how exactly they managed to pull it off. Halifax's report did mention something about them using Vikes' weapon as part of the process, but we never found it.} (Elariel)

"Let me guess." Amakusa came from the bathroom in a robe while drying her hair. "Things ended up getting so dire that you got called into end things?" She figured that Halifax was the reason things didn't get worse.

"Nope!" Halifax laughed. "I actually only ended up fighting them because they took Sherry captive. I followed them for a while, and once I reached their hideout, I cleaned house. They did capture me for a bit, but their attempt at corrupting me failed for whatever reason." She didn't really understand why but she seemed to be resistant to their corruption when they tried to use their magic circle.

{I think one of those cultists mentioned needing to bring Vikes' weapon to deal with me, but I destroyed that place before they even got the chance.} (Halifax)

"The last thing we needed was for the Spirits to get their hands on even one Divine weapon, so we decided to call forth Heroes from another world." Elariel didn't like having to rely on outsiders, but Gale shot down any attempts at using some of their other options. "We did briefly discuss sending our own children, as there are a few powerful Demi-Gods, but in the end, we estimated that without their partner weapon their power wouldn't be enough to turn the tides." Demi-Gods, specifically ones that fought on the Gods' behalf, were almost always given a Divine weapon. While such beings were powerful enough on their own, having such a powerful tool at this disposal is what truly set them apart from the rest of Enoris' residents.

{Not to mention that a Demi-God dying in such a conflict would be a MASSIVE fucking PR disaster.} (Akagi)

"Huh... But if you said Divine weapons aren't just allowed to run around freely, then why has Halifax been doing just that?" Amakusa asked as she removed the towel from her head and flicked her hair.

{Isn't it dangerous to let her just wonder around like that?} (Amakusa)

"That's because her freedom was guaranteed via a Divine Pact." Elariel answered. "I won't go into detail, because that will take too long, but not long after she vanished from the Imperial Capital, a deal was struck, and in exchange for performing a critical mission, she was permitted to freely roam the world without interference."

{There's more to it than that. Elariel is hiding something.} (Akagi)

"And you didn't just compel her to return?" Akagi decided to poke a bit and see what information that she could get. "You've already shown that her will means nothing when it comes down to it, so why strike a bargain in that instance?" She figured that Gods weren't ones to treat their creations as equals under normal circumstances.

"Because there was enough of us that regretted the past to agree to the deal." Elariel replied. "This was a way for us to make amends."

{Okay, that's not a lie, but there's definitely more.} (Akagi)

"You really pissed Gale off with that one." Halifax chuckled.

"For all his power, even he cannot fragrantly violate a Divine Pact. All it takes is a majority of us to agree, and even those who vote no are bound by its terms." Elariel smiled.

"I'm surprised he didn't make Halifax kill herself then. The way you talk about him makes him seem like the world's largest prick." Akagi commented.

"Only I may compel her to act." Elariel said. "The other Gods cannot unilaterally enforce their will upon her."

"So why didn't you say no when they asked you to force Halifax to do something so heinous?" Akagi asked. "You could've told them to fuck off."

"Because that's not how we work." Elariel shook her head. "Don't get me wrong, we can and do disagree with one another, but when we meet and take a formal vote on a path forward, it's winner take all. I could've dug my feet in and refused, but that would've risked the other Gods coming after me."

"I take it that that's not a good thing." Akagi chuckled.

"Gods killing or punishing other Gods has happened before." Halifax explained. "And one of the quickest ways for that to happen is to interfere with the course of action decided upon by the majority of the Pantheon. They might not force you to involve yourself in what they're doing, but you better not get in their way, otherwise..." She ran her thumb across her neck. "That's what happened to Dibora."

{And for all of Gale's power, even he can't go against the will of the others. Especially since he's the God of Order.} (Halifax)

"He was also insane, so let's not use him as an example." Elariel groaned. "But yes. They wouldn't've killed me, probably, but being thrown into some kind of prison for tens of thousands of years would be undesirable."

{I've heard stories of what those kinds of places are like...} (Elariel)

"So you sold out your own child to save yourself?" Amakusa's comment came out of nowhere. Akagi was going to say the same thing but was beaten to the punch.

{Damn! The pet's spitting fire today!} (Akagi)

"I wouldn't put it like that..." Elariel said with clenched teeth.

"Then how would you put it?" Amakusa looked at her with complete disgust. "Because that's what it sounds like to me."

"..." Elariel didn't know what to say. In her heart, she knew that Amakusa's words were correct, but the Goddess's mind didn't want to admit it.

"Just leave it, Shiroe." Halifax put up her hands. "It's not worth digging up the past anymore and I don't want to get into it again." She stood up, turning to Akagi. "So how about we kill a Goddess to get our minds off things!" She smiled as both she and Akagi started cackling like madwomen. However, while they laughed, and Shiroe grumbled, Elariel was frozen stiff as she sat on her bed. The Goddess's mind raced as she tried to find something, anything that could justify her choice back then, but she couldn't find anything to disprove Amakusa's claim.

{Its... No... That's... I... Did I... Did I really... Did I really sacrifice my own child... To protect myself...} (Elariel)