Chapter 485: The Gods Are Watching You

Ambrose filled the God of Alchemy in on Bobozile and Bobocheen, the two kouto he'd sent back into the sea, then summed things up: "My original plan was just to put a little pressure on the kouto goddess and chip away at her divine power a bit."

"Well, you've more than succeeded. The kouto must be defecting en masse."

The God of Alchemy turned the bone whistle over in his hands, equally surprised that such a small thing had produced such an outsized effect. In preparation for dealing with this unstable goddess, the God of Alchemy had been quietly gathering intelligence of his own all along.

This was why word from the elemental plane of water had reached him almost immediately. The kouto goddess appeared to be having some kind of breakdown, and the resulting chaos had left many of the ocean pantheon's deities thoroughly fed up with her. They'd never much liked this unstable goddess to begin with, and had only tolerated her out of necessity. Word was now spreading that even the ocean pantheon was no longer willing to count her as an ally.

Ambrose thought it over. "There are probably two reasons for this. First, the bone whistle spreads through sound, so it can affect a large number of kouto all at once. Second, and this one's on the goddess herself, she got too clever for her own good. She used a massive number of kouto to funnel corrupted faith toward Aige."

The second reason was the primary one.

Ambrose had no idea exactly how many kouto this unstable goddess had conscripted for that transfer of faith, but it had to have been enormous.

In other words, a huge number of kouto had been exposed to Aige's oracle, planting a seed of free will deep within their souls. Once those kouto regained their senses, they'd immediately turn their backs on the unstable goddess.

If Blobdilpulp hadn't done something so monumentally self-defeating, the worst outcome would have been a wave of kouto sliding into severe depression. That might even have strengthened the goddess's own domain of madness, if anything.

The God of Alchemy couldn't help but marvel, "The workings of fate really are extraordinary. It looks like we can move ahead with our plan sooner than expected."

"Already?" Ambrose exclaimed.

The God of Alchemy turned the bone whistle in his fingers. "With this thing in hand, more or less, yes."

He picked up the crystalline hammer and tapped the bone whistle a few times. Just like that, the plain little whistle rapidly transformed into a slender, translucent flute.

"Master, that hammer of yours..."

Ambrose felt a flicker of unease. The God of Alchemy's technique here was pushing up against the edges of what Ambrose understood alchemy to actually be.

The God of Alchemy said, clearly pleased with himself, "Fairly sharp of you to notice. You've been making quite a splash lately, and as alchemy's influence keeps expanding, my own power grows along with it. This is a new artifact I've made. Anything struck by this hammer will be reshaped according to my intention. In the process, a corresponding body of alchemical knowledge will be generated, becoming a source of inspiration for whatever gifted minds are ready to receive it."

In essence, the God of Alchemy was the same in nature as the Goddess of Magic or the Lord of Knowledge, but their conceptual domains were so vast that he couldn't compare to them in raw scale.

All conceptual gods shared the ability of sealing off or unlocking the development of whatever concept they governed.

The Goddess of Magic could set the absolute ceiling on any spellcaster's ability, and any newly created spell had to receive her acknowledgment before it could truly come into being.

The Lord of Knowledge theoretically oversaw the emergence of any creative idea in art or craft, and was capable of turning an ordinary person into a brilliant author overnight, or reducing a celebrated writer to permanent wreck who couldn't write a single word more.

Once the God of Alchemy had struck the bone whistle into this new form, the principles behind its construction would become part of alchemy itself, waiting for some future genius to discover and build upon.

This was the potent virtuous cycle of conceptual gods: so long as the God of Alchemy continued expanding the frontiers of alchemy in this fashion, and didn't destroy the world in the process, he would grow stronger in perpetuity.

"I've enhanced the whistle's effect. If the kouto goddess truly was born from the kouto's collective delusion, as we suspect, then this ought to work on her too. While she's in this weakened state, it should be possible to draw her out of her divine realm."

Ambrose quickly responded, "Then I'll reach out to Hell right away and get Tiamat and Sariel ready."

The God of Alchemy shook his head. "You've got enough on your plate. Leave it to me. Focus on yourself, and be careful. If the original Dragon Tyrant has truly been reborn, he'll be far more dangerous than the kouto goddess ever was."

"Don't worry, Master. I've never underestimated an opponent in my life."

The moment Ambrose had confirmed the Dragon Tyrant's revival, he'd stopped checking even his beloved ledgers. He spent every waking moment thinking through how to deal with this threat.

"Good. And remember, if you run into something you truly can't solve, tell me. At the very least, I can make sure you keep your life."

There was no need for elaborate expressions of gratitude between master and student. The conversation wrapped up shortly after.

Just as the call ended, a woman in a magnificent golden gown appeared beside the God of Alchemy.

She wasn't conventionally beautiful, but she carried herself with an air of sumptuous, effortless wealth.

Her hair was a cascade of lustrous gold, and her eyes looked like two pools of molten metal. She wore a robe studded with gemstones and glittering chips of precious metal, draped in a cloak strung together from gold coins, belted with a sash of hammered gold, and shod in boots of solid gold set with enormous pearls.

She was, without a doubt, the very embodiment of opulence.

It was only fitting, for She was Wauleen, Goddess of Wealth.

Wauleen smiled at the God of Alchemy. "You really do dote on that mortal of yours. What the two of you have goes well beyond the usual relationship between a god and his worshipers."

The God of Alchemy set down his hammer and turned to face her. "Our relationship is complicated, and not something easily explained in a sentence or two. What I can say is that, if our positions were reversed, I believe he'd do much the same for me."

Wauleen sighed wistfully. "I envy you. If I'd had a devotee like that, someone I could truly trust, perhaps I wouldn't have had to suffer quite so much."

She had once been taken captive by Grat'tz, the Dark Prince of the Abyss, and subjected to prolonged torment within the Abyss itself, growing so weak that she'd fallen below the power of even ordinary mortals. Had she not managed to escape at the last moment through sheer fortune, she likely would have perished The God of Alchemy hadn't been the one to rescue Wauleen from the Abyss, but he had been the first to extend a hand to her after she escaped, offering his own divine realm as a refuge, and then helping her reclaim the power that had been taken from her.

Even so, the damage done was so severe that Wauleen had been forced into a long sleep to recover.

It was precisely because Wauleen had been in recuperation all these years that merchants throughout the material plane had gone without divine protection for years, and commerce across the world had stagnated as a result.

Until Ambrose started down the road of capitalism.

The sweeping changes this lich had brought to the world's commercial landscape had upended every traditional model of trade, striking the world like a sudden gale.

Wauleen had awakened in its wake, fully restored to her former strength at last.

"Restored" was, of course, relative: Wauleen had only ever been a minor deity to begin with. To make sure old enemies couldn't track her down, she hadn't left the God of Alchemy's divine realm, and instead chose to deepen her partnership with him going forward.

Hearing Wauleen praise his student, the God of Alchemy was pleased, though he kept his tone modest. "He's the finest student I've ever had, though he has almost no talent for alchemy itself. His true genius is in commerce, which means, strictly speaking, you're the one who got the better end of this arrangement."

Wauleen laughed. "That's fair. If you weren't holding me back, I'd have gone to meet him long ago. I hear you've been considering recommending him as my chosen, so why won't you let me see him?"

The God of Alchemy shook his head. "I know my student well. If given the choice between serving the Goddess of Magic and serving the Goddess of Wealth, he'd choose you without a moment's hesitation. But this isn't something I can decide on my own. Far too many gods have their eyes on him already. He shines too brightly, and his every move is being watched."

Wauleen sighed, regretful. "I understand. My power is simply too limited. I can barely even protect myself."

The lich's position had become too pivotal. He was, by any measure, one of the central figures shaping this plane. For Wauleen to step forward now and claim him as her chosen would mean making an enemy of every deity already watching Ambrose.

A god like Thanos could afford to be unconcerned about that kind of thing, but Wauleen had to think very carefully about the consequences. If Thanos took exception, would Wauleen actually be able to protect her chosen?

And Thanos was only one of many. Setting aside Shara and Loss, both under Aion's punishment, there was still Levitra, Tiamat, Sariel, and a long list of others with close ties to Ambrose.

And now this lich had involved himself in the wager between the dragon gods and the Lord of Dawn on top of everything else. No mortal had ever attracted this many eyes from this many gods at once. Wauleen was simply too small a player, too weak to even qualify to grant her blessing.

"No need to worry, my friend. Helping others is what my student does best, and gods most of all. I was once so weak I couldn't even sustain a divine realm of my own, and yet here I am, working my way toward greater divinity. You'll have your turn too. Once the Hell Bank opens, you'll finally break through your current constraints and reach intermediate divinity, won't you?

"What we need to do is simple: be patient. It's my student who has the hard work ahead of him. For now, let's put our heads together and figure out how to help him get through this wager of Thanos's."

Wauleen nodded. "Leave the Hell side of things to me. I'm looking forward to seeing what the founding of the first Hell Bank brings my way."

The God of Alchemy was genuinely delighted. "That's a relief. Dealing with devils is my least favorite thing. I'm a researcher of alchemy, not a negotiator. Haggling really isn't my strength."

Wauleen smiled, and her form began to shift. She took on the exact appearance of the God of Alchemy, then sat in front of a magic mirror that connected directly to the lords of Hell.

Since stepping into the open wasn't yet advisable, conducting this conversation under the God of Alchemy's guise would have to do for now.

It had been years since she'd last had the pleasure of sitting down to negotiate a proper deal. The fact that her very first negotiation partner was going to be an Archduchess of Hell made Wauleen's pulse quicken with excitement.

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