Chapter 1217: Agreement With Odin

"I want to know everything that you can tell me. Within the limit permitted by the system of course since I'm sure you're fully aware that it will censor what I'm not supposed to know just yet." s.h.i.+ro shrugged as Odin nodded his head.

The system was an enigma even to him. It's an all seeing 'thing' that governs the power balance of this universe, yet it acts as a bystander. Well, it takes an active role in a few selected situations but those situations are few and far between.

Thinking carefully, Odin opened his mouth.

"I'm sure you are well aware of the roles of Queens in this world. You are given a task of governing domains along with subjects. The last one standing will be declared winner. Well, it's a similar situation for the G.o.ds and their pantheons." Odin began as he gestured for Loki to create an illusion.

The illusion depicted current state of things. At the bottom are the cities and the people, above that are the Queens. Above the Queens are the Empresses while the G.o.ds are above the Empresses. Above the G.o.ds are the separate tiers of divinity and finally, at the very top is three question marks which s.h.i.+ro could only guess represents the system.

"Each of us G.o.ds are given special 'cards' that act as favors we grant to mortals. By binding themselves to us, we are allowed to help them become stronger, gain protection and so on. Our main target is to bind ourselves to the victor so that our pantheon will exist once everything is over.

"But since we don't know who that is, G.o.ds usually spread their cards out to increase the chances. Mortals can accept more than one card but that would mean a compet.i.tion between the G.o.ds. The weaker G.o.d will have to withdraw their blessing unless the stronger G.o.d is forgiving. Which is essentially sharing a home with someone else. Overall, cooperation with G.o.ds is very rare. Unless" Odin trailed off as he stared at s.h.i.+ro.

"Unless a big threat such as I was to appear. I suppose they've got their hands busy dealing with 'two' people that I know of right now. The first is the First born of destruction, a natural born calamity big enough for everyone to band together especially since she is no longer in her prison isolated in the edge of the universe. The second is me, the anomaly of the system. Though I suppose you could say its killing two birds with one stone since both of these ident.i.ties belong to me." s.h.i.+ro shrugged and Odin nodded his head.

"Indeed. Several foreign pantheons have already began alliance discussions with the pantheons native to the lore of this world. We, the Norse Pantheon, are no exception. We've received quite a number of requests for meetings especially due to the nature of my skill." Odin laughed.

"Though even if we use lofty t.i.tles as G.o.ds for ourselves, you can just think of us as stronger p.a.w.ns on the chessboard." Odin finished as Loki conjured an image of a chess board with a depiction of Odin along with Zeus and many other G.o.ds acting as p.a.w.ns.

Meanwhile, opposite that was an incomplete board. The king was represented by s.h.i.+ro while a row of p.a.w.ns stood in front of her.

"Naturally with your ident.i.ty, you being the enemy to all the G.o.ds is understandable due to your actions when you had full power. However, you are not alone and I must say, you have nurtured quite a group yourself." Odin smiled as he glanced at Madison. Suddenly, one of the p.a.w.ns upgraded to a Queen piece with many others showing the same signs but lacked the final transformation.

"Are you telling me to wage a war with all the G.o.ds?" s.h.i.+ro asked without any emotion in her voice.

"It doesn't really matter what I say does it? Since even if you wanted peace they will come for your head. Just like they did before, just like how they will do in the future. Though the outcome this time is in your favour." Odin smiled as his piece along with a few others migrated to her side of the board.

"Oh? Hmm I suppose you did give me as much information as you can without the system censoring everything." s.h.i.+ro nodded her head as she snapped her finger. Suddenly, red circuits revealed themselves as a faint strand could be seen connecting s.h.i.+ro and Odin.

"I took the liberty of checking your code and you are indeed saying everything within your limits. I do apologise about my actions since its only natural for me to doubt 'G.o.ds'." s.h.i.+ro chuckled as Odin only smiled.

However, he could feel cold sweat dripping down his back as he felt his entire being exposed the moment the circuits appeared. Even with his eyes, he did not detect them at all.

'To have read my code That circuit is part of the system then. Its only natural that my eyes cannot go against system I suppose.' Odin thought to himself as s.h.i.+ro probably could have killed him if she felt like it. He didn't know what kind of training she had done since the last time he had observed her but her understanding of codes and the system was much bigger than what he had initially antic.i.p.ated.

"Ah before I forget, let us seal this cooperation with a gift shall we? As you know, my eyes perceive 'truth' and lets just say I've seen some interesting outcomes. This item seems to have its fate tied with you so I will gift you it now. You would probably get it sooner or later but I do hope this gives you a better impression of us." Odin smiled as he took out a small cube from his robes.

Placing the cube on the table, it s.h.i.+mmered with a mult.i.tude of colours and let out a light humming noise.

[Bifrost Core - ???]

Protects the user during realm travel.

It was a simple description but that was fine. There was no need to add more since it explained it perfectly well. Glancing into the code of this object, s.h.i.+ro could tell that this item granted the user one of the highest protections when travelling through realms. Which means it was quite a simple task to revisit the Forgotten Lands that Nyx had sent her to during her trial. Not to mention, it may even help her with her current experiment.

Visiting the side of creation.

"To think you would offer me an item that holds great significance to your pantheon. Do you realise the consequences of giving me this?" s.h.i.+ro asked as losing something like this would damage their 'legend'. There was several reasons as to why there were pantheons that faded into obscurity, and losing/destroying an item that holds a great significance was one of those reasons.

To put it rudely, if you were to take out the Bifrost from Norse mythology a lot of the legends would destroy itself. When a pantheon starts to lose the 'legends' the G.o.ds within the pantheon lose power.

That's why pantheon would rarely use weapons or items of great importance to their legend if possible since the risks was far too great.

"I do. But I also know the consequences of not giving this item to you. We are essentially gambling with you as our hope so its only natural we help you in every way we can." Odin smiled as he stood up.

"We will help as much as we can from the G.o.d's side of things. I doubt you would need to concern yourself too much with G.o.ds for the time being so feel free to focus on what you need to do." Odin reminded before disappearing with Loki and the others, leaving only the Bifrost on the table.

Staying silent for a moment, s.h.i.+ro placed the Bifrost into her inventory.

Pulling out the card that Madison had given her during her meeting with Zenotype, s.h.i.+ro could sense that the card itself was infused with a metal type divinity. One that was familiar to the feeling she got from her own divinity.

Suddenly, s.h.i.+ro furrowed her brows and threw the card as hard as she could.

"Quite rude aren't you? Trying to a.n.a.lyse my body." s.h.i.+ro warned as the dimension started to shake from the energy she was giving off.

Seeing that s.h.i.+ro was being hostile, everyone pulled out their weapons and got ready for a fight.

"I apologise but I wanted to see if you were full machine or not. I don't know if you are aware but those that tread the path of technology will always be given a chance to turn themselves into 'data'. I wanted to see if you had chosen that path or not." A voice rang out as the card started to morph into the being known as Zenotype.

"Hou~ And that would be a problem because?" s.h.i.+ro raised an eyebrow as Zenotype sat down on the chair opposite s.h.i.+ro's spot.

"That would be a problem because it means you can never break free from the system."