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Chapter 129: Castle Siege
Soon after, the topic shifted to the crucial deciding factor: the format of the War Game.
"How about a one-on-one duel? We each send out a single representative from our Familia to decide the victor," Focalors suggested softly from her seat at the round table. To lower Apollo's guard, she deliberately proposed a format that, in everyone's eyes, seemed like the only sliver of hope for her tiny Familia. "We can use the arena and have them duel surrounded by thousands of spectators. That's the best way to hype up the crowd, don't you think?"
"I agree," Miach chimed in immediately. "Having Apollo's massive army gang up on Focalors's few children isn't a War Game; it's just a one-sided beatdown. It would be a total buzzkill to watch."
"He makes a fair point," Takemikazuchi agreed.
Several other deities nodded in agreement. They genuinely felt that a high-stakes 1v1 duel would be far more entertaining to watch than a boring, one-sided slaughter.
"What do you say, Apollo~?" Loki drawled out, grinning mischievously. "Your opponent is just an unranked Level 2, you know? Don't tell me you're too chicken to even accept that?"
"Who knows, maybe her kid is a PvP specialist who excels at 1v1 combat and taking down stronger opponents~," another goddess teased from the sidelines.
The gods around the table snickered and laughed. They didn't care who won; they just wanted to poke fun at the silent Apollo and enjoy the appetizers to this grand drama.
The blond god wearing the laurel wreath slipped on a mask of cold composure, letting out a disdainful scoff from his nose. "If the Focalors Familia is short on members, that is her own problem. How is that my concern? I have absolutely no obligation to accommodate her pathetic circumstances."
Apollo rejected the proposal without a second thought. He intended to secure his precious sun in the safest, most foolproof way possible, so he absolutely refused to allow even a 0.01% chance of an upset.
"Let's make it fair and draw lots to decide."
Apollo's counter-proposal instantly won the approval of the vast majority of the drama-loving gods in attendance.
A well-prepared deity pulled a highly ornate box out of nowhere and placed it in the center of the round table. Every god present enthusiastically scribbled their desired War Game format onto a piece of parchment and dropped it into the box.
Naturally, Focalors wrote "Duel" on her slip of paper and dropped it in with a blank expression.
With the lots prepared, it was time to decide who would draw.
"I don't trust Apollo," Focalors stated immediately. Committing fully to her act, she shot him a look that clearly said, You're a sneaky bastard and you'll definitely cheat.
"The feeling is mutual!" Apollo clicked his tongue. "Focalors can't do it, and neither can Miach or Takemikazuchi. Both of you sit down! Don't even think about taking a step near that box."
"Stop wasting time," Loki said impatiently, slamming a hand on the table. "Let Hermes do it. He leads a neutral Familia and is trustworthy enough."
Neither Apollo nor Focalors raised any objections to this proposal.
Hermes stood up with a bitter smile. He had just wanted to quietly eat his popcorn and watch the show, but somehow, he ended up as the center of attention.
Under the watchful gaze of all the gods, Hermes walked up to the box, reached inside, and rummaged around with exaggerated solemnity. Finally, he pulled out a neatly folded piece of parchment.
As he read the contents, Hermes let out a soft "Ah," and his face stiffened visibly. Slowly, as if he were walking to the gallows, he turned the parchment around to show the assembly.
Written in elegant calligraphy were two bold words:
[Castle Siege]
The room descended into a dead silence.
Takemikazuchi and Miach's faces instantly turned darker than the bottom of a charred pot. Focalors glared at Hermes with a murderous gaze sharp enough to kill him ten thousand times over.
After the brief pause, Apollo erupted into deafening, hysterical laughter. Pointing at the parchment, his face was twisted in a mix of mockery and ecstatic joy. "This was decided by a sacred and fair draw! I will accept zero objections!"
"The Hand of God! Hermes, what kind of gacha luck is that?!"
"He's got a talent for this! The difficulty just spiked to the absolute maximum!"
The other gods cheered and jeered in unison. They didn't care who won or lost; they only cared that the script for this drama was getting spicier by the second.
"Oh, man—" Hermes sighed at the ceiling, feeling as though Focalors's glare was physically freezing him solid.
Apollo, in an incredibly cheerful mood, announced, "Well, it's impossible for four people to defend a castle, right? So, I'll generously give the attacking role to Focalors!"
He grinned smugly, bestowing the universally recognized, hopelessly impossible task onto his opponent like an act of charity.
"Sorry, Focalors..." Hermes put his hands together, offering an incredibly awkward apology.
"Forget it. I'm willing to accept my loss on the draw. I have no objections." Focalors closed her eyes and took a deep breath, looking for all the world like she had resigned herself to her fate.
"Alright, it's settled! We just need to find a suitable castle and hammer out the exact date with the Guild. That's a wrap, everyone! Dismissed," Loki announced, concluding the temporary Denatus.
As the gods filed out of the assembly hall, Apollo shot Focalors a triumphant, condescending smile before turning to leave. But he completely missed how, the moment his back was turned, Focalors's lips curved upward into a cold, mocking smirk of her own.
Once the other deities had cleared out, Takemikazuchi and Miach finally uncreased their furrowed brows.
"How was that? Didn't we put on a pretty good act?" Takemikazuchi asked. "But seriously, are you sure about this? It's a Castle Siege."
"It's perfectly fine." Focalors opened her eyes, a confident light shining in her mismatched irises. "I believe in them."
"If you say so." Takemikazuchi nodded. "I don't know what kind of trump cards that boy is hiding, but if it was a one-on-one, I know for a fact he wouldn't lose."
He had personally instructed Aiden in martial arts and fully understood just how terrifyingly fast the young man learned. With the techniques Aiden had absorbed from him, fighting above his level was entirely plausible.
But a Castle Siege with such a massive numerical disadvantage? The very thought made Takemikazuchi shoot a vicious glare at Hermes, who hadn't managed to slip away yet.
Hermes shuddered under the glare and quickly flashed an innocent smile that looked worse than crying, throwing his hands up to signal that he was completely blameless.
Focalors cast a thoughtful glance at Hermes. Even she couldn't tell if this was pure coincidence, or if the notoriously cunning god had intentionally cranked up the difficulty of their script just for the fun of it.
If they had drawn a duel, Focalors would have had a 100% chance of winning. But a Castle Siege... it certainly put them at a disadvantage.
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