The second Laia nodded, the pantheon leaders let out a huge sigh of relief. They bowed even lower, shoving a whole stack of glowing resources into her hands.
Top-tier realm expansion tokens, divine crystals, star-metal ingots, even a whole chest of gold.
"Thank you, Miss Hayes! Thank you for accepting! We'll send all the extra resources to your dorm immediately! And we'll update the official pantheon records right away!"
They hurried out, like they were afraid Laia would change her mind.
Laia stared at the stack of resources, her eyes going wide.
Wow.
That was a lot of stuff.
The competition's extra prizes really were that good! She'd never gotten so much free stuff in her entire life.
She carried the whole stack back to her dorm, already daydreaming about using those tokens to expand her realm even more, so she could get more refugees, more tax money.
She pulled up the realm's message board, and wrote a quick note to her refugees.
Hey guys! We won the competition! And we got recognized as the new Overgod! They gave us a ton of free resources! Let's use them to make the realm even better, okay?
—Laia
That was it. Just a quick note, to tell them they could use the free stuff to work more.
Inside the realm, the overlords saw the note, and they cheered.
"She did it! The Overgod got recognized by the pantheon!"
"Now we're officially safe! Valerius can't bother us anymore!"
Kane grinned, already grabbing the resources Laia had sent over. "Right! Now we can finish the interstellar portal! We can bring all the rest of our people, the ones still hiding in the Chaos Sea, here! They'll be safe for good!"
Torin nodded, golden scales glinting faintly. "I can expand the dragon barrier, cover the entire eastern realm! Make sure no Corruption can ever get in!"
Elara nodded, life magic glowing around her hands. "I can start clearing the Corruption from the Chaos Sea! We can turn that dead land into new farmland, new forests!"
Borin nodded, hefting his star-metal hammer. "I can build more defense turrets! And more mead barrels! We got enough people now, we definitely need more mead!"
All of them, even more motivated, started working even faster. They were gonna make their Overgod's realm the best one in the entire pantheon.
They didn't know that Laia was just sitting in her dorm, counting her gold, going, "Wow, those resources are gonna make the refugees work even harder. I'm gonna be so rich."
An hour later, her comms pinged. It was the pantheon's message.
"Miss Hayes? The pantheon meeting is starting. We need you to come, to talk about Valerius, and the Corruption problem. Can you come?"
Laia's eyes went wide.
A meeting? And there was gonna be more prize money?
She nodded immediately. "Sure! I'll be right there!"
She grabbed her coat, then pulled up the realm's link, and said, "Hey guys, I'm going to a meeting! You wanna come? They said there's free food there!"
The overlords froze, then cheered.
Free food? With the Overgod?
Of course they wanted to go!
They all teleported out, right to her dorm, cleaned up, looking like normal refugees, not the most powerful overlords in the world.
Laia grinned, and led them to the meeting hall.
When they walked in, the entire pantheon froze.
Wait.
Those were the runaways? The ones Valerius had been chasing?
They were with the Overgod?
Valerius, who was standing in the back, stared, his face going pale.
Oh.
He was right. They were the Overgod's followers.
He couldn't do anything.
He bowed immediately, hands up.
"Miss Hayes. I'm sorry. I was wrong. I'll pay you all the gold I have. Just... just don't punish me."
Laia blinked.
Wait, he was gonna give her more gold?
Wow. That was even better!
She nodded, grinning. "Sure! That sounds great!"
The pantheon leaders nodded, then turned to her.
"Miss Hayes. We need you to go to the Chaos Sea. To clear the Corruption. Your realm can do it, right? We'll give you a million gold. As a reward."
Laia's eyes went wide.
A million gold?
That was enough to pay her tuition for a hundred years!
She nodded immediately.
"Sure! I'll do it!"