It was a pragmatic solution to conserve power. I do not know of another way to put it. Whereas we have been able to send satellites into space for many decades at this point, the simple fact of the matter is that anyone can look at the long-term effects of what sending men up there would be like. We have seen the same story with the UNN. Once, it was merely a coalition of many different Epan Nations, now it stands as a world power.

Simply put, there are two ways that interplanetary colonization can take place and remain feasible. Colonies have to be self-sustaining as we are still at least a century away from low-cost exits and entries from and into Arda orbit. A colony that is not self-sustaining will be little more than an Artican research station. Whereas I am sure that there will be plenty of discoveries in terms of physics and exploration to come from it, there is another factor that everyone in the White Pantheon understands and agrees with. Save for Kavaa, although she has little opinion on anything.

We have united Arda only in the fact that we have imposed the principals of Pantheon Peace upon the world at large. Save for this fact, there is little else that unites this planet. Even the greatest attempt at multinational cooperation, the Epan Community, has stalled in its tracks and become little more than a case of leveraging multiple economic zones against greater ones. We expect an Arikan Community to form eventually.

Thus, we can only proceed in two fashions. Either we bring the national conflicts of Arda into space or we allow the colonies independence and wait for them to eventually decide that this world needs liberation from the Pantheon. At the current moment, Arda is not ready for exploring the world's beyond this world.

Allasaria rallied most against it to the same degree that she rallied against exploration of the Moon and of sending drones to different planets. It is effectively a non-negotiable point with her. To some extent, her reasoning as outlined in this text is correct.

To another extent, if Allasaria was half as rabid as imposing some greater sort of order to the world as she was against leaving this planet, the Pantheon would not be on the edge of collapse.

- Excerpt from: "The issues of the Pantheon in the Information Age", written by Goddess Fortia, of Peace and kept locked within the Closed Library of Olympiada. Published roughly a decade before the return of Arascus.

"Goddess Iniri." Bernard Samhoff said with an attempt at a salute. "Goddess Olephia has arrived." Iniri immediately turned from the pool of shallow water as other men ran past her down to the ladders fashioned entirely out of lead. Iniri had needed to fix them into place by carving small holes in the stone below but ladders out of thin aluminium gave out after a few hours of use down here and ladders of steel lasted just dead. So far, the lead was serving well and they were avoiding more fatalities from the acidic and poisonous air that rested just around the black ocean of water that flooded all of Klavdiv Depths.

The shreds of wreckages of two different submarines sat down there. Bright spotlights . Iniri had carried what could be carried up above. Scientists in bright yellow hazmat suits walked around and took readings with different materials. They had recently started bottling the waters to assist with experimentation up above. The submarines had stopped coming since then. The fact they could not make a material to sufficiently withstand even a drop of this black water had effectively killed that plan. From what Iniri had learned, there had been two successful attempts at cleansing the waters. Successful they may have been, reproducible even. But scalable?

They were not about to start draining an ocean's worth of water bucket-by-bucket. Not even Arascus was mad delusionally optimistic enough to sign off on such an operation.

Nevertheless, that left them with the third option. A mountain that could not be scaled and a mountain that could not be dug through was that a mountain that needed to be felled. So fell the mountain they would. The noxious depths of Klavdiv would be annihilated. Iniri had personally agreed to the plan and Iniri had personally used her influence to contact Olephia from up above.

Who better to try and perform such a cleansing than the Goddess whose voice sang uncreation?

Iniri turned and saw Olephia approach. The woman came in a thick coat with fur around the neck. She had her hands in her pockets and casually strolled with a scarf around her neck. From a distance, Olephia could have been a pretty a girl. Only from a distance though. Iniri had seen those violet eyes record annihilation too many times. Height may have been a fickle guide to power, but the fact that Iniri only reached to Olephia's bosom had always stung.

The Goddess came to a stop as the scientists all gave way. So they were fleeing to let Iniri explain herself. Of course they were. Mortals. Even the meagre amount of dwarves that had come with their expertise of this land looked as if they were trying to make themselves even smaller than they already were. "Greetings." Iniri replied with her usual meek politeness. A soft, unassertive tone.

Olephia pulled out a notebook from one pocket and a mechanical pencil from the other. She quickly wrote a reply in pristine calligraphy. 'Hello. I am excited to help.'

Where to begin even? Was there even a point to small-talk with Olephia? Kavaa had once said Olephia was very pleasant. Iniri believed her. But Kavaa was Kavaa and Iniri was Iniri. She had nothing to say, so she simply got right into it. This was how she had seen Kassandora issue commands after all. "Down there." Iniri pointed. "That is Klavdiv's flooded depths. It's an ocean's worth of water, we don't even have an estimate for it. It may be that everything is flooded, it may be little more than just a sea."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Olephia began to write. Her purple eyes blinked upwards to Iniri for a moment and she added one more thing. 'I've asked about and been briefed somewhat. I understand it's a mixture of everything the dwarves left behind when they flooded the World-Core which has leaked into the water. Also, I can listen and reply at the same time, keep talking when I write.'

Iniri swallowed a mouthful of bitter spit at that addendum. "To sum it up, it's sludge of heavy metals. The waters are viscous like jam. We want you to destroy it."

Olephia's smile became wide. 'It will take me some time just so you know. I'll be single-syllabling it.'

Iniri re-read the sentence before deciding she did not know what that meant and she was too much of a coward to press for an explanation. Besides, Kassandora operated on a need to know basis. Iniri did not need to know of Olephia's power to know what it did. "We'll evacuate and then you're welcome to start. The air down there is toxic." Iniri pointed down below from the grey bridge that had been designated as the main research camp. "I assume you will be able to hit it."

Olephia smiled, she pointed to her throat and then made a motion of a mouth opening and closing. Then, with both hands, she directed at the notion. Iniri raised her eyebrows at the woman. That surely wasn't sign-language. "Sorry." Iniri replied quietly. "But can you write that down."

Olephia looked as if she was about to laugh. But the Goddess of Chaos remained silent as she got to writing. 'I can speak and direct my voice in a direction but what cracks cracks. We are close enough that I'll be able to hit the ocean. You should stay behind me. I probably won't hit you.'

One word made the entire difference. What was that probably doing there? "Probably?"

'Just a joke. I won't hit you Iniri. But you should go away and pull the men away nevertheless.' Iniri read the paper.

"Do you mean from the radiation?" Olephia nodded and Iniri realised she had not thought of this. There were a few Clerics on duty here although they had not managed to save anyone yet. Anyone who did touch the fumes fell too quickly to be healed. Olephia nodded and raised three fingers. She dropped one. And that meant what exactly? "Something else?" Iniri asked and got a nod in response. "What?"

'You'll need to retreat above. Close to me is not safe. My curse leaks from me when I speak too.'

Iniri took a deep breath. She had heard of Olephia's curse before but to see it be confirmed by the Goddess of Chaos herself was something else. What curse was there? "Your curse?" Olephia rolled violet eyes.

'It's a more poetic term for radiation.'

If there was ever a time Iniri wished she had just shut up, it was then. Of course it meant that. Why had her mind ran off to far-fetched scenarios with no basis in reality. They had all long since realised that Olephia's curse was just that.

"What if we retreat further up?" Iniri asked. "Not to the surface of course, but I don't know. Let's say five floors up?" Was that enough to protect them? There was a great deal of stone in the way and as long as they stayed as a team.

Olephia stared at Iniri for moment. The Goddess of Chaos pointed to her final finger. 'And if the floors start collapsing?'

Iniri had called this Goddess down here. It was a matter of pride as a refusal to admit that she was purposefully wasting Olephia's time much less than it was trust in her own strength. But then could she not do it? Killing was one thing. But this was not killing. This was protecting the city above them. This was protecting the scientists that had she had come to assist. This was the sort of bountiful Nature that Iniri had wanted to embody. It surely would not be easy though.

A tiny echo of something Arascus had told her recently resurfaced in her mind: If something was easy, then it was not worth wasting a Goddess on.

And ultimately. Arascus was right. Iniri could talk and think and hope all she wanted but the Imperial creed was action and action was what got respect. "I have stopped your fires of annihilation before." Iniri said.

Olephia responded with a grin. She did not even look down at her piece of paper as she wrote. The letters still looked like flowing waves which twisted into each other as if they had been crafted by a master artists' brush. Well… save for the fact it was a pencil rather than a brush, was Olephia not that exactly? She tore the piece of paper away and held it for Iniri to read. 'You did indeed.'

Iniri had to ask though. She had to ask because even though Olephia had just confirmed it, it wasn't enough. It would never be enough though. She wasn't Maisara or Fortia or Allasaria or Helenna or Kavaa or Elassa. She was not even Zerus or Alkom or Atis. Of all that served the Pantheon, Iniri's time had long go. Maybe there had been hope in the past, even during the Great War that mankind would turn. The Age of Industry had been the final nail in the coffin. Where the forest had once hunted mankind, the forest had now become so pitiable that mankind protected had bestowed upon itself the title of Nature's Guardian to save it from mankind itself. Iniri opened her mouth.

Not a single word came out. Not even a single breath. What were they even going to do? Run through the same routine again and again? Try to convince the greatest of all Forces that Nature could stand against the raw power of uncreation? Against the annihilation that came when Olephia did nothing save for utter a single word?

How many had tried before? Fer and Kassandora and Anassa and Arascus himself? And if they could not achieve it, then what hope did Iniri have. Olephia blinked those purple eyes as she watched Iniri close her mouth and mull her words over. The scientists were beginning to chatter in short whispers. Iniri did not even hear the words. There was nothing to hear. Whether it was surprise at Chaos' humility or whether it was a reassessment of Nature's power did not matter.

The Forest had never asked when it wanted to take. Nor had the Jungle when it sensed and took Iniri. That was Divine mentality. And besides. What was there even to debate? Iniri began to grow red as she realised she wanted Olephia to prostate and humiliate herself as she recalled each and every battle they had together, where Iniri's ever-growing, ever-bountiful, ever-changing Nature had managed to outgrow destruction. And why?

Because she was stuck in the past? Was that it? Because that Golden Age of Gaia had ended and her entire had existence had been spent longing for it once again? Iniri took a deep breath. No. She would not besmirch her own legacy nor Olephia's honour by begging for humiliation. Olephia's annihilation was final and total, but it was not infinite. A seed would be left, a sapling, a root, a single piece of mycelium.

All greenery in this world had come from just that. A sapling, a root, a mushroom or a single seed were enough. Uncreation's annihilation was total and it was instant. Iniri just had to hold for a single moment. She made the declaration. "The question is whether you can destroy that water. Klavdiv will not fall. I will hold."

Olephia took a few moments to respond. Her face twisted into the sort of cursed smile Iniri remembered Olephia wearing during the Great War. It was all a game for her. The response was just as cheeky. 'Well. I can try.'

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