Chapter 4: How to destroy a Pantheon

"Damn it! How dare those bastards threaten us on our lands!" Etruscan chief deity Tinia slammed his fist on the table in fury. The thunder echoed through his palace, making most of the lesser gods tremble.

The Etruscan gods stood frozen in a circle of worry, not daring to meet Tinia's gaze. In the future, they would become the gods of Rome, a mighty pantheon. After all, the stronger the Roman Empire, the more powerful the Pantheon would become.

But now? Now, the Etruscan Pantheon was still a young pantheon, merely 16,000 years old. Thanks to their location, they were distant from powerful pantheons like the Celts, Sumerians, and Egyptians.

Their only competitors were the rapidly growing Slavic Pantheon, and Tinia, the future Jupiter, was the rival of Perun, the chief Slavic god. Like Perun, Tinia was also a god of thunder, a fact he took great pride in.

As a pantheon with thousands of lesser gods, they would soon create their own worshippers. Yet, as a young pantheon, they lacked a creator deity or ancient gods like the Greek Pantheon had to bring life into existence.

Unlike the Greek Pantheon, the Etruscans were a pantheon that had grown from scratch. Above them were the Celts, a mid-tier pantheon.

The Celtic Pantheon, instead of creating humans, had created beings called fairies. When this became known, it shocked all the pantheons.

What was shocking wasn't the act of creation itself. Pantheons like the Greeks were still capable of creating beings like the Minotaur. The Sumerians had even created powerful beings like Enkidu.

What was surprising was that a mid-tier pantheon had managed to create beings.

It wasn't creation from nothing like Heaven or the Greek Pantheon. Instead, it was an artisan-like process of forging souls and shaping clay.

First, clay would be gathered, then a smith deity would forge a soul and shape the clay. Finally, the gods would bless the creation, giving it form or power.

When Tinia first heard of this, he had been excited to create his own worshippers, but his excitement turned to frustration when he realized he lacked a smith deity.

And now, a mere angel had come to threaten him in front of everyone. The memory of the angel's words still fueled Tinia's rage.

(Back to the past)

"From now on, Heaven claims this territory," a six-winged angel declared in a proud voice. Tinia's eyes trembled as he hurled thunderbolts from the sky at the angel.

The angel dismissed the thunderbolts with a mere wave of his hand. Then, narrowing his eyes, he glared at Tinia. "You cannot oppose us with this power. Otherwise, we will destroy you."

As the angel's presence faded, Tinia was consumed by fury, his eyes glowing red.

(Back to the present)

"My King," Tinia felt his rage momentarily dissolve as he felt the warm embrace of his beloved wife around his waist. He gently held her hands.

"What could anger you so much?" Uni asked as she hugged her husband from behind. Tinia scowled. "Heaven. They've returned and are now claiming our lands."

Feeling his wife freeze with worry, Tinia smiled and turned to her, gently cupping her cheeks. "Do not worry. Even though Heaven is strong, we are no easy prey. We will harm them and make them retreat."

Tinia declared this with confidence, as if it were a foregone conclusion. Uni paused for a moment, then smiled and hugged him tightly. "I believe in you, my love. You are strong. We are strong. Besides..."

Uni raised her head, her smile turning sly. "They underestimate us. They'll likely send only a few powerful angels. We'll defeat them and make them regret attacking us."

Seeing the confidence in his wife's eyes, Tinia's ego swelled, and he agreed with her words. She was right. Would Heaven really send their entire army and archangels just to destroy a minor pantheon?

It was a ridiculous thought. Heaven wouldn't do such a thing. Tinia's confidence grew exponentially as he mocked the gentleness of Heaven's God.

"Go and summon all the gods! Prepare for war!" Tinia commanded, his thunderous voice spreading across the pantheon's dimension. Not content with this display, he blanketed all of Italy in thunder, leaving a grand impression for his future legend.

As the pantheon's army slowly gathered, the God of War, Laran, prepared his army of tens of thousands of lesser gods.

Tens of thousands of lesser gods—a number even the Celts would envy. Laran proudly polished his armor, his gaze even more arrogant than Tinia's.

"With this power, we could make that coward Perun kneel," Laran sneered. For a long time, he had been annoyed by the growing influence of the Slavic Pantheon and their claims over Italy.

Laran, a staunch militarist who often clashed with Tinia, had long dreamed of a war against Perun. Yet the thought of slaying an angel and gaining glory now surpassed even his desire to crush the Slavic Pantheon.

Heaven and its angels were often shrouded in mystery. Little was known about them beyond a few names and individuals. Considering Heaven's God's gentle nature, Europe was filled with many unaligned pantheons.

Though he loathed admitting it, Laran had to acknowledge that the only thing preventing the Greek Pantheon from conquering the world was Heaven's God.

Of course, the Greeks' arrogance also played a role, but for Laran, such thoughts were irrelevant now. After defeating Heaven, Laran dreamed of a pantheon no longer confined to Italy.

Forcing Heaven to retreat would be the first step. Then would come the rise of the Etruscans. Dreaming of being as unique as the Sumerians, Laran couldn't suppress the smile that formed on his lips.

"What are you smiling about?" The breath of Turan, the Goddess of Love, tickled Laran's ear, making him shiver momentarily before he smiled. "Oh, nothing."

"Good. I need a strong man to accompany me today..." Hearing the seductive words of the Goddess of Love, Laran didn't resist his desires and fell straight into bed.

(Time lapse)

A single day was long for a mortal but passed in the blink of an eye for gods. Lesser gods stood tall, feigning confidence as they lined up in formation.

Their armor, copied from the Celts, adorned them. It was ironic that a pantheon hoping to surpass the Celts would mimic them. But that wasn't the issue now.

Tinia donned his unique, radiant, solid gold armor. Manipulating the sky, he gave himself an aura of natural brilliance. The blinding light only fed his ego as some lesser gods struggled to see.

Uni also wore armor. With her, the Etruscan Pantheon's main strength had gathered. Together, they were a force capable of causing great damage to the world. The overwhelming power suffocated some of the weaker-willed lesser gods.

Tinia, Uni, Menrva, Nethuns, Turan, Laran, Fufluns, Voltumna, Sethlans, Culśanś, Selvans, Aita, Vanth, Cautha, Thalna, Losna, Hercle, Aplu, Artume, Tuchulcha, Charun.

They were all gods and goddesses with some combat ability. Tinia and Laran were the best warriors. Turan, on the other hand, could manipulate the minds of enemies with ease.

The rest were mid-tier gods. While not particularly powerful, they were still superior to most beings.

"The time is near. We will show Heaven that they cannot trifle with us," Tinia said with a slight smile. Everyone's expectations were high. If, as Uni had predicted, Heaven sent only a small number of powerful angels, they would surely suffer losses here.

But there was something Tinia did not know: this would be Heaven's first campaign against the outside world.

Elyon's words seemed simple, but their implications were immense. The Etruscans had provoked Heaven. This meant war.

For the first time, Heaven's God had ordered a campaign of destruction.

And what would be the result? The arrival of Heaven's excited army and its Archangels...

"Look! Heaven is coming!"

Tinia slowly and charismatically ascended into the sky. The heavens darkened in response, as thunderbolts struck ominously.

Raising his head, Tinia suddenly found himself trembling uncontrollably, frozen in place.

Gradually, thousands, tens of thousands of massive portals opened, each the size of the Etruscan Pantheon, and suddenly, the influence of four great beings made the entire dimension quake as if it would collapse.

"This is a glorious day..." Michael declared coldly, raising his sword. On one side approached Azrael, Sariel, and Gabriel, while on the other came Raphael, Remiel, and Raguel.

And they were not alone. As over a billion angelic soldiers suddenly flooded into the dimension, Tinia's expression collapsed. The minor gods were annihilated down to their very souls with a mere swing of Azrael's scythe.

As Tinia gazed at Michael, his once-majestic aura crumbled in an instant. "What?"

Before Tinia even saw Michael charge forward, his head exploded under a devastating punch. Michael's usually emotionless expression betrayed a hint of exhilaration.

"For God!" Michael commanded, and the angelic army swiftly seized the dimension, destroying everything belonging to the Etruscans. Not stopping there, the jubilant archangels retreated to Heaven after allowing Michael to deal the final blow.

"Thus, today marks a victory for God," Michael thought inwardly, a small smile gracing his face. For a long time, he had been Heaven's commander, but aside from standing against Lucifer, he had no military achievements to his name.

This would be his first victory. Finally feeling like a true commander, Michael unsheathed the ancient, most powerful artifact: the Flaming Sword, capable of even severing Lucifer's Morningstar power.

The mere appearance of the sword was enough to unsettle all existing Pantheons. The sword, cloaked in the Flames of Creation, was forged immediately after God created the Morningstar power.

The Flames of Creation were weapons that could sever existence itself, erasing it entirely. This sword could cut through past, present, and future, erasing an entire Pantheon from existence.

In essence, even the primordial god of time, Chronos, could not reach back in time for Tinia or any member of the Etruscan Pantheon, nor could he foresee their fate. Simply put, if the Flaming Sword struck a human, that person would cease to exist as if they had never been.

They wouldn't ascend to Heaven or descend to Hell, wouldn't reincarnate, and would leave no trace of existence aside from the memories of those who once knew them.

"And now, I am a true commander..." Michael declared. He swung the sword, and in an instant, the entire dimension shattered. The Flaming Sword's power even tore through the infinite void beyond.

Had there been any external force, it might have triggered another Big Bang. Fortunately, no one intended to let that happen.

The entire dimension was consumed by white flames in profound silence. Everything was devoured—even time, the Void itself, burned and fractured under the flames.

The Etruscan Pantheon had already been erased without leaving a single trace. Yet the white flames burned their timelines, destinies, and all related traces from other timelines, the energy remnants of the Big Bang, atoms, the laws of physics, and even divinity itself.

The infinite darkness lost its influence, shattering upon itself in countless small explosions and chaos.

Once the white flames had consumed everything, they gradually retreated into the sword and vanished. What remained was an endless void consumed by profound silence.