### Chapter: 232
Well, I guess there’s no need to explain in detail what happened afterward.
I punished the gods involved in this incident and, while I was at it, dealt with most of the other gods as planned. After receiving an oath from the necessary gods that they would not cause trouble in the world, their activities were temporarily suspended.
In the end, after thoroughly cleaning out the Pantheon, I successfully removed all the problematic gods.
Instead…
“Many gods have been unable to issue oracles, leading to chaos in the temples. Fortunately, the pilgrims from the Temple of Life are making efforts to sort things out…”
A girl who looked just like me, but without horns and with white hair, spoke in a calm voice.
As the Goddess of Life, she was born from the upgraded version of the automated prayer processing system that had been handling countless human prayers, much like Hades in the underworld.
If there’s one difference from Hades… it’s that she has a proper body. I just handed over an avatar made of magical power.
Hmm… I wonder if Hades would prefer such a free body? I’ll have to ask him later.
“The more the pilgrims work, the more their devotion to the Goddess of Life grows, and as a result, the number of people praying increases. Ultimately, that just means more work for me.”
“Ah, I’m sorry about that.”
“No need to apologize. It’s all part of the great and supreme Goddess of Life, who made thoughtful decisions. Surely, the benevolent goddess who watches over all life wouldn’t just beat down all the gods and declare, ‘I will be the best!’ while conquering the Pantheon without a second thought?”
“You may have acted a bit hastily, but it wasn’t without reason, right? And you do have a way with words, don’t you?”
“Well, I suppose. Since I’m a clone, maybe I’m starting to resemble the original. If there’s something wrong with me, shouldn’t we blame the original instead?”
The calm words of the white girl landed like heavy artillery. I couldn’t help but sigh at the sight.
Seriously… When I first created her, she was just a machine that listened to prayers and repeated things, but how did it end up like this?
Of course, I admit my rash actions were a bit much!
“If you have the luxury to act so impulsively, then could you please give me a name? I still don’t have a proper one, you know? Anything other than the lifeless ‘Automated Prayer Processing System.'”
“Uh, sorry. I was too busy thinking about other things…”
While it was nice that the prayer processing performance improved thanks to the change to Hades, the issue was that the ego had become too strong.
Well, we can’t keep calling her the Automated Prayer Processing System forever. The name… Hm. I really should think of a good one.
“Um… Asherah… Asherat? How about Asherat?”
“Asherat… Not bad at all. I graciously accept that name. From now on, please call me Asherat instead of that stiff ‘Automated Prayer Processing System.'”
Asherat bowed her head in gratitude. Nice! It was a name I thought of lightly, but it seemed like she genuinely liked it since the corners of her mouth slightly turned up.
As the Goddess of Life, my workload is only going to increase from now on. I can’t afford to have any issues with this girl. No way, no how.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
And so, several decades passed.
It seems like time was passing too quickly, but what can you do? There was just so much to handle that it felt like time disappeared in an instant.
Still, focusing on work has its rewards… We managed to alleviate some of the chaos caused by the absence of various gods.
Plus, the newly recruited personnel worked hard too.
“Here you go. These are the documents that only need final confirmation. Please review and sign.”
Winged goddesses… or rather, those whose faith has dwindled to the point where they can barely be called goddesses were bustling around.
“Thanks for your hard work, Freyja.”
“What can I say? As long as I can survive by doing this work, I’m more than willing to keep at it.”
The blonde goddess, Freyja, smiled awkwardly.
The Valkyries, who had hidden away the moment the Aesir gods fell, were now diligently working for the Goddess of Life.
Having shed the name Valkyrie, they now went by the title of Angels.
“I don’t even think about rebelling anymore. It’s so nice to hear you listen so obediently.”
“Ah, I apologize for that time. I was a bit on edge after witnessing the fall of the Aesir gods, who were like family.”
There was a little bit of a rebellious streak, but everything’s been resolved now.
I had sealed one of the most rebellious Valkyries and tossed her to the ground, and surprisingly, she started obeying.
What was her name again? Brunhilde, was it? The name of the sealed Valkyrie?
Thanks to that, the remaining Valkyries became like well-behaved puppies, dashing around as servants to assist the Goddess of Life.
“I’m really glad you’re all here. Especially since I couldn’t personally check for the protection of newborns.”
With the growing belief in the Goddess of Life, more and more people started requesting blessings for newborn babies.
In the past, they would just pray to the gods they believed in for protection… but now? It’s like they’ve all migrated to me. Hmm. Thanks to that, the Temple of Life has expanded so much that it’s now commonly referred to as the Church of Life.
It might be a bit excessive, but… what can I do? If that’s what they want. Particularly with the dragons occupying high positions in the Church of Life… They even collected everything I said, did, and thought, and compiled it into a book.
It was written so grandly that it practically formed its own Bible. A real-life Bible.
“The Goddess of Life could bless all the newborns if she wanted to, couldn’t she?”
“Um… That would have been the case in the past. But now, it’s a bit difficult.”
During Zeus’s final moments, he cursed me, declaring, “The Goddess of Life shall never again set foot on this living world.”
Is this curse why? When I try to venture into the human world to fulfill my duties as the Goddess of Life… I end up bouncing back? Or is it being blocked? As if a transparent wall stands in my way, preventing passage?
Well, this is only applicable when I’m working as the Goddess of Life. But if I’m just wandering around incognito or impersonating a dragon priestess—or even engaging in the duties of other divine beings, like the Creator’s Dragon—there’s no issue.
Honestly, it’s a curse that could easily be broken with a mere thought; it compares to a single strand of hair! Yet, using that curse as an excuse, I can reduce the number of business trips to the surface.
Plus, under the pretext of not being able to go to the surface, I brought Freyja and the Valkyries over, patched them up a little, and turned them into angels to handle all the surface work.
Thanks to that, Asherat was glad as the burden of ground-related tasks was significantly reduced.
“Well, this opportunity is not one to miss. Sure, having a lot of work can be tough, but… now I can work without worrying about others’ opinions.”
I nodded at Freyja’s words. The (former) Valkyries—now (current) Angels—stop stealing souls and now receive clean souls from the cloud whales to place into newly born beings.
While blessing the newborns, they check for any lingering memories of past lives and, if none are found, leave a little confirmation mark on the philtrum by pressing a finger there.
Thanks to this, cases of newborns having memories of their past lives, which once occurred occasionally, have nearly vanished.
Certainly, when there’s a lot of work, the best solution is to increase the workforce.
“There. Enough chit-chat—let’s focus on our work.”
“Yes!”
At Asherat’s command, Freyja responded energetically and scampered off to resume her tasks.
“Your Majesty, stay focused on your work too.”
“Hey, my tasks are pretty low-priority; I could hand them off to you if need be, right? You managed everything just fine when I was tied up with other matters.”
“That’s where you’re wrong! Why am I doing work that the goddess should handle? Thanks to you, followers are flocking to me!”
“That’s great! Isn’t it time you started becoming independent?”
“If I become independent, all the tasks I do will just get dumped back onto the Goddess of Life, you do realize that, right?”
“Yep. That’s right. Tough luck! I can’t let you go!”
“I never intended to leave anyway. Ugh…”
I watched Asherat exhale a sigh and couldn’t help but chuckle softly.
“You really should take a break once in a while. How about bringing Hades up from the underworld to rest with you? He’s my spirit too, so in a way, you two are basically sisters.”
“And how do I deal with the pile of work that’ll stack up while I’m off relaxing?”
“I’ll just have to put in some extra effort. You know, back when things were quiet, I did all the work of the Goddess of Life.”
“That was when there were far fewer lives than there are now. It’s not even comparable.”
Well, that’s true.
With the disappearance of the hundreds or thousands of gods directly interfering with Earth, the few dozen remaining gods are now confined to the Pantheon, watched over by twelve guardian gods and their leader, Sirius, all ready to maintain order.
Now that there are no longer any gods to disrupt the earthly realm…
Those who stroll the earth began to flourish immensely.
You could start to wonder if these gods had been here just to suppress life on Earth. The population was beginning to rise explosively.
Dun dun duuun!
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