What should he do?

The gods wanted to kill the awakened highswords. It was beyond unfair, but he did not have enough power to go against them. These people were their friends, but as a keeper, he was responsible for the whole nation and could not be swayed by his own personal feelings.

Damian also never asked him to protect these people. The decision to break the faith was their own. They were even warned what would most likely happen.

"Sanctuary and its people are my responsibility. These people are not." Astraea declared. "I don't care what happens with them."

"What if we leave this place? We are a problem for you only if we remain with your people, right?" Lifewarden asked.

"It's a loose end. Unless you are going somewhere from where you can never return, it's meaningless." The Sea God replied. "Especially with that brat's waygates, which connects beyond worlds."

"Sanctuary won't handle this. There is no way this golem abomination wasn't that brat's creation. It must be done by the Empire." The Sun God said. "All six of you must die. People of Sanctuary will capture them right now, or they will be considered guilty as well."

"Half will be executed by Faerunia." The Sea God declared.

Sam gritted his teeth. This was not a good position to be in. He knew the gods would always push them around as they wished because they were completely at their mercy. Astraea was somewhat interested in Damian and his family, which was the only reason she even bothered to speak in their favor.

Under these tyrants, they will always be just a mouse trying hard to survive in the world of giants.

'Oh? And when were you anything more? Did you seriously think your friend's odd progression is the norm for your world? You all exist because we let you. You live to obey! You think we are playing some games here, brat? We are Gods!' - Sun God.

At times, Sam wondered how their lives on pigmen world, despite the threat of the demon lord was somehow better than this.

'We were free to make our own decisions.' Sam thought.

'More like you enjoyed not thinking about anything and leaving everything on Damian.'

Sam closed his eyes for a moment and cleared his mind. Such jabs from the Sun God were common to him. The man never missed an opportunity to belittle him. How free can a god be to comment continuously without any replies? Were these guys bored?

"Executing Highswords will not sit right with Sir Landbreaker." Suddenly, Seraphina spoke up, "My lord, Damian, was about to do a very important experiment last time I spoke to him. If this experiment involves somehow pushing Sir Landbreaker into an ascension trial.. things will not be solved by words at that point."

What is she doing? Damian never talked about his experiments with anyone other than his close scholarly group.

"That's a very childish attempt at delaying the punishment." The Sea God huffed, "What a time? Mere transcendents are threatening us now. If you were mine, your bones would have scattered in the wind like dust by now."

"I would be stupid to say something that I can't prove now, won't I? Lord Sun God can check my memories, right? Why don't you see first and then tell me how wrong I am?" Seraphina refuted.

No, that can't be. But there was no way to hide memories from the gods either. Did Damian truly find a way to help others ascend? Seraphina's ascension was indeed quite surprising to everyone when it happened. She was only a first-ranker knight when she accompanied Damian into dungeon diving.

No doubt there have been people like Damian, Lucian, and himself who ascended in merely years with the right conditions and battle experience. But when they ascended, the situation was different. Damian, well, he didn't know much about him, but he was godless.

Sam himself was a prime esper and had killed thousands of monsters that normal second rankers would never be able to because of that advantage, and most importantly, Damian had taught him a lot about his lightning power and how they worked on a fundamental level. For an esper, that was the most important part for transcending, understanding their own powers.

Lucian had not triggered the ascension on her own. It was actually the demon lord's astral plane that she had used to ascend. Damian had talked about how there was a possibility of helping one ascend if they could somehow take someone inside their astral plane. But only the demon lord was capable of that, as an abnormal esper.

Did he succeed in that with Seraphina somehow? And now he brought Landbreaker with him as well?

If that's true. This delicate balance of power among the gods will shatter into hundreds of pieces. But it all depended on just how much truth there was in it?

All eyes in the room stared at the second-ranker avatar of the Sun God. After several seconds, he finally opened his mouth.

"The memories.. show signs of some sort of hidden communication between this girl and Runebreaker before she ascended. It was only for a second. She left the dungeon and immediately activated her status tool to ascend. In that split second..." The avatar stopped speaking as his eyes widened.

In that split second, what? What had happened? Did Damian somehow manage to lift the Sun God's control over Seraphina in that one second?

"The code states clearly we cannot interfere. If you two are thinking what I assume you are thinking, remember that very well. Whoever breaks the code first will incur the punishment." Astraea reminded the two gods.

Sam saw a minor annoyance or hints of frustration on the two avatars' faces before they regained control and made their faces blank.

"A new god. Do you want that Astraea, really? Despite knowing everything?" The Sea God asked.

What were they talking about?

"Of course, not." Astraea shook her head, "Let's just take a moment. Clearly, we all underestimated the boy's relentless chase for freedom. But both the boy and Landbreaker are honorable men; if we explain, they will understand. We can come to some terms and prevent this from happening. But if we kill Highsword members.. this might end really ugly."