I am Thalos, Odin's older brother

Cú Chulainn didn't linger in the fight. He swiftly yanked his magical spear sideways to ensure it dealt a lethal blow to the heart, then quickly retreated before the gigantic scorpion had time to react.

"You! You—how dare you slay the great me—" The scorpion goddess used her last breath to flail her pincers and thrash her tail, a tail so terrifying it made mortals tremble in fear, but in the end, she hit nothing.

Not even in her final moments could she take a giant down with her.

Hrungnir wasn't stupid. As soon as Cú Chulainn had stepped forward, he and his fellow giants had already backed far away.

He didn't know whether the opponent was a True God or not.

These venomous creatures often spelled disaster for giants. If he died to some poisonous beast of a god, that would be way too pitiful.

With Serket's death, the Pharaoh of Faiyum completely lost the will to resist. Without so much as a word, he surrendered on the spot.

After entering the city, Gilgamesh did not order a massacre. Instead, he commanded his forces to arrest all priests and temple guards loyal to Serket and "sacrifice" them to the great hippopotamus goddess.

This was common in the Egyptian world.

Mortals could surrender—but enemy priests had to die!

The bloodier, the better—it pleased the new master more.

The only thing that surprised the people of Faiyum was when the victorious Pharaoh declared, "I have received a divine revelation from the hippopotamus goddess. I hereby announce that I will change my sacred name to Gilgamesh. Furthermore, the goddess's subordinate god—the God of the Long Spear, Cú Chulainn—shall become your new guardian deity. All of you must offer him your faith. Refuse, and die!"

Those who surrendered had no rights.

In Egypt's city-state system, which was built upon slavery, this was even more true.

Thus, nearly twenty thousand military and civilian inhabitants swore allegiance to the new god, Cú Chulainn, and in return received the Blessing of the Long Spear.

Every spear-wielder felt divine favor descend upon them.

Truth be told, the Blessing of the Long Spear was very practical. Even a farmer who knew nothing of swordplay could suddenly gain a spear technique insight just by picking up a pitchfork.

If there was one thing to complain about…

The new believers found that ever since converting to Cú Chulainn, their luck seemed a bit... off.

Not cursed like with some evil gods—just unusually unlucky.

But that's beside the point.

After conquering Faiyum, Gilgamesh conscripted about three thousand soldiers from the city. Combined with the elite warriors from his original city-state, he now commanded a six-thousand-strong army and continued to campaign against city-states aligned with Set.

In just one month, he had steamrolled five more city-states under the banner of the hippopotamus goddess.

In a barren wasteland like Lower Egypt, ruling over seven city-states made him an undeniably formidable force.

When Gilgamesh re-established contact with Thalos, Thalos was both amused and exasperated.

"Letting Gil do this... and he ends up giving me a pleasant surprise?"

In myth, Gilgamesh had been quite tyrannical in his youth, especially after worshipping that crazy woman Ishtar, who was also a goddess of war. It would be false to say he wasn't belligerent.

But his talent for military leadership was genuine.

Limited by his era, he had never truly applied his abilities to foreign conquest.

Now, given free rein in this life, he proved adept even at large-scale military maneuvers. If this continued, he might one day command a divine army all on his own.

At this moment, Hela asked curiously, "Your Majesty, Gilgamesh is making such a big scene. How come Set and Horus haven't responded?"

Thalos shook his head and smiled. "You don't understand the Egyptian world…"

After Thalos explained, Hela realized that compared to the highly centralized Aesir pantheon, the current structure of most other pantheons was extremely decentralized and fragmented.

In most worlds, gods and mortals alike followed a city-state model, where each faction held its own turf.

Their administrative systems were terribly loose.

Each domain took orders from only one deity. On another god's land, even a God-King's command might be ignored.

And the Egyptian pantheon was particularly complicated.

Besides the well-known elemental gods like the sun gods, there were tons of underworld gods, animal gods, and even obscure abstract deities like those of "void" or "viscosity."

Only the Nine Pillar Gods had relatively close ties; the rest mostly operated independently.

This created a primitive "dark forest" scenario, where might made right.

When trouble arose, only one's blood relatives would come to help. As for those other gods who supposedly swore allegiance—don't count on it. Horus and Set never took those oaths seriously.

When Set could even murder his own brother, trust across the pantheon—and the world at large—was almost nonexistent.

There were countless self-declared kings and so-called gods doing whatever they pleased.

This explained how Gilgamesh was able to sneak into the Egyptian world, bring a few divine avatars with him, and rise to power.

Except for organized groups like Horus and Set, the solo Egyptian gods were no match for the team-oriented Sumerians.

Even if the Sumerians only sent avatars, they could bury their enemies in sheer numbers.

In just one month, five Egyptian gods had fallen to them.

Using the spoils of war plundered from these victims, the Sumerian gods gradually localized their divine powers. The world no longer suppressed or resisted them.

Now Hela understood, and she smiled. "Your Majesty, the situation is excellent!"

Thalos nodded. "As long as we increase avatar deployment, we might have a divine army strong enough to threaten Set within half a year."

Just then, Freyr sent back a message.

"Your Majesty! I've discovered an increase in the number of spatial rifts between the two cosmic currents. The portals are getting larger, too!"

"Hmm?" Thalos narrowed his eyes.

With Freyr's divine transmission, Thalos began to suspect—could it be that the two spatial channels were about to merge?

That would be fantastic news!

In this divine battleground royale, there had to be a winner.

If they could bring the Ginnungagap world closer, this god-level war would be almost guaranteed in their favor.

But just then, Thor sent back another shocking message that stunned the gods.

"Father! Ahead of us... there's very likely another world. I've encountered a large number of world fragments and chaotic creatures!"

Huh? Huh?! Huh???

It had been a long time since Thalos had experienced this kind of surprise.

In the past, he had always relied on infiltration to gather intel on other worlds in advance, giving his side an overwhelming advantage in world-scale wars.

But this time—with three realms standing in opposition—it was going to be a whole new kind of challenge.

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