"So... any idea what we're supposed to do?" Kala raised a good point while they were eating what Bruce could only describe as solid colors brought to them by servants of Isuus that looked like leprechauns mixed with flowers. "Like, I get that Set the elder god is trying to make world 'devoid of life' but how exactly?"
"He's gunning for Gaea." Isuus said from her throne while eating the same thing as them, except her's was on a stick. "With Demogorge inactive after his battle with the gods of Skrulls, he believes that it's the perfect opportunity to take the Key from her."
"The Key?" Doom asked, almost politely.
"An artifact that my sister has. One that has the potential to destroy the world if my foolish brother gets his hands on it."
"Why does he want to destroy the world anyway?" Bruce asked with a frown. "You are very clear that he wants to destroy it, not conquer it. Why?"
"Because it's his nature." Isuus answered with a sad smile. "Don't let my nephew's niceness fool you into thinking of us gods as simply powerful humans."
"In many ways, we gods are slaves to our domains as much as their masters. I am the ever revolving circle of life, the ceaseless wheel that wants to turn forever more. My brother was once the predator who got rid of the unnecessary parts from my cycle, till he decided that he wanted more and devoured Hyppus. Transforming himself from a part of the natural cycle of life to a meaningless hunger that will not rest till he consumes all. He turned from predation to consumption for it's own sake."
We stood in silence for a moment, trying to comprehend the words of the goddess. Her words made Bruce think of Galactus for a moment, not helped by the extra hate towards the cosmic being he was feeling due to the news from Kala and Skaar but even with that he could see how this Set could be considered worse.
Galactus fed on world because he hungered. This Set was causing destruction for it's own sake.
Though the morally better reason seldom made the victims feel better.
"Lady Isuus, how do you know of Set's plans?" Thor asked with a frown, looking up at his new aunt.
"Because he tried to invite me to his plan." She said with a shrug, uncaring of the wide gazes directed towards her. "He was all polite about it too, trying to frame it as us remaining Elder Gods reclaiming our rightful place and getting rid of you pesky humans. As if he wasn't salivating at the thought of devouring me." She huffed.
"So... you are on our side?" Hercules asked with a tilt of his head.
"No." Only to immediately be rejected by Isuus. "I care little for humanity. Despite some of the exceptional ones that emerged throughout the years, I have very low opinion of your race and the way that you have caused so much pain on your planet."
"Then why do you help us?" Doom asked as he crossed his arms over his chest.
"Because deciding the future of your race is not mine, nor is it Set's."
"...it's Gaea's." Kala said with a frown, making everyone else turn to him, making Isuus smile.
"Indeed. Gaea gave birth to Atum and ended the Age of Elder Gods, so that our wars would not destroy life on this planet and humanity could one day rise to prominence." She said as she rested her elbows on her knees and her chin on the back of her hands. "And you people repaid her with poisoning her rivers, cutting her trees and releasing toxics to her air. All which is possible for her mercy to your race that was to end her own."
And then her smile took a more sinister edge as she got up and her eyes started to glow with all the colors of the rainbow.
"Yet make no mistake, my sister's mercy is not boundless. The moment you lot come close to a point of no return, she will get rid of you just as she got rid of the other Elder Gods."
And with that ominous statement, they were all left in silence. Till Isuus turned to Doom and her eyes turned back to normal.
"Now then, I do believe I promised you a few trinkets as compensation. Come with me." She got up, turned and walked without even checking if Doom was following her.
"I hope that you are aware that some low value trinket won't be enough to repay the damage you did on Latverian soil." Which he was.
Leaving the rest of them alone.
"...friend Kala, do you believe my mother Gaea is a danger to humanity?" Thor asked with a frown, almost looking like he didn't want Kala to answer.
"Never met her." The half alien said with a shrug. "But I never met anyone nice enough to let themselves be killed."
"Screw whether Gaea will kill off humanity or not." Loki piped up with a scowl. "I am far more curious about what she said about Buri, or Tiwaz or whatever he calls himself, and how he managed to fight off Atum. None of the tales of Asgard talk about him being powerful enough to do such a thing!"
"...the tales don't talk much about him in the first place." Thor muttered as he thought of his great grandfather.
He remembered when he first met the first Asgardian. He had almost froze to death in icy mountains before finding himself in a cave where he had lost consciousness. When he had awoken, it was to a giant of a man carving statues out of ice and breathing life into them. An act that only Odin among the gods of Asgard could do, something he claimed that his father Buri had been jealous of. Only after learning everything that he did that he realized that Bor had been jealous not simply because he did not possess such a gift but because he had not inherited it.
Yet the tales of Buri were scarce in the halls of Asgard. He was the first Asgardian and the father of Bor who fathered Odin the Allfather, yet few things about him was talked beyond that.
He was not even mentioned as a king of Asgard! The title of the 'firstking' belonged to Bor.
How had a being this powerful just became forgotten?
"We're back!" Isuus' voice echoed through the chamber as she walked back in with Doom following after her with... what appeared to be a giant shark tooth. One that disappeared into his cape with what could only be magic.
"And now it's time for you people to leave." Isuus then clapped her hand and the ground beneath them started to glow.
"Find Set's worshippers. Find the Serpent Crown." And then they were gone.
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