The day of the Emergency Denatus came, it took a moment to ensure everyone was present. And now, thanks to that wait, the vast majority of the city's gods were present. Even some of those who'd just recently had members level up and were eager to get a name for them.
Astraea was seated at one end of a long conference table, Alise standing to her right all smiling and bright like normal, and Kaguya yawning to Astraea's left, the obvious tiredness settling in from the long night of fun with the familia.
Loki was seated on the other end of the table, her leg impatient jumping up and down. Finn was standing to her right with an expression of horror, and disillusionment, the war game was setting in, in the worst way. To Loki's left was a rather upset Bete, but he did his best to control himself.
The host for the meeting this time was Hathor, a choice the guild specifically wanted to make this time, and so opted for the gods to take as much time as needed to host this meeting, as getting Hathor was not easy.
"Welcome, my kin, and children of their familias, to a momentous meeting. Where we bear witness to the setting of terms. Loki, and Astraea are going to fight a war game. What will be the terms of this battle, I wonder, but first, like always, let's give all of the children who leveled up recently their new names!" Hathor began, with a loving yet also stern voice.
The next hour was spent naming the children of other familias, which turned out rather nice, thanks to the suspense building over the war game, and Hathor's steadfastness to refuse any war game discussion until after names had been granted.
"Excellent names all around. Now, Astraea, Loki, how will the war game be played?" Hathor smiled.
"GIVE AIS BACK TO ME!" Loki shouted out, practically barking.
Astraea simply let her lips form a small smile. "Come now, Loki, you know better than to ask something I simply can't do." She said, with a clear sign of heartache. "Ais has made her choice, and you steadfastly refused to let her go. You're desperately clinging onto her for dear life, ignoring her choice."
"You used some kind of bewitchment on her, my Aisepoo. You're just trying to steal my Ais." Loki grumbled.
Kaguya's gaze narrowed at the comment. "Lady Loki, are you suggesting that my goddess is doing something unjust?" She asked with a flat expression, the implications of the question were enough that the gods were in shock at how easily Loki had been caught in a trap.
"Shut your mouth, B…" Bete said, getting his voice cut off before he could finish speaking.
"Loki, would you care to explain why Ais is not with you?" Freya smiled.
"Butt out of this Freya." Loki sneered. "But fine! Ais followed a feeling, and then found Gamelia, and Ceraunius. They kidnapped her!!!"
This time Alise was not happy. "They kidnapped no one. Ais has loved every single second she's been with us. She's smiling more now, than the entire time she's been with you."
Astraea giggled. "While it is true that Ais followed her feelings to them. It was only because Ais' mother gave them her mark of approval, that mark especially on Gamelia, allowed Ais to finally let out her bottled up emotions. She's much happier now."
"If that's really the case then why didn't you bring her here?" Loki asked.
"That's easy, because she's spending time with other new children. She's finally living to know who, and what she is, as opposed to your forceful suppression." Astraea explained. "The only reason we're set to fight a war game now, is because you refused to acknowledge Ais' own desires. So how can you claim her to be yours when you clearly don't care about her enough to let her choose?"
Some murmurs among the gods were overheard, and Hathor decided to let everyone in on the juicy detail. "My kin, you ask who else recently joined the Astraea familia, I shall tell you. It was Ceraunius and Gamelia. Both at level 8."
"Loki, you're stupid if you think that you can challenge them when they have members like those two. They're practically Grand Spirits themselves." Freya commented, with more than a few shivers the length of her spine. "What do you think about all of this, Finn?"
"..." Finn remained silent, unable to come to an answer right away. "I… I don't like this. We can't possibly win most any competition with those two competing. I'm also worried about our fairy force, I doubt their ability when it comes to raising a hand against them."
"Finn?!" Loki shouted in shock. "How could you!?"
"I tried to stop this from happening before it got this far, you're the one hurtling our familia to collapse. As far as I'm concerned you no longer give a damn about the deal we made. I'm just trying to keep what I've built up together, and you're making it impossible now." Finn explained, clearly irritated.
"It's fine, Big brother and sister won't be participating in the war game unless you choose something stupid." Kaguya declared, dropping a bombshell that held more meaning than one might initially think.
"You mean to say, Astraea, you can defeat my whole familia with just your members." Loki asked, though it was more of a statement.
"My children are strong, they were able to stand their own against Alfia, and then also, later on, my darling Alise slayed a calamity all on her own. Plus, unlike you Loki, I believe in the strength of my children. Each and every one of them." Astraea smiled.
"So what kind of a game do you want to fight?" Loki asked.
"You as the challenged party have the right to give the first suggestion. Though I'm partial to having an all out battle in the coliseum, or another battle field." Astraea said, making her side known before Loki's ever could.
Some more back and forth went on for hours before something had finally been settled upon. A war game set to be in the Arena, and will be a clash with death being the only bar withheld, Freya even joined in to play the part of healer, getting a free chance for her familia's healers to show off more than a little bit. The Denatus concluded there.