GREED: ALL FOR WHAT?

Then there's the reason why they called him here. It is because they did not see his trip through the ant mound at all. Can they claim they did not? It will surely damage their image in front of this little demigod that thinks so highly of them if they admit to their inability to watch him in the ant mound.

"I noticed the divine domain over the ant mound. It must mean that the ant queen has been killed and a god is claiming the ant mound as a trophy. I wonder who the demigod that earned this heroic feat is."

Helios continued to rant and talk about things except for the one thing that the gods wanted to hear. They want to hear about his experience but they don't want to admit to having failed to track him. They believe that the hidden god obscured him but he doesn't know what they think. His reluctance to share information may shed more light on their thoughts if they admit their failure. So he is reminding them of their failure.

"Enough." The Celestials Supreme said after having had enough of the nonsense that Helios is spewing.

Helios became silent like a meek little demigod.

"Stelios, talk to your son and get this along." The Celestial Supreme delegated to the sun god.

'He is unraveling, what a fun sight.' Harkam thought to himself.

Harkam quirked his lips. He enjoyed the celestial supreme being embarrassed more than he thought he would. The celestial supreme was calm during the divine council but he has already snapped twice during this meeting.

Stelios coughed, "The thing is that you are the only one that returned from the ant mound."

Helios nodded shamefully and interrupted, "As expected. I returned in defeat. I have shamed you, divine father."

Stelios raised his hand and Helios became silent again.

The sun god continued, "As I was saying. You're the only one that returned but not for the reason you think. How should I put this?"

Harkam cut in immediately. "The others failed. They were kidnapped."

He has had enough of the hemming and hawing.

Helios smiled a little. "That is not funny, your divine excellency the sky god. I don't dare to say it with certainty, but a situation where demigods are kidnapped right underneath the noses of gods might be insulting of my intelligence and insulting of the might of gods."

Harkam almost blew his top. Lightening flashed through his eyes and he was getting ready to smite this little shit that dared call him negligent and powerless. He even called all the gods negligent and powerless to their faces. The Celestial Supreme stopped things before they spiral with a well-placed order.

"Silence.

The divine power that Harkam was accumulating deflated like a punctured balloon as his divine energy froze. Helios runes also winked out and became dull. His divine energy froze and so did all of his runes. The golden tattoos on his body disappeared.

The Celestial Supreme glared at both Harkam and Stelios and grumbled. "If you want to do something and you want it done right you have to do it yourself."

He turned to Helios. "Now listen to me. A new unknown god is helping the ant colony for a purpose that is beyond us. What we do know is that the demigods have been kidnapped due to their joint effort. Tell us what you experienced in the ant mound. Start from why you didn't take that entrance."

'So they think a god is helping the ant queen. That's good to know." Helios thought to himself.

By withholding information from them, he was able to get their thoughts about the situation. The gods might think they are the ones interrogating him, and they will be wrong. Even if they meet halfway, they are both interrogating each other. Helios knows that even that might be an overestimation.

He asked shakily, "Does that mean that the ant queen is still alive and my fellow demigods are in danger?"

"Yes, they are in danger. Whatever you tell us will help us to rescue them. Now speak."

He told them of his experience. He said he felt danger from the first entrance he came upon so he used another entrance that felt safer. He didn't face many obstacles till he was ambushed. He fought with everything he had until he stumbled onto a cavern containing sleeping royal guards. Some of his flames fell on them as he was clashing with the royal guards and it woke them up. The awakened royal guards then helped him to escape.

The Celestial Supreme was listening attentively while gauging if Helios is telling the truth or not. It is one of his abilities under his domain of justice and it vetted that Helios isn't lying. The words that Helios spoke matched the prints of events that occurred in the past. It is this method that the Celestial Supreme used to verify the truth. It is the most reliable method to determine the truth of events because nothing can change the past but self-deception and delusion can change one's opinion or memory of truth and lies.

Only actions matter and through it the Celestial Supreme can verify that it is the truth that Helios entered the tunnel, was ambushed by a very strong opponent, tried his best, found the cavern, freed the captives, and escaped with them.

All of that happened just as Helios said. Why it happened is another thing that he can't confirm. It is irrelevant to the Celestial Supreme to know why anyways. Justice doesn't care about motive. Only action matters.

Stelios added after Helios is done, "We can confirm that he escaped with other royal guards. We saw him come out with them and they are currently leaving the area around the ant mound."

The Celestial Supreme nodded in agreement. He doesn't suspect Helios and the other gods don't suspect Helios either. They have seen his prowess when he killed a royal guard on his own. If there's someone among the demigods strong enough to survive an ambush, then it has to be Helios.