Chapter 25 A grudgin to be

Frankly, Kanako had little to nothing I wanted so after her whining about me needing to 'sell' more like gift my heavenly materials to her got annoying, I had my brand-new priestess in the form of Tenma escort/pull the Moriya goddess from my throne room by the back of her dresses collar.

"Lord Moriya when Kanako mentioned the devils you seemed spooked is all well with you?" Ran asked me as silence filled the throne room with the absence of the chatterbox Kanako.

Hearing the nine tails kitsune's question I merely hummed in thought as I rested my chin upon my hand. "Ran, do you think some bold and stupid devils will come to Gensokyo?" I asked blandly as I pondered on the likelihood of Rias's plot armor allowing her to 'stumble' upon this land filled with perfect peerage members.

Ran giggled and shook her head with her tails swaying back in forth as her kitsune mischievous nature leaked through. "Oh, people have certainly tried. Actually, the reason Yukari has been so busy lately is the latest wielder of Dimension Lost has been trying to bring Gensokyo back to the real world for whatever reason. But he has failed at every attempt and Yukari makes sure to chastise the stupid boy thoroughly."

"Surprised she hasn't killed him honestly," I said blandly and Ran shrugged without care.

"She considered it, but the child is bound to the wielder of the True Longinus and is an instrumental tool of the said wielder." Seeing my dull face Ran looked a little contrite as she continued. "And that human is being led by the nose by the Hindu God Indra... Not even Yukari can tangle with that God as he can apply the concept of destruction in all tenses of the word so he can delete you from the timeline and no number of Gaps can open to escape your existence being denied.

From what I recalled Indra was in the top five of DXD's whole power scheme, so it wasn't a surprise that Yukari didn't want to tangle with him as despite Yukari's great power. at heart, she was extremely lazy and so long as she could bully that kid-wielding Dimension Lost into giving up then she will be content.

"Alrightly so make sure my new mountain doesn't appear in India," I muttered as I played with the palm-sized refractile crystal that came from the Bifrost that Remilla gave me, so I didn't force myself upon her maid.

"Do you actually have plans as to where you plan on appearing?" Sakuya asked as she came out of her little time to skip behind my throne where she had actually set up a nice little seating area complete with a sofa and table for snacks so in her words. 'There will never be a moment in which I cannot serve you as a dutiful maid should!'

Wordlessly I placed the Bifrost shard back in my treasury buried deep underground as my mind raced. "Honestly no I have not as for one I need a great number of humans living nearby to convert to worshiping me and in turn I don't want it to land in an area held thoroughly by gods so no dropping off into Greece or India for example," I said mentioning the well-known Greek's and Hindu Pantheon who could likely wreck my shit unless Tiamat comes to pimp slap them back into their realms.

"Might I suggest Japan then?" Ran interjected and as much as I wanted to agree and be closer to the DXD caste...

"Japan is a straight no-go. I refuse to go there where the mountain god Fuji was sealed away, as for all I know the Shinto Pantheon could have a way to do that to me even with my precautions." I said giving the Kitsune a hard stare to plainly tell her to drop it.

"Very well Lord Moria." She said bowing slightly before her kitsune ears popped to the side and spoke again. "Lord Moria may I be excused; Chen is here, and I would like to spend some time with her."

I waved knowing how Ran considered Chen, all but a daughter. "Go ahead then. I will consider my options in lands not too firmly held by local pantheons."

When I Ran well... Ran off to be with Chen, I ruminated upon my options before I broke the silence of my throne room to ask Sakuya a question.

"Sakuya how do you think people would react if I made a race of dwarves to fill the massive tunnels beneath my mountain and into Old Hell," I asked and, in a flash, Sakuya appeared in front of me as she thought this topic was more important than sitting in behind my throne.

"I believe such an idea would help you enrich your lands especially if the faith from the dwarves could fuel you... But on the other hand, should you reach into the Other World and walk amongst the normal world the dwarves of the Earth may take that as a grudge to be avenged as you making your own dwarves is a sign that none of the other dwarven clans were up to your standards." Sakuya explained with my eyes almost going cross-eyed at that little mind whammy.

"I am confused. Do the dwarves of the normal world have their own mountain god or something?" I asked in confusion which only spread as Sakuya nodded.

"Yes, Svartalfheim the realm of mountains in the Norse Pantheon is exactly what you plan on becoming. A Mountain God formed in the dead realm of Svartalfheim and then before the Norse fully expanded and took over their realms, the Mountain God within that realm had expanded somehow by feeding upon the corpse of Ymir that Odin left behind."

She explained and I could already see it from my perspective of how I was already planning on taking over Gensokyo by expanding the faith the people had of me. Whereas that mountain god just ate the divine corpse of another god and got a massive boost in their range of control, and I imagine mommy dearest Tiamat helped stretch out that power even further.

"So, what does that have to do with me making a race of dwarves for my own mountain? If anything, hearing how those dwarves are tied to that other mountain god I would rather them not be here at all." I said frankly as for one I was obviously much weaker than that other mountain god so who knows if that one will try something using those dwarves should I recruit them?

Sakuya shook her head as she smiled wryly. "Lord Moria you couldn't be more wrong as the vast majority of the more peaceful dwarf clans have long since fled the realm of Svartalfheim as the mountain god that controls the realm believes in heavily in the survival of the fittest. Frankly to the point of matching the chaotic war-like years where Pantheons would pit themselves against one another for worshippers... It's truly a hell on earth in terms of violence and war crimes which attract the worst in all the world's factions to take part in the mountain gods' games for his divine materials they hand out at times to keep people's interest in his damned realm."

I couldn't help but feel a bit of shame as even I had already imagined doing something similar in offering rewards for hosting a tournament that would attract a lot of people to my mountain area before I shook the thought away as I wouldn't have the battles be to the death or whatever.

"So, the dwarves would be untied to said Mountain God? Actually, what even is his name?" I asked with my brow twitching as I realized I didn't even know the name of my 'sibling'

"Actually, it's she. And her name is Esdeath, she is the first-born Mountain God and supposedly the most powerful, but she is almost completely tied to her realm and like you has a sort of projection she can use to travel around even outside her realm of influence, but she has no magical power and only uhm supposedly extremely unreasonable physical strength and a sort of ice creation artifact she made with some of the remains of Ymir that she didn't absorb." Sakuya explained and I couldn't help but facepalm at the depiction of Esdeath that fit so perfectly.

"I see... well in either case I don't see any dwarves around Gensokyo and I don't think those Inchlings count despite them being rather similar," I muttered before I bid Sakuya to go about her duties she had taken upon herself as I flashed down into a deeper chamber within my mountain.

"To make dwarves is to make a people made of stone. A hardy unyielding people that can withstand the deep dark. And an appreciation for booze to hopefully get along with the Oni." I muttered as I began to assemble a great number of materials including gems, specifical ores, and a massive pool of blood that I had subtly collected from the battles happening within Old Hell from the Oni's constant drunken brawls over the past week.

I threw the gems and other materials to build upon the concept of a dwarf in my mind and then I mentally called upon Tiamat to help me with the most important part as I filled the blood pool with my divine power.

I tried to send my thoughts on her helping guide me to make a new race to her, but I couldn't be sure if she truly understood as she merely smothered my consciousness in her infinite weight without any maliciousness, but she was simply so much huger in terms of our conscious levels it was like an ocean-going to hug a grain of sand.

But finally, after seemingly days of being held within Tiamat's mental grasp, she released me from her mental stranglehold with what felt like a pat atop my mountain peak making the whole mountain and parts of Gensokyo shake in surprise at the affectionate gesture that reminded me so much of the familiar warmth of parental love from my past life.

As Tiamat's overwhelming presence faded, I was able to use my divine sight again and saw the blood pool was filled with even more power, and dare I say it. I felt the same hint of 'True Life' I managed to steal during my heavenly tribulation when I created my own mortal form.

"Thanks, Mom." I muttered and could only shiver as I received another phantom pat on my head and realized the chilling detail that Tiamat was likely watching me closely.

I then got back to work as I compressed all the Life essence into the humanoid forms, I had created within the blood pool and then the blood pool began to swirl as the blood was funneled into the several dozen bodies I had formed and within a couple of minutes all the blood had drained away and there were all the naked short teenage forms of the dwarves I had created breathing lightly.

As for why I didn't create full adults well for one they wouldn't fit in for the most part in Gensokyo and even with those dwarves being first-generation dwarves and likely having a couple thousand-year life span I still didn't want to rob them of what little of childhood they could have. Because in the end if needed I can slumber in my Mountains Consciousness and watch the years pass by like watching minutes pass on a clock.