Kitchen God, from Chinese folk belief, was depicted as a kindly old man in a plain cotton robe, with a faint trace of cooking smoke and the aroma of food seemingly always lingering around his hands. He governed the hearth and the well-being of the household, his aura gentle and restrained.
There was also Bes from Egypt, a short, grotesque-faced yet lively household guardian deity; Anansi from African tribes, a spider-shaped nature god with cunning eyes; Belobog from Slavic mythology, a pale-skinned, taciturn god of light; and nearly twenty other deities.
Moreover, faint ripples of divinity were still approaching, their numbers continuing to grow.
While they waited for the remaining members, the gods who had arrived first had already held an informal small meeting.
The atmosphere could hardly be called harmonious. Many of the gods' doctrines and domains were inherently in conflict, but beneath the shared, overwhelming external threat, they had reluctantly reached a preliminary consensus.
One proposal put forth by Baldur, an extremely tempting-sounding plan, gained considerable support:
"Perhaps we can use the Winchester Brothers—the two 'vessels' respectively chosen by Lucifer and Michael—to lure those two here. Then, by gathering all our strength and setting an inescapable trap, we can kill those bastards who seek to destroy our home once and for all!"
"But Heaven seems to have issued an order forbidding anyone from harming the two chosen 'vessels,' not even angels or demons!" another deity said.
"What's there to fear? We don't belong to Heaven," one god said dismissively.
"Exactly. As long as we eliminate the two responsible for changing the world, the strengthening of supernatural power in reality will make it worth it, even if Heaven comes to settle accounts afterward."
That answer immediately won the support of some of the gods. Having survived for so long,