Harkam had scoffed at the request to apologize. He felt it was harmless. He also didn't want to apologize because it will weaken his image as the new grand god. That's how their conflict started. First, it was the little things but it escalated when Stelios killed Pitran when the demigod failed his challenge.
Harkam doesn't care about Pitran just like he doesn't care about Tyke. He cares more about what the existence of Pitran meant to him. For a god to shift to the path of perfection, they need to attend the trial of heaven. But a god can't leave the plane as mortals can. The only way for them to leave is when a channel leading to the tower of heaven opens in the divine realm before the trial.
The thing is, gods can't take the channel however they wish. If they are stopped by the celestial supreme, then they can't participate in the trial. The celestial god of Order made a rule, that only those that have a divine lord that can substitute for them, will be allowed to attend the trial of heaven. That rule keeps the plane from being chaotic due to the constant divine war that would ensue in the absence of a god and the resulting vacancy in their domain.
It is a known fact among the gods that the celestial god of order and justice doesn't like change. To prevent gods from changing too much, he invented heroic feats as a requirement for a demigod to become a divine lord. The heroic quest will distract gods from fighting amongst themselves while also limiting change.
Pitran, the demigod of the sky god was on his 11th heroic feat. He needed just one more and he chose to challenge the sun god. He could have chosen any god but he chose the sun god in honor of the ancient conflict between the sky gods and Stelios. That decision didn't turn out well for Pitran and Harkam. 12 heroic feats will guarantee him the position of a divine lord, which means Harkam will be able to participate in the trial of heaven and progress forward.
There are other ways to become a divine lord. If a demigod is special or very entertaining but there isn't any opportunity for more feats, the council of gods can vote to make the demigod a divine lord. The majority vote of the gods or a decision of the celestial supreme can also bestow that position to any demigod.
It really is an entertaining thing to see a demigod challenge one of the oldest gods in the pantheon. So the gods were rooting for Pitran. Stelios chose to kill Pitran because he is favored by the gods and will likely get the position. It cost Harkam his opportunity and delayed him. So Harkam got angry and started a divine war. According to him though, it is all Stelios's fault and even until his dying breath, he will never admit that he was losing that war.
If they had been allowed to fight, Harkam would have been able to beat Stelios because of the sun god's weakness, but the celestial supreme didn't allow it. That left divine wars in the mortal plane. Sadly, the church of the sun had more resources and better stigmata than the church of the storm.
Even the divine war in the mortal realm didn't escalate because the celestial supreme didn't let it. There was no pillaging and burning of innocent believers. Just a battle between troops on a battlefield. If not for the help Harkam got from other gods who didn't want him to lose easily and cut off their source of entertainment, his loss would have been worse than losing more than 70 percent of his total troops and manpower in the mortal realm.
Things eventually calmed down over time and then Harkam had twins. It seemed that things were looking good for him. He now has two chances of acquiring a divine lord. It was proof that fucking around is a productive pastime. You get to have fun and produce the next generation at the same time. It is a very efficient hobby.
That was until Stelios had his own demigod a few years after. Harkam behaved like a stubborn and petty god would behave. He tried to sabotage Helios's second-star celebration. He was hoping to have Helios killed even though it will have little impact on Stelios since the sun god can't shift to the path of perfection with that glaring weakness of his. Things didn't turn out well for Harkam. He was tricked and had one of his opportunities taken from him.
The thing about being stubborn is that it is difficult to learn from your mistakes and even more so to change your ways. Harkam didn't learn anything when he insulted the sun god apart from the fact that Stelios is very old and proud. He didn't learn anything when he "didn't lose" that divine war apart from the fact that Stelios may be good at making Stigmata.
But something very important finally got through the thick wind that formed his head. He learned something as he watched Tyke die. It was that he must not lose Tanya. It is because of this lesson that he didn't whoop in excitement when Tanya tried to attack Helios.
Any other time, he would have encouraged her to disregard the rules of fair play during this heroic quest and maul Helios to death. Heck, he was the biggest supporter of Pitran's decision to challenge the oldest god in the pantheon.
So instead of cheering her on, he sighed and said, "Just leave him alone. It will do you no good."
It hurt him to tell someone not to make a stupid and rash decision. But the circumstances have turned him into the reasonable one who follows rules instead of the free-spirited and unfettered rascal he should be. It is a shame.
Of course, Tanya couldn't hear him because the gods have been banned from communicating with the demigods or offering any type of aid. So he can only watch, rant, and feel immensely grateful to the priests that held her down.
"I'll reward them if they survive the heroic quest." He promised.
He might forget about rewarding them later on or he might remember because of his volatile mood. What will come will come. That's how he rolls, always in the moment, doing whatever makes him happy and looking for more fun. Right now, watching the heroic quest is fun and very important, so he is content with watching.
"Not bad for a demigod of the sun. It's mostly the work of that pompous Stelios. But it isn't too bad." He said as he watched Helios put that bishop in her place.
He felt really impressed by Helios but it will be against his nature to say so even when he is alone with no one to hear him say it. He would rather attribute the strength that Helios showed to Stelios's rune-making skills so he won't complement Helios for it.
He also won't complement Stelios out loud because a god has ways of finding that out. For example, there are no secrets to that asshole god of fate and he is always using it to blackmail or embarrass people.
He began chanting, "Kill her. Kill her."
Helios had the priest by the neck like some helpless chicken and he wants more than anything else to watch Helios snap that helpless chicken's neck.
"What a wuss." He said when Helios didn't.
Cutting off an arm is not savage enough or nearly entertaining. So he cursed at Helios.
He watched the strike team deploy. He wouldn't admit it but he felt anxious. The anxiety reached a peak when the ant horde turned on the strike team.
"Stop panicking, you idiots." He shouted at the screen when the bishops began to panic.
He shouted at the archbishops. "Listen to the dwarf sun god."
He chuckled when he heard what Helios said about panicking after they have used the annihilator.
"Sounds reasonable for a sun lover. They are usually unreasonable and boneheaded."
Helios's argument to aim for the royal guards was reasonable but he won't admit to that either. He wants Tanya to be safe and a strike close to her might risk her life so it is a good decision to target the royal guards. Except Helios is wrong and Harkam disagrees with the plan to target the royal guards.
"Don't listen to the dwarf sun god. He is wrong. There's no one there. Why would you listen to anyone from the lineage of that old coot? They are all nuts in the head."
He got animated with his complaining. His wing body ballooned in size and the lightning strikes around him increased in number.
Helios made a lot of sense but Harkam can see on his screen that the royal guards returned to the ant mound immediately after the decision was made to aim for them.
