Chapter 490: Sharas Temptation

Chapter 490: Shara's Temptation

Every god had their eyes on this grand divine confrontation.

But the outcome confounded expectations, mostly because it was all over far too quickly.

Under normal circumstances, as long as the kouto goddess simply stayed inside her divine realm and refused to come out, it wouldn't have mattered even if three Archdukes of Hell boiled the entire elemental plane of water into fish soup.

So those deities who might otherwise have intervened hesitated and instead chose not to move immediately.

After all, the deities hadn't come to blows yet. Jumping in now just meant becoming collateral damage. Supporting the kouto goddess didn't require making a grand entrance before the fighting had even started.

There'd be plenty of time before her divine realm was located and invaded. These kinds of sieges could drag on for decades.

Better to wait, confirm Hell wasn't staging some elaborate double bluff, rule out any hidden schemes, and only then consider getting involved. Besides, Thanos was watching, and it was only prudent to gauge the Lord of Storms' intentions before jumping in.

So why had the madwoman come charging out of her divine realm on her own?

Had she always been that reckless? Couldn't she see three Archdukes of Hell standing right there? Couldn't she see the overwhelming infernal army they'd brought?

The Lord of Dawn himself would have needed to focus all his attention on the fight if he walked into it unprepared.

Most deities couldn't understand what had happened. Few gods knew the kouto's true history, and fewer still understood the role the God of Alchemy had played.

The mindflayers' bone whistle, which under ordinary circumstances could only affect mortals, had been enhanced by the God of Alchemy to the point where it could produce powerful psychic effects even on divine beings.

The kouto goddess herself existed because this very race had endured unimaginable suffering. She had been conjured out of their desperate need for comfort, the repository of all their chaos and anguish given divine form.

If the kouto were mentally ill, then the kouto goddess must be mentally ill to a degree that beggared all comparison, to such an extreme that madness itself had become her divine domain.

And on top of that, far too many kouto had recently slipped out of her grip.

Those who had come to their senses no longer provided her with faith. As a result, her divine power had been carved down dramatically in a short span of time.

She had been teetering on the edge of falling from intermediate divinity down to a lesser one.

It was at precisely this moment that the whistle's tone, like a natural predator, punched through every barrier and struck straight at her soul.

The kouto goddess reacted exactly as any ordinary kouto would. Seized by hatred compressed across countless ages, she burst out of her divine realm, hellbent on destroying every last "mindflayer" in sight.

What she found waiting for her was not a single mindflayer, but rather three Archdukes of Hell and their infernal armies, all watching her with hungry eyes.

In an instant, the giant crustaceans she'd summoned were torn apart by the devils.

Even fighting in the elemental plane of water, an environment deeply hostile to infernal beings, the gap between the two sides was simply too vast in both quantity and quality.

The goddess herself had lost all reason the moment she charged out. In the opening seconds of combat, Sariel's blazing sword drove clean through her body, leaving a wound that refused to close.

A single blow had critically injured the kouto goddess. The rest of the battle was no mystery at all.

The three Archdukes bound the kouto goddess and departed at maximum speed, not lingering a moment longer than necessary.

By the time the watching gods registered what had happened, the Archdukes had already returned to Hell.

The whole thing had been over so fast that even Thanos, there to enjoy the spectacle, hadn't quite processed it. He'd been looking forward to watching three Archdukes of Hell get swarmed by an angry mob of deities.

That was it?

Was the kouto goddess actually that feeble?

Could they possibly have been working together, staging the whole thing as a performance?

It wasn't just Thanos who entertained such a suspicion. Plenty of other gods entertained the same thought, given that the kouto goddess was, after all, evil-aligned as well.

Meanwhile, far away in a certain patch of darkness, a divine realm known as the Hall of the Lost...

The Dark Goddess Shara lay sprawled on a bed that looked like a river of stars, her complexion pallid with exhaustion. Beside her, a tall man held her hand, channeling a steady flow of power into her body to treat the wounds Aion's punishment had left behind.

If Ambrose had been there, he would have recognized the tall man immediately as the Vice President of the Elegiac Society, Poet.

Once Shara's color had improved somewhat, Poet withdrew his hand and said, "It seems Aion does have a particular fondness for you. You and Loss made the same mistake, yet the punishment she received was considerably harsher than yours."

Shara didn't respond to that. She simply stared at Poet. "I didn't expect you to come help me. I thought..."

"That I'd still be bitter about your betrayal, and had come to finish you off while you were vulnerable?" Poet gave a quiet laugh. "I let that go long ago. And you should know that I follow Yeger now. He's not especially fond of that sort of petty, grudge-nursing hatred."

Shara fell silent. She genuinely did owe a debt to this particular person.

Poet had once been her ally, and he was a being older than Shara herself.

At the beginning of Aion's creation, before the twin goddesses of Light and Darkness had yet been born, an ancient race called the Shadevir had already come into existence. Poet was a member of the race.

In time, Shara and her sister Selene came into being together, the two of them assisting Aion in the work of creation. Eventually, the sisters turned on each other. Shara was defeated by Selene, and from Shara's wounds the first Goddess of Magic was born.

During the long period of Shara's recovery, the Shadevir found the Dark Goddess and helped restore her strength.

The reason was straightforward: both the Dark Goddess and the Shadevir desired to see the world return to shadow and chaos, to build a world without sunlight.

Thanks to their help, Shara had been able to recover. Without them, Selene would have finished her off entirely.

But Shara ultimately failed to fulfill her end of that arrangement. She never did manage to return the world to shadow. Later, a lesser god of the Goddess of Magic, Azoth, set a trap that snared a great many of the Shadevir, and Shara, wary of the Goddess of Magic's power, chose not to go to their aid.

By now, the Shadevir were close to extinction.

Shara hadn't quite betrayed the Shadevir, but she was certainly gravely indebted to them.

It hadn't even crossed Shara's mind that, in her latest moment of weakness, Poet would seek her out once more and offer her help again.

On seeing the guilt on Shara's face, Poet offered reassurance. "Our goal had always been a fantasy. Back then, Aion hadn't yet decided what kind of world he wanted to create, which was why the struggle between light and dark played out the way it did. The world runs well now, which tells you Aion is satisfied with how things turned out. We could never have returned everything to darkness and chaos. Even if we'd won back then, Aion would simply have undone it."

Shara was quite surprised. "You've become remarkably at peace with things."

The Shadevir were called what they were for a reason: they were hardly a benevolent race. Back in those days, they'd been screaming for the total eradication of all light, more extreme even than Shara at her darkest.

Poet reflected quietly, "After this long, you have to find a way to let go of things. Otherwise, you end up trapped in endless torment. Yeger has taught me a great deal. I'm grateful for that."

Shara looked at him with a hint of suspicion. "You didn't come here just to check in on an old acquaintance."

"Of course not. You heard Thanos's bell. That little lich has pulled off another remarkable feat. A mortal has abducted a deity."

Poet's words stung Shara's pride. She said, irritated, "He merely borrowed the power of others. A mortal is still only a mortal."

"And yet he can borrow such formidable power while still only a mortal. Once he ascends to divinity, do you think he might be able to borrow Aion's power? Oh, but he's already done that once before. And I think you already know how that turned out."

Shara said sharply, "Did you come here just to mock me?"

"I came to give you a warning. By now, you should understand this lich's significance. Yeger thinks very highly of him. There's a real possibility he might inherit Cranvor's position and become the new God of Death."

"How is that even possible?!"

Shara found it genuinely incomprehensible. The domain of death was extraordinary in its power, and Cranvor hadn't committed any serious offense. How could the position simply be handed to someone else on a whim?

"I can't share the specifics, but I've come to give you fair warning, out of old regard for our past. The transfer of the domain will happen soon, and this lich is one of Yeger's top candidates. You've dealt with him before, and you know he holds grudges. But as long as you don't go out of your way to provoke him, I believe he won't come looking for trouble with you.

"Otherwise... think about what Cranvor did to the demons."

Shara knew that tale well. Cranvor had once devoted enormous time and effort to waging war against the demons of the Abyss. Projecting his divine power directly into the depths of the Abyss was an assault almost nothing could withstand. In that campaign, more named demons than could be counted had been destroyed by Cranvor's hand, earning the newest God of Death the respect of every deity watching.

Whatever Cranvor's limitations in wisdom, his raw power was absolute and undeniable.

That was the meaning of the domain of death. Even a worm that inherited it would instantly become an overwhelming force.

Shara couldn't help pressing, "What exactly does Yeger see in him? I'll grant that he's the most cunning mortal I've ever encountered, but that character of his hardly fits Yeger's usual criteria."

The Gods of Death before Cranvor had caused plenty of trouble because of their greedy, scheming natures, to the point where Yeger had been forced to step in and clean up the mess. That was precisely what led to the transition to Cranvor in the first place.

If this lich became God of Death, would there be a moment's peace left in the world?

"You simply don't know him well enough. He might be daring enough to scheme against deities, but he treats his fellows well. He knows what's reasonable and what's not. That sort of judgment is surprisingly rare.

Poet took out his copy of the Necromantic Codex and caressed its cover. "The members of the Elegiac Society were all selected by Yeger with painstaking care. Each of them originally had the opportunity to inherit the domain of death, but the majority have failed in one way or another."

Shara exclaimed, "What are the criteria for being the successor? Does Yeger intend to limit the search to mortals, nothing more?"

Shara was more than willing to accept the domain herself, no matter what Yeger demanded of her.

Poet smiled. "It's simple. All those who can master their desires qualify to become the God of Death. Shara, can you drop your grudges against Selene?"

Shara very much wanted to lie, but she knew she wouldn't be able to deceive Yeger.

"I can't. But can that lich give up his desire for gold?"

Shara wasn't satisfied. The lich was clearly far more bound by his desires than she was. That was well known. Give the lich sufficient gold, and he would do anything. How could a mortal like that qualify to become the God of Death?

In that case, wouldn't anyone who gave him sufficient gold be able to revive on the spot?

But Poet's answer shocked Shara.

The vice-president of the Elegiac Society said, completely seriously, "I believe he can overcome his desires. He's had countless opportunities to seize vast wealth: absorbing the entire Umbral Depths, taking over the whole of the Ragetide Kingdom, or simply extracting every last drop of alchemical value from the dwarven kingdom. But every single time, he held himself back.

"He chose cooperation. He chose steady, sustainable growth over instant gain. That may sound simple, but remember, as an undead, obsession is the very anchor of the soul. I honestly don't know how he keeps it up. He hasn't fully transcended his desire yet, but Yeger sees the potential in him. That's enough to make him a candidate."

Shara fell silent again, seemingly lost in thought.

After a long moment, she extended her right hand, a mass of dark energy coalescing in her palm, and held it out toward the Poet.

"If Yeger truly has faith in him, then let me see whether he really can transcend his own desire. This is the entirety of the dark Weft. Take it to that lich for me."

The last time Ambrose had sought out Shara for guidance, he'd received only a fragment of the dark Weft's knowledge, enough to sketch out a theoretical magical seal as a solution to the elves' mana addiction, but nowhere close to the real thing.

What Shara was offering now was the complete dark Weft. In principle, anyone who mastered it could construct an entirely new Weft from scratch and become the new Goddess of Magic.

Poet didn't take it. Instead, he looked at Shara. "You're playing a very dangerous game. The moment he can't hold back and absorbs this knowledge, the Goddess of Magic will gain complete mastery over the dark Weft, and you'd never have a chance of replacing her."

Shara let out a cold, dismissive sound.

"I never did. Look at the state I'm in. Do I look like someone who could challenge the Goddess of Magic? I've included Karsas's Ascension inside as well. I simply want to see for myself whether this lich can actually resist the temptation of becoming the God of Magic."

Karsas's Ascension was a forbidden spell.

The original Karsas had once cast this extraordinary spell in an attempt to seize the Goddess of Magic's place and take control of the entire Weft.

He succeeded, and also failed.

The moment he seized control of the Weft, Karsas was torn apart by its power, which he had no way of containing. He destroyed himself utterly and the Weft along with him.

The original Goddess of Magic perished as a result.

What Shara was handing to Ambrose was the complete version of that spell, to find out whether the lich could resist the temptation of ascending to the God of Magic in a single step.