The anxious war did not affect the gods in the abyss. Tike, at the opportune moment, let Wokin reveal the use of the abyss's origin, immediately driving the gods into a frenzy.
Without anyone's urging, the gods with powerful divine might poured all their strength into the abyss, even to the point of squeezing the faith of the prime material plane.
Layer by layer, abyssal planes were annexed by hell, and Tike's plan also reached its final stage.
When Demogorgon's Salt Marsh was also breached, the Prince of the Abyss himself was dismembered in the gods' scramble.
Graz'zt fell into the hands of his former prisoner, Wokin, losing his virtual divine spark. Graz'zt's power was even less than that of some lesser deities. The gods paid no mind to how the enraged Wokin tortured Graz'zt. The successive great battles caused the primal force of war to be exceptionally active. After reclaiming Vhaeraun's sea god portfolio, Tempus's domain of war was nearing completion. Sensing the call of the primal force, his ascension was imminent.
After Helm's fall, his portfolio of defense was attracted by the portfolio of protection and fell into Tike's hands.
The portfolio of defense was the final piece of the puzzle for Tempus to complete his ascension. For this, Tempus had repeatedly sent messages through Wokin, hoping to exchange for this divine portfolio.
"Your Highness Tike, what must I do to obtain the portfolio of defense?"
Tempus could no longer wait. He abandoned the mop-up work of the abyssal war and visited hell.
"You are late," Tike said, controlling hell to swallow the last abyssal plane. "I have already returned the remnants of the God of Guardians to Ao."
Of course, this was not without cost. For this, Ao had to use the still-unrecovered Tablet of Fate to defeat the will of the abyss, which was making a last-ditch struggle, allowing Tike to quickly unify the abyss and hell.
Tempus was speechless. Ao would surely use this to control him to work for him.
Tike was not curious about how Ao controlled Tempus, but it allowed Ao to be distracted during the battle and use the already scarred Tablet of Fate. Ao must have considered this a profitable transaction.
As Tempus ascended, Tike keenly noticed that the cracks on the Tablet of Fate were gradually healing, while the aura of the successfully ascended God of War was somewhat unstable.
Tempus's performance was also inconsistent with his past achievements. Tempus, who controlled war, should have been an existence equal to Ioun and Shar, but he could barely contend with the weakest Amaunator.
The reluctant gods with powerful divine might, with gritted teeth, confronted the four Elemental Lords. They used their numerical advantage to hold them back. Ao, fighting two against one, still held an absolute advantage, resisting the interference of the laws and forcing Ioun and Shar to retreat steadily.
Tike, who was watching the show, was visited by Corellon.
"Aren't you worried that Ao will turn around and settle accounts with you?"
Corellon frowned as he watched Ioun and Shar, who were struggling to cope. "The power of the laws is not infinite. Ioun and Shar cannot hold on forever."
"I have my plan."
Tike played with the reflection in the water basin. "If Ao is still at a disadvantage, he will find helpers who can turn the tide at all costs. This does not align with our interests. Only by letting him see hope for victory can I have a chance to deliver a fatal blow in the gap when he lowers his guard!"
Corellon nodded slightly. "Only by letting Ao and the laws disappear can the resulting benefits allow the gods to support you in replacing them."
Ioun and Shar were once in dire straits. Without Tike's support, the laws received significantly less replenishment. The revival of the three ancient gods became slower and slower, and it was becoming unsustainable.
The laws, in desperation, had to draw energy from various planes to maintain themselves.
The first to suffer were the divine realms of the gods. Although they lost their petitioners, the protection of the divine realm's rules still gave the frightened gods a slight comfort.
As the divine realm's rules gradually dissipated, an unprecedented sense of crisis made the gods' actions falter. Their true bodies were now exposed to everyone!
Beings of intermediate divine might and above immediately returned to their true bodies. Without the protection of their divine realms, they had no sense of security.
The avatars of minor and weak deities were already few and far between. It was impossible for them to return to their main bodies to provide protection.
Next were the vast planes such as the Plane of Delight, the Plane of Chaos, the Garden of Ysgard, and the Clockwork Nirvana. The boundaries of these planes began to disintegrate, becoming sacrifices for the laws to extract energy.
Even planes maintained by gods with powerful divine might, such as the Sea of Clouds and the Halls of Knowledge, could not escape. The unprotected true bodies of the gods had to descend to the prime material plane. Chaos, more terrifying than the Spellplague, ensued! The unprecedented turmoil made demigods and legendary adventurers grasp at straws. A large portion of them did not clearly understand what was happening.
The battles of the ancient gods made them feel even less secure than the gods. To increase their chances of survival, they could only choose to seize the power of the deities.
Ao became more and more valiant. Taking advantage of Ioun's inability to recover, his flying golden rings ensnared the struggling Shar, causing the Goddess of Night to follow the path of Selûne and completely disappear from the world of Faerûn.
The Tablet of Fate flew out, shattering Ioun's body and breaking through the void, opening a door to the origin.
Ao delved into the origin, directly confronting the laws.
Amaunator, who was in a stalemate with Tempus, narrowed his eyes. After forcefully repelling Tempus, he supported the still-recovering Ioun and together they retreated into the origin.
"Let's begin!"
With Tike's command, Corellon flashed back to Asgard.
Sylvanus, transformed into the World Tree, began to awaken with Corellon's help! Asgard, formerly the Seven Heavens, began to divert the planar energy extracted by the laws. Tike also responded to Sylvanus, operating hell to draw power from the laws in reverse.
The feeling of weakness drove the laws to madness. To escape the devouring of the Tablet of Fate, the laws even began to extract energy from the prime material plane.
A world-ending disaster descended. Both humans and goblins trembled under the threat of earthquakes and tsunamis.
No matter how much the laws squeezed, the energy obtained was a drop in the bucket. Ao pressed forward, ignoring the attacks that Ioun and Amaunator were madly pouring onto him.
Tempus, the only ancient god in the prime material plane, did not know what to do. After the destruction of the gods' divine realms, the four elemental planes also could not escape the clutches of the laws. The four Elemental Lords were all severely weakened, otherwise, they might have been able to provide some protection.
The prime material plane was in grave danger. The wavering faith caused a considerable number of deities to perish! Seawater poured into the cracks, and the cries and prayers of the duergar and drow from underground were drowned in the torrent.
The damage to the world fed back to the laws. The weakened laws, unable to resist the devouring of the Tablet of Fate, gradually merged into it.