"Your Highness Uluturu, what you are doing is very dangerous!"
Tika earnestly reminded the God of the Arctic, "No matter how much you believe in the loyalty of your followers, such trials rarely end well."
The God of the Arctic, Uluturu, looked dejected, "I have no choice. All the gods have been cast down to the mortal realm by Io, walking the earth as saints. I was fortunate enough to arrive in the North in time and found protection among my followers." httpδ:/m.kuAisugg.nět
What is going on? Io's actions are undoubtedly stirring up unrest! Has he finally grown tired of these noisy deities and decided to teach them a lesson?
Seeing that Tika seemed unaware of the reasons, Uluturu voluntarily revealed the deeper cause, "The Death Three Gods stole three tablets of fate while Io was asleep, attempting to discover the secret of Io's transcendence over the gods! Io was extremely enraged upon discovering the theft of the tablets. He believed that the gods had abandoned their duty to maintain the balance between order and chaos, blindly pursuing power, and even neglecting the pleas of their followers."
"Therefore, Io banished all other gods to the prime material plane, leaving only the lawful neutral guardian god Heim to guard the passage from the prime material plane back to the outer planes. Io decreed that each god could only have one saintly avatar, a mortal body, and commanded them to retrieve the tablets of fate."
Tika couldn't help but marvel at Io's grand gesture. With so many gods arriving in the prime material plane, the legendary adventurers tormented by death and fear would surely go mad with joy.
The power possessed by the saintly avatars of the gods was limited by their true divine power. Avatars of intermediate and greater gods were safe, and their churches in the prime material plane held considerable influence; however, avatars of lesser and faint gods were not so lucky. The gods were not a monolithic entity; conflicts between different alignments were common, and the chaos in the prime material plane was imaginable.
"Your Highness Uluturu, do you have new visitors?"
Tika's eyes flickered as she listened intently, and she turned to look at the snowfield not far away, asking softly.
Uluturu gave a wry smile, "The Winter Maiden, Auril, she is one of the Retribution Gods, serving Talos, the Storm Lord. Among the pantheon of gods, I am the only deity whose divine portfolio conflicts with hers. My faith in the North has been eroded by her in various ways, and I am barely maintaining my status as a lesser deity."
Tika had some understanding of this Winter Maiden. This lesser deity, who commanded the divine portfolios of winter and cold, served the greater god Talos along with the intermediate deity of the sea, Umberlee, and the lesser deity of blood and slaughter, Malar. She was one of the few intelligent beings among the Retribution Gods.
Auril focused on her cold powers. If not for the succession of crises affecting her plans, she would have advanced further to become an intermediate deity not to be underestimated.
Accompanied by howling snow, the Winter Maiden Auril, clad in silver armor, descended. This goddess was as capricious as she was vain, her heart as cold as frost. Her followers worshipped her mostly out of fear. Her heart held no trace of true love, noble sentiment, or honor. Her beauty was both cold and deadly, like a magnificent flower carved from arctic ice.
The goddess landed on Uluturu's altar, wielding an ice axe-like battle axe. Uluturu's followers immediately fled in panic, unwilling to face this terrifying evil goddess.
A biting chill permeated the air, causing even the northerners clad in thick furs to shiver involuntarily.
Facing the Winter Maiden's provocation, the God of the Arctic did not hesitate to deploy his divine domain to counter her. The powers of the two lesser deities were evenly matched, and neither could defeat the other in a short time.
Tika watched as the domains of the two deities clashed, showing no intention of intervening.
"Unknown deity, why do you involve yourself in their dispute?"
Tika sensed the salty smell of the sea accompanying the cold air from afar. Auril had invited the sea goddess, also a Retribution God, to intervene. This goddess, who commanded the divine portfolios of the sea, sea winds, sea currents, and sea waves, was the most powerful deity in the oceanic domain. In the pantheon of gods, her only enemy was the sea-war god, Vercy, who commanded sea battles. However, the moon goddess Selûne also claimed some of her worship as the patron of mariners, leaving Umberlee somewhat disappointed.
All ships that ventured out to sea feared this goddess's capriciousness and offered her tribute. If not for the fact that her power was encroached upon by her unqualified greater god Talos, this goddess might have had a chance to unify the oceanic domain and ascend to greater divinity.
However, the established intermediate deity Umberlee was not to be outdone. She created shark-like beastmen as a counterattack and, along with Malar, the god of blood and slaughter, divided the beastman divine portfolio originally controlled by Selûne, taking a hearty revenge.
Now, this blue-green skinned goddess, wearing a shell-made top and a purple cloak woven from jellyfish, appeared silently on the battlefield of the two deities with cold domains. Her fingertips were long claws, her elbows had fins, her eyes glowed with a pearly dead white light, and her hair was living seaweed. Her mouth, with its sharp teeth, exhaled a fishy sea mist, and she watched Tika vigilantly.
In terms of understanding the oceanic domain, how could Umberlee be Tika's match? The primal force of the ocean enveloped Tika, rendering all sea winds and waves harmless to her.
"Umberlee, the fiery queen of the deep. I recall your relationship with the Winter Maiden is not yet close enough for you to fully trust each other. To think you would pay such a high price to invite an intermediate deity to act. It seems Auril intends to bring about the complete demise of the God of the Arctic today."
Tika smiled as she looked at the grim-faced Umberlee, completely unfazed by her threat.
If Umberlee dared to make the first move, Tika would not mind disguising herself as the sea goddess. However, Umberlee seemed to have noticed the anomalies in the oceanic domain, and a sense of impending danger made her hesitate.
This goddess of chaotic evil alignment never kept her word. Faced with Tika's increasing pressure, she turned and fled without hesitation, abandoning Auril's predicament and avoiding danger.
Auril, who was still locked in combat with Uluturu, did not expect Umberlee to abandon her like that. She also shifted her attention to Tika, who had caused the intermediate deity Umberlee to flee in disarray.
The divine domains possessed by Tika had long been honed into a seamless whole by the supreme divinity and primal force, with no discernible boundaries. However, Auril still felt the subtle oppression of cold power, far surpassing her own.
After obtaining the divine portfolio of entropy, the mysteries of temperature were no more difficult for Tika than elementary school mathematics. The divine power scattered by the battle between the two deities transformed into a spring breeze of suitable temperature before Tika. The dead, cold chill became an entropic divine power that melted ice and snow, and the frozen earth, harder than iron, sprouted green grass and flowers symbolizing life!