Chapter 133: The Arrival of the Goddess of Love! [Request for Recommendation Votes]
The power of the undead has become increasingly stronger.
In the distant City of Radiance, near the City of Wind Valley, a great war broke out within the Church of the Lord of Radiance. After days of tracking, the paladins finally found the evil Winter Ghost. However, the enemy had already revived a large number of undead. After suffering severe casualties, they finally defeated the undead, but in killing the Winter Ghost, they paid an incredibly heavy price. Even with the divine power granted by the Lord of Radiance, one of the most powerful paladins in the Church, Silver Hand, who had once met Soren, fell in the process of defeating this terrible foe.
A legendary paladin with a profession level exceeding 27 sacrificed his life to eradicate the terrifying Winter Ghost, which was a heavy blow for the Church of the Lord of Radiance.
The Winter Ghost was dead.
But this was not a cause for celebration because shortly after killing the Winter Ghost, signs of d*ath from withering fire appeared near the location of the Wizard City. This indicated that there was more than one Winter Ghost entering the Material Plane; someone had awakened them and sent these terrible creatures to the Material Plane.
It was already mid-September.
The outbreak of the Plague had brought some special visitors to Modo.
Inside the temple.
Soren’s figure appeared on the throne, and he slightly nodded to the three ladies before him, softly saying, “Welcome to your presence! Lady of Flame!”
The beautiful woman standing before Soren had stunningly radiant red hair that took one’s breath away. Her beauty was hard to describe with words, a blend between divine superiority and mortal charm. She was the Goddess of Love and Goodness—Shuni, the Goddess of Love in the Material Plane. Soren had previously encountered this goddess, but those were not formal meetings. This time, her visit was clearly much more formal, as standing beside her were the important goddesses, the Goddess of Joy and the Goddess of Cats and Dance. Soren had brief interactions with all three; their arrival was obviously not for simple sightseeing.
“It’s a pleasure to see you, Lord of Shadows!”
Although Soren’s faction was Lawful Evil and the Goddess of Love’s faction was Chaotic Good, Shuni’s attitude towards Soren remained very friendly. This was not only because Soren had aided the Goddess of Joy and the Goddess of Cats and Dance but also because Soren had eliminated an enemy she particularly loathed.
That enemy was the Goddess of Plague and Toxicity—Talona!
Shuni’s divine profession was beauty, love, and passion, and she prioritized beauty above love because beauty is the key to sparking love.
The Goddess of Toxicity was her enemy and a source of her disdain. Shuni believed that many of the world’s beauties were destroyed due to the existence of the Goddess of Toxicity. Thus, when Soren killed the Goddess of Toxicity, even though their factions were somewhat opposed and not inherently friendly, this act raised her favorability towards him to above friendliness.
Soren smiled as he descended from his throne and took Shuni’s fair hand, then sat beside her.
Regardless, Shuni was a deity with strong divine power. Although her combat power was among the weakest in the realm of strong divine power, she was still one of the main gods; it was just that her pantheon was somewhat small.
The Goddess of Love smiled as she gazed at Soren, her eyes carrying a dreamy allure filled with a subtle seduction. This goddess was whimsical, passionate, and known for her love affairs with many deities. Among mortals, she was also one of the most famous for her romantic exploits.
Soren smiled slightly and sat beside Shuni, softly saying, “I wonder what the Lady of Flame has come to Modo for?”
The Lady of Flame was Shuni’s alias.
When it came to serious matters, the expression of the Goddess of Love immediately grew serious. She looked at Soren earnestly and said, “The situation on the continent is not very safe recently. I hope to bring a portion of my believers to Modo for temporary refuge.”
“Of course.”
“I will also offer a satisfactory reward to your lordship.”
After saying this, the Goddess of Love raised her beautiful eyebrows, and her expression seemed to carry a hint of flirtation.
As the goddess currently being discussed among the gods, the Goddess of Love had naturally looked into Soren’s background and understood a bit of his personality, so she did not find the straightforward conversation strange. She had significant reasons for her visit. Had it not been for the dire situation, she would not have sought assistance from other deities.
Refuge?
Soren was momentarily taken aback upon hearing this, then quickly understood the reason behind her request.
The key issue lay within the Goddess of Love herself. While she was indeed a deity with strong divine power, due to her divine profession, she was one of the weakest among the strong divine powers. Although her strong divinity and divine rank could grant her great strength, the nature of her divine profession, which was not related to combat, hindered her ability to exert that power. The most important thing was that the Church of the Goddess of Love was rather peculiar. With Soren’s understanding of her church, he quickly grasped the crucial reason for the Goddess of Love’s request.
How peculiar was her church?
A few examples could suffice. Firstly, many of the Goddess of Love’s followers were hedonists, and the gods generally considered “the vast majority of Shuni’s believers to be frivolous, vain, shallow individuals (though they posed no real danger).” Her church held grand carnival ceremonies every month, with the majority of its wealth spent on indulgences. Furthermore, due to the nature of her divine profession, although the Goddess of Love’s church was distributed worldwide, the number of followers was extremely unbalanced, with female followers far outnumbering male ones, sometimes by a quarter more, and at times male followers being more than double. Additionally, due to the nature of her divine profession, the internal combat power of the Goddess of Love’s church was very low; a group of hedonists possessed little combat capability, as most devout believers had low abilities, and the number of those capable of fighting within the church could be counted on one hand.
Because she governed beauty, the Goddess of Love’s church was particularly fond of collecting artworks. The priests of Shuni were both aestheticists and hedonists who sought happiness and beauty in everything. Pursuing artistic enjoyment was their life. The personnel of Shuni’s church would purchase every beautiful painting, sculpture, and handcrafted item they discovered to support excellent artists. They would even be willing to buy these artworks at prices higher than market value, hoping to increase the production of beautiful crafts (doing so repeatedly until the church could no longer afford it).
To maintain beauty, her priests spent a large amount of money pursuing beautiful art and caring for themselves. Thus, even though her church was quite wealthy, it could easily run out of budget.
Yes.
This goddess’s church was that strange!
Shuni’s divine profession encompassed beauty, love, and passion, with domains in chaos, allure, goodness, and protection.
The only combat capability she could muster was [Allure], meaning the internal characteristics of her church generally inherited those traits of the goddess. This meant that her church contained many with beautiful appearances, yet apart from charming enemies, few could fight.
Any high-level wanderer from Soren’s church could easily take down several practitioners of the same level from the Goddess of Love’s church.
The entire church was a typical beauty association.
Countless beauties abounded, and plenty of handsome men as well; even those who were not conventionally attractive still had decent charm. However, as for their combat power, a simple “heh” could convey the idea.
Good-looking but useless!
This was the current state of the entire Church of the Goddess of Love, including her pantheon.
Neither Shuni herself, nor the Goddess of Joy, nor the Goddess of Cats and Dance had anyone capable of fighting. Furthermore, there were almost no capable believers within the church. This was why Shuni had secretly helped Lady Silver Moon fight against the Lady of the Night; her own strength determined the status of the deity.
The followers of the Goddess of Love were widespread.
Her arrival today clearly indicated that the situation on the continent had rendered her church incapable of protecting its believers, and to prevent large-scale losses among her followers, she ultimately chose to extend an olive branch to Soren.
Modo was a very safe place, relative to the entire Material Plane.
Soren fell into thought.
After a long while, he finally spoke slowly, “That is not impossible. However, if Modo is to take in these people, I have some special requirements.”
Shuni immediately asked, “What requirements?”
Soren pondered for a moment and said, “I can accept around fifty thousand people; they can only temporarily reside within the territory of Modo. They must abide by my rules within Modo and will be directly governed by the laws of Modo. Additionally, I require a temporary alliance agreement, the specifics of which we can discuss shortly.”
The Goddess of Love readily agreed, “That works.”
Fifty thousand people were enough for her to relocate the devout believers near the Southern Coast to Modo. Once the Saint’s Cataclysm was over, these people could completely return.
“Hmm.” Soren nodded, “Then let’s discuss the alliance agreement in detail. Moreover, I have some matters I need the Lady of Flame to assist with.”
While her followers were hedonists, they still held some value for Soren.
Because they were wealthy individuals!
Those without money couldn’t possibly indulge, and although the Goddess of Love didn’t govern wealth, the followers she attracted were mostly individuals who pursued beauty and hedonism, and most of these people were quite affluent.
If these people came to Modo, they would naturally spend money on everything.
Food, clothing, and shelter.
Soren couldn’t possibly provide free services to the Goddess of Love’s followers; these pleasure-seekers, when arriving in Modo, had plenty of ways to spend their money.
………………
While the Goddess of Love was visiting Soren, other gods also began to make secret contacts.
The arrival of the Plague finally made another powerful deity a bit restless. Ever since the Lord of Radiance took over the domain of [Justice], few strong deities were capable of combat within the human pantheon. The emergence of the Plague finally prompted one of the strongest deities to stand up, and the powerful church serving him officially got involved in the earthly struggles.
He was—the [God of War]—Tampas!
One of the most formidable beings among the strong divine powers, also the second strongest combat deity within the human pantheon, right after the Lord of Radiance! As the Saint’s Cataclysm approached its final stages, the capable and incapable deities began to polarize!
………………
(PS: I’ve been a bit blocked recently. Please don’t rush me; the slow writing is simply because I want to create a good ending.) (To be continued ~^~)
