Martin could only stare in horror at the crumbling form of the once noble goddess. Her very being disintegrating to dust as the leash that tied her to the Whirlpool of Souls forced her to perish.

  The ork had been trying to suppress the Archdemon of the Night, doing his best to create openings for the other drows and the undead dragons, and yet, now everything had stopped. The Archdemon was the first to act, backhanding the Black Ilsher, throwing him across the open ground outside the open temple. As he landed, the dragons collapsed, no longer maintained by his divine magic.

  She started to speak, some monologue, of which Martin was sure, but she was speaking in the drow's own language, something that he could not understand. He was pretty sure that it was due to his Intelligence score being low enough that he didn't have a chance of understanding anything, but he wasn't certain. He would need to check the logs when they were done with this session. It was strange to feel and recognise that he was dissociating. His brain had been quick to rationalise what was happening and simply determine that they could perform a server rollback if nothing else. He was pretty sure that it wasn't healthy for him to deal with traumatic events like this, but that feeling was quickly rationalised as well.

  The three remaining Ilshers were openly weeping, the blue having contained his mother's ashes in a bubble of force, while the green was clearly considering who he should charge. Based on the way his mask moved, it looked like both Celeste and Martin was an option in his mind.

  What was clear was that the three most powerful allies who had almost helped Martin and Celeste fight the Archdemon to a standstill weren't going to fight anymore. They had taken a hit greater than anything they had expected to lose and were gearing up for a retreat.

  Martin saw that Celeste was actively moving to close the gate that had been opened to the world between worlds, and as she did, Raffael Moordet was consumed by flames, his manic laughter the only thing that he left behind, still echoing through the lush inactive volcano.

  Martin considered shooting more shots at Raffael Moordet or the Archdemon, but it felt pointless. While he and Celeste were powerful, they were clearly not powerful enough to have any impact on these enemies. He had been firing at the Archdemon almost non-stop, and yet Lasandra was able to dodge or parry anything that came her way. Even tanking a couple of hits as if it was nothing.

  The Blue Ilsher gave Martin a look, burning with hatred. He spoke, a voice filled with magic and anger. "Phraktos d'oolos, areion dosst tlu'kel, ussta ilhar inbal tlus elggus, lu'Usstan swariy vharc pholor d'elezz." He seemed to seeth, though when Martin's blank stare met the man, he ground his teeth, only to repeat himself in the common tongue. "Gods of fools, through your hesitation, my mother has been slain, and I swear vengeance on though."

  With that, he grabbed his two brothers and seemed to meld into the shadows.

  Martin made sure to mark that trick in the bug list, since they were apparently going with the rule that teleportation was a nogo. He couldn't have powerful gods teleporting around this plane as they wished.

  That left Celeste and Martin with the Archdemon. Said Archdemon was laughing and grinning as if she had just achieved the greatest victory known to the world. Honestly, with how badly Martin and Celeste had been beaten by her, this wasn't completely untrue.

  Before Martin could react, he saw the manic demon dash. Then, he felt the impact as she tried to take off his head with a single haymaker.

  Martin couldn't block, her couldn't stop the attack, he could just hope that he would survive the impact that seemed to break the air around him. He flew fast, hammering into something solid, only to realise that what he had landed into was a pile of corpses. His mind slowly registered that he had been kicked into the temple, and that he had passed through one of the quartz pillars in his involuntary flight. He knew that he should feel pain, and what he felt wasn't pain, but rather the intense and overwhelming expectation of pain. It was a strange mix for sure, and yet, he survived. With a sigh, he slowly managed to get up, his UI telling him that he had lost 20 HP from the single punch.

  Celeste was standing in front of him, slowly lifting him up. She looked at him and nodded. "I don't think we will make it through this." She said softly. Her power reconstructing the quartz pillar that Martin had just destroyed.

  Martin had to agree, with any ally gone, thanks to the devastating blow that was killing Daikia, they really didn't have much hope of winning over the Archdemon. Still, Martin needed some answers, if nothing else, to determine if he should just roll back what had happened during this iteration.

  "So was that your plan?" He called out to the drow clad in yellow. "To lure us here and just hope that you got Celeste to appear so you could use the Whirlpool of Souls?"

  The Archdemon laughed and shook her head, her long silver hair shifting across her yellow dress. "Cretok. Do not let my people say that you are dumb. No, this was not the plan, but don't you simply love it when destiny provides for you?"

  Martin couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. Had destiny provided for her? He knew that was usually code for something the AI had done. But that seemed highly unlikely. The god of dungeons needed to know more.

  "Then what was your plan?" He called out, hoping that she would monologue. To Martin's surprise, the Archdemon seemed more than happy to explain how she had won this fight.

  "No plan survives reality, and yet we had planned for me to ascend to godhood from the beginning, especially when my late mother provided that wonderful ritual of merging to Raffael Moordet. However, doing it here was no coincidence." The Archdemon slowly inspected her hand that she had tried to cave Martin's face in with. "Do you not find it suspicious that we are so close to a drow city? That is by design. My siblings would have no choice but to interfere. While they could not have known it was me who would appear, though that is because they are as stupid as the dwarves, they would have to stop an Archdemon and God from merging, since the resulting creature would rampage down their caverns and most likely annihilate their city."

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  Her body moved fast, and Martin managed to dodge the attack this time. Celeste, having seen it through her future vision, ensured that she was already diving away, as the Glaive she had made hit the spot where she had been standing a fraction of a second ago.

  "However, for them to interfere in this way was unexpected. Raffael Moordet claimed that one of the old ones would likely appear as well, but for it to be you was a surprise. We have had to prepare quite a bit of anti-ur-magic warding in this area, just in case it was the wizard that arrived. However, as soon as it was clear that we had been visited by none other than the Traveller, Raffael Moordet started to cast the redirecting spell." The Archdemon said, as if she hadn't just tried to kill both Celeste and Martin moments before. "I had expected the bastard to pull out my sister, Ishtar, but it seems like he had other plans. I honestly can't blame him for being greedy with the opportunity he saw." She explained.

  Celeste blinked. "What opportunity?" She asked, ready to dodge something, though Martin couldn't tell what it was. However, the attack didn't come.

  "See, my plan was fairly simple. I would cut up my sister and bury her body in nine different places around Kalish. Force anyone who would want her to regenerate to find at least five of those pieces, and have them corrupt the world around them. However, with your arrival, Raffael Moordet must have seen the option of actually killing a god with that lovely Whirlpool of yours. He has been studying it for the last one hundred years, and now..." The drow chuckled to herself. "Let us just say that the investment has borne fruit."

  Martin couldn't help but feel something was wrong, though. Something that he couldn't quite put his finger on. "Why are you still here then?" He asked, unsure of himself.

  "Cretok! So observant! Yes, normally I would not be able to enter this realm, let alone stay here, but through the combination ritual, I have been summoned to merge with the goddess." The Archdemon spoke with a wicked grin. "But what binds me here? Is it not simple? The abyss has already gained an Archdemon back. I no longer feel the pull." She cackled. "I. am. free." The three words were punctuated by her hammering the glaive into the ground after each word.

  "I am supposedly forced to obey Raffael Moordet, since he was the one to summon me, but with the Archdemon of Hatred claiming his body as penance for deviating from the original plan, I am bound by none, and I will have my vengeance upon the people who turned their back on me," Lasandra said, anger boiling to the surface. "The only thing that stands in my way is you two, and I think we both know how this will end."

  Celeste gave Martin a look, and Martin realised that the madwoman had an idea of how to stop the Archdemon in front of them.

  Bruised and broken, Martin didn't really have any better option. He was willing to trust Celeste, even if it was likely to mean more work for him down the line. That was a problem for future Martin and, with some luck, also a problem for future Jasper.

  Martin hesitated for just a second as Celeste charged forward, the two short swords shrinking into knives in her hands, and she engaged the Archdemon in close combat once more. However, just as before, the Queen of the Night dodged every attack and ensured she wasn't hit even a single time. If anything, the Archdemon had an easier job dodging attacks, as Celeste was clearly starting to get exhausted, and the demonic being was still riding the high of her matricide.

  A kick to Celeste's stomach came with a weird crunch, and Celeste smiled, grabbing onto the leg so as not to fly away. However, she was beaten and battered to the point where she would probably have trouble standing, but Martin watched as she practically shoved her arm into the Archdemon's mouth, forcing Lasandra to bite down.

  Power flowed from Celeste and into the Queen of Night, her body shaking as Celeste staggered back. Suddenly, Martin understood her game plan. His co-god did not expect to make it out of here in one piece. In fact, she was betting on being killed. However, just like with Orlek, when one of them was killed by an entity in the game, the entity would be elevated to a position of Godhood. However, instead of simply letting herself pass on, she was trying to infuse Lasandra with the Divine Domains that she wanted someone else to take care of.

  Martin saw this ploy and sprang forward. Celeste could barely stand, but instead of helping her, Martin used the distraction Celeste had created to get close enough that he could force the Archdemon to bite down on his arm. It seemed that as long as it wasn't a direct attack meant to hurt the Archdemon, the game didn't know how to apply her powerful skills to dodge it.

  He felt her sharp teeth pierce his skin, and Martin poured his Wealth Domain into her. He tried his best to make her a god for the ingame economy, and he wanted nothing more than to try and express that.

  Behind the two of them, Celeste had started to chant something. "I see you once dead, and I see you once passed. Lasandra, Daikia's Daughter, we, the gods from time beyond, offer you an option. I offer you a baptism. A new life." She called out, and the temple seemed to shake as the place of power resonated with the call.

  Martin tried to pull his arm away, hoping that the Archdemon would let go, but she didn't. If anything, she bit harder, making Martin's life quickly seep from the wound as well.

  "You will not be the same as you once were," Celeste called out. "And as such, I baptise you. I grant you a new name. A new name for your new purpose. Know that you will not be known as Lasandra, or the Queen of Night. But Morwen, Goddess of Death."

  Martin blinked. Had Celeste granted her Death Domain to this creature? If he were granting his Wealth Domain, things were bound to be interesting. It did make sense in a "Death and Taxes" kind of way, but-

  His feed was cut. In front of him was a single information box.

  Text from image:

  You have died!

  Celeste saw Morwen discard the corpse of Martin. His body was disappearing into dust before it could even hit the ground. She needed to shape the new goddess in some way. She needed someone who could be the custodian of the Whirlpool of Souls, so what happened today wouldn't happen again.

  The Architect of Reality knew that she had two choices: she could feel sorry for herself, or she could take action, and she had decided that if she were to die, she would be stopping the Archdemon from raising hell on Kalish, and she would be ensuring that Raffael Moordet couldn't pull the same stunt again.

  Morwen had the same form, and yet, she was shimmering slightly, as if something was pulling on her, and the charge towards Celeste wasn't the instant kind of teleportation that the Ur-goddess had come to expect. Even her dress was growing darker, from a bright yellow, slowly over into a green, and in some places even dark blue.

  "I bestow upon you a dogma. A duty from beyond." Celeste called out. "Death is nothing without a life lived. Your death will only be as good as your life, and life holds both sins and virtues. Therefore, you must not reject the sins in favour of the virtues, but instead balance them. Never allow a corpse to be dishonoured, for that requires the repair of the soul. Death is inevitable. Do not embrace it, but do not flee it."

  As she formed the last words of that dogma, Morwen's teeth punctured her throat, and Celeste was met with a single textbox.

  Text from image:

  You have died!