“You lost,” Evé said calmly whilst looking at Uller.
Afterwards, with a wave of her hand, divine power of life surged forth as several vines burst through the soil, weaving together to create a majestic throne.
The throne gently floated behind Evé, and she slowly seated herself upon it.
Then, the throne slowly ascended, before coming to a stop at the same height as Uller, albeit surpassing him by half a head higher.
With her gracefully seated on the throne, Evé, with a majestic aura emanating from behind her, flicked the slightly wrinkled hem of her divine robe, as she gazed down at the vine-bound Winter Deity with an enigmatic expression.
Watching her lofty demeanor as if implying that’s he’s beneath her, Uller glanced upward with an enraged expression, as the veins on his forehead kept bulging, signifying that his anger continued to escalate.
He then let out a furious roar as he continued struggling. Nonetheless, it was all futile as his whole body was completely bound by the vines and could not break free.
“Stop struggling, your divine power is sealed,” Evé spoke calmly.
Hearing her words, Uller abruptly raised his head, before glaring at her like a cornered predatory beast.
“I refuse to accept it!”
“And pray, do tell, what exactly can’t you accept?” Evé asked with a somewhat intrigued expression.
“That you predicted that I would use the Withering Heart! As if you knew it all along!”
Uller gnashed his teeth.
“So what if I predicted it?”
Evé’s expression then shifted to playful look of amusement.
“I was careless… I should have known something was wrong when you remained entirely unconcerned despite being sealed by the Withering Heart. Moreover, with the way the elves accepted a new patron deity to the extent that they even changed their core beliefs!… no one could have done all this besides you.”
Uller’s showed a complicated look, with regret written all over his face.
I know you have this artifact, so I was on guard against it in advance…
Speaking of which, I didn’t know this originally and I only found out about you having this artifact after asking other people…
Eve said to herself within her mind.
Of course, she wouldn’t verbally say such words aloud.
Evé extended her hand towards the center of her chest, where a golden light enveloped her left arm, rendering it illusionary as if capable of passing through any material objects.
With a simple gesture forward, her hand traversed her chest effortlessly, encountering no resistance at all. A segment of her arm entered her own body, and after a moment, she withdrew it, revealing a golden bead entwined with skull chains emerging in between her fingers.
This was Hela’s Soul Strorage Orb, and the very core of Evé’s incarnation.
Similarly, it was also the reason why the Withering Heart’s initial sealing had failed, as the artifact specifically targeted this orb instead.
As the Soul Orb materialized in an instant, the skull mark on Evé’s forehead gradually faded away. Yet, a subtle pallor overcame her complexion, as her figure became somewhat illusory.
Only when divine power surged into her body from the vine throne did her complexion improve and returned to normal.
Evé sighed with regret whilst looking at the soul orb in her hand.
“Alas, this incarnation is now useless…”
Technically she could still use her incarnation but unlike before wherein it was being powered by the soul orb, she now have have to rely on her own divine powers instead.
Of course, now that her divine power is getting stronger and stronger, she already has enough capital to condense her own incarnation, so losing this artifact isn’t much of a setback for her…
It’s just a little bit regretful.
Upon seeing the Soul Orb, Uller’s expression immediately changed and his face darkened with an ugly look.
“Hela actually gave you this kind of thing… it seems you two have indeed joined forces!”
After hearing his words, Evé merely gave him a brief glance.
“So what?”
With that said, she touched the chain on the orb, and a mocking smile formed upon her lips.
“Even though I lost the Soul Orb I must still thank you…since this Divine Artifact is now mine.”
Upon hearing Evé’s words, Uller’s expression became more sinister, almost exploding in anger.
The Withering Heart!
It was his only True Divine Artifact!
Seeing Uller’s infuriated expression, Evé felt a little bit regretful.
“It’s truly a pity Your Majesty. I genuinely wanted your true self to also experience such intense anger, but alas… this time, I can only imprison you here in Saigües and not let your memories return to your original form.”
Uller: “…”
His expression became even more unpleasant at her blatant mocking sarcasm.
After teasing him, Evé’s hand briefly glowed and the Soul Orb, locked in skull chains, instantly disappeared.
Having completed this action, she looked at Uller once again.
This time, her expression gradually turned serious.
“I still have some questions and you better answer them honestly.”
She had some doubts and hoped to get some answers.
At first, she intended to directly delve into his soul. However, True God’s like him have complete mastery over their own souls, thus she adjusted her strategy instead upon realizing that, despite sealing Uller’s divine power, he could still eliminate a fragment of his divine soul to resist her prying intrusion.
“Do you think I’ll tell you what I know?”
Uller sneered.
Upon hearing his words, Evé calmly retorted, “If you wish to spare this incarnation from obliteration and maintain your dignity as a True God, then you had best answer me truthfully. Otherwise, I might just grant your devoted followers the spectacle of their revered patron deity sweeping the streets with a broom or, perhaps, cleaning the toilets. I assume you’d prefer not to subject your believers to witnessing you performing such vile undignified acts, is it not?”
Uller: “…”
“Y-You… shameless!”
His eyes abruptly widened, and glare fistful of anger fixated upon Evé.
For believers, the image of their respective patron deities holds significant importance in their faith. The belief that the one they worship is an all-powerful, almighty being generally fosters strong faith and reverence.
True gods like Uller depend upon this faith as their primary source of power, and tarnishing his revered image is equivalent to weakening the faith of his followers which would also weakened him.
“Tell me… why did you besiege the World Tree a thousand years ago?”
Evé asked softly.
After hearing her words, Uller was stunned for a moment, then sneered.
“Why are you even asking me this… don’t you know it better than anyone else?”
Evé fell into silence.
“I want to know the real reason behind your siege of the World Tree.”
She asked again.
“The true reason? What other true reason is there? Tch, you know these things better than we do; why bother asking me?”
Uller frowned, then clicked his tongue.
Evé: “…”
As she lapsed into silence, Uller’s expression also underwent a sudden change, and he too became silent.
A subtle flicker crossed Uller’s gaze, accompanied by a hint of confusion in his expression as he carefully observed Evé.
Then after a moment, he widened his eyes before looking as if he’s been enlightened.
“So that’s it! You’re Yggdrasill! But at the same time…you’re not! You lack Yggdrasill’s memories!”
Oh, did he realized it so quickly?
Evé was briefly stunned.
But soon, something dawned on her.
Although she did inherit the body of the World Tree and became the new Ancient Goddess Evé Yggdrasill, she was indeed different from her predecessor.
Perhaps her believers cannot identify the difference between her and her predecessor, and just knew that their patron deity’s name has changed. Still, those familiar with her predecessor could easily perceive the distinction after doing a careful observation.
Evé saw Uller laugh.
“Haha, since you don’t know, then I can’t tell you.”
Having said that, his expression turned somewhat sinister.
We managed to kill you once a thousand years ago…Even if you resurrected in a different way, we can still kill you a second time!”
“Yggdrasill! No… I should call you Evé Yggdrasill! From the moment of your birth, your fate was already sealed!”
“You just wait for the second siege by the heavenly gods! If we could defeat you once, then we can defeat you once again! Your era has passed!”
After speaking, he simply closed his eyes.
“I admit I’ve failed this time…this incarnation of mine is yours to dispose of as you wish! However… don’t expect to learn anything from me!”
After hearing Uller’s words, Evé raised an eyebrow slightly.
What does he mean by my “fate already sealed”?
Am I predestined to be an enemy of the heavenly gods?
Could it be that…it is as she imagined? That her inherent ability to draw power from the origin have made the rest of the gods wary of her?
She narrowed her eyes, changing the subject.
“Where are the Divine Artifacts that originally should belong to me?”
The old World Tree also possessed several Divine Artifacts.
However, they were lost one after another with the fall of her predecessor.
Or rather… they were undoubtedly seized by the World Tree’s enemies.
However, with him being one of the gods who participated in that heavenly war a thousand years ago, Uller surely must have known the whereabouts of these stolen artifacts.
Of course, after hearing Eve’s question, Uller still closed his eyes and said nothing at all.
Seeing Uller stubbornly behave like this, Evé could only sigh softly.
It seemed… she had wholly underestimated the gods’ wariness of her!
Even under threat, Uller still refused to reveal any sort of information…
In that case, this incarnation of Uller was entirely useless to her.
And his only worth is to become her own nourishment.
Thinking about it, Evé lost interest in using Uller’s incarnation to tarnish his reputation.
The dignity of a True God should not be desecrated.
This kind of shameful actions, if she’s not careful, could likely provoke the anger of the other gods.
Although she was destined to be an enemy of the gods, it still couldn’t be displayed openly just yet.
She sighed and used her divine power directly to entirely enveloped the incarnation of Uller in a golden light.
Uller’s incarnation suddenly widened his eyes, before gradually becoming dull…
Evé knew that Uller had realized she was about to take action and had chosen to destroy this incarnation’s soul in advance to prevent her from tampering with it.
Afterwards, numerous cracks began to appear all over his body.
With a soft cracking sound, Uller’s incarnation finally shattered. However, a silver divine power surged out wildly in its place but was completely sealed by the vines before slowly absorbing it until…it vanished completely.
At this point, Uller’s incarnation was completely extinguished.
And after completing everything, Evé looked down again at the exaggerated giant crater on the ground.
“It seems that…I really need to choose the battlefield carefully when using my domain.”
Evé shook her head, before waving her hand gently as her divine power began to spread all across the land a second later.
Suddenly, countless plants emerged from the ruined soil and in an instant… what was originally a huge bare crater turned into a dense lush forest.
Nonetheless, the newly generated land ultimately lacked some of the previous rich ambiance.
After repairing the damage done to the forest, Evé nodded with satisfaction.
She then glanced casually in a certain direction, before her figure became ethereal and gradually disappeared…
After Evé finally left, two players suddenly emerged from behind a large tree in a certain location within the forest.
They looked at where Evé had vanished and exchanged brief glances before their shocked expressions morphed into a look of excitement.
“…Did you record it?”
“Yeah, I recorded it!”
“Man we’re so lucky! Extremely lucky! Originally I thought we having low levels and missing the current main questline was regrettable, but unexpectedly, we both triggered a hidden quest here!”
“Is this a hidden quest? Are you really sure?”
“Definitely! The Goddess’s past, her enemies, her having an amnesia, and the Goddess’s lost artifacts… Dude, this is undoubtedly a hidden quest! Just the fact that the Goddess’s artifacts are said to be lost implies that we might need to find them all!”
“Looks like the Goddess’s secrets are far more than we imagined…”
The voice of that male incarnation is so loud that they could still hear him clearly even far within a radius of one kilometer.
In other words, the two players completely understood Evé and Uller’s conversation despite hiding a few meters away!
“Perhaps… this is the main storyline of Elven Kingdom!”
The two newbies discussed eagerly, with happy expressions upon their faces.
— 253 —
【 THE GODDESS’ SECRET 】
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