Garan Continent. The central mountains.
The main temple of the Goddess of the Elves.
It was a beautiful morning as peaceful as always.
The bright red sun had just started peeking over the horizon, and the light mist over the forest had yet to fade.
Some devoted elven believers were walking barefoot in the forest, their hair let down, plucking a leaf from the trees, rolling it into a cup, and using it to catch the sweet dew dropping from the branches.
It was to be their first gift to the great Goddess of the Elves today.
Yet, just as they were gladly performing this ritual of theirs, an overwhelmingly powerful consciousness fluctuation erupted from the position of the main temple of the Goddess of the Elves. At the very instant this will overbearingly descended upon the main temple, all temples in the central mountains erupted with a blindingly intense golden light.
Under the illumination of the golden light, a thousand-meter high projection of a beautiful female elf appeared above the main temple of the Elf Goddess. The image let out a furious cry as she glared toward the southwest.
It...it was the Goddess of the Elves, Saoirse!
The great chief god of the elves, Saoirse, had descended!
After a stunned moment, all forest elves who witnessed this sight immediately realized that the holy and beautiful projection of the elf that stood in the air before them was precisely the great Goddess of the Elves that they had faithfully prayed to time and time again.
In the forests, between the bushes, upon the branches of the ancient trees, and inside their tree houses, all forest elves everywhere put aside whatever they were doing and knelt before the holy will that Saoirse had impressed upon the world.
In a single instance, elven hymns of varying styles and tones, but of the same intent of praise and prayer, filled the skies of the boundless Fantasy Forest. The songs quickly gathered into an extraordinarily powerful force that surged toward the towering projection of the goddess above the temple.
Elven Goddess Saoirse collected herself and retracted her anger. She then looked down at the tens of thousands of faith nodes that had lit up in the central mountains and thought for a moment. Her projection dispersed into sparks of golden light and merged with the tall idol inside her temple.
The next second, beneath the prayers of the various temple priests, the five-meter tall giant idol forged entirely of the rarest magical metals opened its eyes; it had come to life.
"Lile, what's the situation on the west coast of Garan recently?" The Goddess' idol swept with her eyes as her gaze quickly landed on the officiate Lila, kneeling at the very front.
"Great Elven Goddess Saoirse, a new Calamity of the Witches has begun!"
"Oh? We already taught those evil witches a harsh lesson last time. They still dare to invade Garan en masse again?" The Goddess asked doubtfully.
The thundering of a brewing storm vaguely flashed inside her pretty and wide open eyes.
"No," Officiate Lila hesitated for a moment. She didn't quite know how to explain what she knew to the Goddess, "The scale of the Calamity of Witches this time is much smaller than before. Those evil witches seemed to have placed their main forces on Faen Continent. It's said that they have broken into the Black River Basin and exterminated the Guztanians living there. They are currently battling with the human alliance near Thunder Ridge. The specifics of the battle have yet to reach us."
"Then who is it that is active near our coast?"
"The intelligence we have received indicates that it is a witch alliance that has arrived upon Garan. The main forces are still those evil Pale Witches. However, it seems like the ones assisting the Pale Witches this time are the Dark Witches and Fate Witches. Their main forces are still stationed on the Echo Isles and facing off against our allied army. No excessively intense battle has broken out yet."
"The Echo Isles are off the southeast coast. What I want to know now is what has happened off the southwest coast? Why are my followers there experiencing shameless torture and slaughter?"
The southwest coast? Followers being tortured and slaughtered?
This tremendous news blew up like silent explosives in the minds of Lila and the other temple priests. They were utterly stunned and speechless to the situation.
Herding the sheep of the Goddess as her proxy in the mortal realm was the fundamental duty of these temple priests. The elven queen might have great authority, but even she had to be humble in front of the noble temple priests.
After all, the word of the gods could only be passed down through the mouths of the priests!
It was precisely this noble status that allowed the temple priests to question every single issue and matter in the elven kingdom, as long as it involved faith and believers.
Their chief goddess was infuriated, so much so that she had cast down a manifestation of her godly will. Yet, these temple priests were utterly ignorant of the matter that had provoked her so. No matter what, it was a dereliction of their duty!
Just as the temple priests were looking at each other in confusion and wondering about the situation off the southwest coast of Garan, a young elven girl kneeling in a corner of the temple lifted her head and softly spoke, "Great Chief Goddess Saoirse, I might know something of the situation on the southwest coast."
The Goddess' gaze immediately swept toward her.
Judging by her clothes, it was clear she was a trainee priest that had been selected from a local temple to practice in the main temple.
"What's your name?" A gentle smile appeared on the Goddess' face, "Tell me, what do you know?"
"My Goddess; I am Milissa, from Skywater City. It neighbors the west coast. One of my friends is a silver pegasus knight. He just returned to the central mountains recently after being severely wounded on the frontlines. I have heard of some things about the situation o the southwest coast from him."
"What did he say?"
"He said that the most dangerous part of the Calamity of Witches this time is not from the Pale Witches. Rather, it is a strange unit that has split off of them. They have a giant metal ship that can fly high above the clouds and can appear in any corner of Garan as they like. Their numbers and strength aren't great, but they are incredibly mobile and agile. Recently, many elven villages near the west and south coast have been assaulted by them. The numbers of our brothers and sisters that have been abducted cannot be counted."
Metal ships? Witch unit?
The Goddess brooded for a moment and finally opened her mouth once again.
"Summon your friend to the temple. I wish to hear the situation from him in more detail. Very well; leave now, all of you!"
All the priests promptly left the temple in fear at Saoirse's order.
Once the goddess was alone in the broad and empty temple, she turned and looked at a corner of the temple district. A trace of confusion appeared in her eyes.
"Why did Meve cast down a clone? Could something have happened on her end as well?"
Her mind turned merely, and the trace of godly will attached to the idol directly arrived in the Moonlight Goddess' main temple.
Inside the Moonlight Temple, Goddess Meve's clone had shut her eyes in contemplation. She suddenly opened them and looked in the direction of the Elven Goddess' temple in confusion. A short moment later, Goddess Meve suddenly bowed respectfully and said her welcomes in her sweet voice: "Welcome, great Lady Saoirse!"
The next instant, a blurred projection appeared in her temple, quickly revealed to be Saoirse's holy and beautiful face and body.
"Sister Meve, you are too courteous!"
It was only a manifestation of Saoirse's godly will that had arrived. Still, given the continuous attention, this manifestation was no different from her true self. That was why Meve had to treat her with the utmost respect, even though they were in Meve's main temple.
Saoirse took one step forward and helped up Goddess Meve. Two flower seats silently appeared in the center of the temple, and they both sat down.
"Sister Meve, I have projected my will this time because of some matters near the southwest coast. Why is it that you have also cast down a clone?" They were both of the elven pantheon and naturally, there was no need to be scrupulous between each other. That was why Saoirse went straight to the topic.
Goddess Meve betrayed a bitter smile upon her face.
"I had no choice but to cast down a clone. My only messenger was exterminated by a group of outsiders a few days ago!"
As members of the elven pantheon, these elven gods were both intimate partners while also often having public and private rivalries.
Saoirse was the main elven god and naturally had nothing to worry about. Almost all forest elves were her believers. Even the devout followers of other elven gods were her followers to some extent as well.
However, while she didn't need to worry about the amount of faith power that she received, the other elven gods clearly could not be so carefree as she was.
Even though these elven gods often seemed to have great relationships, both in public and in private, they would not ever budge on the issue of believers.
After all, the number of believers and the strength of their faith was directly related to the level of their divine power!
Niche deities like Meve already held few believers, and those that could be considered devout followers were even fewer. Under such circumstances, the cultivation of a fanatical god messenger would often take upwards of a thousand years of hard work.
It wasn't like Saoirse at all. She easily had three or four god messengers under her command. The loss of a single one would hardly affect the development of her temple.
That was why Goddess Meve had no choice but to cast down a clone after the 'death' of the Moonlight Temple's only god messenger, Xenia. She had to avoid losing the confidence of her followers, even at the cost of exhausting her divine power.
However, in doing so, most of the daily powers of faith gathered in the temple would have to be supplied to the clone to sustain her existence in Faen. Given that case, the power that could be provided to her true self in the god-kingdom above was minimal.
If such a situation was drawn out, there was no doubt that the god-kingdom would be destabilized and affect the divine power that the Moonlight Goddess granted to her believers.
That was why the unpopular Moonlight Goddess would never have cast down her clone unless absolutely necessary!
"Your god messenger was killed?" Saoirse's gazed turned sharp, "Where?"
"Near the west coast?" Goddess Meve couldn't help but narrow her eyes upon hearing Saoirse's words.
She seemed to have realized something at this moment as well.
"It seems we had best exchange information. If it is the same group of blasphemers that have done this, I will make sure to make them regret their actions." Goddess Saoirse said grudgingly.
The whisperings of the two goddesses echoed within the god temple.