The way the Lionheart Sword emerged brought a minor bug within Elven Kingdom.

The problem lies within the fact that Ev didnt put the Lionheart sword up for sale on the exchange store unlike before when she had defeated demigod Volker.

Of course the reason she didnt was because unlike the Orc Kings sword, Ev had extracted the divine power from Volkers equipment, leading to a significant decline in equipment quality and these items were categorized as black iron of golden legend, not as powerful as the Lionheart Sword.

Looking at it from the players perspective, they found it somewhat unusual as they lacked insight into her reasoning behind her decision.

As a result, Ev quickly noticed some people began to complain, and although players expressed their grievances for a while, no one really paid too much attention to these complainers.

After all, Elven Kingdom is technically still on beta, and minor bugs are often expected.

However, as this small issue began to spread, it eventually evolved into another legend.

That is, people began to believe that participating in the main storylines might offer them a chance to acquire exclusive and rare equipment!

The Lionheart Sword is proof of that!

Suddenly, the players expectations for the storyline quests began to skyrocket, which surprised Ev quite a bit.

Not bad, Ive somehow instilled them a drive of a wage earner!

Ev silently praised herself.

After inspecting the battlefield, distributing rewards to players, and secretly contemplating of ways to exclusively bind an equipment, Ev finally returned to her mindscape.

And thus, the war of faith against the Orcs had finally come to an end.

Ev then decided to carefully review what she had gained.

First, she checked her current status

Name: Ev Yggdrasill

Race: World Tree (Ancient Deity)

Level: 150 (Mythical)

Status: Weak Divine Power

Divinity: Nature, Life, Elvenkind

Title: Mother of Nature, Goddess of Life, Matriarch of the Elves

Divine Power: 1275/3000

Number of believers: 852 (1 saint, 4 fanatic believers, 354 devout believers, 493 shallow believers) )

Abilities: Absorption, Communication, Bestowal, Enchantment, Healing, Summoning, Divine Descent, Celestial Domain

Artifacts: Withering Heart (Incomplete)

First off, its so gratifying that her divine power had finally exceeded 1000!

For her to attain this much, she had to thank the oh so generous Uller, the God of Winter and Hunting.

After all, Uller had sent her one of his demigod before, which provided her almost two hundred divine power in one go.

And this time, Uller even had personally offered his own incarnation, which further boosted Eves divine power!

In Seiges, a demigods divine power typically ranges from one to three hundred points.

Although Ullers incarnation was also at demigod-level, the fact that it was created by a true god made its quality and quantity more higher.

After absorbing all of the power contained within the incarnation, Ev was pleasantly surprised to find that she had gained nearly 500 divine power!

Even after converting it into her own divine power, there was still approximately 400 DP left.

In addition, the three totem guardians which merely served as appetizers also provided Ev with dozens of divine power.

Moreover, the thirty thousand orc army also contributed a substantial lifeforce amount to her.

Although the Withering Heart also took some lifeforce away, overall, Ev had absorbed more than the artifact.

And after converting all the lifeforce she had siphoned in the battlefield into DP, Ev realized that it was even more substantial than what the Totem Guardians had provided her.

After taking into account various loss due to power conversion, the final result was that Eves own divine power had reached an astonishing 1275 value!

And this was even after she had spent 100 DP to form a new incarnation!

At this moment, Ev can finally no longer be worried about lacking in divine power.

Wellactually no, Im still quite worried a bit because, after all, I only had weak divine power for now.

However, Ev wasnt overly concerned about it unlike before.

She was different from the other gods.

Her divine power is only being temporarily weakened, not because of a low divinity rank which can prevent her divine power state from advancing.

Just as long as she gathered enough divine power, returning to a powerful divine state was just a matter of time.

And attaining this state is actually not that difficult.

After this recent incident with Uller, Ev had finally figured out the best way to gather lots of divine power for herself.

That is to seize every opportunity she got to slaughter gods.

A demigod generally had 300 DP, and a divine incarnation had 500 DP; and if she somehow gets lucky to kill a true god, then her powers will skyrocket significantly!

Perhaps I should participate in more religious wars?

Eves heart fluttered slightly.

This time, Ev seemed to have tasted the sweetness of victory.

ButUller probably wont have the means to retaliate against her for the time being. After all, there are only a few hundred thousand of his followers in total and thirty thousand of them died at once, and they were all still young and strong too. Also, his incarnation was destroyed by her as well. Henceforth, It can be said that he suffered a significant loss

Ullers number of believers suffered a significant loss this time, which inevitably slowed down his accumulation of divine powers. Moreover, I also killed his incarnation to the extent that even its soul was annihilated

Ev then couldnt help but chuckle in amusement.

I could almost imagine him feeling really uncomfortable at this moment. Hehe, this feeling is so good~

Although a divine incarnation is just that, an incarnation, it is still inherently linked to its creator.

And if the incarnation were to be annihilated, typically, its soul would return to its creator, causing them to only suffer a significant loss of divine power.

Yet, if even a trace of the soul within the incarnation were somehow obliterated, then the creator would also suffer considerable damage as a result.

Though it does not necessitate the creator to succumb to a deep slumber for recovery, a period of weakness is almost certain.

Therefore Ev could conclude that Ullers expression at this moment must be quite fascinating.

Nonetheless, despite being amused, she also harbored a hint of caution:

He must have been fully determined to succeed in this recent operation, yet the result was a disastrous defeat. Surely, he will now harbor more suspicions about my real identity.

Ev mused as she folded her arms.

He might not necessarily directly link me to the old Word Tree, but he will undoubtedly become more vigilant about my identity.

It seems Ill have to ask Her Majesty Hela to help provide cover for me. Luckily I have a contract with her in place, and she could find a way to shift the blame to someone else for this recent incident.

With this in mind, Ev acted immediately.

Whilst seated upon her divine throne, Ev took out the Casket of the Dead, which she used for communicating with the goddess of death, and promptly began composing a message:

Hela, Your Divine Majesty, the war of faith between Uller and me has finally concluded. His army has been defeated, and one of his incarnations has been obliterated. Although the divine soul within his incarnation was destroyed by me, I fear he might still harbor suspicions about certain matters

As per our agreement, I hope you can help provide me with cover to conceal my identity.

Ev infused her words with divine power, intending to transmit the message immediately.

However, just before sending it, Ev had a sudden thought and added two more questions:

Besides this, I have two other inquiries to seek your guidance on.

One is the truth behind the World Trees besiegement a thousand years ago Why was the old World Tree attacked by the gods? What are the gods afraid of?

And my other concerns the information about those stolen divine artifacts that originally belonged to the old World Tree Do you have any clues on that?

The first matter was something that Ev had always wondered about. Although she already had various guesses in her mind, Ev still wanted to get real certainty just to be on the safe side.

As for the second matter, it was a relatively recent interest.

Her predecessor mustve owned at the very least more than a dozen divine artifacts with the old World Tree being a Great Ancient One.

However, the three most famous and powerful artifacts of her predecessor were the Scepter of Life, the Natures Crown, and the Source of Elements.

Of course, these three artifacts were sadly lost.

Unlike before wherein all she needed to be most concerned about is getting out of her quasi-death state, Ev now had recovered considerably. Thus, she now has the leisure to contemplate about the whereabouts of these artifacts once more.

Nevertheless, even though she had a vague idea of their whereabouts, Ev also knew that these artifacts were likely in the hands of the gods who had besieged her predecessor.

Yet, there was still a glimmer of hope within her heart

What if some were left behind and ended up being not stolen?

Anyhow, theres no harm in asking to find out!

Even knowing which deity actually stole these artifacts would be better than not knowing at all.

At least, it would give Ev a new target for her future wars of faith.

After compiling the content of her message, Ev checked again and again just to be sure that she had forgotten nothing else. She then finally injected some of her divine power into the casket and sent her inquiries to the Goddess of Death.

After completing these tasks, Ev directed their attention towards the last item that she had gained from this war.

It was also the one that currently intrigued her the most.

The captured and incomplete divine artifactthe Withering Heart.

Ev had already extracted this skeletal necklace from the Soul Orb. Now that its completely severed from its connection with Uller, it now haf truly became an ownerless item.

Not only that but it also now lost its original crimson hue, turning into an ordinary-looking skeletal necklace.

Ev pondered for a moment whilst silently gazing at this incomplete divine artifact. After a minute or so of analyzing it, she then extended their hand and infused it with some of her divine power, feeding it directly.

As soon as her divine power, imbued with the energy of life, touched the Withered Heart, it then rapidly began to devour her powers.

The divine artifact, in turn, becomes increasingly crimson in hue as it siphons more and more of her powers, eventually emitting a crazed and malevolent aura around it.

Witnessing this scene, Ev narrowed their eyes ever so slightly.

259

TIME TO SHIFT BLAME