The Banishment of Lolth

Countless meteor-like arrows pierced the colossal spider's body. Cracks spiderwebbed across the pitch-black carapace as faint gleams of light surged from within before suddenly detonating. The mountain-sized spider monster dissolved on the spot, melting away into thick toxic smoke and dark mist. "No—!" Lolth threw her head back, her frenzied shrieks reverberating across the heavens in a chaotic, deafening cacophony, as though tens of thousands of demons were howling in unison. Yet under Sehanine's command, divine moonlight surged from all directions like a boundless sea, washing over and corroding Lolth's form again and again until she was scorched, battered, and thoroughly humiliated. At this moment, Lolth was like a wild beast caught in a briar snare, trapped by Sehanine and continuously bled dry. Her eyes flared crimson, and she let out a low, raspy roar. "For the past ten thousand years, I have festered in the shadows of the Abyss, not a single moment passing without me yearning to tear you hypocrites to shreds! "Now, I will never let this once-in-a-lifetime chance slip away! I will utterly destroy the sanctimonious Seldarine!" Unleashing a burst of savagely brutal divine power, Lolth flailed her eight limbs. Over a hundred strands of spider silk shot forth to ensnare Sehanine, the tip of each strand bearing a Rose of Kerashar. A chaotic, maddening aura swept through the air. Under the lethal poison of the Rose of Kerashar, even a god's avatar would be driven to insanity, forcing even Sehanine to proceed with caution. Sehanine danced beneath the moon, her shimmering gossamer veil fluttering through the air until it coalesced into dazzling rivers of stars that swirled around her flawless form. The two divine powers collided and negated each other, sending brilliant flares of light flying in all directions and churning vast nebulae across the heavens. The two elven deities clashed from the earth to thousands of meters into the sky. The shockwaves of their divine power tore through their surroundings, reducing the area to a ruin of floating boulders, grit, and wreckage resembling the Astral Plane. Had any mortal dared to draw near, spatial turbulence at the edge of the battlefield would have shredded them into dust before they could even enter. Beneath the fighting gods, a holy vanguard dominated by moon horses, celestial elves, children of Ehlonna, and radiant quasielementals launched a sweeping charge. Their gleaming weapons and armor converged into a torrential river of bright silver. Lolth tore through space to open several Abyssal portals. Driders, giant spiders, phase spiders, sword spiders, vortex spiders, watchspiders, red widows, and countless other arachnid monstrosities poured forth in dense swarms, forming a macabre, undulating tide that made one's blood run cold. The two armies collided like towering rogue waves crashing against each other. In an instant, battle cries, shrieks, and ferocious roars shook the heavens and earth as shattered armor, severed limbs, and scalding blood rained across the soil. "Praise the Mother Goddess!" "For Lady Sehanine!" The silver-moon elves sang holy hymns at the top of their lungs, surging forward wave upon wave into the spider legion, blades swinging as they joined the fray. Viewed from afar, the shining silver torrent clearly held the upper hand, blazing like the final, piercing ray of dawn about to break through a canopy of storm clouds. "It is time to end this..." Sehanine's voice was ethereal and soft, yet like gentle moonlight, it was omnipresent, echoing distinctly in the ears of every living soul. Rhea severed a giant spider's foreleg with a single stroke, drove her blade through its skull, and wiped the caustic blood from her face before looking up toward the familiar figure in the sky. "Mother Goddess..." Clothed in moonlight and wreathed in a sparkling river of stars, Sehanine raised the Moonbow with graceful poise and crossed it with the Silver Moon Staff. Amidst an intense surge of divine power, a milky-white crescent moon manifested behind her, casting vast swathes of silver radiance that banished the endless darkness. People raised their heads one after another to gaze at the silver moon hanging high in the sky. Their minds cleared, their spirits settled into deep peace, and a gentle, restorative strength welled up within them. By contrast, the spider fiends from the Abyss cowered and shrank back. The moment the moonlight washed over them, they shrieked in agony, thrashing frantically as their bodies were incinerated into wisps of black smoke. Meanwhile, the driders transformed by Lolth began to billow dark fumes. The bristling hairs and sharp claws of their arachnid halves burned away, and the haze cleared from their eyes as their minds slowly regained their long-lost lucidity. Far away upon the Sacred Tree, Arch-Elder Theron knelt on the ground. His head hung low as he stared down at his withered hands, trembling as he muttered, "Gods... what... what have I done?" He looked around at the scorched earth and the devastated realm stretching before him. Tears of despair welled in his eyes, tracking down the deep lines of his face. "Slaughter, bloodshed, sacrifices, imprisonment..." "What have I done?" He had once styled himself the protector of Therenia, yet blinded by lust for power, he had personally ruined everything here, ushering in terrible bloodshed and catastrophe. "I have failed the people of Therenia who placed their trust in me, and I have failed little Catherine..." Theron raised his head and gazed deeply toward the silver moon suspended in the sky. Tears coursed down his aged cheeks as he spoke in a voice laden with boundless remorse and self-reproach. "Mother Goddess... No, I am no longer worthy of calling you Mother Goddess. I am a shameful usurper, a lackey of an evil god." His voice fractured into choked sobs. Theron bowed his head devoutly and rasped, "O great Moon Goddess, I am willing to offer all that I am, if only it might atone for an infinitesimal fraction of my sins." The next instant, bathed in the moonlight, the elven elder's body dissolved into countless specks of dust, drifting away on the wind and leaving behind only a single pitch-black rose. Centuries ago, it had been Theron who found the very first Rose of Kerashar to appear in this world. Back then, he had immediately recognized the madness and danger within the rose. He chose to safeguard it himself, sealing it within his staff. Little did he realize that in doing so, he had handed Lolth her opportunity. The power of the Rose of Kerashar had unceasingly eroded his mind, steadily warping the venerable Arch-Elder into a deranged fanatic until he became the most loyal lackey of the so-called 'Eight-Armed Mother Goddess.' Only now, in the final moments of his life beneath the illuminating moonlight, had Theron regained his sanity, returning once more to the dedicated elder he had been so long ago. Similar scenes unfolded across Therenia as countless driders had their true natures restored under the influence of the Moon Goddess. Though their mortal lives had reached their end, their spirits ascended into the sky like those of any other elves, bound for the splendor of the divine realm. Soon, countless elven spirits gathered behind Sehanine. Ethereal and shimmering with starlight, they glared furiously at the nearby Lolth. Sehanine spoke calmly, "Lolth, this is the sin you have committed. "You twisted countless good-hearted silver-moon elves into savage monsters, leaving their souls to wail in agony within those warped forms." "Sin?" Lolth met her words with a sneer. "Nothing more than a rabble of wretched mortals. When it comes down to it, what difference is there between your Seldarine and me? We all use them as tools. "The only difference is that you treat them as sheep to yield faith, while I treat them as hounds to hunt and kill for me." "Words are useless." Sehanine's voice was exceptionally aloof, cold as silver moonlight. "You are beyond redemption, Lolth. Ten thousand years in exile have not brought you repentance; they have only made you more deranged. "It seems... we were too merciful back then to have ever considered a foul creature like you our kin." "Merciful?" Infuriated, Lolth burst into a terrifying roar that seemed torn from the deepest depths of the Abyss, shaking the fabric of space itself. "Then pay the price for your so-called mercy!" Fissures tore across Lolth's form, venting thick black mist, while her eyes burned with scarlet radiance. Her features twisted into a grotesque, exaggerated smirk, and her eight limbs flailed wildly in an eerie, macabre dance. In an instant, the webs across the sky gathered into a colossal vortex, fusing the swirling dark mist and chaotic, ghastly light into a single point. Howling gales and suffocating pressure descended as Lolth's eight grotesque limbs converged, unleashing an unimaginably terrifying beam of abyssal gloom that blasted straight toward Sehanine. *Boom—!* The moment the beam erupted, the entire Elven Forest—and indeed the whole of Feanso Continent—shuddered. Dense storm clouds spread rapidly outward for hundreds of miles, blotting out the sky as though the end of the world had arrived. "In the name of the Moon Goddess, in the name of Therenia, and in the name of the Seldarine—" Sehanine remained entirely composed. Unhurriedly drawing her bowstring, she nocked the Silver Moon Staff upon the translucent cord of moonlight. Instantly, a tremendous wave of divine power soared into the heavens. The elven spirits swirled around the staff, singing a melodic hymn as they poured all their wrath and devotion into the strike. High above, the bright silver moon cast out radiance that pierced the darkness and illuminated the night sky. "—I grant you your end!" Sehanine released her pale, slender fingers. Boundless silver moonlight poured forth like an unstoppable, starry river, hurtling toward Lolth. *Boom—!* The two divine powers clashed at full force as both deities unleashed their mightiest attacks. The mere shockwaves of their impact threw the Weave across southeastern Feanso into chaos, triggering a catastrophic surge of wild magic. In an instant, thousands of wizards and sorcerers turned their eyes toward the southeast—in the direction of the Elven Forest—their faces filled with shock. The last time they had witnessed a magical surge of this magnitude was during the Calamity of the Fallen Sun, the disaster that had fractured Holy Fadlan and upended the world order. Although this disturbance was far less destructive than that catastrophe, it still struck fear and awe into the hearts of the continent's spellcasters. The clash of divine might was over in moments. The silver radiance tore through the dark, breached the barrier of gloom, and crashed down upon Lolth's avatar. "No—!" "This is impossible!" Lolth screamed and thrashed hysterically, her eight limbs flailing like gale-force winds, but beneath the purifying moonlight, her resistance was utterly futile. "Sehanine, my dear sister, my kin, spare me! I only wanted to escape the Abyss! I will become your subordinate deity..." Scoured by the moonlight, Lolth shrieked in agony, finally lowering her head to beg for mercy. Yet Sehanine's expression remained chilled, her gaze undisturbed by the slightest ripple. She only poured more divine power into the attack, causing dense black smoke to pour from Lolth's avatar like wood consumed by a blaze. Abandoning her facade, Lolth bared her fangs in pure hatred, her eyes burning with malice so deep she seemed ready to grind her teeth to dust. "Wretched bitch!" "Don't celebrate too early! You have no idea what kind of enemy you will truly face! Even gods are nothing more than ants before them! "I curse you! The day will come when the silver moon is dyed in blood, when evil gods walk the earth once more, and when you—Sehanine—are torn into a broken corpse!" Hearing this venomous, desperate curse, Sehanine's brow furrowed almost imperceptibly. Her divine portfolios of prophecy and mysticism seemed to catch a faint echo, signaling a portent of danger. Yet the moonlight around Lolth only intensified, quickly scouring away the remainder of her form until nothing was left but a palm-sized black widow spider—a fragment of Lolth's divine essence. "Sehanine! I will be waiting for you in the Abyss!" The Moonbow drew taut once more. An arrow of shimmering silver shot forward, piercing the spider's body and reducing it to ash. At long last, Lolth vanished completely from the Material Plane, leaving only her venomous curse and crazed roar echoing in the howling wind. Above, the storm clouds parted, revealing a milky-white full moon hanging in the heavens, showering the land in gentle silver light. Sehanine looked down upon the earth, where countless silver-moon elves gazed up in reverence at the figure in the sky, singing melodious hymns. "Praise the Mother Goddess!" "Praise the great Moon Goddess!" An ethereal, graceful silhouette separated from Catherine's body as the moonlight coalesced into a bridge reaching straight into the heavens. Countless elven spirits followed in her footsteps, ascending along the Moon Bridge until they disappeared into the hazy, distant beyond. Surrounded by the crowd, Catherine slowly opened her eyes. The first things she saw were the gentle moonlight, the peaceful night sky, and the glittering stars above. It was all so beautiful that the blood moon, the demonic domain, and the arachnid horrors seemed like nothing more than a dreadful nightmare. Moved by the sight, Catherine felt dazed. Her lips trembled as she asked timidly, "Did we... win?" Rhea stepped forward, her eyes glistening as if on the verge of tears, yet she spoke every word with absolute conviction. "Your Majesty, we have won. Therenia has not fallen, and the silver-moon elves have not fallen. "This was the protection of the Mother Goddess, but it was also... thanks to you." Only then did Catherine let out a long breath of relief, a smile blooming on her face. Not far away, Titus watched the scene unfold with a meaningful grin. Now that the war was over, the time had come to divide the spoils. It had to be said that this was an exceptional opportunity for his gold dragon guise to secure real authority within the good-aligned factions.