When a goddess asks you, "You saw all that just now, didn't you?" one's thoughts might easily wander in an ambiguous direction.
Yet Anbaixiu dared not entertain the slightest fancy, because Shar was not joking.
"Lady of the Night, how did you know I was peeking from the sidelines?" Anbaixiu asked.
The face formed of smoke drifted directly before Anbaixiu, nearly pressing against his nasal cavity as she spoke. "Heh. Your illusion is quite intriguing; even if I chose to descend with an avatar, I might not have seen through it. But the moment you accepted the knowledge of the Weave, you bore my aura. No matter how you conceal yourself, you cannot slip past my senses."
Anbaixiu said calmly, "Very well. The foresight of deities is truly beyond what mortals like us can anticipate. Then may I ask why the Goddess did not expose me on the spot? Choosing to alert me in this manner suggests there is still room for negotiation, yes?"
Shar pulled back slightly, her gaze lingering over Anbaixiu for quite some time before she said, "I knew before that you were important, but back then I assumed you were merely someone chosen by fate, tangled in countless threads connected to many deities. It seems I was mistaken. Your intellect is far more meaningful than so-called destiny.
"Or rather, it is precisely because you are such a clever man that fate set its sights upon you."
Anbaixiu chuckled, refusing to take the bait.
It sounded like flattery, but the dark goddess's words held a great deal of information. Had Anbaixiu shown the slightest curiosity and asked a single follow-up question, she would certainly have countered with, "Want to know? Certainly. What price can you pay?"
At that point, negotiations could easily fall apart.
Anbaixiu simply treated Shar's words as musings to herself. Not for his unlife would he pick up the thread, at most offering a chuckle and murmuring some token thanks for the excessive praise.
Seeing that Anbaixiu refused to bite, Shar abruptly shifted her tone. "I would love nothing more than to gouge out your soul and place it inside one of my Dark Justiciars."
"Why go through all that trouble? With enough money, a lich will gladly walk through fire and water for you—and for nothing more than a few negligible gold coins," Anbaixiu said.
Shar was about to continue when she suddenly realized she had been steered off track. A moment ago, she was trying to entice this lich into paying a price; how had two sentences turned it into her hiring him with coin?
Wretched lich. Had he condensed the godhead of some deity of trickery?
"Hmph. You have yet to pay what you owe me. Where is the price for the knowledge of the Weave?"
Earlier, Anbaixiu had sought out Shar to ask for knowledge regarding the Weave to help the elves resolve their mana addiction. Shar had demanded that Anbaixiu become her Chosen, which he refused. The terms were then altered to corrupting a paladin, or finding her a paladin of legendary rank.
From the Time Stop area off to the side, Anbaixiu dragged out the half-dragon youth and said to Shar, "Legendary rank, a youth who once believed in the Holy Light and has now fallen. Doesn't this completely satisfy your requirement?"
Shar sneered. "Do you know that it was precisely because of this half-dragon that our four goddesses forged an alliance?"
"What?" Anbaixiu genuinely had not anticipated that.
"Haven't you realized yet? Loviatar, Lolth, and Tiamat have all been gravely offended by you."
"No, no, how could you say such a thing? Where would I ever find the nerve to offend deities?"
Anbaixiu spoke the words, but in truth, he knew Shar had a point.
Loviatar, the Goddess of Pain, went without saying. She was the one who had forced Anbaixiu to grasp the power of destiny again, reducing him once more to a slave of fate and twisting his Destiny Weaving ability so that it could only weave futures filled with agony. Anbaixiu was reluctant to even use it, lest Loviatar profit from the outcome. At the time, he had furiously cursed her, vowing to make her taste a lich's wrath.
As for Tiamat... Anbaixiu glanced toward the half-dragon youth. This boy was surely the Chosen of the Dragon Goddess. Having suppressed him, Anbaixiu might well have provoked her ire.
Lolth the Spider Queen, however, felt a bit unjust. Anbaixiu usually swindled surface drow; shouldn't Lolth hold a grudge against Rose of Decay? What did it have to do with him?
"To be honest, while I may have caused offense to the Goddess of Pain and the Dragon Goddess in the past, Lolth the Spider Queen truly has nothing to do with me," Anbaixiu explained.
"Heh. Two centuries ago, a drow priestess you killed was her Chosen. I've heard Lolth grind her teeth over that more than once. That was her most favored drow elf."
Anbaixiu wracked his memories before blurting out in shock, "That can't be blamed on me! Who could have known she'd want to murder me afterward?! That was legitimate self-defense!"
Blame his youth back then, along with those worldly desires. The drow had been far too forward and seductive. The two of them had matched each other splendidly, so who would have thought that as soon as she was satisfied, she would attempt murder? Fortunately, Anbaixiu had reacted in time, using the Dice of Fate to dispatch the mad drow before he had abandoned the power of destiny.
Sigh. Come to think of it, he hadn't even known her name. Who could have guessed she was Lolth's Chosen?
Shar smiled faintly. "Did you know? You shouldn't have survived at all. That drow was far more powerful than you, but fate is ever unpredictable. Furthermore, even setting that aside, you know full well how many drow that Undead Queen slaughtered. And since both of you belong to the Elegy Poetry Society, that ledger is charged to your head as well."
Thoroughly displeased, Anbaixiu snapped, "I'm not the only member of the Elegy Poetry Society. If she has the guts, let her pin it on our President!"
"Haha, Lolth would love to, but she doesn't dare." Shar laughed with genuine amusement, then asked, "Do you still not know the true identity of the Mourner?"
"Is the President Velsharoon, the God of Liches?" Anbaixiu asked.
Shar shook her head. "It seems you truly know nothing. No matter. Since that person hasn't told you, there must be a reason. In any case, don't dream of using the Elegy Poetry Society as a shield; your President will not allow himself to be used by you.
"Enough idle chatter. This half-dragon was Tiamat's Chosen, intended to raise havoc and create an opportunity for the dragon race to return to the continent, only to be ruined by you. All three goddesses harbor hatred toward you—especially Loviatar. The fact that you quelled the war makes her wish she could imprison your soul and torment it for all eternity."
Anbaixiu dearly wanted to ask whether Loviatar had thrown herself to the ground, screaming and clawing in rage. If she had, it would have been deeply gratifying. For that perverted goddess to stir up trouble—if he didn't torment her ruthlessly in return, he wouldn't be doing justice to his standing as an evil-aligned lich.
Still, Shar was not yet confirmed to be on his side, and Anbaixiu had no intention of handing her more leverage.
"Even if all three goddesses despise me, what does that have to do with your alliance?" Anbaixiu asked.
Shar continued, "That is the intriguing part of destiny. You offered this half-dragon to me, and I instantly detected the power belonging to Tiamat. I then sought out the Dragon Goddess and asked if she wanted to join forces to seize that opportunity... You should know what I am referring to, yes?"
"The impending God War?"
Nowadays, anyone with a shred of ability knew that a tremendous upheaval was on the horizon. Not only would the layout of the continent shift, but even the gods would be dragged into the fray. As to what it entailed specifically, Anbaixiu had no idea.
He had certainly hoped to glean some information from Shar.
Shar murmured thoughtfully, "A God War... perhaps. In any case, you are aware that something momentous will occur. Thus, I allied with Tiamat, followed by Lolth and Loviatar. Though our objectives differ, we share a common foe, and the Underdark serves as an exceptional breakthrough point."
Anbaixiu fell silent for a long while after hearing this. His soul fire flared and churned. Only when he had reorganized his thoughts did he say to Shar, "Goddess of Night, you have shared a great deal, and I grasp most of it, but none of this is the crux of the matter, is it? You allied with those goddesses, caught me eavesdropping on your plans, yet chose not to expose me. Your true target is neither the Underdark nor myself—it is those three goddesses, isn't it?"
The smile vanished from Shar's face. Her ink-black eyes bored into Anbaixiu as she said sternly, "Since you have already guessed my plan, I will not allow you to refuse my invitation. Otherwise, I will destroy you at any cost!"
Anbaixiu sighed inwardly. He had guessed correctly once again. Shar, the initiator of this divine alliance, had harbored foul intentions from the very beginning. She had certainly devised a scheme to thoroughly sabotage the other three goddesses.
Though she might not necessarily slay them, she could definitely inflict heavy wounds and plunder their divine power.
Yet even if Anbaixiu had guessed right, it did him no good. From the moment Shar came knocking, he had no choice left.
Who asked him to lack a powerful deity backing him? The God of Alchemy could not be relied upon now, and he could hardly pray to the Lord of the Dawn.
"Then please enlighten me on your plan, Goddess. How am I to offer assistance amid the machinations of deities?" Anbaixiu asked.
"Originally, my plan did not include your presence. But... fate is truly amusing. You came knocking on my door of your own accord, which only makes my scheme all the easier to succeed. Trisna is the key. I persuaded the others to bestow their blessings upon this drow elf together. During the blessing ritual, our divine powers will all connect to Trisna. That will be your cue to step forward."
Shar condensed black mist into a dagger and offered it to Anbaixiu.
She continued, "When our divine powers connect to Trisna, pierce her heart with this dagger. Quite simple, is it not?"
It sounded simple enough, but if it truly were that straightforward, why would Shar need Anbaixiu to carry it out?
She was hardly a benevolent or upright deity; half of what she said could barely be trusted.
Even so, Anbaixiu took the dagger without hesitation and said, "Then our previous transaction is considered settled."
Shar shook her head. "Hardly so cheap... unless you add this half-dragon."
It was a losing bargain, but Anbaixiu only wished to send this goddess away as quickly as possible. He agreed immediately. "Fine. I intended to sacrifice this half-dragon to you anyway. Deal."
Deeply satisfied, Shar dissolved into black mist, swallowed the half-dragon youth whole, and then receded into silence.
Anbaixiu left the dagger inside his private space and promptly returned to the mortal world.
Paying no mind to the fact that he was inside a drow tower, Anbaixiu drew out the Necrotic Codex and began scribbling with frantic speed:
[President, President, are you there? Help! Four goddesses have teamed up to hunt me down!]
Chapter 257