Poet's tune would last only five minutes; once it ceased, those goddesses would descend once more.
With time running short, Anbaixiu immediately summoned his Golden Throne, augmenting his Misty Step into an ultra-long-range teleportation that brought him before the grand gates of the high tower in a single second.
The tower should have been protected by defensive magic, but with Trisna ambushed and the divine alliance shattered, the drow inside had decisively chosen to flee. By the time Anbaixiu arrived, the protective wards had long since failed.
Not daring to linger, Anbaixiu flew straight up toward the top floor.
As soon as he drew close, that music—a veritable instrument of torture—sent violent tremors through his soul.
It truly lived up to its reputation as "grave" music capable of blocking divine consciousness; even Anbaixiu was left dizzy and disoriented, seized by the urge to flee the place immediately.
Fortunately, undead possessed no sense of hearing; their perception of sound relied entirely on soul senses. Anbaixiu reined in his perception and sprinted toward where Lolth the Spider Queen lay.
One look gave him quite a shock. Thank goodness he had come quickly—the wound across Lolth's disemboweled belly had already knit halfway shut. Any more delay and it likely would have healed entirely.
Audacious as ever, Anbaixiu flew to Lolth's side and shoved her straight into his personal demiplane, then handily stuffed Trisna inside as well, the latter still run through by Shar's dagger.
With that done, Anbaixiu left the tower at top speed and returned to his companions in the Elegy Poetry Society.
By then, the battle was nearing its conclusion.
Only Gareth was still rampaging across the field like a wild child running amok.
The drow elves had no power to resist; their morale had utterly collapsed, and they were scattering in every direction.
The moment Heji Stone saw Anbaixiu appear, he said excitedly, "What did you get? Quick, let me see!"
Anbaixiu deliberately shifted into human form just to shoot Heji Stone a look of utter disdain.
This fellow had contributed the least, coming along purely to freeload benefits, yet he had the cheek to be the first to speak.
Still, Anbaixiu didn't keep them in suspense. He hauled the unconscious Spider Queen out of his personal demiplane.
"Wait, something's wrong. The wound on her body healed again!"
Anbaixiu was astonished. When he had stowed Lolth in his personal space, he had been very careful to halt time; the injury should have stayed exactly as it was, but now it looked nearly closed.
Rose of Decay cautioned, "Your Time Stop effect might not necessarily work on a god."
That sounded right. After all, the space had been shaped by a Wish spell, which was indeed a tier below divinity; it was only natural that it failed to take effect.
Anbaixiu hurriedly checked on Trisna. Fortunately, though she had received divine blessings, she was still fundamentally a mortal and remained frozen under the effect of Time Stop.
"Still, what do we do now? At this rate, once the wound heals, this goddess is going to wake up. No matter how weakened she is, are we supposed to fight a god to the death?"
Anbaixiu directed this at senior Poet. Among the present members of the Elegy Poetry Society, only he was qualified to offer an opinion on the matter of slaying a god.
Poet pondered for a moment, then said, "Let me think. First, make sure that wound doesn't close."
"Huh? How am I supposed to ensure that?" Anbaixiu asked, baffled.
At that moment, Youjiaxi the ghoul spoke up: "Let me try."
The ghoul extended his hands, his nails lengthening like shortswords, and stabbed them forcefully into the wound on Lolth's torso.
Yet even with strength capable of ripping dragons apart barehanded, Youjiaxi only managed to tear the wound open by a minuscule fraction—scarcely a single centimeter.
Was this the power of a deity? Even after being punished by Ao, Lolth was still so difficult to kill.
Anbaixiu quickly offered, "I'll help too."
Magebreaker blades sprang from his arms, slicing down along the seam of the wound.
Though these blades could slice through iron like clay, cutting into Lolth's belly proved excruciatingly difficult, as if an invisible force were shielding her body.
Driven to desperation, Anbaixiu sawed with both arms together. What was more, he sent the magebreaker blades vibrating at high speed, chewing into Lolth's abdomen like a chainsaw.
Through the combined efforts of Anbaixiu and Youjiaxi, they finally slit her belly open once more. Lolth, whose eyelids had begun to flutter, sank back into a deep coma.
Anbaixiu inspected his magebreaker blades and found that the adamantine edges had rolled.
"So this is a god?"
For the first time, Anbaixiu truly felt the chasm between mortals and deities.
Once Anbaixiu reopened the wound, the two rows of fangs in Youjiaxi's mouth began secreting a grayish-black venom. The ghoul then sank his teeth into Lolth's flesh.
The bite didn't inflict much physical damage, but as the grayish-black venom seeped into the wound, Lolth's flesh ceased regenerating.
"This is my ability. It prevents wounds from ever healing. Though against a god, it may only prolong the healing time," Youjiaxi explained.
Anbaixiu looked closely and found that the wound was indeed still closing, only at a vastly reduced pace.
"Senior, what do we do now? How should we deal with Lolth? I just checked—she doesn't even have a single artifact on her," Anbaixiu said.
They had managed to lay hands on a deity with great difficulty, yet she was like an impenetrable stone they couldn't take a bite out of.
Poet spent a long time thinking before he finally made a move.
Plucking the strings of his lyre with both hands, he unleashed waves of music so dreadful that even the undead felt like covering their ears. Ghostly afterimages began shimmering from Lolth's body.
Some were rotting corpses, some were plumes of chaotic dark smoke, while others were slender silhouettes of drow elves... These phantoms shifted endlessly, exerting an immense pressure on Anbaixiu.
Just as Anbaixiu felt on the verge of being crushed by it, Poet finally stopped playing.
"Just as I thought. This isn't the complete Spider Queen—it's merely an avatar condensed from a portion of her godhead. It seems Ao's punishment wasn't quite as dire as imagined; he didn't cast Lolth down to the mortal realm entirely, but merely stripped away half of her divine portfolios."
Anbaixiu unhesitatingly admitted he couldn't follow. Knowledge at this tier wasn't something he could find by reading books.
Poet continued, "Lolth holds many divine portfolios. While none are overwhelmingly powerful on their own, combined they are quite formidable. Ao severed four of them, and they reside within this body. If we can extract these portfolios, someone might be able to ascend directly to godhood. Naturally, compatibility matters. If someone forcibly integrates an incompatible portfolio, they will only meet a gruesome end."
Now Anbaixiu understood. Inside this body of Lolth were four divine portfolios, which theoretically could allow four mortals to become gods.
"Then how do we extract the portfolios?" Anbaixiu asked eagerly.
Never mind compatibility—get them out first! Even if he couldn't use them himself, he could trade them away for benefits. For instance, offering them to his teacher might help him recover his divine power, which would give Anbaixiu a mighty deity backing him.
"I'm sorry, but I don't know."
Poet's answer shocked Anbaixiu to his core. He quickly asked, "Senior, aren't you a god?"
Anbaixiu had always assumed the President and this Vice President were deities. Even if they were only lesser powers, they should still be bona fide true gods. Yet here he was, claiming he didn't know?
"If I were a god, Ao would have struck me dead the moment I raised a hand against these drow earlier. Though the power I wield is very similar to that of a deity, I am not the kind of god you usually speak of. It's complicated—I'll explain later. In short, I cannot help you extract Lolth's portfolios."
Anbaixiu asked, "Can't we ask the President for help? We've already successfully captured the Spider Queen."
Poet shook his head. "Don't even think about it. The President won't help; he never meddles in such matters. Don't you know plenty of gods? Seek their help. I doubt any deity would turn this down."
Anbaixiu considered it and realized that was true. He could simply go straight to his teacher for help.
"Give me a moment, everyone. I'll contact the God of Alchemy." Anbaixiu retrieved the gold coin given to him by the God of Alchemy and spoke into it as casually as chatting with an old friend: "Teacher, you there? Got something good. Get over here, quick!"
Within seconds, the voice of the God of Alchemy echoed from the coin: "What is it now? I'm very busy lately. Don't bother me if it's nothing."
The members of the Elegy Poetry Society all turned strange looks upon Anbaixiu.
While they knew Anbaixiu was on good terms with this deity, wasn't this a bit too absurd?
When drow elves sought blessings from their deities—even when the goddesses were already willing—they had to spend ages preparing, kneeling, praying, and offering sacrifices at great expense of labor and resources.
Yet Anbaixiu summoned a response from a god with a casual toss of words.
Heji Stone was particularly flabbergasted. Before, he had truly thought Anbaixiu was talking out of his ass, but this display... Was the God of Alchemy his own father or something?
Anbaixiu had no time to worry about what others thought. The chance to ascend to godhood lay right before his eyes; he had long since grown impatient.
"Teacher, I took down the Spider Queen. She's half-dead and captured right here. Can you help me extract her divine portfolios?"
Without missing a beat, the God of Alchemy retorted, "What kind of daydream are you having? Even at my peak, your teacher was no match for the Spider Queen."
"It's true! If you don't believe me, descend to the mortal realm and see for yourself! In all the years we've known each other, you're the only one who's ever lied to me—when have I ever lied to you?! I'm such an honest person, how could you doubt me?"
Once Anbaixiu said this, everyone in the Elegy Poetry Society felt the situation grow even more bizarre.
The relationship between this deity and lich was absurdly intimate. Did the God of Alchemy owe him tens of billions in unpaid debts?
A brilliant light projected from the gold coin as a phantom image of the God of Alchemy materialized.
"Heh, quite lively here." The God of Alchemy's gaze swept over the members of the Elegy Poetry Society, finally lingering on Poet, and he said in surprise, "You're messing around with this student of mine too?"
Anbaixiu blurted out in astonishment, "Teacher, you know Senior Poet?"
The God of Alchemy answered, "Heh, compared to him, even I'm just a junior. All right, so you took action. It seems this student of mine really wasn't lying to me."
The God of Alchemy looked down at Lolth the Spider Queen lying on the ground and sighed. "To think that even such an ancient deity could face the peril of falling... Very well, I can help you separate the portfolios contained within her. However, Lolth will need to be sent over to my side."
The God of Alchemy fixed his eyes on Anbaixiu and asked, "Do you trust me?"
Chapter 262