Chapter 133: Viper Whip
Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
The viper whip.
It was the most vicious special weapon in the Underdark that could only be used by those who have trained in special abilities. Most of the users were the Priests of the [Queen of Spiders]. They would torture their enemy with such a weapon and make them feel extreme physical pain. The only other ent.i.ty who would use this weapon was the [Maiden of Pain] who was in charge of torture, pain, hurt and so on. Over the last one or two hundred years, she involved herself in the pleasures of abuse and wanted to use this as an extension of her portfolio into the evil realms of pleasure, l.u.s.t, taboo and so on.
If she succeeded, she would add s.e.x and abuse to her portfolio, supplementing them to her pain and hurt portfolio. Eventually, this would become the platform for her to seize the portfolios of l.u.s.t, joy, reproduction, s.e.x and so on. She did not need to be the main deity of the whole world. Even if she only had the portfolio of s.e.x and abuse, which the Drows believed in, she could already use it to gain the divinity of pa.s.sion.
Deities also could not just simply expand their divine portfolio since all the powers from their t.i.tles were interrelated.
For example, the core portfolio of the Queen of Spiders was the “Deity of Drows”. All the fields related to the Drows were included in this portfolio. Underneath this portfolio, there were other extended fields such as spider, evil, darkness, murder and so on.
Before killing their opponents, many deities would absorb the opponent’s powers thoroughly by extending their portfolio.
“Even the Frost Kingdom is unsafe.”
That was Soran’s first thought. His original intention was to bring Vivian here to avoid the upcoming Time of Troubles. But now everything was telling him that although the Time of Troubles did not affect here on a large scale, the [Battle of Ice and Snow] would soon begin. Everything here was absolutely related to the [Maiden of Pain] and would only completely erupt until two or three years later. Before that, it was already clear that her followers had been active in the Frost Kingdom.
Nowhere was truly safe!
Soran felt as if the corpses were mocking him. It was as if they were mocking his cowardice and inability to stand his ground. He tried hard to bring Vivian here to avoid the Time of Troubles, but now this seemed to be a slap to his face, telling him in a cold and heartless tone that there was nowhere safe. Even in the Frost Kingdom, where he believed would not get affected by the Time of Troubles, already had a storm of slaughter brewing.
“Hehe!…”
Soran’s face was a little grim. With a nervous smile, he slowly put back his curved sword, looked up at the sky, and murmured, “Are you playing with me?…”
There was nowhere he could run now.
If the believers of Maiden of Pain came here, then the Frost Kingdom would not be as safe as Soran had imagined.
Soran spent nearly a month traveling from Amber City to Whiterun, clearing up monsters that blocked roads. He traveled the plains across Autumnfall and then into the Elven Kingdom. After going through the Phantasmal Forest and fighting the hunters, Soran finally crossed the barren plains into the cold north.
How much blood had he lost? How many battles had he went through!
But everything in front of him seemed as if it were pointless, telling him how ridiculous his behavior was for the past month. He tried to and escaped like a clown, but in the end, he could not escape anything.
Soran had scars on his back from the Gnoll and the Ogres. All Soran wanted was just to take Vivian away from danger and find a relatively safe place to avoid the Time of Troubles. But the scene in front of him seemed to have given him a sharp whip in his heart. While the blood splashed and the pain went through his bone marrow, Soran had also woken up to the cold reality.
Running was useless now since there was nowhere to hide!
Even in the most peaceful Frost Kingdom was a storm brewing. There was really no place to hide anymore.
The only thing left were battles.
Only battles!
Soran held his sword tightly, and his fingers grew white with excessive force. He looked coldly at the others around him. His cold eyes were like the blade of a knife, which made the people around him back away. It was a kind of killing intent, a kind of killing intent that felt very real. As Soran coldly stared at them, and their bodies also felt a chilling sensation.
Since I cannot run.
Then I’ll fight!
For Vivian and myself, I’ll kill everything in our way!
He had fled thousands of kilometers and almost half the continent. But the b.l.o.o.d.y reality had woken him up. Some things, no matter how you tried to escape, you would always have to face.
As long as you lived in this world, you would not be able to escape it!
“Stop it!”
A low female voice suddenly sounded. A middle-aged woman with a friendly face came along accompanied by two young girls.
She frowned at Soran, then glanced at the others, slowly saying, “What are you doing? Put all the weapons away!”
The middle-aged woman seemed to have a very high position. After seeing her, everyone else could not help bowing slightly. Those who pulled out their weapons because of Soran’s actions hesitated but finally put down their weapons. She was the Priest of the town and was also the Priest of The Grain G.o.ddess. Any deity closely related to their livelihood would be respected by the people. That was why the Priest of The Grain G.o.ddess had a very high position in society. In other words, they had to pay their respects to someone who controlled their livelihood.
Soran’s emotional state lasted only a moment. He bowed slightly to apologize and slowly said, “I’m sorry, I got a little emotional just now.”
The middle-aged woman took a good look at Soran. Her face was quite graceful and friendly, full of a maternal aura.
These were the effects of serving The Grain G.o.ddess.
The Grain G.o.ddess was the daughter of Earthmother, who took over the portfolio of agriculture after Earthmother’s retirement. She was also the only deity who did not have a portfolio of violence but had immense divine powers. The Grain G.o.ddess’ divine powers ranked similar to that of the Ruler of All Elves. Below her were the G.o.ddess of Singing Waters, Earthlord, the Water Lord and so on. They were special deities independent of nature and were also the connection between Elemental deities and Human deities.
Because the Lord of Glory was the father of The Grain G.o.ddess!
The Lord of Glory was the previous Morninglord, which is the deity believed by the maiden Priest in Amber City. The Lord of Glory was the companion of Earthmother and had a very close relations.h.i.+p with her. Although the Earthmother had many deities in her long life, the Lord of Glory was her most important companion.
Everything grew because of the Sun, and the Earthmother gave birth to The Grain G.o.ddess.
Earthmother gave the portfolio of agriculture to her daughter and helped her become a new deity. Since the Lord of Glory was her most reliable ally, the power of light blessed the field of agriculture. In a short period of thousands of years, and without killing any deities nor launching any war, The Grain G.o.ddess became powerful. She merely relied on the expansion of her believers to rise from weak to strong and had now become one of the most powerful deities in the world.
The believers of The Grain G.o.ddess were everywhere and came from different races. Her temples could be found everywhere in the world.
Even the evilest creatures would find some time every year to wors.h.i.+p her.
The agricultural portfolio had many extending fields, so it had immense power. Because it was the foundation of the development of the whole world, the Priests of The Grain G.o.ddess were well respected in human society, especially among the lower cla.s.s civilians. Because agriculture was what they depended on to survive, whether they could survive or not depended entirely on the harvest in the field.
“Calm down boy.”
The middle-aged woman reached over and touched Soran’s forehead. Although he resisted slightly, he did not escape. A gentle force poured into his body and gradually calmed his mood. This was the maternal force of the earth. The Grain G.o.ddess had inherited part of the maternal nature of the Earthmother. This force calmed Soran slightly and he loosened his grip on his curved sword. The Grain G.o.ddess advocated better farming and more food harvesting to reduce inter-race conflicts and wars.
She was a neutral good deity and had absolutely no heart for battle.
Evil creatures seldom sacrificed to deities who believed in good, but The Grain G.o.ddess was an exception. Even had some followers of the evil alignment.
She seemed to have also taken in these believers.
She was different from the Lord of Glory who could not tolerate even a speck of sand in his eye. Even though The Grain G.o.ddess abides by the principles of neutral and good, she tries to be as tolerant as possible.
“Very good.” The middle-aged woman smiled and said slowly, “Can you tell me what you know? These evil-doers have caused a lot of panic recently, and we all hope to find them!”
Soran took a long breath and then bowed slightly, “It seems to be the believers and followers of the Maiden of Pain. The weapon used to kill them was the viper whip. This weapon is very rare in this world. However, in the Underdark, only the Priests of the Queen of Spiders and the followers of the Maiden of Pain used it.”
Maiden of Pain?
The middle-aged woman frowned. The deity in charge of torture, pain, and whipping was not strong but also not at all easy to deal with.
As time went by, some deities could not avoid falling. But, this deity who had only weak divine powers was able to live longer than many evil deities who had medium divine powers.
This was not only because of power!
The portfolio of pain and hurt belonged to the field of battle. Although the Maiden of Pain did not have many followers, their battle capabilities were not weak, and many of them were experienced bloodthirsty killers with cruel means.
The middle-aged woman glanced at Soran and smiled, “Boy, you look tired. Maybe you’d like to take a rest in our town.”
She then proceeded to reach out a welcoming hand.