"They seemed to be following the instructions of some entity to venture into the Abyss to rescue me."
Waukeen's eyes flickered, as if recalling something incomprehensible, "I clearly remember interacting with them, but the moment they disappeared, all information about them was erased from my mind! Their appearance, voice, attire—I can't remember any of it!"
Tyche immediately thought of Mnemosyne, the Goddess of Memory from the Greek world, who had used her authority to conceal the existence of Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love.
'A deity wielding the power of memory has erased the adventurers' memories!'
But then Tyche had another question. If such a deity akin to Mnemosyne truly existed, why didn't they erase all of Waukeen's memories about the adventurers?
It was certainly possible. If they could make Waukeen forget their appearance and voice, erasing the entire image wouldn't be difficult! But why? Was it to intimidate? But Iou's current strength was undoubtedly supreme among the gods, holding the Tablet of Fate, capable of sweeping dissenters out of their divine kingdoms at any moment!
If Iou had discovered the existence of the anti-Iou alliance, they could have simply chosen a member to make an example of, so why resort to such a subtle warning? This only revealed Iou's bluster and inner fear, provoking the restless wolves to suppress their desires in vain—how unwise!
Gradually, Tyche began to understand.
This might have been done to maximize benefits!
The vanished adventurers still had plans to return to the world of Faerûn! And Waukeen retained related memories so that they could receive convenient assistance from allies upon their next arrival in Faerûn! Waukeen was not a deity of chaos; this was a life-saving favor, and she would surely offer a reward enticing enough for the adventurers.
The more Tyche thought about it, the more plausible it seemed. Only this reasoning could logically explain why Waukeen hadn't completely forgotten those adventurers!
Following this train of thought, the adventurers' act of leaving a line to Waukeen undoubtedly indicated they were not aligned with Iou! At the very least, their interests did not coincide!
This was excellent news! Tyche could offer what Waukeen could, and what Tyche could offer, Waukeen could not! Since the adventurers had taken a liking to Waukeen, why not her? Perhaps they were the key to bringing Iou down!
Tyche grew increasingly excited, nearly dropping the golden cup she held. Fortunately, the gods were all drawn to Waukeen's news and paid no attention to Tyche's lapse.
Leaving Waukeen's divine kingdom, Tyche daringly connected with her original form to invoke the power of her entropy portfolio; changes in matter and energy were all under the control of the entropy portfolio, and the appearance of the adventurers would cause fluctuations in the stable matter and energy, which were visible to Tyche!
Carefully avoiding the Material Plane, the entropy's divine power spread towards the Abyss.
The Dark Lord Graz'zt ruled the 45th, 46th, and 47th layers of the Abyss, which was why he was revered as the Prince of the Abyss among the lords of the Abyss. To rule three layers of the Abyss single-handedly, the Dark Lord Graz'zt was undoubtedly powerful.
The city of Zelatar, existing simultaneously in three planes, also housed Graz'zt's Silver Palace, composed of sixty-six ivory towers. Graz'zt resided in this palace, plotting schemes and amassing power.
An imperceptible fluctuation swept over the Silver Palace, and the Dark Lord Graz'zt immediately opened his eyes, scanning his surroundings, trying to detect any disturbance in the tranquil palace.
Graz'zt was depicted as a tall, handsome demon with slightly dark purple skin and eyes that shimmered with an eerie green light. His pointed ears and slightly yellow fangs betrayed his race, while the most astonishing feature of the Dark Lord was his six fingers and six toes.
Standing before Graz'zt, Tyche saw the dissipated energy fluctuations reappear in her vision! Several shadow-cloaked humanoid figures suddenly appeared, moving swiftly and in coordinated fashion, engaging Graz'zt while rescuing the trapped Waukeen.
The Abyssal Prince Graz'zt was caught off guard, retreating in the face of relentless attacks, watching helplessly as Waukeen was taken away.
The mirror maze surrounding the Silver Palace failed to stop the adventurers. One of them, assuming a roaring stance, unleashed an invisible shockwave that shattered the mirrors and caused the attempting demons to cover their bleeding ears and wail.
A petite figure leaped lightly, transforming into a shadow that enveloped everyone, disappearing in an instant as Graz'zt charged forward.
Tyche followed the trajectory, unfazed by the nervous Graz'zt.
The adventurers jumped through the shadows, leaving traces in the 113th layer of the Abyss controlled by the Emperor of the Dead, Orcus, the saltwater swamps of Demogorgon, and the 651st layer of the Abyss controlled by the Lord of Chains, Vucarik. After turning the Abyss into a chaotic mess, these troublemakers simply turned and left.
The entire process was highly efficient! Tyche was certain that these adventurers had thoroughly investigated the situation in the Abyss beforehand. The Lord of Chains, Vucarik, was Graz'zt's brother, yet they were not on good terms and often clashed! Even some deities were unaware of this, yet the adventurers managed to provoke the enraged Graz'zt towards the enemies' territories each time, buying themselves time to escape.
After leaving the Abyss and reaching the Underworld, as Waukeen had said, the material and spiritual energy represented by these adventurers vanished without a trace.
However, Tyche still saw a force guiding the adventurers away, enveloping them and crossing the Chaos Sea in the blink of an eye, disappearing from Tyche's perception range at a speed that almost caught her off guard.
Tyche pursued with all her might, and the last thing she saw was this force effortlessly slaying a massive divine blight blocking its path, then vanishing without a trace.
Her original form outside the crystal sphere watched with lightning-like eyes, immediately heading to the location of the divine blight's death to search for its corpse!
The massive corpse floating in the Chaos Sea was so conspicuous, with the World Tree rooted in the divine blight's corpse, bringing back the only remaining harvest to the outside of the crystal sphere.
A divine blight was a stillborn child of deities, born when the portfolios and divinity of both parents were in irreconcilable conflict. Such a child would become the natural enemy of deities! The divine blight's mind was filled only with desires for destruction and chaos, inherently harboring greed and malice towards deities. Encountering a divine blight meant death was the only way to escape their entanglement.
However, divine blights were not entirely without value; their chaotic divinity could be purified and absorbed by deities. But for deities capable of killing divine blights, the effort and reward were disproportionate, and the weak deities yearning for divinity were no match for the divine blights, so their numbers did not diminish but rather increased day by day.
Tyche naturally had no interest in the divine blight's divinity; her goal was to capture the traces left by the unknown force that had taken the adventurers, with the rest being fit only to serve as fertilizer for the World Tree.
A faint white light, like embers, still lingered on the through-and-through wound. With the divine blight's tenacious vitality, not to mention a through-and-through wound, even if Tyche had split it in two, it could have survived.
Flickering light points gathered in Tyche's hands, exploding violently the moment she tentatively touched them! Tyche immediately retreated, but even so, her finger was cut by a thin slit of white light.
The wound could not heal on its own! Tyche was astonished; the supreme divinity lingered around the wound, repeating the process over a dozen times before dispelling the force and allowing the wound to heal.
The white light was composed of the authorities of several Creation Deities, and Tyche flexed her fingers with an indescribable expression.
This was truly astonishing; there existed an alliance entirely composed of Creation Deities! Such a force, even in the boundless Chaos Sea, was unprecedented. A single Creation Deity was rare enough, but an organization that could maintain peace among multiple Creation Deities was thought to be impossible!
But the fact was before her eyes, and Tyche had no choice but to believe it.
The only consolation was that, from the actions of those adventurers, the Creation Deity Alliance had not invested much effort in this! Iou did not hold much sway in this alliance, or rather, Iou did not yet have the qualifications to join this alliance; the anti-Iou alliance still had room to play!
Returning to her avatar, Tyche began to plot how to cause trouble and hinder Iou.
The Creation Deity of the world of Faerûn was likely as completely annihilated as Chaos itself; otherwise, they would not have allowed Iou, an outsider, to usurp their authority. Therefore, the urgent task was to help the laws cultivate spokespersons, allowing the alliance members to raise their banners in opposition against Iou!
The scenario Tyche hoped to see was a mutually destructive conflict between the laws and Iou, with herself reaping the benefits in the end. However, the probability of such an outcome was extremely low, as no one was a fool, and the likelihood of them breaking the table on the basis of mutual restraint was nearly nonexistent.
This required Tyche to create a situation where both sides were forced into direct confrontation, which was no easy feat and would likely involve dragging in more forces! And for that, she needed a plausible excuse, which Tyche had a premonition would soon come knocking.
The disappearance of the Faceless One, Juiblex, and the Fungus Queen, Zuggtmoy, did not cause much of a stir on the Material Plane, and Tyche was somewhat surprised by the high efficiency of Yeager and Shar's operations.
After all, it was the Abyss's home turf, and achieving such a swift success was no easy task. Tyche couldn't help but wonder how Shar and Yeager had managed to do it.
The anti-Iou group reconvened, with Shar and Yeager clearly having gained significant benefits, their excitement evident in their words.
"This method is indeed feasible!"
Yeager's words reassured the perplexed Mystryl and Sune, "I have truly received the call of the laws. As long as we can purify enough Abyssal planes, we can completely bypass Iou and become primordial deities!"
The cold power of the domain of death and the serene void of the night seamlessly merged, only to diverge again in the next moment. Tyche indeed saw hope in breaking through the limitations, but it was a painstaking process that would be a troublesome task relying solely on the alliance members themselves.
Tyche immediately proposed expanding the alliance, "Although I don't know how Juiblex and Zuggtmoy were defeated, the process of capturing them must have been difficult. They are not among the stronger Abyssal lords! One Abyssal plane is already troublesome enough; with our strength alone, purifying enough Abyssal planes is no easy feat. I propose bringing more deities of great power into the alliance!"
The four deities also had solemn expressions, and after a moment of silence, Sune spoke, "The Father of Nature, Silvanus, is not weaker than us, but he may not be willing to join our alliance! After all, Iou has not targeted him, and he has no reason to abandon Iou for us."
"And the Earth Mother, Chauntea."
Sune's expression was indescribable, "She deeply loves the Lord of Dawn, Lathander, who brings her warmth and vitality. She has supported Lathander all the way to becoming a deity of great power, even changing her avatar from an old woman to a young girl! If she learns of this method, she will surely tell Lathander!"
The Lord of Dawn, Lathander, grew under Chauntea's care, making him like a flower nurtured in a greenhouse, untested by hardships. His nature was kind, something no one could deny, but he was too naive!
Before Iou cast the gods out of their divine kingdoms, only the Dawn Catastrophe caused by Lathander had resulted in the death of deities.
The pan-human pantheon lacked a true chief deity, which often prevented the human deities from uniting all their strength to counter the much smaller orc pantheon. Lathander wanted to be this leader but ended up causing a disaster with good intentions.
The lover of the God of Guardianship, Helm, a goddess wielding a utilitarian portfolio, also perished in this incident, and Chauntea stepped in to protect the errant Lathander! This undoubtedly greatly diminished her prestige, and Chauntea, who held sway over harvest and agriculture in the earth domain, had no rivals in her dominance, and the human deities could not afford to lose her. For this reason, the gods had no choice but to lay down their arms and forgive Lathander.
This was also a concern for Sune; at such a critical juncture, no one believed Lathander could suppress his ambition. If he learned of this news, he might very well vie for dominance, and the anti-Iou alliance could not withstand his meddling.
"I agree with Lady Tyche's proposal to expand the alliance."
Just as Sune was analyzing the pros and cons, Yeager suddenly interjected, "Please allow me to introduce the helper who secretly assisted us in entering the Abyss—Her Grace, Nyx!"
The Demon Mother Nyx, cloaked in white gauze, appeared at the Twilight Tower where the gods were gathered! The ruler of the 471st layer of the Abyss immediately caused the expressions of the three goddesses, except for Shar, to change drastically!
"Yeager! Your actions are incomprehensible to me!"
Mystryl's body lit up with silver flames as she shouted, "You have put us all in danger. If I do not receive a reasonable explanation, I will stop at nothing to kill you!"
Tyche's expression was also unpleasant, "Yeager, you indeed lacked consideration."
Sune turned to look at Shar, swallowing the words of condemnation she was about to say under Shar's signal.
"Lady Nyx is the spokesperson chosen by the will of the Abyss. I believe she will not betray us."
Yeager spoke calmly, showing no emotion in the face of Mystryl's threat.
Such behavior undoubtedly infuriated Mystryl, the brilliance of the silver flames nearly breaking through Shar's barrier and erupting out of Yeager's divine kingdom.
Tyche stopped Mystryl, her expression calm as she asked, "Yeager, may I understand this as you wishing to leave the alliance?"
In the silence, Tyche's hands made a grasping motion, and the Eternal Spear appeared before the gods for the first time!
Yeager's actions were understandable; after all, Tyche was also an outsider and could not truly integrate into the native deities to gain their trust. And Mystryl, who had introduced Tyche, was also ostracized, which was somewhat reasonable. But what gave Yeager the confidence to part ways with her before toppling Iou?
Tyche looked at the hidden Nyx, shrouded in dancing gauze and silent.
Shaking her head with a sneer, the Eternal Spear's golden light flared, and a chilling sense of crisis suddenly arose in Yeager's heart. Both his avatar and original form felt locked onto! Yeager had no doubt that this weapon could kill him completely!