None of the choices were good. If I left the church or if I failed the quest, I would receive a smite. That could take any form, but it usually resulted in death.
Emberus had told me directly that if I killed his brother, he would kill me for daring to complete the quest he gave me. So completing the quest was just as dangerous.
That pretty much only left me with one option. Kill Emberus. But how? Even if he wasn’t invulnerable on this floor and the next, I couldn’t even get anywhere near him without burning to dust. We had Katia’s bolt, which removed his invulnerability for a few seconds, but this was a particularly powerful god. And if Ididkill him, I would be marked for death by all the other gods.
I was fucked no matter which path I took.
Still, we weren’t ready to deal with any of that right now. These races were hard enough just trying to survive. I didn’t need a religious-fanatic fairy pushing the inevitable along.
“We’re not ready to face Hellik,” I said.
Imani and Louis came jogging up.
I waved, but I remained distracted. I remembered my brief conversation with Hellik on the last floor. Other than maybe the true form of Eileithyia, Hellik was the most normal of the gods we’d met so far. He didn’t come across as completely psychotic and unhinged as his brother.
And there was Eris, who?—
Donut suddenly yowled and jumped several feet upward, all poofed out.
The world froze. Donut remained stationary in the air.
System Message: Eris has entered the realm.
You are in the presence of a Deity. The Scavenger’s Daughter has opened her eyes. She fills with power.
Random Effect! As Eris is the goddess of chaos, this effect will change each time you are in her presence.
Temporary effect from Eris: A random temporary magical effect or item or aura from someone in your presence other than yourself will become permanent.
“What the shit?” I said upon realizing I wasn’t frozen. I sighed. “Eris? Where are you?”
The woman tapped me on the shoulder, and I jumped, finding her behind me. She was sitting on the cart of a food vendor. This was one of the guys selling meat on a stick. The gremlin proprietor was frozen like everyone else.
Eris looked the same as the last time I had seen her atop the tower. She was about my height. Swirl pattern on her lips. She had vaguely snakelike features. Her mouth seemed just a little too big, and she smiled wide at me and stuck out her forked tongue.
I blinked at her description. I noted a few changes since the last time I’d seen her.
Goddess of Chaos Eris. Level 251.
This deity has lost her sponsor and can no longer be sponsored this season.
This deity is invulnerable on this floor.
This deity has been summoned by
In addition to the weird error, she was a level higher than she’d been before, which I thought was impossible. This likely had something to do with what Orren had told me regarding the gods getting “loose.” They were just popping around wherever they wanted instead of following the rules. But it still appeared they were invulnerable.
“You summoned me?” Eris asked.
“I did not,” I said.
“Well, my ears were burning. I’m pretty sure you summoned me. I certainly feel summoned.”
I hadn’t summoned her. But Ihadthought of her. I felt a chill.
Next to her on the cart, the food storage bin popped up, and a small but familiar figure jumped out. He had a meat skewer in his mouth, and he grunted as he climbed up her dress to perch on her shoulder.
“What the shit?” I asked. It was a tiny Uzi Jesus. I was pretty sure it was an action figure. A robot, like robot Donut.