For Dernothus, his greatest regret was that he had failed to save Ilotran back then.
Saving Visen had, in a roundabout way, made up for that regret.
To him, salvation and revenge were equally important.
Salvation even ranked slightly above revenge.
And if He Ao had not waited until the very end, until the Desire Witch descended in fury, he would have had no way to save Visen.
If he had left at any point, Visen would have become a sacrifice.
Either a sacrifice to the God of Death, or a victim of the Desire Witch's fury.
Only at the very moment the Desire Witch emerged in rage, when neither god could spare attention for Visen for a brief instant, could he free Visen from that ritual.
For Dernothus, even if he had successfully risen from the coffin back then, saving Kwotela would have been nearly impossible.
And for He Ao, the difficulty had not been much different.
If he had not opened up another front, used the Sage Master to hold back the Desire Witch, and created an opportunity to steal the Dreamer Talent Sequence, the Desire Witch would not have become so enraged.
If the Desire Witch had not become enraged, she would not have startled the God of Death into briefly relaxing his supervision over the ritual.
Under normal circumstances, He Ao could never have saved Visen through Dernothus's line alone.
This was a ritual arranged by the God of Death, something Slan had spent who knew how many years strengthening.
The God of Death had hoped to use this ritual to find the God of War's Graveyard, control the God of War, weaken the God of War's power, and remove the scar of the Underworld.
As long as events remained within that circle, within the God