Changing Fate

The battle to slay a god came to an end.

Soren had gained quite a lot, but he would need time to absorb it all.

A god's power had its peculiarities. When absorbing another's Divinity and Portfolios, he could never be too careful. But Soren still had a hot potato on his hands: one of the most powerful Artifacts on the Material Plane.

Pale Justice!

Soren had no intention of returning the weapon to the Paladins of the Lord of Radiance. The reason was simple: they were stubborn to a fault and always stood on the front lines against evil. If he gave it back, they might well use it against him someday.

But!

He absolutely could not keep the weapon either. That would mean endless trouble.

So he decided to try something else.

The desolate Gobi Desert.

After taking the Princess back, Soren returned to the Holy Avenger's retreat.

The Princess had absorbed a small portion of Divinity and Divine Rank too. Her power had already shown signs of slipping out of control, and now she needed to take time to integrate what she had gained.

During the Time of Troubles, slaying a god inevitably meant wasting some of its power.

They were all in Avatar Form and could not freely condense Divine Rank and Divinity as they could in Deity Form. If Soren had been in full Deity Form, he could have extracted the Animal domain and condensed it into a Divine Gift for someone else, even if he could not integrate it himself. In Avatar Form, that was out of the question. By conventional measures, its strength might not even reach a third of Deity Form's.

Pale Justice.

He could not return the weapon to those Paladins, but he could not keep it himself.

So what was