Vile Evil Hides Under The Veil

"Goddess Two Lips?"

Eren raised his eyebrows in surprise. He didn't expect this particular question to come up in the discussion.

The divine faction, led by the Goddess Great Mother, and the demonic faction, led by the Witch Goddess Two Lips, were at odds with each other. Each side had their allies, further complicating the matter.

However, both goddesses seemed to have a personal vendetta against each other.

Nonetheless, Eren had no interest in directly supporting a faction. After all, he had a faction of his own to lead. Why should he support anyone with nothing to gain? Especially when both sides were at odds with his faction?

Interestingly, both the divine and demonic factions had managed to find common ground when it came to resisting the influence of the third faction– the Elder Ichor faction.

Eren didn't request the goddess Great Mother to change that dynamic. Although she was seen as a leader of the divine faction, the Immortals supporting her side weren't doing so out of respect for her. They had their own potential profits to look after.

Plus, Labh Salem was just one single world where the goddess Great Mother's influence was a bit stronger than the other gods. In other worlds, the situation was different because the equations playing out in those worlds were different.

Goddess Great Mother couldn't offend her allies in Labh Salem or in other worlds by openly supporting Eren and his Elder Ichor faction. Doing so might not only backfire on her but also negatively affect her followers.

People who had stakes in diverse fields couldn't survive without a bit of diplomacy.

The divine and demonic factions were both like this. The parties involved from both factions had their own dynamics with each other within their faction.

Some had also formed a coalition with their supposed enemies from the opposite faction just to take down their common opponent.

To the Immortals, the various worlds were like playgrounds in which they had spread their faiths. These playgrounds had their own set of rules and regulations. Labh Salem was just one among these playgrounds.

She could help him from the shadows and receive help from him in secret. However, she would never admit to colluding with him if asked by the other Immortals, especially those who firmly and openly opposed the Elder Ichor faction. She just had too much to lose if she did that.

As such, Eren could guess that asking Goddess Great Mother to openly support his faction was something she would never be able to do.

If one already knows the answer, why waste time asking a question in vain?

Although Eren was yet to have a word with the Witch Goddess, he could guess that she was more or less in the same boat as the Goddess Great Mother. That's why he wasn't particularly interested in talking with the Witch Goddess.

The sole reason Eren had approached the Great Mother was because she had assured him that she'd disclose the information related to an Elder Seed Artifact.

Eren wanted to ask her why she didn't want to keep the artifact by grabbing it with her own hands. But he decided to postpone that question for later.

This was because the matter related to the dynamics between the two goddesses seemed to be way more complicated than Eren had thought it to be.

***

"Apart from her unusual name? I know absolutely nothing about the witch goddess."

Eren shrugged his shoulders before replying honestly.

"I mean I tried collecting some information about her, but there were just too many myths surrounding her, making it difficult for me to distinguish truths from falsehoods. So I just gave up," he said before taking one more sip of tea from his cup.

"Understandable," the goddess nodded before adding further.

"This is Labh Salem, a world based on Goddess Two Lips' legacy, after all. She holds too much sway here no matter how hard I try to retaliate against the demonic faction.

So of course, there would be as many legends about her as there are stars in the sky. However, I didn't want to ask you about the goddess' known details.

Let me be clearer this time– have you been contacted by Goddess Two Lips recently? Do you know anything about her on a personal level?"

"No," Eren simply chose to speak the half-truth without a care in the world.

He had been approached by Goddess Two Lips recently when one of his pseudo-avatars married Shaai. However, no deal had been struck between them. He also knew nothing about her.

As such, Eren gained nothing by admitting to the fact. Plus, he just didn't want to upset the goddess by telling her the truth. He guessed that the Great Mother also wanted to believe in his words because she accepted it easily.

"In that case, let me be honest about the past and present of Labh Salem," the Goddess Great Mother reclined in her chair before speaking in a tired voice.

"To tell you the truth, Goddess Two Lips is one of my clones. Or to be more precise, she 'WAS' one of my natal clones before she decided to form her own divinity."

"Hm? What?" stress lines appeared on Eren's forehead as he looked at the goddess, as if telling her to repeat what she had just said because it was too shocking to digest right away.

"Yes. Let's just say that I paid a huge price for my dreams to become an Elder God," the goddess sighed as she continued.

"Not only did I not succeed in becoming an Elder God, but my own clone rebelled at the very last moment and formed a divinity of her own. I have been fighting with my own clone in Labh Salem ever since then," the goddess revealed with tired expressions.

"The witch goddess was your clone in the past? What exactly happened?"

Eren couldn't help asking. He put down the teacup and focused his attention on the goddess.

The information she had provided was just too mind-blowing to listen to calmly while sipping tea.