The Ashes of Gods:Rise of the Vengeful

Lilith placed her hands on the cold stones of the temple. Her eyes swept over the statue of Kieron, the god who had once promised her everything, as her anger steadily grew. Her faith in her god had all but crumbled. When had he turned his back on her? When had he forgotten the promises he’d made? “Words no longer satisfy me,” she whispered, her voice fading into a cold echo along the temple walls. Her anger was growing, becoming almost tangible. Her god’s abandonment, his forgetting of her, had left Lilith shattered. The being she had once considered sacred was now nothing more than a memory of betrayal. The god Kieron, who had once guided her, who had once promised her his light, was gone. His disappearance felt like the loss of everything. In her heart, there was a darkness so heavy that it made it hard to breathe. Each step through her fate spoke a single message to her: revenge. 1 Month ago; After a long summer, when the first signs of winter began to fall from the sky, things below the surface worked a little differently. The trade route between Seaforge Port and Druvennar was long and treacherous. The onset of winter was pure chaos, with newly arrived goods being sold and distributed one by one. Merchants unaccustomed to the rocky terrain and caves lost some of their goods, much to the delight of the drow children. Lilith, however, was watching the traders from the high tower of the castle, praying. They were the only sign of winter’s arrival in the underworld, and Lilith found this fact satisfying. After Lilith sent her prayers to her god, she eagerly awaited their acceptance. A paladin who had sworn to follow the path of her god, Lilith, had been praying for many years and had never strayed from her vow. Descending along the long stairs and dark corridors, Lilith overheard a conversation between a few people. "Master, the blood-red fabrics and the silver-embellished armor you requested have been delivered." With a puzzled look, Lilith awkwardly leaned her head down from the stairs and saw the famous merchant Milonan Serüvennir. Despite being a famous merchant, he was also known for his beautiful silverwork and high-quality fabric craftsmanship. The goods he brought must have been something special, no matter who they were for. Unaware of everything, Lilith wandered through the corridors, making her way toward the temple and thinking about the tasks she had to complete. The temple path was quieter than usual, gloomy, and pitiful. No matter how hard she begged, she hadn't been able to gather gold for the temple, because nearly every creature living underground either didn’t believe in the gods or didn’t want to spend their gold. Lilith parted the temple doors between the great columns and knelt in the place she tended to alone. "God Kieron, I am at your service with my prayers." Rising slowly and silently from where she knelt, Lilith gazed at the tall gray columns for a while, watching the ivy and black roses that cascaded from above. The special royal emblems on the stained-glass had always been something that made her smile. The royal family was far from here, but the cuckoo bird with their emblem was everywhere. The rusty screech of the nails as the large wooden door between the columns creaked open pulled Lilith from her thoughts. As she quickly turned her head, the sight of the little girl at the door interrupted her reverie. A human child would be a rare sight around here. However, since merchants passed through, she might be the daughter of one of them. "Girl, what are you doing here?" Lilith moved away from the windowsill and approached the little girl, who had just entered through the door, kneeling before her. The little girl smiled gently. "Your ears are so pointy." Lilith, amused by the kindness of the girl’s words, smiled in return. "Your ears are so tiny, as sweet as a mouse." Lilith spent some time sitting and chatting with the little girl. As she had guessed, the girl was the daughter of a merchant from Seaforge Port. "Yes, Nastia, it’s time for us to find your father. We should hurry before the cave doors close." Nastia nodded, then, with a speed Lilith wasn’t used to, grabbed her hand. Although surprised for a moment, Lilith thought that the little girl might be afraid of the unfamiliar darkness of the Druvennar caves. Little Nastia and Lilith stepped out of the temple and began walking along the dark, misty paths of Veldrath Cave. As they walked down the temple path, surrounded by long blue, purple, and multicolored crystals with cold winds sweeping across the black stones, a small lizard suddenly jumped in front of them. Nastia, startled, jumped back in fear. "What is this?" she asked, unable to hide her surprise as she began examining the small lizard. Lilith, unable to fully see its color in the darkness, felt a sense of unease—it could be venomous. The Veldrath Cave was home to many venomous creatures, but also some that were harmless. Lilith wasn’t sure if this lizard belonged to the former group. As Lilith bent down to check, she quickly yanked Nastia back, realizing that this was no ordinary lizard—it was a venomous blood lizard. The venomous blood lizard, though small and seemingly harmless, conceals a lethal threat. Its black and crimson skin doubles as both armor and warning, while the spiny ridges along its back provide protection and intimidation. Most fearsome, however, is its ability to drain blood from its prey, growing rapidly in size and power with each feed, transforming it into a relentless predator. Nastia, not understanding what was happening, screamed in fear. Lilith turned to her in shock. “Did it bite you?” Nastia was too scared to answer, but Lilith saw no visible bite marks. However, there was something she had forgotten—the blood lizard was still there. Lilith was shaken as the lizard leaped behind her and bit into her neck. "Damn it." Nastia, terrified by the scene, ran away, “STOP, NASTIA!” The girl vanished quickly behind the blue crystals, and Lilith was left struggling with the lizard on her back. “Let go! ALUR!” Lilith desperately tried to summon her sword with a magical phrase, but nothing happened. Panic gripped her as the lizard clung tighter to her neck, its fangs digging deeper. She clawed at the creature with her hands, but it had already grown significantly from the blood it had drained. To make matters worse, she felt the creeping numbness of its venom starting to spread, weakening her movements. Lilith was losing consciousness from the venom, her balance faltering. With one last desperate effort, she tried once more. "Alur Valdir Alur!" she called out, the name of her sword, but nothing happened... Valdir, forged by Kieron’s blacksmith, Valdir, had been made specifically for Lilith. The sword, crafted from special obsidian and forged with hellfire tempered by magic, had always been a symbol of her strength. She reached for a small dagger concealed at her waist. Straining with every bit of remaining strength, she forced herself to lean back, stretching awkwardly as the lizard loomed closer. With a swift motion, she drove the blade deep into the creature’s neck, severing its head just before it could grow any larger. The body crumpled to the ground with a sickening thud, lifeless at last. Venom still coursed through her veins, and Lilith could feel her strength slipping away. Desperately, she placed a trembling hand on her chest, invoking the power of her faith. "Hand of Light, my god Kieron, I call to you—hear me!" Her voice wavered as she pleaded for divine intervention, her vision darkening as the poison's grip tightened. Despite her efforts, her prayers went unanswered. Kneeling between two large jade crystals, Lilith was helpless. As the venom spread through her body, blood began to pour from her eyes and nose. "Damn it..." she groaned, writhing in pain, utterly desperate. Where was her god? Blood pouring from her eyes blurred Lilith's vision as she collapsed into her hands, gasping for breath—she was dying. Her eyes, like a river, burst open and flooded her body with blood, bursting from her veins. "Someone, please, someone..." Before she could finish her sentence, Lilith passed out from the pain, drowning in her own blood. "RUN, DAD, RUN OVER THERE!" When Lilith lost consciousness, the one who saved her was the little girl, Nastia. Nastia's father, Lion, was a healer and also an elixir merchant, one who dealt in antidotes. He specialized in them, as poisonings were frequent in the Veldrath Caves, making antidotes a valuable trade commodity. Lion had used almost half of the antidote to save Lilith. The blood lizard was so powerful that it could have killed an ordinary person in an instant, but Lilith was a drow born in the Veldrath Caves, which meant her immunity and resilience to poison and venom were far greater than that of other races. As Lilith slowly regained her senses in the haze, her mind was as dark and foggy as Veldrath itself. Lion touched Lilith’s forehead with his hand, thinking she didn’t have a fever. "Y-You?" Lilith tried to speak through a bloody cough. "Hey, don’t push yourself. Your body hasn’t fully healed yet." Lilith, through her blurry vision, recognized the small blonde girl, Nastia. "I- is she... alright?" Nastia had touched Lilith’s cold hands with her small palm. "I’m fine." Lilith flinched slightly at the warmth, it was like a tiny spark. Her hands were as small as a baby’s. She hadn’t realized how small they were the first time they had held hands, as she couldn’t fully open her eyes, but now, the touch of the little girl brought her focus. With Lion's help, Lilith rose from the ground. Still groggy from the significant loss of blood, she slowly began to see more clearly and realized just how exhausted she was. "I'm sorry, half of your goods were wasted because of me." The empty antidote vials lay scattered and rolling between the rocks, and Lion smiled. Despite the small wrinkles on his face, he still had the look of a young man. "Please, let me pay you in gold," Lilith said, reaching for a gold ingot. As her hand neared it, Lion grabbed her wrist. "Please, don’t trouble yourself. These are the kingdom's supplies. They are sent monthly as aid." With a quick glance, Lilith recognized the royal crest on the vials—indeed, they were the kingdom's goods. Lilith didn’t harbor the same hatred for royalty as the other drow did. While most of the drow despised the kingdom and avoided anything associated with it—especially the royal goods—Lilith felt differently. "Thank you..." she said quietly, watching as Lion and the little girl, Nastia, smiled gently and walked off hand in hand. Lilith felt as though she had been left in the middle of nothingness, a void growing inside her heart. Kieron... Why hadn’t he answered her? Not straying far from the temple, Lilith returned. She pushed open the large doors, and the faint light streaming through the cracks in the small stones filled the space, dancing in the colored reflections of the crystals that lined the room. With a silent, pained smile on her face, Lilith sank to her knees before Kieron’s statue, her hands coming together on her lap. "My God, you are the face behind the light that falls from the heavens. My prayers have reached you for years, but today was the first day they have gone unanswered. Why didn’t your light shine down on me? Have I broken my oath that you’ve deemed such a punishment worthy of me...?" Lilith's tears grew heavier as the silence deepened around her. She couldn’t bring herself to believe that her god had made a mistake; Kieron would never leave her prayers unanswered. His silence was impossible. He always had a word to say, an action to take. But now, she was left without his guidance. Her faith, stronger than anyone’s, had been disregarded by the very god she had devoted herself to. It was a wound to her heart like no other. "Please, hear me..." Her silent cries echoed in the stillness, but Lilith didn’t know what she was missing. The truth was, Kieron’s silence wasn’t because he chose to ignore her. He was lost...