Exile cut off the mental link with Ania after gaining some more intelligence. 'Thirteen gods but ten oracles... So at least three of them are in Eraldsfen hoping to find an oracle of their own.' Exile hummed as he looked at it from another angle. 'So what's holding everyone up? When we were new deities, our health and stats were so low that we could crush our old selves right now.'

'There's something else going on here...' Exile glanced around at the expectant faces before heaving a long sigh. 

"Change of plan, guys. Grab your offerings and head back to The Raiders Horn. We need to visit our oracles. It seems that the new players who just joined are possibly trying to poach our followers. We have to take care of this threat before we do anything else."

Everyone's expression became dark when they heard that. They even wondered why their own oracles had not tried to contact them and let them know about what was going on! None of them paid any attention to what they received as they quickly entered the temple and retrieved their offerings. Right now, it did not matter. They had a greater priority to deal with!

As they gathered around one of the tables in the bar, they solemnly nodded to each other before activating their Avatar spells. Exile felt his body freeze, unable to move, as his consciousness was transferred to a copy of himself. The selection scre4en appeared in his mind that asked where he wanted to descend. 

Since they were a Pantheon, he could freely descend in any temple belonging to any one of them. However, it was his place to deal with Eraldsfen. The others could let him know if they ran into trouble once they returned...

Ania gasped as she felt a sudden pressure descend on Eraldsfen from the direction of the temple. The villagers around her felt suffocated as the oracles that Bjorn had gathered appeared to be forced to their knees. Ania's eyebrow rose in a sharp arch as she noticed the golden figures nearby take a few steps back before stopping. 

'Lord Exile has arrived!' She was secretly elated to see these new gods backing off after being bathed in his aura. Whether they knew it or not, it showed that they were afraid of him. 'Exile is the only one fit to rule the gods...' Ania let out a proud smile as she thought back to that golden face that appeared inside of the sack when she was held captive. Her cheeks blushed as silence descended all around them.

"Hey, maybe this was a bad idea?" MidasTouch, one of the new players, whispered to the gamer beside him.

"Don't worry! He can't do anything to us..." WintersEmbrace whispered back as she stared at Exile's figure walking towards them. 

Midas and the others who were gathered there gulped as they felt a sense of fear washing over them. They could tell that this should be a game mechanic to warn them of powerful opponents. Still, they held their ground and waited for this player to reach them.

"Lord Exile..." Bjorn bowed his head as Exile walked straight past Ania.

"Good job, Bjorn." Exile placed a hand on Bjorn's shoulder, which made the latter feel weak at the knees. 'Since he went to the effort of shifting their attention away from Ania, it's best if I play along with it.'

His eyes swept over the new players in the crowd, wearing nothing but the basic starting gear. 'Logically, they should be looking for somewhere that doesn't already have a player's presence. What's really going on here?' His eyebrows rose as he noticed these players gathering up together. 

"Why are all of you in my domain?" Exile raised his voice to boom out towards the new players. 

However, nobody dared to speak. That was until someone in the crowd pushed MidasTouch out in front. He glanced back in shock before realising he had been nominated to speak for them. A long sigh escaped from his mouth as he ran his trembling hands through his short, silver hair.

"We're just here to look for more followers... This just happened to be the first village we came across..." Midas kept his eyes low, afraid to look Exile in the eyes.

"Is that so?" Exile hummed as he glanced at the crowd. "Then you would be better off trying your luck at Korden. It's a larger settlement than this one so there should be plenty to go around..."

'For this many of them to appear here... How many new players joined the game?' Exile frowned as he stared at Midas. 'They have no reason to reject my advice.' Indeed, Midas was on the brink of nodding in agreement when someone in the crowd suddenly shouted out.

"You can't force us to leave! We should take as many followers from here before leaving!"

Exile's head snapped up to find the source of that comment. Although it was a woman's voice, there were four of them in the crowd. There was no way he could pin the blame on one of them.

"Tell me... What makes you think I can't force you to leave?" Exile growled as he waited to see which of the women would respond. However, a sheepish cough drew his attention back to Midas.

"That's because we have divine protection... New players can't be harmed by established players for a set time..." Midas's eyes shifted nervously to the side as he spoke.

Bjorn and Ania frowned as they listened to the conversation. Anytime the word player was mentioned it turned into the word God or Goddess for them. However, they both seemed to understand that these new gods were being protected by some divine power higher than Exile right now. 

"If that's the case... I can just have my Pantheon descend here and kill you all as soon as your protection runs out..." Exile growled as he stared at the now silent crowd...