Through the eyes of Awana

It took a full day before I could even stand up with my own power without the help of the elves. Although fortunately, I have been conscious the whole time.

There were people who have not yet regain their consciousness yet...Neityr was one of them. The wizards and mages were constantly casting heal on them and even some of the wood elves helped by searching for herbs around the forest that was effective in accelerating the recovery.

We have succeeded in freeing everyone and capturing six of the knights but it was not without cost. Twenty high elves of the White Leaf tribe lost their lives. This is one biggest loss of lives in the tribe's history of thousands of years—the worst of them being only when Hevize was still bothering them personally.

I personally apologized to the elders and citizens for my failure but they were all very understanding and did not blame me personally. Many were sad and devastated for the loss of their family and friends but they took dying directly for the cause of their patron god was one of the most honorable things one could have done.

Once I regain my full power again, I will make sure each soul lost will have a joyous afterlife. I also offered to give them a burial but I was reminded that the elves cremate the bodies of the dead in which we did to each of them. We held a large funeral service with even the wood elves and the gnomes in attendance. The wood elves were especially touched and moved as they knew personally that these elves gave their lives to free them.

In the end, one hundred wood elves and twenty gnomes were rescued. While communication with the wood elves could be achieved through their representative that speaks "ancient elvish", which was the language the high elves were speaking and one that I could I understand as wel, conversations with the gnomes have not been possible yet as no one knew how to speak gnomish—but the gnomes themselves seem to acknowledge that we have rescued them and continued to smile and help us in various tasks.

Finally, humans. Only thirty-five of the original fifty bronze-skinned humans that seem to be the servants of the knights survived. We did not do anything to them as they seemed to display no hostility towards us—some even seemed glad that we killed their oppressors. In addition, six fair-skinned knights surrendered themselves to us. The rest of the knights' bodies we looted and burnt. The leader of the knights was a man with blonde hair and golden armor, half his face burnt. Both the bronze-skinned humans and the knights spoke different languages and we have not established any substantial exchange with them.

We were all still on the grounds below where the wooden fortress was. None of the rescued and captured have seen the cloud settlement yet as we were still recovering and I am still assessing the risks of letting them know of the truth about myself.

"Great one! I thank thee again for rescue my people!" An elder wood elf with copper skin and braided long white hair presented himself in front of me as I was walking in the ruin of the wooden fortress. He talked with an accent but he seemed to have already improved his articulacy in just one day of interacting with the high elves.

"Ah, you need not thank me but rather the high elves that put all of their efforts into freeing your people" I replied with a gentle smile. "What was your name again?"

"Name is Adjor. Master Tiven was one who did thunder, no? And magic rain? Amazing! Incredible! We lost entire village. One hundred remains. I scared we all separated as slaves. YOU saved us."

I looked at him and his glimmering eyes that seem to hold utmost respect directed at myself. Such eyes are not unfamiliar as the white leaf tribe also had it. And it was also unfamiliar in my past life of being a god when I look down at people kneeling every time I gave them rainfall. But something felt oddly different this time.

"Alright. I will accept your gratitude...." I touched the wood elf's shoulder. "Please tell your people to gather in front of the fortress soon. I have something to announce"

After I left Elder Havies, I continued my path towards a makeshift tent. Inside, Elder Havies was accompanying his granddaughter Neityr who was still asleep.

"Has she woken up yet?" I asked as I stepped inside.

"She did, your holiness. Briefly. I think the emotional toll of the battle combined with some of the wounds she suffered shut down her body...but she will be okay." Elder Havies replied.

"That's good..." I walked forward and sat next to Elder Havies beside the bed.

"Any update on the interrogation?"

Elder Havies sighed. "Nothing so far. They are currently not causing troubles but we can't communicate either. Adjor, the sole wood elf that could communicate with us does not understand the language of the knights either. I have personally sent our tribe's linguist by the name of Elkian to analyze their language and decipher it. It will certainly take a while and I am not sure how long your holiness wishes to stay down here."

"We are leaving today. I don't want to risk any other humans finding us. But from my observation...the bronze-skinned humans are probably from a tribe or a kingdom in this equatorial land. From their differences in skin color and even clothing, I suspect the fair-skinned knights are probably visitors from the kingdoms of the north. But it does not really explain why they seem to treat the bronze-skinned natives with contempt and disrespect...Those bodies of raped women we found..." I frowned as I was brought back to what remained out of the burnt tents.

"Your holiness, from the legends of my ancestors, humans seem to like to create hierarchies between races and even within their own people." Elder Havies replied.

"In that case, it's not like the elves are better in that regard." I flashed a cheeky smile.

Elder Havies chuckled. "I guess you're right. But our white leaf tribe has practically dissolved all of those traditions in the thousands of years we have been isolated. However, some of the wood elves we rescued are still quite wary of us as Adjor told me that normally high elves think of wood elves as being inferior and our kind are usually not well-liked by the wood elves." He explained.

"In any case, even though I know it's quite risky, we have to bring everyone abroad the cloud settlement. The knights will run off to tell on us if we set them free and I don't fully trust the bronze-skinned humans yet either...I will, however, give the wood elves and gnomes a chance to stay behind in the jungle if they wish since this is their native home."

"I apologize, your holiness, but I don't think we have enough space in the cloud settlement for all of them...and you are still too weakened to expand the cloud, no?" Elder Havies' face showed concern.

I curved my lips upward. "Normally, yes. But I think I might have a method to temporarily boost my divinity reserve."

I met Adjor the elder wood elf again outside of the fortress where everyone was. They were all gathered in a large clearing in a scene reminiscent of the time I invited the white leaf tribe to join my journey. The wood elves, the gnomes, and even the humans have gathered—of course, the knights were restrained.

"Master Tiven. I did as you told. What now?" Adjor asked.

"I want you to translate what I say to the wood elves"

"That easy! Please speak"

I smiled at him before turning my head towards the crowd. The wood elves all looked at me with curiosity yet also admiration as they knew I was the leader of the high elves that rescued them.

"My dear wood elves. I know all of you have suffered through a lot. You have lost friends, families, and home."

I turned to Adjor after I finished speaking to let him translate. He echoed my statement in the wood elvish to the crowd...I hope the translation is accurate at least.

"And I also know that the goddess you serve, Salyna, did not rescue all of you as well in time of predicament."

Adjor looked at me strangely. "Uh...master. Sure you want to translate?"

I nodded. He gulped with a nervous face before translating my statement. My statement quickly incites numerous chatters around the audience with people turning towards each other in discomfort. Some seem to agree as they nodded and shouted but some frowned with anger.

I continued my speech.

"I want all of you to know that the gods don't truly care about the mortals. I will seek to provide the truth of the gods. Do all of you know what happened more than five thousand years ago? How many gods are you aware of?"

Chatters and discussions occurred again with many shaking their head diagonally with a contorted face.

Adjor turned to me again. "Master. We no understand your question. We know ten gods but not now what happen five thousand years ago. We call era 'forgotten era' with lost records"

Clever. The ten gods have basically wiped the entire pantheon of gods out of existence and out of history. That way, no mortals would be foolish enough to try to revive any of us. If you are playing that game, I can also use my own brand of propaganda.

I gathered power in my fingertips and a large cloud was created in front of me. The cloud descended into the ground and acted like floors. Suddenly, figures and shapes took form out of the white cloud. I created images of the entire two-dimensional map of the planet and large figurines numbering hundreds floating on top of the map—they represented the fallen gods.

Everyone who saw this whether it be the high elves, wood elves, gnomes, and humans were all struck with shock after seeing my feat. A magical theater was formed in front of them.

"You see this? This was the planet five thousand years ago. These figurines represent gods. Yes, gods. There were hundreds of us and each of us possesses unique powers that represented our niche title. Our powers were spread in a balanced manner with no one god that could overpower other gods. We have one that controls the ocean, the wind, even trivial things like love, music, and wine. Everything was designed to be balanced so that both the gods and mortals could live in harmony."

I turned to Adjor so that he could translate first before I continued. He looked at me with furious sweat dripping down his face before he nodded and continued. Unsurprisingly, many gasps of shock could be heard with the information I have just given them.

"That's right. Every little field in the world had a patron god. This means that every mortal were also represented fairly and equally depending on which patron gods they chose to worship. Tipping the balance too far and giving too much power to one god could ruin the balance of nature that we have set in place. Of course, not every god was equal I must admit. There were some gods that could be considered the 'fundamentals' as their realm of power was larger than the rest such as god of the ocean, god of fire, goddess of nature, god of death, god of the weather, and so on. But all the fundamentals worked alongside one another instead of against one another."

I relayed the information again to Adjor before continuing.

"That was...until a great battle of the gods occurred more than five thousand five hundred years ago. I have heard from you wood elves of the current ten gods that rule the planet...they were all fundamental gods that joined forces to absorb the powers of all the other gods and seize full control of the planet.

1. Hevize, the god of fire. He is now the god of fire and the skies.

2. Salyna, the goddess of plants. She is now the goddess of plants and beasts.

3. Yavue, the god of the ocean. He is now the god of water and the ocean.

4. Brauk, the god of darkness. He is now the god of demons and darkness.

5. Lein, the god of light. He is now the god of light and prosperity.

6. Hereth, the goddess of magic. She is now the goddess of knowledge and magic.

7. Qul, the god of war. He is now the god of war and death.

8. Reinas, the goddess of birth. She is now the goddess of birth and peace.

9. Mobius, the god of craft. He is now the god of craft and creations.

10. Elainar, the goddess of ice. She is now the goddess of ice and wisdom.

These are all the gods that are currently ruling over all of you"

Gasps and chatters were heard again throughout my explanations and my reveal of the gods' previous titles.

"I do not remember anything about the battle but...these ten gods all either seal gods away in forgotten and remote places or outright kill them. Either way, they absorb the powers of the gods they defeated. What followed as the white leaf tribe told me was that the war of the gods seeped in into the mortal realm as well. The mortals who were worshippers of the old gods were either killed en masse or forced to convert. Mass genocides were conducted and the entire structure of civilization shifted."

I finished my explanation as Adjor relayed the information as best as he could with buckets of sweats dripping from his body.

"How do you know of this event when no one else here does!? Why should we trust this!?" A wood elf shouted in his language. Adjor translated his question to me.

"That's because..."

I changed my appearance back into my previous god form. Long white flowing hair formed, my height increased, face restructured, and pupils turned golden.

"I am...or was...a god. My name is Awana, the god of weather and the skies." I said with grace.