Lady of the Night

The **Lady of the Night** was one of the three gods who had succumbed to the invasion of the astral beasts, and also the strongest of them. Her divine domain was eventually taken over by Runai, who had then been the Goddess of Day. That was how Runai became the so-called goddess of time, but Richard had always been confused about one thing regarding the entire process; just how had Runai never become a full-fledged intermediate deity despite possessing two divine domains?

Even though calling herself the Goddess of Time was an exaggeration, Runai should still have been strong enough to become a greater deity directly with that fusion. It was impossible for Faelor to obtain a true deity of time— even for Norland, in fact— but that shouldn’t have mattered. This shrine seemed to hold the secrets behind that weakness.

This shrine seemed to be Runai’s reason for building her city out in the middle of nowhere. The stars were a defence system that clearly hadn’t been breached yet, and from the looks of it any absorbed life force was fed back into the system and turned into divine force somehow. One had to break through the entirety of the defences before going through, but there was no telling when all of the stored divinity would be exhausted.

## Description

The earth was paved with golden rock and in the centre was a platform made of black crystal that held what looked to be the most flawless woman in existence. Even Richard stopped breathing for a moment as he laid eyes upon her perfect form.

At his level, beauty was a fleeting thing that could be achieved whenever one wanted. However, this sort of subtle absolution was something that never appeared in the mortal realm. It didn’t take powerful senses to realise just why this was; this body was a manifestation of the power of laws!

Richard walked towards the platform and looked over the spare body of the Lady of the Night, something Runai had tried to achieve for hundreds of years. He paused for a moment before reaching forward and touching her face, examining the mysterious aura on her distant expression.

The Lady of the Night wasn’t breathing and her body was cold, but within it was bubbling a torrent of life force that made it feel like she was just asleep. Activating Insight, Richard realised that her body could change infinitely within this space. What he saw was an adapted image of his perfect woman, but a woman coming in could just as well see the lover of her dreams. Someone with the right amount of ability could change what this body looked like through self-control.

## Buried History

Two deities had died, while many greater gods had suffered serious injuries. The pantheon had been left in shambles.

It was at that time that a divine war had erupted between the Lady of the Night and Runai. It was likely that Runai had been the one to ambush; the Lady of the Night was always significantly stronger, but she had been gravely wounded during the war so she was in no state to engage. Even so, she almost managed to turn the tables and even escaped with her soul intact.

With her domain seized and kingdom destroyed, it would be nearly impossible for the Lady of the Night to return. However, divinity worked in strange ways; so long as her defeat wasn’t complete, there would be a day when she returned. Runai searched for dozens of years afterwards before she finally found the underground shrine, believing that a spare body was hidden within. So long as the Lady entered this body, she would be able to light her godfire once more and regain her godhood.

Runai had immediately tried to break through and retrieve the body, but she had been stopped by the defences of the shrine. Two avatars, four demigods, and thousands of paladins later, she eventually gave up and sealed off all the entrances. Moving her own cathedral here, she built the Divine Fort to protect from the eventuality. Even if the Lady of the Night awakened, her soul would be caught before it could enter the spare body.

There was some history about the Sunset Shrine as well. One of the popes had deduced that the appearance of the Sunset Shrine was connected to the Lady of the Night, her soul still possessing the power of laws. People had started converting out of nowhere, the skills and tenets of the Church of Night embedded into their very souls.

## Protection Array

The powering defences for the Lady of the Night. The broodmother had spent some effort on analysing this one, finding that it could pull near-unlimited strength from the souls of one’s most devout believers. This energy was similar to the power of faith, but it was much more direct and pure, allowing a flow of much higher quantities of energy than any single worshipper could normally provide in a hundred years. It was uncertain how much longer it would have kept functioning without his intervention, and how much energy a single soul truly contained, but he just had no way to accurately estimate that.

## References

1. ↑ Book 7, Chapter 175
2. ↑ Book 7, Chapter 177
3. ↑ Book 8, Chapter 47