When the young artist woke up, she was held inside one of the rooms in Eris’s church, guarded by two paladins who stood just right outside the door, making sure no one got in. Healing her was nearly impossible, yet with Kali’s help, she made a decent recovery from what she had gone through.

On the bedside table, stood the divine sculpture she had made by trading her sanity, the result of her trying to depict the divine. It was an image of Eris walking with Arad covering her with his coat, all floating in the air and suspended on a base of pure gold that radiated with divine magic.

At first, this sculpture was fixed to space, unable to be moved or touched, but Kali did manage to fix it to a base of gold and brought it here. The reason the young artist was being guarded and locked up here was simple, many people wanted to steal or just see the sculpture, and many would want to kidnap and force her to make more.

When the paladins explained that they had already dealt with three thieves and five assassins in just an hour, it showed how valuable both the sculpture and the young artist had become after such a feat, and due to that, they couldn’t be left unprotected.

The young artist was rightfully worried about something else, about her parents who lived in the far reaches of the elvish kingdom. The people here had seen her face, they knew who she was, and so, it wasn’t unreasonable to think they would target her family instead, probably in the hope of using them later as leverage.

One of the paladins smiled, assuring the young artist that she didn’t need to worry about that. Measures were already taken to assure the safety of her family.

A moment ago, in a faraway land, an elvish noble sighed as he put a large crystal orb back into its box. He looked troubled, but didn’t want to waste time, since the news he had received mentioned that more people would be acting as well, so he didn’t have time to waste.

He called his guards and issued them an order to go and detain a small family that runs a bath at the edges of his territory. There were no crimes or a reason for that, but he just needed to bring them up here and lock them for a few days. Their daughter had made a magnificent piece of art, and such a thing shouldn’t be left in the hands of the commoners.

Of course, his guards were confused and didn’t want to just stroll in and drag some people out of their home like bandits. They needed a reason, even if it was only to keep face. And so, he gave them. The family’s daughter had made something of great importance, and such a thing shouldn’t be allowed to slip away to other nobles or even outside the territory. He will keep them locked up until she returns and surrender what is the right of his land to his estate, so that it might be always displayed in his house’s art gallery.

The guards still weren’t convinced, but they carried the orders anyway, marched out of the Lord’s mansion on their horses, and promptly surrounded the bath’s entrance. Two armed guards rushed through the front door and confronted the young-looking man standing behind the counter. That was the young artist’s father, who still looked young since elves live long lives.

The young man stepped back, shocked and confused as he saw the guards pointing their swords at him. One growled. "Everyone, leave the bath at once. Sir Illyas, you and your whole family are being detained. You’ll get an explanation at the lord’s mansion."

His wife, who was in the back washing the customers’ clothes, dropped her basket as she saw the guards, gasped, and was suddenly having swords pointed at her as well.

"Wait, what is going on?" The young man cried, but the guards glared at him. "You’ll get an explanation later. For now, get everyone out of the bath; we’re locking this place up."

But then, from the men’s bath, a heavy footstep could be heard, and when the door was pushed open, a titanic, nearly four-meter-tall naked man of pure muscles ducked beneath the door frame as he walked out, a tiny towel barely covering his lower bits.

Steaming, Arad walked between the young man and the guards, veins already bulging on his entire body. "You’re locking the place down? Shame, this was a nice quick bath."

Everyone froze as they had never seen such a giant man in their lives. The young man was also terrified and shocked; he had never let such a man into the bath, and he was certain that he wouldn’t forget. No one would ever forget a man so tall and huge that you’ll be looking directly at his thighs while standing.

In reality, Arad just teleported right inside the bath a while earlier and decided to take a dip in the hot water as he waited for the guards to arrive. Thanks to Merlin’s skill at magic, Zephyr’s wind, and several more tricks, they were able to pinpoint almost all the communication going in and out of the capital and mark all the nobles who wanted to either exploit or threaten the young artist.

Arad wasn’t the only one who got out, Zephyr, Claug, Gamond, Nar, Gaia, and many more, the ones who could get far quickly. Arad himself had an incarnation parked, so he sent it here.

The guard pointed his sword at Arad with a shaking hand. "Back away, giant. This isn’t your business!"

Arad looked at the thin sword and smiled. "If you want to compare swords, I advise against it. Mine is always bigger." He then extended his arm, producing a small insignia that made all of the guards pale when they saw it.

That was the Royal Insignia of the Elvish Royal Court, the one only Cerilla and her right hand Dalla could carry. It was one step above a royal order or decrees, and it meant that whoever carries it has the same authority and privileges as the Queen herself.

Only then did it dawn on the guards. More than three meters tall, muscular, dark hair, slightly pale olive skin, unnatural muscular anatomy, and eyes that burned with purple flames. This could only be one man, the Emperor himself.

"I’m Arad Orion, the current Emperor. This family is under the direct protection of the Imperial Order, the Elvish Palace, and the Divine Order of Sol alongside many others." Arad glared at the guard’s face. "Go tell your lord that he’ll be answering to me this hour, and to the Elvish Palace in a week."

He smiled, "And, yes. You won’t be making any arrests here. Unless you want to fight me." He grabbed the guard’s sword and broke its blade in half. "Believe me, your entire garrison won’t suffice."

The guards quickly ran out of the bath screaming like kids, and none of them dared return inside. They heard of Arad; they knew of his power, how he nuked Vlad’s entire kingdom and went on to kill him later on. How did he face demigods, and did he get married to literal goddesses just due to his raw power.

The young man in the back looked at Arad with a worried face. "Your Majesty... what is this about?"

Arad looked at him with a smile as he summoned clothes to cover himself up. "Well, your daughter managed to create a sculpture of me and my wife Eris, you know her as goddess Sol, as we walked down the castle’s drawbridge." He pulled a chair and awkwardly sat on it. "Simply put, the lord wanted to secure that and your daughter for himself. But your daughter is already under my protection, so her freedom and the ownership of that sculpture would remain hers."

Back in the capital, Eris and Arad had just marched from the castle to her church and were now about to start the divine procession, where they would make their way out of the church and into the graveyard northeast of the capital to bless the dead and honor their lives.

Eris was the city’s funeral parlour director after all; she cleaned, embalmed, cremated, and prayed for all the dead. So now, after becoming an actual goddess, the one thing people want her to do is to ensure the protection of the deceased.