While Thalion had a wild time with Ankhet, he wasn't the only one caught up in events. Outside the tutorial, in the integrated space, multiple gods had been awaiting the outcome of the quest with great interest.

Even though the system restricted most messages and knowledge sent from avatars within the tutorial, the gods still found out that three catacombs had been destroyed and that one final battle would decide the outcome of the tutorial so many of them were invested in.

The living factions closest to the undead tutorial, as well as the undead gods themselves, were the most stressed. One major problem for the living gods was that their blessed had failed to take a leading role in the battle for the last catacomb.

Kael had fought in the battle but, according to the information his Aeta''s avatar revealed, was attacked by another human. Such information was often distorted by the system, but what was certain was that Kael was out of the race and would not be able to destroy the pillar.

Eryndor, the mage god who had blessed Sylas, faced the same issue, and his wife Isis had lost the healer she had chosen. Isis had also blessed a few other healers with weaker blessings, but with such minor investments, barely any information now made it out of the tutorial. This was one of the reasons why powerful gods rarely gave out weak blessings. They didn't function well as messengers, and the system blocked almost everything.

The first god to provide real insight was the water goddess Mazu. She was closely tied to the undead dominion and also among the most frustrated. She had blessed many, but most had either died, fled, or in the case of the princess, rejected her just before the battle for the catacombs. Mazu had invested quite a lot of power and gotten nothing in return.

The only one of her blessed still in the game was a little girl traveling with the human who had led the charge against the undead.

Then, when the time limit passed, a message arrived that made none of the gods happy: Ankhet had been revived.

They had failed.

Now, the gods needed to come up with a plan to kill him before portals could be built allowing him to reach the heartland of the undead faction. Every one of these powerful gods had chosen champions in other tutorials. Most of those champions were doing well, completely dominating their tutorials, as expected.

The problem was that not all of them would end up on Earth. Some were being sent to other planets. Normally, that wouldn't be a big deal, but when it came to defeating the undead and stopping Ankhet, they would need more than just a few champions. And no god wanted to risk their chosen unnecessarily, the upcoming system events were already dangerous enough.

To kill Ankhet, they would need an alliance strong enough to face the undead head-on. One of the four planets that had now merged into one contained vampires, who would no doubt form a faction with Ankhet and maybe even attract undead-aligned champions.

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So far, they had up to five chosen heading to that planet. That might not be enough, depending on how many the undead side had. At the moment, the gods couldn't guarantee Ankhet's elimination before the system allowed him to leave the planet and venture into the wider universe. This deeply frustrated them, especially after all they had invested.

Discussions dragged on, becoming increasingly heated over who should pay the price for assistance from other gods or lower factions.

"The undead gods probably won't have much trouble organizing things on the new planet," Mazu thought after hours of argument, with not a single god willing to back down.

In that suspicion, Mazu couldn't have been more wrong, but that was something she obviously couldn't know at the time.

<--

At first, the undead gods were elated. But then, the classic loot-sharing dilemma appeared: there was only one prize in the room, but many hands trying to grab it.

Some might argue their situation was even worse than the one faced by the living gods. Arguments filled the halls of the undead council.

The vampire god Tenebrice, who had done the most to ensure Ankhet's survival, had grown weak and was likely the weakest member of the undead dominion's council now. He might even be eliminated by one of the more ambitious vampire gods. No one else was willing to let someone as weak as Tenebrice claim the grand prize.

The strongest contender was, of course, the Mummy God, but his blessed had died before the final battle, and the sand elementals had contributed nothing. So, he was out too.

Then there was the Lich God, who wanted to take Ankhet in. That could've worked, until it was discovered that his blessed, the lich Elias, had killed the Elven Prince. The prince had a respectable bloodline, and his death enraged the elves, leading to the war in the first place. The humans would never have been strong enough to defeat the undead on the fifth stage without the elves' support.

And then there were the trust issues. Who would watch over Ankhet? Who would ensure fair access? No one trusted anyone to handle him responsibly or to share critical information. The idea that one god would take care of him while the others simply visited, or that the god with Ankhet would willingly share all information was laughable. That kind of suggestion wasn't even voiced.

Eventually, after many arguments and some well-placed bribery from the Mummy God, the one who had blessed Nathaniel in the tutorial, it was agreed that Ankhet would go to him. But only under the condition that the other gods could visit Ankhet and speak with him.

This entire process took far longer than anyone expected.

And before they could finalize the decision, the system shop in the tutorial had already passed.

With that, a crucial and utterly surprising piece of information arrived at their table:

Ankhet had been eliminated.

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