He shifted slightly, unease on his face for a moment. "If it wasn't for the fact that those two were the weakest, and it feels like they were thrown at me to get a gauge of my strength. Myself and the strongest opponent, a marilith, are evenly matched. The one ally I have who is unable to do anything is matched by the weakest ally of the marilith. The other two allies or at least the two I haven't proven are working with her for sure, are evenly matched. If they are all working together, I can't match them in either a head on fight or an attrition one. I have to wipe out one of the middle ones. It is like... Myself and the marilith are opposing kings in Mortality. Our weakest allies are... archers, and the other two are elementals.  The normal gods we make allies of are the clerics, knights, assassins, and soldiers, and followers are, if you will forgive the degrading term, pawns. We have no queens or princes to bring to the board.<br/><br/>I am fighting with my constructs which function as pawns, an archer, a knight and couple soldiers, a cleric, and that is it. The enemy has, for sure, two elementals and an archer, along with pawns. And I don't want to bring my allied gods into that fight, because we would turn the entire multi-planar-verse into a state of open warfare. No one has noticed it yet, but all the alliances, favors, and requests have turned the gods into a massive spider web of conflicting interests, and any of the gods getting pulled would cause the entire web to collapse into confusion and battle."<br/><br/>He shrugged, and drained his glass with a grimace. "My mortal wives and companions are fulfilling the role of assassin as a group, providing unique skills that I can use to blindside my opponents, but in a fight they are a resource sink. I can't win as I am. I have to figure out a way to pull either gods away from my opponent, or a way to divide and destroy the allied Beyonder tainted with her. If I can remove the archer and even one of the elementals, I can turn this fight into one of attrition between the two of us and feel secure in at least bringing her down with me, if not out surviving her."<br/><br/>He stared at the mortality board on the table, before casting an illusion with a thought, turning it into a massive, three dimensional board with at least a hundred sides. "And this is about what the board feels like, just counting the greater and intermediate gods. Welcome to my world."<br/><br/>He sighed and summoned the strongest alcohol he could think of, everclear, and took a drink directly from the bottle, barely grimacing as he tried to force the board in front of him to make sense. "And the best news? I am not even sure this board is accurate. I don't know how the lesser gods or demigods will jump, and there are thousands if not millions total including them. Then there are god slayer weapons, Beyonders, illithids, dragons, adventurers, and many, many more."<br/><br/>He stared at the illusionary board for a moment, before dismisisng it with a wave, and giving the Emperor and Tysinni a weak smile, forcing himself to appear normal. "Aren't you glad you don't have to deal with that? Yet, in Tysinni's case, as I intend to give her a crash course in divine negotiations and alliances, and then see if she can help me make sense of that mess."