The Torture Goddess, Lavita, is considered relatively strong among the Divine Spirits with weak divine power.
Due to the dominance of the Divine Spirits, the Pain Sovereign, Malathes, as the chief judge of the Divine Favored's church, can access more domains of the Divine Spirits.
Compared to the Goddess of Joy, Lierla, Malathes can access the goddess's domains of pain, torture, execution, strength, and revenge. These divine domains have a distinct feature: they come with some combat enhancement and allow mastery of many damage-related divine techniques (through domain access).
In contrast, the domains of the Goddess of Joy, Lierla, primarily provide blessing-type divine techniques. Under the influence of church doctrine, they do not engage in combat as frequently as the Pain followers, even practicing self-harm daily to increase endurance and willpower.
The Pain Sovereign, Malathes, thought a single Skinning technique would render Duncan powerless.
