Siege (2)
The siege ahead was bound to be brutal, it was never pleasant to battle in the cold, and it would certainly last until December unless the attackers wanted to take needlessly high casualties.
As the various camps sent out their patrols, an invisible child could be seen sitting atop a branch on a tree on the edge of the forest, it overlooked the area with a bored expression, or could it be thinking about something?
Its clothing could only be called alien by the natives of this world, with a black tie, white undershirt, and black suit. Its eyes are a glistening silver while its hair is also white.
On its ears, two pieces of jewelry hung, one a pentagram, while the other the Jewish star, both glowed with power, though no one was aware of the child.
In its hands, it held a Greek porcelain mask, a world item, the child looked as if it was in deep thought, though the poker face could also be interpreted as immense boredom.
Thoth, the child, looked at the mask, the planned events ran through his mind.
It would be winter soon, and Demiurge and Ainz were no doubt raising hell in the Re-Estize kingdom.
Almost killing Ainz would probably mean he wouldn't be allowed to help take down the Re-Estize Kingdom, though the salaryman is a true connoisseur of the bullshiting arts so who knows? Maybe he will make an excuse to run away somehow.
Anyway, things have gone exactly according to plan so far, the Theocracy will be destroyed soon, and after that is done, the new will have to be set up, it still doesn't even have an official name, let alone a style of governance.
So, inevitably once the civil war is over and the entire nation has to re-organize to push the elves back, they will all no doubt wonder who the new leader will be.
That is when I will appear, taking control and setting myself as the nation's leader, these religious freaks won't oppose me, though I doubt even the most extreme atheist would oppose a biblical angel if it was in his face.
After that, I will reform the religion, converting the nation to worship the 41 Supreme Beings, which this army does already thanks to my summon. After that, I will leave here and allow my summon to control the nation along with a few advisors from the new nation who I consider capable.
Also, he would appear once the main assault was launched on the capital so that he would show everyone how powerful he is, and that he is willing to fight on behalf of his people. Gotta get that good street cred you know?
'Umu, indeed, even Ainz would be impressed by my incredible planning!' Thoth nodded to himself with satisfaction.
Suddenly, some grass behind him moved, he immediately snapped his head in the direction of the noise, but after looking for a few seconds, he couldn't see anything there.
He immediately investigated, but even after spending 5 minutes looking around, he found nothing. With that, he shook his head and teleported away with a [Gate] spell.
Before he did so, Thoth considered flattening the entire area just to be safe but reminding himself of the nearby people, he teleported away without doing so.
The Platinum Dragon Lord revealed himself roughly ten minutes after Thoth disappeared, he was incredibly lucky he stole all those world items recently, one of them was perfect for this situation.
He removed the large cloak covering him, the world item was known as "The Mantle of Invisibility." As its name suggested, it made the user completely undetectable to anything around them, even if one walked on the user, they would simply think they were walking on an unsteady rock of some kind. It also considerably boosted the user's stealth passively, while allowing the user to see through all invisibility.
He had teleported it to his armor from within his cave after he met with the Cardinals, it wasn't particularly difficult to find the man responsible for keeping track of the six world items. A mere human carrying six objects of so much power was something bound to attract attention eventually, he could be considered lucky he didn't get discovered by the elves first.
Still, he had learned much from observing the child. Firstly, that item is no ordinary item, worst case scenario, it is a world item.
He considered casting a spell to identify the item and its abilities, but that would be far too risky, so he contented himself with what he was able to get by merely observing.
If it was a world item, he was lucky the child didn't have it equipped as that might have allowed it to roughly feel where he was, which could have forced him into a confrontation sooner than he desired.
Luckily none of that happened, though he wondered, where did the child go?
With Thoth, he appeared next to the black scripture, which could be seen engaged with a few elves, Thoth eviscerated them instantly, focused on more important things.
The Black Scripture kneeled immediately, each one a devout believer of the 41 Supreme Beings by now.
Thousand Leagues Astrologer and Antilene Heran Fouche could both be seen traveling with the scripture, this was notable since these two usually remained behind while the rest fought.
Thousand Leagues Astrologer was mostly for gathering information, she was nowhere near the others when it came to raw combat potential, while Antilene, the only successful daughter of the elf kind with black and white hair, was the ace of the scripture, kept behind in case of emergency.
Now, all the scriptures were on the move, actively forcing the elves back, which they did with the brutal efficiency one would expect from the best of the best from the mightiest human nation.
The elves were feeling the pressure too, as they lost territory at a horrifying pace, at this rate, they would be forced back into their forest within a month.
Nonetheless, Thoth needed to ensure things were going as planned, the elf king was a wildcard, and while Antiline might, and that is a big might, be able to beat him, with the heart elemental Behemoth on his side, she would most definitely lose, hence he kept in close contact with their scripture in particular.
They were also the strongest when it came to raw power, so that made them even more prioritized by Thoth, which they all viewed as divine favor, especially two women of the group.
Thoth spoke as the scripture kneeled before him, patiently awaiting his orders.
"You may all rise." Thoth waved them off instinctively, not even caring about their deep devotion.
They all did as demanded immediately.
"Now then, is there something to report?" Thoth looked over all of them one by one, each one lowered their gaze in submission, and the captain spoke up.
"Lord! The war effort is going as you expected, the elves don't stand a chance with all of the scriptures attacking them at once. At this rate, they will all be purged from our lands in a matter of weeks."
"Well done, did the elf king or any of his children act?"
Antiline tensed up as her father was mentioned, she hated the man with a burning passion, and the mere mention of him was enough to anger her.
She immediately controlled her emotions, her expression had a perfect poker face within mili seconds.
"The elf king had been seen near the crusading army, but you are no doubt aware of that already. Some children had attacked the other scriptures, and we lost a couple of members as a result, but we managed to slay more than a few powerful elves."
"Excellent, do you have the corpses of the fallen scripture members and the powerful elves?" the captain nodded, "Bring them to the capital and I will revive them."
"The elves too?" the captain asked to ensure he understood the order.
Thoth nodded "The elves too, they may find redemption by serving the Supreme Beings."
"I will do as you command." with this, Thoth turned to Antiline and he spoke.
"Regarding your Decem, the elf king, do not worry, once things are stabilized here, we shall burn the home of that man to the ground."
Antilise thanked Thoth, and after that, he took his leave.
After he teleported away, the scripture members looked at each other.
"... It's always terrifying whenever the messenger shows up..." Time Turbulence mumbled to himself, earning approval from the others.
Thousand Leagues Astrologer spoke while pushing up her glasses "Yes. But we should simply take that as a hint we must improve."
"Mmm." Everyone hummed in collective agreement, they still had a lot of work to do to prove themselves to the divine.
-x-x-x-
Apologies for the short chapter.
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