A Perfect Chess Piece

"Ugh, no. I'm fairly certain that there are also people who have red eyes that glow somewhere in the continent," Artemid said.

"But yours is different," Silvanna said. 

"I don't know if I should take you seriously like I did before I determined you were a dumbass or just go along with your childish antics," Artemis said. 

"Take me seriously!" Silvanna complained. Artemis wasn't remotely pleased with their interaction. 

Artemis was on edge just a moment before, thinking that Silvanna would pose a threat. But although she was a powerful demigod, she was an idiot, like a child entrusted with too much magical power by her overly forgiving parents. 

"Look, okay, I mayyyy be an idiot but that doesn't mean I'm incompetent," Silvanna said.

"I think being an idiot automatically makes you incompetent," Artemis clapped back.

Silvanna then sighed as if she was the professional dealing with manchild although it was the other way around. 

"Fine, I only know that you're a Metal Demon because back at the Imperial Capital, I visited one of the Rising Sun's churches, then that's where we were visited by Gleam who also has a guess, which is the Goddess Gliesia herself who just visited another church, which is very rare to see, it is also very remarkable seeing two Deities at the same time. As the conversation between Gods goes on, the Goddess Gliesia told both the Sun God and us she would take care of the 'Metal Demon' leader by kidnapping him," Silvanna said. 

With the mention of the Goddess, Artemis began to take Silvanna's words seriously again.

Silvanna, noticing this, continued. She may have been an idiot of some magnitude but she knew that if she did not behave herself while talking about the goddess that tried to kill the Metal Demon in front of him, she would risk her own life. 

Well, she realized.

Why did I mention the Goddess! 

It was at this moment that she knew, she should have just shut her mouth.

She felt the overbearing aura of the Metal Demon close in on her.

But something came up in Artemis' mind that made him rethink his understanding of the events that had transpired between when he awoke from his battle with the Goddess.

"Lord Rism, just who exactly is he?" Artemis asked.

"Eh?" Silvanna was surprised, "I thought you'd already know him because you're comfortable with Wart who declared you King. Under Imperial law, declaring a mere Demi-human commoner a ki—" 

Silvanna stopped talking. She sensed immense killing intent from Artemis. The first of its kind. 

"Hey relax, okay, uhm, you wanna know who Lord Rism is? Well, Lord Rism is one of the Veldarun Empire's most powerful Duke of the Grand Duchy of Winterrun. A Dukedom belongs to the greater Imperial Authority," Silvanna said.

Silvanna then began scratching the back of her head.

"And he was the Duke of this Fortress city until you decided to crown that dwarf, anyways, that's not the problem. The problem is that Lord Rism has lost two important things, this city and that elf," Silvanna said.

"So he lost this city and his sex slave?" Artemis said.

"Huh?" Silvanna was confused, "Wait no, you see, that elf was entrusted to Lord Rism while I acted as her chaperone of sorts and then suddenly he gets the great idea of undoing the seal, woke up its slumber and controlling the monster within her so that he could overthrow Imperial rule," Silvanna said.

Listening her words, Artemis was finally getting the bigger picture, but the only thing he still questioned was the intervention of the Church of the Rising Sun.

"So you tried to escape? Why didn't you just ask for assistance from the Imperial Corp of Mages considering how you're a demigod yourself, surely Demigods such as yourself have a say, right?" Artemis asked.

"It ain't easy like that.. but…" Silvanna walked away and sat on one of the couches.

"My legs hurrrrrt, don't your legs get hurt or something? Come on you've been standing for like days straight," Silvanna said. 

Artemis: 😑

You're a demigod for goodness sake, how old are you anyway?

"I can stare at you until you die of old age," Artemis said, "Now, please continue your explanation of what I should know or else I will see to it that you'll meet the same fate as the Goddess that tried to kill me," Artemis said.

Startled, Silvanna's face then turned pale after hearing the Metal Demon's words.

"WAIT! Y-You killed the goddess?!" Silvanna said. 

"I think? Her body is over there in the forest 73km southeast from here but I doubt the wildlife would go easy on a free corpse," Artemis said.

"I-Impossible," Silvanna trembled. Killing an actual Deity is an impossible job even for a Demigod could do. With the Metal Demon in front of her able to kill the Goddess herself, then his rank is something beyond the SS-ranks! Or probably his level is at the Apotheosis rank!

If Silvanna made Artemis as her enemy, she might get stomped just an instant.

Fighting against an SSS-rank while she was at S-rank is like fighting against a large Mountain.

Disrupting Silvanna's thoughts was Artemis who was then sitting on the couch opposite of her.

"Now, talk," Artemis said.

"F-Fine, but before I reveal anymore of my secrets, we need to make a deal," Silvanna said.

"A bargain huh?" Artemis said.

"Look, we're both strong as hell. Sure I may be an idiot but I have enough firepower to raze this entire city and the landscape but you also have that power, that makes us even. Although you claim to have killed the Goddess, I don't really think that's the case but oh well, okay but…" 

Silvanna kept on talking but she always deviated from the subject she wanted to discuss. If this kept up, Artemis would be forced to sit through Silvanna talking about her life story before he could gain anything more.

"Silv," Artemis raised his hand, pointing the palm directly at her. 

"W-Wait, okay, the deal is that we keep each other's identities secret and our goals, whatever yours are, far away from each other. Okay? Look, I don't want to turn the main continent into a hellscape like what you did with the Senadate Theocracy," Silvanna said.

"Deal," Artemis said. 

"Huh? Just like that?... Eh!? Wait! Wait.. that's too good for you, I mean, huh!?" Silvanna was utterly confused with Artemis' total acceptance of her terms without him even bothering to negotiate. 

Was I being belittled? She thought. Clearly they weren't on par in terms of strength, speed, and mostly intelligence, because she knew the power of the metal demon thanks to the Imperial investigation team that was sent before the fall of the Senadate Theocracy's capital. But still.

"I like those terms, I see no reason for me to negotiate," Artemis said.

"Really? Great, well then, uhm, can I go now?" 

Artemis was completely being dumbfounded with the Demigod in front of him. She was the one who broke into his room in the first place and now she was asking permission to leave?

And for the record, Artemis did not plan to honor their agreement for long. He knew his drones were drawing ever nearer to his position and it was only a matter of time before another war was to start. 

Actually, he'll immediately start the war of those two nations before they fully mobilize their military.

The continent is extremely massive, it takes time for them to mobilize their military, however, they have magic, especially teleportation ones, so it could be less than.

As Silvanna was about to leave the room, unbeknownst to her, a very tiny bot size as a tiniest ant entered her ear.

What does she know that the bot has a substance that could affect a brain, the same technology that Caitlyn uses on Valentine and Liz. When they upgraded Artemis in his next mark, he has all of those nanites in his systems, he could brainwash every human in the fortress city but his not a type of person do shortcuts, but using the Demigod as his pawn will be extremely difficult, so he has no choice on using it on her to convince that she'll be loyal to him instead of the Empire.

She can be used…

As a pawn—

No...

A Perfect Chess Piece.