Chapter 115

(Triple normal sized chapter because I decided it's time to once again explain shiz, expand the world's background and some characters. Upper half is explanation heavy while the lower half is normal writing.)

(Lilith PoV)

It's been 4 hours since my temporary master had met up with his wives that Lord Mammon arranged to be saved from his peers that were involved with the plan of summoning the heroes with the other Righteous God's under the pretense of liberating their people from the monster issue.

Lord Mammon and his peers already knew that it was only an excuse from the gods. They have another goal to summon the heroes. Meanwhile the Demon's side truly seeks the aid from the hero to conquer the 72 dungeons on each layer and tackle the issue for the foreseeable future.

Returning to the present, I was asking Ray to have a spar with me. He has the potential in him to be my worthy opponent but he still is wet behind the ears. However, that encourages me even more to carve out this gem in the rough. I want to make sure he can develop his potential properly and have the taste of my hard labor when it ripens.

Last time we fought, Ray didn't seem to have achievement in any martial arts and relied heavily on the weapon he and other heroes called a gun. Even his battle role and style more fit as a leader, captain perhaps. He relied on the weird humans he summoned as his troops and led them in battle. Not that I found fault in that as he does a decent job in leading troops in battle.

Though this wouldn't work if his goal is to oppose the gods. No matter how strong and numerous the army he can amass, the gods can kill Ray with little to no effort and the army will collapse like a body without a head to think and lead. Thus Ray must excel in both leadership and battle if he wanted to stand a chance to win against the Council of Gods and save his wives.

"We have a few hours of free time before reaching the Elven territory. So, come at me whenever you are ready, my contractor." I draw my hidden blade with intention to spar with Ray and assess his overall strength.

Ray nodded and wasted no time to fire a hail of bullets at me, intending to suppress my movement. However, as I said previously. He is still wet behind the ears in terms of combat.

I pulled off one of the hair pins from my hair and threw it with unrivaled accuracy that put even the best marksmen to shame before it entered the barrel of Ray's gun. The hair pin jammed the gun and caused a small explosion within the barrel itself.

"This should prove my point that firearms are a delicate piece of machinery and complicated pieces of equipment tend to malfunction quite easily. Just hinder its mechanism and your gun becomes useless." I explained to him but as expected, he just dematerialized the jammed gun and summoned another one, a shorter one than the previous.

Ray moves closer to me with more tuned down emotions than what I previously observed. As if he put back the mask that he used when they first met. Very different from when he is spending time with his family. Though, most wouldn't notice with a helmet covering his face to hide his emotions. A demon like myself is more attuned to the spiritual wavelength and can 'taste' his emotions. What I can feel from him right now is surprisingly enthusiastic and anticipation.

When Ray reached the distance of 3 meters from me, he slid in the grip and pulled the trigger before a burst of glowing hot metal pellets showered on my face. Though again, with my overwhelming raw power over him, I effortlessly moved my blade in speed exceeding the speed of sound and deflected all the pellets but I didn't expect they would explode into a burst of small fireballs, an elementary fire spell, once I sliced through all of them.

Five more bursts of the same pellets showered my direction and I again effortlessly cut them off. Then a slice toward the gun Ray is wielding to prevent him from shooting more at me.

"I give you the praise that your weapons have an element of surprise and versatility. But against a mindless beast and monsters you can win but against decent opponents at your level, your tricks aren't going to work against them." I gave my honest opinion but instead of feeling sad and discouraged, his feelings turned to confidence. He is confident his next move will allow him to land a hit on me.

The flimsy stick in his hand once again dematerialized and swapped to a bulky one and immediately after landing in Ray's hand, the barrels start to rotate with an ominous low whirl. I can feel a slight dread coming from the gun which sounds ridiculous for someone of my stature.

"Ophis, make a barrier covering us please. I would rather not wreck a whole Cheshire's deck."

I didn't take the opportunity to attack him despite being the most perfect opportunity when his attention is distracted. Instead I wait and see what else he has in store for me except for power from the Dragon God.

Received a nod from Ophis, a barrier made from her exceptional mana envelopes me and Ray inside it.

"Well, this is my best against an opponent with demonic attributes like you."

I tensed slightly because the only antithesis of an evil aligned attribute could only be a holy attribute. That attribute is always nasty even if it's just a flimsy lesser healing spell. I can definitely resist the damage it inflicts on my body without problem due to being a very strong Demon. But the negative effect that heroes refer to as 'Debuff', still can affect me even if the effect was scaled down.

Not a moment later, my sight turned white as if blinded by a thousand suns. I can feel the irritating sensation of my skin boiled and turn flaky as if dehydrated. But, that's it. I suffered very insignificant damage and all it did was make me feel uncomfortable. Without delay, I made a quick job off the gun he was wielding only to hear a *klang* of the blade being stopped and unable to cut through the material.

Retracting my blade, I blinked to his behind with my speed and hit his back with force strong enough to mess with his balance while letting the strong recoil for the gun do its job.

Ray fell flat to his back and saw a blade pointed at his head.

"It's my defeat." Ray announced with both his arms at the side of his head in a surrendering pose.

"Do I need to spell out your mistake from just now?" I asked but my head was still on the metal that created the gun.

Even if my hidden blade isn't on par with the sword I would draw upon encountering real opponents that are up to my level. Still, I proudly state that I can effortlessly kill lesser gods. But the material seems to reject the notion of something existing in the world that can damage it.

There is no mistake. The material bears a conceptual trait. The conceptual trait that rejected the effect of deterioration or decay or whatever words that fit.

What boggles me the most is who in their right mind, with a trace of intellect, a piece of healthy brain cells even, would use this perfect material to craft an armor on a weapon?

If I can have the luxury of meeting the person that did this atrocity. I would strangle him to death- No, death is too quick of a release. Even an eternity of painful torture is too lenient for this atrocity.

Or, maybe the person didn't know its effect?

The term 'conceptual trait' isn't native to this world in the first place. I remember the hero that introduces this term is an odd hero that forces others to name himself as Red Bowmen or more known as Shirou… cus? No… was it cos? Yeah, Cosplayer.

The other heroes always mock him as Shirou Cosplayer or wannabe Hero of Justice Though, he turns out to be one of the stronger ones that lasted till the final battle along with the Fairy King Kirito while those that mock him die a dogs death during the initial invasion. Within his arsenal is myriads of weaponry filled with different conceptual effects.

However, he also once explained that conceptual effect can be the strongest ever at the right condition or outright garbage if the condition isn't fulfilled. In an easier term, conceptual effects or traits are like law within a country. Within the confines of the country, the law can be enforced. But outside of the country, the law couldn't be enforced at all because of the lack of enforcers and influence of the government. The same applies to conceptual effects and traits. The law and system that enforces it must be present or the effect is useless no matter how powerful it is.

Regardless. He does have potential. Potential that he didn't notice he had due to lack of a good mentor. Almost all his methods are self learned which isn't an issue if he is prodigious but instead you have a decently strong fighter that relied too much on his superior equipment. His way is only to brute force opponents with superior equipment or tricks from the said equipment. Once you put him against opponents that are stronger than him, he becomes incapable to resist other than relying on his borrowed power from the Dragon God.

If he was anyone else, Lilith wouldn't mind. But, Ray is her future opponent. Someone worthy of surpassing her. Someone she wanted to groom into a worthy adversary for herself to fight a fulfilling battle. And finally, her own master. Temporarily or not, her pride as the Primordial Demon, Scourge of the Outer Gods didn't allow herself to have a sloppy master holding the chain to her neck.

Lilith only tolerated this because she once lost to Ray in a battle where she had an absolute chance of victory. While following her logic, the winner is the king. Borrowed strength or not, her holding back or not, power of a person isn't measured only by his raw power but also factoring his other prowess.

Perhaps brawn isn't his specialty. Perhaps his strength is in his luck to obtain the affection of the Dragon God. Can any random mob on the street simply gain the affection from a Dragon God?

Of course not.

A Dragon God isn't someone a random mob on the street can randomly meet. Much less become the object of her affection. So much so the Dragon God seems to have claimed him as her property and quite territorial of her possession.

That sentence is quite an understatement after what happened not too long ago.

The point is. A person's power isn't measured by his martial prowess alone. Wealth, influence, luck, destiny etcetera are also measured as his power. In Ray's situation, he is lucky to have Ophis and able to defeat her. It's his luck to gain the unconditional love from a Dragon God that will definitely not stop at anything to exterminate her if she ever tries to hurt even a speck of him.

———

"Let's do this again. But this time you use a sword."

Standing in the same place while being spectated by the others, Ray and Lilith once again face each other. Lilith slowly draws her hidden blade while Ray holds Arondight in a defensive stance.

Both stare at one another, waiting for their opponent to deliver the opening strike but both had a standoff that lasted for a minute.

Ray's body twitched several times at the false signal sent by Lilith's feint movement. Lilith smirked and did another feint that trick Ray as if she going to stab his left but the instant she follow through her feint attack, she retract her blade and stab the armor gap on the right instead which she use as entry point to slash diagonally along the armor gap and cut the arm tendon to put that hand out of commission.

Meanwhile Ray ignores the normally catastrophic injury and uses the moment the blade is still deep in his flesh to attack the opening presented to him. He ignored his injury and proceeded to clash with Lilith in a sword exchange that lasted a full minute. By then, the severed tendon already regrowed but in the short exchange he gained dozens more injuries of various degrees of severity. The worst being his entire arm severed.

She didn't dare push her luck further past severing Ray's arm. Especially when she feels the deep stare from Ophis and the choker on her neck slowly tighten because her intention of only assessing Ray was turning to enjoying the fight.

From her assessment, she found out something else is doing the heavy lifting for Ray swordsmanship. His stance is too rigid, repetitive and his response is too mechanical to be human. Though part way through it, Ray learned Lilith is taking advantage of the AI's logical response to throw lot's of feints to confuse the AI before randomly inserting the real strike. Something any swordsman or warrior worth their salt can figure out and take advantage of.

Thus, after testing out Ray's battle competency. Lilith takes it upon herself to talk about the issues Ray has and both talk about it while others on the sideline join when they have an idea to pitch up. Houki offers to teach and train Ray on the basics of swordsmanship.

Ray also shared some information about his SAS 4 system. Mainly on how his equipment works. The focus being on how he can make custom made bullets.

"... That's why I was never able to make significant progress on custom made bullets. Usually those I make have little to no difference than what is already available to me." Ray sighed.

Lilith however is in disbelief. Her temporary mas-. No, this idiot had been sitting on a treasure trove all this time and never realized it. Or at least, never capable of utilizing them.

"So, you are basically stuck on a roadblock all this time to progress because you are incapable of creating more powerful bullets?"

Ray nodded.

He had actually stuck in his progress of developing better bullets because of their strict design requirements.

The bullet strictly required a bullet head, propellant and a casing. The latter two are rarely an issue in designing new types of bullets but the bullet itself is a problem.

For example when he tried to load a spell inside it, Ray would require a material that can store those spells. More basic spell like the one he used on the RIA 30 Strikeforce shotgun's shell is basically just an elementary spell. Basic spells can be stored in more common material like in the shotgun's case was Tungsten. A relatively easy material to acquire.

However, a jump from basic spells like Fireball to its slightly bigger cousin, Big Fireball. Suddenly, the Tungsten isn't enough anymore. He would need a better medium that is attuned to magic and the issue with this, almost all of the material are either brittle gemstones that definitely aren't something to make bullets out of or the rare few that are metals but impossible to acquire or unusable.

Like, there is a legendary alloy from Dwarf in the DxD world. But those metals cannot store magic. They conduct magic, not store magic.

Explaining all this to Lilith, he added his own solution to this predicament. Which is either trying to level up quickly to unlock privileges on Marketplace to access the wide variety of materials from every corner of the multiverse. However, even that plan came to a halt due to the kidnapping.

"I take back my words about you being blessed with luck." Lilith first replies after the explanation while she is mulling over any ideas she could offer.

Don't get her wrong. Despite their contract and partnership being temporary which have high chances of them turning against each other in the future. Lilith's pride demands her to be professional with her duty. A Demon always fulfills their part of the agreement and offering her knowledge is within the clause of the contract her creator and Ray signed.

"Hmn… the only idea I could offer is either the Dwarves in the layer below the current one that are experts with mineralogy or the knife-eared tree worshiper that we are heading towards that is expert in alchemy." Lilith said while almost spat when mentioning the elves.

Ray noticed and so did the others. But unlike the other, Ray couldn't hold back his curiosity and politely ignore it.

"Knife-eared tree worshiper… Do you mean the elves?" Ray asked, which caused few on the sidelines to facepalm while Lilith had the sour look on her face like just being forced to chew and swallow a whole lemon.

"Yes, those fuckers with inflated ego. Always think themselves all high and mighty just because few of them managed to enter the service of the True Creator God." Lilith starts while the others grab the snacks that Yao and Lancelot finish preparing as another long and lengthy talk about to start.

There Lilith goes, explaining the origin of the Elves and why Lilith hated them.

The Elves were in fact not native to the Hub's world. Not just the Elves but many other minority races that made up the majority of the neutral factions, hiding in some corners of each layer.

The Hub's world originally only had sentient monster races like Goblins, Werewolves or Dragon etc and sentient humanoid race like the Angels that populated majority of the Upper layers, Humans that populated the Zeroth and the first two layers above and below, and lastly the Demons that populated majority of the lower layers.

So, where did these additional races come to be?

Well, the blame is heroes. They brought their companions and even once a great migration into the Hub's world. The race that migrated into the Hub's world is a race of Elves, space Elves to be more specific.

The Heroes and their companions that settled down in the Hub's world spread their descendants. Then fast forward a few millennia, from a handful of these Heroes descendants. They populated the Hub's world enough to be considered a race and formed a city for their settlement.

Now, returning to the Elves. They were originally a highly advanced race. So advanced that it became their downfall in their original world until a hero brought a few hundred of them into Hub's world for a random reason which he stated.

"A fantasy world without Elves is incomplete. Elf is basic of the basic that defines a fantasy world."

Despite being opposed by some fellow Heroes, the action was done regardless and went to snatch few hundred elves that were escaping the destruction of their worlds after they accidentally give birth to an evil god that devours their soul for breakfast.

At this point, Lilith still didn't mind or care at all. She even sympathized with them until they showed their true colors. Those knife-eared fucks returned to their roots, indulging their life since they technology they brought along is too good in providing their necessity that they just sit around and do nothing. Not even feel threatened by anything because of their superior weapon and innate born ability with their own brand of magic.

Still, Lilith didn't mind them yet. They developed their own tech and enjoy an easy life of indulgence. It's their own business. But when the war had started, many agent's of the True Creator God fell left and right in the battlefield. The God was forced to recruit locals instead and Elves being most of them.

Superior tech, arcane power and powerful warrior. They became one of the most important under the rule of the True Creator God. Until when they get out of line due to their indulgence and privileges they enjoyed. Their suppressed arrogance and other bad traits start to surface among the new generation. The previous generation that survived the horror of their own creation already turned a new leaf but the younger one without supervision of their elders is busy filling the role of Administrators.

While their influential elders are away, the younger generation lead a coup and seize everything, from their war machines to other surviving weaponry from their original world. They see the war as a hopeless and futile war. Especially when the one they hailed as gods, the Heroes themselves fall like flies on the battlefield, seemingly unable to curb the invasion. Those idiots decided to join the enemies in hope of being spared.

Of course those Outer Gods grinned ear to ear while accepting the offer they never intended to fulfill.

To make it brief, the defense line was backstabbed by their own natives which caused confusion and chaos that the Outer Gods took advantage of and caused the seventh layer to be beyond saving and have to be nuked into an inhabitable wasteland as the last resort.

Lilith remembers those moments vividly. The personal troop she led. Her very own people that she trained with, ate dinner with, shared jokes and worried with, almost all died without a grave. Their corpse still litter the seventh layer if their body didn't disintegrate when the seventh layer was glassed into its current state.

The worse is the older generation of those knife-eared fucks manage to convince the True Creator God to forgive those traitorous bastard. The God accepted because if he didn't, its own Administrator would rebel against it and further worsen the situation. They get off, scot free. No punishment, no nothing except probably a slap on the wrist.

After centuries had passed, just a mention of them is enough to made her to have murderous thought. At least better than her murdering the entire race which she would in the early days. But now, her anger has already subsided to a manageable level.

Partly a reason for her bride/princess-like appearance that her creator forced her to wear. Saying that she did enough for him and wanted her to move on from the past as a killing machine on the battlefield. She abandoned her more savags and masculine side behind and became princess of the Mammon's domain of the Third layer. Less on fighting and more on dealing with political matters and managing the third layer on Mammon's behalf until recently she was tasked to be a contracted Demon for Ray.

As for the bride-like veil and other accessories, it was a running joke between her and her creator.

Her creator wants her to have a semblance of normal life. A weird thing coming from a Demon Prince and the personification of Sin of Greed no less. Her creator sees her as his daughter and wanted her to do so but she simply couldn't comprehend the thought behind it and refused. Her creator is her creator, her god in a sense. In her own thoughts, to degrade someone who she respected too highly into a lesser position than her creator, she couldn't. So much so, Mammon has to order her to address him as 'father' which Lilith compiles but only when in his presence.

She also isn't aware of her creator's plan all this time trying to marry her off after her original future groom dies off prematurely before the war could end. The Demon King himself. After all, she was created with the intention of becoming Lucifer's wife and the Queen of the demon, hence the name Lilith.

Though, even if Lucifer is still alive. He still wouldn't take Lilith as his Queen and wife simply because he swing the other way.

(Should have some info bout him in Aux chap)

———

An hour later, the floating warship finally arrived at their destination. The other end of the layer.

Ray makes sure to put on the medallion on his neck while the warship lowers itself to a nearby sea. The Elven city isn't far from their location considering they landed just a mile or two from the port connected to the Elven capital.

The sea is very pretty and especially the beach. Definitely worthy as a fantasy tourist destination. Surprisingly there isn't any monster roaming the land with the situation of the dungeon. Though, Ray's question on how the Elven can keep their territory free from monsters will be answered literally now.

"Do not move, trespassers. State your intention and origin."

A group of eight female elves in futuristic combat body suits that blend in with the surroundings perfectly, appeared and held them all at gunpoint. All eight have darker skin, result of natural tanning from sun exposure and all have similar silvery white long hair.

Ray looked to his back where Yao was looking at him after sending his gaze. Then look back at the elves.

'Yeah, Yao still looks better. Though, smaller ones do have charm still…' Ray talked to himself while comparing Yao's thiccer body to the more slender elves pointing their guns at him without a trace of worry considering his main force is with him right now.

"Cease your ogling before I gouge out your eyes, hyuman." One of the Elves had her face hardened while pointing her gun in a threatening way before it hummed and glowed which tells Ray it's an energy weapon.

From the earlier rundown on this Elves origin, there is no other that fit the criteria other than the space Elves from the 40k universe, the Aeldari. They were the small pocket of survivors saved from the apocalyptic catastrophe when the Aeldaris accidentally gave birth to a Chaos God that wanted to devour their race.

"I am sorry for my rude behavior. But this is my first time seeing another Elves other than Yao here." Ray gestured at Yao that move forward to show herself to her fellow Elves.

"...And I am here to seek your leader." Ray stated because he remembered the Quest is to Rally the remnants of the Hub's system worshippers or the True Creator God worshippers.

He shows the Medallion hanging on his neck. The previous hostility from the Elves immediately lessen, not disappeared but apparently just lessened. With a guide, the entourage enter the port city and towards the capital of the Elven territory.

The capital was right under a massive giant tree. A typical elf thing to have. Beside that, they also have many high tech tools to ease their lifestyle to the extent that they can do nothing and leave everything to the machine but he can see an Elf fisherman in a small boat by the sea, a farmer planting crops, harvesting fruits, all by hand. Almost all live a minimalist life despite having the means to upgrade their quality of life quality.

There isn't even a single place of indulgence unlike the Holy Kingdom that has gambling dens, taverns, red light districts etcetera. What they have here instead is a community center where the young are congregated and enjoying their time doing what kids would do or a slightly older one will receive education from the elderly looking Elves.

"Ray…" Raynare called, which made him turn his head sideways to his wives, Raynare and Ravel.

"Did you not feel the weird look they are giving you and Lancelot?" Raynare whispered and Ravel nodded to her side.

"Now that you mentioned it…"

Ray does feel the weird stare at him but he thought it's probably the whole group which is because the arrival of another race caught the curiosity of the elves considering he saw no other race yet in their territory. He didn't think it was specifically on him and Lancelot only.

Only after a careful observation did he find out there isn't any male Elf in sight.

'That is to be expected considering most of the male Elven population had fallen in battle and the Elf is known to have very low fertility.' Lilith answered the question through telepathy.

Disregarding the weird stare from the locals, the group proceed to the giant tree in the distance.

———

Elfina Greenwood, the Matriarch or the Queen of the Elf was lounging around in the garden outside of her giant tree palace when her sister, who was also her advisor, Elfin. Suddenly barged into the garden bearing news about the high profile visitors that appeared in her territory.

"Are you sure, sister?" Elfina asked while still tending to the flower in her hand.

"Yes, the border patrol informed my subordinate through the communication crystal, which immediately came running to me with the news." The stern and uptight Elfin nodded in confirmation while urging her elder sister to return to the palace.

"I get it, I get it. Stop rushing me. They tell your subordinate to stall some time while I prepare myself. Geez." Elfina pouted and ordered one of the hidden royal guards to take over her unfinished task of moving the flower from the garden into a pot for her own sleeping chamber.

Immediately after, Elfin escorts her elder sister to the back of the giant tree where the pond that has spring water enriched by mana and purified by the lesser fairy is located.

It was the tradition for the priestess to purify their body before any official meeting could take place. A priestess is the mortal vessel of a god which will descend on Elfina, the most prodigious priestesses candidate of this generation. In respect for their patron god, the priestess will purify their body as a ritual of cleansing for both body and mind.

After cleaning her body in the pond, Elfin helped dry her elder sister's body before a group of Elves with their body covered from head to toe arrived to help Elfina to dress up in her ceremonial priestess outfit. After dressing up then

Elfina rushed to the Tree Palace.

There she saw the first and only hero she ever saw in her life. All the knowledge she had regarding the heroes came from her education as the priestess and Matriarch candidate. Those knowledge sourced from legend and myth passed down from the previous generations. Seeing one with her own eyes makes her very excited and her traitorous ears wiggles despite her best attempt not to show her emotions.

"Welcome hero, to the Elven territory in the eastern end of the world." Courteously Elfina gives a polite light bow to the guests.

Though she can feel a hot gaze roaming my body due to Elf being a gifted race with psychic power. Seeking out the source of the gaze, her eyes landed on the hero which had a disappointed and betrayed look on his face after his gaze landed on her chest then looked at the Dark Elf by his side.

Resisting the blush that creeped up her cheek, Elfina made a cough before asking the intention of the hero and his companion for coming to her country.

The hero is about to speak but a malevolent aura permeates the entire room before a Demon dressed like the bride of a wedding with a veil that hides her face, appeared and stared at Elfina. Or more accurately, the space above her.

"Stop hiding and show yourself already, Rhea. Or perhaps this is how you greet an old acquaintance? Hiding behind a mortal vessel?" Lilith called the patron goddess of the elf despite knowing the reason why the goddess did this.

Elfina that is confused by the development suddenly jolted like she was electrocuted before her presence had a sudden shift. The Elves within the room quickly kneel on one leg before greeting their patron goddess.

"Hmn, your brazen attitude and brashness had toned down from the last time we met, Lilith. You are on a good track to be a fine proper lady. But as much as I wanted to enjoy a proper conversation with you after three hundred years. I think we must put this aside for now." Elfina, or rather the Goddess of Fertility, Natural and her most recent divinity, the Patron of Elves, Rhea, spoke with a calm and gentle voice reminiscent of a mother before shifting her gaze from Lilith to Ray.

"Is it not? Messenger of the Creator God, the first hero to grace this world in five centuries." There was plenty of gasp and shock from the Elves within the room when Ray's identity as messenger for the system was announced by Goddess Rhea.

"Come and speak, child. Deliver the message given to you by the Creator God." The goddess that possessed Elfina beckoned Ray with an open arm as if calling for him into her embrace but Ray simply nodded and started to convey the message from the system as best as he could.

"The Creator God as you speaked, had tasked me to deliver the message and this medallion included. He wishes to rally his tattered believers to once again unite under the same banner."

Immediately the mystical beauty that is the goddess started to frown and bit her lips slightly while receiving the medallion that Ray passed to her.

"I see…" Her frown becomes deeper which is the same as Lilith that just knows about this the same time as Rhea.

"There could be only one and only one reason for him to seek out and rally his believers. Those relentless Outer Gods!" She, for the first time became angry and the gentle aura replaced with a wave of strong pressure that caused many of the Elves and Kazuma's party except the terrified Aqua, to be knocked unconscious. As for Ray and his own companions, Lilith and Ophis shielded them from the aura to not be affected.

"Quell your anger Rhea, your own followers and vessel will be severely injured if you continue." Lilith quickly reminded Rhea before the natural disasters-like aura dispersed and was replaced with a serene aura of nature once again.

"I understand your anger, Rhea. Many of my own people, friends and comrades fell because of the Outer Gods. I will not be arrogant to ask you to make peace with it. But now isn't the time to throw around your anger."

"If it's true that the Outer Gods are once again knocking at our doorstep…" Lilith suddenly turned silent.

Their numbers are merely a fraction of what they had before the initial invasion. By logic, if the invasion is indeed coming, they stand absolutely no chance of victory. Especially when the strongest fighting force of the previous invasion, the heroes had been exterminated. Even Ray and the other hero are still in their infant stage. They wouldn't even stand a chance against the grunts of the Outer Gods, much less the main force itself.

"Annihilation is the only thing awaiting us right, Lilith?" Rhea helped finish Lilith's sentence. Instantly the atmosphere of the room turns grim.

Though, suddenly the medallion glowed in Rhea's hand and the pre-recorded message entered her mind, detailing the instructions the system or True Creator God had for her.

"Rhea?"

The goddess was struck by dizziness before her mind digested the information.

"...no wonder. I found it strange that those abominations can detect us despite our world being fully sealed and concealed by the sacrifice of countless gods, goddesses and heroes. Turns out there was a mole from within our ranks…" Rhea mumbled absentmindedly and with a clear voice for everyone to hear.

"WHAT! Who! WHO dares to conspire with the Outer Gods?!" Lilith suddenly exploded into a fiery temper as she verbally cursed the traitor.

Who wouldn't? After all that she sacrificed. After tirelessly fighting to preserve her world. She found out there were traitors within her allies that betrayed her and conspired to break the peace she fought so hard to achieve.

"It was the Council of God's. The Creator God is omnipresent within his realm but he is incapable to act because he is busy trying to prevent the abominations from finding out his realm." Rhea with disbelief that her fellow gods were the perpetrators.

"Tch, those fucking cowards! They were the first to escape the moment the invasion started and refused to fight. Now those fuckers dare to conspiring with the enemies!" The last straw on the camel's back broke her patience and her vulgar language started to surface.

"Not just that. They also managed to acquire the 'Vault' and unlocked it using the hero they kidnapped. They undoubtedly are arming themselves using the 'Vault' and going to stab us from the back." Rhea added with a heavy tone of sadness.

"They stayed in the safety of their realm while others bled and became weakened. Almost all of the major fighting forces are still recuperating or on their deathbed while those spineless bastards are still on their peak and even obtained the weapon's belonging to the heroes who died in the war."

Looking at each other, Rhea and Lilith sighed. They know they have no option but to crush the Council of God's before they are fully prepared and bring along their buddy, the Outer Gods.

"Forgive me that I am incapable to spare you some time and provide you with my hospitality. But, at current state. We are running low on time and have to act fast. Time is the essence and I have to convey this bad news to the other gods." Rhea sighed before her presence started to diminish.

"If my estimation is correct, we will begin our preparation to cull the traitors one week from now. Please do your own preparation in the meantime and also, you and your companions will be the guest of honor within the Elven territory and be welcomed by everyone that is my believers. Until next time, farewell everyone."

Goddess Rhea returned to her realm and Elfina regained her consciousness before stumbling to the floor but caught in time by Elfin that had already regained her consciousness earlier by the help of Rhea to convey her order to the Elves.

"Now what?" Ray sighed and asked himself why his quest to save his wives suddenly became overcomplicated and ended up having to deal with the whole political problem and putting down traitors.

Elfin who already asked the handmaiden of the priestess to send her exhausted elder sister back to her personal chamber to rest while she had to carry out the order of her patron goddess to entertain the guests of honor.

"Please welcome to the territory of the Elven race and as ordered by Goddess Rhea, all of you will be the guest of honor and be treated with the best hospitality that we could afford." With a professional facial expression, Elfin greeted the hero and his companion and offered them a place to rest for now.

"Ah, no need to bother. I am not going to stay for long and will depart immediately. But, thank you for your kind offer. Perhaps next time when we're in a better situation." Ray quickly refused and left the palace.

Since he and his companions are seriously weak, Lilith suggested they should quickly raise their strength while waiting for the time to act. Ray and co agreed and made a beeline to the nearest dungeon.

———

I wanna quickly put an end to this original arc and forgo the excessive detour that I initially planned for Ray.

Like would anyone want to read a few chapters of Ray killing monsters and get this loot and that loot which will be used to craft shiz using his newly acquired production Job Classes and the others that he will get later?

Better just compile them in one time skip and jump straight into action.

Also, thicc Milf Goddess Rhea or Demon Lady that secretly a tomboyish woman which facade is to appear as a proper lady. 🤔

We got plenty of thicc ladies already in the sack.

Definitely plenty of lolis too. Both flat and thicc

What Ray lacks is the medium one.

Thanks for reading my shitty subpar work, until the next chapter… 👋