Chapter 311: Plans and Preparations I
"...that’s your reaction?"
One of the Templars was shocked by the teenager’s unconcerned tone of voice and spoke up about it, prompting the girl to roll her eyes as she replied.
"I’ve said this a thousand and one times, but in our home world. Epic and Legendary Realm existences, are as common as the grass on the ground.
While it may be a big deal to you people of Gade, to us, it’s just another random Epic Realm existence from a random world we only entered by accident who ended up dying. It’s not gonna evoke any feelings of pity, sadness, or whatever from us.
Though I do see that some of you were devout believers, so all I can say is I offer my condolences, unfortunately, it would only sound like empty words because I cannot relate to whatever you might be feeling, I don’t pray to gods after all."
"It may sound harsh and all, but that’s the honest truth.
In fact, what we’re more concerned about is the fact that we have one less Epic Realm existence on our side to fight against the god of Darkness who has a number of Epic Realms we are unaware of.
The fact that some of the monsters that attacked us today were half-step Epic Realms was quite concerning. It has led me to believe he may possess actual Epic Realm monsters under him."
Edward chimed in, giving little details on an observation he made during the earlier battle, one that the others had to agree with.
"But on the gods’ side.
Us killing Gilbalar helped in evening the scales."
"That’s not exactly true Esna. This depends on how many Benevolent gods are awake and how much of their powers have been recovered.
Take Ayaan here for example."
Gesturing to the god of flames who had been silent ever since he spoke of his fellow god’s death, Layla continued.
"He’s recovered up to the Superior Stage Epic Realm, but four of us know that if he was the one who fought Gilbalar, then Vako city might have been flattened by now."
The other three all nodded, even Nicole who was now playing with a different kind of water spirit in her hands. Ayaan wanted to speak, but Layla beat him to it once more.
"No offense though.
That’s simply my objective evaluation considering both your strengths and the circumstances of the battle. Gilbalar did become an Inferior Legendary mid-battle, defeating him was only made easy because of Esna over here."
Seeing that Ayaan remained silent, Layla took it as her cue to continue as she addressed their first course of action.
"We are going to fight the Malevolent gods, and the first step is to publicise the news of their revivals."
"Impossible!! It’d incite fear among the masses."
"It’s not a matter of impossibility, but a matter of you all having no choice.
I know It’s going to cause unrest, but you have to do it in order to give the masses a reason why you’d be conscripting soldiers."
"Conscripting soldiers?"
The question of the Top Ranked adventurer present made Layla turn to the man and look at him like he was not using his brain properly.
"Who do you think is going to fight the monsters on the grandmaster level and below? Not any of the Epic Realms that’s for sure."
"We’re all going to be busy dealing with the Malevolent gods and the potential Epic Realm monsters. The conscripted soldiers would have the job of handling the monster’s weaker than that"
Edward furthered Layla’s words, making those few in the room who didn’t really get what she meant to fully understand their intentions.
"Thanks, Ed.
Anyway, Use the banner of the Churches to rally people.
Say, "You’re fighting for the sake of your world", or to "Protect the Innocent from being slaughtered" or to "Prevent the world from falling into eternal darkness".
Use something like that or some other catchphrase to get people."
Layla turned to Ayaan and asked.
"Are you all in this Empire?"
"No. Some of us are in other Countries."
"Good. Contact them through whatever means you have, and get them to draw forces from those other countries to help in defeating the Malevolent gods."
It was then that Count Vako raised a concern, something that he was sure that the other countries were definitely going to talk about.
"But they’re going to ask for compensation for offering their help later on, and we can’t deal with that...
After all, this Empire is the only place dealing with the monsters at the moment."
"If the Malevolent gods destroy this empire, whos’ to say they would not be the next? Especially those who share this country’s borders.
They’re not ’helping’ you with anything. They’re fighting to save the entirety of their world.
No one’s gonna be requesting anything from anyone.
We are going to make sure of that. The four of us have magic contracts with us that would bind the leaders of these countries.
First, we’re going to use words. If they still refuse to offer support..."
Layla’s almond-green eyes narrowed lightly as she completed her statement.
"...then we’re going to use force."
Her last declaration made the Count sigh in relief while Ayaan who was silent spoke up.
"I certainly hope it would not come to that.
Anyway, considering you four, I’d like to create momentum for you.
If your actions of killing one of the Malevolent gods get popularized, it’d make people believe the situation isn’t hopeless and there’s a fighting chance."
"As expected of someone with more than a thousand years of experience under his belt, you know how to deal with these kinds of things."
Ayaan ignored her little compliment and carried on with his words, explaining the back story he planned to popularize.
"We’d say that demigod heroes from another world came over to help fight against the Malevolent gods who are trying to plunge this world into darkness."
"After that, you then reveal that we killed Gilbalar at ’full power’ and wiped out his army of five thousand monsters.
It wasn’t up to 5000, just a bit over 4500. But saying 5000 has more of an impact to tell the world that."
"We’d still be able to wipe it out if it was 5000 either way though."
Esna tossed in a little quip after Ayaan and Layla spoke respectively, reminding them of the four’s strength once more.
"What about the Benevolent god of light, he’s your leader, isn’t he?"
"Sadly, although I cannot tell you exactly how much power he has recovered, I am sure it’s still within the Epic Realm."
Edward’s question to Ayaan was met with a quite unfortunate answer that caused Layla and the others to frown lightly.
"So, he’s only at the level of a superior stage Epic, huh? That’s not gonna be enough to deal with the god of darkness who’s at least Inferior Legendary.
Let’s just hope he hasn’t broken out of his seal yet."
"Hopefully, he has not. Otherwise, it’s going to make things a lot troublesome."
Right after Esna spoke, Edward then brought up a very important matter that Ady and Count Vako were just about to speak about.
"Okay, so there’s another very important matter we have not discussed; Transportation.
If we want to mobilize troops from other countries, it’s going to take a while for them to get all the way over here. And where are we going to convene the troops?"
"True, Ed. We also can’t spend too much time on this world since this is not our main destination for the Expedition.
In game terms, it’d just be a side quest."
Turning to Count Vako and Ady who were more knowledgeable about military matters on Gade, Layla asked.
"Are there any faster means of transportation you guys have that can enable large amounts of troops to cover long distances? Besides using horses and carriages?"
"...Sadly, not."
"Damn. How long is then gonna take thousands of soldiers to march from...let’s say the next country on the east to this city?"
"Quite a while depending on the path they take."
"We don’t have ’a while’.
The Malevolent god of darkness could break out of his seal at any time and he has an army of monsters at his beck and call."
Just when Layla was about to begin thinking about a way to deal with the problem of transportation speed, Esna gave a suggestion.
"Can’t we use Army Magic?"
"...should we? I really don’t want a situation where it turns out to be our fault that this world gets embroiled in wars afterwards because we decided to use magic that makes troops marching easier."
The teenage devil girl had indeed considered Army Magic before, but she had concerns about the state of the plant Gade after they had left. There was also the matter of the countries on other continents who may find out about the Magic and end up launching attacks on this one just to get their hands on it.
