Chapter 313: Another Malevolent downed.
"Do you not have any means to carry those? Spatial artifacts or magic?"
"I am incapable of using Inventory magic. I did have a few spatial artifacts, but they reached the limits of their lifespan during my slumber."
"Oh...then use this one. It’s my old ring.
You’re gonna give it back, okay? Along with all the other devices I gave you. You can keep the spells though."
Layla spoke as she tossed over the old interspatial ring that she wasn’t using anymore, allowing the god to easily carry all the things he had been given.
They carried on with their planning and discussions for a while, but had to abruptly come to a stop when Ayaan remarked that if he stayed near Esna any longer, his strength might drop even further...and permanently at that.
Since that was something none of them wanted at this juncture, they had to round up their discussion and let the poor flame god finally breathe properly away from the godslayer girl.
They didn’t know this but the instant he got out of Esna’s range, he dropped to his knees and coughed out a bit of blood, showing that he had incurred some internal injuries and a slight permanent drop in power due to being in the presence of a godslayer for an extended period of time.
Thankfully, a few minutes of rest was enough for him to be able to take to the skies and fly over to the nearest country where the Benevolent god of wind was.
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With Ayaan out of the way, Layla and Esna quickly turned over to Nicole who had pulled out her phone and was reading a novel.
"Now then, Nicole. We have a lot to talk about?"
"Huh? What’s wrong?"
The girl tilted her head to the side in confusion as she asked, a gesture that looked unbelievably cute in the eyes of the two girls.
As for the wolf spirit resting in her lap, it instantly sensed ’danger’ and jumped away right before Undine returned to her full adult form, shocking the people of Gade present as she asked.
[You said something earlier about having gone on a date with Arthur...]
"But it wasn’t?"
The trio didn’t even listen to her objections and began pestering her for the details while Edward silently watched from the side.
’Why are they even bothered? As far as I’m concerned, this was bound to happen either way.’
He shrugged his shoulders lightly before turning to the others and saying.
"I think it’s best you all go handle other important matters, those three are gonna be at it for a while."
His little advice was well received by the others who promptly left the room for the girls to have their talk, going on to deal with the remainder of the earlier attack’s aftermath.
ꕥ ꕥ ꕥ
The next few days went according to Layla’s plans.
Thanks to Ayaan’s actions, the rumours of the Malevolent gods’ revivals spread like wildfire, and then just when people thought the situation was bleak, the story of the four demigods from another world who defeated one of the Malevolent gods started spreading in various countries simultaneously.
Ayaan had worked tirelessly to go over to the other countries with his fellow Benevolent gods and inform them of the whole plan, set up the antennas and give them the walkie-talkies so they could keep in touch before.
Obviously, his fellow Benevolent gods were not stupidly sitting back doing nothing all this while, and they had already long begun attempts to mobilize forces under their banners to attack the Malevolent gods’ armies of monsters.
They had already begun slowly spreading the news of the Malevolent gods’ revivals, so things were a lot easier for Ayaan who just used the Churches of Fire to fan the flames.
Naturally, there was unrest among the powerless civilians, riots happened, crime rates increased and many similar things happened.
News of Gilbalar’s death then went on to serve as a morale booster for the soldiers and went a long way in helping the countries whose citizens didn’t take the news of the Malevolent gods’ revival to calm the unrest in their nations.
This indeed gave the believers of the Benevolent gods hope that their Malevolent counterparts could be resisted, though this was mainly because they believed the ’Four Demigods’ who killed Gilbalar were brought over by the Benevolent gods.
As Count Vako had feared, some countries were reluctant to release forces, and some others attempted to siphon some sort of benefits from the empire.
When Ayaan reported this to Layla, the girl actually came over within a few hours, shocking the benevolent gods and allowing them to realise that the walkie-talkies they were given actually served as beacons for Layla to use and teleport to their locations.
She also came over with Esna who was a lot better at using teleportation magic.
The nations who fell under this category were those who either did not have any gods residing in their territories, or those who the gods there had not personally made moves, instead delegating matters to their Churches in favour of recovering their power.
And since they were dealing with fellow humans, the people of those countries refused them, even though those humans were servants of their gods.
Layla then made a spectacular appearance, subduing the rulers of these nations who had objections and binding them with magic contracts.
She then made it so that those were going to be the Vanguards of the attacks.
Now then, the Malevolent gods weren’t going to sit back and let their plans go smoothly, especially since they had their leader who was well-versed in Fate and Destiny manipulation (According to Gade’s standards).
When Layla and Esna were over in one of those countries, trying to handle the situation, news of their presence was leaked to the Malevolent gods by their spies and worshippers.
The spies didn’t know of Esna’s presence, so they believed she was alone and that was precisely what they reported to their gods.
This prompted one of the Malevolent gods, the god of Earth, to personally come over to kill Layla.
Compared to Gilbalar, he was indeed weaker, but since the story going around was that it took all four of them to kill the god of flames, the earth god believed he alone should be able to take out one of them on his own.
He is strength was hanging in between the intermediate and Superior stages, giving him prowess that made him invincible against normal Intermediate stages and able to combat weaker Superior stages.
Unfortunately, against the Nonstandard Existence that was Layla, he wasn’t so invincible.
Plus, Esna’s presence which he was not aware of reduced his power by a considerable margin.
Layla took advantage of this attack to make a show, to prove to people who had been doubting the rumours of Gilbalar’s death that they were indeed real, and they had the power to defeat the Malevolent gods.
While the Malevolent god attacked her secretly, she decided to take the battle to the skies, using flashy spells and attacks that attracted a lot of attention.
Esna then went on to help spread the news that one of the Four Alien Demigods was fighting against a Malevolent god in the skies, twisting the facts and making it seem like the god of Earth had been planning on attacking them first while Layla came over to stop him.
The teenage devil girl really took her time making a show out of the battle, flying around the city and throwing attacks everywhere, while cooperating with Esna to make sure that there were zero civilian casualties.
This made people discover the presence of another of the Alien Demigods who was protecting them from the shocks of the battle.
After half an hour of this, Layla then decided to pull out a new weapon, one that had been crafted for her to use when she became an Epic Realm existence.
On a side note, Conrad had weapons prepared for Layla to use in each realm of existence, from the Master realm, down till she became a deity realm existence. Each one was designed carefully and had special abilities and weapon skills that were tailored to assist her fighting style.
Using that sword, she ended the life of the Malevolent god of Earth easily with a single full-powered attack.
She then hung his corpse on a massive earthen pike, as if to mock the god of earth.
This sent a message to the people: telling them that the Malevolent gods could be defeated.
It also sent a message to the Malevolent gods themselves as if to say; "We’re Coming for you."
Hiding their mobilization of forces was simply just impossible as there was no way they could conceal the fact that they were mobilizing thousands of soldiers from multiple countries, totalling over 30,000 soldiers.
Layla personally escorted some of the forces from some countries, protecting them against attacks from the Malevolent demigods who were sent to attack them en route.
