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Chapter 17
In the Slane Theocracy, a reunion of the cardinals was being held. Some of them seem to be in quite the discussion.
"How can you say that?! When it was all your fault?!" yelled the cardinal of Water.
"What I was trying to say is that we didn't think that Zesshi would insult the witch queen, gods know that both the captain of the black scripture and Quaiesse did the best they could to stop that girl," said the cardinal of Fire with an exhausted voice.
"It didn't work now, did it?! Now we have a powerful magic caster, running amok creating armies of un-dead and skeleton dragons and bringing chaos to our borders," replied the cardinal of Water.
"Enough!" the cardinal of earth, Raymon exclaimed.
Putting an end to the ongoing discussion, as he as well, looked exhausted.
The last couple of days have been quite stressful to all of them, after the unsuccessful negotiation they had with the witch queen of Nazarick.
Raymond regretted getting Zesshi involved in the meeting. Everything was doing quite well at the beginning. They manage to understand quite well how this woman thinks. She was very smart, witty, and dramatic, but powerful all the same, there was no doubt about it.
She sounded interested to join the black scripture, or at least to know more about them, but then that bloody half-elf had to screw it up by insulting their guest by commenting about her clothes and mask, making nasty remarks to her over and over again.
She was able to let it slide the first time, especially when they both Quaiesse and the captain of the black scripture apologize on her behalf, but after Zesshi commented about her name, and how stupid it was, things went sour quickly.
The battle that ensues was really a proof that she was not a simple magic caster, that she was indeed above everyone else. They now know that she is, in fact, stronger than Rigrit Bers Caurau and Fluder Paradyne.
She could push the 12 scriptures members to the edge and even kill some of them and almost defeated Zesshi by herself, in the battle of the 11th seat, suffer third degrees burns on her back and arms.
The 3rd seat was left unconscious for almost two days after the fight with broken bones all over his body.
The 8th seat lost both of his legs in the fight, as he was the first one to fell to witch queen power.
The 9th seat died as he tried to capture the witch queen but failed.
The 2nd seat tried to use his ability to stop time to give time for the rest to attack but didn't work, getting himself killed as well.
The 4th seat, Divine chant lost both of her eyes as the witch queen saw that she was the main healer of the group.
He remembers the words that the witch queen said, when she took the woman's eye, it was the most brutal and bizarre things he has ever seen.
"My dear, you are beautiful! But sadly for you, I must do this, forgive me, this may hurt since you can't heal, what you can't see! Es tu mir leid liebe!"
It was the only thing she suffered. The rest of the scripture got away without too many injuries after the fight. They manage to recover quickly, but it was clear to them that the reality to what they witness was settling, especially for Zesshi, who lost an arm to the witch queen.
Raymond could say that things could have gone differently if the scripture was more prepared. If they get their actual armors and items, but he knew he was trying to blind himself to the possibility that even if it was true, some of them would have to die, regardless.
Now they need to know what to do. The attacks of the witch queen have been random and not that damaging to them, but they know that she would grow more powerful as time passes by. Especially with that item she possesses.
"What are we going to do?" one cardinal finally said.
"We kill her, of course!" the cardinal of Water said once more.
"As that would help, she defeats the black scripture, if you remember, besides she is not only attacking us but as well the Holy kingdom and the elf kingdom, and as far I can say, is the Holy kingdom the one getting the witch queen fury," the cardinal of Fire said.
"We can't let her get more powerful," the cardinal of Wind said, making them realize that he is right.
"What about asking for a truce?" Raymond looks quite shocked at the cardinal of Ligh. He has been quiet all this time, like he was deep in thought.
"What do you mean?" Raymond asks
"Look, the fight started because of us, well mostly because of her, if we apologize, maybe we can get this back to ground zero," the cardinal of Water seems livid at the thought of asking for something like that.
"You want us to ask forgiveness?! We are the servants of the gods! Such things are below us!" he yelled.
"Consider it an official apologize, we have done that in the past, we need to show her that we are people that can let bygones be bygones, there is nothing bad about it, everything she did at one point could be excused, she was the one getting insulted by our dear Zesshi, remember?" Raymond and the rest were paying attention intently. He could understand his point of view.
It had some merit, after all, what he was saying was the truth. She was the one getting insulted left and right and responded in kind. If they can somehow reach an agreement, they could benefit from it a lot.
"You spoke some truth about this, brother, but first we must try to reach her, and try to parlay, I doubt that we can just... Appear in front of her and try to defend ourselves," Raymon drawled.
"We can send Quaiesse and the captain of the scripture, and the Thousand League Astrologer, they are the most well-spoken in the group, they could convince her to parlay," all of them look quite conflicted.
Losing one of them could be disastrous. They are lucky that they have revived the ones who died in the last battle.
But if they lose them, away from the safety of Kami Miyako, then the military power of the nation would suffer.
"Let's think this carefully, for now, we need to wait for them to recover as well, let's send our spies around the nation and try to pinpoint a potential attack," All the cardinals agreed.
Meanwhile, the cardinals plot their next move. A certain half-elf seems to try to solve a peculiar Rubik cube and ignoring a certain blonde with pink eyes.
"Zesshi are you paying attention?" he said with a tired face.
"Mmh," she only said.
"You should be in bed, you know that right?"
"I got bored, I don't like being in bed for a long time, it's bothersome," she said still refusing to look at him
"It seems that you are quite frustrated," Zesshi finally turns her gaze on him.
"What do you want, Quaiesse?" she snaps.
"Nothing, just checking you are all right, that's all, nothing more," Zesshi didn't stop looking annoyed.
"I almost had her," she muttered, and Quaiesse could only sigh.
"Almost, you lost an arm," he pointed to which she could only snort.
"I had another one, I have waited a long time to fight an opponent of that level, I had never felt so alive, and then you made me stop," the anger in her eyes was more visible than ever, the blond guy only shiver at her gaze.
"It was not a suitable moment to fight, the rest of the scripture was heavily injured, a retreat was the only rational thing to do," Quaiesse explains.
"I don't care about them, they could all die for all I care, it was my time to let myself loose, I was going to get serious and I know the witch queen too, but it seems I will have to wait for another chance later," Zesshe said with clear sadness in her voice.
Quaiesse only shook his head and leaves the half-elf alone. He didn't witness the cruel and twisted smile of the girl who seems to rub her stomach repeatedly.
"The witch queen, eh?~"
Deep in the forest away from the capital of the empire, Foresight, the worker's team, was in pursuit to save a certain young lady.
"Imina, where are they going?!" yelled Hekkeran.
"There is a cave ahead!"
"Arche!"
"[Dark vision]" Arche could see the cave just as clear as day. She frowns when she saw that it was not as protected as she would imagine.
"There! Be careful they are magi traps ahead!"
Once they arrive, Imina carefully removes all the traps in the cave's entrance. They knew that probably would be more than one person in there.
"We need to be careful, we don't know how many are there," Roberdyck said.
"[Reinforce Armor]" Arche buff all of her companions one by one, in the end, she drank two potions to make sure she is still ready to fight whatever lay ahead of them.
"Let's go," said Hekkeran as the group carefully moves in.
While Foresight was invading the kidnapper's stronghold, a certain little lady was doing her best to not kill everyone in this room. She was just sitting on the ground while her captors screamed at each other.
"They are here, you idiot!"
"What was I supposed. There to do?!"
"To stop them, perhaps?!"
"I am not a fighter!"
Rubedo saw that she was not the only one who got kidnaped. There are some other girls, childish girls, and two older ladies. They all looked terrified and a little hopeful since they believe that help was coming soon. She let a small snort.
"We kidnap two noble ladies from the empire and the kingdom, it was only a matter of time before we discovered! That fat bastard screws us!"
Rubedo was thinking about why her sister sounded so happy. Did their lady finally call for Albedo to join her in bed? She didn't think so, not yet at least. If that was the case, Albedo would have been more than happy to share that to her.
So what happened between her lady and her sister? One part of her wanted to know what happened and the other part didn't since she is still a child.
"They are only four of them! Kill them!" one of them said.
Rubedo wanted to eat something sweet, perhaps once this is over, a chocolate cake would be a good reward, her sister didn't want her to only eat cakes or things like that, but she believes that she deserves a reward after put up with lesser beings for so long.
Rubedo is just daydreaming of chocolate cakes and ice cream. Meanwhile, a fierce battle was taking place just ouside the doors.
"[Iron fist]" Hekkeran fist broke the jaw of one kidnapper like it was nothing. He quickly went on the offensives and with his two swords slash another enemy.
"[Twin Blade Strike]" he yelled.
"[Lesser strength] [Lesser Dexterity]" Roberdyck abilities buff his companions, who took it with great joy.
"[Piercing Arrow] [Magic Arrow]" both Imina and Arche broke the defense line of the kidnappers, who felt one by one as Hekkeran finished them off.
"[Physical Boost] [Twin Blade Strike]" Hekkeran body tensed up as his strikes grow more powerful and deadly than before.
"[Lightning]" Arche ability kill the last one of them, they all look exhausted more than ever.
"Hekkeran, take this," Robedyck gave away a stamina potion, Hekkeran smile a little as he felt the drawbacks of [Physical Boost] settling in on his body.
"Thanks," he said.
"Let's hurry up," Foresight reached the last room of the kidnaper's stronghold, and they prepared for the worst.
What they found was more than they expected. The girls cried in relief as they saw their liberators with joy.
"Wow, this is not what I was expecting," Imina could only say.
"Indeed... miss Espinela!" Arche ran immediately to the young girl who seems to be traumatized, there she was, with her mouth open, salivating, Arche fears that because of the number of people in this place, she was reading all of their souls at the same time, Arche cursed under her breath, blaming herself for being slow, she didn't know that the girl was thinking about something delicious.
"Miss Espinela! It's me, Arche! It's fine, just focus on me!" Rubedo was shocked beyond comprehension, there she was, thinking about delicious cakes of every flavor and texture when she was suddenly, and abruptly she may add, brought back from her beautiful dream, by the human girl.
She is being hugged by this worm, only her sister has ever hugged her, and now this vermin dared to touch her. She was furious; she was trembling in rage. She had to focus on other things to not kill her right there.
From Arche point of view, she could feel miss Espinela trembling, Arche softly stroke her hair and started to murmuring gentle words. Arche felt miss Espinela's body relax slowly until she is completely calm.
"You took to long," Arche smiled.
"Sorry." the blond girl said as she took her hand with a smile.
Neither of them, besides Rubedo, notices a certain maid behind them smiling fondly at the scene.
Far away in the empire's capital, a certain lord was enjoying himself.
"So young... So innocent," Count Wulat, the obese noble said.
"I want her, she would be my perfect doll," his perverted smile grew in the dark. The moment he saw that noble girl from the south, he fell in love. She completely snared him with her beauty.
"I want to take her, to make her mine!" he grunted as he empties himself on the poor victim of his lust.
"She should be here by now," the obese lord was getting ready for round two when a figure behind him appear out of nowhere.
"Here you are~" he quickly turns around and saw a young girl, wearing a strange outfit.
"Wh-who are you?! How do you get in?!" he yelled.
"Are you Cout Wulat?" the girl with a strange face asks, tilting her head a little.
"Y-yes, I am! You are in deep trouble young lady!" he stood up and smirk slightly seeing the petite body of the little miss before him.
"I will let you go if you do what I say," he said licking his lips.
The masked girl seems to think about something else, the fat noble, got angry and decide to use force himself upon her, after all, she was just a little girl.
Then suddenly he felt something weird under his feet, like little things crawling on his skin. What he saw petrified him.
Insects all over him, spiders, centipedes, cockroaches, all over the place. He tried to run, but it was to no avail.
"Don't move, they are hungry~?" the mask's girl said. The obese noble screams were muffled by the centipedes entering his mouth. The pain he was feeling was unbearable, as he was being eaten alive, from inside out.
"Leave something for me, okay~,"
"{Lady Albedo, It's done,}"
"{Excellent job, Entoma, now we will have more control in the empire, did you eat the lord's family?}"
"{Yes!}
"{Good, they would have proved quite annoying to deal with in the future, now report back to Nazarick, I will send the Doppelgänger, and he will deal with everything else}"
"{Okay!~}" Entoma said ending the conversation.
"Ah, I want to see big sister Yuri," Entoma said a little said as she disappeared in the shadows of the now-empty mansion. of the now-empty mansion.