"Looks like... they're acting as if they're above everyone else? It feels like they look down on other people a bit?", Even at first glance, Sophia noticed it right away.
"That's right. It's probably because they live oppressed and miserable lives. So they raise their own status by looking down on other races. Under that custom, half-elves have an even lower position in their society. They're treated like human punching bags, and once people get tired of them, they're simply driven out."
It was exactly that strange mindset that made these elves, who thought they were above everyone else, seem pitiful yet not entirely deserving of pity.
While they were chatting, the elf chief in the courtyard, Potimas, noticed the activity on their side.
He slightly turned his head and shot a glance toward them. The corners of his mouth lifted into what looked like a gentle smile, yet it carried no warmth at all. Then he turned slightly and quietly asked the lord beside him, "Who is that young man?"
"Ah, Mr. Ash is an honored guest of our family."
"Why is he holding the labyrinth... Divine Beast in one arm and a child in the other?"
"Ah... actually, he gets along very well with Lady Divine Beast and my daughter. He also likes children," The lord explained with a smile, gratitude filling his eyes.
"Is that so? Your daughter is very adorable."
The elf chief praised Sophia with his words, but his eyes examined her as though she were an object.
And within that seemingly gentle smile, he had already reached his conclusion. After exchanging a few more polite words with the lord, he quietly left.
Although he still couldn't accurately judge the other's true strength, he had already regarded Ash as a potential threat.
In his logic, if a person or thing might cause trouble for his plans, then the simplest and most direct solution was, remove it.
———
After that, the situation seemed to enter a brief period of calm.
Perhaps the various factions realized that taking Sophia away while Ash protected her would not be easy, so they all held back for the time being.
During this period, Spider finally accumulated enough experience points. It turned into a spider cocoon again and began the final stage of its evolution.
However, the calm was only on the surface. The clouds of war were gathering at an unstoppable speed.
Large numbers of troops had already begun passing through this once peaceful town. The sounds of horse hooves and wagon wheels mixed together without end.
Wagons loaded with weapons, equipment, and supplies moved continuously through the roads. The heavy cargo made the wagons creak loudly.
Soldiers could be seen everywhere, busy carrying supplies and setting up tents. Although the army did not stay here, the entire town was covered by the tension of war, as if even the air had become heavy.
Looking at the busy scene, the lord's head ached.
He knew very well that once war broke out, no matter the outcome, it would bring great disaster to this land.
But in sharp contrast to his worries, both the soldiers and the townspeople were filled with enthusiasm.
Every now and then, soldiers and citizens would raise their arms and shout, "Kill every bastard who harassed Lady Divine Beast!"
Such slogans were full of hatred and fighting spirit.
That was hardly surprising. Before Ash killed that envoy, the man had constantly caused trouble for Spider. His powerless yet arrogant behavior had long made both the lord and his people hate him.
On the side of the Ohts Kingdom, together with its allied nations, troops were gathering rapidly. Their actions were extremely fast, just as expected from a plan prepared long ago.
Before long, they officially declared war on Sariella Kingdom.
And the moment war was declared, the vanguard crossed Sariella's border like a raging tide and launched their invasion.
The Keren territory at the border was hit first, becoming the front line of the war.
The lord looked at report after report arriving one after another and nearly worried himself bald.
Just as he intended to find Ash, Ash had already teleported Spider, who happened to be in the middle of evolution, to the Queen Taratect, then left the mansion ahead of time.
Using magical detection powerful enough to cover the entire town with ease, he identified the elves and killed them one by one without mercy.
After eliminating the hidden threats within the town, he headed alone toward the front lines of the battlefield.
Flying through the sky and looking down at the land below, he saw that several villages along Sariella's border had already been swallowed by flames.
The burned houses were reduced to ruined walls standing amid the fire.
The air was filled with the sharp smell of burning and the stench of corpses.
Many bodies lay scattered around the destroyed homes. It was not difficult to imagine how inhumanly the residents had been treated.
Some scouts were even chasing villagers who had escaped.
Their screams and cries for help continued to echo through the air.
However... most of the lord's soldiers had been gathered at camps farther to the rear. The remainder were stationed in the main town of the Keren territory.
There was no possibility of reinforcements.
It should have been a hopeless situation, but, a rain of ice suddenly fell from the sky.
Countless ice pillars descended.
In an instant, the mounted scouts who had been laughing wildly were pierced full of holes and died on the spot.
Then Ash flew through the air like a gust of wind and arrived above the vanguard.
His expression remained cold as he slowly raised his hand.
In that instant, tens of thousands of golden swords shining with brilliant light appeared out of nowhere.
———
At that moment, the soldiers below were setting up camp and preparing to rest.
None of them realized that death was quietly approaching.
Moonlight poured across the land, creating a peaceful scene.
But before long, during that seemingly calm night, the soldiers suddenly noticed countless strange reflections appearing beneath the bright moonlight.
Like stars filling the night sky, they covered the heavens and flickered with an eerie golden glow.
The next moment, a horrifying sight arrived.
Golden swords as dense as raindrops tore through the silent night with shrieking winds, like a roaring waterfall.
The soldiers who had been laughing and planning to slaughter foreign heretics were instantly overcome by fear.
They stared at the sky in terror as swords of death continuously descended.
But before they could react, the blades pierced through their bodies like arrows.
Without mercy, every person was nailed to the ground in that single volley.
Blood sprayed across the land.
The air filled with a heavy smell of blood.
The noisy camp was swallowed by complete silence within a single breath.
Cold and terrifying.
After dealing with the scouts and the vanguard, Ash lowered his altitude slightly and looked over the devastated camp below.
He had considered directly assassinating the people controlling things from behind the scenes and ending the conflict.
But thinking about it now... that was still too troublesome.
It would be easier to simply eliminate the invaders.
Otherwise, he would have to manage the country afterward. Wouldn't that just create extra work for himself?
So he merely raised a hand slightly.
The earth immediately began to shake violently.
Beneath the surface, countless huge rocks seemed to answer a mysterious summons and gathered together.
They compressed and merged with one another, forming three gigantic stone spheres as large as mountains.
They followed closely behind Ash as he rose back into the clouds.
Not long afterward, Ash arrived above the allied army that had finished a forced march and was resting in the rear.
This was a coalition formed by the Ohts Kingdom, the Renxandt Empire, and the Holy Kingdom Alleius.
The soldiers in purple uniforms belonged to Ohts.
Those in red belonged to the Renxandt Empire.
There were also soldiers wearing the garments of the Alleius Theocracy, holding high banners representing their faith.
Just like the soldiers of the Keren territory, these allied forces were equally driven by fanatic belief.
They were prepared to slaughter everyone in the Keren territory and this nation of heretics.
The coalition's numbers filled the entire plain.
The atmosphere felt no different from a full-scale war.
The three commanders of the alliance were all battle-hardened veterans.
They immediately sensed the unsettling fluctuations of magic in the air.
Instinctively, they looked up at the sky.
Yet under the dim moonlight, they could only make out three black dots.
The three dots stood out against the dark blue night sky like demonic eyes hidden within the darkness.
"Flying monsters? Or dragons?"
The gathered officers guessed silently.
Their brows tightened as a sense of dread rose within them.
Meanwhile, the three black dots grew larger and larger as they watched.
Like three expanding black nets, they descended toward the coalition.
Before long, the dots had become large enough to terrify anyone.
Their outlines gradually became clear.
Whether from friction with the air or fire magic cast upon them, they slowly transformed into three blazing meteors.
"Retreat! Retreat! Fall back now!"
One commander sensed something was wrong and shouted at the top of his lungs.
His voice cut sharply through the chaos.
The soldiers who also realized the danger had already begun fleeing in panic without waiting for orders.
The once orderly formations instantly collapsed.
"No! Spread out! Spread out now!"
Another commander waved his weapon, trying to direct the soldiers to disperse and reduce casualties.
But before this sudden disaster, everything was meaningless.
The three meteors rushed closer at incredible speed.
Like a catastrophe sent from heaven itself, they carried terrifying energy as they descended.
They tore through the air, producing a terrifying roar.
Flames burned around them like the tentacles of demons, stretching outward continuously.
Wherever they passed, the air itself twisted from the heat.
The army below quickly fell into complete chaos and despair.
Soldiers shoved and trampled one another.
Some were knocked down by the panicked crowd and were crushed beneath countless feet before they could stand again.
Their screams echoed everywhere.
The warhorses panicked and broke free from their reins, racing wildly across the battlefield and making the situation even worse.
Some mages attempted to stop the meteors with magic.
But against a disaster of this scale, their attacks were meaningless.
Some people had already realized there was no way to escape and no strength left to resist.
Their eyes were filled with despair and fear.
Many dropped to their knees and prayed, hoping the Goddess would save them.
But... the Goddess seemed to have abandoned those who had committed such sins.
Finally, the first meteor crashed down.
The beginning of all despair arrived.
Like a bomb from the depths of space, it exploded among the allied army.
KABOOM!
A deafening explosion erupted.
The massive impact spread outward in every direction, forming visible rings of shockwaves.
Centered on the impact point, they swept across the battlefield like raging waves.
The soldiers closest to it vanished instantly.
Those slightly farther away were torn apart at once.
Limbs and blood were flung into the distance by the shockwave.
Tents, weapons, food supplies, and other materials were thrown into the air and reduced to dust.
Everything touched by the shockwave, whether person or object, was hurled skyward before crashing back down and shattering apart.
The dust created by the impact formed a giant mushroom cloud that shot into the sky.
It blocked out the moon and covered the battlefield in darkness and terror.
Immediately afterward, the second and third meteors struck.
Like two enraged beasts, they tore through the coalition.
Huge craters were blasted into the earth.
The ground itself was ripped up, becoming a massive tidal wave that spread outward with the shockwaves.
The dust that already covered the sky now resembled dark mist pouring out of the depths of hell.
It spread even farther.
The allied soldiers' vision was completely blocked.
They ran and shouted blindly in the darkness, unable to find any path to survival.
Under these continuous attacks, the allied army collapsed completely before the war had even properly begun.
Towering clouds of dust, spreading firelight, endless wails, screams of hatred, cries of agony, and desperate sobs turned the battlefield into a living hell.
Everywhere was death and destruction.
———
Before such indescribable terror and despair, the balance of war instantly tilted beyond recovery.
They had not even seen the enemy.
Yet the battle had already ended in a tragic and hopeless way.
The Pope, who had directed this war and was watching from a distant hill, felt fear sinking into his bones.
That elderly man had even prepared a backup plan.
If the arrogant envoy had not been killed by the people of the Keren territory, he intended to secretly arrange the envoy's death himself and use it as an excuse to wipe out the Goddess Religion, taking complete control of everything.
But now, standing atop the hill and watching his soldiers being crushed by a force humanity could never oppose, as fragile as insects, all he felt was a helplessness as deep as the end of the world.
"This can't even be called a war... Who did this? Lady Ariel? No, she's not skilled in magic at all. A ruler? Why would they do this..."
The Pope muttered to himself, his voice shaking in the wind.
His cloudy eyes were full of fear and confusion.
He searched for an answer amid the chaos and horror before him.
But found nothing.
The Ohts coalition had originally numbered fifty-three thousand troops.
At this point, it would be difficult to find even one-fifth still alive.
The scene was like a sharp blade stabbing into the Pope's heart.
His already aged face seemed to grow even older.
The bishops and guards beside him were also affected by the despair surrounding them.
Their faces were ashen.
Their eyes were filled with fear and helplessness.
Among them was a child wearing armor larger than his body, the second prince of Analeit Kingdom, the current Hero, Julius Zagan Analeit.
At this moment, he could not even feel fortunate that he had not yet joined the war.
Fear twisted his young face.
His legs trembled uncontrollably.
The apocalyptic scene from earlier replayed repeatedly in his mind.
Each image clung to him like a nightmare he could not escape.
But at that moment, they saw an unfamiliar figure slowly descending from the sky.
Like death itself arriving, he landed before them.
The figure carried a suffocating pressure.
Even the surrounding air seemed frozen.
The terrified guards instinctively tightened their grip on their swords and slowly surrounded him.
Their movements looked steady, but their trembling hands and the sweat running down their foreheads revealed the fear deep inside them.
However, Ash merely waved his hand lightly.
An invisible force burst out like a raging tide.
The Pope's guards were blown away like leaves caught in a storm.
They flew backward even faster than they had approached, crashed heavily onto the ground, let out painful groans, and dropped their weapons everywhere.
"Appraisal... What? Level... 103? A demon? A primordial demon?"
Pope Dustin of the Word of God Religion quietly took out a max-level appraisal stone.
The moment he saw the result, extreme shock flashed across his eyes.
The race displayed on it and the astonishing level made his hand tremble slightly.
He could barely hold the appraisal stone.
More members of the Pope's guard arrived from every direction.
They were the Word of God Religion's most elite force, famous for their discipline and strength.