It's about to begin.
Tsukasa had already received contact from Shadow Shurein. The Kingdom had declared war on the Elf Race and was organizing a large army to launch an attack. The Elf Race's atrocities had also been made known to all nations, tearing away the mask that this race had previously worn. Whether for righteousness or interest, the Human Race unanimously agreed to conquer the Elf Race. The Divine Word Cult was forced onto the war chariot; even though the Pope seemed more concerned about the anti-demon front line, he had no choice but to agree to the request for troops and sent 5,000 elite soldiers to support.
With the Kingdom's 5,000 Royal Guards plus the 5,000 reinforcements from the Divine Word Cult, along with troops gathered from other nations, this subjugation army against the Elf Race barely reached 30,000. To be honest, the size of the army did not have an advantage, and since the Elf Race's attributes were generally higher than those of the Human Race, this was bound to be a fierce battle.
Many people even wanted to see the Kingdom and the Elf Race both suffer losses, so that after resisting the Demon Race's offensive, they could turn back and annex the Kingdom and the Elf Race, becoming the final winners of the war. But they didn't know what terrifying monsters were on the Demon side, nor did they know that a powerful reinforcement had joined the Elf Race's subjugation force. In a world with magical elements, some powerful individuals can compensate for the gap in numbers, and Tsukasa's current strength could achieve just that.
On the way to the Elf Forest, Tsukasa encountered Sophia's interception. To be more accurate, it wasn't an interception; she had come to question her. According to the original cooperation agreement between Tsukasa and the Demon Race, after controlling the Kingdom, she should have prioritized helping the Demon Race complete the consumption of the Human-Demon War before joining forces with them to attack the Elf Race, rather than declaring war on the Elf Race before the Human-Demon War had even begun.
"You're too impatient. At a time like this, we can't take action at all." Sophia came to deliver a message on behalf of Spider Child. Currently, on the front lines of the great war, the situation for both the Human Race and the Demon Race was very tense. Moreover, the Hero had already arrived at the fortress, so it was difficult for Spider Child to spare energy to help at this time. According to their previous agreement, the Reincarnators imprisoned by the Elf Race should have been rescued by the Demon Race, but now Spider Child couldn't act. She had to wait until after dealing with the Hero before she could move.
Sophia said, "My Master's meaning is for you to temporarily stabilize the situation and wait until her side is resolved, then she will come to help as soon as possible."
Tsukasa was expressionless. She actually didn't care about the life or death of the other Reincarnators at all. If she hadn't promised the Teacher she would do her best to rescue those people, she wouldn't have needed to go through so much trouble to deal with the Elf Race. Indeed, she had collaborated with the Demon Race before, but the recent actions of the Demon Race had made her somewhat dissatisfied.
They actually sent someone to monitor her.
This made her very unhappy.
"I have already taken the Kingdom and sent most of its combat power to the front lines. I have completed the content of the trade. The rest are your problems. How you solve those problems is your own business."
Tsukasa didn't give Sophia any face at all.
Sophia failed to persuade Shi. She knew many things but couldn't explain them. Spider Child hadn't told her Shi's true identity either. Spider Child did this partly out of respect for Shi, and partly to see if Sophia could discover the secret on her own. However, the result directly led to a misunderstanding between Shi and Sophia, even making their cooperation attitude extremely hostile.
Watching Shi's expression during the recent conversation from behind the screen, the Demon King asked very puzzledly, "What is she sulking about? Did we do something to upset her? Why is she resisting in such a childish way?"
Spider Child remained silent for a while, then belatedly thought of a possibility and slowly said, "It's probably Sophia who messed up."
"Huh?" The Demon King still didn't understand.
Only Spider Child remembered that Shi seemed to have quite severe paranoia. Perhaps Sophia's enthusiasm had been misunderstood by Shi.
The Demon King didn't know Shi well. Even though she could often guess Spider Child's thoughts, lacking key information at this moment, she didn't know what riddle Spider Child was speaking. However, she didn't plan to ask further and instead mentioned, "Then what should we do next? How about you go help her deal with that old bug first?"
Spider Child asked, "Can you handle it?"
"Who do you think you're talking to? The Hero is indeed troublesome, but delaying until you return shouldn't be a problem. It just means more of them will die, which is within acceptable limits. If you successfully capture that old bug over there, then this price would be quite cheap."
The Demon King said these words lightly.
Although this meant the battle between the Human Race and the Demon Race on the front lines would continue for a while, with casualties far exceeding previous estimates, their original goal was to have the System recover energy through the great war. Both the Human Race and the Demon Race were just sacrifices, so it didn't matter.
Spider Child was only worried that the Demon King might grow impatient and rush to the front lines, or that the Hero might decide to infiltrate the Demon Race to assassinate the Demon King. She only cared about the Demon King's safety and didn't care at all about the sacrifices of the Demon Race soldiers.
"And in case of emergency, there are your clones and my familiars available. Honestly, I don't think the Hero has the ability to break through to me." The Demon King laughed cruelly. Based on the strength the Hero had shown, she could easily send a familiar to crush the Hero's team. The Hero's title only had an effect when dealing with the Demon King; it had no effect on her familiars.
It could be said that Spider Child's worry was unnecessary. As long as the Demon King didn't do anything reckless, the forces on the Demon King's side were basically guaranteed to win. Even if the Hero unleashed the power of the Holy Sword, they couldn't break through the multiple layers of defense to reach the Demon King. The effect of the Hero's title simply couldn't be activated.
"I'll return as soon as possible."
Spider Child was persuaded by the Demon King.
After all, compared to the Demon King's rock-solid formation, the lineup on the other side could be described as crude. Thirty thousand human troops were like fragile paper in front of the Elf Race. It was a very risky move for Shi to lead these troops to attack the Elf Race. Moreover, that old bug was hiding a trump card like the Anti-Magic Barrier. By then, even Shi might be captured by the old bug.
Spider Child didn't know that Shi could be immune to the Anti-Magic Barrier.
And most crucially, they didn't know how strong the old bug's Main Body was. Based on the technological level the old bug had shown, it might even be hiding a trump card like a super Robot, which would be troublesome.
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