“Are you certain that this information is true?” Triton asked the Six-Eared Macaque who were currently masquerading as William.
“Yes,” the Six-Eared Macaque replied. “You should prepare for an immediate mobilization once the Pope makes her move. I suggest we attack them before they enter the borders of the Ainsworth Empire. This way, the one who will have the initiative is us, instead of them.”
Triton nodded his head in agreement. “I agree with this plan, but how do we know that they are coming?”
The Six-Eared Macaque smiled before pulling off a few of his hairs from his head. He then blew at them and they instantly turned into miniature versions of him, making Triton, and the other Pseudo-Gods under William’s command understand what the Six-Eared Macaque was planning.
Their meeting lasted for an hour, as they finalized the counter-plan they would use once the threat of the Holy Order was found approaching the Ainsworth Empire.
Now that William was currently not in the World of Hestia, it was up to his subordinates to ensure that the territories under his command were safe from any form of aggression.
—–
Two days later…
Over a hundred flying ships were mobilized by the Holy Order of Light, and all of them were headed towards the Ainsworth Empire.
This was not a full scale war, but only a blitzkrieg attack to better understand the capabilities of William’s subordinates, as well as to check whether the Prince of Darkness was really in the Ainsworth Empire or not.
Belle had boarded the flying ship alongside the four other Pseudo-Gods that were under the Pope’s command.
The Pseudo-God that belonged to Hestia Academy didn’t participate in this operation because Byron didn’t want to antagonize William in any way, so he refused the Pope’s request for assistance.
The Pope had already expected this response from the Headmaster of Hestia Academy, so she didn’t think much of it. She only focused on the operation at hand, and observed her fleet using the round mirror that was floating in front of her.
“We will be arriving in the territory of the Ainsworth Empire in five minutes,” one of the Pseudo-Gods said as he looked in the distance. “Everyone, make your final preparations.”
Suddenly, a storm of lightning, black flames, and silver arrows rained down on the flying fleet from the sky.
More than a dozen flying ships were immediately destroyed at the first wave of the attacks, and several others had sustained serious damages, preventing them from staying afloat.
In just a span of half a minute, more than half of the hundred flying ships that were supposed to attack the Ainsworth Empire were out of commission. If not for the fact that the Pseudo-Gods had reacted at a timely manner, the entire fleet might have been wiped out due to the ambush that was prepared for them along the way.
While everyone was in a state of panic, Belle knocked an arrow to her bow and glanced at something in the distance. A second later, a golden arrow shot out from her bow devouring the other projectiles that were attacking them from afar.
The arrow flew straight and true, forcing the Three Nymphs to evade it in haste.
“Did that girl just shoot that arrow randomly or did she intend to hit us from the start?” Opis asked as soon as she regained her balance in the sky.
“Impossible, we are ten miles away from them.” Loxos denied Opis conjecture. “She can’t possibly see us from this distance.”
Hekaerge, who represented the Divinity of Distance, glanced in the black-haired beauty’s direction, and saw a smirk on her beautiful face.
Belle was looking straight at her, which made Hekaerge feel a tingle run down on the back of her spine. Clearly, their opponent knew exactly where they were, and that was why she had shot in their direction.
“She can see us,” Hekaerge said, which made Opis and Loxos look at her in disbelief. “I don’t know how she’s doing it, but she can definitely see us and attack us from that distance.”
“N-No way! That’s impossible!” Loxos didn’t want to believe her Sister’s words. The three of them had to work together in order to create an attack that would transcend distance, and allow them to deal a blow to their enemy from afar.
Opis was responsible for attacking.
Loxos was responsible for aiming.
And Hekaerge was the one that was responsible for allowing Loxos to see greater distances, helping her navigate their bombardment from afar.
The three of them were a set, making them an effective threat to their enemies.
But, their opponent was only a single person and she could do what the three of them could do alone.
How could Loxos possibly accept such a reality?
“Don’t lose your focus,” Hekaerge shouted. “The fight has only begun!”
Loxos gritted her teeth and resumed her role of attacking the fleet of the Holy Order of Light, while Triton, Astrape, Bronte, and Sepheron, pooled their attacks in their direction, allowing the youngest of the three Nymphs to guide their attacks and allow it to reach the enemy lines.
“Let’s retreat for now,” one of the Pseudo-Gods from the Holy Order said as the last flying ship burst into flames.
Powerful as they were, they were unable to defend any of the ships, especially when Loxos had decided to combine all of the attacks of the Pseudo-Gods in a concentrated beam of light.
This attack was so powerful that none of them dared to block it. Even Belle’s arrow couldn’t match its might, which led to the complete and utter destruction of the fleet from the Holy Order of Light.
Fortunately, none of the people on the ships were killed because Belle had used her power to forcefully drag them inside her own portable domain, preventing them from getting killed by the concentrated fire that was coming from an enraged Loxos, whose bloodshot eyes were looking at her from ten miles away.
Belle arched an eyebrow at the young Nymph before flying away.
They had been taken completely by surprise by the Pseudo-Gods’ uncanny offensive, making them reconsider using the next strategy that they planned to use, in order to better understand their enemy’s fighting capabilities.
The Pope smashed her fist on top of her table after seeing the one-sided beating that her forces had received. They weren’t even able to step up to the border of the Ainsworth Empire, nor see the faces of their enemy, and yet, they had already lost the battle before it even started.
‘Cursed Half-Elf!’ The Pope clenched her fist tightly as she was forced to accept the bitter loss that was akin to a slap in her face. She had already known that William had three Pseudo-Gods that could attack from great distances, but she couldn’t understand how their operation was discovered.
She had not told any of the Virtues about her plan, especially the time that it would be executed. Even the personnel that had been assigned to accompany the Pseudo-Gods didn’t know where they were headed, so a leak of information was unlikely.
‘Could it be Clairvoyance?’
The Pope immediately tossed this idea aside because no one could look into the future where the Holy Order of Light was involved. The Power of the Goddess of Light shielded them from such things, so it was impossible for anyone to use this ability to know their plans beforehand.
‘Then how?’
The Pope frowned because she really didn’t have any answer to this question. The only thing she could do was make conjectures that, somehow, the three Nymphs that were part of William’s forces had the uncanny ability to detect enemies from great distances.
As the Pope was thinking of various hypotheses as to how their enemy was able to triumph over them, a certain Six-Eared Macaque cleaned his ear with his finger, as it laid down on top of the Temple of the Gods in the Demon Realm.
“It’s time to eat, Brother Six,” Eve called out from the ground. “Sister Ariadne made your favorite Meat Buns. Come and get them while they’re still hot.”
“Okay, I’m coming,” the Six-Eared Macaque replied as it somersaulted from the roof of the temple and landed nimbly beside the red-haired little girl that he had acknowledged as his Master.
Eve held the Six-Eared Macaque’s hand and dragged him towards the entrance of the Temple.
The little girl was not aware that her Guardian had just foiled the Pope’s grand plan against her cousin, whom she loved very much.
The Six-Eared Macaque just chuckled as he allowed himself to be dragged by the little girl who was the treasure of the Ainsworth Family.
Compared to his former Masters, the Ainsworth was a family he didn’t mind serving. He only hoped that the Half-Elf would be back soon, so he could stop impersonating him.
As someone who was quick on his feet, and adept at running away, he clearly sensed the power of the black-haired beauty that held a golden bow in her hand.
Although they won this time, he felt that if the black-haired beauty really became serious, all of William’s strongest defenders would be hard pressed to fight with her on equal ground.
