75 Unwanted Rodents

"So a Saksa is truly residing on this planet? I guess it was a good thing that we didn't start right away a grand massacre. That would have allowed us to instantly heal all of our injuries and replenished the entire mana reserve of the Empress, but the risk was far too big."

Davion was the first to recover from the shock of that news. Because of his own nature and the fact that the planet was already deemed to be completely made by the Ancients, for a Saksa to have been made to guard this place was logical. At the same time, it did give a great indication of where they were currently in the vast Universe.

"Since we know for sure that we are in the territory of the Ancients, on a planet with a Saksa, we can already reduce the size of the planets we ended up on. But if we are on the other side of their former territory, it is still too far away from the Demonic Empire. If we are unlucky, we will never be able to ever come back."

The outskirts of the vast space ruled by the Triumvirate of the Ancients weren't protected by anything beyond a few automatons and some robots. Only the inner parts had some more advanced defenses, like a gigantic being designed to be the apex predator of the galaxy. Based on that, they could be as close as two to three years of space travel and as far as centuries away. It was only an estimation since they never truly managed to have a good grasp on the Ancients, only getting some clues here and there. As for their weapons, well, it was obviously more detailed, because of their massive power.

"Yes, so because we are near immortal until we ran out of blood, we will continue as we first planned. Conquer this world, preferably, without destroying all races on it. If we have to kill their experts and such, so be it. But the masses should be tightly controlled, so never kill a king or an emperor if you can avoid it."

Leilade affirmed once again her will to not have any complications, whatsoever. While herself had already made an enemy out of the Massalia Kingdom and both the orodil and the succubus managed to incur the wrath of the adventurers beyond the mountains. In truth, only Ymir and Malakov had truly met her expectations.

But she had survived far direr situations and she knew that reality could destroy even the most perfect plan, so what to say about her half-baked strategy. Right now, the only reason they were currently able to stay like that, resting without any problems in their base, was because no one managed to pierce the disguise casted by her Envoy. But she knew it was close to being discovered since a group of rats was observing them in the dark.

"Ymir, we have some unwanted invites lurking a little bit farther. Can you grab the three of them and ask them to join us?"

The Akûl raised his massive body at this order, harboring an evil grin. Since when the girl responsible for more deaths than his entire squad ever had good intentions? Bowing slightly, he left quickly the room. On the other hand, Malakov was a bit flustered. The undead was extremely confident in his skills, and wouldn't have thought that he missed a group of living beings. He only inwardly rejoiced that since Ymir came back with the two members of the Organization, he never let a single undead leave the premises of the base.

"My sincere apologies Empress. I was unable to even see those rodents scouting the area. I will strive to do better." The bootlicking lich didn't let forgot to immediately apologize and try to appease Leilade. It was absolutely not necessary because she saw them too far away to be a threat and it would have been near impossible for Malakov to detect them. But the behavior of her Herald was to be without any faults since he had to compete against the Viscount.

"So what are your orders, Empress of the Underworld?" For the first time since the beginning, Meridiana talked. She rarely ever joined any council or meeting during a war, mainly dealing with the loyalty of conquered worlds and new recruits. Even if she heard that the world would be destroyed in a few minutes and all hopes were on her shoulders, she wouldn't be able to do a single thing.

"Because of your mitigated success, you will keep pressing the issue in the Republic of Avenio. This time, try to not kill the adventurers, especially the dwarf?"

"No, the elf."

"Well doesn't matter. You will be able to kill them soon enough, don't worry. But before that, I need you to become the strongest force in that city. Something so strong, that if a dragon decided to attack, people wouldn't turn their sights toward the mayor or some stuff like that. They would look at you and see what you could do. The best would be to find a cult or a sect nearby and destroy it. Save some orphans, reunite some families. You will be able to think of it by yourself."

Davion and Meridiana looked at each other, not knowing exactly what will be the final point. It was still good to do that kind of stuff, but seeing the peculiar expression of Leilade, they were not sure that their thoughts were of the same kind. Probing a bit the intentions of the small girl, the orodil tried something.

"And after that? We will stay in that city or roam the country, becoming a beacon of hope?"

Right at the moment where Leilade was beginning to speak, master Agnil appeared with two liches carrying some clothes. Bowing in front of the person responsible for his own survival, he harbored an immense smile, knowing that she will be very happy. Sending a meaningful gaze at Malakov, the latter ordered at the two power undead nearby to show what they were holding.

A very robust white robe and two slippers were displayed by the bony hands. Just from where they were standing, they could see the numerous magical arrays inscribed on them, and they had no doubt about the quality of that design. Grabbing the goods, Leilade felt the very familiar sensation of her petite hands, her only comfort during all those years. Waiting no more, she absorbed the boy clothes still on her body with her dark tentacles and wore the warm clothes in front of here.

"Master Agnil, your expertise will always surprise us. You have done a superb work with that robe, it almost felt like the one I lost." While saying this, she extended her hand and one of her tentacles began to envelop the soul of the dwarf. A few seconds later, the transparent engineer looked a lot more tangible and was even slightly shining. On the other hand, the tentacle had regressed a bit, both in size and in length.

"Everything will be done as you please, Empress of the Underworld." He bowed again and left the room, with an even bigger smile than previously. The remaining beings present in the room all saw Leilade in the same form that they always saw. The white paleness of her skin, the white clothes were contrasting heavily with her dark eyes and hair. From afar, she could look like an angel, but no one that knew her could be fooled by her juvenile and angelic appearance.

"About your question Davion, yes and no. What I want to know is if we begin to conquer some cities, from either the Massalia Kingdom or the Avenio Republic, we will have some resistance. To counter that, the best way would be to have adventurers submitting to our rule. If even the heroes bow before the might of the Demon King Ymir, what should an ordinary peasant do? As for me, people will ridicule me, so I am not usable for that role."

It was at that time that both of them understood why nowhere in the base was Leilade represented. They had their own idea, being that this base was a bait and not the real one that will be constructed later. But apparently, this location will be the castle of Ymir, while the rest will sow discord among the humans. Pondering a lot about that, no one came up with a better idea. It was not to say that this plan was perfect, but at least, it didn't have a huge flaw.

The might of the humans was clearly limited since even the Academy of Massalia was singlehandedly destroyed by Leilade. Even by taking into account the Organization and the mysterious Archmage that managed to live for more than a thousand years, those couldn't tip the scale of power by a much. At least, that was what they were thinking right now.

Soon, two men and one woman were unlucky enough to be thrown on the ground by Ymir. Their terrified faces showed clearly that they knew who they were facing right now. They never had a chance to do anything, in less than a second, three strong hands grabbed their head, menacing to press their frail skulls into a meat paste if they dared to make a move. After that, they were carried swiftly inside the base, passing the legion of undead still working hard to perfect the interior of the underground.

Around them, the closest one was a little girl dressed completely in white and visibly the weakest of all. There was a woman a little farther away, but a strange man in armor and with a blue skin was far too close to do anything. Mustering the last bit of courage they had, the elf and the human dashed toward the small girl, intending to capture her as a hostage. The moment they got on their feet and ran, they step on a shadow waiting in advance for them.

Only the ratman had the chance of seeing the entire corpses of his two companions being digested by a monster without any form.Soon after, he saw two blue orbs floating and spinning in the air, that were getting closer and closer to the little girl. In the end, they entered her little body, but instead of smiling, she frowned. "What kind of garbage information those two knew? Damn, they are far more prudent that I envisaged. Take a look"

The ratman was baffled to see three additional orbs flying toward the demon, the woman and the blue man. Their faces turned sour as quickly as the one of the girl, and soon, everyone turned their sight toward the lone survivor of the group. Feeling that his time in this world will soon end, he desperately tried to buy his way out.

"This lowly rat-thing knows no-nothing, skek skek. Praise the mi-might of the Supreme Ones." He then kneeled on the ground, chanting the last sentence like a psalm. In a mere second, the ratman turned from a scared captive to the most fervent believer. However, his little play was nothing in the eyes of the rest, since they had seen more shameless creatures than this little rat.

"If what we learned from those two is true, this ratman wouldn't bring us any additional information. They had sent their most expendable troop for this one. Even the two that were responsible for the trading with the trolls knew more. However, it is still weird. Why do I have the feeling that they were a bait?"

The calm voice of Davion didn't surprise Leilade at all since someone else had already reached this conclusion the moment she saw the group of scouts. But even if they were a plain bait, what did they need to fear.

"Meridiana, I let this thing be of good use in your hand. Even if his identity is probably already compromised, we can still hope he will be useful one day." As she began to leave the rest to see the exact progress made by the undead while she was away, she soon received a transmission of Malakov prompting her to reach the entrance.

Apparently, an extremely thin and naked man claiming to be Kardel was begging to enter. Not expecting any news from him, and especially not in this state, she dashed to see what was going.