Chapter 294: Declaration of War

Point-of-View: Belia Lasmodeus 

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"And that about sums it up!" I concluded with a grin. 

I was back in Silvland now, and I'd just told my four sidekicks about my plan to attack the other races while putting the attacks on humans on hold for now. 

"I am in support of your plan, my lady," Responded Druj, with a slight bow. 

"Yeah, me too! These other races, I wonder if tearing them apart feels different to tearing apart humans? I can't wait to find out!" Exclaimed Gela with a smirk. 

So far, pretty expected reactions from those two. 

"I'll admit that this is all very interesting...but how are you going to convince the Silvland troops to give the Rustlands a 'break' from being attacked? And after that, how are you going to convince them that they should attack a bunch of races they've probably never even heard of before?" Inquired Shiro with a raised eyebrow. 

Ugh, ever the wet blanket, this one... 

"Oh, come on, that part's easy...I just gotta make up some BS about how this is God's will or some crap and they'll lap it up like starved pigs, right?" I replied with a shrug. 

"That...actually might work," He remarked, after mulling it over, before adding, "In that case, what about the summons? They're not going to be as easy to convince." 

Hm, he has a good point there...those four are on the naive side, but they're not stupid. I boosted their abilities using Hacte's Corruption Magic, which helped solidify their trust in me. It gave them all about ten to fifteen percent increases in strength and speed, and I also did further modifications to make their bodies compatible with Mana...and to my surprise, it worked better than expected. 

Now, their weapons no longer drain their stamina when used, it uses their Mana, and even better, they all each manifested an Elemental Magic type as well. No Animas, of course...which made me realize that they're the only pure humans in this world right now. All current humans in this world aren't pure in terms of lineage, since they also have Demi-Human blood in them. 

Anyway... 

"You worry too much, Shiro, just leave it all to me. My approach is going to have a hint, and I mean a HINT, of caution now...or rather, I'm going to slightly tone down the recklessness. This world is poised for a massive, massive battle between multiple opposing sides, and I don't want to mess that up, or worse, die before it gets good! So, in other words, I'll be curbing a bit of the chaos now, in order to generate far greater chaos in the future," I declared confidently, "I suppose you could call it a chaos investment-."

"Yeah, great, you do that. Let me know when it's time to attack the other races or whatever," Replied Shiro, losing interest and walking away. 

"Yeah, call me when it's time to attack too," Added Gela, following suit, as a tired-looking Hacte left as well. 

We'd finally finished powering up the Silvland troops using his Corruption Magic, and...they currently numbered at around seven hundred thousand. That was nearly half the entire population, the rest were all children, elderly, cripples and a few others that had opted against volunteering for power ups. 

But these are great numbers, and I'm having them train against each other using those safety barriers, getting them more used to fighting to even a small extent will make a huge difference...and along with my summons and sidekicks, I'd say that I've started to build up a fairly formidable army. 

The Rustlands is high in quantity but low in quality...Abyss is the opposite, extremely high quality but their numbers are by far the lowest among all the opposing sides in the world right now. And finally-...wait, what should I call the land belonging to Sant and the other races? 

In addition to the fifth of the planet that the land that made up their floating island consisted of, they've also occupied the entire savanna area, volcanic mountain range, along with the areas that used to be Bronztan and Goldway/The Valaque Empire/The Goldlands...on top of that, they've also taken over most of the forest area and the rocky cliffs. 

There have already been a few clashes between the Rustlands' Adventurers and the other races in the forest and rocky areas...so far, no deaths, the other races seemed to be obeying Sant's commands to not start any conflicts with the humans, but the tension created by those incidents will serve my goals nicely. 

Abyss is surrounded by ocean to its north, east and west, and further to the north is the toxic wasteland...and to the south is a long mountain range that leads to Silvland. With the way the other races have expanded their territories, they're getting themselves into in a pretty great position to attack both Silvland and the Rustlands, while Abyss has a lot more breathing space thanks to its surroundings. 

I should think of a way to make better use of the stray Demons running around...right now, they're kinda just doing nothing. Hm, recruiting them into Silvland and using illusion spells to make them appear as Angels might be a good idea. I've had to do that for my sidekicks, so I can definitely pull it off...yeah, let's go for it, it doesn't look like Kuro is taking in any more Demons into Abyss. I'll do it after the attack on the other races though. 

Speaking of the Demons Kuro recruited, he seems to have rejected or cast out any that he suspected of still having any loyalties towards me...while he kept the ones with more individuality, that can think for themselves. And he also has the loyalty of all the remaining Vampires. 

Most impressively, he hasn't resorted to much of any deception in gaining their loyalty...meanwhile, every part of the loyalty I had from the Silvland sheep and the summons is definitely due to deception. 

I then sent a telepathic message to all the Demons that I could reach, which excluded every Demon in Abyss, thanks to the Chaos Magic he'd cast on them...I informed the stray Demons to make their way to Silvland after the 20th of May, in order to get recruited by and serve me. 

I then opened a portal to go meet Sant...I should go give him a heads up, it's only fair, after all...ooh, I think I'll also try to provoke a reaction out of him, in order to make this more fun! 

... 

"I see that you are back quite soon, Belia. Are you bored?" He inquired, as I walked through the portal with a grin. 

His guards surrounded me again, keeping their distance as they pointed their weapons at me. 

"Actually, I haven't been bored for a couple of years now, it's great! Anyway, I just thought that I should let you know that I'll be attacking you soon with my army on, let's see...how about the 20th of May? That's a bit less than a couple of weeks from now, so that's plenty of time! Oh, and by the way, what do you call the land under your rule?" I asked curiously. 

"Do not be foolish, humans cannot defeat those under my rule, your forces will be wiped out with ease," He replied with a shake of his head, "And I have no need to name the land we occupy." 

"What, seriously? Fine, then I'll name it for you...let's go with The Sant A.C. Laus Domain, or The Laus Domain for short...yeah, I like it, it's nice and boring...just like you. Alright, then it's decided!" I declared with a grin, before getting serious and adding with a slight smile, "It's been a thousand years, Sant...humans aren't the same creatures that you remember. At least, not in terms of how powerful they are. You'd be wise to not underestimate them." 

"You forget about my Elemental Sages, those chosen by the Elemental Spirits...even a thousand humans cannot-," He began dismissively. 

"Hahaha, you're so completely clueless that it's hilarious!" I interrupted, bursting out into laughter, before adding with a smirk, "There are humans capable of killing me several times over, I've used Restoration Magic in the last few months more than I've collectively done so in the entirety of my past, and it was none other than humans were responsible for that. Oh, and about your Elemental Sages, you're missing one, right? Would you believe me if I said the current Water Sage is...human?"

"What? No, impossible!" He exclaimed in alarm and disbelief as he stood up with a start, "No Elemental Spirit would ever choose a human to-!" 

Heh, I riled him up, nice. 

"Oh, but one did...not that it had a choice, since the alternate was to simply cease to exist entirely," I remarked, interrupting him with a smirk. 

"You lie, that cannot possibly be true," He responded, calming himself down and sitting, clearly unsettled by the notion that a human housed an Elemental Spirit. 

"Yeah, that's a possibility, sure...but I counter with this...what if it isn't a lie? Anyway, that's a concern for another day...for now, you best focus on preparing yourself for my upcoming attack!" I declared as I opened a portal to leave, before adding with a faint smirk as I left, "Oh, and you know what the best part of all this is? Samsara is now too weak to ever interfere in my fun again, so I won't hold back...not on anything..." 

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