Chapter 94: 'We Can't Win'? I Don't Understand!
Especially when they saw Olivia and her conspicuous silver wings, several of the guards instinctively drew their weapons. They had been traumatized by the demons' disguise. To see a lone Sky-Winged now, when there were none of them on the front lines, naturally made them wary. And they still hadn't figured out how the demons had managed to disguise themselves as a Sky-Winged army in the first place. Was it some kind of special magic?
"A Sky-Winged!?" an elven elder exclaimed in surprise. "Why is there only one?"
In their hearts, they were all hoping to see a full army of them, provided, of course, that it wasn't the demons up to their old tricks again.
"Greetings, Your Majesty, the Elven King."
Olivia stepped forward and gave the Elven King a slight nod. As a member of the Council of Thirteen, she had met him a few times before. The Elven King also recognized her and asked the same question. "Lady Olivia? But why are you alone?" He was hoping to see the other members of the council; she was still too young and held little sway.
Like everyone else in the allied army, he was desperate to know where the Sky-Winged army was.
Under the countless hopeful gazes, Olivia began to tremble. Rhodes noticed and gently patted her shoulder in a gesture of comfort.
She took a deep breath and forced herself to stand tall, her silver wings spread behind her, shining with the same resolve she now held in her heart.
"The Sky-Winged are no more. I am the last member of the council. On our way back to the Heavenly Kingdom, we were ambushed by the true main force of the demons. Under their Divine Strike, our army of thousands was reduced to a mere handful. And of the Council of Thirteen, I am the only one who survived."
A dead silence fell over the hall.
Even the enraged Dwarven King stopped his pacing, his eyes wide with disbelief as he stared at Olivia. The news was too shocking, too incredible to be true.
"Absurd!" an elven elder said sharply. "The demons' main force is right here! How could you have been ambushed by them?"
"What if the demons split their forces?" Rhodes suggested calmly. The Sky-Winged army had not been at their full strength at the time. The demons wouldn't have needed their entire army to deal with them. And all they had to do was launch a surprise Divine Strike; they didn't need a massive force for that.
"But... but there wasn't enough time!"
"There was," Serie said with a nod. "There is a special demon in their army who can use a large-scale teleportation spell."
She had been studying the holy relic slab and had found traces of a massive teleportation circle within it. It seemed that the demons had inscribed it on the slab long ago. They had used it once to destroy the Dwarven Kingdom, and the Sky-Winged had used it to descend on the dwarven ruins. The Sky-Winged had only been able to use it because the false goddess had told them how. Therefore, it stood to reason that there was a demon who could use it as well.
"That explains it... that explains it..." the elven elder said, sinking back into his chair, mumbling to himself, though no one was listening.
"We've lost. There is no hope for victory in this war."
The Elven King's eyes were filled with a dead emptiness. The army they had been so desperately waiting for was gone, and the demons' main force was still intact. The atmosphere in the hall was suffocating.
"It's too soon to give up now," Rhodes said, his voice calm and steady.
"And what can we do if we don't?" an elf said, shaking his head in despair. "The Sky-Winged are gone, the allied army has suffered heavy losses, and the demons are still at full strength. We can't possibly win!"
"'We can't win'? I don't understand."
He slowly unwrapped the cloth from the Divine Right Sword, Org. After a month of rest, the sword was once again shining with a dazzling light, though its own mana had not yet fully recovered. As the legendary holy sword was revealed, an ancient and majestic aura filled the room, silencing all doubt and clamor.
The elves all gasped, and the Dwarven King's eyes were fixed on the sword.
"The Divine Right Sword... Org!?"
Dwalin's voice was filled with a deep reverence and awe. The current Dwarven King was one of the survivors of that disaster, and the leader of the most powerful of the eight dwarven clans. After the royal line had been wiped out, his clan had, in effect, become the most powerful among the dwarves, which was how they had been able to establish the current Dwarven Kingdom. He had been fortunate enough to see the Divine Right Sword, Org, once before. Even after hundreds of years, its brilliance was as dazzling as ever. His beard trembled, and his eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets. "Why? Why would the Divine Right Sword acknowledge a human!?"
Ever since the sword had been forged, countless powerful dwarven warriors had tried to gain its favor, but most couldn't even get close. A select few had been able to grasp its hilt, but none had been able to draw it. And now, this human... the Dwarven King couldn't accept it.
Thank goodness the Holy Right Sword of our race, Athos, will only acknowledge a true saint of the elven race, the Elven King thought to himself. If it had been drawn by an outsider, like Org, it would have been a great shame.
"It acknowledged me. It's as simple as that," Rhodes said coolly in response to the Dwarven King's disbelief.
"But that is the holy sword of the dwarves—"
The Dwarven King was not yet ready to give up, but as Rhodes raised the sword and a clear, ringing sound emanated from it, he fell silent. It was clear that the sword's power was now in this human's hands. It was an undeniable fact. No matter how much he disliked it, he had to accept it. The legend of this sword was written in the most ancient of dwarven texts.
"We found it in the ancestral home of the dwarves. This sword, as the legends say, has the power to slay a god. And because of that, we have become an enemy of a certain god, the same god that the demons worship."
The fact that the Goddess of the Sky-Winged and the elves had been replaced by a false god was too shocking. To reveal it now would deal a devastating blow to the morale of the allied army. So Rhodes had concealed it, and the others, understanding his reasons, had not contradicted him.
"The demons worship a god!? That's impossible!" the Elven King said, suddenly standing up.
(End of Chapter)
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