Chapter 342 - Faint

"Isn't that a bit ridiculous?"

"If that's true, then that Dark Elf doesn't have a match here at all. Perhaps, only the strongest Enetha Empire has someone who could compete against such a creature."

The gathered people here weren't new to the existence of Deities. 

However, they know that the powers of these deities weren't that great. These deities weren't that influential so a lot of people remained non-believers. They would rather face their problems with their own capacity than rely upon these beings.

Especially the citizens of this kingdom, they were no longer reliant on these deities.

"Haa~ This is bad then…" Stella frowned after realizing her master's current situation.

She made a few guesses considering how the Dark Elf acted as if he was being controlled and using Kendo Techniques!

Aside from that, the fact that the shinai actually floated and became a streak of light moving somewhere else was already a piece of evidence.

"However, we might be overthinking this, you know? Mourad didn't see what really happened, after all. Perhaps our master still has a trick up his sleeve." Diether answered as he can't accept that their master was truly being controlled by the King of the Dark Elves. 

It's true that Reiji or the Sentient Shinai is indeed acting strange considering all the things that had occurred since then. However, it might not be to the point of being controlled at all.

"Right… I only have a superficial knowledge about the Deities… Can you tell me more about it?" Rufus asked politely. He mainly focused on studying his Weapons Crafting, Arrays, Sword Mastery, and Archery in the past years after all. 

"Well, our knowledge might not be similar to humans. Our information about the Deities came from an otherworldly existence after all."

This time, it was Stasis who answered. He looked at the elf and the group of humans in front of him.

"Otherworldly Existence?! Then, it might be more reliable, you know?" Stella immediately replied. The others also nodded their heads.

These half-imps who all still look like humans with just darker skin color were an existence that many people don't care about. 

This is why they have too little knowledge about their customs or traditions.

Listening to their stories might be an eye-opener for the group.

Stasis looked at his friends and seeing that they all nodded, he no longer hesitated as he decided to tell them about this existence. 

He didn't like to mention this if necessary since he knows that this group of humans might realize that they are the last vestiges of the Three-Eyed Imp Cult!

"Very well… This otherworldly existence is our ancestor… Well, not exactly… To be precise, our ancestors were previously used as a vessel of one of the most powerful Imp in another dimension. During their possession, they would gain strength and incredibly vast knowledge…"

Stasis glanced at the crowd and noticed that they are following his story. Well, after hearing at this point, they could probably guess what had happened.

"In the end, we learned that there are also deities of each Arcane Law… Some of the Deities were the Sword Law or the Sword Deity, Saber Law or the Saber Deity, Spear Deity, Wing Deity, and so forth… There's also Fire Law or the Fire Deity, Light Deity, and other elements…"

"This…"

"So many Deities?"

"I heard of the light deity… So he's just one of the many?"

"Isn't this quite scary?"

"Well, since you mentioned that they are Arcane Law… Are they perhaps related to the Arcana?"

The last question came from Lyrei. The forest elves know about the existence of Deities but she didn't hear that it was related to the existence of Arcana at all. However, based on Stasis' words, it appears that it wasn't that simple at all?!

Diether and the others also waited for the answer. Lyrei's question makes sense anyway.

"That's what we heard… All the Arcana have come from the Arcane World where the Deities similarly reside." Stasis answered.

"Whoa~"

"That's incredible! It's my first time hearing this."

Rufus and Diether exclaimed in surprise. Though they already have a suspicion before, no one could confirm their lingering thoughts about the place where all the Arcane came from.

Anyway, they started making sense of the power of the Dark Elf King.

Since this being was already a Half-Step Deity, then his powers might truly be incredible.

After all, their master wasn't a Deity and just an incredibly powerful Arcana!

Reiji might be peerless in this mortal world but against someone who's already reaching the realm of Deities, it might be too much indeed. 

"There's no way our master would try to ignore us if that was really Master Reiji… Since that's the case, he might be really under a spell that's controlling him or our master had perhaps changed because of something we didn't know…"

Diether concluded after thinking for a while.

However, discussing things like this has limitations. What they needed to find their master and ask him directly about it.

In the end, the two groups decided to do something in order to find out the truth about the changes from their master. 

"We have received help from Master Reiji when we needed him. Perhaps this is the time we have to repay his kindness and give him a hand…" Stella said as she resolved herself to find her master. 

"Alright. Count us in… We know the base of the Dark Elves… Though it might be pointless to attack them with our meager forces, we have at least been observing their troops' movements. We even learned about their plans to take Isengard Fortress beforehand and followed them for a while. We were just unable to continue since we sensed a Spiritual Pressure targeting our bodies."

Stasis explained. Apparently, as soon as they stopped following Dark Elf Reiji's troops, the next thing they learned is that the Fortress was captured by his Elven Warriors… Then, it didn't even last that long before it was recaptured by the humans.

At last, all direct disciples of Reiji have gathered…

It was at this time that they sensed a faint connection to Reiji again.