Ch.121121. The Second Evil God Conference (2)

Of course, this was naturally a matter agreed upon in advance with the other 7 Great Evil Gods.

Unlike the other lesser evil gods, carelessly disrespecting the 7 Great Evil Gods with whom I would have to coop····erate in the future would be beyond mere stupidity—it would be tantamount to acting without any thought whatsoever.

While all 7 Great Evil Gods might certainly be weaker than me at this moment, unlike the other lesser evil gods, they have solid foundations and power.

If I were to fight all of them right now, I might be able to overwhelm them, but suffering appropriate losses would be inevitable. If they deliberately hide their forces or try to interfere with me, I would self-destruct or be eliminated by the Pantheon before witnessing the end of the Rom Empire.

Now, with the Pantheon and the empire’s main forces away to completely annihilate the Orc Empire, we will seize the empire’s unguarded headquarters, taking advantage of the birth of the Evil God of “Pleasure.”

In any case, without this method requiring the cooperation of all evil gods, it would be difficult to expect the empire’s collapse even with the passage of time.

Therefore, the relationship between these 7 Great Evil Gods was literally a temporary alliance.

The agreement was to cooperate until the empire fell. After that, they had already agreed not to care whether they fought each other or not.

《Be quiet. You have not been given the right to speak.》

Thus, according to the contract where I would receive certain privileges from those 7 Great Evil Gods, I began to dominate the meeting with an arrogant, tyrannical posture to intimidate them.

《Good, now it’s finally quiet.》

And as I looked down at the meeting hall that had fallen silent at my command, I made eye contact with each of the 7 Great Evil Gods to confirm our agreed-upon terms.

《Now then, if you wish to hear from this point on—swear on your souls. Swear that you will not betray us.》

The moment I said that, Magica, who had been timing it perfectly, sealed off the meeting hall, and the evil gods other than the 7 Great Ones instantly fell into panic, their eyes darting around.

They seemed to be trying to hide something in their own way, but…. Even so, what was clearly visible to our eyes was probably what they were thinking:

The place is sealed off and they can’t leave anyway, and those powerful gods don’t seem inclined to let them out.

Fortunately, since what those mighty evil gods intend is likely to prevent betrayal, it’s better for no one to betray rather than everyone anxiously wondering who might betray.

《I, Evil God Ker, swear on my soul! I will never betray!》

《I, I too, Evil God Cubelio, swear on my soul not to betray!》

《Evil God Isce also swears! On my soul, I will not betray!》

Thus, after one cunning evil god swore on their soul, the others, terrified of being singled out, began swearing faster than their peers.

And after all the evil gods had finished their oaths.

《Now it’s our turn.》

After the 7 Great Evil Gods, including myself, each swore on our souls one by one, we were finally able to enter the main discussion of the meeting.

《First, let’s talk about the justification for the declaration of war. Magica?》

When I said that, Magica momentarily glared at me.

It was a look of displeasure at being treated as if she were my subordinate…. but that lasted only briefly.

Had she instantly used that cunning and clever mind to devise a strategy, or was she trying to seize this as an opportunity?

The Evil God of Conspiracy, Magica, looked down at them arrogantly like I did and began to speak about what had already been agreed upon among the 7 Great Evil Gods as if it were her own idea.

《Evil gods, this declaration of war might sound foolish. But hear me out.》

Yes. As Magica said, a declaration of war is merely a form of diplomacy conducted for justification after the war, so it would be truly foolish for us evil gods to kindly issue a declaration of war.

In a situation where we’re waging a life-or-death war where the loser dies, rather than engaging in diplomacy, for us who are already at a disadvantage to give up the advantage of a surprise attack through a declaration of war.

If we hope for victory, a declaration of war at this point would truly be a useless act.

《On the day of the declaration of war, we will attack the empire’s key strongholds. Yes, this act itself will be our declaration of war.》

And our declaration of war, which we understand better than anyone, is not so much a declaration that we will invade—but rather an attack with a purpose.

《Aren’t there cities they cannot bear to abandon, cities built for hegemony? Our primary goal is to attack and devastate such cities to reduce their war-waging capabilities while—.》

《….dispersing the forces guarding the capital city. Correct?》

《Correct, King in Red.》

Yes. What we truly desired from this declaration of war was to relatively disperse the legions still stationed in the capital city.

Like the previous industrial city, we would attack cities built for specific purposes, instilling fear in other provincial cities that they might be attacked at any time.

Finally, after dispersing some of the forces guarding the capital, we would prevent the empire’s main legions returning from the front lines from reaching the capital.

In other words, the purpose of this declaration of war was to make the capital easier to capture…. But there was another more important purpose for the other evil gods.

《It’s about time for you all to come to the forefront. I acknowledge the need for caution, but don’t you need to build your forces as well?》

To be frank, currently I was the only god openly active in this pantheon declaring myself an evil god.

Thanks to this advantage, I actively drew aggro, while they secretly expanded their forces in the meantime.

《You all have your circumstances, and this is also part of my choice. So I won’t say much about it…. but shouldn’t you start paying the price for using me?》

I said this while looking at the evil gods who had been doing well so far, and those who felt guilty showed behaviors like clearing their throats.

So after confirming that public opinion had shifted toward the positive side, ignoring the reason, I smiled happily and directed my gaze toward Magica….

Then Magica, who somehow looked tired despite having a bird’s head, came forward and began to speak again.

《Well, I’ll take that as everyone’s agreement and move on to the next agenda. The next item is—a proposal to establish a common faith.》

※ ※ ※

After two more agenda items were discussed, the evil gods’ meeting concluded.

And those two items were deciding on a common faith for the evil gods and determining the locations for the “declaration of war.”

First, the common faith.

Simply put, it refers to a belief system that worships the concept of evil gods itself rather than serving a specific god, or worships multiple evil gods simultaneously.

It’s a faith system that took its motif from the Pantheon faith that exists in the Pantheon, and borrowed its structure from the Undivided of somewhere….

To put it bluntly, it’s a kind of big tent set up for those who want to worship evil gods but refuse to get deeply involved.

While it’s impossible to receive full support by belonging to a sect that worships a specific evil god, it has the advantage of being able to wield quite a broad range of unique abilities.

For example, it would be possible to combine summoning Blood Warriors by offering blood to me, then buffing them with Magica’s unique magic.

Therefore, this faith system—officially named the Evil God Faith, which existed in the original work—is versatile at best, but mediocre at worst.

Especially due to the mechanism of receiving a mishmash of blessings from various gods, there’s a high risk of builds becoming tangled…

Nevertheless, if done well, the ability to become incredibly powerful is perhaps its only significant advantage.

And the second agenda item, determining the locations for the declaration of war was…… well, how should I put it…..

Yes, it was the epitome of filthiness.

This surprise attack using the name “declaration of war” naturally offered opportunities for life—no, divine life reversals, and with enormous interests at stake, there was fierce power struggle among the small and medium-sized evil gods.

They bickered madly about dueling with great swords, owing debts, repaying them, but this was a separate matter that didn’t apply to me at least.

According to what we had secretly agreed upon with the 7 Great Evil Gods in advance, we each received one region we desired.

‘……..Is it here?’

Interestingly, I was assigned a crucial location where the attack absolutely must not fail, with definite interests at stake.

That somewhat familiar-sounding name was “Elandia.”