As I fly towards the rally point all I can do is hope that I am not too late. I have no idea when the emergency message was sent, things could already be over. I quickly let out a breath of relief a few minutes later when the rally point comes into sight.
The rally point is in a depression between some hills, good for concealment but not defense. Huddled in the depression are about four thousand beastmen, only a hundred or so are warriors. Surrounding them are about three thousand human troops and some others.
One group looks like nobles and the other group is definitely from the church. As I approach, one of the nobles seems to be yelling something, so I focus on my hearing. I miss the first part, but manage to get close enough to hear the last of his shout.
Noble yells "Return our slaves to us and we will consider letting the rest of you go free!"
Yeah, right, as if anyone is going to believe that, but why is he even trying? Oh, I see, he is trying to buy time while the church people cast the spell to summon an angel. It seems they don't want to fight the beastmen directly since they don't have overwhelming numbers.
The former slaves may be weakened and untrained, but they will fight like hell to not be enslaved again. The humans are probably scared of the losses they would take even if they managed to win. So, instead they plan to summon an angel and let it lead their troops into battle.
However, I am not about to let their plan work, so I dive and hit the ground like a meteor. I landed between the nobles and the beastmen, but the impact raised quite a bit of dust. When the dust clears I let out a roar that causes almost all of the humans to flinch back.
The church members don't flinch and continue casting their spell, but there is one other as well. Surprisingly, one of the nobles in the back of the group didn't flinch, but his eyes look worried. Maybe I should have dropped shapeshift first, that would have had more impact.
However, being in beastman form is better for the morale of the beastmen. Still, that one human gives me a rather funny feeling and I am smelling something odd. It is only when I remember where I have encountered that smell before that I understand what is going on.
As soon as I figure it out, I have a plan ready to go and I start grinning. I wave at the beastmen behind me to keep them from doing anything and then I wait. As I wait, I appear to ignore the nobles and only watch the church's people.
Finally, after waiting for a few minutes, they complete their spell and a two-winged angel appears. While I am disappointed at how weak it is, that doesn't stop me from grinning. I turn and look directly at the one noble as I cast the detection spell.
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I was right, the spell reveals him to be a demon and the nobles around him aren't surprised. What ends up surprising me is that the angel only glares at the demon, it doesn't attack him. That means that Holos really has betrayed his pantheon and made a deal with the demons!
Now it is even more important that I head to the southern empire and talk to Amn. If Holos has sold them out to the demons, his empire could be in serious danger. First, I need to deal with this lot, then I will head down there and warn him.
I just hope that I can get him and the others in the pantheon to believe me. Amn and his wife will trust me, at least I am fairly confident that they will. The goddess in charge of the pantheon is another story all together.
I will just have to wait and see what happens, for now I have an angel and a demon to kill. I am not too worried, I know the angel is weak and the demon doesn't look all that strong. Besides, even if they are on the same side, I don't see them working well together.
As if to prove my point, when the angel charges towards me, the demon just stands there. As I wait for the angel to reach me, I draw my sword while keeping an eye on the demon. I don't expect the demon to help the angel, I am more worried about it running away.
I also notice that while the nobles and churchmen weren't surprised by the demon, the common soldiers were. They are definitely nervous about what is going on, but seem too scared to run. They are probably worried that if they run, the nobles will order for them to be executed.
They don't realize that if they all ran, there would be no one to listen to the nobles' orders. However, it doesn't really matter, they won't be a factor in this battle. The angel finally reaches me, but I just stand there and let him hit me with his fist.
The attack does nothing to me and the look of shock on the angel's face makes me laugh. I am tempted to let the angel summon help, but things are already complicated enough right now. So, as the angel is trying to back away, I bring the sword down and cut him in half.
As I bend down to pick up the angel's core, I notice that the demon is trying to run. However, since I was expecting it, I quickly hit him with a lightning bolt. It is not enough to kill him, but it does drop him to the ground twitching.
As I slowly walk over to where the demon fell, the nobles panic as they try to get away from me. The few nobles who are too slow to get out of the way, I cut down without mercy. When I reach the demon, he suffers the same fate and I only stop to collect his core.
Next, I make my way over to the church's people and without a word start cutting them down. Surprisingly, none of them try to run, they all just keep chanting as they die. It is the same spell as before, they apparently want to summon another angel.
They are all trying to protect one man, who is probably the leader of the group. They are throwing themselves at me without any regard for their own lives. I admit, I let them slow me down just because I am curious what they will be able to summon.
Besides, if I can get a few more angel cores I will be able to hit my next evolution. Not to mention that since Holos is a lower god in the pantheon, he probably doesn't have many angels. Every one that I kill should weaken him at least a little bit, I hope.
As I am killing my way through the church's people, I order my troops to deal with the nobles. I also tell them to accept the surrender of any of the soldiers that are smart enough to. I plan to let them go so that they can spread word of the church colluding with demons.