"There's been a lot of movement already, even though it's only been a few weeks," Raya started, bowing her head lightly at me as she stood in front of my throne, "Your takeover of the devils didn't go unnoticed, and the Norse Allfather, Odin, called for a meeting between various factions recently. It's probably about us, and even though the scouts have gathered a lot of intel about the Greek Pantheon, with so many factions making moves at the moment, waiting might be the best course of action."
I simply nodded my head easily, taking in what she had said. It'd been roughly a week since my first entry to the E-Rank World, also known as the HOTD universe, and things hadn't been stagnant on the DxD side even with time being slowed down while I was gone.
My scouts had been gathering intel on the Greek Pantheon, as while I had a shit-ton of man power with the Maou under my control now, they still weren't enemies that I could challenge carelessly.
They were in a similar position to many god-centered pantheons, and conquering them would be annoying. That position was how their power was distributed - instead of like the devils, who had four powerful Maou, with 2 ultra-powerful leaders, or the Grigori who had pretty much just Azazel and a couple of weaker leaders, the Greek Pantheon was much more well-rounded.
It wasn't as simple as targeting the head and forcing the rest to follow. There were the 12 strongest gods, the Olympians, but they weren't even the main problem. While all of them were powerful gods in their own right, none of them except for Hades could make a case for being within the Top 10, and as a result, none of them were really all that threatening to me.
Even Hades probably couldn't hold his own against me at this point, as I had taken down Sirzechs - someone much stronger than the God of the Dead - with inferior armor to my current set, and with much lower stats before completing all the quests after conquering the devils. Their top dogs weren't the problem, but instead their lower-ranking gods.
To say my army was top-heavy was putting it lightly. There was myself, Tiamat, and many strong subordinates, such as Sirzechs, Ajuka, Azazel, Benemue, Vargan, etc., but the majority of my troops were fodder. The hundreds of thousands of soldiers comprised of low-level direwolves, dwarves, succubi, devils, fallen, and various other creatures couldn't compete in a war like this.
The Greeks' lower-ranking troops, by comparison, were still gods, as there were countless minor and less powerful gods related to damn near anything in the world you could think of. The 'Minor Goddess of Ants' might not look strong next to Zeus, but she could probably still take on a thousand direwolves on her own.
You would think that they'd run out of things to create a god around, but the Greeks certainly didn't. There was a god for damn near every river, mountain, and probably even pond in the human world. So, while I was probably still winning in the troop-number battle, it wasn't an overwhelming landslide.
But, while I knew the Greeks wouldn't just roll over, the more overarching concern was the other factions in the world. Raya warning me about this impending supernatural-worldwide meeting right now was the first time she had mentioned it, and it had become a central point for my next plan.
Odin had apparently been going around trying to hold a meeting between various factions, and considering that he hadn't done that in canon, it was safe to assume that the meeting was probably about me, or something I had done to change this world. The most concerning part was that he had contacted the Hindu Pantheon, which just so happened to be the home of two gods who could actually pose a threat to me.
Indra and Shiva were definitely threats, as even without counting their numerous powerful subordinates and allies, their strength alone could rival mine. I had defeated Sirzechs and grown much stronger since then, but considering Indra had enough strength to take on all four Maou at the same time, I knew he wouldn't be an easy fight.
Overall, I had too many eyes on my back, and the Greek Pantheon wasn't easy enough to conquer in a single night. It'd take a genuine effort by me, my powerful subordinates, and a large portion of my army. In the time it would take to conquer them, other factions wouldn't just sit by idly.
"That's fine," I hummed, casually leaning my cheek on my fist as I sat lazily in my throne, "I have no problem with waiting. Actually, waiting is better."
"Better?" Raya tilted her head at me curiously, and I just grinned lightly, my teeth baring a bit.
"We'll let them feel comfortable. Let them feel safe," I continued, my grin turning slightly predatory.
The Greeks used the East Youkai Faction for a reason. They wanted to hide under the radar and let them take my wrath in their place, and by leaving them alone for now, they'd think their plan worked.
I was a conqueror, and I was definitely a beast, but I wasn't a mindless one. Charging in now would certainly punish them for trying to kill Yasaka, but it'd hurt me in the long run. Instead, I would bide my time, let them think that I didn't know they were behind the attack, and then-
"When they least expect it, we'll attack," I continued, "We'll catch them with their guard down, kill the leaders, and take everything in one moment."
The Greek Pantheon wouldn't be left off the hook for what they did, and, in a way, letting them feel safe and secure before I took everything was even more cruel than crushing them now.
But, for now, the Greeks would wait. I was still busy with other endeavors, and keeping quiet for a bit in the DxD world was overall essential for my overarching plan.
"How's the progress going in the other world?" I asked Raya, raising an eyebrow at her.
"It's continuing as expected," Raya nodded at my question, "It's just as you said - there's no one that can threaten our forces, and the undead are easy to handle. All of the human safe camps in Tokonosu have fallen under your rule, and the majority of the undead have been cleared out. There's still an occasional attack, but we're weeding them out. Expansion to other cities in the country has already started as well, and within a month- er, two weeks? In around two weeks, most of the country will be cleared out and under your rule."
I nodded at Raya's words, just grinning slightly at the last bit. She was understandably confused by my insistence that time slowed down in whichever world I wasn't in, and considering that she'd been in the world personally while I was out and hadn't noticed the slowing of time, she was extra confused.
But, for someone who hadn't even known what a human was not even a year ago, much less an entire world full of them, Raya was handling the situation perfectly. Especially considering I had just created the portal out of nowhere, and then thrust the situation on her without warning. I had gone back into the E-Rank World a few times in the past week, but I hadn't needed to.
It really was lucky that I found her in the forest all those months ago, because without her, my Kingdom would be running at a fraction of its current efficiency. Considering the literal tens of millions of undead in the E-Rank World, I thought I'd personally have to do a lot of legwork or send someone like Sirzechs over to clear out masses of them, but she was making good progress with just a couple thousand soldiers.
I had considered briefly trying to find a way to control them, either with magic or with a skill, but overall I had thrown away the idea. It was too much of a hassle, and while millions of undead soldiers would be nice, any decent opponent I threw them at would just cut through them effortlessly - the same way my troops were doing now.
Now, all I really had to do was wait for the final undead to be cleaned out in Tokonosu for my quest, and then watch as my troops claimed the rest of the world. At moments like this, when I didn't really have any overall goals to work towards, I almost wished the time-slowing system wasn't in place.
There was still an insatiable hunger in my gut, and waiting around like this did nothing to sedate it. I could only enjoy having sex so many times before I was eager for something more action-packed, and I had considered recklessly opening another portal, even if just to an F-Rank World, to cure this boredom.
But I had decided not to be reckless just because I was bored. However, I was certainly going ot open another portal, and I was going to do it soon.
"Good work. You're making progress even quicker than I expected, but," I hummed at Raya, "Take more soldiers through to speed up the process even more. The other factions keeping an eye on us are annoying, but we have too much power for them to move immediately. It would be better to stabilize the entire country before they make a move, so we can pull them all back and not be worried about the undead causing problems."
While the entire supernatural world ganging up on me was more than a bit concerning, they couldn't move foolishly either. It was still myself, Tiamat, four Maou, and an army waiting for them on the other side of the battlefield.
Granted, the combined might of multiple factions was definitely enough to take us down, but they couldn't put that together so quickly. It would take time for them to negotiate, and even more time for them to actually work together.
Faction leaders tended to have big egos, and big egos meant you had to manage those egos. If I were being aggressive and already pushing my forces into the human world, then they might've pushed those egos aside to handle me immediately, but if I was just sitting here, waiting as I expanded my power into other worlds?
Then, the looming threat of my domination would take a backseat as the various factions trying to work together fought for power within their own alliance. As that happened, I could continue to expand into other worlds, abusing the time-slowing mechanic to further gain more soldiers and powerful subordinates.
That was a part of the long-term plan - gain more subordinates from other worlds, use those subordinates to eventually put down the rest of the factions in the DxD world, and then combine the entire DxD universe under my banner.
I'd need a lot of manpower to conquer the rest of this world, as while someone like Ophis could be manipulated, and someone like Great Red wouldn't cause me any problems, they weren't the big-bads of this world - or, technically, of the other world that would inevidatebly break through into this one.
But that was in the far, far future. For now, that wasn't even mentioning the S-Rank and S+-Rank worlds that I would eventually attempt to conquer. I needed a lot of manpower, and this was my time to get the gears moving.
"After you take more soldiers through, put someone else in charge of handling that world," I said bluntly, causing Raya to look at me with surprise. "There's nothing in that world that a decent commander can't handle. Instead, I'll be needing you to watch over a different, more dangerous world."
"A more dangerous one?" Raya raised an eyebrow at me, looking slightly doubtful, "You're going to open a portal to another world? Shouldn't we finish dealing with this one first?"
"No. In fact, it's the opposite," I shook my head, surprising Raya again, "We need to take advantage of the other factions not being united yet. When they're baring their fangs at us, we'll need to recall all our troops, but for now, we can utilize them to their fullest."
When they finally were united and trying to threaten my Kingdom, I'd need to recall all my troops to take them down. That meant that right now, while they were still figuring things out, I needed to take advantage of being able to make moves in other worlds.
I would open a portal to the D-Rank World first, and depending on how difficult it was, I'd try to take over it quickly and then move onto the C-Rank one before their alliance was finalized. I could use my troops to speed up the process, and then take the gains of those worlds to use against the fully formed alliance.
"Also," I continued as Raya nodded at my first order, "Tell Ajuka I want a meeting with him. We need to delay that multi-faction alliance from forming for as long as possible."
The longer it took, the better it was for me. I'd grow stronger, gain strong subordinates from other worlds, and continue to grow my empire. Meanwhile, they would stay stagnant, having political battles over who would get portions of my land after I was taken down.
Normally, I'd need to act personally in this situation, as I couldn't just send someone to crash their meeting and expect them to return unharmed. It would be a meeting between the strongest faction leaders this world had to offer, so sending someone to make a ballsy play would be sentencing them to death.
So, I'd send Ajuka. Killing that guy was a headache and a half, so he should be fine, right?
"I will," Raya nodded her head again, but paused as she looked up at me, blushing slightly, "Um, also, now that you're not needed in the other world, there have been a lot of devil pillar clans requesting meetings with you."
"Devil clans?" I blinked, narrowing my eyes slightly, "I'll deal with them."
If the devil clans were unhappy with their new ruler and wanted to voice their discontent, they'd need to be shown that I wasn't the same as the four Maou. I would say I was a kind and generous ruler, but I certainly wasn't one who gave a damn about what they wanted.
They'd do what I wanted, or I'd be implementing new heads for their clan soon enough.
"A-Ah, it's not like that," Raya blushed a bit deeper as she clarified, "They want to give you gifts."
Gifts?
"Gifts?" I verbalized my thought, staring at Raya blankly.
Was that a part of their culture I didn't know about or something? Considering I sent half the clans to extinction and conquered their entire species, I thought that gifts would be the furthest thing from their minds right now.
"W-Well, by gifts, I mean, um…" Raya just trailed off, glancing away with a blush, "Y-You'll see…"
Well, I planned to head into the D-Rank world soon, but that would have to wait.
After all, it'd be rude of a King not to accept gifts from his subjects, right?
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AN: The 'Conquer the Dead' arc is officially over! Thank you for reading, and the next chapter will be posted tomorrow!
Or you can also read the next 7 chapters right now on Patreon.com/Koyon !