"What are you planning to do with them?"
Iron Maiden glanced at Kiana Kaslana, who had just robbed an elf slave merchant and freed an entire group of elves.
Originally, Iron Maiden had intended to kill the Elf King and then install a single elf as a puppet ruler—essentially forming a proxy government.
"I've called in a transport plane. They'll all be sent to a safe place for resettlement."
"Hmm."
Aside from their long, pointed ears and beauty, elves didn't seem all that special to Iron Maiden.
To her, they were simply long-lived, better-looking humans.
"Why bother interfering?"
"I'm a kind person—I can't stand seeing tragedy."
"You really think I'll believe that?"
Iron Maiden rolled her eyes.
"If you don't believe me, I'll just solve our trust issue with force."
Kiana Kaslana raised her fist.
"Alright, alright, I believe you. When are we going to kill that male elf king?"
Knowing that the woman before her preferred fighting to reasoning, Iron Maiden sighed helplessly. The angelic one truly hated pointless discussions—if a problem could be solved with fists, why waste words?
She claimed this was to prevent them from becoming 'female-channel-minded.'
Iron Maiden had looked up what that meant—it referred to those idealistic worlds from light novels written for women. After reading some, she found the characters' logic unbearable: everything revolved around romance or moralizing!
Not a single person with a normal brain among them.
"A mere forest elf—I can kill him like slaughtering a dog."
Kiana Kaslana's body, constructed from enhanced special nanomaterial, could withstand nearly all spells below the eighth tier without injury.
And this time, she had prepared a new secret weapon.
"The Theocracy's people are here."
Just then, Iron Maiden heard footsteps approaching from behind.
She turned to see a squad of soldiers clad in enchanted black metal uniforms.
This time, they didn't attack immediately.
A girl with half-white, half-black hair and heterochromatic eyes stepped forward, a faint smile on her lips.
"You're heading to kill the Elf King, aren't you?"
Normally, she didn't care about other matters, but this—this was something she wanted to handle personally.
"Yes. Do you want to come along?" Kiana Kaslana asked with a smile, studying the girl before her. "Half-elf."
At that word, the girl—Certain Death—frowned. She despised the forest elf blood flowing within her veins.
"Are you angry?" Kiana Kaslana asked knowingly, a smirk tugging at her lips.
"It's not anger. It's disgust."
Certain Death didn't hide it, then continued, "Since you're going to kill the Elf King, why are you staying in my country robbing elf slave shops?"
"Because you have plenty of elves here," Kiana replied lightly. "Oh, and you should really consider freeing the ones you've captured."
"Of course, if you insist on going against us, that's fine too—just be ready to face the consequences."
A naked threat.
Certain Death naturally understood it.
But given their suspected origin—akin to that of the Six Gods or the Eight Greed Kings—the Theocracy dared not act rashly.
Unlike the Six Gods or the Eight Greed Kings, who had accidentally descended into this world, these beings had chosen to descend through avatars. They couldn't be killed.
The Theocracy's upper ranks referred to them as the Celestial Gods.
Through their intelligence network, the Theocracy had confirmed that the white-haired girl spoke no lies. To defy them would invite destruction—not only upon the Theocracy but upon humanity itself.
The high priests had thus decided: as long as these Celestial Gods didn't endanger humanity or the nation, even becoming their vassal state was acceptable.
Their true power remained unknown, but even their puppet bodies were far beyond anything humanly possible—especially once armed.
"You want to kill the Elf King personally? I can try to catch him alive for you," Kiana Kaslana said, a spark of amusement flickering in her eyes.
The strongest human in Ainz Ooal Gown's world.
A descendant of the Players.
"Really?" Certain Death's expression softened slightly, though she still looked at Kiana with faint disbelief.
"Only if nothing unexpected happens," Kiana Kaslana said. "If anything goes wrong, I'll still kill him."
Such things were never a hundred percent guaranteed.
Even with her power, she couldn't rule out the tiniest possibilities—like the Elf King being possessed by a transmigrator or resurrected somehow.
"If I let you capture him alive, what will I get in return?" she asked.
"Anything we have—you can have it," Certain Death replied.
The long, drawn-out war between the Theocracy and the elves had persisted mainly because of the Elf King, Decem Hougan.
If these two could really invade the Great Forest of Evasha and capture the Elf King alive, there would be nothing the Theocracy could deny them afterward.
A silver-white transport aircraft from the forward base descended slowly into the city's central plaza.
The rescued female elves were loaded aboard for relocation and protection, while Kiana Kaslana and Iron Maiden—bringing along a single elf girl—departed the Theocracy's city and continued toward the Great Forest of Evasha.
Upon reaching the skies above the Elven Kingdom's capital—
"Wait here," Kiana Kaslana said to Iron Maiden, then dove down at supersonic speed.
Inside the royal palace, the Elf King Decem Hougan, still lying in bed, suddenly felt a wave of overwhelming danger descend from above.
He instinctively grabbed the forest elf woman beneath him, using her body as a shield.
Rumble...!
The royal palace exploded into rubble. The silver-white spear pierced through both Decem Hougan and the elf woman in an instant.
"What… my power…"
The Elf King tried to summon his core Earth Element, but terror gripped him as he realized his magic was failing. His mana was rapidly draining away.
The silver spear impaling him was absorbing his magic.
At the same time, Kiana Kaslana's newly developed anti-magic magnetic field sealed off all magical activity within a one-kilometer radius.
A double safeguard.
Rather than painstakingly decrypting magic systems, it was far simpler to use her astral quantum computer to invent a black-tech field that rendered others unable to use magic altogether.
"No… impossible!"
Decem Hougan stared in horror at the spear piercing his body. "No! No! I can't die like this!"
He clutched at the weapon, trying to pull it free—but it didn't budge.
The spear had been crafted with Honkai energy—a custom weapon made specifically for slaying mages.
Because she wasn't certain what equipment Decem Hougan might possess or what abilities he had, Kiana had chosen this precise moment to strike.
"Stop squirming."
Kiana Kaslana seized the female forest elf and tossed her aside. A long blade materialized in her hand, and with one clean motion, she severed Decem Hougan's arms and legs.
For good measure—she also cut off his lower parts.
With this world's healing magic, such wounds were not necessarily fatal. Severed limbs could be regenerated through sufficient restorative spells.
"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"
Decem Hougan's agonized scream echoed across the entire capital.