The content of that church meeting was simple.
It was the suspicion that this generation's Sword Saint might have awakened the hidden power in her bloodline. According to the testament of the last of the Six Gods, that Sword Saint was not a native of this world, but a wanderer who had been washed into this world by a space-time turbulence. The Sword Saint possessed a power called 'World Blessing.' It was a bonus from the world, an extraordinary power.
The Sword Saint had once mentioned himself that although he had wandered into this world, he possessed a Blessing that would allow him to return to his original world, so he wouldn't stay in this world for too long.
And as it turned out, the Sword Saint had not lied; later, he indeed suddenly disappeared and returned to his own world.
However, the Sword Saint himself probably never imagined that a single experience of being drunk would leave behind offspring in this world. That was the calculation of the Empire's Emperor. After all, the establishment of the Empire was inextricably linked to the Sword Saint's power, so knowing the Sword Saint would eventually leave, that Emperor set up that drinking party.
And without the Sword Saint himself knowing, he let his sister obtain the Sword Saint's seed, establishing the Astrea Family.
The Sword Saint's descendants indeed showed superhuman talent in swordsmanship, but that power called World Blessing had weakened significantly. The high-ranking officials of the Theocracy had always been secretly observing the Astrea Family. Once they encountered a Sword Saint with great talent, they would secretly send people to contact them. If they were willing to submit to the Theocracy, all was well; if they disagreed, they could only be eliminated. In fact, every generation of Sword Saint would pass away strangely in accidents while away; these matters were basically the handiwork of the Theocracy.
Furthermore, the Theocracy had once captured a Sword Saint alive for experiments and even produced offspring.
Si Astrea's parents also died in a trap set by the Theocracy. As for this young girl, at the time everyone believed she hadn't inherited the Sword Saint's talent; no one even taught her swordsmanship, and her magic studies showed no progress. Although her learning ability seemed high, even if she learned magic, it would be meaningless if she couldn't release it stably.
No one could have imagined that just as they relaxed their focus on this girl, she suddenly displayed terrifying talent, slaying a legendary Demon King like the Goblin King on her first time out!
Now things had become troublesome.
Thus, the meeting discussed how to handle this Sword Saint, and the focus of the discussion was: what was this Sword Saint's Blessing, how many Blessings did she have, and exactly how many troops would need to be mobilized to defeat this Sword Saint?
In the end, due to the lack of critical intelligence, and the fact that the Astrea Family would only act when the Empire faced a crisis of annihilation, there was no immediate impact on the Theocracy, so there was no follow-up.
Moreover, the Theocracy now possessed figures who were not inferior to the Sword Saint. Some even believed that the monster of the Theocracy might not necessarily lose even if they faced the First Generation Sword Saint. Therefore, the handling of the Sword Saint was temporarily put aside.
Nigun really hadn't expected to encounter this Sword Saint on this trip; this wasn't in the plan at all.
Hearing the Magic Caster's words, the Sword Saint didn't take the Theocracy seriously and said, "Please do as you wish, Excellency."
"It seems your fate has been decided."
Hearing the Sword Saint's words, the weight in Ainz's heart was finally lifted. Now he could take down this Theocracy unit without any reservations and dig out intelligence about Slane Theocracy from their heads!
Especially intelligence about those World Items—he wanted to dig it all out, every last bit! Was that really a World Item? If it was, what was its name? Furthermore, he was very curious about where these World Items came from. One must know that there were only 200 World Items in YGGDRASIL. Unless a player had crossed over to this world before him, it was impossible for a World Item to appear in this different world. As for what the truth was, let him interrogate their brains!
"Sword Saint! Do you truly wish to make an enemy of our Slane Theocracy?!" Nigun shouted nervously. He even suspected if the Sword Saint knew the truth—that her parents were killed because of the trap set by the Theocracy—and that was why she was ambushing them here.
The Sword Saint remained expressionless, and then Nigun heard her say, "Oh? So
it turns out you didn't know I was here. It seems I misunderstood. But what you said doesn't hold up, because the one killing you is Excellency Ainz; it has nothing to do with me."
Tsukasa looked at Nigun's frantic face and expressed sympathy. This poor commander was likely just a pawn of that wise man, completely unaware of the truth of the plan. It wasn't that she wanted to be an enemy of the Theocracy; it was the Theocracy that had calculated against her first. Besides, she really didn't think the Theocracy would deal with her first. Compared to the threat of the Demon God King, she, a Sword Saint who didn't cause trouble, had no reason for the Theocracy to deal with her first. Moreover, the Theocracy's policy was to prioritize dealing with demi-human races; she was a human, and the Demon God King was an Undead. Did one even need to think about who the Theocracy would deal with first?
Besides, she was just one person. If the Theocracy intended to deal with her, couldn't she just hide? As for the survival of the Empire? What did the Empire's survival have to do with her? They were thinking too much. Do you think she would shed a single tear of sympathy when she saw the Empire fall? So she didn't care about Nigun's threat at all.
"That's right, the one killing you is I, Ainz Ooal Gown. Feel honored."
Tsukasa looked at him.
At this moment, Ainz, who had just finished saying those words, wiped away cold sweat in his heart. This Sword Saint was so insidious, but for the sake of the intelligence in these people's brains...
He accepted this responsibility.
"Damn it, buy me some time!" Nigun knew the opponent's strength must be beyond imagination. After all, a Magic Caster who could be addressed as 'Excellency' by the Sword Saint surely possessed power at the Demon King level or higher. Facing an opponent of this caliber, he could no longer afford to hold back his trump card.
"That's...!" Ainz became instantly alert when he saw what the other party pulled out. "A demon-sealing crystal? Albedo, protect me with a special skill!"
demon-sealing crystals were items that sealed magic. From the information on that crystal, it was a high-tier angel summoning spell. Ainz immediately thought of the 'God-kin' the Sword Saint had mentioned earlier. Could that demon-sealing crystal summon a high-tier angel BOSS?
No, judging by the brilliance of the crystal...
It shouldn't reach that level yet.
"Understood!"
Albedo grew tense, caught up in Ainz's words, while Tsukasa, standing nearby, couldn't help but quietly grip her sword hilt. For a moment, everyone acted as if they were facing a formidable foe.
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