506: Brewing Conflict (1)

Brewing Conflict (1)

It looked like the elves who had surrendered their faith to Arnold, were busy spreading his name. On an average day, he was gaining anywhere from five thousand to fifteen thousand universal influence points. Which meant that he was getting anywhere between five hundred to fifteen hundred followers every day.  2

But for a world that has a population of a little over 10 billion, these many followers won't do him any good. The elven goddess might be thinking the same thing as she still had not appeared on the planet to save her followers. Which could mean one of two things.

First, it was possible that she was asked not to do anything against him by the other gods. Hence she was ignoring him. The second could be that, she genuinely didn't give two fcks about her followers and thus didn't mind Arnold doing whatever he wanted to her people. 

Arnold was hoping that the latter would not be the case. Because if it was then... he wouldn't get anything from Alfheim. Still, on a positive note, he was sure that the elves were a commodity for the other gods due to the use of their blood.

Thus, sooner or later, the gods will have to face him. Especially, if he gained control over elves. Till then, he would simply have to keep going on doing what he was. In the meantime, Talos was busy making a city of their own on Alfheim.

This place would act both as a weapon against the gods and a shield for his elven followers so that he could protect them. It was for that reason that the city was named after his mother and was called Alessia.

Since the city was being built from scratch and as a result, even the elite summons needed a bit of help. That's why Arnold went to visit them and left a ton of newly created automatons and Iron golems along with Dani to assist them. 

Other than its tactical and symbolic importance, Arnold had no interest in anything related to Alessia. As a result, Talos, being his second-in-command, had taken it upon himself to make the city as magnificent as he could. Thankfully, he received help from the elves too who were master architects in their own right. 

The city was being built atop the crowns of majestic hills, which oversaw the forest below. Despite being on top of the mountains, the land around the city was fertile, which made it easier for the elves to indulge in agriculture to feed themselves and their ever-growing population. 

Funnily enough, the elves were adamant about one thing that Talos found to be quite silly. A dedicated temple to their lord and saviour Deathless. Talos was aware of their sentiments but this was quite a bit... weird. 

Talos wasn't against the idea at all. In fact, he immediately assigned enough resources and personnel to make a shrine of some sort dedicated to his master. It was just that how easily the elves had been persuaded to join Arnold and how loyal they were to him when only a few days ago they were preaching to some other god. 

'These elves are weird.' Talos shook his head and went about to complete his other duties, 'Maybe the gods are not concerned about losing them, since they are so easy to win over. They must be thinking once they finish master off, they'll be able to reclaim what was once theirs. Little do they know what will happen once master deems Alfheim worthless.'

The city will continue to live on whether Alfheim does or not. In the case Arnold decides to destroy Alfheim, he could easily place the city inside his domain and leave. This way, the city could be used again and again as they invade and conquer new worlds. It looked like Arnold had already planned for even the littlest of things. 

***

Somewhere else on Alfheim, the leaders of the remaining eleven Elven factions had gathered to discuss their next course of action.

The aggressive expansion of the new religion did not look appealing to all of the elves. They saw Arnold and his followers as the threat he truly was and wanted to do something about him. But unlike before, the gods were no longer responding to their prayers. 

They didn't know why none of the gods was trying to help them anymore. The feeling of getting abandoned was slowly overpowering their faith. Sadly, they weren't aware of Odin's order which prohibited the gods to communicate with the elves in any shape or form. Until and unless it was for the purpose of 'harvesting' them. 

Finally, the elves decided to take the matter into their own hands and slowly began forming a resistance against the heretics and their false god. But they had to be careful. All of them had heard what happened the last time the elves tried to get rid of the false god. That too, when they were being led by Asgardians.

Thus they knew, if they wanted to win, they had to strike when the enemy is not prepared. Or at least when they are in a worse situation than they were during their fight with the forces led by Lady Sif. If not, then rushing in now was more or less like forfeiting their lives. 

"Before we do anything, there is one thing we absolutely need... information." Said the leader of the fallen elves, Aimon Valana, a redhead, dark-skinned beauty, "Thankfully, we know exactly how to get that."

She clapped twice and a blindfolded elf was brought forward into the dark room. The other leaders had a perplexed look on their faces, but Aimon started speaking once again to quell their thoughts. 

"This is one of the heretics who enter one of my villages wanting to spread the word about his 'great' and 'merciful' lord." She said with a cruel smirk on her face, "But for someone on such an important mission, he seriously lacked the security he should have had. Either way, thanks to this foolish heretic, we will now be able to know about this city of... what was it called again? Right, the city of Alessia."

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