They approached not even an hour after the youths were sent to Gehenna.
Their numbers honestly weren't that high. There were 1000 of them at most. In comparison to the usual army that existed under the influence of Gods, it was minuscule.
But in front of the Gehenna Tribe, it was massive.
The entire tribe consisted of at most 500 people, and of them, only around half could fight.
Standing with their numbers only a fourth of their enemies, with the help of two otherworldly guests, the Gehenna Tribe was forced to prepare for a fight.
The Saintess watched her people evacuate the village and hide in the severed garden, praying that their peers would return from battle safely.
She watched those peers grab their weapons and prepare for battle, expressions of doubt on their faces as they questioned whether they'd live past this day or not.
This wasn't the first time she'd seen this scene, but it would be the last.
She knew what would happen from this point forth, but she had no power to change it.
Her job was to take care of the tribe until this moment.
Every Saintess would have to deal with a cataclysm during their rule.
For her, it was the Uruk's attack that almost eradicated their people.
This time, the Count's arrival was a test for Thalia.
The Saintess was still alive, but the arrival of this calamity meant the end of her rule.
And it also meant she could not help in this battle.
Her eyesight spanned a great distance, homing in on the approaching army.
The thousand men at the head were not too powerful. Rather, their power level seemed perfectly matched to that of the villagers.
It was the Count's sadistic tendency that led to such a scenario.
This army was unnecessary.
The Count needed the Saintess and the elders to let him into Gehenna, but he didn't need anyone else's help to get that.
With his power, what could the tribe do?
They could either be eradicated, or they could comply.
But what was the fun in an easy victory?
The Count wanted to see a show.
He wanted the villagers to maintain hope that they could win. Only then would they act the way he wanted them to.
As such, an army that was impossible for them to beat was assembled, but it was made up of weak people, giving them the sense that they could win this battle.
Perhaps some of the villagers were fooled by that facade. Perhaps some of them knew the truth but convinced themselves otherwise so they could fight confidently.
Tiamat and Darius didn't participate in their antics.
They were not members of the village, but they had no choice but to fight in this battle regardless.
For one, Damien was in Gehenna, and they really had nowhere to go until he returned.
And on a more emotional level, both of them had become attached to the tribe to some degree.
Still, they had more experience than the Gehenna people, and their power was also on another level.
When they looked out into the approaching army, what they saw wasn't the small amount of weak troops, but the three people behind them.
Two of them were Demigods, standing to each side of the Count, the only God present.
One was a butler, while the other was a woman in dark robes. The two of them had powerful auras, sure, but they were nothing next to the man they served.
The Count's aura was extremely terrifying for Tiamat and Darius, these two Demigods.
They couldn't see a way to win against him.
This was a hopeless battle from the start.
'Unless Damien can return.'
The two of them had the same thought.
Neither of them had seen it happen before, but Damien's reputation was quite extreme in Void Palace. The deeds he did during their ten-year training period had spread far and wide among the people at the main palace.
The fact that Damien killed a God was well-known, and a huge part of the reason why he was able to take the Young Lord position so rapidly.
There was no way for Tiamat or Darius to know the specifics of True Godhood, since nobody had taught them yet, but they believed that Damien could defeat the Count.
"We just need to hold off until he shows up."
Tiamat spoke. Darius nodded in agreement.
They could tacitly understand each other in this situation. It wasn't that hard.
The villagers wouldn't be able to deal with the army alone, but they couldn't help, because they had to take the two Demigods and make sure they couldn't interfere.
As for the Count…
"...we can only hope that his personality is like that."
Tiamat was used to the Nox. She'd seen how they operated, and if this man was part of the race that created the Nox in their image, it was obvious how he would act too.
'They never think their arrogance will bring them down. At one point, I didn't either.'
But at the end of the day, one would always meet one's fate if one lived one's life arrogantly.
'Okay.'
The villagers would fight the army, they would take the Demigods, and they'd make sure the battle didn't end until Damien appeared.
The most important thing was making sure the Count didn't notice anything off.
If he believed he was being toyed with, or if he realized someone stronger was coming, there was no guarantee he'd remain arrogant.
There was a lot of time.
Five long minutes passed before the army finally arrived at the tribe's borders. It was made up of mostly weak people below 4th class, after all.
They stood facing the 250 villagers who readied themselves for the battle.
These people didn't come here because they wanted to.
When the Count asked for troops, he would get troops. These people were regular farmers and citizens, but they'd been forced to fight in a war they didn't understand the purpose of.
They'd been terrified the entire way here, but they kept their mouths shut to keep their lives.
Now, seeing their enemies, who looked like a bunch of uncivilized tribe folk who only knew how to use primitive weapons, their eyes glinted with hope.
If it was just this much, they could survive and return to their families.
On top of that, they'd received a reward that would help them live much more lavishly than before.
They didn't know what crimes the villagers had committed. They didn't know how this tribe in the middle of nowhere managed to offend the Count.
But it didn't matter.
They also had livelihoods. They also had families to return to.
So they couldn't think about the livelihoods and families of others anymore.
It was a war where neither side wanted to fight. It was a war that existed only for the pleasure of a single man.
But it was a war that would take place nonetheless.
The Count grinned.
His eyes were on the Saintess. Nobody else had worth in his eyes.
"It has been a long time, Saintess…" he said, his voice dark and malevolent.
He grinned, his aura blackening the sky.
"This time will be different. This time…I have prepared a festival just for you."
He raised his hand, memories flashing through his head.
"You will give me Gehenna. Otherwise…"
His army began its charge.
"...I will take everything from you instead."
