I successfully subjugated Agna.
That said, something still feels off — like she's harboring hidden intentions — so I can't afford to let my guard down.
Killing her right here and now would be one option, but she's sitting in a rather sweet position as a Demon King's Army general who's been secretly leaking information to the elves. Might as well put her to work like a carriage horse.
Specifically, I'd have her dig up intelligence on the elves while simultaneously feeding the Demon King's Army-friendly version of information back to the elves.
I'm not holding my breath on the first part.
I'd definitely gather more intel doing it myself than relying on Agna to snoop around.
What really matters is the second part.
I want to feed the elves false information — or true information that doesn't matter — and use that to exert some control over their movements.
If that works, setting a trap becomes possible too.
Push too hard and I'll just earn their distrust, so I'll leave the fine-tuning to Agna.
I gave Agna a brief explanation of all this (which ended up taking the better part of a day), strutted around showing off my split bodies, and then teleported home.
I'm exhausted.
Mostly mentally.
Seriously, working with other people is such a hassle.
Wouldn't it just be easier to do everything myself?
Why can't people just understand each other?
Tell me, God.
Oh, but D — you don't count.
I want to rest, but I can't afford to.
While my main body was dealing with Agna, my split bodies had been busy. I need to review what happened and come up with countermeasures.
First up — the Great Ello Dungeon group.
They've reached the opposite entrance and are about to begin their infiltration of the Daztorudia Continent.
As expected, there's a fortress-like structure built over the entrance, manned by lookouts from the Human race.
Since they need to sneak past those watchful eyes, they can't all go at once — each one has to slip through undetected.
Spider traffic jam in progress.
Those who've gotten through are already exploring the Daztorudia Continent, but at this rate it'll be a while before full-scale operations begin.
Next — the Human race territories group.
Shifting their mission from searching for reincarnators to monitoring the elves.
They'll continue gathering intel in cities, but beyond that, the focus moves toward finding and surveilling the elves.
Unsurprisingly, they haven't found many elves in this short time. I'll need to play the long game here too.
The Demon race territories.
Agna is handled.
Next: beef up surveillance on the remaining army commanders and other power players.
So far, the only ones with ties to the elves are Warkis and Agna — both now dealt with.
Warkis's territory will be temporarily managed by that punk Chinpira. If things go smoothly, Chinpira gets promoted ahead of schedule and takes over Warkis's post. That's my guess.
Sensei.
After that incident, she linked up with another elven squad and is now safely under their protection.
I haven't stopped watching her.
If Sensei tries anything funny, she won't get off easy.
The vampire girl.
She's been causing quite a stir at the academy.
Hey, come on now.
At your specs, you could crush any run-of-the-mill elite demon with one hand. If you actually get serious, you'll kill all the kids around you.
What are you even doing?
And finally — the most critical front: the elf village.
The three eggs I had my watchers swallow have hatched successfully.
Right on schedule — they hatched just as they passed through the barrier.
We've successfully infiltrated the barrier.
A little "good evening" from inside their stomachs while they sleep at night.
Stomach acid one!
Stomach acid two!
Stomach acid three!
All three together — the Gastric Acid Sisters!
Ta-daa!
Ugh, that's disgusting.
Nope. No way.
I mean, gross for whoever gets killed by them, but honestly? Gross for me too. Never again.
With just three of them, their capabilities are limited, so they'll lay low for now and focus on multiplying.
Luckily, the elf village is enormous. Beyond the residential areas, there's a vast stretch that's basically untouched forest. Food shouldn't be an issue.
Worst case, I can supply energy from the main body. The barrier would significantly reduce the transfer efficiency, though.
There's also a slight disruption to my connection with them. It won't cut off entirely, but information arrives with a time lag.
Case in point — in my perception, they should have hatched a while ago, but the news of their hatching just came through now.
In real time, they probably hatched over half a day ago.
I'd like to fix this perceptual drift, but while the barrier is active, that's probably not possible.
I'd rather not, but maybe I should give the split bodies inside the barrier a degree of independent will.
With the current remote-control setup, a time lag during an emergency could leave me completely unable to respond. If that happens, the split bodies inside the barrier could be wiped out in a chain reaction.
To prevent that, I should probably grant them some capacity for autonomous judgment.
So, it's been quite a while, but I'm splitting off a piece of my will.
Injecting it into the split bodies inside the barrier.
The barrier interfered with this process too — it took a considerable amount of time. Wasted energy on top of that.
But from here on, they should manage on their own inside the barrier.
Good luck, Gastric Acid Sisters!
That covers the surface world for now.
Overall, I'm moving toward deploying more forces against the elves.
The elves will be crushed. That's a done deal.
And I'll continue the work that's been underway alongside it.
Thinking about it, what I'm doing might constitute a betrayal of Sensei.
Sensei is working to save the reincarnators.
Meanwhile, I'm in a position where I might end up killing them.
Not just the reincarnators.
Humans, demons, elves, monsters — it doesn't matter.
All of them, on a scale of mass slaughter unlike anything before.
Some reincarnators will inevitably get caught up in it.
Steal their Skills.
Because that's what I'm after — and the more Skills someone possesses, the higher their probability of dying.