"That concludes Dark Scripture Jeros's report. What are your thoughts?" Earthgod-Official Raymond asked.
Inside Raymond's personal meeting room, all the High Priests of the Six Scriptures, in addition to himself, and the Chief Priest of the Institute for Magic Development, were present.
Although this lineup wasn't for the monthly routine meeting, it was close. The fact that Raymond had suddenly summoned the High Priests of the Six Scriptures and the Chief Priest of the Institute for Magic Development indicated the severity of the issue.
While the Chief Priests sitting together now looked as if they were casually chatting over tea, all of them had furrowed brows and serious expressions, except for Firegod-Official Benice, who maintained her usual amiable smile.
"Why are you only telling us about that child's duel with Clementine now? The Fire Extinguishing Scripture's unit is departing tomorrow, and I need Clementine's help," Firegod-Official Benice spoke first.
"Benice, now is not the time to discuss this. Besides, Clementine is perfectly fine, isn't she? Just proceed with the original plan," Raymond said.
"Then what do you intend to convey by calling us here?" Benice continued to ask, looking completely bewildered.
"I just wanted to ask for your opinions on the outcome of that child's duel with Clementine, and Clementine's announcement of her self-developed new magic," Raymond explained with a hint of helplessness.
Seeing Ruoqiebeien, the Chief Priest of the Institute for Magic Development, who usually only appeared at the monthly routine meetings, everyone basically had some idea of what was going on.
"I don't think that child would lose to Clementine. It was probably just a draw, and Clementine is just bragging!" Light Chief Priest Ion said.
He was very familiar with that child's strength. Leaving aside the Great Demon Ainz Ooal Gown himself, there was no reason for his daughter, Clementine, to win against her.
"Then how do you explain that child's abnormal behavior these past few days?" Archgod-Official Maximilian asked.
He was the Chief Priest directly responsible for managing and caring for Death Knight. Every move of Death Knight would be reported to him, and Maximilian had also reported Death Knight's abnormal behavior to Raymond these past few days. Combining this with Gelos's report, it was clear that Death Knight had lost.
"That still doesn't prove that child lost to Clementine!" Ion still refused to accept the fact of Death Knight's defeat.
After all… if the last hope, Death Knight, couldn't even defeat the Great Demon Ainz Ooal Gown's daughter, then humanity truly had no hope.
"Accept reality, Lord Ion. I know it's hard for you to accept, but almost everyone agrees on this now. There's no point in your continued insistence. The primary reason I've gathered you all here today is to convey this matter to you, to give you some time to think. By the next routine meeting, I can only rely on you all to come up with some effective methods," Raymond said.
"Hey! Do you all really think so?!" Ion looked at the other Chief Priests in disbelief. The other Chief Priests remained silent, and seeing their reactions, Ion himself found it hard to say anything more.
Although he had shifted the problem to others, who could come up with a solution? The strongest ace had been defeated, and not even by the Great Demon. This basically ruled out the possibility of confronting the Magic Kingdom head-on. If even that child couldn't win, who else could fight on the front lines?
"However, judging from Gelos's description and that child's condition today, at least Clementine didn't have the ability to directly kill her in the duel, so we still have hope," Raymond said, trying to comfort everyone as he saw their dispirited expressions.
After all, Death Knight had gone all out with full equipment. Given that child's temperament, she would certainly have fought Clementine to the death. However, after that duel, that child didn't show any side effects from resurrection magic, which indicated that she had not been killed and resurrected in that duel.
This meant that there was still a possibility of turning the tide with the help of strategies or more powerful secret treasures, although this was just Raymond's wishful thinking.
"Then… there's one more thing. Please look at what Gelos brought back," Raymond said, seeing that everyone else had nothing more to say. He then took out a very strange item that Gelos had "conveniently" taken from Clementine's room: a small, irregularly shaped metal fragment, only about the size of a pinky fingernail.
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