〔Enhanced Strength IV: increases base strength to 40.〕
I stared at the notification in confusion.
Crushing a species? When did *that* happen?
The last species we fought that could be called "major" were murder hornets, and although we dealt a heavy blow to their population in the Operation Explosives, it was far from making them go extinct.
Not-evolved murder hornets were living across most of this continent, and the forces of the Bee Empire didn’t spread this far yet!
My confusion was short-lived. A few seconds after this notification, just as my Advisers began wondering why I was staring into space again (and if this could mean something good from my system), a larger shock replaced it.
The air on the other side of the table—right behind Workharder’s shoulder—rippled, and a bird-headed man in a dark green cloak appeared in this place.
This caused an immediate reaction. Bloodhero jumped out of her seat, reaching for her combat knife; Workharder almost threw her empty cup at the god, but paused mid-movement. Worriesgone gasped and hid behind Things-Things’s back, who was—alongside Tabletina—threatening Dalmanrach with three forks at once.
Everybody else was equally shocked and eager to point something sharp—their stinger, if nothing else—at the intruder. The only exception was Ambrosia, whose face was still as stone and equally unwelcoming.
And this was with my girls actually recognizing Dalmanrach! Some of them saw him appear in smoke—although back then he had looked very differently from his current, modest form—but others had plenty of descriptions to go by.
I could only imagine what would’ve happened if this was someone unfamiliar.
"Girls!" I exclaimed, rising from my seat. "Put down your weapons—this isn’t an enemy!"
Dalmanrach looked over the Council Chamber with a humorous glint in his bird eyes.
"That’s right, little mortals." He looked over at me. "Nectus, I came to congratulate and thank you and your kin for doing your part in bringing down the murder hornets of this world. As well as taking good care of the dodos I left you."
I cleared my throat and sat down. In this situation, I couldn’t even be angry that Dalmanrach started not just myself this time, but everybody at once.
At least they were calming down now, although the atmosphere was still tense. They might’ve lowered their weapons, but the thoughts my girls had were written on their faces so clearly, I didn’t have to read their minds.
They might’ve accepted Dalmanrach’s help as that of a distant ally, and they accepted dodos as pets and beasts of burden, but seeing an all-powerful being right next to them was giving them a lot of anxiety. Especially when another god almost killed me just a couple of days ago.
"What do you mean, Dalmanrach? Murder hornets still exist, don’t they? Malevolence is still hunting them!" I asked.
Dalmanrach relaxedly waved his arm—a motion that made several bees jolt.
"The court made a very clear verdict about the Goddess of Hornets. She broke the rules in a way that left no arguments about it or the punishment she deserved for this act. She had been fully suppressed and absolved of powers for two thousand years, and all murder hornets of Earth-Omega-0048 were made sterile. They will die out in a generation."
Since hornets—except for their queens—had a lifespan of three months, this meant that they really were effectively a gone species.
I let out a breath and shook my head.
"This is just insane... But a victory is a victory, I suppose! You hear that?" I addressed my girls.
Bloodhero smiled a little, only to frown again when she looked at Dalmanrach. Others had a similar reaction—their happiness was too reduced by Dalmanrach’s presence.
The god didn’t seem to mind these reactions, but it was hard to say with his bird expression. Still, when he tilted his head, his beak looked almost like it was smiling.
"The achievement you got was your share of spoils from this court case. This isn’t all, though. I told you that killing the hornets was the next step toward the abolition of the Game..."
"Hey, isn’t it too dangerous to talk like that? Aren’t we being watched even now?"
Dalmanrach made a clicking sound.
"Who do you take me for, Nectus? Of course, I took care of that. It might not seem to you, but our conversations are private. And your latest efforts did a lot in letting me do something ."
I let out a sigh of relief.
"Well, that’s good. But... We are still very far from actually stopping the Game, aren’t we?"
"Of course. I ask you to keep breeding more dodos, Nectus. A lot more. There should be more of them than humans... No matter how you achieve it. Keep advancing your technologies as well. When your empire reaches the so-called ’modern’ age, you will be ready to receive my next task."
And after giving this not-at-all complicated quest, Dalmanrach waved a hand to the bees in the Council Chamber, and then disappeared.
Everybody immediately visibly relaxed, although there was still tension in the air.
"So that’s how god-creatures look up close," Ambrosia mused darkly. Her expression was as steely as when Dalmanrach first appeared. "Although he’s able to look like whatever he wants, he chooses to be *this*..."
"No wonder humans are so eager to worship him. His palms are like those of bees, but there are only two of them!" Workharder added.
"In all pictures for humans, Dalmanrach-creature is drawn with human fingers," Worriesgone said, making "hooks" with her own claws. "I think he actually looks better with human fingers myself. At least this way he doesn’t try to resemble a bee!"
"He’s probably our best hope of not dying in the long term, girls! Why—actually, why are you so stubbornly calling him a ’creature’?"