Reborn as God: The strongest system

Esdras spent the night peacefully.

Unfortunately, they weren't able to depart the next day because the supplies they requested were delayed so they had to wait one more day.

They had to get as many supplies as possible, the next decent town on the road was two weeks away. It was called Yellomane, and it was their last stop before making a turn and directly going to the capital.

It was fine since they weren't on any deadline or anything of the sort, their only mission was the escort the prince safely not quickly.

Oh, they also had to deliver the royal relic that the prince was in charge of.

Speaking of the item, he didn't know what it was yet. It was kept locked in a small unadorned chest. The prince didn't bring it up either so they gradually forgot about it.

After traveling out of Cilios for two days, Esdras decided it was time to ask the prince about it out of curiosity.

"Donnis, can you tell me what's so special about the item in the box?" Esdras decided that the straightforward approach worked best with the prince.

"Oh, that?" The prince muttered, "it's nothing, really. Just, you know, it's a very traditional and historic item. It's valuable because of how old it is, there's nothing much to it."

Esdras could tell it was bullshit but he decided to stop probing, after all, he did not want to antagonize the prince for no reason.

"The situation is looking really bleak huh?" Esdras sighed out loud.

"Well, it sure looks that way. But... remember sometimes things have to get worse before they get better." The Prince smiled, "do you know what the Immortal Emperor said when the elves retook Anthalwin? He said, 'the hour of our victory draws ever closer as inevitable as the rising sun, a great many will have to sacrifice everything if we are to cleanse this land of the filth of the elves.'"

"Anthalwin? The city of Moonwillow, unfortunately in the end no one could have it. I am curious, do you think some elves survived?" Esdras asked.

"Survived?" The prince looked stunned as if could not entertain such a possibility. "That is impossible. The Immortal Emperor went to extremes to eliminate every single one of them. There is evidence that he used some methods to discover those who had eleven blood and eliminated them ruthlessly. Even during his reign the efforts never stopped scouring every inch of the continent."

The Immortal Emperor was an important figure in the history of Arandos, perhaps the most important of all.

Four thousand five hundred years ago, in the age of Myth, the elves ruled the world and all other races were their slaves.

When the first humans were yet to paint a simple drawing on cave walls, the elves already had miraculous cities. They believed that all other creatures were animals, those who could walk on two legs were more useful than others.

So, one day, a man among the slaves rose in revolt. And soon it was an all-out rebellion. Some theorized that the Emperor had divine guidance.

After successfully freeing the world from the evil elves he was crowned Emperor unanimously by all the races. He was later called the Immortal Emperor because they believed he was immortal.

He ruled for 1500 years but alas, he disappeared. Or so, the records say. He just probably died much earlier than that after all, it was impossible to leave for that long for a human.

Even master mages could only live a little more than 300 years, that was the limit.

Esdras knew for a fact that the elves will definitely show up in seven years, but he couldn't explain how they survived either.

If they just survived, then he could just chalk it up to them hiding really well all this time. But the problem was that they didn't just survive, they even grew in number and prepared armies.

The immortal emperor seems like an extremely ruthless ruler. He did not doubt that he was going to do anything to exterminate every single elf.

He even killed those who had a drop of Elven blood, as insane as that was, this was a very good indicator that the elves must have done something completely outside of his common sense.

After all, knowing that they had so much advancement in magic, science, and technology means that they must have one leg above the rest of the inhabitants of this world.

Esdras was very interested in the elves, because of how powerful and advanced their magic was.

Time gradually passed peacefully and they were finally about to arrive in Yellomane. There were some shortages here and there, but they were a very powerful group hunting some beasts was not so hard.

While they did fight some monsters every now and then, they didn't encounter any people again for these two weeks.

After all, they were too far away from anything.

However, that quiet and peace were about to be disturbed for good.

They heard a terrible scream of pain and fear on the road, as they got closer to the source they heard a clear commotion of battle.

Esdras motioned for them to stop and not show themselves, he was going to scout ahead to find out about the situation before they decide what to do.

As he got closer over the hill, he heard shouts of alarm and the sounds of battle. A large tree has fallen to block a wagon laden with goods.

From the other side of the tree short, barbed arrows come whipping out over the foliage to embed in the wagon's frame of the driver's empty seat.

The driver can be seen hiding underneath the wagon, while four guards with drawn blades hide behind the fallen tree, arrows, wheezing over their heads.

Esdras knew it wasn't looking good, maybe it was best for them to wait it out? Or we could circle around this whole mess, but he had a feeling the crown prince wouldn't like it.

Hopefully, he could convince him otherwise. But if not, they might have to engage.