He said aloud so that Tanya will hear him clearly. "Demigods of the sky god are easily angered. It made it very easy for me to kill that Tyke dunce. It is a surprise that such people have not been weeded out by Natural selection and competition. I guess there have to be some merits to acting without thinking."
"I'll kill you Helios."
Tanya roared angrily. Her voice is so loud that everyone within the headquarters turned towards the source only to find a giantess being held down by 9 priests. Her bloodshot eyes and the lightning sparks in the straightened hair on her head give her the image of a crazy person.
He shook his head in mirth. The first god of the sky and tempest couldn't be stupid to reach that position or he could be but also has to be incredibly lucky. The past doesn't matter now. The fact is that regardless of how they are before, becoming a god changes you. Becoming the god of tempest makes those changes align with a chaotic mental state and mood. Some of these changes are then inherited by the demigods. It's why no one stared at Tanya for long before resuming their activities.
He gave up taunting Tanya when he reached the post for information and reconnaissance. The priest accompanying him prepared the records and maps they have for him to peruse. He looked through the maps and records quickly. The records showed the position of the troops, their progress, and the composition of the enemy forces. He was able to approximate the position of the mound and the best route of attack. He also acquired information about the number of troops that the churches are dedicating to this mission.
The priest was giving advice from the side. "We haven't seen any of the royal guards of the Goliath ants yet. It is obvious that the ants are bent on stalling. Their royal soldiers will be the last line of defense and should be close to the mound. We will need heavy firepower if we intend to reach the mound behind enemy lines."
He listened attentively. The members of his team began to arrive as he discussed with the priest.
The priest continued. "Attacking the mound will be incredibly dangerous because we will be surrounded on every side without any way to retreat. There's a motion to attack the mound at once. The different groups of demigods will come together for the strike. All the representatives have agreed with this plan of action."
"Won't attacking the mound turn the entire ant hoard on us? What do we need the army for then if just the group of demigods can handle the horde at once?" He asked.
Each demigod is limited to a team of 10 including the demigod and there are 9 demigods on the scene. Which means just 90 mana entities intend to take on thousands of ants.
"That will spell death. The demigods can't handle the horde at once. That's why we intend to force the ants to focus on the soldiers instead of them. The army will push the offensive while the demigods and their team enter the ant's domain. If the ants chose to focus on them, then they will leave their back wide open." She answered and showed the proposed movements on the map.
"Good plan, except it is full of holes. What if, and I am just putting this out there, what if the ants decide to be foolish and focus on the demigods and sacrifice large numbers to achieve it?"
It will be foolishness to think that ants will decide to be reasonable when they can deal the gods a blow by killing 9 demigods.
She explained the crucial information about their plan. "That's why we are bringing in the annihilators. We will make it visible by setting it up at the front lines. They will have to stop us or risk having their numbers annihilated in catastrophic numbers."
Annihilators are very special priests that have a unique rune weapon of mass destruction marked on their bodies as Stigmata. Stigmata are very efficient and use fewer fragments of order than normal runes. It is why priests can be any of the three major types of troops. But the Stigmata of this weapon needs the entire fragments on the body of really strong priests. You can imagine the amount of damage that such a weapon can deal.
The annihilators have their disadvantages. They take a long time to load and can be interrupted. But the soldiers are using that as bait for the ants. While the damage they cause is devastating, the wielder of the stigmata will be unable to move while loading and will be near death after firing it. Recovery time can take up to a hundred years even with divine healing because the damage done to the wielder is from the divine power contained within the Stigmata as it activates and burns through divine crystals to load its attack.
If the ants chose to disregard the annihilators, most of their numbers will be annihilated. So it is a question of how much risk the ants are willing to take. It is a choice between the annihilators and the demigods.
He said to her, "Your plan is pretty good. Except you haven't fixed the gaping hole in it. What if, the ants disregard the annihilators and focus on the demigods?"
"Then there's nothing we can do."
He offered a very obvious solution. "Why don't you just fire the annihilators before the strike team goes for the mound? That will reduce their numbers and make it easy to reach the mound. Then the demigods and the soldiers can all attack the ant mound together instead of making a risky plan."
She coughed. "We can't. Annihilators are rare and their presence will reduce the danger too much. The gods allowed us to fire only one. We intended to use the others as bait. We will only fire the one we are allowed to prove to the ants that we mean business."
He began to laugh. "Of course. What did I expect?"
The priest stayed silent while he laughed to himself. The gods have the means to put down this threat as soon as possible but they turned it into a game for their entertainment. It won't be entertaining for them if it is too easy for the demigods. So they placed limits on the amount of help that the demigods can get.
'It's good too. The waste of time is favorable. They won't know what hit them when it hits them.'
He clapped his hands when he was done laughing. "Alright. I am all caught up. You will fire that Annihilator now. It will create a breach in their defense. The teams of demigods will go through the breach and reach the mound. If that doesn't work, then we will simply grind the ant horde down with the soldiers."
The priest frowned. "That's not a good plan. It is too slow. We need to get to the ant queen fast and end her transformation."
"That's true. But it is a better plan. It is better than your plan."
"Regardless of what you think, you can't just make changes to the plan however you wish." Her voice turned frosty and her displeasure for his disregard of their plan became evident in her tone.
Helios nodded. "That's true too. So who's pride needs to be broken to have that Annihilator fired."
"What did you just say?" Her eyes stared daggers at him.
"I mean who do I have to convince of my new plan?" He changed his wording.
He meant the same thing.
She was silent for a while just staring at him before she answered. "The plan was made by the committee of bishops from the 9 churches involved in this heroic quest."
"Now convey a meeting. The plan has to be changed."
She didn't move to fulfill his request. "The plan has been made. It cannot be changed. You cannot just come in here and make changes however you wish. You may be an exalted demigod but you're only a mana entity. If you were so capable then you wouldn't need a team of priests."
Demigods are no different from other giants of order until they become transcendents. That's when they become able to use divine abilities from their parents. The divine spells that priests use are imitations of divine abilities. Divine abilities beat divine spells. That means demigods become stronger than priests when they become demigods. But until demigods breakthrough, priests are much stronger because of their divine spells.
Helios considered his options. She is obviously insinuating that he is the one that has his pride misplaced because he thinks he is a demigod. But being a demigod that is a mana entity isn't enough to come here and have things changed to the way he sees fit. He isn't strong enough, so he can't push people around.
She might as well have said, "You are weak. You're not the boss of this operation."