On the Southern Continent, Cain was starting to get news of the state of the army that had been threatening their allies.

The size that they had been quoted, roughly ten thousand soldiers, was seemingly correct, but the army was behaving in a way that none of the captured scouts had expected. It had split into four groups, targeting four different cities at the same time.

Cain suspected that he was the cause of this. If they split their forces, it was only logical that he could only face one section at a time, and they could capture three cities and then come to surround him with the main force.

It was a great idea, but it severely underestimated both the abilities of the Darklight Host and Cain himself.

Every city under their influence had a strong force backing it, along with the forces at the farm, and two thousand soldiers wouldn't have an easy time taking any of them if the Guild had been warned of their approach. A force that size would likely take the city if it were just the usual defensive force, but if Cain brought in his Watchers and Echoes there wasn't much that could take a city from them.

The major reason for that was a simple mathematics equation. At Mythic quality, the Echoes had nearly two hundred thousand mana, and the Summoning Spells didn't scale up in cost as the caster's level increased.

With a set of Mana Flood Totems active, they could recover five thousand mana a second, and replacing the two options for Mythic Summons was only two thousand mana. That left them a lot of leeway to use [Dominion] to increase the range of area effect spells.

Then there was [Ancient Wisdom] Which would grant a single spell or ability to everyone in their party, including the summons.

In short, fighting them would be a nightmare for anyone. Even if they lost, they were summoned beings, they could just be summoned again and sent back to their partners. This gave Cain a great deal of confidence in what he had planned next.magic

He was planning to send out the Oath Breakers to find the Demon known as Morgeth before the attacks. If they could assassinate the enemy leader, that would be great, but ideally, they would capture Morgeth and interrogate the Demon to learn their skill set, personality, and habits. Then Cain would summon a copy and replace them, diverting the army and subverting it from the inside.

"If the battle is on this scale, what am I even doing here?" Jessica asked while she watched everyone preparing for the battle that would be on them in the next few days.Cain lifted up his right hand, counting the points on his fingers. "One, because you are part of the quest. You need to be involved to get the rewards. Two, because who is better suited to slapping the stupid out of people than the servants of the Bunny God?"

Jessica sighed as she realized he was right. She was the only sane one in the group. The rest would just send everyone they met to the Goddess of Reincarnation to be sorted. With her here at least there was a small chance of a non-genocidal option.

Even here on the farm, surrounded by all the food that they could ever want, people were still excessively violent, and it only seemed to get worse by the day. More allies were coming back from trade missions to get prepared for a full attack on their faction, and the consensus seemed to be that the enemy could not pose a threat if their entire army was dead.

Just the thought stressed her out, so Jessica headed for the temple to clear her mind. Maybe one of the others might have an idea of how to deal with this insanity.

"Welcome back High Priestess. You look stressed, would you like a massage?" The acolyte at the entrance greeted Jessica as she entered the small stone temple.

All Bunny God temples were either stone or dirt, designed to emulate the burrows that set their animalistic counterparts at ease. This one was made of a very light-colored marble, created with Earth Magic, like everything else in the city. She had been startled to find out that none of the stone for the buildings here was mined, it was all magically created.

Now that she had been here a while and seen all the insane things that a living Ancient was capable of when left unsupervised, she realized that she shouldn't have been.

From what she understood, the collective self-enforced some level of sanity on their species, with everyone working to keep the rest from doing anything too far out of line, but Cain was the last one on the planet, so everything that popped into his head was a valid option to him, and he let his clones do the same thing, just to see what they did.

"Oh Goddess, give me the wisdom and strength to get through this," Jessica muttered before turning to the Acolyte who had greeted her.

"If there are others in the Massage room, I will go for one. I need to ask the group about how to proceed." She informed the younger Bunny, who bowed politely and led her to the upper floor.

There were actually a half dozen Clerics in getting massages when Jessica arrived. She quickly unequipped her gear and lay down on one of the padded tables so the Acolyte could begin her work before addressing the room.

"I need a solution from the group. We all know that war is coming, but if we don't put some sanity into them you know they are just going to kill and kill until there is nothing alive to threaten them. Does anyone have a suggestion that might end the madness without causing extra casualties on our side?" Jessica asked politely.

"We could try magic to break the curse that they are under, but it seems that had been tried and failed in the past, due to the level of the spell. I would say that the best option is to have the big boss find the other big boss before the battles start. If they sort it between themselves, the rest of the battles should stop, right?" One of the Bunny Elders suggested.

It sounded simplistic, but it was a good idea. Cain could use other people's abilities, so he might be able to win over the enemy leader with his own skills, and direct him to work together with them.

"Guild Master Cain has already sent the Oath Breakers looking for the Demon known as Morgeth, so that might be an option, as long as the enemy boss survives the encounter. There is no telling what will happen if the Oath Breakers take him by surprise and actually kill Morgeth." Jessica agreed.

"We have tried sending emissaries to Morgeth before, and it didn't end well. They either killed them or brainwashed them away from following the Goddess. That means we can't just go ourselves. As much as we don't like it, we might not have an option but to let the summons do the dirty work." Another Elder suggested.

"What if we try to influence Cain instead? If he's in a better mood, he might be less murderous, right? It works on almost all species. We could make a special meal tonight, and send some acolytes to keep him company. Our information says that he likes patting heads." The oldest of the Bunnies said slowly as the Acolyte working her table tried to massage the knots out of her back.

"That's not a bad idea, but we don't know when the fateful day will be, and he will catch on quickly if we go too far trying to put him in a good mood. Ancients are hard to fool." Jessica sighed, putting all the suggestions that they had come up with together in her head.

Jessica nodded off during her massage and woke up just in time to get ready for dinner.

It was a rush, but she made it to the table in time for the first course to be served. Cain was seated only a few seats down from her, with an acolyte in waiting sitting in his lap, filling him in on all the gossip of the day, and the intricate and important details of the daily life of a six-year-old.

That made Jessica smile. It seemed their plan was working.

"So, Jessica have you come to a decision? Which approach will you take to convince me not to slaughter the enemy armies?" Cain asked.

Jessica's ears shot up straight in shock at his words. They had only just decided to try, how did he find out already?

"If you use [Warming Hug] and gently stroke this spot behind the ears, their brains melt and Bunnies forget that they were supposed to be keeping secrets," Cain explained, and the acolyte made a blissful sound at the gentle petting of her ears.

"You are just impossible. But to be clear, I was going to appeal to your better nature and hope that you would try to settle things with the enemy commander before the main battle starts, assuming that he can be found." Jessica replied.

Jin and Kone both nodded happily at that idea. Watching Cain duel was always an interesting sight. Luna wanted to voice her opinion as well, but someone had made the most amazing whipped cream-filled puffs today and she was too full to do anything but squeeze his wrist before she fell asleep again.