Al considered the feasibility of this.
Although he didn't trust Lileath, he had to admit the temptation was enormous...
She was simply offering too much!
If he agreed, he would instantly have a large group of high-quality talents. Among them were Elves, who, with their long lifespans spent in experience and study, were effectively masters and experts in their fields compared to short-lived humans.
What Al valued even more was that if these people joined his ranks, it would undoubtedly improve the overall image of the tribe!
What "beasts"? What "barbarians"?
The tribesmen were legitimate distant cousins of ancient humans, just with an extra pair of horns and hooves! It was simply a different evolutionary path chosen under different circumstances!
Look at this one! A genuine Bretonnian Knight-Lord, a pure-blooded noble for three generations. Back in the day, he'd go out with a massive retinue! One word: arrogant!
And this one, a real heavyweight!
A pure-blooded High Elf from Ulthuan. You want to compare status with an Elf?
His great-great-grandfather followed the first Phoenix King, sweeping across the world and conquering the eight directions! When Chaos came, he stood his ground! He hunted demons. Without them, would the mortal world even exist today?
His grandfather... his father... even his generation, a hundred and fifty years ago, followed Tyrion in drawing the sword, witnessed the unification of the three Elven races by the Eternity King's eastern campaign, saw the Council of the Eight Winds, participated in the Great Battle of Middenheim, and saw the gods manifest... they've seen every grand storm. In terms of seniority, they are on the level of Karl Franz's generation.
When even such people have traveled ten thousand miles to submit, joining my tribe and uniting under the faith of the Four—now Five—Goddesses, the Everchosen, and the Trinity Banner...
No matter how strong the Estalians are, can they match the might of the Elves? No matter how noble, can they match a Knight-Lord?
The two great pillars of the Order side have joined me, what are you still waiting for!
Abandon the weak faith of Myrmidia.
Convert early to the tribe; everyone, young and old, shall be delighted!
The fourth-tier secondary reason was that Al hadn't interacted with Elves yet.
The Four Mothers gave no response. In Al's mental space—which usually sounded like five goddesses having a party—it was currently empty of all but the predatory older sister tempting the boy with a PS5 or a new game.
Even the Reveler, who was usually the most bored, the most prone to starting trouble, and who would even instruct Al on sex positions, was silent. The four great Goddesses, who at their loudest could set up a mahjong table in Al's head, seemed to be lurking and lurk-reading now.
It seemed they were defaulting to letting Al solve this himself, letting him choose.
Silence was also an answer.
But Al still had significant reservations...
After all, it was Lileath... and the newcomers would mostly be Lileath's followers...
It wasn't that Lileath's followers were guaranteed to cause trouble. Historically, whether in Bretonnia or among the Elves, those who were royally screwed over by this Goddess were not few. For Bretonnia, she screwed the whole nation. The knights spent years as lords, praising the Goddess and Virtue while riding on the backs of serfs, only to be stabbed in the back by her at the end, nearly facing national annihilation and the end of the world. She even twisted the knife: "Didn't you treat the serfs the same way?"
As for the Elves, the representative figure was the ultimate tool and victim, the Chosen of Lileath, descendant of Aenarion, and Teclis—the younger brother who kept screwing over Tyrion.
So Al's worry was not without merit. He was truly concerned that now, as the next End Times was brewing, this Goddess—who had accurate prophecies but never used them for anything productive—was having another bout of defeatism.
If she triggered a collective backstab later...
Al would have no choice but to turn into Aatrox: "Lileath! I! WANT! TO! KILL! YOU! A thousand times! Is! NOT! ENOUGH!!!"
But if he could avoid it, who would want to encounter such a thing?
As if seeing what the boy was thinking, a certain Goddess—who had been exposed so many times, whose reputation had suffered an ultimate "social death" from the heavens to the mortal world during the End Times revelation—stayed her course. (The Chaos side had even remarked that regarding world-ending, what was the Horned Rat compared to her? They invited Lileath to the fifth throne of the Dark Gods to be worshipped alongside the four.)
Actually, the most pathetic performance during the End Times came from the Slaanesh faction. The Skaven had truly put in their all during the last war, as if their collective racial luck had exploded (under the manipulation of high-dimensional gods). They fought the Lizardmen to the death, swept the Southern Kingdoms, and assassinated the Chosen of Sigmar... their record was brilliant, truly the gods of support.
Lileath's sorrowful yet unrepentant voice echoed in Al's ears.
[My child, you must believe that no matter what I have done, I still belong to this world, and I love and am willing to protect every pure soul in it.]
Yeah, right!
Al curled his lip.
Protect—meaning turning into the ultimate unfilial daughter of Athel Loren and causing the death of Queen Ariel (Avatar of Isha) to merge her essence with the Everqueen; manipulating the Elves to unite the whole race against Chaos just to buy breathing room for Araloth to flee to a new world; deceiving the Bretonnians for so long only to plan for the knights to be the gatekeepers for the new Elves in the new world; hoodwinking her Chosen Teclis into causing trouble everywhere, directly accelerating the progress of the End Times by a massive margin...
As the poem goes:
She stole the Sacred Fire of the White Wolf, and Middenheim fell!
She deceived Bretonnia, and a thousand years were wasted!
She helped Nagash be reborn, and the Undead roamed everywhere...
Based on the above, Al understood that Lileath's heavy "love" for this world was exactly like that.
Moreover, she never intended to save the world; she clearly saw the mortal ship was sinking and intended to grab some loot and jump onto the life raft she prepared. If you're going to jump, just jump; yet before she jumped, she wanted to rip open the leaks further, saying righteously: "Plugging the leaks is useless; this is how I save people."
It was on par with the logic that Chaos doesn't hurt people, but resisting Chaos does.
[After the last time, I realized that hiding and fleeing... might be effective, but it is not a true way out.]
[Even those as powerful as the Old Ones could only retreat in haste and continue their exile once Chaos followed them.]
[We must fight continuously, using noble sacrifice to seize a chance for survival for our world from the manipulation of the Dark Gods.]
Al remained silent, continuing to listen.
[In you, I see what is perhaps the only future where this world triumphs over... even Chaos. This is our chance, our redemption—I, your mother, though your heart may not be willing to admit it, truly wish to help you walk toward that great future.]
[Otherwise, They would not have permitted me to be here, would they?]
Al continued his silence.
[I have already seen your potential, and the majesty of the mortal nation you will establish in the future: it shall rise from the dense forest, start from the Southern Sea, expand along the mountains, move east and north, and encompass a vast territory of ten thousand miles!]
[With a million soldiers, orders issued from one place! Trillions of citizens, subjects to one master!]
[All under heaven! None but the King's land; all who live upon it, none but the King's subjects!]
[Like a mortal giant! Standing tall!]
[Like a kingdom of God on earth! Lasting forever!]
Al suddenly stood up from his throne, his chest heaving, his eyes flickering, yet he still made no sound.
[Such an enterprise, I see in your momentum, can be achieved in but a hundred years.]
[Such an enterprise... unfortunately... the calamity of Chaos hovers outside, the threat of internal revolt lies beside your bed; outside, there is the Anointed One, the Lord of the End Times, the army of world-destruction waiting with weapons ready; inside, there are the mortals, harborers of ulterior motives and treacherous hearts...]
[Catastrophe from above, hanging over your head like the Sword of Damocles!]
[Turmoil from within, like a maggot in the bone, following you like a shadow that gives you no rest!]
[The Great Destruction is before you. And you, my naive child, how will you secure those hundred years for yourself?]
Al felt the urge to slam the table and shout, "Mom, save me!"
However, he managed to control his emotions, not letting his spirit be shaken by Lileath's grand display, complete with simulated emotion, background music, and atmospheric aids.
But the sense of an imminent threat indeed surfaced in Al's heart involuntarily.
In that nightmare omen from before, beneath the four realms, a figure rode a black horse, wielding a flaming sword, with three eyes emitting a divine light that could pierce the Chaos Realm... Behind him stood rows of Chaos legions, as silent and waiting as terracotta warriors, seemingly infinite and eternal...
The super, ultimate final boss Al was destined to face: the world-ending crisis of the Old World.
The air fell into a deathly silence.
The Four Mothers still did not appear, seemingly watching Lileath's "earnest guidance" of Al from the sidelines.
"Please..."
Time seemed to pass for an eternity. Finally, Al spoke slowly.
"Teach me, Goddess!"