Inside the large dome was a large stadium-like auditorium with thousands upon thousands of seats filled with foreign dignitaries. In the center of the stadium was a large circular table with what seemed to be about 20-something seats.
These seats were different from the other seats in the stadium and quite a few regalia were surrounding the chairs in the middle of this stadium, showing these chairs were seats meant to be taken by people of extreme importance.
As Windsor and the other two who were following him entered the stadium, the head servant who was leading them announced their entry, "Introducing his highness Prince Albion Windsor, The Fifth Prince of Greenwich."
As soon as Windsor was announced the clatter and the noise within the auditorium that was nearly filled to the brim instantly dimmed down to silence. It was so quiet one could even hear the sound of a pin drop. Albion himself was famous across the entire Western Continent; one could even say the entire world, due to a certain incident that had happened when he was younger.
Normally someone of his age wouldn't be of importance in such a meeting but knowing his own place, Albion took Angus and Siren and walked straight to the large circular table in the middle of the auditorium, he took one of the seats and sat down while Angus and Siren stood behind him. No one else had sat by the table yet but almost all the other seats had been taken.
As time went on other important characters started coming in late filling up the seats at the important table bit by bit, until all twenty-four seats had been filled. The moment that happened, the entire stadium became quiet once more.
Although it was a meeting for thousands of dignitaries, the other thousands were merely a decoration, it was these twenty-four who truly had the right to talk. Each of the twenty-four had people standing behind them and each of them was a person whose name resounded throughout the western continent with a force that should not be underestimated. Each of these people had a reputation no lower than Albion's, each of these people were proud people, powerful people, people with experience in such matters, people with an agenda, and people representing their own nations.
The Western Continent was divided into six major nations; one Nation was the Gutu Empire, the Gutu Empire was isolated and kept to itself, thus the other five nations united together to form the Western Alliance. These Nations were the Qin Empire, the Vajra Empire, the United States, the Greenwich Kingdom and the Yamato Shogunate. These five nations made up the Western Alliance and it was these five that decided how everything was supposed to occur. There were many other minor nations that existed within the Western Continent but they were not worthy to be represented at this table. Each and every minor nation was definitely subject to the control of on these five nations. In other words each and every nation that wasn't a part of these five was a colonial nation at best.
One of those who were sitting at the table, one of the supreme dignitaries, stood up and raised his hands, "My friends, I welcome you to this meeting that is going to decide the fate of our Western Continent. We may not be the most important people on the whole continent but we have been placed in the front lines of a war that will determine the fate of our continent. Please, I ask you to put down your pride and humble yourselves as we try to look for a way forward despite all of our differences. Many of us have warred with each other but now we face a greater enemy, The Gutu Empire."
As soon as the man stopped talking, every face within the stadium turned grim.
The Gutu Empire had been standing as a behemoth for thousands upon thousands of years but everyone knew that this current generation was the strongest ever recorded in history. Luckily for the other five countries, their current generation was also the strongest that had ever been recorded in history; thus they decided to strike whilst the iron was hot.
The Gutu Empire had no intention of mixing with other countries; in fact, it had no intention of invading other countries or expanding its borders. It was perfectly happy with what it had, however, due to certain underlying currents and extenuating circumstances the other five nations felt forced to invade the Gutu Empire; thus this Great War had begun. Although to the Gutu Empire it was nothing more than a small scuffle breaking out, as they had so much pride that they didn't even believe the other countries were qualified to have a war with them. To them, this was no different to a minor scrimmage that would disappear with the sands of time.
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The first person who had spoken was a white-haired middle-aged man. His face was filled with wrinkles of experience and his eyes were deep, pulling in one's attention. He was a well-known traveler and he had no nation that he stood for. This was the main reason he had been chosen to be the main speaker and mediator for this meeting. His name was Anglius and he was only known as Old Man Anglius. He had no last name, he had no house but people knew that this man was one of the most powerful mages who had ever existed.
His past was quite the mystery; this man had no allegiance to any nation. He was a free spirit roaming and doing as he pleased. Something happened in the past which led to him bearing a certain amount of hatred for the Gutu Royal family. Thus he agreed to be part of this alliance to be fighting the Gutu people.
Anglius was put forward as the leader of the first wave of attacks against the Gutu, this meeting was called by him. He was the speaker, he was neutral, he was wise and he was experienced but most importantly he was powerful. Thus every person in the stadium, in this entire palace, within an area of thousand miles paid attention to what this 'old man' said.
"Now let's get down to business shall we, please? Mr. Shinzo will you begin telling us about our current situation followed by our current progress, such that we may know where to start from," asked Old Man Anglius as he sat down pointing to an oriental man.
This man was known as Shinzo Takamura, he was a representative of the Yamato Shogunate, which was known as the country with the best information capturing abilities on the whole continent. No other nation could match them when it came to espionage. Shinzo stood up, opened his palm and a three-dimensional map of the entire continent appeared above their table. The entire continent was visible with lines representing divisions and dots representing cities. There were other miniature shapes as well on the three-dimensional hologram representing different things. Shinzo started to move around this three-dimensional hologram that was floating in the middle of the stadium and started to explain the current situation.
"As we all know, we as the Western Alliance have tried to attack the Gutu Empire for the past four years but alas, we have barely been able to achieve anything. If we try to attack by sea they sink us, if we try to attack by land they stop us, if we try to attack by air they shoot us down. Every battle we have initiated has resulted in crushing defeat." The entire stadium knew everything that this man had just said but hearing his words only made them much more depressed.
"However despite the fact that we've suffered defeat after defeat, we now have a better understanding of the Gutu Empire than before. The Gutu Empire is a somewhat decentralized power, with the royal families standing at the top. So far we've managed to infer that Empire has multiple provinces each province run by different rulers. These provinces work independently but still have to pay heed to the royal families. So even though the Gutu Empire is united there are many subcultures within the Gutu Empire so instead of thinking of it as a large empire one might like to think of it as a large cluster of colonies with the royal family as the main country in the center. Now here is our main problem…"
The hologram in the air was zoomed slightly to the East Coast of the continent, the point whereby the Gutu Empire meets with the Qin Empire, "We as the Western Alliance decided to use the might of the Qin Empire to try and invade the Gutu Empire, despite the fact that the Gutu Empire is large and is powerful, there the amount of numbers they have pales in comparison to the mighty Qin Empire."
Within the stadium dignitaries who came from the mighty Qin Empire could not help but show a smug grin when Shinzo said these words. They were very proud of their nation and knew very well that what he said was true but what he said next completely poured water over their expressions.
"However, despite this advantage, the mighty Qin Empire has been able to achieve nothing. Their numbers have only served to act as concord. There are only three countries that share a border with the Gutu…" The map hologram highlighted each part as he spoke, "The Qin Empire, the Greenwich Kingdom, and The United States. The Greenwich kingdom has got a natural defense against the Gutu in the form of a large mountain base filled with demonic beasts whereas the United States and the Qin Empire defend manually against the Gutu. We have attempted to invade the Gutu from these two points, but it's seemingly impossible due the Gutu's strange and wondrous abilities and their bodies as well. We truly, truly, cannot find a way to start this war. For it to actually become a war there has to be somewhat of a balance between the sides but so far we have been crushed. After doing some investigations the Yamato Shogunate has come up with a plan they would like to present to the Alliance with the permission of Sir Anglias."
Everyone in the stadium started to whisper to one another including the twenty-three main dignitaries sitting at the center of the stadium. Shinzo's words were a serious surprise because they did not think that Shinzo would be able to come up with a plan or rather the Yamato Shogunate would be able to come up with a plan that would be able to deal with the Gutu.
"Please, Shinzo, talk; I would like to see what plan you have." Said Anglias, with a cunning smile.
Shinzo bowed and then turned to look at the map."There seems to be a slight disturbance in the Gutu Empire, this stems from how the Royal family is structured. The Royal family is actually made up of three independent families. The Emperor of each generation is chosen between a battle that occurs between the successors of each Royal Family. These families are known as The Gumbo Clan, The Ngundu Clan and The Sibanda Clan. So far the nation is being ruled by The Gumbo Clan they are the ones who have been in control for the last thousand or so years. However the Ngundu Clan and the Sibanda Clan have not been sitting around idly. They are very close to matching the Gumbo Clan in power and each of them is eyeing the throne fervently. Thus the situation is not that simple to take care of. We as the Yamato Shogunate have an idea; a war on two fronts, starting a war on the outside, and a war on the inside at the same time. Let us take advantage of the great disparity between the royal clans, their blood feuds and the so-called unity that exists between the provinces in The Gutu Empire"
Shinzo's words were very bold and they shocked many observers. Few people thought that such a plan couldn't take place: it involved one too many variables and, honestly speaking, it would be very hard to try and tear apart such a united nation. However, no one could doubt that the Yamato Shogunat's ability to gather information was unrivaled. They would never say anything unless they were sure there was really a chance...