Emma had quietly listened to Daz's offer as she lay there on her bed, no emotions showing on her ashen face.

Once the reaper was done, Emma managed to leak out a small smile of resignation. "I don't care. Fight the Truthians and die, take me back to your kingdom to live on Master Sorola's life support, abandon me and my few remaining people. None of it matters."

She closed her eyes and added, "Kill me, even, if you wish to. Perhaps it will help you vent some of that anger you hold towards your father?"

Daz shook his head. "No, it wouldn't."

"You won't know until you try..." Emma exhaled deeply then sputtered out an ashy cough. "I'm glad I was able to give you your oxygen filtration system... It's a shame that I can't fulfil the other part of our alliance since I have no more troops that I could possibly loan to you. Haha... Have you put the stupid thing to use yet?"

Daz shook his head again. "Unfortunately, no. I need a few more items for my little pet project to really get its feet off the ground."

"... I see." Silence befell the room.

A few sombre moments passed before she said, "I'd wish you luck, but with only one guy who has a single offensive Ember and you who can only move some needles around, well, you need more than luck. You need divine intervention. Heh... Divine intervention... Ironic, really."

Daz frowned. "We'll see. You said you do not care what I do, yes?"

"Huh? Yeah," Emma responded, a bit surprised at the hints of anger in Daz's voice.

"I will win. One way or another, the Truthians will bend and break under my attacks, of that, I assure you. Perhaps not today, perhaps not tomorrow, but they will eventually kneel. Even if I'm forced to retreat and hide away in my little kingdom, even if my kingdom crumbles, I will survive and I will crush all that stands in my way as I unite this miserable blue blob of ours that we call home," Daz said with more conviction than both Mu and Emma had ever heard in their entire lives.

"... I hope so, but I won't be holding my breath," Emma replied.

"Good. Holding your breath would be rather unwise given your current situation," Daz stated. "Mu, let's go. We have scouting to do."

"... You're leaving now? It's already dark," Emma pointed out.

Daz chuckled. "We're reapers. We don't need sleep and we can see souls. You said their range of system and esper cancellation was 50-meters, didn't you? So long as we avoid any souls within that range, I trust we'll be fine."

"... I see. Well, as worthless as it is, have a 'good luck' anyway. If you can kill even one of those bastards then I'll die happy," Emma said with perhaps the most worn-out smile she had ever made strewn across her lips.

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"Y'know, Mu, something I never take advantage of with this car is that it actually has a stealth function," Daz said as the two flew through the skies of New York, heading to the nearest Truthian encampment.

Mu looked at the many buttons on the dashboard with scrutiny. "Why does it have such a feature? Is it not a luxury vehicle? Also, why do you not use it?"

"It's a luxury utility vehicle. Honestly, the only things it's missing is enough speed for space travel and weapons. I guess that's why it's an SSS-ranked item and not a God-ranked one," Daz answered. "I never use it because it drains the rechargeable-battery 4-times faster than going at Mach-4 does. Seems pointless to use if it isn't needed."

"I see. So are we invisible right now, Brother?" Mu asked.

Daz shook his head then pushed a small button that had a little design of a transparent vehicle on its surface. "Now we are. With this, we don't have to worry about being spotted from far away."

"Hmm... Very useful indeed, Brother. Now, we must discuss strategy. I have some assumptions for our battle plan, but you are typically wiser than I regarding such matters," Mu said.

"It's simple, really. We stay in the car and I kill everyone I can with my needles from range. I need to maintain eye-contact with the crystals I'm controlling if they move more than 20-meters away from me, so we'll hover 51-meters above the camp with the Ridomochi facing downwards. Once I'm done killing them all, we land and scavenge for supplies, useful info and maybe captured victims," Daz said coldly.

Mu nodded. "Reasonable. And what if we find supposed non-Truthians as you suggest may exist? How can we trust they are not acting? To get close enough to use your lie detection powers on them we would have to be in the range of their sealing power first."

"Hmm..." Daz hadn't considered that angle. "... I would rather not murder innocent victims, but you make a lot of sense... That's a huge risk."

"Indeed. And it would be for the best if no one knows we are the ones attacking. Powerful as we may be, with a single skill and a single Ember between us to fight back, I do not think we would survive a full-on assault," Mu commented.

"My worry is that the system will force me to declare war before letting me attack them. If they have over 10,000 members, then its leader - this Mother Danielle person - is a king too or something else of equivalent status. I can only wage war on high-kings and above with no restrictions," Daz explained. "It's annoying how fair the system is with war, really."

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"That governor who killed himself. Do as he did. Employ the system to mask your war declaration. We do have other options, though. We could always locate their headquarters and kill the leader directly. Perhaps that will dispel the brainwashing," Mu suggested.

"Maybe. Hell, maybe they don't even have access to the system. It doesn't like people messing with its access without its express permission. My gut tells me they didn't get a free pass, and seeing how unforgiving the thing is, I wouldn't put it past the system to strip all Truthians of any ability to use it," Daz said.

His eyes narrowed as a collection of lights in the distance came into view. "We'll soon have an answer to a handful of our questions. For now, we stay as far away from their leader as possible. Hope for the best, plan for the worst."

"Caution is never a bad thing. Now is as good a time as any to draw from that overwhelming paranoia of yours," Mu answered as he too locked his eyes onto the settlement in the distance.

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Warning! The host is advised against attacking [Mother Danielle]'s citizens without first officially declaring war as [Mother Danielle] is the [Pope] of a religious organisation containing more than 10,000 faithful believers. Should the host continue, war will automatically begin between [King Daz] and [Pope Danielle]. The host will cede all rights to delay notifications and alter victory and losing conditions should this happen.

The first obstacle made itself painfully clear when Daz's diamond needles were mere meters away from their targets.

"Give me a few minutes, Mu. Maybe longer. Looks like I do need to declare war," Daz said as he hastily recalled the needles, making sure no one saw them as they ascended into the air. "The bastards do unfortunately also have access to the system it seems."

"Take as long as you need, Brother," Mu answered before closing his eyes and entering a light state of meditation.

'System, how does restricting war notification access to rulers I declare war on work, exactly? I want in-depth knowledge like pricing and timing, not a summary, please,' Daz requested.

Silver-level system access is required for that knowledge. Confirmed access level of the host to be emerald-level.

The only way to restrict an opposing ruler's notification of a declaration of war is to delay it.

The host may delay an opposing ruler's notification of a declaration of war by 1-hour per 1,000,000 merit points with an upper limit of 30-days of delay.

Daz crunched the numbers and narrowed his eyes. 'So 720,000,000 merit points or 7.2 merit stars... That is not cheap. No wonder Timothy only delayed my notification by a few hours...'

He immediately decided that it was not worthwhile to delay for the full 30-days. A week or two, however, would likely be fine.

Whatever his instincts felt he needed to save his money for, this wasn't it. He could spare a few hundred million given the risks, but almost a billion? No.

So long as Daz was careful, he was confident that he would be in no real danger so the extra time simply was not worth the additional expenditure.

'Okay, system, again, detailed information but this time regarding how I can alter the war's victory and losing conditions,' Daz requested.

Bronze-level system access is required for that knowledge. Confirmed access level of the host to be emerald-level.

The host need only declare war. Upon doing so, the host shall be given access to the temporary war-system where they will have the chance to pay to alter such things as the victory and losing conditions before the war is made valid and relevant notifications are distributed.

Daz tapped his cheek as he held his jaw thoughtfully.

On one hand, a large part of him felt it would be very wise to leave. Just return to New York City, collect Emma and her people and leave. Then he need simply to wait a few months to gain more Stars of Eternity before considering this war once more.

On the other hand, the longer he prolonged this, the stronger Mother Danielle and her flock would grow. Perhaps her growth would outmatch even his own.

Daz didn't know. His instincts were gently nudging him towards declaring war, but that didn't help.

It wasn't a violent scream so he knew the feeling wasn't urgent and if possible, he didn't want to rely on his instincts. They thought about him and only him, his people be damned.

'If I declare war now and can't win quickly then I will be putting all of New Earth at risk. I don't want to do that. It makes the most sense to wait and gain more power. I can do so much more if I can just get a few more Star of Eternity and enlist the help of more Ember-wielders, hell, maybe even create some,' Daz thought very seriously.

'I can't directly tell others what Embers are about unless they already know but I can have Mu display his powers openly and hope that my people learn from him. I can put more resources and effort into finding more mythical cities. I can try to repair the other 3 shrines that can also give out Stars of Eternity. I could invest time into tracking down and hiring the other 15 Ember-wielders. I could finish my semester goal. Attacking Mother Danielle and her flock now is just far, far, far too risky.' Daz nodded his head.

"We're retreating back to New York," Daz said to Mu.

Peeking his eyes open in mild surprise, his fellow reaper replied, "Already? That is a bit unexpected."

"I don't think that you and I are enough to win a full-on war on our own, even with my needles and with your Ember. I was afraid this would be the case. I do have a plan though, several, in fact. For now, let's return and convince Emma and Master Sorola to return with us," Daz said as he drove the Ridomochi away from the encampment.

He felt sorry for any potential hostages that may be brainwashed or killed in the meantime, but he needed to think with his brain here, not his heart.

Mu looked out of the window with a ponderous expression on his face. "I wonder how long we have to prepare before their reach naturally extends to our borders?"

"I have an idea for that as well. Don't worry," Daz answered stoically.

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Mother Danielle smiled warmly as she nodded her head. "As expected, the child visited his ally. How endearing of him."

"What do we do if he chooses to fight us, Mother?" one of her 7 cardinals asked.

She maintained her smile as she said, "We punish him and his ilk for raising a hand against the Lord and his children."

"What if he chooses to avoid a confrontation with our people?" another cardinal questioned.

"Then I and the Lord himself commend his wisdom. It is foolishness in the flesh to raise a hand against God. Should he choose to ignore us, so too, shall we ignore him and his following of lost lambs. In due time they shall join the flock, sheep that they are. All see the Truth of the Lord when it shines upon them," Mother Danielle said as a divine glow surrounded her and her throne of gold.

"Let Truth shine on us all!" the cardinals recited.

"Let Truth shine on us all!" Mother Danielle repeated.