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Chapter 381: Two War Councils
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And now… even if they were given their own piece of land to rebuild themselves, it was still a fact that they are being extorted of their [Item] monopoly in exchange for food resources.
As the Misty Plains is a barren land that is yet to be “Okayed” for planting crops because of the contamination of the Demons’ Plasma Radiation, the Humans are left with no choice but to buy food from the Terrans.
Whether the fact that the Humans’ production speed of said [item equipments] was known or not, it was still a fact that almost nothing had changed in their situation even after they were freed by their “oath” to the Terrans.
Gaia knows it but she was helpless to intervene so she could only secretly help the Humans by supplying them Light Stones —the Terroa-only mineral ore that has the ability to counter Plasma Particles, as well as a light source in the night.
This way, she was still able to comply with Siva’s bid as well as help the Humans to lighten up the burden on their quest for survival.
.....but it was for a time in the future for the fact remains that those resources are useless now since the matter where they needed it the most is knocking on the front of their yard.
*****
The imminent invasion of the Demon Armada in Terroa ignited the patriotic mindsets of Terrans.
Although the how and the why of the particulars weren’t disclosed, this news “reminded” Terrans that the threat of the Demons aren’t one percent been lifted yet.
This move not only prevented panic, this also reminded the citizens that the war against the LAGRAM Alliance… is still going on.
Ardent youths began to be signed up to a knight dispatch while mercenaries and guilds began to mobilize their strengths and renew the collective goal of the current Terran Civilization.
Best of all, while the NPCs were going full force with their revitalization of the same vigor from the time of the War of the Braves, 56 years ago, the Players were also ecstatic for they received four pieces of news that meant bigtime for the entire Player-base community.
First, these series of explosive news opened up thousands of arrays of new quests and missions for them to undertake.
Secondly, with the unknown “pioneer” opening the new Avatar Race-option, the Elves, it had kindled the players’ sense of adventure and are running everywhere in Terroa to discover where and how they could reveal other hidden races.
Since the fact that Terran-Human Alliance, the in-game organization preceding the environment of the game, are a type of [Quest] on its own, the players who chose the path of a Noble title and Politics are the ones more eager to discover the rest of the members of The Alliance. After all, it was an open secret that of the members of The Alliance, only the first six races are bare, as the rest of the seats still hidden to the players.
Though there are mentions in records of what the rest of these races in Terroa are called, there was yet an actual appearance of one so it was a glorious goal for them.
As such, if they gain a seat on The Alliance by virtue of their chosen path, there is a big chance that they may be the first to discover the other races and gain the glory of this discovery all throughout the game.
It was a venture which brought forth momentous significance in the game’s player community.
Thirdly, rumours of this year’s King Test being a whole world of difference from the past is now circulating openly. This is because just in the past few days, there has been many news that spoke about the special identities of this year’s King Candidates.
These rumours said that there are NPC royals…
……Named NPC Rankers…
And what more, famous layers are all also going to be joining this year’s scuffle for the throne.
In addition, there have also been rumours about the special identities of this year’s candidates from the capital’s noble factions.
Even, in fact, a rumour stating that a very large secretive organization has sent their candidate to join this year’s King Test.
Lastly, there were news that in this year’s King Test…… there was a large possibility that it was going to be connected to the Grand Quest.
No one knew who and where this rumor started, but when it broke out, suspicions regarding the reason why the capital had started to arrest the people who wore masks were founded.
It was easy to connect the dots.
Who was it that his entire image to the world is always connected to a mask?
The only person connected to the Grand Quest who loved wearing a mask was none other than Siva.
Given his curse, which is publicly known, there are even bounty hunters who started to arrest NPC and Players that wore any kind of covering in their faces with the excuse of them being the target of the world’s envious jealousy.
Unfortunately, as much as the victims wanted to protest with the unjust treatment in the Capital, Jeremiah is still a superpower in Terroa.
NPC or not, they could only swallow their anger.
As such, as the hours gone by, tick by tick, for every second that passed, two different kinds of nervousness engulfed the core players that are part of the game for the throne of Jeremiah and the ones part of the defense of the Humans in the colony in Misty Mountains.
—these are, of course, the players who chose The Naturals as their race and so are bound by their racial alignment to defend it at all cost.
For them, it was a mission.
And for the former… it was annoying event.
Another unmentioned event that just suddenly popped-in out of nowhere, and caused another kind of storm that right after the last.
With this as a clue, it is enough for smart players out there to recognize the weight of the fact that perhaps Siva is indeed undergoing the tasks of a Grand Quest where everything in Terroa is affected with every small development he has in it —thus, giving the people more and more big reasons to either stop him, join him, or even as much as steal all the glory from Siva.
Alas……
Not one of them knew just what was going on in the scenes behind the eye-catching brilliance of the glory they only see in front of their eyes.
*****
“They’re still swarming.” A short green-haired Maki in the middle of his three bodies, emitting battle intent so strong it’s making the Humans in the base tremble, spoke with grave expression.
To differentiate who’s who, Maki actually made the hairs of his ‘avatars’ different —with what he intended to be the main having the green hair as if he was some joker.
(AN: reference... cough.. not.. cough.. intended)
—of course, because, originally, Maki was bald so with all three of his ‘avatars’ having no exact distinction, he made it this way: Green (main), Blue (traveling agent-1), Red (traveling agent-2)
“How many?” Siva, having finished all of his preparations, and even more, rushed back, sat on a chair with Scion sitting quietly on his right.
“Take a look.” Maki said and in the middle of the square table appeared a Real@D of the spying satellite drone that he used to stare at the sky.
Since no orbiting satellite can survive outside of Terroa, this satellite drone was stationed above Misty Mountains where the colony was located.
Again, Siva felt indignant. His ideas seemed to always be second to Maki’s and it wasn’t funny.
With just one look at the capabilities of this small satellite, he knew that his designs were even a bit lower than Maki’s.
‘Thankfully…’
[…the Blueprint of the BMA you gave him only had the design but not the functionalities. It’s still a Blueprint, as per your oath, so you won’t be hit by lightning.]
‘Sometimes, Cortana, you have to be smart.’
[I’ll add this to the development of my database.]
‘….’
In the display, there was a black swarm labeled with a [Plasma Energy Emissions]-tag with listed items and their corresponding number counts.
It was a staggering number. Each one of those cluster of black particle-like dot in the screen is a fleet of the Demon Armada and right now, the number of those ‘dots’ were still increasing.
They were swarming… and it’s already been a full day since they gotten the news.
It should be noted that one Demon Commander is already enough to level Jeremiah if without its defenses.
Applying an optimistic estimate, even if there are one Demon Commander every 100 fleets, there is already more than a million fleet in there, how can a mere defense force numbering thousands hold up against this horde?
Even Siva who should not be fearing anything in Terroa right now can still feel his body hairs rise when looking at the sight of it.
“At least 1.2M, based on my own AI’s count.”
“That’s not all.” Maki said and zoomed in on an image in the middle, covered by the thick counts of the converging fleets.
“Is that…” Siva’s eyes widened.
“Yep, a mothership with a size that’s somewhat similar to the monster that appeared in the City of Alexandria, but bigger. A lot… bigger…”
“I know. I’ve seen things bigger than it before.”
These words were only whispered to himself as Siva recalled the events that happened during the [Fall of the Gods] event… Ragnarok.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Maki was obviously hiding the fact that Siva is in the Humans’ domain right now. It’s because in this room, there were visitors acting as part of the centralized command center for the defense forces of the territory of Jeremiah.
Naturally, these visitors were the members of the Council of Elders of Jeremiah.
Although the threat of this attack was in a world-wide scale, Misty Plains, until properly passed in the Council Chair Meeting, is tentatively —still— a region under the influence of Jeremiah.
Of course, the Humans wouldn’t openly declare that the reason for this attack was actually them.
Instead, what came to the Alliance Seats is the news that because the Teacher’s [Instructions] had come to an end, the ‘Artifact’ entrusted to the Humans reacted and emitted a strange wave of energy which made the ‘machinery’ that made the [Items] the Alliance doubtfully owned slow its progress down and also attracted the Demons.
They all received [Instructions] to defend it from the Demons, after all, so they can only imagine just how this invasion came into being.
As such an event, the Magus of the Circle of Magi —one of the ‘Top Seats’ of The Alliance— had to personally come and retrieve the Artifact for safe keeping, as per The Teacher’s will.
Everyone in the Alliance, especially the leading people from the Surface Continents, knew that The Teacher had a preferential treatment to this Magus of the Circle for Magi.
So, any other questions were answered without them ever being asked.
If the Alliance or even just Jeremiah’s Council of Old People ever knew that Siva made contact to the Humans —and even made a deal— forget about the ‘Artifact’ even being stolen, just the fact that he plundered the Council of Elders of resources was already one large reason enough to use all their authority as Alliance Members to issue a [World-Wide Manhunt Mission].
This would instantly implicate the supposedly ‘good’ relationship between the Humans and the Council of Elders of Jeremiah. Why would Maki make trouble for themselves when he can even prevent further unnecessary troubles just by staying silent about Siva?
‘Was Gyoolu the first to fully synchronize?’
Siva couldn’t help but curse inwardly. This was going to be a lot of trouble. Gyoolu, as one of the Demon Generals, has a might far exceeding that of his current level of strength… by a very large margin!
Especially now that he couldn’t use any Magic Spell because of the curse and that he was out of time, he can’t prepare much of his ‘Immortal’ means that’s why his confidence to successfully defend his life from the lash of his oath wasn’t that high.
‘And here I thought that he’s still injured.’
He was sure that Gabriel’s [Return Space] dealt that giant a massive damage. That’s why he was quite puzzled that he recovered this early, even if he was the first to recover and synchronize.
‘Is it really Gyoolu or……’
Gyoolu’s title was “Mountain Eater” and with that as a given, to be bestowed that title means he’s capable of such. Size was one of his strengths.
‘If it’s not Gyoolu, and with that mothership, then there’s only one other [General] that will come in mind….’
Siva sent a secret message to Maki via Cortana.
(That’s possibly not just any normal Demon Mothership. If my guess is correct, then this battle wouldn’t be without hope.)
(You mean to say that there is a way to counter a Demon Mothership?)
Maki couldn’t be wrong. He’d seen something in this magnitude during the Earth invasion.
He knew how terrifying a mothership can be so when he heard the ‘White Knight’ spoke up he held a somewhat hopeful stance that he does have a way to win against it without sacrificing so much resources, especially people.
—his people.
(If you would listen to my proposal, then we can win in this defense without losing so much as a single person, although… we would have to spend many resources. Are you willing to do it?)
This entire conversation was sent only through the AI system… only to the two of them.
(If it’s something we have, then I will.)
Higginson was the ‘face’ of the Human Society to The Alliance and he held authority over the delegates and the Ambassadors, serving like a PRO of an enterprise.
Maki, however, was the core of military power, the [General] of their strengths and operations.
When the matters concerning the safety of the entire Human Race is concerned, he held all the authority to create a solid decision.
After all, if there’s any discrepancy, Maki could just contact Higginson Bollard through his AI-interface and talk it through with him.
(Alright.) Siva sent over, (Then I will be the bait and you construct this thing as fast as possible.)
Siva sent over a blueprint and Maki raised a brow at him.
(You’re out of your mind.)
(I don’t want to be hit by Lightning nine times so I had to do my part no matter what.)
(Alright. I’ve already started.)
*****
A masked “Maki” went out of the room along with a masked woman —Galatea’s other body.
By now, in the room, only Siva and the visitors had remained.
In the zoomed image, infrared vision showed it as a really large object —like a Queen Bee, it was surrounded by soldiers and drones, which were those big colossal warships… which are already 250m in size just by themselves.
‘Are we going to go to war this soon?’ Siva felt apprehensive, inwardly disdainful of the people in Jeremiah.
Siva couldn’t help voicing out, “I just wonder why, though, that even with this problem being already known to The Alliance, especially Jeremiah, they are still in a festive mood and still continuing with the King Test.”
—an obvious challenge at the lax attitude The Alliance are displaying from the crisis call made by the Humans.
“I can’t see the appropriate level of urgency on them even at this very moment.”
Maki’s fact-sounding words made Siva exhale so he couldn’t help making his voice louder, “Is this also true of the other nations?”
“Yes.” Maki was obviously angry as well.
As he spoke to this part, he drew his attention in a direction… to a certain person, prompting for at least an explanation as to why until now, there was yet a proper response for the stance of the “Terrans” of the Terran-Human Alliance.
The man tactfully suppressed his temper as he answered evenly.
“It’s because in this way, all the heroes of the world are in one place and that the attack can be quickly warded off as soon as it happens.”
The one who spoke was a Real@D of Draco he was familiar with. Despite his initial unwillingness to cooperate with White Knight “Rex Kingsley”, it was still a fact that the Misty Plains, the area that was given to the Humans by the Alliance, is very close to Jeremiah.
—apart from the fact that in the eyes of all those [seats] in the Terran-Human Alliance, Jeremiah is also the closest ally of the Humans… creating the strongest military unit in the planet, as well as the most special autocracy ever in history.
As per the “impression” of them having ridden the coattails of the Humans’ glory back in the day, the Council of Elder had to support them to save their dignity to the entire Alliance.
Jeremiah, was also just following the agreement made in the Alliance Meeting pertaining to the “help” the Alliance had to give to the Humans in this time of war —according to the [Instructions] of The Teacher and Gaia’s insistence— before the Independent Governance Resolution for the Humans’ formal abrogation from The Teacher’s [Instructions] is even properly finalized.
Demons are also the common enemy of Terrans so whether the (secretly) isolating members of the [seats] want it or not, they have to join hands and fight off this enemy.
But, contrary to what this war council is doing right now, though, Higginson’s end on the Alliance Council Meeting wasn’t doing any good.
At least this ‘Jeremiah War Council’ was sensible enough to see the larger picture of their coming problem… even if Draco, the Council of Elders’ War Council Representative, doesn’t want to be with Siva in the same room or not.
“You have my word that The Alliance will send in reinforcements as soon as possible.” said Jules next to Draco.
Siva didn’t trust her —no— he didn’t trust the so called War Council of The Alliance, and that also included the Council of Elders.
It’s already been 24hrs since they sent the call to defensive stance but until now, they were still deliberating about the Humans’ independence rather than talking about action plans in this upcoming war. It was making Siva very angry.
“If they’re really intent to help with the defense, they wouldn’t be this lax. Heh. I say they haven’t really fully digested the problem they’re facing as of yet. If these demons attack their cities, it’s only a matter of hours before millions of people die because of negligence.”
With the help of his experiences inside and with Cortana’s lie detection capability, it was actually a great feat if you can trick him from not being able to detect a lie from a bunch of lyrics.
Although they seem to show that The Alliance is a united force that oversees the total welfare of Terroa, inside that gilded façade was the rotting scent of selfish pursuit for material benefits.
Some of them aren’t even ashamed to display such unsightly trait.
One proof is how these [seats] have treated the Humans in front of an emergency situation like this one. It could even be said that now he knew why Maki was very fixated at the welfare of the entire Human Society.
It’s because they really are at the edge.
‘These Terrans are already on the way there.’
Siva looked up as if his gaze was going through the walls and through the sky of Terroa.
‘In the past, even though I saw that Mitrans are all united and seemingly peaceful, in the end, it was still this same scene I saw before a betrayal of my most trusted friends led to the destruction of the planet.’
Nothing could escape the corruption of Demons be it Immortals —and most especially Mortals.
‘Back then, I really thought that this place was a real world…’
Siva fought for survival back then and it all felt so real to him that the experience ultimately did a qualitative change in his entire being, both as a person and as an Immortal.
It changed everything and molded [Rex] into a different person… a person who knew how to kill, who knew what death is, and a person who had pointed his finger and stared at the Gods and Immortals eye to eye.
Heck, he even subdued the eminent [God King of the Naga] of the entire Dragon Race and made it a pet!
As soon as he woke up from the coma, he was able to recall every experience he had in Terroa and realized within a snap… that everything may have been one of those ‘reincarnations’ novels and TV stories loved to use as plot armor.
Optimistic, he inquired about Samantha, hoping that everything that had happened before his ‘reincarnation’ was just a bad dream.
When he learned she was already dead, he felt so much despair he promptly chose to forget everything, start all over again, and remove all of his memories of Samantha to escape the pain he knew would destroy him from within.
He did, however, thought that he succeeded.
Alas…….
Now that he had [woken up] and wasn’t bent to the destruction of everything connected to the Gods, even as much as a scent of them, it could be said that Janus’s main objective was already fulfilled with this development.
—at the expense of Siva’s emotional and mental suffering… including this current situation.
Thinking about everything that happened to him so far, the pace of every event and happenings, it was a bundle of experiences that was hard to even imagine that a mere 19-year old teenager could handle by himself without any support.
Perhaps, this was the reason why Janus had to specifically ‘wait’ (or perhaps plan) for someone close to Siva, like Scion, to come to Terroa and fulfill the role as his ‘home’ to anchor his soul to and serve as a lighthouse to guide him in this sea of darkness where he had to fight through his—emotional and virtual—demons in order to achieve his own personal goals.
Right now, honestly, Siva was thinking that this [awakening] wasn’t something that he desired —yet— had to accept for the sake of his brother.
And this is the reason why his already very short temper is progressively still being shortened by The Alliance’s stance.
“Sending their regiments now is the best time to ensure the safety of Terroa.” Siva said. “I know very well that they’re relying to the teleportation capability of the cities but pay in mind that there is an overly gigantic Colossal Being the likes of which attacks are capable of sealing space. The attack itself can be blocked once by the Light Towers but I assure you that [space] is going to be locked by that one single attack and by that time, you will only be… very… sorry.”
Siva intently indented his last three words to show the ‘Elders’ his own stance.
It was a simple implication of the notion that if the Council of Elders does not persuade The Alliance War Council, there is a high chance that the Demon Armada will attack the capital.
Draco knew it but then again, there’s hope in his heart that even if the demons indeed attack the capital, their numerous Light Towers will hold on even if the demons concentrate their 1.2M units of attacks solely at the capital.
Adding to that the number of delegates in there right now and their own personal military might, it wasn’t that much hard to imagine that even if they lose a few thousands of knight soldiers, it’s still far too early for the capital to fall.
Siva noticed this and he glared at Draco. Thank goodness he was just a Real@D or Siva would have smashed his face where he was seated and start a different war right here and now.
He could only imply his meaning on his words.
Still, Siva was one who had a short temper when facing people like these. Seeing that Draco was taking a ‘waiting stance’ in front of him, he made a sigh and called on him icily.
“Draco.”
“M-My Lord…”
“Remember my words today. If…. the Alliance does not send in reinforcements that are owed by their status, you better pray that I’m dead or I will make sure that when I pay them a visit, the first name in my list is you. I’ve had enough of all your rubbish. Defend this region or not, my own troops will stand by the Colony and we will make our preparations here. Just make sure that when this invasion is done, not one city has any damage and not one citizen has died or my own wrath is the last thing you will ever see in this planet.”
Draco fumed within but before he could even say a word, Maki cut the line and all the people not part of their alliance vanished in the room.
Siva gritted his teeth. “And here I thought you’re capable with your Intelligence Network.”
His eyes darted towards Maki. Still, very, angry.
Yesterday, he received his report… zero.
No.
To be precise, the attack in Alexandria crippled his intelligence gathering ability there and that he can’t always be in every Teleportation Hotspot in every country in Terroa so in the end, his search results ended up with zero.
Still, Siva didn’t expect for Maki to actually find him considering the size of Terroa, the number of cities, and the possibility that just like him, a few of the NPCs or even Players owned a city of their own that had a Teleportation Function synchronized to the “network” of [Safe Zones] that Janus used the Tenth Memory Crystal for.
He clenched his teeth as he thought of the clear stance of The Alliance. Their relaxed attitude in regards to this war is making him angry.
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The two War Councils’ stance is making Siva impatiently angry…
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Next Chapter: ATTACK!!!
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