[Vol. 8] Chapter 280: The Three Sides of Cooperation and Betrayal
Cause trouble inside the Holy Empire and send many of their own followers into this world?
No, those are only actions, not the real goal.
Even though the world’s barrier has started to break, at the current speed of decay, it will take at least over a year, maybe several years, before it is completely broken, broken enough for the Outer Gods to easily enter this world.
Since those powerful beings outside still cannot come in, and the Origin Realm is known to be protected by gods, then for the [World Sustainers] to move easily in this world, what is the most important key?
And for the Austre Empire, what do they need the most right now?
If you think about it that way… the answer is slowly becoming clear.
The night wind blew softly, moving the girl’s smooth black hair. Her silver-blue eyes looked toward the wide land in the east. The smile on her lips stayed the same, but her eyes had quietly grown deeper.
“A diversion to hide the real target… quite the big deal. But… is it really necessary to go this far?”
“When a person loses their bottom line, their destruction is only a matter of time.”
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Austre Empire — Frederick City, the Imperial Capital
Late at night, Emperor Leonis sat alone in his fine robes on the palace’s star-watching platform. He quietly looked up at the sky, where a clear but terrifying black crack had been torn open, as if by some invisible giant hand.
The night still had stars and three moons, but the deep black inside that crack seemed to go beyond any color. Even in the darkness, you could clearly see the difference between the normal sky and the torn sky.
Everything touched by the crack was completely gone, even the stars that had been there had disappeared without a trace. It was emptiness and nothingness. Such a sight had never been seen before, and in the past few days it had caused a huge stir.
In the capital, and all over the world, countless scholars argued over what this scene meant. Some said it was a sign of coming disaster. Some tried to study it from a scientific or magical point of view. A few rumors even spread in secret, claiming this was the goddess’s punishment for the Austre Empire starting a world war.
Ridiculous.
But still, everyone in the world, no matter high or low, lives under the same sky. No one can escape it. And for this sky-breaking event to appear right after the two nations started fighting, after the world war officially began, it was hard for people not to make connections.
The Goddess Church has believers everywhere in the world, and even inside the Austre Empire there are many followers. In the battle of public opinion, the Austre Empire has always been at a disadvantage. That is why Leonis had worked so hard to find a “just” reason to send his army.
But the Austre Empire never got that reason. The surprise attack they planned was stopped when the Dragon God interfered. The Holy Empire had hidden its strength well, and when they finally revealed their real military power, it was far stronger than the Austre Empire’s advisors had guessed. Even facing a million elite soldiers with high-level magic equipment, the Holy Empire, with barely one-tenth that number, still held the battle line inside the buffer zone.
Now the Austre Empire and the Holy Empire were stuck in a stalemate on the main battlefield. On the surface, it looked evenly matched, but anyone could see the truth: if the war dragged on, the Austre Empire’s chances of winning would only get worse with time. In the end, losing would be only a matter of when, not if.
The Austre Empire’s allies, the Western Beast Kingdom and the Southern Nobos Iron-Blood Empire, were also not doing well against the Human United Kingdom. The Human United Kingdom was fighting on two fronts, but the Northern Ten Thousand Demon Mountains, which should have been a major threat to them, stayed completely quiet. Because of that, the Human United Kingdom could focus all their strength on the southwest battles, and with the Holy Empire supporting them from the rear, breaking through there would be even harder than on the main front.
The Austre Empire’s economic strength and resources were far less than the Holy Empire’s.
The Holy Empire had always followed a “small but elite” army policy, so the supplies they needed for war were also much smaller.
With the Austre Empire getting weaker while the Holy Empire stayed strong, and with foreign races along the eastern coast recently causing trouble and invading often. It was already hard to send more soldiers to the main battlefield.
Right now, the Austre Empire urgently needed a breakthrough to change the war’s deadlock.
The buffer zone between the two sides was too poor to be useful.
Only by pushing the front lines into the Holy Empire’s own land could the Austre Empire plunder enough to cover part of its losses. This had been the original plan of the Imperial Intelligence Bureau, but sadly, the enemy countered it, and it still hadn’t worked.
Leonis understood this better than anyone. In fact, when the Holy Capital’s “Trial of the Immortal Heroes” ended and he gave the order to officially start the war, he had already guessed the situation would end up like this. When he ignored his ministers’ advice and insisted on starting the war, he clearly had his own reasons.
Taking his eyes away from the black crack in the sky, Leonis, alone on the palace’s star-watching platform, took out a green jade ring engraved with a coiling snake pattern.
He poured magic into it.
The ring glowed, and in front of him appeared a faint phantom. A strange human-shaped figure whose face was hidden by a hood and robe. The only thing visible was the faint, unknown gray mist constantly drifting from its body.
“……”
They stared at each other across the empty void, neither speaking.
Leonis, only a mortal, kept a calm face even under the deep, soul-piercing gaze of the other.
It had been a long time since Leonis had contacted this being in such a way. He knew very well that with the other’s organization’s skills, they had probably already investigated everything he had done recently.
Some things in this world cannot exist together, you must choose one or the other. Back when he made that decision, many things had already been set in stone.
Compared to the false promises and repeated failures of this organization, the other choice at least gave Leonis some hope of success.
Now the two sides were enemies.
At last, the phantom spoke.
[You should not have worked with them.]
Leonis’s face was hard and cold.
“I gave you chances, more than once. You didn’t make good use of them.”
[Do you understand what the ‘World Sustainers’ truly represent? Your greed for short-term gain will one day cost you everything. Mortal, you are not even qualified to bargain with them. You are setting yourself on fire.]
“Yes… I really don’t have that qualification.”
Leonis calmly looked into the distance, his face expressionless, as if he had lost all human feelings and was only a cold, calculating emperor machine. Even as a god who had seen countless hearts and moral paradoxes, the so-called God of Paradox could not see through Leonis’s true thoughts at that moment.
After a short silence, Leonis suddenly said,
“That’s why I want to fight for it, to fight for the qualification to trade as an equal with you high and mighty gods. And that chance… your ‘Twilight Council’ could never give me.”
[You…]