Chapter 895: Void Territory
The radiance of Order burst into the sky and pained the pitch-black night sky in white.
“Your Royal Highness.”
Amund stood on the balcony and gazed with knitted brows at the pure, magnificent color of Order in the distance. He gaped, but couldn’t utter a word. Lydia waved her hand casually and narrowed her eyes to admire the view.
“Don’t worry, Teacher Amund. Beautiful flowers will eventually produce sweet fruits. This is a natural process. No matter what we do, we can’t reverse it. The trajectory of this world is fixed forever. Besides… I never go back on my promises.”
“But, Your Royal Highness, what if… the Country of Darkness…”
“That’s a problem that he needs to handle. All we have to do is watch in silence. Since he has made this decision, he must also have a solution to resolve the problem. If he doesn’t think it through, he will need to pay the corresponding price. No matter what, rashness is the biggest enemy. As the ruler, one must constantly behave elegantly and not be affected by external factors. This is what you taught me, Teacher.”
Lydia lifted her head and squinted. No one knew what was going through her mind.
“Perhaps, this may also be a great choice for Her Majesty.”
Lydia muttered under her breath.
At the same time, on the balcony under the blood moon, the young lady dressed in a luxurious nightgown was gazing at the light of Order in the distance. The radiance wasn’t blinding, but the incredible force couldn’t be neglected.
“That’s interesting. Is this the doing of that man?”
Erin rested her hand on her chin and revealed a witty smile. She turned around and gazed at the dark city where the top of the tower flickered in green flames. This meant that an important meeting was taking place and it went without saying what the purpose of this meeting was for.
… Ever since I started remembering things, I don’t recall seeing anyone attempting to occupy the Land of Chaos. No matter if it was the humans, undead creatures, or elves, they all fell under the threats of Chaos. Over the hundreds of years, no one dared to enter the Land of Chaos—not even my Big Brother, the fearless Dark Dragon.
But Erin was clear that Dark Dragon Ion just didn’t want to waste any energy on that unrelated territory. The mutual struggle between the n.o.bles and rich families could filter the existence of the abandoned ones and screen out more qualified candidates to take down enemies and strengthen their forces. However, it was extremely dangerous to send forces into the Land of Chaos. Indeed, although undead creatures held advantages over live beings, they were equally powerless in the face of Chaos.
Would the undead creatures be afraid of Chaos despite living for such a long time?
But… Big Brother, if you continue to avoid and not face it, you will only fall no matter how determined you are. It seems like I, as your younger sister, can’t make you understand this.
Alright then, it seems like it is necessary to let you have a taste of ‘failure’ before it is forged. I will do it for myself and our country.
Erin revealed a smile. Then, she extended her right arm and the forest around her began to rustle. After a few moments, a colony of bats flew out from the darkness and spiraled around the castle before soaring into the night sky.
In the palace surrounded by the mountains, it was as tranquil and peaceful as ever. The only difference was that the elves who should have been kneeling and praying in silence standing on their feet. They gazed at the light column that had burst into the sky with complicated emotions. The presence of Order was so blinding that they couldn’t look directly.
“Big Sister, someone awakened the tinder.”
A crisp, yet ice-cold voice resounded in the solemn palace within the church. A young lady wielding a sword that was as tall as her stood by the window and gazed at the majestic scene. Her voice was filled with determination that no one could refute.
“How reminiscent. I thought I wouldn’t get to witness this beautiful light of Order again…”
The other young lady responded. It was gentle, plain, and casual in tone. The young lady by the window turned around and her long, silver hair danced in the wind.
“Has the traveler from the void returned? I wonder what kind of surprise he will bring for us this time.”
“We don’t need surprises, Big Sister.”
The big sister was rather dissatisfied with the response.
“Our mission is to protect Order from being destroyed and no one should object to this, not even the creator of the void. We will protect the rules of this world with our lives forever.”
She said and the solemn palace returned to its usual silence.
[System Reboot Complete]
[Void Territory cleansing complete]
“Phew…”
Rhode heaved a sigh of relief as he gazed at the holographic map. After completely cleansing the Chaos in this place, the territory finally revealed its original state. Generally, this territory was pretty much similar to that in the game.
Starting from the fortress in the Land of Atonement, the crescent-shaped territory formed a peninsula around the golden sea. Currently, the place where Rhode stood was the huge island formed by the inner sea in the center of this crescent-shaped peninsula. But unlike in the game, the crescent-shaped peninsula was much larger here. The rolling hills, plains, and wetlands formed a perfect barrier. Looking from a tall height, it was as though one’s arms were hugging the island. The pointed ends of the crescent-shaped territory were near the Light Mainland. It could also be said that this territory connected the Munn Kingdom and Light Mainland that used to be separated by the ocean. Although the territory wasn’t as large as the Munn Kingdom, it was at least one-sixth of the total ma.s.s.
In terms of geographical location, this territory was perfect. The surface was connected to the Munn Kingdom and due to the existence of peninsulas, the rough golden sea became gentle. Apart from the four to five waterways connecting to the Munn Kingdom and surrounding territories in the Country of Light, the land channels connected to the Land of Atonement fortress were also linked to the Country of Darkness. Not only that, but if the courses were set properly, they could easily reach the Country of Law from the other side of the territory. This meant that this territory was basically connected to all the main forces on this continent, which was beneficial for commerce. However, from a military standpoint, it would be an attractive chunk of meat if the defenses weren’t set up quickly enough. If the Country of Darkness dominated this piece of land, they would have a much easier way to attack the Light Mainland no matter the angle. It could also be said that with the Country of Darkness’s powers, they would definitely clinch the entire Light Mainland if they obtained this territory.
Apart from that, Rhode discovered that within his territory, there were nine refuges of various sizes. The biggest refuge contained tens of thousands of people while the smallest held less than a hundred. The other refuges didn’t show up in his system interface, so he guessed that they must have died to the Chaos vortexes from before. He hadn’t decided on how he should handle the refugees. In the game, the refugees would listen to all his commands at the click of his mouse, but only G.o.d knew how they would react here. Therefore, Rhode unlocked the first layer of seal on the refuges and allowed them to roam around freely. He would decide on what to do in the future after some observation.
But this wasn’t the most important thing because he discovered a secret that no players realized in the game.
That was how dragon soul powers came about.
In the game, all players knew how powerful the dragon soul heirs were, no matter the Dark Dragon, Void Dragon, or Judgment & Ruling Twin Dragons. They used their souls to protect the land from Chaos, but this was all that the players knew. But now, Rhode finally understood how the dragon souls got their powers through loyalty and faith.
This was similar to novels Rhode read about the G.o.ds gathering their followers. The more people who believed and followed them, the more strength they would gain. On the contrary, the fewer the believers and followers, the fewer powers they would have. It was similar for the dragon souls, but the difference was that their powers didn’t rely on their followers. Instead, it depended on the people living under their dragon soul protection. In other words, the people who lived under the Light Dragon soul protection would subconsciously provide strength to the Light Dragon and the same went for the other dragons.
But the source of power didn’t come from respect or offerings. Instead, it was through recognition. No matter if they gave recognition out of fear or respect, as long as they followed the commands of the dragon soul heirs wholeheartedly, the dragon soul heirs would receive more power.
No wonder the Dark Dragon is so strong.
Rhode curled his lips. In terms of lovingness, the Country of Darkness definitely had none of that. But in terms of authority, no one in the Country of Darkness dared to defy the Dark Dragon. It was also due to the powerful presence and fear that caused the ‘people’ to surrender, and the Dark Dragon became so powerful. If Rhode knew about this in the game, perhaps he would have led the players and slaughtered all the NPCs in the Country of Darkness. This would have made it much easier to defeat the Dark Dragon…
But what Rhode couldn’t understand was the Country of Light. If the information that he received was all accurate, the foolish act of the Country of Light influencing their people about the Light Dragon was basically suicidal.
Why is the Light Parliament so daring?
No… The Light Parliament doesn’t even know that they are digging their own graves.
It seemed like only the dragon soul heirs held the rights to know about this secret. Perhaps even if the dragon soul heir warned the Light Parliament that if they continued to stop their people from trusting it or the entire Light Mainland would perish, the Light Parliament would treat this as just an excuse for the dragon soul to restore its authority.
That’s why I said… The wisdom of mortals…
Perhaps this was why the Light Dragon soul’s protection didn’t hang on for too long against the Dark Dragon’s attack?
But this matter had nothing to do with Rhode now. His body didn’t transform after becoming the dragon soul heir, so logically speaking, Lilian wouldn’t have any changes either. According to Sonia, the probability of Lilian’s body being altered was high. Even though Rhode didn’t think that the Light Parliament was this brazen, who knew? Anyone who lost their heads in the pursuit of power could do anything.
The dragon soul power didn’t exist to stop the infiltration of Chaos and enhance the dragon soul heir’s strength only. Rhode discovered in his construction system that there was almost nothing that the dragon soul power couldn’t do. As long as he had sufficient dragon soul powers to consume, he could turn high mountains into flat terrain, create islands and reefs in the sea, or turn barren land into fertile plains. It could also be said that in the continent under the dragon soul protection, the dragon soul heir was a creation G.o.d who could change everything. However, the truth wasn’t this simple.
One could change the shape of the eraser when it was soft, but after it took shape and turned hard, any attempt to reshape it would destroy it completely and this logic applied to this territory too. If Rhode accidentally smashed the barrier of the dragon soul protection and opened a path for Chaos to infiltrate it again, it would end brutally.
This was perhaps the reason why Rhode didn’t receive any information about dragon soul powers. Thousands of years had gone by since their territory took shape and reshaping them using the dragon soul powers would cause catastrophic disasters. But this wasn’t a concern for this new territory.
Besides, he had something more important to attend to.
In the game, after the players opened up a new territory, there would be an absolute wall of Order over the new territory. During this period of time, no one could enter the territory and in gaming terms, this would be called the invulnerable period. During this period, not even the other dragon soul heirs could enter. According to the game, this was a rule carved in the creation code and all people of Order had to follow them. It seemed like this was also in place right now. After the absolute wall of Order was activated, no one could enter Rhode’s new territory until the period was over. What Rhode had to do now was to ensure his territory had sufficient defensive forces within the shortest time possible in order to guard against enemies.
He had to build a city within his territory.