Chapter 288: Working for the Interests of One’s Country and a Choice
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Pranav
n.o.body could have expected that right after the war against the beastmen ended in the Northlands that next year’s spring would have so many major events in succession. All of them were long-term events that would have major impacts on the entire world.
When did these changes start occurring? Was it when Undead Emperor Aso personally descended and sacrificed everything, which made the undead invasion utterly unblockable?
Was it due to Amelia’s coincidental arrival at Port Victoria and unintentional creation of the wood spirit species?
Or was it due to Roland and Ayer who rushed here and allied with various True G.o.ds, making a world-shaking proclamation?
At the time, probably n.o.body could predict the future. The most important thing of all was that there were six black pillars of light absorbing souls here. When Aso used his own life to open up all six Dimensional Doors to the six Undead Planes, countless undead silently arrived from these Dimensional Doors, and the scariest Undead Calamity had arrived.
Next to the pillars was a pitch-black battle flag that waved in the wind. Black-robed knights rode on the skeleton warhorses, and there were hordes of liches equipped with bone staves. There was a sea of skeleton mages, and hundreds of great liches floated across to the mortal plane. The amount of undead casters arriving was far above the norm for an undead army.
These undead were in no hurry at all. They merely organized themselves into squads.
The undead filled all corners of my vision with no end in sight. The elite undead had acc.u.mulated for over thousands of years in the six Undead Planes and now continually arrived with constant reinforcements. Although I recognized countless high-level undead troop types, there were also many I did not. Numerous imposing gigantic undead beasts made the earth tremble with every step they took.
“It seems like we probably won’t win…”
We definitely didn’t lack combat strength on our side, with two aerial battles.h.i.+ps, Borealis and Mizar, plus the wood spirits and twentyish dragons—more than enough to conquer a small country. Still, that was no guarantee of victory against this endless stream of high-level undead.
“If only my Red Hunting Hounds were here, or if only I could use the ‘Infallible Diffindor,’ then the result would definitely…”
“Still be the same! Just look at how many liches there are! Look at all those complete and orderly combat squadrons! No matter how strong your Red Hunting Hounds are, they’re only one military squadron in strength, while we’re facing the level of an undead empire here, not to mention six combined empires’ total strength. Only your Yongye army from when you were the strongest might possibly be a match. No, since there were too many internal factions within the Yongye army, while our current enemy is far more highly unified, with liches being as common as dogs and Myth ranks everywhere, even your Yongye army would probably lose in the end.”
Alright then, the silly cat already made it her innate nature to retort at everything I said. Still, everyone present knew that what she said was the truth. Our opponents’ strength far exceeded our expectations.
When an ancient undead kingdom like the Tark Republic was reborn, and when they chose to return to the mortal plane, they became a force that no single person or military squad would be able to deal with. Their opponent would definitely be the entire world.
However… I stared at a certain person!
“Why are you looking at me? Don’t you all know that a True G.o.d’s incarnation in the mortal plane can only reach a SemiG.o.d’s power level? What can one SemiG.o.d possibly do in this situation?”
Although I didn’t know why Ayer sent his incarnation here, it was evident that the scrolls attached to his waist were no ordinary objects. Perhaps they had the power to change the combat situation, not to mention…
“SemiG.o.d? A mere SemiG.o.d can defeat the powerful G.o.ddess, the Queen of Storms, in a single attack? Who the h.e.l.l do you think you’re fooling?!”
Alright then, n.o.body actually dared to say that out loud, but it was quite obvious that everyone who had traveled together was thinking this. It was written all over their faces.
“Cough, these are simply the basic dimensional laws. Even I must obey them. Rather than saying that I defeated little Angie, it was more like I scared her away.”
Ayer was already being quite kind to explain things to us. What else were we supposed to say?
But, from how I saw it, Ayer’s expression seemed to be a bit off ever since he arrived here.
Ayer’s expression was quite complex as he kept glancing over at where Aso had perished, leaving behind only his skull. He seemed to be waxing nostalgic as well as hesitating about something. Finally, he sighed helplessly and didn’t do anything at all.
Perhaps other people thought that he was frustrated about the Undead Calamity, but I just received Aso’s memories and knew that the origins of how the Black Will learned undead magic were shrouded in mystery. There were rumors in his memory that the Black Will either learned undead magic as a joke by a demon or due to a certain Death G.o.d. And if it was the latter, anyone could figure out that it must have been Ayer using even their knee to think about it.
I was intending to say something, but Ayer seemed to see through me as he slightly shook his head and clapped his hands lightly.
And then…
We were now in a familiar forest, with giant trees all around us. Ayer managed to teleport all of us here to safety in just an instant.
There was only the sound of a soft wind rustling the leaves, along with the babbling of a river in the distance. The undead and their commotion outside the forest seemed to disappear entirely.
“Take this.”
I caught what Ayer tossed over to me. It was half a skull, the only item that Aso left behind of his body.
“Since he gave his memories and experiences to you, why don’t you take this as well. After some processing, it should be, at the minimum, a SemiG.o.d Equipment. With that fellow’s personality—he hates being lonely and is afraid of being forgotten by others more than anything—let him keep his name through the ages in another fas.h.i.+on like this.”
By this point, it was quite obvious that Ayer had a connection with Aso and the Tark Republic undead. He didn’t intend to hide it at all as he continued speaking slowly.
“Actually, I knew that he would pick you. After all, the two of you have really similar personalities. No need to rush to disagree with me, as I have evidence for my statement. Both of you typically act casual, but the moment that some topic important to you is mentioned, or if you’re forced to the brink, the fact is that both of you will instantly go crazy. Let me just try asking you, if you were in his position, would you make the same insane choice as him in the end?”
“Of course I wouldn’t… I think?”
Alright then, I actually had to admit that if I was in his situation with his life experiences, perhaps I would act even more insanely than Aso.
“…More importantly is that while both of you appear to be the practical type on the surface, you’re actually both idealists that chase after your dreams. Not to mention, you both just happen to possess sufficient power to realize your dreams that others wouldn’t even dare to dream of. Did you think that he was ignorant of everything you did in the Northlands? He already gave you his recognition. Since he chose you in the end, you must accept his present.”
I nodded silently as I put away Aso’s skull that had already transformed into a material similar to mercury. Meanwhile, his more precious gift was already inside my mind, and n.o.body would be able to steal that from me.
But now, I was getting a little afraid after the matter was done.
After all, from a certain standpoint, if I didn’t intentionally antagonize Ayer back in the day, and if I didn’t stop myself in the end and truly managed to establish an undead empire, perhaps the end result for me would be similar to what happened to Aso just now.
“But what should we do about the undead outside?”
Little Rosa of the Seven Virtues didn’t know who this seemingly powerful young man before her was, nor did she understand why the atmosphere suddenly became so heavy. While everyone else was busy remaining abnormally silent, Rosa only cared about whether her home would still be under threat or not.
“The undead? Do they have some type of relations.h.i.+p with you guys? Do you have any way to stop them? Do these little gals still intend to fight to the end against the undead?”
Ayer was quite interested in the little girl before him. After all, it was incredibly rare for Eich to have a brand-new species. It was an event which only happened once every few centuries or even millennium. The world would become a livelier place now with the wood spirits.
“Of course there’s a relations.h.i.+p to us, if they try using another forbidden spell to attack the forest…”
Alright then, little Rosa started blus.h.i.+ng right after saying that. Since she and the other Virtues had directly received all of Amelia’s knowledge, it took only some basic reasoning for her to realize that she had said something unnecessary.
Due to an insufficiency in the Elemental Tide, the Undead Emperors would still be unable to descend for the time being unless they wanted a repeat of what happened to Aso.
And in the current undead army, even if there were some top level undead archmages capable of casting forbidden spells, unless they were at Aso’s power level, they would likely be unable to threaten the Forest of Dreams which was basically at the level of a dimensional will. The most important part of all, however, was that…
“The undead no longer have any reason to attack the Forest of Dreams…”
Indeed, there was no need for either side to continue the battle. Before, the undead had to conquer the Forest of Dreams at all costs in order to eliminate the rock in the gears of the Dimensional Door, preventing dimensional teleportation from going as smoothly as it should.
But now, not only the Desecration Plane but all six Undead Planes had been successfully connected to the mortal plane due to Aso’s sacrifice. The undead had a perfectly smooth dimensional teleportation available to them now, so why would they still need to conquer the Forest of Dreams? That would be a choice that they would need to pay a heavy price for and would bring them zero benefits. n.o.body with intelligence would choose to continue attacking this place.
If I was the overall commander for the undead, I would choose to completely ignore this nigh-impregnable turtle-like fortress filled with th.o.r.n.y defenses and simply focus on achieving my next combat objective.
Since I had received part of Aso’s memories, I now understood the undead’s overall goals.
It was actually quite simple. They just wanted glory and to reestablish the Tark Republic. However, a country with only undead in it was no good. Any country that didn’t have sources of receiving new citizens with fresh blood would quickly decay even if it had no outside enemies.
“Kasolan’s Tears? Could it be that the Tark Republic still possesses the perfect undead transformation spell that can change any living person into an undead retaining intelligence with a one hundred percent rate? The acc.u.mulation of Kasolan’s Tears in the Bardi citizens’ bodies is the catalyst for that spell? d.a.m.n it, any of Aso’s memories regarding the undead’s future plans are tattered or completely blank. Senior, you put so much thought into what memories to give me and what to leave out!”
But even though I didn’t have a full answer to what the undead’s plans were, it wasn’t difficult to guess their next objective.
Perhaps the Undead Emperors were already treating the Bardi Empire’s citizens as the future new citizens of the Tark Republic. The Undead Emperors had only one goal: to create new blood for this old republic so that the ancient kingdom could revive itself in history on the mortal plane. They desired for the undead to have the right to live out openly under the sun, just like all the other species.
And once they realized this dream of theirs, taking revenge on the elves, dragons, or even attacking the G.o.ds themselves were all possible. Unlike Xiluo which kept having internal conflicts and was like a pile of loose sand, the Tark Republic had an incredibly high internal degree of unity. They would definitely have high chances of victory no matter who they faced.
In that case, since the Tark Republic needed to obtain s.p.a.ce to exist and resources for itself in the mortal plane, they would definitely have conflicts with the surrounding countries. This was a most basic clash of personal interests and was unavoidable.
Still, I didn’t understand how they would be able to make the Bardi Empire’s major n.o.bles and local domain lords abandon thoughts of resisting and simply turn into the undead. Battles and conflicts would definitely erupt. Suddenly, I now understood why my Quest had changed its name from “Battle of Two Dragons” to “Infighting Amongst Three Snakes.”
When the Bardi Empire and Mage Country were the only partic.i.p.ants in the war, they were naturally the “Two Dragons.” But now, the undead Tark Republic had fully arrived and joined in—they became the third faction, hence “Three Snakes.” Naturally, we would have to pick a side in this three-way war.
I thought about it for the while but still came to the same conclusion as before: I would choose the Mage Country. Although I sympathized with the Tark Republic, they had become the invaders of the mortal plane so it was impossible for me to help them. Not to mention that their final goal was one which would definitely cause the G.o.ds to become anxious. It was a path already proven by history that it would definitely fail. How could I possibly follow down that path with them?
But still, pa.s.sively waiting for the undead to make their own decisions was something that would make me anxious as well.
“Roland, do you still remember that report you gave me? I discussed it with everyone, and we all agreed that it was worth a try. Don’t you think that right now is an excellent opportunity for the first step of your experiment? As long as your plan is successful, at the very least it’ll bring some safety to your wood spirits. After all, based just on their geographic location, they’re going to be facing long-term warfare in the future. You can’t interfere too much directly to protect them, either, as that’ll affect the species’ overall development potential.
When Ayer mentioned my plan, even I was astonished to hear that the G.o.ds had agreed. My plan was of an enormous scale—it would affect countless individuals and even numerous True G.o.ds’ personal benefits. I was only half joking when I proposed it and didn’t expect Ayer and the other True G.o.ds to actually dare to implement it.
“Then, what should we do?”
Ayer’s incarnation smiled without answering. Instead, he lightly tore the first scroll in his hand. The signature on this scroll belonged to the G.o.d of Fate.
“Sign here, and read it out loud together with me. We proclaim that…”