Not long ago, the Holy Church's faction had suffered a major loss in the Chaos Abyss Battlefield in San Antonio. The Great Demon Empire and demon armies had returned, and the Holy Church's Knight and low-level angel armies had suffered heavy losses. While the actual losses were bearable, the damage to the Holy Church's reputation would be quite difficult to make up for.
And it just so happened that the Hell Faction managed to achieve such a glorious victory against the Northlands Faction at such a time. This made the losers seem even more useless … That's right, in the eyes of the world, being able to achieve such a result against the demon wave and Donatis could already be considered a victory. As for the Elven Gods' death, it was already fated that the demon wave would begin here.
Everyone was watching the battle. The Elven Gods had suffered a major loss at the beginning and suffered a terrible defeat on the battlefield, while the Elven Gods had won a great victory. Not only did the Elven Gods survive, they even brought the Elven Empire's inheritance to the Northlands. Naturally, this was a major blow to the Holy Church's reputation.
Some people had suffered losses and lost face outside of the Northlands. Instead of thinking about how to regain face, they wanted to suppress their allies and subordinates so that others wouldn't rebel against them due to a lack of reputation … I was only stating the facts. I definitely didn't think of a certain transport team captain who wanted to deal with the outside world first.
The rise of the Southern Sect, the God of Holy Light's numerous obstructions, the Holy Church's reputation in all the other countries, and even the number of believers in the Holy Church's parishes had greatly decreased. All of this was shaking the Holy Church's foundation. And so, in the eyes of certain factions within the Holy Church, the Hades Faction and that man who had been hiding behind the Holy Church's back were far more hateful and dangerous than the Chaos Faction.
Logically speaking, it is indeed understandable that "to resist foreign aggression, one must first pacify our internal affairs." Constructing a line of defense and isolation was the Holy Church's way of testing us. However, if we failed to respond appropriately, this line of defense would be of great use. It might even become a solid defensive wall that exiles us "barbarians" to the northeast corner of the world.
Once the Mist Alliance's blockade was completed, the Mist Alliance would be forced into a passive position in terms of strategy. The Mist Alliance would have to break through the Mist Alliance's blockade in order to invade the south. The Mist Alliance would have to let the Northlands fight their own battles, giving us enough time and space to prepare our strategies. This was the most recent mantra of the cardinals, who advocated for constructing a defensive line. And if the Mist Alliance's blockade was truly completed, it would be far more useful than the benefits on paper.
The Holy Church's threat to the Northlands was mainly due to the fact that the Northlands were currently unable to be self-sufficient. Food, weapons, equipment, clothing, and wood all had to be traded with other countries. The moment these trades were cut off, the effects would be tremendous. And right now, the Northlands elves were on their way back to the Northlands. If they were cut off … Never underestimate the Holy Church's shamelessness. The Holy Church's fanatical believers and greedy scammers were capable of making any immoral act seem like a good deed. They were capable of treating every merchant as a demon worshipper and hunting them down. We needed to be prepared to be completely cut off from the Holy Church.
And if the Mist Alliance really wanted to reinforce another ally, not only would it be impossible for their ground troops to invade the south, they would even be intercepted by the angel army in the air. It could be said that the Mist Alliance had completely isolated the Northlands Mist Alliance from a strategic standpoint. And if the Mist Alliance decided to forcefully break through and invade the south first, then the Mist Alliance would be labeled as an invader and a civil war.
From a certain standpoint, this scheme was indeed quite sly and sinister on paper. But if I had to say …
"Is the Mist Alliance's planner an idiot? Does he really think that the other countries are his chess pieces and idiots? Would anyone actually fall for such an obvious strategy that's just using them as cannon fodder? "
I was quite astonished. This was basically forcing the smaller countries in the South to make a choice between the Mist Alliance and the Holy Church. Where did the Holy Church get the confidence to believe that they would be able to achieve complete victory? Even a powerful dragon would have to give face to a local snake. No matter how powerful the Holy Church was, its foundation was still in the central region of Eich. In the Northlands, the Mist Alliance was still stronger.
"… No, they're no idiots. It's just that they haven't woken up from the glory they've enjoyed over the past few years. They still think that everything is still like ten years ago, when the Holy Church claimed that they were the only rulers, and that royalty could only tremble in front of divine authority. In their eyes, they're the ones with the most power, and those Northlands barbarians should be taking this opportunity to kiss their own boots. "
Glina's words were filled with venom, but she spoke the truth. The Holy Church's planner probably believed that he would be able to make the smaller countries submit if he brought a powerful army to the Northlands. "That might not be the case.
There are twelve countries in total. The other countries didn't give me any information? Hasn't their plan already been mostly successful? "
Renée's words caused everyone present to shake their heads. Without any support, Renée's political foresight would probably only be able to see the frontlines. She would only realize that she had been tricked after being beaten up.
I once again confirmed that Renée absolutely needed to have an expert administrator by her side. And now that Empress Ivy had appeared, everyone heaved a sigh of relief. And now, Empress Ivy was stealthily tugging on her "husband"'s clothes, indicating that he shouldn't make wild guesses as she told me the final possible truth.
"No, they're just waiting. They're waiting for us to offer them something to join us. They're waiting for the other two countries to receive a response. They're waiting for us to determine a 'winner' between us and the Holy Church."
Making a prompt decision required courage. No matter what the situation was, there would always be a lot of opportunists. If we forced the smaller countries too far, it would be the same as giving the opportunists to the smaller countries.
I now had a headache. The current situation had changed yet again. If the two countries only wanted to join us, we could use various reasons to reject them. But if we rejected them now, that would be the equivalent of pushing the neutral party into the smaller countries' arms.
And if we reluctantly agreed to join the Mist Alliance, that would be a good thing for the Mist Alliance's long-term development. After all, we would be able to obtain the food that we needed the most. However, it would be a destructive blow to our overall defensive strategy. Perhaps we would have to extend our defensive line much further south. Would we have to give up on our natural strongholds and defend the plains? That would be such a huge loss.
Perhaps the silly cat had met a silly mouse, or perhaps the Holy Church had truly schemed to such an extent. At the very least, this move from the Holy Church indeed made things rather difficult for us.
This was the Mist Kingdom's royal conference hall. It could be said that all the higher-ups of the Mist Kingdom were attending this meeting. However, when I brought up this issue and also mentioned the overall defensive strategy for the entire Northlands, everyone fell silent.
In order to increase my persuasiveness, I tossed out some documents and information that I had prepared beforehand for them to look over. For the next half an hour, there was only the sound of flipping pages in the conference hall.
By the time they finished digesting the information they had, they were looking at me with strange expressions. Their expressions were mostly like "Why didn't you say so earlier?", "How could you be such a scammer?", "Do you not trust your allies that much?", "Do you have no confidence in the war at all?", and so on. Every single one of them furrowed their eyebrows at the difficult problem I was facing.
And then, the conference entered a time where there was no progress at all. Some suggested accepting new allies, while others immediately asked what they should do about the defensive line. Some directly refused, while others immediately asked what they should do about the defensive line.
In fact, some even tried to trick the other party into agreeing first. In the end, that idiot was directly kicked out of the conference hall. Was it so easy to earn some credibility in this day and age?
In the end, I could only helplessly shake my head.
"… Let's just stall for time."
Indeed, this matter couldn't be rushed. We needed time to gather opinions, and the Holy Church also needed time to gather opinions. But at this time, it was necessary to maintain a friendly relationship with the smaller countries.
Most of the people in the conference had left, but I was still calculating in my mind.
Was there really no solution? That might not be the case. I had plenty of bad ideas. It would take ten years for the Holy Church to realize what I had done. But right now, I needed stability. It would be easy to trick others, but it would be much more troublesome to clean up the mess. Compared to the current problem, I was more concerned about the Holy Church and the other Order Faction's hostility towards us.
Not only that, this hostility wasn't limited to the Holy Church's Holy Light Faction. Even the neutral Nature Faction and Dwarf God Faction had distanced themselves from us over the past few years. Not only were they no longer as friendly as they were eight years ago, it was even more obvious that they were on guard against us.
"… Aren't we taking too big of a step?"
I knew what I was doing. This didn't mean that we weren't doing well. In fact, it was the opposite. It was because we were doing too well.
The very nature of belief in a God determined that population and belief were both resources to the Gods. In that case, since it was a resource, if some people had more resources, there would naturally be fewer people.
Previously, we had such a good relationship not only because we had similar ideals and similar natures, but also because we had a common enemy. We had to fight against the Holy Light Faction within the Order Faction, and we had to fight against the Chaos Faction outside.
But now, the Hades Faction had only been on the stage for less than ten years, but they were already suppressing the other God Factions to the point where they couldn't even breathe. Their consecutive victories and victories not only gave the Holy Light Faction a lot of pressure, but also made the neutral God Faction unable to take it anymore. And, the fact that the Order Faction had broken away from the Order Faction also made the neutral God Faction quite apprehensive.
Not to mention, the Elven God Faction had been indirectly destroyed by my hands a few days ago. I wouldn't believe that the other God Factions didn't have any thoughts about this.
A tall tree would attract the wind. Only a mediocre person wouldn't be envied and hated by others. It was easy to say, but it would be incredibly foolish to stand out too much and make the entire world their enemy.
This was the unspoken rule of the Order Faction's many God Factions. This was a proxy war that couldn't be fought directly. Or, to put it more bluntly, it would be an internal struggle for power that couldn't be spilled. No matter who it was, as long as they were too strong, they would naturally be attacked by the other factions. I just didn't expect this to happen so soon.
I had hoped that I was wrong and that this trouble was caused by the Holy Church alone. However, my spies gave me information that the Nature Faction had recently been quite close to the Holy Church, which made me think too much.
"… The Joy and Laughter Sisters? Sigh, it's all Amelia's fault … "
This time, I didn't just casually shift the blame to the Nature Faction. More than 70% of the blame was on Amelia.
The appearance of the wood spirits gave them even more authority than the immemorial Children of Nature. And, the wood spirits and Amelia's recent activities greatly expanded the Hades Faction's authority. The Hades Faction's abilities in nature, life, plants, and so on had already far surpassed the Nature Faction's divine miracles.
Some things were quite difficult to explain, especially when it came to Divine Concepts …
"You say that you're the master of the ancient trees? The king of the treants? The wood spirits' sky-reaching trees are several times taller than your trees. "
"You say that you're the protector of life? You can reconstruct severed limbs? What? You need sacrifices and sacrifices? You need to make great achievements for a True God? False Gods! The wood spirits only need one Justice Point to reconstruct severed limbs! "
Far too many things like this had happened before. I could completely understand the Nature Faction's frustrations. I also knew that the Nature Faction had once sent out God Envoys in order to express their friendliness, hoping that Amelia would accept the Nature Faction's Divine Concept and become a member of the Nature Faction.
Actually, there was nothing wrong with becoming a member of the Nature Faction, but the problem was …
"That's Amelia, that crazy witch …"
Not only did she kick the God Envoys out of the Nature Faction, the words she said at the time were now known to everyone. Those three difficult tasks still proved the Nature Faction's incompetence. Every time someone mentioned them, it was actually an insult to the Nature Faction.
"Nature God? Heh heh, as long as you're able to accomplish those three tasks, so what if you become a member of the Nature Faction? "
The first difficult task was the secret of life. Using a plant's body to give birth to a mortal's body … This was something that surpassed the Nature Faction's capabilities. The Nature Gods were unable to accomplish it.
The second difficult task was the secret of nature. Making an apple tree bloom in one day, bear fruit in one night, plant seeds in one day, and become a forest in one night … This was something that the Nature Gods could accomplish, but forcefully catalyzing the Cycle of Reincarnation violated the most basic laws of nature. This was a major taboo for the Nature Faction.
The third difficult task was the secret of the soul. Making the Son of Nature's soul obtain eternity in the Forest of Dreams (wood spirits were indestructible in the Forest of Dreams. Even if their physical bodies were destroyed, their souls could be reborn) … This obviously broke the Cycle of Reincarnation. Even if the Nature Faction could accomplish it, they wouldn't dare to.
These three difficult tasks doubtlessly proved Amelia's and the wood spirits' abilities. However, they also became the Nature Faction's humiliation. Even now, many Archaic Druil were still racking their brains, trying to think of a way to solve these three difficult tasks without violating the Nature Faction's teachings.
Alright then, this was such a direct and vicious slap in the face. Amelia was already giving face to the Hades Faction by not becoming the Nature Faction's mortal enemy. After all, for the Gods, reputation (or reputation) also represented faith, as well as actual benefits and power.
Over the past few years, the Druil and Nature Priests had betrayed Amelia and joined her side. This made the enmity between the Nature Faction and the Hades Faction even worse. Of course, much of this enmity also involved the Hades Faction.
Whenever I thought about Amelia's increasingly strange temperament, I felt a headache coming on. Becoming the Nature Faction's mortal enemy seemed quite impressive, but in other words, it would be like being the target of everyone's scorn. I didn't want such a development at all.
"Perhaps it's time for me to 'suffer'. Compared to the ending where the tallest tree in the forest will be destroyed by the wind, it's not necessarily a bad thing to be suppressed and suffer some losses … However, it's not so easy to take advantage of me, Roland. Be careful that you don't spit out more than you take in."
After figuring out the general direction, it was quite easy to come up with a plan. I took out a pen and paper and began my first scheme of the new year … er, I meant, making a plan.
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