Cthulhu Gonfalon

After a while, Sui Xiong was already seated inside the conference hall of his God’s Kingdom. He was telling his various followers and alliances about the general content of his secret meeting with the God of Aristocracy.

“Seems like the God of Aristocracy is adamant in going all the way through this dark course,” Yorgaardman, the God of Justice, said with a sneer. “In fact, there is still time for him to turn back, but unfortunately, he refuses to.”

“It’s also difficult for him to want to turn back,” the Half-Orc warrior and Morani, the God of Craftsmen, said amidst sighs. “His core followers are aristocrats, particularly, the prominent ones. Such a practice is similar to the saying that goes, ‘the good influence of men of virtue will not last more than five generations.’ It is quite impossible for these aristocrats to want to support such a practice that offers no guarantee for longstanding success. Even if he does turn back, whether or not he can succeed, is unknown. However, the price to pay will definitely not be small.”

“But if he doesn’t turn back, sooner or later, he will still come to a dead end! With the advancement in technology and culture, the new era will come sooner or later. By then, the traditional Aristocratic System is bound to collapse. Now that the fight might not be so intense, this is practically the best chance for him to turn back. That way, if he ever wanted to turn back, the price then would be even heftier than it would be now. It might even be possible for him to no longer be able to turn back. He would only be a sacrificial object and eventually die off with the old era,” Wall, the God of Knowledge said as he shook his head with a sigh. “The mortals often refuse to listen to advice; thus minor illnesses escalate to major ones, and these major illnesses will claim their lives. Actually, it was almost the same for the gods!”

“This is also something that cannot be helped. New eras will rise while the old ones come to a closure, and all of these will definitely be accompanied with the births and falls of a great number of gods.” With great power but an aged appearance, Law Brans, the God of Law, whose remaining days seemed to be numbered with one foot already in his grave, sighed. Then he said, “This is just like the rise and fall of a nation in the mortal world. There will be the birth of a new batch of aristocrats, but also a batch of old aristocrats that will have to be buried along with the fallen nation… This is a price that all nations will have to pay when the time comes.”

“This will always be a pity anyhow. They are all great talents…” Sui Xiong sighed and said. “If these people could just spend their energy on governing the country, it would be better not only for the people but also for themselves. In the end, there would always be unnecessary bloodshed whenever there was a change in dynasties. The people had to sacrifice their lives and all family possessions for their fallen nation and be buried along with the old era. That really isn’t worth it at all.”

The God of Justice said, “Civilians die, soldiers die, aristocrats naturally had to die too. Everyone was connected with the same lifeline, and no one’s life was more precious than another.” Shaking his head, he continued saying with a sneer on his face, “The same goes for the various gods.”

“Speaking of which, I am more concerned about another thing… What on earth do you all think the God of Light is thinking?” Manissy, the Goddess of Wealth, asked. She had always lacked interest in the matters involving fighting and killing, but she was very interested in the movement of the God of Light. She said, “Clearly, he has been suppressing the God of Knights and supporting the God of Aristocracy all this while. The God of Aristocracy had impelled Woods to usurp the throne and assisted in purging the God of Knight’s followers. Throughout the entire time, the God of Light had adopted an acquiescent attitude. So after the purging was completed, why did he order the Church of the God of Aristocracy to withdraw without giving them any share of the benefits at all?”

She paused, then added, “Even if he did not give any benefit to the Church of the God of Aristocracy, he should at least allow some other churches to occupy the vacated place…”

All the gods shook their heads as they too wondered about the reason.

After Woods had purged the God of Knight’s followers and those ministers who had pledged loyalty to the previous king, whether within the imperial court, or the army, many places had been vacated. Even if these places were not taken up by the Church of the God of Aristocracy, the God of Light might have at least planned for other churches to take up the vacant spots. After all, this was a benefit that the God of Aristocracy had seized from the God of Knights. To the various human gods, this could be likened to the meat in one’s own bowl—how could it be given so to others so freely?

Yet, the God of Light did not allow a church belonging to any human god to be stationed in the Eagle Kingdom—not a single one. And he had seen to it so strictly that after the purge, Woods immediately fell into a predicament where there were no talented people left to be deployed. In spite of being the awe-inspiring and oldest country of mankind, the Eagle Kingdom had to scour for talents from the pool of adventurers and local aristocrats to support its core.

Such a situation was hard to imagine. It was like a person who had gone hunting, and after working so hard and even getting himself injured, he finally managed to catch prey. Then he killed it, sliced off its flesh, and roasted it well—but then, he did not devour it. Instead, he threw it away.

If this had not been the doing of the God of Light, everyone else would have definitely felt that the fellow behind this had gone out of his mind. This would most likely be taken as something an evil god, who was in some extreme state of confusion, would do.

However, the God of Light was the god of order and direction, and his nature determined that he would never do such a thing.

What exactly was the secret then?

After a round of discussion, the crowd was still unable to find the missing point, so at the end, there was still no concluding outcome.

Of course, if the idea of “there being something wrong with that fellow’s mind from the beginning” could be taken as a conclusion, then there could still at least be a conclusion.

But… Yorgaardman was the one who came up with this conclusion. If they had to make a choice on who they thought was the one with a delirious mind, then between Yorgaardman and the God of Light, almost all the various gods of the Pantheon Sanctuary would unanimously choose Yorgaardman. Even his close brother, Sui Xiong, was no exception.

Sui Xiong too felt that this older brother of his did indeed have a mind that was a little unsound…

Just as the various gods commenced their conference, a battle between the Church of the God of Knowledge and the Church of the God of Aristocracy in the mortal world had started too.

Both parties did not pull any tricks like “checking out the opponent’s plan of action” or “provocative war” prior to the actual fight. Right from the very beginning, both sides had put in their all. The Church of the God of Aristocracy had assembled all of its nine Legendary Masters at the Mifata Federation, while the Church of the God of Knowledge had assembled six of its Holy Sons and Holy Daughters that it had painstakingly trained. The team was personally led by Olian Geerteng, an elector of the God of Knowledge who had set the stage and assumed a stance showing readiness to fight.

It was quite a coincidence how the place where they would confront one another was Green Tree City. This was the place that Sui Xiong had brought Leon and Steele to when they first entered the Mifata Federation.

Back then, when they passed by this city, they got into some conflicts with the Green Family who were the rulers of Green Tree City. At last, Sui Xiong had to execute his great magic powers and transform into the Wuzhi Mountain so that he could suppress Old Green, the Legendary Master who was the founding father of Green Tree City. Sui Xiong had held Old Green captive within a secret chamber in the mountains for the purpose of getting Old Green to purge all evil thoughts and intentions from his heart and mind. Only freeing himself from all negative thoughts could Old Green shake free from the shackles of captivity and regain freedom.

That was something that happened almost 40 years ago. However, when the high-standing masters of the two churches met one another in a confrontation, the Wuzhi Mountain was still there, and Old Green was of course still imprisoned within the secret chamber in the mountains.

Indeed, this had nothing to do with both parties. They chose this place to start a war because it was nearest to the border of the Mifata Federation. When the war started, damage to the surroundings could be kept to a minimum, and also, they could avoid adverse effects on the surroundings too.

The followers of the God of Knowledge belonged to the Good Camp and would avoid implicating and hurting the innocent; the followers of the God of Aristocracy were, on the contrary, not concerned about this. However, they wanted to preach, so they had to maintain a positive image of themselves. This was the reason why they had to stand on some scruples.

After a series of discussions and consultations, they decided to fight this battle by the peripheral region of the Mifata Federation; the battlefield they chose was a forested area 20 miles away from Green Tree City.

This forested area used to be a large-scale logging yard and had provided a large quantity of wood for the construction of Green Tree City. Old Master Green had led his disciples and soldiers, who had fought several battles in the surrounding area of this forested land, against the elves who protected the woods. At long last, with the help of other Legendary Masters, they managed to drive away the elves and seize this piece of land.

However, this was already a thing of the past. The logging yard had long been abandoned. Only that forested area, that was apparently much shorter than everything else in its surroundings, was able to prove that this area had once been “opened up.”

If one looked closely, there would probably be some remnants of broken weapons that could be discovered within the depths of the shrubs or skeletal remains that were yet to be completely broken down by efflorescence. Those were all the traces left behind by the great battles once fought here.

This was the battlefield of the past, but it was also the battlefield of today.

The stage remained unchanged, and only the groups of actors were different; thus, there was a change in the repertoire.