Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The atmosphere in the Pantheon temple was tense.
In the second row, next to the King of Order, the God of Light exerted unimaginable power and moved his seat to the side of Sky Devourer Canine. Without saying anything he sat there, waiting silently.
But Sky Devourer Canine did not appear. Other Gods in the Orc God System didn’t show up during this period of time either.
The God of Light did not make any comment on this. He just waited patiently with a sneer.
The Orc God System wanted to expand their forces through the war in the human world. This was a common practice for God wars. The Human Gods and the Orc Gods were all Gods of Belief. If the number of people who believed in them decreased, their powers would be weakened, downgraded, and even killed.
However, the war between Orcs and human had lasted for so many years. There was never a winner. The general mobilization of the Orc Empire was seen in history as well. The fight had been extremely fierce every time, but the Orcs had never really broken the defenses of human countries. Would there be an exception this time?
The Gods at the Pantheon temple had been waiting for several days. Finally, the God of Fire Elements, the King of Fire, who had a good relationship with the God of Light, could not help but ask him questions about the war in the human world.
The God of Light did not play the ‘silence is gold’ trick. He sneered and said, “All along, the dirty beasts have occupied a vast fertile field, on which they have grown like mosquitoes at their will, performing various forms of ugliness. Not only that, but they have always kept their eyes on areas where human beings thrived, planning to spread their ugly ecosystem like a plague to that area. There is been an invasion like this every once in a while. It’s no big deal.”
“Is that all?” asked the King of Fire.
“Basically, that’s all,” the God of Light replied confidently. “We humans never reject any friends, nor fear any enemies. We welcome friends with wine and delicious food, singing and dancing, and defeat enemies with swords and magic. They want to fight? Then go ahead. A human is not afraid of a war!”
Obviously, such an answer could not satisfy the King of Fire. He then asked the God of Light if he had any specific tactics to defend against a human’s attack. But the God of Light refused to answer. He said that it was a military secret and not suitable for public discussion. If interested, he could ask in private.
After a while, the King of Fire found the God of War again and asked him about his views on the war.
“Views? You know I love wars!” the old-looking God of War smiled. But there was not even a little kindness in his smile. Instead, it was full of viciousness and bloodthirsty feeling. “Whether it is an attack or a retreat, an invasion or a defense, a sweep or a raid. As long as it’s a war, I like it!
“I like to see countless people fighting for their interests or ideas or beliefs. No matter what. As long as they fight, I like it.
“I like to see them bleeding on the ground and their dead bodies full on the field. I like to see, in the pool of blood, the winners cheer while the losers cry, the dying soldiers struggling while the brutal slaughterers attack, and the fast winners chasing after their enemies. Iron and blood: the smell of the war is so charming! No matter who starts the attack, who they fight for, who is laughing or weeping… It doesn’t matter. I just like the war itself, and all kinds of scenes in war.
“When innumerable people shout, roar, weep and whine, when they use all their strength to fight for less than half of their survival opportunities, I will always gaze at them in the sky with ecstasy and enjoy such rare and beautiful scenery. My view is: Good! Very good! It’s gorgeous! I love this war!”
The King of Fire was silent for a moment and asked, “I mean, in your view, which party is more advantageous to win in this war? Or what result will it have? Do you have any opinions?”
“What will happen to mortals who can only live for decades? I have no interest in that at all,” the God of War smiled indifferently. “My strength comes from the war itself. What I care about is whether there is a war in the world, whether there are enough wars to break out, and whether it is violent enough. I’m not interested in anything else except that!”
“Well, would you make some comment on the fighting power of both sides?” the King of Fire sighed. “Just humor me. Talk about the issues of winning and losing.”
The God of War laughed, touched his beard which was harder than steel, and said, “The Orcs have multiplied a lot in recent years, and there are more young Orcs. So it will definitely consume part of the population through the war. On the one hand, it is through this method to screening and eliminating those who are weak or unlucky. On the other hand, it is also to reduce food consumption and population pressure. So from this perspective, the Orcs should not care much about victory.”
All the Gods nodded slightly, thinking that he had said something reasonable.
“But it doesn’t mean that they can’t win. As I said before, the Orcs have multiplied so much in recent years that they have a surprisingly high number of soldiers, and their purpose in war is essential to reducing the population. Their way of fighting must be very fierce. It will be very difficult for mankind to defend themselves.”
The Gods were silent for a moment. The God of Knights could not help asking, “So what do you think the humans should do to increase their chances of victory?”
The God of War roared with laughter. “What will be different if they win? Humans are already abandoning their faith in you. Look at the human world. How many temples of you are left there? How many believers do you have? How many people are still following your belief? No matter who wins, it won’t matter to you!”
“It matters,” the Lord of Knights said calmly. “Even if I died tomorrow, I would continue to pay attention to human beings and protect them today. Even if I died in the next moment, at least for this moment I am still alive. As long as I’m alive, I will fulfill the oath I have made to myself.”
Inside the Pantheon temple, there was another moment of silence. The God of War shook his head and sighed. “The humans will surely suffer a lot. The difference lies in the scale of their loss. If the nations of mankind could unite together and attack simultaneously from the East and the South, it would probably not be so easy for the Orcs to fight on both sides. But as both of us know, that is impossible.”
As he said, to the east of the Orc Empire was the Kingdom of Holy Angels, and to the south was the Eagle Kingdom. There had been long-time hatred between these two countries. They had been fighting endlessly for the fertile land in the Great Plains of the eastern part of the continent. No one could believe that these two countries would put hatred aside and unite together to fight.
Not to mention that the Kingdom of Holy Angels had taken the God of Sun as their national religion and did not follow other Gods’ lead at all. While the Eagle Kingdom was the major area of Human Gods, there were many Gods’ descendants in its kingdom. Even in terms of belief, it would be impossible for the Kingdom of Holy Angels to help the Eagle Kingdom.
“Why did the Orcs attack the Eagle Kingdom rather than the Kingdom of Holy Angels?” Sui Xiong said. At the high-level meeting of the Church of Void Mast, Sui Xiong looked at the map and said, “Don’t they have powerful soldiers and strong horses based on a large population now? Won’t it be an advantage if they go directly to the East and expand their army on the vast terrain?”
As he said, the boarding area between the Orc Empire and the Kingdom of Holy Angels was a vast hilly area, where a huge battle could be fully deployed to maximize the strength of the Orcs. The boarding area between the Orc Empire and the Eagle Kingdom was a narrow valley between the Graystone Mountains and the Giant Beast Mountain, where there were fortifications built by the Eagle Kingdom as well as layers of defense. If they wanted to fight there, what they needed most was not the number of soldiers but the quality of the army. Even if the Orcs had more troops, the number of soldiers that could enter the battlefield was limited. How could they benefit from that?
“They probably had some political and religious considerations,” Leon said. When it came to a war, there weren’t many people who really had a great vision among the high officials of the Church of Void Mask. Then Leon Igor, once the prince of the Eagle Kingdom, became the only holding the talk. “It’s true that as your Majesty said, from a military point of view, the Orcs should fight eastward. But if they fight eastward, the Eagle Kingdom is likely to attack them under the oracles of the Human Gods, cooperating with the Kingdom of Holy Angels to fight on both sides. After all, the Kingdom of Holy Angels is also a human country. Even if they do not believe in Human Gods very much, they should be protected by Human Gods out of their divine duty.”
“Won’t there be problems in attacking the Eagle Kingdom?” Sui Xiong asked.
“Well, the Kingdom of Holy Angels mainly believes in the God of Brightness (the God of Sun), who is one of the leaders of the Natural God System. He has a bad relationship with the God of Light, so he has been trying to weaken the beliefs of Human Gods for a long time. In this case, if he does not order the Kingdom of Holy Angels to cooperate with the Orc Empire, then they should thank their God. If you’re expecting him to descend the oracle to let the Kingdom of Holy Angels help the Eagle Kingdom, that is impossible.”
Sui Xiong thought for a while, shook his head, and sighed.
“They know nothing about seriousness!”
“It’s not about the seriousness, it’s about the difference between what they care about.” In Sui Xiong’s world, which had been named the Shelter of Divine Light, all Gods who had good relations with him gathered together to discuss the issue of this war. When Sui Xiong complained the God of Sun couldn’t figure out serious matters, Javier explained. “For the God of Brightness, the death and life of human beings who do not believe in him deserves no care. The Orcs, after the war, will reduce a large population. They should be stable for a long time, and the Kingdom of Holy Angels does not have to worry about anything. It is reasonable that they would not send troops to help the Eagle Kingdom.”
“Don’t they know the saying, ‘If the lips are gone, the teeth will feel cold?'”
“If the lips are gone, the teeth will feel cold… That is a wonderful description!” Morani praised. “But the Kingdom of Holy Angels and the Eagle Kingdom are deadly enemies. They are not of lip-and-teeth relations.”
Sui Xiong frowned several times and finally sighed angrily.
This was really unpleasant.