249. 'Why am I not surprised?”

“Lord Sentinel,” a Moon Dweller, wearing armor stained with dried blood, clasped his hands and bowed to the werewolf. “In the name of the entire Lunar Kingdom, thank you for saving us.”

Rakna gazed at him in silence, casually glancing at the surrounding soldiers and citizens bowing their heads as well, not daring to raise them for even a second. “You don’t know, do you?”

“Huh?” The armored soldier exclaimed.

“Of course, you don’t,” the werewolf snorted in amusement and walked past him. “Why would they tell their next generations of such a shameful betrayal,” he muttered and looked over his shoulder at the frozen man. “Don’t just stand there! Guide me to the shrine. How am I supposed to find my way here after a thousand years?”

“Y-yes, right away,” he straightened himself and ran after him. “Um… if I may ask… is the prince in condition to…?”

“He’s fine. Also, he’s your King now. Treat him as such. Your little Kingdom will need a head to lead it as soon as possible with everything that’s going to happen,” Rakna uttered.

“Everything that’s going to happen…?”

“Yes, and very soon too. I have no intention to drag this out. Also, the commander of the demons will come to pay a visit later on. Welcome them as guests.”

“Wha-?! Sir, we can’t--!”

“I didn’t ask for your opinion,” Rakna cut him off. “This is an order.”

The Moon Dweller opened his mouth but his throat failed to produce the sounds he wanted. “I… I understand... I will notify and send some of my men to welcome them.”

“Good. Now tell me; what’s the casualty report?”

“On the side of our army, seven hundred dead, about three thousand and six hundred injured, and a thousand more out of commission, our generals included. On the civilian side… we haven’t been able to properly count yet, but we estimate about fifty casualties and a few hundred injured. Most citizens managed to relatively stay out of harm by sheltering themselves in homes or bunkers…”

“Then that should tell you everything you need to understand my decision,” Rakna replied. “I am sure you realize that if the demons had put their mind to it, those counts would be far worse.”

The soldier fell silent. “…you are right. I was indeed confused when I heard the numbers. But, Lord Sentinel, welcoming their commander to our city like this is--!”

“As I said, your job is not to question my decision. My actions are fully in harmony with the Oath I made with your King in exchange for my assistance.”

“An… Oath?”

“To protect the Lunar Kingdom,” the werewolf stated. “And I hope for you that you know; war is a good way to do things only when an opposition stands against your rightful goal. My duty today was not to kill demons but to defend the Capital and its citizens. The Gods’ resurrection is not my problem in any way, if not for the fact that someone violated the Shrine without my permission.”

“But--!”

“As for the Moon Dwellers, after a millennium, you will not make me believe that faith in the Moon God hasn’t weakened. The conflict that will arise shouldn’t concern you as a Kingdom. All you need to do is declare yourself neutral. Do you even know the Demon God’s reason for fighting? Perhaps you can avoid conflict by listening to him and letting him do whatever he wants as long as it doesn’t harm your people.”

“…”

“You seem like a good soldier. But you apparently lack experience. You’ll come to realize in time that most battles are fought because opponents refuse to listen to each other out of pride. In other words; wars are a product of idiocy. They stem from emotions; seldom backed up by rationality.”

The Moon Dweller soldier kept his mouth closed for a long moment, continuing to lead the Sentinel to the Moon Shrine with a deathly quiet gait. “…with all due respect, what if… the Demon God has nothing more than madness fueling his thirst for war?”

“Then you cure the madness, of course,” Rakna responded without missing a beat. “You speak of mental states as if they aren’t treatable. Get the idea that obvious solutions are fatuous out of your head. Even the biggest of problems can have the simplest of answers; so simple they’re allusive.”

“And if we can’t treat it…?”

Rakna sighed and let out a grunt that made the soldier shudder. “We fight back. What else? Cease your overthinking. If that happens, remember that we’ll have the Moon God on our side. But most importantly, we can use this time of respite to prepare, rally other cities, shelter the civilians, call help from the Sun Dwellers, and considerably reduce casualties in case of an actual war occurring.”

The soldier pursed his lips in shame, “I apologize… it was a foolish question on my part.”

“Of course, it was. But I find your worst-case scenario unlikely to happen anyway. I’m ready to bet that the conflict will be privately resolved by the Gods. And you forget the most important factor of all.”

“What is it, sir?”

Rakna smirked ferally, unaware that Obsidian Blood had begun to bleed through his emotions in a natural way. “Me. You have me. That’s all you need.”

* * *

“So, this is it, huh?” Rakna commented as he stepped inside an oval chapel made of pristine white marble. He looked around at the stained glass depicting the tale of the Lunar Kingdom and gave a cursory glance at the gravure on the ceiling that seemed to fantastically portray the moon and its smaller versions orbiting around it.

In the center of the wide room, there was a sort of sustaining pillar that reached the roof but Rakna could tell with a glance that it wasn’t just for architectural stability.

“That’s full of divinity,” the werewolf commented. “I’ve become quite good at sensing that type of energy now that I think about it,” he added and started walking toward the pillar. Already, he could feel some resistance, and gradually, formations- no, matrixes began to appear in the air; each more complex than the previous.

“That mage must have been trying to defuse these,” Rakna muttered as he was forced to stop. “It’s rather impressive. I have to admit he’s probably far better than me at magic theory. Granted, if it wasn’t for my boosted attributes, I would have no chance to stand against them in the first place.”

Rakna paused and patiently waited as Eye of Symphony scanned everything. It’s not because he didn’t have the knowledge that he couldn’t forcefully ‘hack’ his way through them. 

As long as the miniature supercomputer inside his eye could analyze it down to the last detail, any formation could be bypassed. It was truer since his Eye’s performance scaled directly with his Intelligence attribute.

“Those three, in particular, were close to level 650…” Rakna muttered as he resumed his train of thought about the demons. “Hm, so both the Clown and Foxy are stronger than that, huh? Probably by a lot too.”

“{Well, that is an unfair comparison. The Heiress and the Clown Warlock both enjoy legendary fame within the System,}” Fray commented. “{Rightfully so as they rank at the top of Hosts.}”

“True,” Rakna shrugged and the Eye finished its preliminary scans. “Result?”

[| Matrixes Extrapolated. Formations Analyzed. Function: Sealing of Divine Power. Time Required to Decrypt Defenses Estimated to 9 Days, 6 Hours, 12 Minutes, and 9 Seconds. |]

The werewolf’s eyebrow twitched. “Other methods?”

[| Breaking Through by Force. Chances of Success: 98.626%. Risk of Damaging Pillar: 79.261%. |]

“…right. Plan B then,” Rakna muttered and snapped his fingers. Promptly, a constellation formed itself around him. Exactly 96 stars were being used to trace it. “[Virgo,]” he intoned and the energy congregated in one spot to shape the body of Astraea.

When the star energy was fully expended to summon her, she opened her eyes and seemed quite surprised before landing on the ground. “Oh my…” She said whilst looking at herself. Compared to her previous summoning, she was radiating far more power and divinity. 

“As far as Star Entities go, you summoned me at my best,” she commented and faced the werewolf who was staring at her with his arms crossed. “Hm, it couldn’t have been that much time since you last summoned me, right? Unless… ah!” She faux-gasped. 

“Could it be?! You forgot about me?! How mean! Lord Monarch!”

Rakna deadpanned at her crocodile tears. “Shut up. It technically hasn’t even been a day. The half a year spent here notwithstanding, anyway.”

Astraea got rid of her exaggerated expression and smiled. “I see. In that case, is this the ‘Simulation’ thing I saw in Egregore? Systema’s Hosts are enough in numbers through the years of its existence to allow me to find that out,” she said thoughtfully. “But… why are you so… evolved?”

“Who knows. The System’s scripting choices aside, I summoned you for a reason. You did say that you had all kinds of expertise thanks to Egregore, right? Can you safely break through this?” He asked whilst pointing at the matrix field and she turned around. 

She tilted her head at the sight and put a hand on her chin. “Hm… a Celestial made this… Heavenly Rank by the looks of things. I should be able to if you give me enough time.”

“How long?”

“Oh, about an hour.”

Rakna raised an eyebrow. “Do you have enough time before you return to Egregore?”

She smiled at him. “That’s not a problem. Since you used 96 focal stars to summon me this time, I can stay for three hours.”

“I see… then after you’re done, try to find a way to resurrect the God associated with that Divinity as well. It would probably save me some trouble.”

Astraea pouted. “Slave-driver… How can you treat a lady like this?”

“Good luck. A demon mage should come sooner or later to help you. He seemed to know what he was doing before he had to go and fight me,” Rakna said and headed to the exit.

“Eh?! Lord Monarch! Are you going to leave me here alone?!” She shouted and could only gape as she saw the werewolf close the large door of the chapel behind him. “…oh, that’s so unfair,” she pouted and started working on the matrixes.

“Couldn’t he have let me sightsee a little bit? I barely see the outside world…” She grumbled sadly.

* * *

Rakna’s ears twitched as he heard the goddess’ words through the door. He briefly glanced back and snorted. ‘Should have just asked me directly, stupid girl. I guess I can owe her that at least,’ he thought and focused on the group of people that were walking toward him. 

They were being led by one of the subordinates of the man that had guided him to the shrine, who had introduced himself as one of the three Captains of the Kingdom’s Army.

Before the group could even address him, Rakna used Appraisal on all of them at the same time and his lips curled in distaste. ‘Nobles. The main reason as to why ‘I’ was chained up inside a dungeon by the Moon Dwellers,’ he said internally. ‘Why am I not surprised? Really.’

As he deliberated what to do, one certain aristocrat stepped forward and slightly bowed. “It is an honor to meet you in the flesh, Lord Sentinel. My name is Ascios Ves Ymiligna. I hold the title of Duke. I will be the one tasked to accommodate you after your return,” he stated with a smile stuck between arrogance and pomposity.

As Rakna smelled the fraudulence wafting off half of this group of nobles, he sighed, knowing that the most annoying thing he would have to deal with in this Simulation was probably going to be this particular aspect of it.

AhraManyu

Too lazy to explain why there wasn't a chap yesterday. In fact, I'm tempted to further reduce my update rate to four days a week. But rather than you, I feel like I'll disappoint myself more if I do so.

So, for now, it'll stay like this... until I get tired and say 'fuck pride, it's useless! I wanna sleep and play video games! Woohoo, baby!'

...can't predict when that'll happen.