Chapter 273: Your Majesty, Evasion is Shameful
Roger had never imagined that the first words Empress of Eternal Night would utter upon their reunion would be so explosive, directly shattering the already thin veil of ambiguity between them.
This act of entrusting him with her legacy was purely a ruler and subject interaction. She clearly intended to set aside their personal issues for the time being.
Roger, setting aside jokes, said seriously, “Your Majesty is the core that holds the empire together. Perhaps we should switch places.”
“Don’t think of it from that angle. Consider your theoretical lifespan. I cannot lead this empire forever. You are better suited to endure the potentially long years of dark resistance.”
The Empress of Eternal Night spoke of her own mortality without reservation, making no attempt to hide the streak of silver in her golden hair from Roger.
Power always came with a price.
Her lifespan had been compromised by her early wars, where she had forcibly enhanced her strength. There was still no perfect solution for this.
The intensity of battles in recent years had not been high, so her remaining lifespan had not been depleted significantly. She was much more fortunate than in the game’s storyline, where such a tragedy would have occurred.
However, when she endured a powerful deity’s curse in the final battle against Taibela, her remaining time was undoubtedly greatly reduced.
Therefore, if the war with the Six Gods became prolonged, a successor with sufficient prestige would be needed to bear the pressure of maintaining the empire’s stability and policy continuity.
The Shelley family was either killed by the invaders or by the Empress of Eternal Night herself during that near-world-ending war.
Moreover, she did not intend to turn the Azurevine Empire into a hereditary monarchy occupied by her own family. Electing the most outstanding and suitable new ruler would be more in line with the empire’s long-term interests.
Roger had always been the Empress of Eternal Night’s top choice. His accumulated prestige over the years and his complete control over the empire’s second fleet, along with the current Godslayer Fortress, were sufficient leverage to silence any domestic opposition.
“So, you’ve been waiting for this day?”
Recalling many of the Empress of Eternal Night’s actions, Roger suddenly realized that if this was her plan, she had once again perfectly avoided the issue of their relationship.
*Hey, if I’m gone, what else do you have to worry about from me?*
The Empress of Eternal Night averted her gaze, perhaps unable to bear the intensity and accusation in Roger’s eyes, and looked into the distance. “What I think is unimportant. What’s important are the powerful enemies and their responses, isn’t it?”
“So, you’re using death to escape?”
“How could I? For victory, some sacrifices are always necessary…”
“Why doesn’t Your Majesty dare to look me in the eyes when answering?”
Roger interrupted her abruptly, his accumulated pressure erupting. He somehow managed to completely overwhelm an Empress in terms of aura.
He knew sacrifices were unavoidable. Both the Empress of Eternal Night and himself might fall in the increasingly intense war.
War itself was an uncontrollable, ultimate means of resolving issues.
However, the Empress of Eternal Night’s current state clearly indicated a “broken pot smashed” mentality, using death as an escape from her emotional choices.
Perhaps she was secretly cheering for the Six Gods’ brilliant decision?
The Empress of Eternal Night lowered her head under Roger’s gaze. After a long pause, she said with a hint of grievance, “If only you weren’t such a bastard.”
Her words stunned Roger, momentarily breaking his imposing aura.
True, the Empress of Eternal Night had displayed cowardice and Ostrich-like behavior in matters of the heart. But if he were a perfect person, she wouldn’t have been so conflicted.
So, ultimately, was he the source of all evil?
He bit his lip, his emotions becoming complex. At least he couldn’t scold the Empress of Eternal Night from a position of superiority anymore.
True affection meant not just possession but also instinctively considering the other person’s happiness.
If he himself was the source of her unhappiness, what right did he have to say she was wrong?
She quickly raised her head and glanced at him. Seeing that he still felt guilt, that he wasn’t entirely shameless, she couldn’t help but snort.
In her heart, she had forgiven him a little more.
Roger raised his head and said calmly, “The future battles are unpredictable. I only hope that Your Majesty will not make a decision to sacrifice yourself when you have other choices.”
“…How would I deliberately do something like that? Do you really think you’re that important?”
She suddenly became angry and embarrassed, looking up and glaring at him fiercely. “Every decision I make is solely for the empire’s benefit. Whether I live or die is none of your concern, understand?”
“Understand, understand…” Roger repeatedly agreed, knowing she was being tsundere and flying into a rage. He quickly tried to appease her.
“You… you insincere scoundrel, hurry up and get to the point. Don’t try to reassure me.”
The Empress of Eternal Night irritably conjured a fireball and threw it at Roger, leaving a black mark on his clothes.
For someone with mind-reading abilities, Roger’s attitude was not a comfort but only angered her further.
She had come to Roger not just to entrust her legacy but also because there was much information and many decisions that could only be discussed and resolved between the two of them.
As for emotional matters, she had never expected to discuss them. She had only reacted because Roger had provoked her to the point where she couldn’t help but engage.
Roger observed her expression, confirming that she wasn’t making excuses but was genuinely deeply concerned about the empire’s future. She wouldn’t throw herself away over a minor setback in battle. He didn’t dwell on their previous conversation.
Being able to chat face-to-face like this, even with the risk of an argument at any moment, felt like a gain…
The Empress of Eternal Night was already annoyed, and him calculating pros and cons in his mind only made her more so.
Some thoughts, once heard, were better left unheard!
This feeling of having insulted someone while standing on a moral high ground, and then feeling like you were the one being taken advantage of, was simply terrible.
One could only say that this guy was shamelessly invincible!
“I’m busy, get to the point about advancing, don’t dawdle!”
She could only urge him on, forcing Roger’s wandering thoughts back in the right direction.
…
…
While the Azurevine Empire marveled at the Six Gods’ fierce reaction, there was also unrest within the Six Gods, with minor disagreements arising over their future path.
The decision to break the old to establish the new was undoubtedly made by the God of Knowledge, who also provided the corresponding technological support, using a complete set of measures to render the Azurevine Empire’s subsequent battles futile.
Of course, sacrificing existing believers to avoid the risk of betrayal and replacing the current method of acquiring Faith Power with Divine Devouring Insects was an unprecedented undertaking, even for the Six Gods.
Even in their long lives, they had never imagined such an operation. They were shocked by the God of Knowledge’s daring and ruthless act.
After completing the series of actions involving slaughter, sacrifice, and hatching the Divine Devouring Insects, they were all exhausted, both physically and mentally.
The Faith Power consumed in this process was also an astronomical figure. They had strived to execute it simultaneously to prevent the obedient church from retaliating under the threat of death, thus successfully completing the God of Knowledge’s plan.
Deities were truly professionals when it came to deceiving believers.
From shamelessly concocting deceptive doctrines in the past to promising futures that would never be fulfilled, and now to slaughtering all believers in an entire native world, these executioners of the Six Gods showed no remorse or hesitation regarding their wicked deeds.
All they thought about was how much Faith Power they would lose and whether such an operation would truly plunge the Azurevine Empire into despair.
After all, this move by the God of Knowledge had inflicted damage on both sides of the conflict.
Slaughtering civilizations in over half of the worlds in the Multiverse was a desperate strategy that even Thanos wouldn’t have conceived. It was intended to reduce their own church’s maintenance costs and prevent their enemies from gaining war potential.
Of course, such an action also effectively sealed off the war potential of both sides, ensuring their own safety and preventing mortals from staging an “at-home” attack.
Although Divine Devouring Insects were an excellent substitute for believers, the efficiency of acquiring faith was closely related to piety, complexity of thought, and the strength of desires and obsessions.
In this regard, the efficiency of Faith Power acquisition and the level of civilization were inherently paradoxical.
To obtain more Faith Power, deities needed highly civilized sentient life;
However, highly civilized sentient life would develop its own understanding of the world, develop more desires, and be less likely to generate fervent or even fanatical faith, thus capping the amount of faith they could contribute.
Just as Linair was constantly exploring plane management methods, the fundamental problem was the seesaw-like back-and-forth between these two attributes, making a win-win solution impossible.
In the end, Linair had to admit that allowing believers to find happiness was not the purpose of deities. As long as their need to extract Faith Power existed, it would inevitably conflict with mortals.
The noble and church-led ruling systems, which almost all deities now employed, periodically guided wars and conflicts. It wasn’t that deities intentionally wanted believers to live such lives, but rather that they had discovered the most efficient way to acquire Faith Power through continuous practice.
The church and nobility automatically sought balance to fulfill the deities’ mandates, and thus the entire Universe began to become monotonous, possessing the ancient rules that the Azurevine Empire found abhorrent. This was also the most common state of the material planes after the Six Gods’ intervention.
Of course, after the God King sought to break free of the box, the material planes had an additional state: direct refinement into nothingness.
This was done to break the spatial structure of this Rubik’s Cube-like Multiverse, attempting to open the box that sealed them through increasingly collapsing planes and see the world outside.
The method currently employed by the deities was the least destructive approach calculated by the God of Knowledge while observing the entire Multiverse.
It was like a targeted demolition, destroying only the necessary load-bearing structures to cause the collapse of the entire Universe.
This was a highly risky endeavor. The consequences could be seeing a new world outside the Universe, or it could result in the God King being crushed to death inside the collapsing box.
Yet, he chose to press forward, exploring the unknown, wanting to see the scenery that was normally hidden and that they were restricted from seeing.
It was precisely due to their extensive practical experience in virtualizing planes that they were able to achieve such high efficiency in slaughtering believers, completing the extermination of mortals in nearly a thousand planes almost simultaneously.
This step was merely a lower-power version of virtualizing, retaining physical matter while slaughtering beings with souls.
After its completion, the entire Universe became much lonelier and more monotonous.
Although beautiful music still played in Sylvie’s divine kingdom, it was performed by holy spirits. No more new works would be contributed by mortals.
Holy spirits and angels were devoid of creativity. Their power was divinely bestowed, making them tools without true self-awareness.
And without emotions or self-awareness, how could there be creativity? How could they create excellent and beautiful new music?
Although they executed the plan, all five deities, compelled by the God King’s will, obeyed the God of Knowledge’s orders. In their hearts, they held many grievances about slaughtering all the old believers.
Especially when they later discovered that the efficiency of Faith Power acquisition was agonizingly slow, and the losses could not be replenished, they felt even worse.
They did not understand the God of Knowledge’s intention; the core objective was to break the box. All they needed to do was defeat mortals, occupy the Universe, and complete the targeted demolition.
The state of the world after the demolition was unknown. Accumulating Faith Power might be entirely futile. If everyone was crushed, it would be meaningless.
Why would the God King so generously offer all his accumulated resources as a lure for other deities to fight for him?
Naturally, it was because the path ahead in his eyes was already determined, and he saw further than these other deities.
Therefore, the God of Knowledge felt no pain in obliterating believers. However, the other five deities, still in the dark, bled every time they recalled it.
Especially after obliterating believers, the insufficient Faith Power acquisition, coupled with the ongoing struggle against the Tianming Army and the need to break through the Godslayer Fortress, all incurred astronomical expenses. They were pure losses every day!
If this continued, even the richest landlord would run out of reserves!
Although they all knew the war would be difficult, they had not anticipated it being this challenging.
After discussion, they approached the God of Knowledge, believing their current course was unsustainable, with the most serious issue being believers.
“We can slightly relax the ability restrictions of the Divine Devouring Insects, granting them higher intelligence so they can engage in more complex prayer activities. This way, our Faith Power gains could increase significantly,” Sylvie cautiously proposed.
The God of Knowledge directly rejected it. “Increased intelligence will inevitably bring emotions, desires, and their longing for freedom, potentially making them vulnerable to manipulation by mortals. This is detrimental to the initiative we have painstakingly created.”
“Emneter!”
The God of Nature roared. What she meant was that if this continued, there would be no initiative to speak of; they would be drained by this war first.
The God of Knowledge revealed a chilling smile. “Don’t harbor such groundless worries. This situation will not last much longer. The Father God is about to take the next step.”
Their slaughter of believers was to prevent the Azurevine Empire from disintegrating from within. However, it was also akin to killing the goose that laid the golden eggs, instantly acquiring a large amount of Faith Power through sacrifice.
But this portion of Faith Power disappeared from the accounting books visible to the five deities. Now, the God of Knowledge finally provided them with the answer.
The Faith Power obtained from this wave, combined with their past accumulations, was all handed over to the God King as ammunition.
No matter how fierce their actions were, they were merely a distraction for those mortals, a cheering squad. The real trump card would be played by the God King.
The God of Knowledge looked towards the infinite void, his gaze sharp, like a blade piercing the edge of the Universe.
This war would soon reach a conclusion.
