Chapter 1072 – #254_Rage, Pure Greed(4) – DeepL
#1066
1.
While wars sometimes erupt in one fell swoop, like gunpowder igniting for some reason, many wars throughout history have been gradual.
One of two groups with a grudge against the other throws the first punch.
The punched party pulls out a knife.
This time, the knifed party loads a gun.
The one who gets shot gets held captive, and the one who gets shot gets to fire a missile.
And so on.
The moment someone crosses the “line” in the escalating water level, a full-scale firefight breaks out.
“This doesn’t look good.”
Albireo, who had been observing the situation from the sidelines, said.
“Surely, Duke Erelim is not being more wary of friction than necessary….”
Lucy Yesod nodded in agreement.
Both Zemernai and Yesod are entrepreneurs with down-to-earth businesses.
Not only that, but they’re also anti-war by default when it comes to succession.
But all the more reason to be concerned about Duke Erelim’s methods.
“There’s the potential for uncontrolled outbursts of discontent that have not been properly decompressed.”
From the raid on the Seoul branch of WitchPoint earlier in the day to this latest invasion through the ‘gate’.
Gehenna’s animosity toward Hexennacht had gradually moved beyond her usual bystander disposition.
Erelim’s gentle mediation is poison.
She should have been more assertive and allowed Gehenna to vent her simmering anger.
Her failure to do so has resulted in a witch crying out for ‘private retribution’.
Witches who would normally look down their noses at merit.
Witches with personal grudges.
Witches whose sense of belonging to Gehenna was so strong that they resented the enemy’s preemptive strike.
Witches who stand to gain somewhere from this conflict.
This move is quite the one.
“You got Count Lucy’s offer, didn’t you?”
“Oh? The offer to join you? Yes, she came by this morning and asked me to join her. I begged her, but she wouldn’t listen.”
“Of course….”
Don’t underestimate the improvised fighting groups in Gehenna.
Achievements and Exiles dismiss the Gehenna Witches as a bunch of cowards with no combat experience, but that’s 600 years.
Six hundred years of steady investment in magical research under the best possible infrastructure makes them a fighting machine.
Some have seen war, some have seen homunculus, some have seen public slaughter.
Their numbers are already over a hundred, so if we were to ‘retaliate’ against Hexenacht, we would do some damage.
Question.
Will they really give back what they’ve been given?
Will Hexenacht stand down after being beaten to a pulp?
Will the mainstream media, which has lost a lot of influence in recent years, be able to sway public opinion once again?
The end result is war.
The ambiguity of trying to keep the peace can be a trigger for war.
“I don’t know if I’d rather have Duke Erelim handling things more straightforwardly…. Any word from Mr. Xiu, by the way?”
“I received a report that he joined Miss Sharon and Miss Liyue a few days ago, and I informed him of the current situation.”
Neither Lucy nor Albireo nor Deneb knows that Xiu has gone on a public hunt with the lotus flower to save Dorothy.
Albireo was the one who relayed Gehenna’s inside information to Akula for Xiu, who began the hunt in the middle of nowhere.
Hate him or love him, he’s your son-in-law, so you can’t leave him screaming in the wilderness, can you?
“Haha, what a troublesome son-in-law.”
“Who says he isn’t?”
At Lucy’s nudge, Albireo heaved a sigh that concealed his anxiety.
2.
Not all opportunities come to those who are prepared.
But it is usually the prepared who are the first to seize the opportunity.
[Oh, and the Count always told me to take care of myself].
The good news was passed on to Sharon by her mother-in-law, who in turn passed it on to Xiu.
It was such an “opportunity” that came to Xiu as he was languishing in the depths of the sewers after the feast.
What was supposed to be a simple separation between the top and the rest of the group turned into an unexpected snowball.
How to deal with the elite of the tight-knit Lehar group, led by Herja.
How to deal with the still-entrenched top of Solidus.
A new, unexpected vision emerged.
War.
We can use war.
When I think about it, there’s no reason to hesitate.
We’ve done well so far.
But all signs point to something else.
The real test is yet to come, and the challenges Xiu has faced so far are just a warm-up.
No matter how thoroughly you plan and react, there are limits to your power.
Isn’t that why he’s down here in the filthy sewers, waiting for his chance?
If we start a large-scale war between Gehenna and Hexenacht, we will inevitably increase our radius of action.
With little more than enemy territory, this would be a battleground, and it would be much easier to exact revenge and bring Dorothy back to life.
“…….”
I don’t even have to work hard.
According to Sharon, there are already a growing number of people inside Gehenna clamoring for retribution.
They’re even about to take action.
If their overreaction crosses the line and the Hexenacht reacts and all-out war breaks out, so be it.
If, on the other hand, it’s more of an ambiguity, then we’ll just have to play it by ear, as we’ve done so far between Group Lehar and the top of Solidus.
If we cripple Hexenacht and pass it off as Gehenna’s doing, so be it.
All rational judgment points to this as the easiest shortcut.
[Xiu? What is it? Comms sensitivity not so good?]
“Sensitivity is good. Sharon.”
But is it really the right thing to do?
The sense of righteousness that I thought I’d put aside for a moment is tiredly returning.
I’m reminded that I lost someone dear to me because of that complacency, and I’m reminded even now that I had the best of luck.
A world in flames.
People dying in numbers not even comparable to the flood.
Witches dying in the wake of lost peace and war.
Is the end justified by the means?
Is it really okay to do this?
“Sharon, help me.”
[……?]
“I need your help.”
It didn’t take long to make a decision.
3.
It was one of the more bizarre scenes in the short history of Hexenacht.
Two kilometers in diameter.
A ring-shaped structure that glowed brightly with golden light.
A great magical ‘gate’, an exact copy of Gehenna, keeping the Otherworld eternal.
The gate twisted open without anyone’s permission.
-Woof!
-Whoosh!
The unusually distorted waves and the alarms that sound when an unauthorized person enters the city reveal the identity and purpose of the two shadows that have been consumed by the gate’s brilliance.
The identity is most likely an intruder from Gehenna.
Retaliation for a preemptive strike.
“Raid! Raid!”
“Gehenna has come for revenge!”
“Damn it, I should have bought a house in Arcana Town!”
At least none of the citizens of Dignity Town took the initiative to fight back.
No wonder.
If Gehenna was going to launch a full-scale offensive, those two wouldn’t be the only ones.
With the scouts clearing the way, Dignity Town would soon be caught in the middle of a great magical conflict.
And for the poor witches of Dignity Town, it’s like standing in the middle of a shelling.
“Bounce!!!”
“Fucking Lydia, you crazy bitch, why are you touching Gehenna like that!”
But it’s different for the city administrators.
They are high witches with plenty of power, and they have a reason to protect Hexenacht.
“What a coward.”
“What do you think you’re doing here?”
“Come to think of it, that black armor looks familiar…. Huh? It’s Xinxiu.”
“What? Xinxiu? This is lucky.”
Not only that, but each and every one of them is a transcendent, capable of performing miracles with the power of a god.
A powerhouse who bends the laws of the world and reigns supreme over them.
Blind men who have survived the wilds of public life with more arrogance than anyone else.
They come in droves to execute the cowardly trespassers without fear.
Their numbers swell to a dozen or so at first, then double digits, then triple digits.
“Take him alive if you can, he’s a rare specimen.”
“We’ll go first. Watch your back. Don’t let the Solidus bitches get it.”
“We’ll eat it raw once the Clipport assholes are out of the way.”
Keeping a respectable distance, the witches closed in on the encircling group.
The green-haired witch raised her wand.
“Balance.”
Stepping back, the black-armored knight placed his hand in the center of the ‘gate’.
And then.
-Whoosh!
An enormous magical beam stretched out of the doorway where nothing should have existed in the first place.
Xiu had already analyzed the structure for escape.
He understands its structure and how to use it to his advantage.
He uses the information he’s gained to seize control.
He adds new magic on top of the old.
And the power of the door, with an output unparalleled by any other magical structure in the world, becomes a huge canvas on which to paint the circle.
An image transfers from Sharon’s clasped hands.
All Xiu has to do is paint the image onto the door.
The witches are mesmerized by the sight before them.
The Moon, the essence of dimensional magic that no one but Ketterer can properly manipulate, is being tampered with by just two witches.
“What?”
“What are they trying to do…?”
“Seo, you’ve taken control of the Moon?”
-Churrrrrr!
A magical formula, glowing with a brilliant golden light and colorful brilliance at the same time, places an ornate embroidery on the circle.
Its form is a cross.
An elemental magic formula symbolizing fire.
Elemental magic.
Why is this fuel-inefficient magic, which sucks up money like crazy, even more so than the famously expensive alchemy, still revered as ‘authentic magic’?
Because of the quality of the ‘offerings’.
Because the clarity of the symbolism within it can transcend even the sturdy walls of hierarchy.
-Whoosh!
The door bursts into flames.
The magic circles, now geometric like a dream capture, crackle and burn.
The heat of the flames around Sharon is majestic and intense, like the angelic flames that reduced Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes.
So.
Which sacrifice, for example, has the most destructive symbolism when it comes to using the element of fire?
“That one, isn’t it?”
“That’s right. Shit.”
The sighted druids had already seen it.
A sacrifice to the symbol of fire in the center of a magic circle.
Tens of thousands of years of human history.
Only a few decades since its invention.
And yet, mankind’s greatest weapon, the one that first made the words “end of the world” seem real to the entire human race.
It is….
The warhead from the Akula’s SLBM.
“You’re all dead.”
Sharon cast her first kill.
