407 God Equipment Se (1/2)
Even without a way to swiftly get information from the mortal plane, I pretty much knew what would happen next.
The world would never act according to the will of a single person. There were plenty of examples of those who were crushed underneath the wheels of history. If someone knew about what would happen in the future due to whatever method, they would be better off buying some stocks to make money. If they wanted to make use of their knowledge of the future to meddle in international affairs, then the butterfly effect they created would likely come back to kill them.
”Those who follow the will of heaven shall live, while those who go against heaven shall die. Forcefully going against the heavens and changing your fate? If you want to use your personal strength to change the entire world, you must first mentally prepare yourself to die several hundred times.”
Even I didn't want to forcefully change the future. I only wanted to slowly accumulate things and sit on the very edge of the scale, tipping it ever so slightly, trying to act as a tiny amount of force to change the overall direction.
”Directly eliminating all my enemies? I've never even considered that. However, I can begin by weakening my enemies and increasing our combat strength, postponing when the enemies arrive in the mortal plane. I don't need to single-handedly kill off the endless amounts of demons and devils. I can instead increase the number and quality of 'heroes' saving the world, using small accumulations to emerge victorious in the end and overturn the situation.”
Actually, the current developments proved that this strategy of mine was already somewhat effective.
The Justice Points system and the currently developing field of magical engineering had both vastly improved the entire mortal plane's average combat strength and potential. When science was at this level, technology would typically evolve by two generations every ten years. This head start would give us a bigger and bigger lead as time passed.
The changes in the Underground and the Northlands gave us hope. They were all important changes that never occurred in the game's history.
And the original ”leader of the human world,” the Holy Church, was now shaken to its foundation. It seemed like it was only because of my personal grudge—fine, I admit it was indeed partially because of my personal grudge. But if you checked what they did in the game's history, you would find out that what was even scarier than godlike enemies and garbage teammates were garbage teammate higher-ups who felt that they were the godlike ones.
”We have a great advantage, so let's just attack them with no strategy.”
”Just defend the base, defend the base, and stall until next week so your victory will be a celebration present for the Pope's birthday. Reinforcements? Your reinforcements will probably come next month! No, they're not coming to help clean up your corpses, nor are they coming to steal your achievements… But there's a Cardinal's son among them, you understand how it is… F*ck, you actually dared to hang up on my magical message? I might just declare you to be a heretic!”
”…Ally? With those heretical dark-skinned non-believers? May the Holy Light descend upon them and burn them all to death. We need more Holy Wars!”
The biggest taboo on the battlefield was to have a non-combat expert be in charge of decisions. But it just so happened to be that in the game's history, the Holy Church was at its peak of authority and possessed many God Envoys, angels and people capable of using God's Descent, meaning that the Holy Church became the main core of the allied Order armies.
The Holy Church sent a Cardinal to every country to command the Holy War. The end result was that these new ”commanders” kept saying that ”we're here to pray for the warriors and spread divine favor” but were actually quite helpful in battle… Yep, helpful in battle for the enemy, at least at the beginning.
As for why they only helped the enemy in the beginning? Since this happened far too much, the major countries started giving these ”commanders” nothing but empty authority. Also, as the wars progressed, the accumulated losses and calamities made even more people turn to the Holy Light for salvation, but they simultaneously started ruining the Holy Church's reputation.
The reason? The warriors forced to the brink would do anything but obey the commands of a bastard who didn't know anything about actual combat. The cruelties of battle naturally eliminated the authority of these Cardinals who didn't know anything about warfare.
Even without my Southern Sect, the Holy Church was destined to split into major factions, and it happened in the game's history. The Holy Knights and Holy Light priests would split from the Holy Church's higher-up Cardinals. Miracle Hand Estrada, the strongest Holy Knight, would lead his Holy Knights in separating from the Holy Church entirely. This was something destined to happen in history, based on objective factors of what humans needed to do. It would be impossible to stop.
Of course, it would be impossible to make up the losses if I really did allow the Holy Church to take overall command of the Order armies in the upcoming Holy War.
But now the present was far better than the current time in the game's history. With the Holy Church's current reputation, it would be difficult for them to send Cardinals as commanders to the various countries. They would need to first deal with the Southern Sect.
Also, thanks to the Holy Church's attempt to steal credit for the victory at Oak Town, there was now a perfect excuse to refuse to allow them to take lead. When Armageddon arrived, it would likely be impossible for the Holy Church to play the role of the garbage teammate leader.
Judging from these factors, history had already changed in many ways. Yet the world's development would never happen exactly as a single individual wished. Some parts were beneficial, but there would naturally be downsides as well.
For instance, the Bardi Empire. In the game's history, the Titan Giants and Undead Emperors viciously fought each other after the Bardi Empire was destroyed, the end result being that both sides were completely wiped out. This was a miracle that would be impossible to replicate. Although the Bardi Empire was still intact, the Titan Giants and Undead Emperors were huge threats. Since it would be impossible for the Titan Giants and Undead Emperors to destroy each other, they would be huge problems for us in the future.
And now, even though the overall situation was arguably better than the game's history, what was destined to happen still happened. Chaotic war started spreading on a worldwide scale. Preventing all this would be utterly impractical. Even if I somehow managed to stop all the wars, it would be very costly and tiresome and I'd obtain no benefits whatsoever.
To use an analogy, this was like a wooden ship with countless holes in it. Even if I plugged up every single hole in the ship, new holes would appear. By the time I plugged those up as well, the entire ship would have sunk.
That was why intervening in these small-scale conflicts was meaningless. Since it was now an era of all-out war, I was prepared to use any means necessary to obtain victory in the end. To use a phrase that might not fit the situation: ”Get on me if you dare!”
Cough—I think I made a wording mistake just now. I meant to say ”Come at me if you dare!” It's the fault of the silly translator. [1]
”Are you ready?”
I shook the dust off my cape. This new article of clothing I just received wasn't cheap in the least.
I was wearing a brilliantly blue crown, which was adorned with the emblem of the moonlight. Star power gathered upon this God Equipment crown, making it glow like a small moon on my head. I was yet to completely control this God Equipment's power. When I closed my eyes, I could see its divine light—the purest power of the Moonlight Goddess.
[Patricia's Protection. High-level God Equipment crown.]
It was the Moonlight Goddess Patricia's favorite crown. Extravagantly crafted out of the essence of the moon, it would forever be covered in starlight, and its wearer would appear to have stars orbiting around them. It was indeed true that Patricia was blessed by the stars, and this crown was celebrated as the most beautiful crown in the entire world. Back in the immemorial generation, it had been the cause of multiple wars between the Moonlight Goddess and the Goddess of Beauty.
[First ability: Sealed; inactive.]
[Second ability: Sealed; inactive.]
[etc. etc.]
[Seventh ability: Star Power Summoning. Summon countless stars to crash down in an enormously destructive AOE attack with yourself as the center. Limited to one use per month.]
[System Notification: Princess Peach, wear this wonderful crown that even the Goddess of Beauty is jealous of and you'll become the most beautiful flower at any dance. Ha, but if you activate the only currently usable ability, everyone will be watching a meteor shower together with you, and the entire Dragon City will be blown up into the skies. So you'll also be the most dangerous flower at the dance. System Notification, addendum: Considering that the Goddess of Joy, Goddess of Laughter, Goddess of Beauty and a dozen other Goddesses are still fighting against Patricia for this crown even today, you should return it to Patricia as soon as possible. Unless, that is, you want to die to a Goddess's Descent, Sora no Otoshimono, or some Goddess personally descending from the skies.]
Yes, I was wearing a God Equipment, one given to me by Patricia. Although the great majority of its abilities were sealed, the only ability which wasn't was the most dangerous one this God Equipment possessed. The moment I activated it, its power would be no different from Patricia herself personally using this God Equipment. …I didn't know the exact strength of this Star Power Summoning, but judging from the System's comment about how the entire Dragon City would be blown up into the skies, its strength was far above that of a forbidden spell's.
But right now, I wasn't wearing only one God Equipment. I was wearing an entire set of God Equipment!
In my right hand, I held a black staff with an emblem of a snake and dragon twined together. It didn't release any magical properties, making it easy for others to ignore its presence. However, I could confidently state that it was the second most dangerous God Equipment I had on me.
[Unpredictable Fate. High-level God Equipment staff.]
It even came together with a pair of reading glasses. The God of Fate was a truly sly one who typically loved to wear a cape, put on these glasses and support himself with this staff, pretending to be a common fortune teller, scholar or nomad. He would then hide in some dark alleyways and have fun giving guidance to others. If you listened to everything he said, you would be fine, but if you didn't… Hehehe. Do you enjoy the feeling of accidentally slurping noodles up your nose? Or tripping and breaking every bone in your body? Actually, Catio didn't even need to personally do anything. This staff would do everything for him.
[First ability: Sealed; inactive.]
[Second ability: Sealed; inactive.]