Chapter 818 Sorrow and Despair (1/2)
While Joshua had no soul, his plugin mental faculty was heavier than a mountain, and no detail slipped him by when he started to think.
”Your Holiness, you're at the Far Southern Kingdom?”
Joshua said, having made out the style of the palace behind the pope. ”I'll be right there.”Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click visiting.
With those words, he disconnected from the communications, his form dispersing into countless starry particles.
***
At the same time, in the Mycroft Continent, a black-haired man appeared in one of the courtyards of the Far Southern Kingdom's Royal Palace.
Being one of the older factions in the continent, the Far Southern Kingdom still had a powerful mage guild that placed various defensive spells in the palace despite the Kingdom now being a shadow of its former glorious self. Some of the spells which include anchored spatial teleportation and anti-portals were but the foundation, and theoretically speaking not even a cockroach could crawl inside the palace without permission.
However, such class of spells was futile against Joshua. All spell effects had upper limits, with incorporeal bodies allegedly being capable of staying immune from all physical attacks, while fire clones could ignore heat and flame entirely. Even so, when the attacker's fist could trigger nuclear reaction while burning blazes reaches a billion degrees that could sear all things, even souls would be shattered, and flames would no longer be flames.
By the same theory, when a being whose mass was equal to a celestial body wanted to teleport himself, mere mundane spells were ineffectual.
Just as Joshua's clone materialized behind the aged pontiff, Igor has already turned to him. ”What's the hurry, Radcliffe?” He asked, puzzled. ”I never thought of you as a man of politics.”
To Igor, the warrior's actions were certainly unusual—the pontiff was simply making a few remarks, complaining that the state of the continent was unwell for now. For Joshua's part, the warrior had actually boasted that the continent was actually unified or at least at peace a few days ago… But even if reality had slapped him in the face, should he be rushing here out of humiliation?
Furthermore, so what if he did? It was all foreign politics, and strictly speaking something that should have happened earlier. Those numerous conflicts had existed for centuries, and simply ignited on the same day for some reason.
”…You're thinking that I ran here to save face?”
With vindication, Joshua criticized Igor's subjective personal discrimination, before quickly telling the pontiff about the bizarre civil conflict he observed in the Abyss.
Frost Demons had polluted their own nursery lakes with toxic, Acid Demons destroyed their own lairs, just as balrogs and Flame Lizards extinguished volcanoes or buried magma lakes. Moreover, horned demons had also sealed their mountain hives within stone debris, while ocean dragons and various marine demons blood died once turbid Sea Abysses a darker blue.
Twelve demonic realms, twelve civil wars, twelve signs of devastation. No demon survived wherever Joshua went—it was the first time he made the accomplishment of 'ruins where one passed' while doing nothing.
Beside him, the elderly pope nodded as he listened to him seriously.
Although both lifeforms could simply communicate information with ripples of light, with a single glance able to explain most things. Still, because of habit and because 'saying it is more fulfilling', Joshua opted for primitive verbal communication.
Meanwhile, having listened to Joshua's theory, Igor, who had been rather irritated how he should clean up the current chaos became solemn.
”If things are as you said… This matter is a lot more serious than it looks.”
As he spoke, the pope looked up, his gaze seemingly able to pierce the walls to look into the royal residential palace within. ”Actually, I have been curious too,” he said quietly while rubbing his forehead, ”Why would the conflicts erupt with such concentration. Your theory is convincing—omen of an Evil God, huh…”
Since the Far Southern Holy Mountain itself was in the same region, the former pontiffs would often interact with the Royal Family with clones, which was why there was a temple-shaped court purposed for the church within the palace district. Moreover, thanks to the recently erupting conflict between the Royal Family and the nobles, Igor had kept a clone there to mediate, although none had yet dared to disturb the peace.
As he thought about the matter, Igor looked up at Joshua. ”If that's the case,” he said quietly, ”could you guess what Evil God has the ability to provoke such civil strife, Radcliffe?”
”There's no guessing.” Joshua shook his head in return. ”but I have a theory.”
***
The power of Evil Gods was bizarre and innumerable, with their very name indicating their abilities.
[Disparity] could break the balance between all things, leaving energy in dissonance and temperature imbalance. Its signature move was to expand and shrink the sun, causing sudden heat or coldness—lower-tier Extraordinary individuals would lose control of their powers, just as various extreme weather and natural disasters would occur.
There was not much to elaborate with [Calamity] and [Pestilence] since it could easily be understood as the descent of natural disasters and plagues. Black had completely experienced the omens of an Evil God's descent when it arrived at Illgner all those years ago, and while Joshua and others only participated halfway through, they did experience most of it as well.
On the other hand, types such as [Wither] were rather discreet—their omens were probably turning the peoples lazy, feeble, destroying civilization's motivation for progress, with the rise of anti-intellectuals possible as well.
But now, the signs of 'suspected Evil God omen' appearing in the nearby dimensional region was not easily describable.
”[Infighting]? [Strife]?”
Joshua muttered to himself. ”Both are likely, but they do not completely describe the Evil God's essence… After all, we haven't seen the true form of such an entity, and naturally wouldn't be sure about its true power.”
That being said…
The year being Starfall 840… in the game back in his pre-existence, was this not the time when every person on the continent mounted their horses and rode to a world war, punching each other's brains right after the Draconic Plague?
The infighting then was much horrible than the squabbles they see now. In the timeline where Joshua was absent, the scars of the Draconic Plague remained. The various races, however, still could not see eye to eye, with Eastern Plains humans fighting the Murloc Tribes in several small skirmishes. Worse still, the Far Southern Royals had long since lost actual authority—at present, the nobles' intent to overthrow meant that the Royals themselves still hold power they wanted, while there was no value in overthrowing them back then.
The Empire was no better—Israel, utterly dispirited, had already set his affairs and would simply die on one fine day. The Imperial siblings that were relatively harmonious now had split into heaven knows how many factions and alliances back then, with more than four different manuscripts written exclusively for the secret pacts between any three individuals, more complex than any sorority dormitory back on Earth.
Joshua also recalled that the demons had spilled into Mycroft back then—it had to be said that Joshua's timeline was very tame compared to the original.
In the very least, apart from Grand Emperor of the West Mountains, most protests were simply mere protests, and there was no actual fighting. Still, both the pope and Joshua would quietly admit that they could put the blame of the unusual circumstances on an Evil God that might or might not exist.
Regardless, whether it was really one of those entities, both of them would tell everyone else that it was what caused such infighting in multiple worlds, shifting the conflict onto the Evil God.
With the world of Mycroft being in an age of rapid development, any infighting and stagnation is a waste of opportunities that rarely came by. It could even be said that it directly affects the world—whether Mycroft's civilization would have the power to fight when the Evil Gods arrive decades later.
Even if evidence would in the end prove that it was all coincidence, that the infighting in Mycroft now was a simple eruption of conflict, Joshua and Igor would still fabricate an 'Evil God' and provide a believable excuse.
”Recently, my clone has been staying in the Far South, attempting to mediate the conflict between the nobles and the Royal Family.”
Having reached an understanding with Joshua, Igor settled into a chair and a sip of cold tea. ”The policy reformations which the nobles and citizens speak of, along with the independence they desired holds convincing reasons.”
The Far Southern Kingdom was a very accommodating feudal nation in the first place, and more of a sparse alliance of nobles than a postmodern monarchy.
Naturally, that was also because the small region was also where the ancient factions of the Seven Gods Church and the Elven Court were founded. While the Kingdom holds an advantage in terms of population and borders, it was essentially far inferior to the other two—with that factor, along with the fact that democracy and nationalism had yet to be founded, it was easy to understand why the Far Southern Kingdom could hardly consolidate power.
Although the Far Southern Kingdom had made early precautions following Joshua's warning when the Draconic Plague broke out, their sheer lacking of ability saw half of their territories fall, just as many noble families perished. Countless citizens were hence displaced, and while the Royal Family did lead the army and barely established fortifications to keep half of their territories, the conflict between the hierarchy and the common people hence lurked.
Half of the nation's land which had fallen due to the death of regional nobles were later used by the royals to lure foreign talent while conveniently dumping those burdens, awarding them to thirteen heroes who performed excellently against the Draconic Plague, which in turn was the origins of the thirteen autonomous regions. That move, however, incensed the surviving nobles, who believed that the royals made a deal with the Pentashade dragons, 'selling off' half of the territories. Joshua's warning, which had allowed the Royal Family to suffer the least losses amongst all noble bloodlines also stirred rumors of conspiracy, which turned into calls for abdication.
Furthermore, the citizens of the fallen thirteen self-rule regions hated the Royal Family who had so quickly gave up on them., To go along with the people's wishes and certainly finding independence beneficial, the new noble lieges joined the factions vocal against the royals as well.
Under detailed dissection, anyone would realize that 'sudden infighting and conflict' was not true—the hurt was already brewing over the past years, and now finally drove the nobles and lieges into outburst. Indeed, most of them were not acting out of their own will, but were driven by the peasant's agony and tears after the scars of the Draconic Plague, from the pain of losing family, home and everything they had.