Long Way from Home?

Baator, 9th Layer Nessus, Holy Imperial Capital Anor Londo.

Immediately upon my return to the Baator, I called the meeting of the Senatorum Impeialis, together with all Elders, and all High-Ranking officials of the Chthonian Empire of the Baator, to discuss the upcoming crisis which stemmed from the invasion of the Void Insect Swarm.

During our journey home, I got more and more messages that Bugs were spread around the Divine Star Region, and the Divine Coalition of 7 Myriad God Emperors started fighting them.

Indeed, 7, because while Irtarr was killed on his home plane, one of his Avatars that he kept hidden used some method to reach Myriad God Emperor Rank by assimilating other Divine Avatars.

The Bugs were spreading much faster than I initially predicted, and while the Divine Coalition was putting on a good fight, they were slowly losing their ground as they were pushed more and more by the Bug Tribes and the entire Swarm.

Their planes were being devoured together with their inhabitants as the Bugs ate everything in their sight. Especially the terrifying Tier 11 Bugs that wreaked havoc. Some of them were so powerful that apparently, even the Myriad God Emperors needed to mobilize their Divine Kingdoms to their utmost limit to defeat one.

Not to kill, but to just repel it.

Those were the fearsome Bug Kings, killing machines bred to be top powerhouses of every Bug Tribe and backbone of the Swarm.

"It has been only a short time since the war against the Warlock Path has ended, but this time the situation is far more grievous than before. Before I left Dresden, I got information from the Arcane Ancestor that the Void Insect Swarm consisting of at least 10 Bug Tribes, has entered the Astral Boundary Universe and is currently slowly munching on the Divine Star Region and in the war against the Divine Coalition of the Myriad God Emperors. For this, I am announcing the highest emergency of the Chthonian Empire and initiating the Project Exodus, in case if the Void Insect Swarm's Hivemind proves to be Tier 13 Hivemind."

I didn't speak in the Senatorum Imeprialis for several centuries already like this; even the start of the Baatorian Jihad was announced from the Baldaquin, not here. This only increased the gravity of the entire situation, and put on the tag, we are fucked up slowly, but steadily.

In truth, I was weighing the opinions.

Fight or escape.

In the end, sooner or later, Baator would become Universe on its own, so I didn't really see a reason to send soldiers of the Chthonian Empire to their death by fighting the bugs. Fighting bugs was different from fighting anything else.

Void Insects were immeasurable; basically, no matter how many or how strong soldiers we had, it didn't matter because Bugs would have more, way more. Not to mention their overwhelmingly higher number of powerhouses and, most importantly, the strength of the Hivemind, which was a big unknown.

The most terrifying thing about the Hiveminds and Swarms was that if one was killed somewhere, others would know it.

Especially for example, if the situation occurs like this.

If it was indeed Tier 12 Hivemind, and we killed it by some miracle, which would require several Tier 12 because the Hivemind could use the psionic potential of the entire Swarm to fight, thus elevating its power to a frightening level, we would alert the Tier 13 Hivemidn behind the Tier 12 one.

All Hiveminds were interconnected with each other in a certain sense, so the only way to protect your Universe is basically to have a very strong Tier 13 powerhouse standing guard, which would usually deter the Swarms from attacking, especially if those powerhouses are many more than just one.

Hiveminds are profiteers; they would attack only if their gains would absolutely overwhelm their losses. Suppose they found out that their invasion would be a failure, or they would win at the cost of tremendous losses. In that case, there is a high probability that they would never invade in the first place.

"We will initiate Project Exodus, and If I am not wrong, then Weissmann already realized that it was not worth of the fight... probably. The Astral Boundary without the interference of Tier 13 is a lost case with a probability of 96,88%."

I said as everyone looked grim around me. I knew that sooner or later, the Hiveminds roaming the Void would notice one of their kind found a weak Universe without strong protections and would rush here in great numbers to fight for its resources... us.

And I knew that Mercurius would never move because this was favorable for him... he could use the near-destruction state of the Universe to advance to the later stages of Tier 13 directly in one gulp.

I wouldn't be surprised if it was him who lured the Hiveminds to this place through Universal Hoppers and connection created by members of the Longinus Dreizhen Orden... a really devious plan.

But in the end, I had a more devious one.

"We will capitalize on everything that could be capitalized and start the final phase of the growth of the Baator. From now on, I will release the Treasuries, with the priority to increase collective strength of the Baator as much as possible."

I said as I planned to kill Mercurius with the thing he was most proud of and take over the Longinus Dreizhen Orden officially and obtain the Sefirah Castle. While the Tarot Cards basically made it impossible for members to hurt each other, I long ago managed to devise a way to neutralize them, and when I reached Tier 12, it could be carried out immediately.