Chapter 14 - Speed is the Key in War_1
"You actually managed to kill them all..."
Looking at the bodies strewn across the city hall, the elf scout was rather speechless. Her original plan was for Duanmu Huai to distract the enemy while she rescued others through the underground sewer, then find a way to help Duanmu Huai retreat. She didn't anticipate that this Black Knight would be so ruthless, killing all the Ratmen and Evil God Cultists in the city hall.
"Why keep them if we can kill them all?"
Duanmu Huai was very calm. With the average level of the Ratmen being less than ten, they were like cutting grass in front of him. That said, even though the fight was exhilarating, the downside was the pitifully low experience — and with a level difference of ten, Duanmu Huai would only gain one basic experience point for killing a Ratman.
Hmm, in this view, if he killed Ratmen for 300 years, he might just level up to LV99...
"But it's alright, we have obtained some information."
Upon saying this, the elf scout lowered her voice.
"These Ratmen didn't attack the City of Silver without reason. In fact, they came here in search of a certain Holy Artifact. They aim to spread plague and decay through the land by corrupting this artifact."
"Oh... no surprise there."
Duanmu Huai responded casually to the elf scout's report. The behavior of the four Evil God's disciples weren't vastly different, but there were traces to follow.
The Brutal God's disciples relish in war, blood, and death; these are the ways they please their deity.
The Filthy God's disciples spread plague and disease wherever they go, showcasing their father god's "benevolence".
The God of Trickery's disciples love to conspire; backstabbing and manipulating conspiracies are their favorites.
The God of Lust's disciples are more focused on indulging in all kinds of perverted, twisted desires and pleasures.
According to the elf scout, the artifact they targeted this time is called the "Water God's Blessing", its greatest use is to purify water—naturally, for a human settlement, this in itself is already a powerful use.
And the Evil God's Cultists are attacking the City of Silver in order to obtain the "Water God's Blessing". They then plan to reinvent it into a biological weapon that can contaminate water sources using the power of the Filthy God. When that time comes, as long as they throw this artifact into a water source, all the living beings along the entire river will be able to feel the Filthy God's "fatherly love".
"Such a holy artifact should be well-guarded."
"Indeed."
The elf scout nodded.
"The Empire has deployed high-ranking mages to cast layers of protection around the Holy Artifact. Aside from the royal family members, no one can touch it. But no one knows if the power of Filthy Demons is strong enough to break this protection..."
"So, our job is to reclaim the temple and protect the Holy Artifact?"
"Yes, I have already sent word to Lord Kado."
Hearing the elf scout's reply, Duanmu Huai furrowed his brows, considering for a moment.
"I've been meaning to ask, what about the reinforcements? Do we have any?"
"...It's hard to say."
"What do you mean by 'hard to say'? The City of Silver is an imperial territory, isn't it only natural that they request support from the Empire when invaded by the Evil God Cultists and the Barbarians, especially with the Lord dead?"
"That's true, but humans have their fair share of beneath-the-surface issues."
The elf scout's tone held a note of dissatisfaction. Duanmu Huai could guess it probably had to do with power struggles… but now was not the time to discuss such things.
"Let's act then. We should take back the temple and secure the Holy Artifact as soon as possible. The troublesome stuff can be discussed later."
For Duanmu Huai, the political turmoil of an empire had nothing to do with him. His main purpose in coming to this planet was to find the lost Order Holy Artifact and bring it back to the Core Cabin. As for the other matters, he can see how it goes but won't involve himself too deeply.
After all, Duanmu Huai's goal was the Sea of Stars, and such a civilization in the medieval period wasn't worth him spending too much energy on.
"Just you alone?"
"And her."
Duanmu Huai gestured to Ogis standing behind him. She hadn't taken part in the previous battle, staying hidden by his side. It was the same now. She was Duanmu Huai's last insurance, and he wouldn't use her unless absolutely necessary.
"You really take quick action..."
Hearing Duanmu Huai's reply, the Elf Scout sighed and made up her mind.
"I will come with you, at least I am very familiar with this city, and I can at least guide you two."
"We're obliged."
To the Elf Scout, Duanmu Huai's actions seemed somewhat reckless and impulsive, but Duanmu Huai knew that what he was doing was simply to protect himself in the face of the crisis that was about to arrive.
And this stems from the history of Star Ocean Online.
Once upon a time, long, long ago, humans established a great empire that ruled the entire Milky Way, expelling all barbaric alien races. People lived in prosperity, peace, and great glory. This era was known as the "Golden Age."
But after that, things took a turn for the worse.
The Artificial Intelligence that had served the Golden Age launched a rebellion under a mysterious electronic virus, almost completely destroying the Golden Age. Although the Crisis of Mechanized Intelligence eventually ended, the human race was seriously wounded. More disastrously, a terrifying subspace storm emerged at this time, hindering humanity's ability to explore and communicate in space.
This was fatal to human society. After all, for any civilization, transport routes are essential. During the Golden Age, people used subspace portals to traverse countless light-years to reach other planets in the Milky Way. They also used the capabilities of subspace for contact.
In simple terms, it was like a network of railways between planets, serving both as a connection for movement and communication.
However, after the subspace storm broke out, it was as if these railway networks were completely destroyed. Humans lost their ability to contact other planets, and they could no longer use their warships to travel through subspace to other planets. Their warships would be lost in the subspace storm for various unknown reasons and disappear without a trace. For this reason, human civilization at that time was on the verge of extinction, even on the edge of destruction.
At this time, a mysterious existence stood up. He led humans to resist the final crisis and led them to brilliance again. He was known as the human leader—The Emperor.
After consolidating their power in the Solar System, taking advantage of the subspace storm subsiding, The Emperor led the fleet to launch a great expedition with the aim of recovering the colonial planets of the Milky Way, which once lost contact with the mother star during the subspace storm.
The expedition initially went smoothly. Humans successfully recovered most of the colonies, but... the good times didn't last long. Just as the expedition was about to end, another subspace storm suddenly reappeared. Once again, as if history repeated itself, the expedition's fleet was split apart, without any means of contacting the mother star or returning to The Emperor.
However, the subspace storm was just the beginning. After that, a great rebellion occurred—the War Marshal, who was leading the expeditionary forces on behalf of The Emperor, launched a rebellion.
Just like the Crisis of Mechanized Intelligence during the Golden Age, humans encountered betrayal once again. Although the rebellion led by Horus was finally suppressed, the Human Empire was also seriously wounded, and The Emperor disappeared without a trace.
After that, the Human Empire experienced more splits, wars, and chaos, even attacks from alien races. Humans won and failed again and again. After an unknown number of millennia, someone finally proposed an unthinkable plan.
The Black Hole Project.
According to these people, all the threats facing the Human Empire were caused by the Evil God of the subspace.
However, attempting to eliminate the Evil God of the subspace was basically impossible. As it was, the subspace is the projection of the souls and emotions of all beings in the world, which means unless all the creatures in the world are wiped out, even if the Evil Gods in the subspace are defeated, they will revive.
But, the subspace is not invincible. Everything has its nemesis. Subspace can give rise to psychics, but psychics also have their natural enemies.
They are the entities known as the "Untouchables."
The existence of the Untouchables was birthed from unknown causes. The only known fact is that the Untouchables are the only entities without a projection in the subspace. They are like the black holes of the subspace. Moreover, when an Untouchable appears near a psychic, they can weaken or even sever the connection and power between the psychic and the subspace.
Of course, the Untouchables are therefore hated by the living. They are like soulless beings, their mere existence incites disgust and hatred from the living beings.
However, the idea for the Black Hole Project was derived from the Untouchables.
In simple terms, these people tried to create a large enough "void" in the subspace to completely disrupt the balance of power there.
This would be enough to severely damage the Chaos Evil God, even if they couldn't kill it.
It's like when a country on Earth, facing imminent destruction, decides to use nuclear weapons against the entire planet.
Die together, if I die, you can't get away either.
A loss of a thousand of one's own to kill eight hundred enemies is considered a profitable trade.
The actions of this group are equivalent to purging the entire universe, and then... the rest is left to the survivors of the future human race.
The Black Hole Project was a huge success. The subspace nearly collapsed, and after suffering this blow, the Evil Gods all fell asleep. Without the protection of the gods they believed in, other alien races were also seriously wounded. It can be said that in the end, the Human Empire returned all universe civilizations to the Stone Age with an indiscriminate attack. Everything started from scratch.
However, the Evil Gods were naturally not willing to fall into eternal sleep, so they still used all kinds of methods to bewitch their believers, encouraging them to work harder to wake themselves up sooner—at least earlier than others.
Upon resurrecting, the players were in this "Dark Age". What they had to do was to disrupt the Evil Gods' plans as much as possible, delay their awakening time, and at the same time, enhance their own strength as much as possible to deal with the resurgence of the Evil Gods, or even to permanently remove this threat. Otherwise, if the Evil Gods are allowed to start over, they can only wait for death in despair.
Now, what he needed to do was to destroy the plans of the Filthy God!