(Planet Juxta, The next day, Leo’s POV)
Leo sat across from Charles and Veyr inside the dimly lit eting chamber, the three of them gathered around a steel table as the story of yesterday’s eting was laid bare.
Together, he and Veyr walked Charles through every detail— Su Yang’s desperation, the flimsy offer of two planets, and the ultimate rejection that followed.
Charles listened quietly, arms folded, his sharp eyes betraying nothing as he absorbed each word, as only when the tale was done did he lean back in his chair, exhaling slowly through his nose.
"Yeah... you made the right call here," he said at last, his tone decisive. "There’s simply not enough benefit in tying ourselves to their sinking ship. Two planets? That’s not paynt, that’s scraps. The risks outweigh the rewards by too wide a margin."
He tapped a finger against the table as he continued, his voice steady but firm. "Don’t take wrong— I’m not against the idea of helping the Su Clan, or even forging new allies across the universe.
Such ties could be valuable in the long run. But it has to be done on fair terms. We can’t gamble the Cult’s future on charity when what they’re offering us in return is worthless."
Charles concluded, as his affirmation made Leo and Veyr more confident in their plan.
"Going forward, I think you should prepare the Dragon’s Army for a swift deploynt, and focus on quickly capturing Planet Nemo as soon as the Su Clan forces abandon it, and before soone else is ready to lay claim to it.
Nemo should be a priority, after which we can repeat the strategy and perhaps try and capture more planets in the coming month or two." Charles suggested, as he laid out the short term plan for the Dragon’s Army.
"That’s what I plan to do as well.... Our spies are active on planet Nemo as we speak, and they’re closely monitoring the activities of the top military leadership on the planet.
Once they start stripping Nemo of critical infrastructure, that will be our cue to launch an attack." Veyr shared, as Charles nodded in approval.
This seed like a golden opportunity for the Cult to expand their territorial control without taking too big of a risk, which was a seldom gained chance in his experience as a Commander, and hence not ant to be squandered.
"If everything unfolds like we expect it to unfold, I’ll be taking off with Veyr to conquer Nemo in three weeks ti.
Where hopefully, it won’t take us more than a week to wrap up the battle." Leo shared, as with that they concluded today’s top secret eting.
—--------------
(anwhile inside the Eternal Garden, Kaelith’s POV)
Unlike Mauriss, who was singularly obsessed with tracking the Cult’s every twitch in response to Su Ren’s death, Kaelith’s attention lay elsewhere.
His focus remained on the ripple effects of his own actions, as he carefully monitored the Five Great Clans and the remnants of the Su Clan, gauging how the fall of their founding God had altered their universal stance in the grand ga.
So far, the wider universe had yet to stir.
The news of Su Ren’s death had not reached the ears of commoners, as no taverns or marketplaces seed to be discussing the rumor.
Only the highest echelons, the ruling brass of the Great Clans and a handful of opportunistic rchants, seed aware of the truth, the kind of n who were already sharpening their knives to profit from the chaos.
Which was why, when Mauriss called him over a crystal call with yet another grand sche to destabilize the Universal Order, Kaelith had no patience for it.
"No, no, no, no, no.... NO! Absolutely not you war-crazed freak. We are not going to send five continents’ worth of n and ships to destroy a single planet.
If you want to lure Soron out, go enter Cult territory on your own and try to provoke him.
You will not be sending innocents to an assured death to test the sa concept." Kaelith said firmly, his tone sharp, his words final.
"What? Why? Didn’t my previous plan to kill Su Ren work out perfectly?
Why don’t you trust more?" Mauriss whined, his voice grating in Kaelith’s ears, as the Eternal Sovereign rolled his eyes rather diabolically.
"Worked out perfectly? What do you an worked out perfectly? We don’t know anything about how your plan worked out yet.
We don’t know how this will shift the Universal Governnt’s perception across the universe.
We don’t know if the commoners will beco more distrusting of us now that we betrayed a clan within the Righteous Alliance or not.
And we don’t know how the Su Clan is going to survive the ss they now find themselves in.
Will they ally with the Cult?
Will they be obliterated to oblivion?
Will they survive on their own? And cultivate a generation of warriors that think that we are the enemy?
We don’t know anything. So I don’t understand how you claim that it’s all gone perfectly." Kaelith pointed out, his voice cold, precise, unrelenting.
Mauriss threw his hands up, exasperated, though Kaelith knew the gesture was more mockery than genuine frustration.
Unlike Kaelith, Mauriss cared nothing for public opinion, nor for long-term consequences of his own plans.
The shifting tides of perception, the centuries it would take for trust in the Universal Governnt to erode, things like those mattered little to him.
Of course, he was smart enough to understand the risks of eroding commoner faith in the current universal order, however, understanding and caring for it were two different things.
For him, only the present mattered. His hunger was for action, not foresight, and so, despite Kaelith’s strong dismissal, he refused to let the matter drop.
"Oh co on! Trust on this.... If I’m right, we can eliminate the Cult for once and for all! Isn’t that worth taking a risk?
Co on! Think about it.....
At least give half of what I want...." he pressed, his voice dripping with manic glee.
Kaelith let out a long, weary sigh, as he pinched the bridge of his nose.
A part of him wished to deny Mauriss outright, to cut the call and leave the man to his delusions. But Mauriss was relentless, and if he was going to chase this obsession anyway, then it was better to limit the scale of his madness.
"No, you don’t get half..... all you get is one billion troops, twenty thousand ships, and two Monarch Commanders.
Pick any you want.
But you get no more.
Also, if this backfires, I don’t want to receive a single call from you for the next century at the least."
Kaelith’s voice carried like iron, each word an anchor of finality, as Mauriss grinned ear to ear at the concession, his sharp teeth glinting in the orb’s glow, before severing the connection without another word.
Already, Kaelith could sense the storm brewing on the other side of that call, as Mauriss’s deranged mind began weaving a strategy drenched in blood and chaos.
"I’m sure that maniac won’t even wait a full month to launch an attack..... three weeks, I’m three weeks ti, he will start another major conflict, just because he’s bored." Kaelith complained as he clicked his tongue and shook his head.
Currently for him, the priority for him was to prevent universal erosion of faith within the universal governnt, as without the commoners trusting them, soon the talents within the Great Clans and neutral planets would no longer want to join the Universal Army due to mutual distrust, which over ti would erode the foundations of their power.
However, for Mauriss, his personal entertainnt seed more important, and he felt powerless to stop that war-crazed fool.
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