"Alright. Nothing more to add. You don't need to report back to after this. Just handle the rest on your own. If you run into any problems that brute force can solve, co find ."
Wang Yu didn't bother stretching the discussion further. He'd already said all he could. Anything beyond this eting—communicating with the Alliance and assigning responsibilities, for example—wasn't sothing he was suited to handle. He gave a final instruction, then withdrew from the Prayer Network and stepped out of the Church of Nightfall's eting room.
The mont he returned to his body, he noticed Avia was no longer deep in thought. She sat by the table, waiting for his consciousness to return.
"Did sothing happen over at the Church?"
Avia asked about the matter he had gone to deal with while she pondered her own thoughts.
"Nothing much. The Alliance sent an invitation to Aleisterre. They're preparing to move openly against the Utopia. I said a few things and told them to decide for themselves. Everything's recorded, so you can take a look."
Wang Yu spoke casually. The Perfect Fractal lens had captured the entire eting. He was genuinely curious to hear Avia's opinion on the matter.
"That's good. As for this issue of void affinity, I think I've ford a hypothesis, but I'll need your help to verify it."
She didn't check the recording imdiately. Instead, her eyes glimred with excitent as she shared the conclusion she had just reached after her long contemplation.
"Alright, tell what you need."
Wang Yu raised a brow. For her to make progress this quickly... Well, it was exactly what he expected.
After Wang Yu's exit, the others remained inside the eting room to finalize practical arrangents. Charles was the one to restart the discussion.
"Since we've received the archbishop's confirmation, our course of action is clear: accept the invitation from the Alliance, join them, and work together to eliminate the Utopia.
"Joining the alliance is a given, but there are precautions we must establish beforehand. Chiefly, the Church of Nightfall will not serve as cannon fodder, and neither will we be used as a consumable resource. This is the attitude we must assert in this cooperation.
"As for combat strength, the dragons are the strongest among us. Considering that the Church of Nightfall is ultimately a loose collective, even if our mbers are stronger than Aleisterre's own forces, we cannot gather them as easily. Thus, for now, we'll treat Aleisterre's military strength and our own as roughly equivalent.
"That's why I personally propose that decisions involving combat strategy should be centered around the dragons. After all, the main reason the Alliance invited us was because of them. And I, for one, have absolute faith in their wisdom."
Charles began laying out his plan. When it ca to war, he proposed deferring to the dragons' judgnt. His reasoning was simple: very few in the Church of Nightfall truly understood the dragons' capabilities. If they were to draft strategies without that understanding, oversights would be inevitable. Only by following the dragons' own arrangents could they unleash their full might.
As for Miselyx, chief of the white dragons, Charles had seen his skill at command firsthand. It was formidable, and would more than suffice for this role.
The proposal was sensible, and no one present voiced an objection. Miselyx accepted the position with a calm, confident smile.
"Thank you for your trust. Since I've taken on this responsibility, I will see it done properly. First, we must determine the Utopia's actual objective.
"‘Building a utopia' is far too vague a goal. What we need is sothing concrete—how they plan to accomplish it.
"Half of our current information on them cos from the recent reports provided by the Alliance. The other half cos from Lord Wang Yu, who has encountered this organization multiple tis. One thing is certain: they possess extraordinarily deep historical roots. Many nad figures throughout history seem to have ties to them.
"If they laid out foundations for this plan back in the old days, then matters will be very troubleso indeed. Unfortunately, that seems very likely to be the truth. Ethan Harris, once thought to be dead, has appeared once again. If that can happen, what else might be hiding in the shadows?
"We must prepare ourselves. History is easily distorted, twisted, and rewritten. Our thods of learning it are limited, and we cannot verify any of it firsthand. We cannot even determine whether the information we possess is real.
"Our enemy may very well be a presence that buried itself beneath the tides and dust of history, leaving traces we cannot find, preparing sches we cannot uncover, and concealing truths we cannot imagine. In any case, we stand completely unable to predict their next move."
Miselyx spoke with a depth born from lived experience. The dragons, after all, had spent their years of disappearance living under a web of lies and misdirection.
"That is why, even as we search for their traces, our decisions may indeed need to be as simple and straightforward as Lord Wang Yu suggested. After all, he did manage to slay one of the strongest legends, Ethan Harris, a Sword Saint of legend.
"And there's an easy way to understand what the Utopia wants: fight them. Engage them directly. We need to see for ourselves what these people are trying to accomplish."
Miselyx concluded his thoughts.
"Agreed."
"Understood."
"Got it."
Voices of assent echoed around the room. They accepted his decision unanimously.
"Praise the Lady of the Night!"
The eting ended with unified voices of praise.
Once their course was set, the entire Church of Nightfall got to work.
Charles, Miselyx, and several others took the lead in negotiating with the Alliance, finalizing the terms of cooperation and wrestling over the usual issues of authority and interest.
Aleisterre, anwhile, began approving the immigration of even more Church of Nightfall mbers, expanding its population while accelerating construction on all fronts. Whatever scale the coming battles might reach, the Church of Nightfall held fast to one principle: eat well, sleep well, and have a nice ho.
On that point, Aleisterre's Council, Edward included, perford admirably.
The Church's rchant guild, its academies, and various affiliated organizations all began implenting changes in policy as soon as the eting concluded. They began consolidating industries, converting a portion of their capital into materials more likely to be needed in warti, and generally strengthening their resilience. Warehouses across the territory quietly filled with supplies. When the mont ca, their doors could be thrown open at any ti for the Church's use.
After the eting, Father Fang sought Charles out for a private conversation.
"The Church of Light will also join in the crusade against this organization."
The archbishop's calm, smiling declaration left Charles montarily stunned. The Church of Light seldom acted of its own initiative. When a situation's righteousness could not be clearly judged, their usual stance was to wait and observe.
"Since when is the Church of Light this proactive? Don't tell you people actually think this so-called Utopia is irredeemably evil?"
"No, not exactly. The Pope himself received a divine vision from the God of Light, instructing the Order of Paladins to join the campaign against the Utopia. I've never heard of such a phenonon in all my ti in the Church of Light. That's why we're taking action."
Father Fang shook his head. The decision did not represent a unanimous moral judgnt from the Church of Light. Rather, it reflected the Pope's intent—an unusually large factor in this matter.
"Co to think of it... who is the Pope of the Church of Light again? I've never seen him. Don't tell he's another legend from ancient tis. Does he know sothing the rest of us don't?"
Now that he understood the reason for their involvent, Charles found his curiosity drifting toward the Pope's identity. As far as he knew, no one had ever actually seen the man appear in public.
"I don't know either. His identity has always been shrouded in mystery. That much is true. But he is acknowledged by every archbishop in the Church of Light, myself included. This ti, he even spoke to each of us individually."
There was resignation in Father Fang's voice. The Pope was a uniquely enigmatic figure within their institution, and even he knew very little about him.
"Sounds... suspiciously like a charlatan..."
Charles rubbed his chin as he muttered a thoroughly irreverent remark.
"I'm here to pass on a ssage from him. To tell the truth, even I don't fully understand what he ant."
"Going forward... the Church of Light may need the Church of Nightfall's protection."
Father Fang ignored Charles's habitual blasphemy and simply delivered the Pope's ssage.
"Huh? The Church of Nightfall... protecting mbers of the Church of Light?"
As expected, Charles froze on the spot.
It wasn't the ssage itself that shocked him, but rather the sheer absurdity of the idea. Even now, the Church of Nightfall couldn't compare to the vast institution that was the Church of Light. How could it possibly fall to them to offer protection?
"Couldn't he be clearer? Fine, whatever. The Church of Light is certainly our ally. Helping each other goes without saying."
After a few seconds of bewildered silence, Charles gave his answer without hesitation. Whatever the Pope's deeper reasoning was, working together would benefit both faiths.
"In that case, I'll see you at the eting with the Alliance. I'll try to arrange things so I can act alongside you."
"See you."
All across the continent, various powers made their decisions in a surprisingly short span of ti. They each chose how to respond to the strange new force erging within the orcish kingdom. So waited and watched, others prepared for opposition, and so even signaled a willingness to cooperate.
As for the Alliance, once their investigative team vanished without a trace, preparations for a formal assault began at once. From the five races, they selected a vanguard unit whose mission was simple: to probe the Utopia. They would test the strength of the Utopian forces and prepare for the first, cautious foray into the unknown.
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