( The council room with the usual gang and ministers )
" We need to prepare for war. It's not up for debate- , Dracula wants the literal extinction of the modern vampire race. It doesn't matter what planet you are on, if he's allowed to have his way there won't be a vampire society anymore " Max said as he strongly expressed his opinion regarding the future course of action.
Uptil this point, not many things were known about Dracula, except the fact that he had a desire for the vampire throne and some sort of feud with the ruling Aurelius clan.
Many commoners were hysterical about his return, they shared a strong belief in the ancient prophecy and believed that his return marked the start of a disaster.
Some believed that Dracula was only after the throne and if Regus gracefully stepped down, the conflict could be avoided and the rest of them could live in peace, however, these individuals were straight up delusional.
Max was the only one to actually converse with Dracula and he knew that the mad man wanted nothing short of the extinction of the modern vampire species as a whole.
Last time around, he had let Max go out of generosity for helping him escape, however, if Dracula ever set his sights on Dombivili or any other planets under Max's protection then it would be a fight that Max would not be able to back off from.
As things stood, he would be massacred without having the chance to retaliate if he fought Dracula head on, which meant that there was an imminent need for him to grow strong and fast before such a scenario became reality.
" This will be a war of attrition, as strong as Dracula is, he can't control a string of planets on his own.
He can destroy them, but to govern them he needs an army and lots of other talents.
The werewolves under him don't amount to more than 300,000 currently, but he would keep expanding his forces alongside the territory he controls.
Currently, he has a base at the edge of the kingdom of life, at the previous werewolf capital.
From there he can access the previous savage king's territory, an area which is controlled by the vampires but does not have a high vampire presence.
If he's able to liberate and win over the barbarians that predominantly inhabit that area, then he can rapidly expand his forces and gather the necessary talent to launch a counteroffensive " Max said as he pointed at the new map of the universe and drew everyone's attention to the previous savage king's territory that was not yet well fortified by its new rulers the vampires
If the savage king was still alive and in charge of his own territory, Dracula would have found it hard to expand into it, however, as things stood even with his small army, if he led an offensive into those planets, there was no doubt in Max's mind that the temporary Aurelius clan forces stationed there would be no match for him or his army.
The timing for this could not have been worse for the vampires.
After the dungeon run, the new territory distribution was to be decided-
The savage king's territory would have been distributed amongst vampire lord's who would have then been incharge of its security.
However, before that could happen Dracula's attack threw everything into chaos and now the temporary Aurelius clan forces were all that was left to defend those planets.
" This war would take years, we could have multiple border standoffs like we did with the barbarians on maralago and the other border planets.
Even if Dracula capitalises on the initial momentum and captures a string of planets.
Once we reorganise and launch a counteroffensive, he will find it difficult to fight back, not to mention we could ally with the kingdom of life too for bolstering our ranks.
The chances of this war spilling over to Dombivli look non-existent to me, however, we might have to build a mandatory military presence alongside the border zone " Sebastian said with conviction as he believed that time was on their side.
Unfortunately, while his words did give hope to a few, Max was sure that Sebastian's words were not going to come true.
" No, the only reason we had a standoff in the border planets was because god's were not allowed to interfere in the battles on those planets.
I have no doubt in my mind that whatever battle Dracula participates in, will result in a victory for him.
Unlike the Savage King he does not have to negotiate terms with Regus Aurelius, so if his subordinates can't get the job done he will personally see to it that his victory is ensured.
It's only going to be a downhill battle from here till someone amongst the vampire society becomes strong enough to bring him down.
We can certainly hope that Vega or Regus Aurelius will step up to the task but I'm not going to sit around idly and wait for them to fulfil their duty.
I'm going to try and become that man myself, and that's the same approach I wish to have for our army.
We need to improve in quantity and quality and we need to improve fast.
This war might take several years to conclude, but there won't be a moment to relax " Max countered Sebastian's logic with his own as the mood within the room turned grim once everyone realised that he was right.
Dracula was not the Savage King, he was stronger than Regus Aurelius and was a bonafide mad tyrant.
There would be no treaties to not send god's on disputed planets, no treaties to not expand beyond a certain imaginary line, no treaties for prisoner's, no guarantees for medics.
Any battle that Dracula chose to participate in would be a guaranteed victory for his side and all that the vampire's could do for now was to slow down his expansion.
The only sure-shot way to win the war was by someone becoming strong enough to bring Dracula down and both Max and Regus Aurelius understood this fact perfectly.
Max had his own means to grow stronger now, while Regus Aurelius had a plan of countering Dracula of his own.
Either way, both of them knew that the entire vampire society needed to brace for darker times ahead.
—------
/// A/N - In a few chapters time, please prepare for a small to medium timeskip.
Although I don't have a problem in explaining the middle phase of the story in great detail, I feel it's best for the pacing that I only summarise those parts and focus on more important aspects of the plot as a whole.
That's what I believe but if you guys disagree please let me know in the comments below so that I can re-evaluate my decision if I need to ///
