Chapter 1438 Strike [3]
Five years later.
A lot had happened throughout the entire Heavenly World, just as it had always been.
Several rebellions arose, and several rebellions fell. Several empires arose, and several empires fell.
There was far too much going on in the great amount of society that existed in the world, but not much of it was remembered by all.
Only a few conflicts could become prevalent in the eyes of the entire general public. In these five years, most of those came from the Southwestern Region.
The Southwest had always been relatively calm in comparison to the other cardinal regions, but their reputation was being ruined recently.
It started with the terrorist attacks they dealt with when they first falsely accused Void Palace.
When everyone thought they were over, it turned out the terrorists had just switched targets.
Nobody understood the connection between those events until recently, and even then, the people who knew they were connected were few.
However, everyone knew the Southwestern Region was in turmoil. It had become far more dangerous in recent times.
It started on that day five years ago.
After the destruction of the succubus village, three more attacks were carried out by Squad One within the same few months, all in the same region.
By the time they left 3 months later, another slew of attacks had already begun.
There were a total of 100 teams that left Void Palace. Some were filled with four people while others were singular individuals, but they all had set targets from the start and communicated with each other to make sure their timing was perfect.
Therefore, when the second squad began their activities, the Divine Order had just barely begun to investigate the deaths of the succubi.
By the time they finished, the Divine Order was stuck with two disconnected cases without any clear motive.
However, the motive didn't keep itself hidden for long.
Attack after attack made it exceedingly obvious. Villages and facilities filled with people were massacred and left ridden with corpses, leading the common populace to believe someone was committing atrocities throughout their homeland, but it was nothing of the sort.
Only those directly involved in the cooperation between the Divine Order and the Foreign Races were targeted. It was just that their number was high, and quite a lot of them were maintaining disguises as normal people, likely to keep their actions a secret from larger powers.
Still, Damien knew who all of them were, and so did his people.
They died one after another, and eventually, the Divine Order began to realize what exactly was happening.
They started to get wary.
They pulled their troops back into their own territory, not because they were afraid of Void Palace, but because they needed to find those responsible as fast as possible.
But they still showed open hostility.
Throughout the five years, tensions between the two great clans had heightened immensely.
Large and small battles had swarmed the borders as Void Palace began to bare its fangs, and though the order wanted to respond, they never saw the end of the attacks taking place within their borders.
It only took five years because some groups had to travel excessively far distances to reach their targets, but it eventually did end, and everyone Damien wanted dead was taken out.
There were no mistakes whatsoever, almost to an unbelievable degree.
The reason for that wasn't strength.
The people were strong, but the reason they succeeded without any mistakes was that they were supported by a perfect web of information and strategy.
Damien knew everything he possibly needed to know, and as he was delivered the corpses of those he needed to devour, his knowledge only became more expansive.
Plus, Hestia had taken up her position in the back lines and supported them with strategic advice that, more often than not, led to success.
Void Palace's every member had synergy with the rest, and because of that, the Divine Order couldn't even hope to stop them when they started acting.
And when they finished, they left their signatures in the dirt, making sure their presence would be known.
Damien never intended to hide their identities from the start.
Once all his people had safely returned home, he made it clear.
Everything wrong that had been happening to the order in the last five years…
…it was all a gift from the palace.
***
The Divine Order was run by a pantheon of 12 Gods. They all held "equal" power without anyone at their head, but there was a noticeable hierarchy among them.
Nevertheless, they had held many meetings to discuss how they wanted to deal with the perpetrators of the many crimes they'd had to deal with in recent times, and when they learned that Void Palace, their eternal enemy, was the very culprit they were looking for, they fumed.
It was difficult for them to reach a decision.
After all, it wasn't just elusive test subjects like the succubi who died.
Every Void Palace team targeted a higher value target.
And the strongest palace member who acted was a Sword.
Succubi, other test subjects, people who'd worked on the experiments, people who'd acted as contacts between other people, and even people who had extremely high positions in the order died.
At the end of it, the pantheon of 12 Gods became one of 11.
Yet, the others didn't even realize who'd done the killing until Void Palace revealed themselves willingly.
"Anyway, it is better for us both to pull back for now. You should completely retreat from their territory. Feign cowardice. Otherwise, can we still assure that they won't end you?"
The one who spoke only appeared as a dark shadow projected from a glass ball in a room just as dark.
The one he spoke to was one of the 12 Gods of the Divine Order, Seneca Church.
Seneca acted as a connection between the Divine Order and their close cooperator, the Straea Clan. As for who he was speaking to, it became clear from that.
They hadn't discussed the current happenings yet. The order was expected to take care of it themselves, but the issue had blown up beyond what they'd ever expected.
"We cannot retreat now."
Seneca voiced the joint opinion of all the remaining Gods.
If they retreated now, they'd practically be declaring defeat. It couldn't be allowed to happen.
However…
"Do you think you have a choice? In the first place, isn't it because of your mistakes that they learned the truth? Turtle down without complaint for now. Besides, can we even say you will surely win if you decide to fight anymore?"
The Straea Clan representative's voice was laced with mockery, but Seneca could do nothing but accept it.
They were the weaker party from the start.
Of course, they had hidden forces, but how could they use those?
"In any case, once 'that thing' is finished, we can directly strike them down. Until then, we must make sure no hidden variables arise."
No matter what Seneca wanted to say, he knew the other party was correct.
He gritted his teeth and bowed his head.
"I…understand."
"Good. Then, we will not contact each other for now. I will send word first if the need presents itself."
The projection disappeared as the other party cut the connection, leaving Seneca alone in the dark room with his thoughts.
His eyes were practically red in anger.
"For now, for now, for now…"
Every single time the Straea representative said "for now," he wanted to rip him to shreds.
But it couldn't be done, just like everything else.
"Fine."
Seneca took a deep breath and calmed himself.
"We will hide ourselves until the time is right, however…"
They wouldn't drop this matter here.
"Whoever is running that palace…"
Seneca gnashed his teeth.
"...I will tear you to shreds with my own hands."
