Ch.339The Path to the Continent of Terius (1)

The Eighth Continent, Terius.

While the Sky Warden was leading the forces of the Sun toward the eighth continent, countless events were unfolding on the ground.

First, thousands of corporations had pledged their loyalty to the Sun God.

Among these corporations were military suppliers and mercenary companies. Victor appropriately dispersed them, directing military suppliers to provide resources to areas experiencing religious conflicts and deploying mercenaries there, while instructing the remaining companies to prioritize supplying materials to villages and cities established by followers of the Two Moons Order.

Even managing this alone was enough to make one’s head spin, and Victor nearly had a mild panic attack at the thought that once he ruled all 13 continents, he would be responsible for an economy thousands of times larger.

Of course, such administrative duties would eventually fall to his mortal lieutenants rather than himself, but the fact that even a god like him experienced a minor mental breakdown after merely sampling a fragment of administrative work meant that establishing an empire would be no easy task.

If managing just a few thousand corporations was enough to chip away at his mental fortitude in real-time, then even with the help of ancient imperial technology, it would take over a century after the empire’s founding before it could truly function as a unified human government, with administrative reach extending to the countless people living across the 13 continents.

Of course, what was even more serious was the possibility of failing to coordinate internal opinions, causing the newly established empire to be torn apart again. But Victor was determined to prevent that, even if it meant burning entire continents to ashes to stop the empire’s collapse.

He didn’t want peaceful negotiations that would secure only half of what he sought. Even if it meant reducing the world to cinders, humanity must become one.

This was salvation for Saburo and Maria, and the first and last means to save humanity from being torn apart and trapped in an endless cycle of baseless hatred and revenge.

To those fragmented and unable to recognize each other, the Empire would gift a path.

To those consumed by blind hatred and rage, the Empire would gift compromise.

To the various social classes mired in poverty and polarization, the Empire would gift wealth redistribution and rational welfare policies.

Separation leads to lack of exchange, and lack of exchange breeds misunderstanding. Therefore, by building and maintaining land, sea, and air routes to connect people, the Empire would unite and manage the numerous city-states currently struggling for survival on their own.

They fear because they hate, and they are ignorant because they rage. For those who wish to end conflicts but have lost their reason, chained to cycles of revenge, the Empire would destroy their instruments of anger with overwhelming force, then reeducate and govern them as a keeper of peace.

They are poor because they lack, and prosperous because they have wealth. For the empty-handed, the Empire would provide better jobs and welfare policies to combat disease and hunger, along with improved housing to ensure dignified lives as human beings. For the wealthy, their riches would be directed toward creating parks, schools, hospitals, and jobs, building a society where everyone could prosper.

And those who disagreed would face the wrath of the Sun.

Humanity needed to be united, and the 1,200-year war of all against all must now end.

Even if humanity itself did not desire it.

“Now the eighth continent. Still five more continents to go…”

Victor murmured, gently stroking his wife who was nestled in his arms.

*

KWANG!

It wasn’t the main gun of a tank firing. It was an assault tank equipped with a dozer blade at the front exploding after being hit by an anti-tank high-explosive bomb launched from a catapult.

“This is sex! Going with the anti-tank high-explosive bomb!!!”

“You vulgar bastard! Die!”

Why the explosion of a tank was considered sex, or how one could reach climax with an anti-tank bomb—Krat, a soldier following the Sun, couldn’t quite understand.

He killed a charging follower of the Pleasure God with an axe to the head, then pulled the safety pin from the grenade the man had been holding and threw it toward the enemy lines.

BOOM!

A different explosion from before, still loud enough to deafen ears, but not enough to stop the squad he was leading.

“Forward!”

“For the Sun! We fight in Victor’s name!”

The sound of submachine guns and shotguns firing mixed with battle cries. Along with it came a scent that was both comfortable and happy—drugs.

“Drugs!”

“Gas masks on!”

For the sake of pleasure and happiness, the followers of Medina covered their bodies with everything from sex to drugs. And the Sun does not permit such things.

KWAAAAA!!!

“That’s it! Burn it all!”

“In the name of the Sun!”

Just a few years ago, he had been nothing more than a believer who secretly held faith in the Sun and Moon.

Every day was a challenge and trial of faith, and occasionally when people discovered he was a follower of the Two Moons Order, those around him would suddenly grow cold, and he would wake up to find his windows broken or insulting words sprayed or painted on his door.

But he never abandoned his faith in the Sun and Moon, and eventually his suffering was rewarded.

When the Knight of the Sun was appointed, He drove the undead terror from Derickson Village, personally led its reconstruction, and shared his own money to ensure the villagers wouldn’t starve through the harsh winter.

And as the Knight ascended to the Apostolic Seat, his achievements continued to grow. Having moved more than 20 times and barely getting by with day labor, Krat obsessively collected news articles about the Knight of the Sun and the Apostle of the Sun despite his tight finances, and would turn his head like a madman whenever even the letter ‘S’ for Sun appeared on the news or radio.

With each victory Victor achieved, Krat fell into ecstasy like an addict injecting drugs just short of a lethal dose, and he believed without doubt that Victor would someday save him.

“Sun’s hounds! Taking your heads would be so satisfying! Die!”

“In the name of the Sun! I reject you!”

And when the Sun’s journey reached Belka, he finally heard the news that the Sun God was illuminating this earth again, and he ran through the city like a madman, shouting:

-The Sun has returned! Long live the Sun! Long live the Sun! Long live the Sun! He has returned to save this world!-

And soon, brothers and sisters who had been hiding everywhere began a holy crusade of revenge, filled with sacred anger and righteous hatred, and he was ready to willingly sacrifice his body and soul for the glory of the Sun.

“Servant of Medina! Do you truly think you can defeat the followers of the Sun?”

Krat said this as he deflected the man’s sword with his axe, then drove the blade into his chest, drawing arterial blood from the heart.

“Guurgh….”

The fight was decided in a single exchange, and seeing this, his brothers and sisters were filled with morale that reached the heavens as they called out the name of the Sun.

“Honor and glory shall follow those who follow the Sun!”

“For the Master of Fervor! The time for 1,200 years of revenge has come!”

“Kill and burn! The name of the Four shall be erased from under heaven!”

The sound of weapons clashing. The inhuman screams of people calling out to their respective gods.

Thousands of soldiers, brothers, believers clash against each other just to destroy one drug den of the Pleasure God. And none of them had any intention of changing their belief that they were good and the other side was evil.

“O Sun! Strength to your believers! Curses to your enemies! We are your soldiers, bind us together with your will!”

And in the end, it was the followers of the Sun who gained the upper hand.

As one might expect from a drug den, most of the pleasure-seekers were too intoxicated with drugs and alcohol to fight properly. Some who somehow maintained their sanity managed feats like destroying tanks with catapults, but their limitations were clear.

They could not overcome the soldiers of the Two Moons Order who were filled with a sense of victimhood from years of oppression.

And not just where Krat fought. The remaining temples and orders of the Four were helplessly collapsing under the vengeful assault of the enraged Two Moons Order.

With even Karil, the strongest of the Four, having already submitted to the radiance of the Sun, the 1,200-year-strong faith in the Four Great Gods had begun its decline.

And as something ends, something else begins.

Gradually, the 13 continents began to fall under the twilight of the Sun.