Chapter 986 — Destined

Then he rose from the chair and smoothed the hem of his coat, saying earnestly with his head lowered: "Everything you have said today is of vital importance. I will report it faithfully to the Supreme Council, in the hope that this intelligence may lead us all toward a better future—as for now, rest and recover. We will treat all prisoners well."

An Luo seemed about to say more, but she only opened her mouth, then quieted with a look of release and closed her eyes.

The war nun beside her rose and saluted Philip.

"Nun, what is your name?" Philip asked casually.

"You may call me Marianne," said the young golden-haired war nun with a smile. "I belong to the Seventh Company of the Steel Sanctity Chapter, and by order of the High Pontiff I am at your service."

"Very good, Sister Marianne—Miss An Luo is in your care," Philip nodded. "We will arrange to move her to better conditions in the rear as soon as possible, but until then you must do all you can to ensure her safety and health. She is very important to us."

"I swear by the Holy Light, General," Sister Marianne said at once, solemnly, "I shall not fail this mission!"

……

"General," the young adjutant could not help asking Philip once they had left the room, "do you think everything that Typhon woman said is reliable?"

Philip answered offhandedly: "I am willing to believe eight parts in ten. Of the remaining two—half is basic caution and vigilance, and half is because that 'wolf general' herself may not know the whole truth."

The adjutant mused: "...Then it seems we truly must reassess Typhon's present situation."

"The clever men of the Supreme Council will think it over carefully," Philip said. "As for me... what I am most thankful for now is that we took this fortress decisively in the shortest time possible. Now at last we hold the initiative for what comes next, and we have cut possible losses to a minimum. After this it depends on the Supreme Council's judgment, and on what other tricks that 'Great Emperor Luo Yan' of Typhon still has... If the Typhon people ultimately cannot control this fire already burning, then the God of War's corruption will in the end become a divine calamity like the Crystal Clusters, and when that time comes, this war..."

Philip shook his head and said no more, but the adjutant had already worked out the course that must follow.

A war controlled by men still holds at least the hope of stopping—however hard the stopping may be, that hope always exists. But a war controlled by a god, especially a "mad god"... once it breaks out, the initiative is hard to keep in mortal hands.

A mad god will not accept an armistice, nor does He care how many on either side retain their reason and seek peace. He will only turn on and on within His own mad rules, attacking without end, destroying without end. Even if mortal faith is severed and civilization collapses, so long as the power of this mad god is not exhausted, He will never stop.

Therefore, the Cecil Empire must take Winterwolf Fortress and bring this "gateway of Typhon" fully under control—if the fire must burn, then at least it must not burn on Cecil soil.

Philip sighed softly.

Regardless of whether this war had been brought on by a divine calamity or by the Typhonians' genuine desire to fight, Winterwolf Fortress had to be taken down. This had been decided the moment the war began, and that young Wolf General... was destined to be the first sacrifice of this war.

The crux of the matter now lay in whether the Typhonians could contain this divine calamity, or at least keep its corruption within certain bounds.

Lost in thought, he finally could not help but sigh softly: "What a pity—of all the gods, it had to be the God of War who lost control."

The adjutant was briefly stunned, then understood the general's meaning. He too wore a faint bitter smile: "Yes, of all the gods—the God of War, the deity who presides over war."

"For now, we wait for the Supreme Administrative Council's judgment," Philip shook his head, casting the tangled thoughts from his mind. "On our end, we make our preparations. The Typhonians' counterattack... will come soon enough."

...

The battle report from the front lines was delivered into Hedy's hands.

On either side of her desk, two magic net terminals hummed as they operated, and the figures of two Chief Archons, Victoria and Bai Yu, were projected before her.

"The Winterwolf Legion has surrendered as a formed unit. After preliminary inspection, more than half the knights, soldiers, and all of the mages were in fact uncorrupted, and that 'Wolf General' who surrendered of his own accord has disclosed a great deal of important information to us," Hedy had already finished reading the battle report, her gaze sweeping over the other two Chief Archons. "What do you make of it?"

"Clearly, the reason that 'Wolf General' surrendered—beyond wanting to preserve his own subordinates—was likely to pass this intelligence to us," Duke Bai Yu spoke first. "As things stand, the situation seems somewhat better than we initially anticipated. The divine calamity that occurred on the Holy Spirit Plain has not been reenacted in Typhon..."

"But the danger level is not much different," Victoria said coldly. "There are fatal vulnerabilities in the critical communications system. Personnel from the mid-levels to the upper echelons have been subjected to mental corruption. The emperor's decrees are being tampered with and intercepted. Frontline commanders' eyes and ears are completely blinded... The Typhonians' performance is truly lamentable. In my view, they are not far removed from total collapse."

"Still somewhat removed, Victoria," Duke Bai Yu could not help saying with a smile. "This determines whether we send more bombs and artillery to the front lines, or more purification troops and technicians—and whether we fight alone against a mad god plus a hostile empire, or stand alongside the Typhonians against their insane deity."