Chapter 98 — The Faith of the Holy Light
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 3
Had this been the genuine Gao Yang Cecil of seven hundred years ago, his mood at this moment would have been one of despondency, even sorrow. For in that age the human kingdoms knew nothing of the conflicts that would come later; they were all fellow folk who had fled the wastelands of Gondor together, sundered and scattered only by the cataclysm, each holding its own corner of the world. The several kingdoms had joined hands to raise their defenses and share their resources, and the honeymoon between the Typhon Empire and the Kingdom of Ansul had lasted more than five hundred years.
In those days no one had imagined that the day would come when they would turn their blades upon one another.
But the man standing here now was not the genuine Gao Yang Cecil; he was merely a satellite spirit who had fallen from the sky. Gao Yang knew he ought to heave a mournful sigh, yet he simply could not get into character, so he settled for forcing a stiff and solemn expression onto his face—enough, at least, to pass as a meme of grief beyond all sorrow. "So have they already declared war?"
"Not quite—by a hair's breadth," Count Kern said with a gentle shake of his head. "Every diplomatic channel has been severed. Both sides are massing troops. At this point there is no reasoning left to be done; it is simply a question of who strikes first. We are all speculating that within a year, the first great war to break out among the human kingdoms will begin."
Rebecca, trailing at his side, could hold back no longer. "But what we face is the magic tide! If the Great Wall truly collapses, do they imagine the Typhon Empire will be safe and sound? If the monsters in the Gondor wasteland break loose, will those monsters care which country you belong to?"
"In fact, in the final correspondence before diplomatic ties were cut, my father the King issued a warning to the Empire," Viroday said in a low voice. "He warned those proud Imperials that the Gondor wasteland is changing, that signs of aberrant activity had been detected along the Ansul border, and he hoped the Imperials would set aside their foolish hatred in the face of this true crisis..."
Amber asked, all impatience, "And then?"
Viroday lowered her eyes. "And then Typhon unilaterally cut off the magical communications along the border and dispatched thirty thousand more troops."
"That defies all reason!" Rebecca said at once. "How much hatred does Typhon bear Ansul, to go this far? And even if they do not believe it, they could at least say something—what does cutting off communications outright even mean..."
"Because human beings are not a particularly clever species, especially once politics and the noble system are stirred into the mix. Their minds are forever clouded by profit, face, clan, and the inertia of war, and the like," Gao Yang said, shaking his head. "And why should the Typhonians believe Ansul when it says the magic tide is coming? They would sooner believe you are using it as a pretext to stall or to prepare for war—and even if they did believe it... I suspect they would be only too glad to see the magic tide erupt with Ansul at its center."
Rebecca blinked, her wolf-slapped head grinding to a halt on this topic. "Why?"
Gao Yang shrugged. "Because then Ansul is finished, and they think they can carve up the spoils."
Rebecca felt she was falling even further behind Gao Yang's pace. "They think that is possible? In the face of the magic tide..."
"Before you saw those aberrants with your own eyes, had you ever imagined the power of those monsters? Before Cecil Territory was corrupted by the elements into wasteland, had you ever imagined the true might of chaotic magic? And even now, what you have seen is not even a ripple of the true magic tide."
Rebecca: "..."