Location: Temple of Night, Shadowkron City, the Imperial Capital of the Dark Empire.
Webster, the Lord of the Night, had called the high level ministers together and was working through the same problem the envoys had brought back.
Twenty-odd High Gods filled the hall. The minimum qualification to become a high level minister in the Dark Empire's inner circle was to become a High God. They were considered genuinely powerful there.
Webster himself sat at the highest point, at the intermediate-stage of the Supreme God Tier. His lord type artifact further amplified his real combat power to something comparable to the ancient Supreme Gods like Malakar.
He had the look of a middle-aged human man wearing a black imperial robe, and the bearing of someone accustomed to having difficult decisions be unanimous before he made them.
The Truth Faction's growth rate was something the Faith Faction couldn't match. In millions of years, the Faith Faction had produced fewer than twenty Supreme Gods. The Truth Faction, on the other hand, had produced almost ten in just a hundred thousand years.
Given enough time, a few hundreds of thousands of years without interference, the Gods of Truth would completely dominate the Endless Continent. The Faith Faction knew this. The Dimensional Demons also knew this. Everyone knew this, which was part of why the timing of this Divine War mattered so much for every faction involved. They didn't have more time. The Burning Legion was coming now.
"His Majesty Kazehaya has agreed to our participation in the war." Webster said, "When the Aetherium Empire declares war on the Light Empire, we attack simultaneously from a different direction."
The response was exactly what you'd expect from people who had been waiting a hundred thousand years for this specific opportunity. The Light Empire had been the inherited enemy since before the current era. It was the Light Pantheon's successor, carrying the same conflict forward that Mordra and Pandora had started in the Era of Faith.
The stalemate that was barely maintained after Pandora ascended to become a Supreme Goddess was about to break.
"We hold them in check, take what territory we can, and stop there." Webster said, "We don't need to capture everything. The Aetherium Empire won't allow it, and we shouldn't invite confrontation." He paused, "The bigger problem is that fledgling empire itself. They are not our ally. They are a force we need to deter."
Everybody in the room agreed with this immediately and at length. A Castle Lord who had reached Supreme God Tier in just over a month, commanding an empire with three Supreme Gods whose growth was driven by war. They could tell that it was a far bigger threat than the Light Empire in the long term.
They planned on showing enough strength during the war to make turning on them afterward seem unprofitable. That was the strategy.
"There is one more trade proposed by them." Webster said, "Two corpses at the Supreme God Tier. They're Supreme God Tier Dimensional Demons slayed at Arboriel, most likely by those 'Angels'. They are willing to sell them."
The hall went the particular quiet of people recalibrating very quickly.
Then the questions came: which of the twelve Demon Lords were these?
The answer was also quick. Webster explained the situation to them that they were Demon Lords and not the famous Demon Monarchs. Then again, did it matter? Not really, for refinement purposes as the title of Demon Monarch was just ceremonial apart from being able to command the Burning Legion.
The most important question was did their empire actually possess the means to handle the Abyssal Aura in a Demon Lord's corpse? Unfortunately nobody had a confident answer. If the refinement process went wrong, the evil force erupting from two corpses could demonize a significant portion of their population before anyone could contain it.
But the upside was that if the process went well, they would directly gain two Supreme God Tier puppets.
Webster had watched the ministers talk themselves from afraid to enthusiastic in under ten minutes, which had been the plan. He'd waited for the consensus before committing the empire's treasury because that was how the Truth Faction worked. The ruler couldn't simply command. Unlike the Faith Faction who followed the leader's will was absolute, the Gods of Truth were unruly and super ambitious by nature.
Of the nearly ten million Gods in the Endless Continent's Truth Faction, barely three million remained as members of the various empires. The rest, especially High Gods, had gone independent the moment they found imperial life too constraining.
Almost every ruler had figured out that you governed these High Gods of Truth by making them feel like they were actually a part of the decision-making process.
"We shall buy them." Webster said, once the consensus was clear, "I'll go to the Aetherium Empire personally. Mobilize all liquid Divine Crystals and Divine Treasures that can be exchanged for these corpses."
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