<h4>Chapter 654: Iron Triangle</h4>
<strong>Trantor: </strong>imperfectluck <strong>Editor: </strong>Kurisu
What was my blueprint? Having all countries ally together in front of the demon wave, forming an irond alliance where all the members would freely exchange resources and technology with each other, improving everyone’s magic spells and magical engineering technology together, creating a brand-new generation with technology far surpassing the times, thus bringing about a revolution that would kick the Chaos Faction out of the mortal ne... Okay, I admit that I just made all of the above up.
I had mentioned long ago that this was what I had truly believed before. When an entire generation was changing, any individual’s strength would be insignificant, or even ignorable.
“All I can do is nt some seeds, and then hope that these seeds can grow into tall trees that might be able to slightly change the pitiful future.”
I had done my very best to create and then strengthen the Hell Faction. However, this still didn’t mean that the Hell Faction was capable of directly resisting the Chaos Faction. It was simply that the creation of Hell had made it impossible to revive the Creator Goddesses of Order and Chaos’ physical bodies, avoiding the worst possible oue of total world-ending annihtion.
As for everything else? I never even considered it...
Just think about it, if you were about to be expelled from school, would you still worry aboutpleting tomorrow’s homework?
Okay, perhaps this analogy wasn’t the best one. Then, let’s try another: if you were about to be executed tomorrow, would you still worry about what dinner tonight would be? Well, since I had multiple death experiences already, I would worry whether there was meat for dinner or not, but I felt that most people would be so nervous that they would be unable to eat.
Cough, this wasn’t my fault for not seeing far enough into the future. Creating Hell and breaking the Order and Chaos Factions’ monopoly over the Cycle of Reincarnation was already a miracle considered impossible to achieve. Only after we truly managed to achieve this did we finally have the time to focus on the rest of the future again after our period of excitement.
“The worst possible ending of total annihtion has indeed been averted. However, there’s still no difference in the fact that the Chaos Faction has so much more overwhelmingbat strength. Moreover, due to the disappearance of Creator Goddess of Chaos Cynthia, the Chaos Faction will truly have no more restrictions. This means the Chaos Faction will be even more difficult to deal with than in the game’s history...”
Although the game’s history sounded quite scary, it was simply a matter of differingbat strength. To use an analogy, let’s say that—without any other objective conditions—a well-equipped muscr man was attacking a much skinnier man who waspletely unarmed. No matter what thetter tried to do, he would still likely be beaten up in the end. That was the overall situation we were facing.
Right now, the Chaos Faction was that well-equipped muscr man, while the mortal ne was the skinny man. Not only that, the mortal ne was still suffering from internal conflicts as people here still schemed against each other without worrying too much about the external enemy. It seemed quite obvious that the only result would be getting beaten quite badly.
Overallbat strength would be one of the most important factors in any war. The fact that the entire Chaos Faction would be participating in this Holy War without any restrictions had made the difference even more evident. Although new magical engineering technologies were indeed a great potential lifesaver, the field of magical engineering still needed time to develop before it would be able to grow into a tall tree. Since the overall situation was that both sides’ overallbat strength hadn’t foundationally changed, no matter how I looked at it, it seemed that the mortal ne would be beaten up quite badly at the beginning of this Holy War.
“Defend until an opportunity arises to counterattack.”
“Fight a battle of attrition.”
“Conduct gueri warfare behind the enemy lines.”
“Use space to exchange for time.”
Although these strategies all sounded quite solid, the prerequisite for using these strategies would always be because “Fighting a direct battle would make it impossible to win.” That was just the harsh reality, and it couldn’t be helped that the aforementioned strategies would have to be employed.
The mortal ne of Eich did have a chance at victory. Magical engineering, along with the foundational umtion and potential of the mortal ne, would all truly show their power in the middle andter stages of the Holy War. Back in the game’s history, countless heroes had appeared in this dire situation. However, the early stage of the Holy War would still have most people suddenly waking up to the fearsome and hopeless sight of the cruel reality. Everyone would be beaten up and killed quite badly until they became willing to truly throw 100% of everything they had into this war.
I was no saint. There were things I would be incapable of aplishing, and neither could I create something from nothing. All so-called strategy and tactics would revolve around manipting chess pieces along with bluffs and threats against the other yer of the chess game. However, if the chess pieces on both sides were so different in strength that it was impossible to y a game of chess, when the enemy only had to autoattack you with all their strength, it would be utterly foolish to try and think of strategies to win. It would be far more practical to consider how to lose as little as possible so that enough seeds could be preserved for a future counterattack.
“The entire Mist Alliance will be an irond alliance that can survive the Holy War, and at least stall for time until the entire continent is ready to counterattack... And if there never is an opportunity to counterattack, then justst as long as possible.”
This was an extremely passive and shortsighted strategy. In fact, if I said it out loud, it would also be considered a cowardly strategy. I, who always preferred proactiveness, finally chose this type of strategy in the end. The situation truly forced it on me.
“We’re the weaker side by far. Although just autoattacking with full force will be quite fun, we’ll probably have to type “GG” after having our fun. The most basic part of strategy is to fight the enemy at a location and time that we choose.”
As a veteran mastermind behind the scenes, I didn’t need to tell others about my overall strategy that would surely cause much controversy and disagreement. All I needed to do was make my preparations, and then wait for time to pass and the continent’s situation to keep worsening. The people of the Nortnds would then naturally make the decision that I wanted them to.
From what I felt, choosing the Nortnds as the final bastion for mortals was indeed the best choice.
Although thisnd had infertile soil, and was at the border of the world, the flip side was that the betternd would be fought over first. Nobody would be interested in such a poornd, especially when thisnd wouldn’t be that easy to conquer.
This was the extreme north, and of ice and snow. The great majority of Chaos Abyss demons were naturally of the fire element. While they would be fire resistant, the natural environment here would be the best natural barrier to keep the demons out. It would be difficult for any living creature to befortable in this environment, and the low temperature would impair any living creature’s abilities. Only the undead would be able to fight at full power here. Thus, the Nortnds’ ice and snow would be one of our best allies against the demon army.
Yet, things were no longer the same as eight years ago. The Nortnds were no longer so poor.
The Nortnds were no longer the same poornd on the border of the world. The addition of the Nortnds elven kingdoms meant adding a fertile ins and forest environment to the Nortnds territory. Taming the Nortnds beastmen meant that the Nortnds had a powerful tundra andbat potential. The alliance with the Underground meant that it would be impossible to cut the Nortnds off from the outside world. The northwards movement of the undead Xiluo Empire gave the Nortnds the foundational power of a mega empire.
The Xiluo Empire, Underground, and People of the Mist were now the iron triangle of the Nortnds Mist Alliance. This iron triangle wasn’t limited to only military and political dimensions.
Large amounts of gray dwarves and goblin engineers had moved into the Nortnds. The magical metals and ordinary mining resources in the Nortnds had been greatly developed. The addition of the Xiluo Empire had also greatly improved the Nortnds’ enchanting and industrial capabilities. Additionally, since the Nortnds was the origin of the new field of magical engineering, the arms sales here would be more than anywhere else in the world.
Just the fact that the Hell Gods’ churches had been brought here meant that the Hell Gods were blessing and watching over thisnd, and in this world of Eich, that represented Divine Concepts as well as the production of high-level job ss members working for these churches, bringing more high-levelbat strength, which would in turn improve everyone’s morale.
The isted Nortnds human kingdoms were nothing more than people living on the border. The isted Underground Faction was nothing more than a local ruler acting powerful in their own domain. The isted Nortnds elves were cowards whocked courage and the desire to progress. The isted Nortnds beastmen were only a group of injured beasts who had their ambition and teeth broken. The isted undead here were considered the mortal enemies of the world. But when we all allied together and made up for each others’ shorings, a self-sustaining mega-powerful faction had begun to mature and show itself.
Some things were quite obvious. Perhaps the Mist Alliance had indeed developed far too well over the past years. Since the other human kingdoms of the world were beginning to pay their respects to the Nortnds, the Mist Alliance’s citizens and higher-ups were beginning to be overconfident.
But once a full-out war broke out, and all the mega empires of the continent sunk into bitter battle, the entire Nortnds Mist Alliance would act as an irond alliance, and things here would surely develop as in my blueprint...
“The entire Nortnds shall be isted from the world, bing a tremendous fortress of ice and snow. The unending ice and snow here shall be natural walls against any invasion. The powerful industry and magical technology here will bebat potential for war. The courageous Nortnders will be the best warriors in all of Eich. The g of the Mist shall represent this ‘Land of Protection’, bing the worst nightmare of the Chaos Faction.”
There were still many extra factors that I could take advantage of here in the Nortnds, which remained unknown to outsiders. These factors could all improve our odds in a defensive battle here, as well as be used to deal with any Gods who dared to invade us.
Of course, thisnd still had many weaknesses. The most obvious one was theck of food.
The humans here weren’t even able to nt enough food for themselves. The Nortnds beastmen were unable to hunt enough food to keep themselves fed. The elves had some food store, but it would likely soon be insufficient. High-quality food had always been a criticalbat resource in the Underground, and the most valuable product of all were all sorts of mushrooms that didn’t require sunlight to grow. As for the undead... okay, let’s forget about them as they didn’t need to eat. Even though I had been spreading Amelia’s new cold-resistant crops in the Nortnds, thend was still far too poor to produce enough food to sustain a big faction. It would definitely take far longer to reach that level... even to the point where I really wanted to kidnap some druids and wood elves from the Nature Faction.
I did mention to Amelia before how I would like for her to have some wood spirits immigrate to the Nortnds. However, she unhesitatingly rejected, saying that thisnd was far too cold and poor in quality. Magic forests and magic nts would hate this type ofnd more than anything. Most magic nts would directly enter hibernation in such an environment where it was difficult for their seeds to even sprout. Amelia would have agreed only if this was a warm and fertilend.
The Nortnds elven kingdom’s territory indeed fitted her requirements, and I had subordinates investigate that ce for me. However, the problem was that the elves had maintained a permanent spring-like climate there through the use of magic which had even stemmed from the Elven Gods. And now, the Elven Gods were all dead. The natural bnce of nature there hadpletely copsed. It would be impossible for thatnd to be eptable for a magic forest like the Forest of Dreams.
Alright, since it would be impossible to make the Nortnds hospitable to the wood spirits for the time being, all I could do for now was to have the Nortnds purchase as much food as possible while there was still food avable to purchase on the international market.
Another problem was the issue of poption.
The Nortnds was quiterge. However, the terrible natural environment here made it so that the great majority of ordinary citizens would choose to live in rtively safe and warm mid-sized orrge cities. Thus, the Nortnds was a typical example of a country withrge territory but sparse poption. Inparison, the human mega empires of Eich would have viges and cities all over their territory, with a tremendous amount of poption. The Nortnds was far morecking in poption as a resource.
Yet, this problem was actually easy to take care of. Perhaps I should even say that it wasn’t even necessary to deal with this problem. As long as the Holy War kept continuing without end,rge numbers of refugees would naturally go to the safest location around. There was plenty of evidence to support this inference of mine. The Mist Alliance’s poption was rapidly increasing every year due to refugees. Although the Nortnds was a bit colder and poorer than human mega empires, that wouldn’t be a problem at allpared to the dangers of war.
Another weakness the Nortnds had was a weak industrial foundation. In this magical world of Eich, there were two types of industry: the magical such as enchanting and alchemy, and the traditional such as smithing and engineering.
Magical industry needed time and experience to umte. Skilled smiths would require resources and skilled teachers. Even the tools required in engineering would requirerge amounts of machines and resources to produce.
The Mist Alliance ced great importance on improving industry. However, this was something that could only be improved with time and resources. Some techniques and magic couldn’t even be purchased with money. I could only hope that so many elves joining us would improve this area... I should also mention that among the elves joining us were also many subordinate forest dwarves as well asrge numbers of elven smiths. I was hopeful that gaining the entire elf species as part of the Nortnds Elven Empire would bring us the elves’ long and venerated history of experience and umted knowledge, which would likely foundationally strengthen and change industry in the Nortnds.
The Mist Alliance had expanded far too rapidly, bringing along many internal weaknesses. The most critical weaknesses wereck of poption, insufficient food production making self-sustenance impossible, and weak industry. However, all of these could be taken care of.
Of course, even though my strategy was to defend the Nortnds at the border of the world, this didn’t mean that I wouldpletely give up on the entire continent. Any isted fortress would always be eventually conquered. You could only rest assured as long as potential reinforcements existed outside. While the Mist Alliance had its internal iron triangle, I had also helped to establish an international iron triangle alliance with two other countries.
The Mist Alliance, And, and Bardi. There was no need for me to introduce any of these three countries. All three had incredibly solid foundations, and most importantly of all, they had no sh of benefits, along with many mutual benefits to be had. All three of us would soon face war, but were all mega empires with the mobility to send reinforcements to allies in the time of need. The alliance contracts between us were more than enough to fill an entire room. This definitely wouldn’t be wasted paper.
It might even have been a good thing for the And Empire to have experienced such a long war against the Sea Tribe.
Since they had entered a period of war far before other countries, all of their industries were now fully ready for war. The long battle against the Sea Tribe had helped to greatly develop And’s shipbuilding capabilities as well. And was already at the peak of the world in shipbuilding before fighting the Sea Tribe, so now that they concentrated even more on it, their achievements in this field were astonishing.
It was said that they were now capable of building 30rge warships and hundreds of medium-sized warships within a period of just two years. Additionally, as floating airship technology became even better, it was only natural that these water-based warships would be upgraded into aerial warships. This had happened far earlier than in the game’s history. And now possessed the strongest and most numerous airship fleet in the entire world.
It was to be expected that as long as war didn’t end, And’s airship fleet would only be more ridiculous in scale. Considering how And was previously almost at a true mega empire’s level with several generations of wealth and national strength, they had imperceptibly be a true mega empire at this time.
And’s floating airships had also be the main carriers of food, mineral resources, weapons, and equipment being shipped between our three countries. These highly mobile aerial forces would also be the most reliable reinforcements of all.
The far more ancient Bardi Empire was hardly inferior. Ever since dragon descendant Archduke Halent became the dragon knight Bardi Emperor, the dragons’ rtionship with the Bardi Empire improved even more.
This was a coincidence of the times, as well as a wise decision made by Halent’s predecessor, Orloss.
The dragons on the surface made their choice when confronted with the imminent Holy War. They knew that they needed to ally with mortal ne factions in order to team up and survive the uing difficult war together. The Bardi Empire was naturally their best choice as so many dragons were already in Bardi.
Currently, the Bardi Empire had the full support of all dragons. It was nowmon to see dragons in the sky anywhere in Bardi. Halent even became the representative of all dragons. As Orloss was still reviled in Bardi as the most foolish emperor in their entire history, the people of Bardi found it inconceivable how he had managed to pick the best sessor possible, one who had been just as inconceivably sessful.
Thus, Bardi now had the strongest aerialbat strength in the world with their newly organized dragon knight squadrons.
Not only that, I heard from my own information sources that the Southern Sect even managed to obtain angelbat squadrons... So with angels and dragonsbined, Bardi had the strongest aerial mobility of all in our iron triangle alliance.
Of course, the Mist Alliance also had their own aerial forces, but due to the pitiful industrial foundations, the new Borealis squadron was still insufficient in numberspared to what Bardi could field. The young ck dragons and red dragons from the Underground also couldn’tpare to the much older dragons in the Bardi Empire. However, the Aurora Knights and their Frigid Nightmare steeds were still the strongest human aerial knights in existence. As the Ice Elemental ne constantly strengthened, the Aurora Knights were also rapidly expanding in number.
However, the awkward part about the Aurora Knights was that they would only be at their strongest in environments of ice and snow. But of course, this would make them excellent at fighting defensive battles.
Meanwhile, the Mist Alliance’s strongest mobile fighting power wasn’t a regr force at all. Perhaps I myself, currently calcting everything in the infirmary after casting a forbidden spell, also counted as one of the strongest forces in our iron triangle alliance.
All three of these countries had powerful aerial forces. We would all be considered at the peak of all human countries for aerial forces. This was also the foundational reason why we could have an equal three-way alliance. Any “alliance” between a weak country and a much stronger country would be no different from thettermanding the former on everything to do. Only when all three sides in this three-way alliance were sufficiently strong on their own, along with having enough mobile aerial forces to support each other, would it bring about a truly equal and reliable alliance.
The Mist Alliance had an internal iron triangle. Of course, now that the Nortnds Elven Empire had been established, I suppose it could now be called an iron square. I had also helped to establish an iron triangle diplomatic alliance with two other countries for mutual support and military reinforcements, which would help to protect the Nortnds even into thete stages of the Holy War. I had done everything that I could. If the Nortnds still couldn’t survive the uing cmity, then I would have nothing to say.
Some things were quite obvious for all to see, while other matters were kept secret. However, Reyne’s marriage with Halent’s younger sister had been one of the most critical portions of my n.
In this feudal generation world, where the ruler of a country reigned supreme, the best representation of an irond alliance would be marriage between royalty.
Emperor Halent had his blood-rted younger sister get married to another woman, which meant that she would lose royal status in Bardi and be unable to seed the throne. The Bardi Empire had actually done such a ridiculous and humiliating thing.
This was the best evidence of Emperor Halent’s determination and sincerity towards our alliance. If it wasn’t for the fact that the And Emperor had killed off every single other member of the royalty, and that he was so in love with his wife that he adamantly refused to take any concubines, it would have also been a definite that And would have arranged a political marriage with us.
Right now, I was smiling quite happily on the surface as I watched Reyne happily chatting with her concubine Avi. Yet, I was actually scheming inside.
‘...Reyne getting married to other women like this means that they can’t actually have any descendants, yet the other party’s still happy with this. Reyne’s truly such a prince on a white horse... so I should help arrange several more political marriages for her! I feel that this is a win-win situation for everyone! Yep, for the sake of the People of the Mist and the Mist Alliance, let’s help her start a hundred-member yuri harem!”