Chaos' Heir

Chapter 1467: Mistaken

Whenever the Emperor spoke, people had to go silent. His voice was too loud to allow any other sound to exist alongside it.

Moreover, the Emperor was fearsome enough to silence eventual complaints through his mere presence. He commanded the strongest military force in the regulated universe for a reason, and his decisions could force the entire allied front to play along because of that.

The Emperor had even been correct. Defending against an enemy that could appear anywhere and whenever it wanted was impossible, especially when it had a target as big as the regulated universe at its disposal.

Yet, the opposite strategy wasn’t feasible. Even Khan didn’t know where the Scarlet Eyes were, and an attack wasn’t possible without a target.

"Emperor," Khan called, knowing he would have to be the one to interact with that fearsome being. "Does the Empire know where the Scarlet Eyes went?"

The question inevitably brought everyone’s attention to the Thilku Emperor. His Empire had suffered the most from the recent attack, but a silver lining would exist if that had exposed the True Chaos’ location.

However, the Emperor was quick to destroy those hopes. "No."

"How are we supposed to attack someone when we don’t know where it is?" Khan questioned, his desire to drink skyrocketing for some reason.

"We find the enemy first, Lord Blue Shaman," The Emperor said. "Then, we attack."

The Emperor had made it sound easy, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Even the white-azure spinning sphere harbored no knowledge about the True Chaos’ eventual headquarters. If the very mana had failed at that, how could weaker beings succeed?

"That’s easier said than done," Khan argued. "We don’t even know when the next attack might come. We should prioritize defending for the time being."

"How?" Pa-ankh asked. He agreed with Khan, but that approach sounded unfeasible, too, against such a problematic enemy.

"I can play the bait for a while," Khan instantly admitted. "The Scarlet Eyes should go after other instances of mana next, so we could create more appealing targets on purpose."

That second part would be easy enough to achieve through technology. Earth’s cities already were massive beacons of synthetic mana. Pushing that feature even further wouldn’t be a problem with so many tech-savvy species.

Of course, that improvised strategy was risky and unsubstantiated. Nothing said that the True Chaos would prioritize destroying those locations next. Even if it did, the allied front probably couldn’t defend them all, which would lead to a catastrophic loss of valuable assets.

Still, despite those flaws, Khan couldn’t find a better strategy. He didn’t have much to work with, so that was the best he could come up with in such a short time, which wasn’t enough for the Emperor.

"If the best this alliance can devise is a slow defeat," The Emperor announced, "This alliance will fail, and the Empire won’t agree with its terms."

The reason behind Khan’s increasing desire to drink became evident. He had forgotten how stubborn and unflinching the Thilku were. Reason wouldn’t work with them.

That would be fine in a vacuum, but Khan had an alliance to keep together. He couldn’t let the Thilku Empire enforce its will on the allied front nor push it out of that cooperation.

Most politicians would struggle to find the right compromise between the two, but that didn’t apply to Khan. Still, that wasn’t out of virtue of experience and mastery in the field. He simply was no politician.

"Should we just randomly send ships across the stars in the meantime?" Khan wondered, emptying one glass after another. "What happens if the Scarlet Eyes attack the vessels neither of us occupies?"

"The weak will die," The Emperor declared, "As they should. This war will cull the universe, allowing the strong to rise."

Khan truly wanted to argue against the Emperor, but part of him agreed with that mindset. After all, he had become a Thilku Lord for a reason. He was partially a Thilku in his mind.

Of course, Khan didn’t plan on sending ships across the universe in such a random fashion. If defending was out of the picture, he would steer the allied front toward finding where the Scarlet Eyes hung their capes.

However, to almost everyone’s surprise, Dean Ulluw lowered his drink, placing it on the sand to address the Emperor directly.

"Emperor, with all due respect," Dean Ulluw called. "If we did that, we would expose our domains to enemy attacks, leaving them defenseless."

In hindsight, it made sense for Dean and Pa-ankh to be the only ones voicing their opinions and questions. Unlike the other representatives, the Global Army and Fuveall had domains to defend, featuring responsibilities that couldn’t permit reckless battle strategies.

If anything, the Empire had to mind that issue more than Global Army and Fuveall combined. Its domain was far larger than both, and the recent attack had shown how vulnerable it was.

But the Emperor’s mindset was far beyond what Dean and Pa-ankh could consider.

"My Empire fought thousands of wars," The Emperor declared. "My Thilku know the value of consolidating my domain to achieve victory before retaking what was lost."

That strategy perfectly embodied the Thilku’s personality, but the representatives on the sand had a hard time refuting it. Stubborn or not, the Emperor did have the vastest and most profound experience in wars.

Besides, it was pointless to waste efforts trying to defend something that couldn’t be adequately protected.

The representatives seemed to accept that inevitability, leaving it to Khan to turn that reckless strategy into something more feasible. He had a few obvious ideas already, too, but they all featured a problem he couldn’t ignore.

"What do you think?" Khan asked, glancing to his right. "How long do we have before the next attack?"

Liiza was still mainly focused on Yeza, losing interest in the meeting as soon as the idea of letting Khan play the bait was put aside. Still, her husband needed her expertise now.

"The True Chaos isn’t inconsequential to the universe," Liiza expressed. "Its God must have paid a steep price to launch this attack. It should force him to recover."

Liiza sighed, moving to the bad part of her guess. "But, a God isn’t something we can comprehend. He might abide by different rules, if any. We are mistaken if we think we can devise any strategy against him."