Cleaver Of Sin

Chapter 657: Vandross Empire Move

But people tend to forget something, or rather, because of the information they had and their instinctive need to blame the nearest and most convenient figure, who happened to be Emperor Zolthemir Lux Vanthelmor, people overlooked the possibility that, perhaps, just perhaps, the Emperor was not the true culprit behind such a widespread and large-scale Mind Manipulation.

After all, there was no conceivable way that in an entire Empire consisting of around twenty billion people, with over seventy percent of its population being awakened individuals, only the Emperor possessed a Mind Manipulation ability. Surely, there had to be others who possessed similar abilities, perhaps not identical in name, but certainly identical or at least similar in function and effect.

After all, the Emperor had not even met some of the individuals who were being mentally manipulated, such as certain maids and butlers who worked within various noble households. How, why, and under what circumstances would they ever come into contact with the Emperor? They were, in essence, commoners who might have only seen the Emperor from afar, if they had even seen him at all in their entire lives. Most of them remained confined within the territories of the noble houses they served, rarely, if ever, leaving those boundaries.

But people did not care about such logic, nor did they bother to consider these inconsistencies. Nobody knew exactly how the Emperor’s Mind Manipulation ability functioned. What if he did not need to be physically present? What if he could manipulate Person A, then Person A would go on to influence Person B, and Person B would influence Person C, and so on, creating an ever-expanding chain reaction, much like the spread of a zombie virus during an apocalyptic outbreak?

Of course, they had no tangible way of proving such a theory, but who truly cared about proof in such a tense and chaotic time? In the minds of the people, it had already become an established fact that the Emperor was guilty of this allegation.

Now, they could understand why the Wargraves had stormed the Capital City. If they were in the position of the Wargraves and possessed similar levels of monsterous power, certainly, they would not have taken such a violation lightly either. After all, no one desired to be manipulated, especially not on a mental level where control over one’s own thoughts and actions could be stripped away.

But despite having uncovered instances of mind manipulation within their own households, none of them dared to storm the Imperial Palace. As stated earlier, they were not Wargraves, and besides, the patience of the Imperial family was undoubtedly thin at this point. If they dared to confront the Imperial family directly, who could say whether they would not be used as scapegoats to vent the frustration and anger that could not be unleashed upon the Wargraves? Thus... it was far safer to endure this injustice in silence, forced to swallow their grievances due to their lack of sufficient strength.

They could not help but click their tongues in frustration as a collective thought echoed within their minds; "if only the Wargraves could be hired."

The worst aspect of this Mind Manipulation was that most of those affected appeared to function as sleeper agents, in the sense that they were entirely unaware that they were being mentally manipulated. To be more precise, it resembled something akin to a split personality disorder.

When the Mind Manipulation within them was activated, they would become completely loyal to whatever cause had been embedded within them, carrying out their assigned duties with utmost efficiency and precision, as being mentally manipulated did not reduce them to mindless or incompetent puppets. And the moment the manipulation was deactivated, they would return to their normal lives, forgetting, or rather, remaining completely oblivious to, everything they had done while under its influence.

This only made the Mind Manipulation even more terrifying. Of course, not every individual who had been mentally manipulated fell into this specific category, but the existence of even a portion who did was enough to instill deep fear.

But once again, people simply classified this as yet another extension or variation of the Emperor’s Mind Manipulation ability.

But was the Emperor truly the only one who possessed such an ability, one that seemed to span across multiple noble households with such frightening efficiency? Surely, there had to be something more... someone else... perhaps even an organization operating behind the scenes, one that was now taking advantage of the Emperor’s current situation as a convenient cover to remain hidden from scrutiny.

Some might know them by certain whispered names... "The Maddened," "The Consumed," or "The Corrupted."

But even if they were indeed operating in the shadows, using the chaos as a shield to conceal their actions, they understood that it was only a matter of time before others began to realize that the Emperor’s Mind Manipulation was fundamentally different in nature. After all, people were not fools, and deception could only persist for so long before cracks began to appear.

For now, they could mislead the nobles, largely because of the nobles’ heightened security measures and because they already had a prime suspect, a convenient target placed upon the chopping board.

But ultimately, it did not matter. By the time these nobles ceased their constant analysis and began thinking as the intelligent and calculating individuals they were, perhaps a few days from now, "they" would have already erased every trace of their existence with flawless precision, leaving even the greatest powerhouses grasping at nothing but empty air.

But then, just as it seemed that the situation could not possibly grow worse, just as it seemed that the chaos had reached its peak, another piece of news arrived upon the tables of various nobles and upper echelons within the Zarethorn Empire.

Three Viscount and five Baron noble houses had been attacked and were on the verge of complete annihilation.

The Vandross Empire, rulers of the east, had made their move as though they had been lying in wait all along. They had struck at the precise moment Azaron had stepped onto the battlefield.

They had launched a coordinated assault against these eight noble households, intending to wipe them out entirely in a single, devastating campaign. However, in the end, their plans failed, primarily because Emperor Cyrvexis Lux Vanthelmor had intervened, forcing Azaron and the other Dukes to withdraw and return to their respective territories. As a result, the forces of the Vandross Empire were left with no choice but to retreat.

Had they been granted more time, they might have achieved their objective, the total annihilation of all eight noble households. Although these nobles ranked lower within the noble hierarchy, it did not change the fact that they were still nobles, and their destruction would have carried significant consequences.

If the former Emperor had not intervened... well, the outcome was already obvious. But even with his interference, even with the Vandross Empire being forced into retreat, the reality remained unchanged, millions of lives had been lost within those eight noble territories.

Among those eight noble households was the Rivelle Barony, which had faced its own near-annihilation. These were people who had only recently concluded their annual Monster Tide Invasion, yet they were immediately thrust into another life-threatening crisis. Baron Rivelle had nearly lost his son during the course of this devastating conflict.

However, the Zarethorn Empire was not so easily abandoned, nor was it so easily infiltrated. The infiltration carried out by the Vandross Empire had likely taken months of careful planning and execution; thus, they could not simply pack up and leave the Empire at will, it was far from that simple.

And so, this time, the Emperor, Zolthemir Lux Vanthelmor, who had suffered defeat at the hands of Azaron, found the perfect scapegoats upon whom he could unleash his suppressed anger and frustration.

He personally pursued the invading forces of the Vandross Empire, unlike his former self who would have simply dispatched knights to handle such matters. Driven by the boiling emotions ignited by his father’s words, he devastated thousands of kilometers of land in his pursuit.

Through his personal intervention and the annihilation of these enemies, he provided the Capital City with something else to focus on, something that could, at the very least, help the Imperial family salvage a fragment of their dignity and restore a portion of their tarnished honor, no matter how insignificant that restoration might ultimately be.