Lord of the Truth

Chapter 2420 public opinion

"...The Four Great Powers, the pillars of the universe as people have always called them, have begun actively recruiting Behemoths to their sides." Theo spoke calmly, his tone making it clear that this wasn't merely some distant rumor but an important development that had already begun affecting their own plans.

"...?" Renara immediately turned toward him with obvious surprise, clearly finding the timing of such a move stranger than the move itself. "They only thought of doing something like that now?"

The Four Great Powers were unimaginably ancient entities whose existence and authority stretched back through countless ages, and their influence had long since reached even the farthest corners of the universe, continuously exerting itself every single day and every passing minute, yet despite all those endless years of dominance and the enormous reach of their authority, something like this had never happened before.

"There was simply never any need for them to do it before." Theo explained without showing any surprise at Renara's reaction. "There have always been struggles for authority among those four entities, with each one constantly trying to take another step ahead of the others and become slightly more important, more influential, or more indispensable than its competitors, but those struggles and political entanglements were always the absolute limit of the conflicts between them. Never once throughout all that time has an actual war broken out between any of the four."

Then Theo continued explaining the balance that had allowed such a situation to persist for so long. "And there was never any real need for a war either, because each one of them monopolizes something that the others simply don't touch... The Tyrant monopolizes applications of the Space Path, the Dreamer monopolizes the Soul Society and all major soul technologies, the Syndicate monopolizes underground businesses and natural resources of every kind, while the Council of Thrones monopolizes the role of policeman, something it has always excelled at... Because of those separate monopolies, each of the four possesses roughly equal influence over all the Behemoths throughout the universe. They can summon those Behemoths when necessary or even issue orders to them, so there was never any reason to apply additional pressure and force them to become actual subordinates."

"...You could say that, from their perspective, the entire universe was like a single enormous cake that had already been divided into four large pieces, and each one of those powers was comfortably eating from a piece equal to one quarter of that cake. Every one of them had their own share, and every one of them was satisfied with the arrangement." Theo paused briefly before finishing his comparison. "Until my father appeared and decided that the division wasn't fair."

"..." Renara's brows slowly sank as she began considering the implications behind Theo's explanation.

"My father is imposing an entirely new reality upon them now." Theo continued speaking while folding his arms across his chest. "We're currently subjugating Sector 90 to the east and Sector 117 to the west, and between those two directions there are already five Behemoths who have openly declared their allegiance to him. Something like this has simply never happened before." Then a faint smile appeared on his face. "Practically overnight, we gained five ancient Behemoths along with their sons, which means we now have at least around 200 Dominators prepared to fight in Lord Robin's name whenever necessary... And that's without even considering any of the other forces we already possess, without considering you or Lord Hedrick either."

Then Theo tilted his head slightly as he continued looking across the hall. "From their perspective, what we're doing can only be described as military mobilization, because we're not merely expanding the territory and regions under our influence, we're simultaneously increasing our actual military strength at a speed they consider both astonishing and abnormal, and that kind of growth is undoubtedly frightening for powers that have never witnessed expansion this rapid before. I'm certain that if any of them were completely confident they could defeat us, they would've already launched an attack against us by now."

"...We believe that this growing sense of danger is precisely what drove those powers to begin doing the same thing themselves... They haven't actually deployed their armies beyond the boundaries of the territories under their control yet, but they've already begun summoning Behemoths from both nearby and distant regions and asking those Behemoths to submit to them..." Theo then shifted his gaze forward as he added, "Or, at the very least, they're demanding complete neutrality from them in exchange for promising to help them if they're ever invaded."

"They're willing to help those Behemoths in exchange for nothing more than their neutrality?" Renara asked, clearly focusing on that particular part of Theo's explanation.

"That's right." Theo nodded in confirmation. "And that has already ruined every initiative we've made to establish contact with the Relativity Behemoth. Glatheon has been thrown out by him more than once while trying... Mid Sector 88 has now become a major obstacle standing in our path, an obstacle that must eventually be broken through. The coming days will witness a major explosion there, and before that happens, in Mid Sector 89."

"Are you saying that one of the Four Great Powers will actually help the Relativity Behemoth against us?" Renara's eyes gleamed brightly as she looked toward Theo.

"Mm." Theo nodded calmly before continuing with the information they had already confirmed. "We've verified the presence of followers belonging to the Tyrant Antares, the Lord of Thrones Qarun, and the Syndicate there in Mid Sector 89, and they're already actively working on engineering and preparing the battlefield for the coming war. We've even detected the presence of at least seven other Behemoths in the same region... We've never witnessed anything remotely like this before. Never before have the Great Powers gathered together on such a scale against a single common enemy, and even during the days of the Space Beast invasion and the Great Calamity, this particular kind of cooperation between them simply didn't exist."

"...?" Renara's eyes opened as wide as they possibly could as the true scale of what Theo was describing finally became clear to her.

Then Theo calmly waved his hand, slightly tempering the severity of what he had just revealed. "The good thing is that they haven't actually moved their own armies yet, but judging from the sheer scale of the support we're already seeing, if they ultimately prove unable to launch a comprehensive counterattack against us using the Relativity Galaxy and its enormous army, then they'll most likely turn that galaxy into an obstacle that we'll be forced to avoid and maneuver around rather than pass through directly, just as we're currently doing with Mid Sector 110 and the Destruction Galaxy."

Then Theo turned his attention directly toward Renara as his tone became slightly more serious. "But doing that would inevitably leave far too many gaps within the territories already under our control and introduce far too many additional variables into everything we're trying to accomplish... Something like that simply must not be allowed to happen."

"..." Renara slowly nodded as she understood what he meant, though her expression soon shifted away from concern. "I was already getting exhausted from sheer boredom while refining the galaxy anyway, so where exactly am I going now that I'm finally finished? Do we start with the Destruction Galaxy?"

"Don't concern yourself with that side. Lord Hedrick will take care of it... For now, what you need to do is leave a good impression on everyone attending this ceremony." Theo gestured downward toward the enormous gathering beneath them. "These very people sitting here are the same ones the Four Pillars are currently trying to draw toward their side while simultaneously doing everything possible to smear our image and turn them against us. We took the coronations of both you and Lord Hedrick as an opportunity to hold these celebrations for a reason..."

Theo paused for a short while before continuing to explain exactly what they were trying to achieve through all of this. "We need to spread the idea that we aren't demons like the Four Great Powers are trying to portray us as, that we're people who are willing to listen to reason and are perfectly prepared to reach agreements that are beneficial to everyone involved... Otherwise, if we simply remain silent while they continue shaping everyone's perception of us however they please, we'll eventually find ourselves standing completely alone against the entire universe."

Then Theo's brows furrowed slightly as he brought up the most troublesome example. "Lord of Thrones Qarun's campaign against us over supposedly supporting, funding, and strengthening the Crimson Plague is already more than enough to deal with. That issue alone is a disaster, and he's even begun portraying anyone who chooses to resist us as some kind of hero of humanity in one way or another. Unfortunately, the Cosmic Elder's absence and inability to personally deny those accusations only makes the entire situation appear even more suspicious... We've started to look like people who were entrusted with something important and then immediately began abusing that trust for their own purposes."

"All of this happened merely because we started expanding our territory? Three Great Powers, along with at least seven Behemoths, are actually helping someone stand against us because of that? Does something like this really make sense to you, Your Highness Theo?" Renara asked with profound disbelief, clearly finding the sheer magnitude of their reaction difficult to reconcile with the explanation she had just heard.

"...." Theo lowered his gaze for a moment before answering. "I spoke with my father about this matter before. He said that he believes—believes—that those people are being supported by external entities like the Seer with the deliberate purpose of weakening the universe." Then Theo continued after emphasizing the uncertainty of that conclusion, "But I don't want to rely on theories and possibilities that I'm not personally certain about, so for now, let's continue operating under the simpler theory that all those people are merely frightened by the extraordinary speed of our expansion."

"..." Renara remained where she was and continued staring silently at Theo for several minutes, apparently considering everything he had just told her, before eventually turning her gaze back toward the ceremony below and looking once again at the thousands of cautious, hypocritical eyes that had been quietly watching and evaluating everything around them from the moment they arrived.

Then Renara finally stood from her throne with a pleasant smile on her face and descended toward the gathered guests below, approaching them with an entirely different attitude from the one she had displayed only moments earlier. "Welcome, everyone, to my humble palace. Welcome."