Spreading Snake Shadows

Lionel followed the courtiers to the king's office.

"Your Majesty," Lionel bowed.

"You've arrived, Lord Lionel." The King stood with his hands behind his back in front of the floor-to-ceiling window in his office, his back to Lionel. "Alright, everyone else may leave."

Lionel glanced at the court staff who were taking their leave, and after the office door closed, only he and the king remained in the room.

"Before you came here, you should have known that I intended to transfer you from the Fire Moth to serve as the person in charge of the Honkai 3rd operations on the Mu Continent, right?" the king said slowly.

"My father did mention this to me," Lionel said. "But Your Majesty, in my opinion, it is completely unnecessary. Fighting the Honkai should not allow the Fire Moth Council to become a one-man show. That is why I was able to play a check and balance role in the Fire Moth."

"I believe in your loyalty to the Mu Continent, Lord Lionel." The king's voice became somewhat low and serious. "But how can you, alone in the Fire Moth, possibly fight against the shadow that is spreading ever more within the Fire Moth? Are you not truly being misled by others in what you see and judge?"

"I did notice the shadow gradually spreading within the Fire Moth, um..."

"Are you saying you have Lord Beifengge assisting you?" The king turned around.

"That's right..."

"Have you ever considered what if even Lord Beifengge has betrayed us?" the king said with a grim face.

Lionel's pupils contracted. Although that guy was always fickle, in this matter, there was absolutely no possibility of Beifengge betraying him. He almost subconsciously connected this matter with the slanderous accusations made by those around the king who wanted to sabotage him. "This is impossible, Your Majesty..."

"Impossible... no, quite possible." The king turned his gaze back to the sky outside the French windows. "Long ago, long before Mobius obtained his seat in the council, Lord Beifengge may have already betrayed me, betrayed the Mu Continent!"

"Your Majesty, I believe in Lord Beifengge ..." Lionel wanted to say he believed in Beifengge's character, but he swallowed it back; frankly, that guy's character wasn't much to look at. "There must be some misunderstanding! After Lord Beifengge was transferred to the Fire Moth, he has been meticulous in assisting with daily affairs, and the relevant documents are also on file on the Mu Continent. A review of them will show that there is absolutely no favoritism involved. In the case of the Eighth Law, Lord Beifengge even chose to lead by example in performing the Fusion Warrior surgery, and he also made considerable contributions in the process of defeating the Eighth Law. All of this..."

"Enough, Lord Lionel," the King interrupted Lionel's defense of Beifengge. "Indeed, I know all that you've said, and I also believe in your character. But do you really think Beifengge is what you think he is?"

"I..."

"Their methods are indeed extremely secretive. From beginning to end, they have only one goal: to completely unify the voices of the Fire Moth," the King said calmly. "The Fire Moth were founded to fight against the Honkai. But once only one voice remains within the Fire Moth, who can guarantee that the path they ultimately choose will be the one suitable for humanity?"

Lionel remained silent; this was the only point he couldn't figure out how to explain.

"Now that we've come up with that so-called 'shadow,' you must have heard about the recent assassination of Lord Abraham, right?" the king continued.

Lionel nodded. "Yes, indeed, this could very well be just a coincidental armed conflict..."

"Coincidence? Sometimes, coincidences are just something that happens so that someone will make you see it." The king lowered his eyes. "Take a look at this document on my desk. They... are gradually stopping hiding themselves. They know that we know they exist, so they will probably stand up in the near future and openly control the Fire Moth in front of us."

"Ouroboros..." Lionel murmured the keyword on the document. He knew what it meant, of course. In alchemy, it represented "immortality," "completeness," "infinity," "world," and "wisdom." In legend, it was a giant serpent that encircled the world, its head and tail intertwined.

Its other name, which may be more familiar to later generations, is Jormungand.

The giant serpent that encircles the world, the World Serpent Jormungandr.

According to this file, Lionel saw that long ago, the World Serpent had already been providing weapons and equipment to various local armed groups in Africa, and using this as a means of financial transactions.

This time period can even be traced back to the time of the Fourth Great Honkai.

"So, the World Serpent was already born before the Fourth Great Honkai?" Lionel frowned. The Fire Moth was established after the First Great Honkai, while the World Serpent was born as the shadow of the Fire Moth before the Fourth Great Honkai... As for the infinity and immortality represented by the term "Ouroboros," and the life cycle contained behind it, Lionel's first thought was Mobius.

Furthermore, Mobius's symbol is indeed the snake. In addition, Mobius was not without motives in establishing the World Serpent. Mobius was also involved in the establishment of the Fire Moth and can be said to be a veteran of the Fire Moth. However, not long after that, she was ostracized and exiled from the center of power.

Meanwhile, regarding the famous incidents related to Mobius before the Fourth Law, the only thing Lionel could think of was the assassination attempt she suffered. The assassin who killed her Xila, is now a member of Feng's team as one of the original Fusion Warrior and is under Feng's command.

After the assassination attempt, Mobius unusually did not seek revenge, but instead launched a minor attack and then let it go.

Anyone familiar with the shadow lurking within the Fire Moth knows that Mobius is undoubtedly a high-ranking figure in that shadowy organization. However, by the time they became aware of the shadow's existence, it was too late to eradicate it.

They didn't know the extent to which the shadow had spread, how much the Fire Moth had been Corrosion... and, given the formidable enemy of Honkai, the Fire Moth's achievements were indeed remarkable, making it even more difficult for them to act rashly. Even if the Honkai research institutions on the Mu Continent were theoretically on par with, or even superior to, the Fire Moth, yet...

Who can say for sure?

In terms of experience in fighting the Honkai, which organization can compare to the Fire Moth?

If we were to eradicate that shadow at all costs, starting with Mobius, who knows how much impact it would have on the Fire Moth? And after that, facing an increasingly severe situation of fighting against the Honkai, the Fire Moth, as the main force, would be severely weakened. Who can guarantee that humanity will be able to survive the next Law?

"But... why did they choose to attack backward Africa?" Lionel muttered to himself in confusion. "No matter what, North America or Europe would have been more suitable as the initial targets... Wait, could it be that they used Africa as a testing ground for weapons?"

The chaotic situation in Africa made it difficult for the United Nations to intervene, and the Honkai nature of the local armed groups made the Honkai Beasts clearing operation of the Fire Moth extremely difficult. Therefore, Fire Moth and the local armed groups finally reached an agreement: the local armed groups would clear the Honkai Beast themselves, and Fire Moth would provide weapons and funds. In return, the local armed groups had to make a high level of protection for the local people, otherwise Fire Moth them out at all costs.

The African tribe of the Fire Moth was only a nominal tribe; in reality, all its management was handled by the local armed forces themselves.

From this perspective, World Serpent's plans in Africa might be for conducting weapon experiments against the Honkai... So, does that mean that Vill-V, who was in charge of most of the creation of the Divine Key and was the head of the Weapons Department of the Fire Moth, was also part of World Serpent?

His Majesty the King said that Beifengge's betrayal was...

"It seems you've thought of that too, Lord Lionel." The King's tone turned somewhat cold. "It was Beifengge first supported Mobius's election as a councilor, and at that time, none of us were aware of the existence of the World Serpent organization, and even after we became aware of it, we didn't pay any attention to it, simply considering it a faction within the Fire Moth. If we think of it that way, then all of Beifengge's activities since then are quite intriguing."

She supported Mobius's rise to power, vigorously promoted the Fusion Warrior Project in the court of the Mu Continent, and even went so far as to infiltrate the Fire Moth as a "spy" to "monitor" the progress of the Fusion Warrior Project.

Until now...

"If I were to call a halt to the Fusion Warrior Project now, what is the probability that this program would be completely stopped within the Fire Moth?" the king asked.

Lionel remained silent. Mobius had secretly carried out the Fusion Warrior Project and created Xila long ago. If the World Serpent's spread was large enough, it could indeed be concealed...

Currently, the known high-ranking members of the World Serpent are Mobius and Admil. In Europe, apart from the disagreement between Spasi, the director of the Fifth Research Institute, and Admil, it is basically Admil's one-man show.

As the head of the weapons department of the Fire Moth, Vill-V is highly likely to be a high-ranking member of the World Serpent, and her younger sister, Rovoc, who is a capable assistant to both Mobius and Vill-V, is also a suspect.

Or rather, given Rovoc's personality, if Mobius had known about the World Serpent's existence, it would have been strange if she hadn't.

Furthermore, the stance of Maple, currently the strongest fighter among the Fire Moth, is highly questionable. He may even be one of the elders or creators of the World Serpent.

He was the first collaborator Mobius actively sought out, the protector of Mobius during the assassination attempt, the first person to voluntarily undergo the Fusion Warrior surgery, Mobius has a record of killing the Third, Fourth, and Seventh Herrscher...

In this way, the World Serpent already possesses military power, armaments, and technology.

Given the current situation, even if the Mu Continent discovers the World Serpent, so what? What price would it have to pay to wage a full-scale war against the World Serpent? And then let humanity cripple itself before being Honkai the Honkai?

Even if Kevin's stance is different from Mobius's, Maple still has at least half of the Fusion Warrior under his command. Add to that Maple's reputation among the Fire Moth Warriors, and Mebius's ambiguous attitude...

Among the three factions of the Fire Moth, Mobius's side undoubtedly belongs to the World Serpent. Although Mebius and Mobius have different stances, they can usually maintain consistency. Only Lionel's faction truly belongs to the Mu Continent... But even on Lionel's own side, there is a highly suspicious person named Beifengge, who is also the second-in-command.

In conclusion, Mu Continent really has no way to deal with World Serpent. The King is not stupid, and he knows that fighting the Honkai is the top priority. There is no reason to cause internal strife among humanity.

What truly unsettled and angered him was Beifengge's possible betrayal, Mobius's deception, and... the World Serpent's purge of the councilors who had already been expelled from the center of power.

Most importantly, the information sent back by the Mu Continent at the Third Research Institute before his death revealed that the birth of the Eighth Herrscher was related to an experiment conducted by Admil!

However, this information was intercepted before it was received by the Mu Continent. Although the Mu Continent took immediate measures, most of the information was destroyed by World Serpent. The only information recovered was that Admil speculated that the Eighth Herrscher was related to one of his experiments.

This also explains why Admil's side was able to quickly propose and implement countermeasures when the Eighth Herrscher incident occurred...

This incident was truly disastrous, causing the king's trust in the Fire Moth to plummet.

Although the Eighth Herrscher incident was eventually resolved, what if these guys create another Herrscher next time? Will they be able to handle it then?

Therefore, upon receiving this intelligence, the king immediately summoned Lionel back from the Fire Moth.

Fire Moth are unreliable, then Mu Continent will have to do it himself.

As for Lionel, as a young member of the Mu Continent military family, Lionel was someone the king had watched grow up. The king knew his personality very well. When giving Lionel this information, the king was also observing Lionel to confirm that Lionel truly knew nothing.

Lionel silently read through the compiled investigation report. Apart from some information about the World Serpent's actions, no concrete evidence of the existence of other World Serpent leaders was found; all the evidence remained at the level of "suspicion" or "high probability."

There is no evidence, yet the suspicion is quite reasonable... Even Admil's item only states that Admil speculated on a connection, and nothing else.

The document also points out that World Serpent Networks is very likely collaborating with the world's top hacker, Shadoll. In addition, there are many other hackers associated with World Serpent, who are jointly responsible for World Serpent's cyber intelligence and security.

This makes it even more difficult to trace the World Serpent's presence through the internet, and it's highly likely that the World Serpent has its own independent network.

Only...

If Beifengge is also a high-ranking member or cadre of the World Serpent, then wouldn't there be other World Serpent members on the Mu Continent?

Lionel quickly figured it out. The king was also aware of this, but there was nothing he could do but recall him to ensure that the Honkai research institutes and defense forces on the Mu Continent would not be Corrosion holes by the World Serpent.

No wonder Mu Continent's support for the Fire Moth has gradually weakened and begun to turn into a pact... But won't this further escalate the conflict between the World Serpent Mu Continent? And...

Lionel thought of Beifengge, as well as Maple, Mobius, Vill-V, and others, and finally, Rovoc ...

He made up his mind.