Swift Action Is the Key to Victory

"You actually killed every last one of them..."

Looking at the corpse-strewn City Hall, the Elf Scout was at a loss for words. Her original plan had been for Duanmu Huai to draw the enemy's attention from the front while she took the opportunity to rescue the people through the Underground Sewers. Then they would find a way to coordinate with Duanmu Huai and help him withdraw. She had not expected this Black Knight to be so ruthless that he would simply slaughter every Ratman and Evil God Believer inside City Hall.

"If I could kill them all, why leave any alive?"

Duanmu Huai remained calm. The Ratmen were, on average, below level ten. To him, cutting them down was practically mowing grass in a hack-and-slash game. It felt great, of course, but the downside was that the Experience Points were pathetically low—after all, there was a ten-level gap between them, so each Ratman only gave Duanmu Huai 1 base Experience Point.

Well, at this rate, if he killed Ratmen for three hundred years, he might just reach LV99...

"Still, this is good. We managed to get some information."

At that, the Elf Scout lowered her voice.

"These Ratmen did not attack Silver City because they had nothing better to do. They came here to search for a certain Holy Relic. They intend to corrupt it and plunge this land into plague and decay."

"Oh... That isn't surprising."

Duanmu Huai was unperturbed by the Elf Scout's report. The followers of the four Chaos Gods behaved differently, but there were always patterns to follow.

The God of Tyranny's followers loved war, bloodshed, and death. That was how they pleased their god.

The God of Filth's followers spread plagues and viruses wherever they went, displaying their Father God's "benevolence."

The God of Deceit's followers enjoyed Schemes and Tricks, stabbing people in the back. Playing with conspiracies was their favorite pastime.

The God of Desire's followers were more focused on indulging in all manner of twisted, perverse desires and pleasures.

According to the Elf Scout, the Holy Relic they had set their sights on this time was called Water God's Gift. Its greatest function was purifying water sources—and for a human settlement, that alone was immensely valuable.

The Evil God Believers had attacked Silver City to obtain Water God's Gift, then use the God of Filth's power to transform it into a biological weapon capable of contaminating water supplies. By then, all they would need to do was toss that Holy Relic into the water, and every living thing along the river would get to experience the God of Filth's "fatherly love."

"A Holy Relic like that should be heavily guarded, right?"

"That's right."

The Elf Scout nodded.

"The Empire dispatched High-level Mages to cast layers upon layers of Protection around the Holy Relic. No one except members of the royal family can touch it. But no one knows whether the power of the filth fiends is strong enough to break through those defenses..."

"So what we need to do is retake the temple and protect the Holy Relic?"

"Yes. I have already sent someone to inform Lord Kado."

Duanmu Huai frowned at the Elf Scout's answer and pondered for a moment.

"I've been meaning to ask. What about reinforcements? Do we have any?"

"...Hard to say."

"What do you mean, hard to say? Silver City is Imperial territory, isn't it? Evil God Believers and barbarians invaded, the lord died in battle—shouldn't it be only natural to request aid from the Empire?"

"That is true, but humans have plenty of their own ugly problems."

There was clear dissatisfaction in the Elf Scout's voice. Duanmu Huai could guess that it was probably related to power struggles... but this was not the time to waste discussing such matters.

"Then let's move. We'll retake the temple and secure the Holy Relic as quickly as possible. As for those troublesome matters, we can discuss them afterward."

To Duanmu Huai, however, an empire's political infighting had nothing to do with him. His primary purpose on this planet was to find the Order Relic lost in this world and bring it back to the Core Cabin. As for everything else, he could handle it as he saw fit, but he would not get too deeply involved.

After all, Duanmu Huai's goal was the stars and the sea. A civilization stuck in the medieval era was not worth spending too much of his energy on.

"Just you?"

"And her."

Duanmu Huai pointed at Okegis behind him. During the earlier battle, Okegis had remained hidden at the side and had not acted. It was the same now. She was Duanmu Huai's final safeguard, one he would not use unless absolutely necessary.

"You really don't waste any time..."

Hearing Duanmu Huai's answer, the Elf Scout sighed. Then she made up her mind.

"I'll go with you too. At least I know this city well, and I can guide the two of you."

"Then I'll be counting on you."

In the Elf Scout's eyes, Duanmu Huai's actions were somewhat reckless and aggressive. But Duanmu Huai knew that what he was doing was merely self-preservation in the face of the coming crisis.

And to explain that, one had to begin with the history of Star Sea Online.

Once upon a time, long, long ago, humanity had built a great empire. It ruled the entire Milky Way Galaxy, drove out all alien barbarians, and allowed people to live beneath prosperity, peace, and glorious light. That era was known as the Golden Age.

But after that, events took a sharp turn for the worse.

The artificial intelligences that had served the Golden Age rebelled after being infected by a mysterious electronic virus, nearly destroying the entire Golden Age. Although the Machine Crisis eventually came to an end, humanity was left severely weakened. Worse still, a terrifying Warp Space Storm arose at that time, obstructing humanity's ability to travel and communicate through the cosmos.

This was a devastating blow to human society. For any civilization, transportation routes were indispensable. During the Golden Age, people used Warp Space passages to cross distances of countless light-years and reach other planets in the Milky Way Galaxy. They also used the power of Warp Space to remain in contact with those planets.

Simply put, it was like a network of railways connecting worlds, serving both travel and communication.

However, after the Warp Space Storm erupted, it was as if all those railway networks had been utterly destroyed. Humanity lost the ability to contact other planets and could no longer send warships through Warp Space to reach them. Their ships would become lost in the Warp Space Storm for unknown reasons and vanish without a trace. As a result, human civilization at the time was already on the verge of collapse, even standing at the edge of destruction.

At that moment, a mysterious figure stepped forward. He led humanity through its final crisis and guided them toward glory once more. He became known as humanity's leader—the Emperor.

After leading the human civilization of the Solar System to consolidate its power, the Emperor took advantage of the receding Warp Space Storm and led a fleet on a Great Expedition. Its purpose was to reclaim the planetary colonies across the Milky Way Galaxy that had lost contact with humanity's Homeworld during the Warp Space Storm.

The Great Expedition went fairly smoothly at first, and humanity successfully reclaimed most of its colonies. However... good times did not last. Just as the Great Expedition was nearing its end, another Warp Space Storm suddenly appeared. Once again, as if history were repeating itself, the expeditionary fleet was split apart. Within the Warp Space Storm, they could neither contact the Homeworld nor return to the Emperor's side.

Yet the Warp Space Storm was only the beginning. After that came a Great Rebellion—the Warmaster, who had been leading the expeditionary forces in place of the Emperor, launched a rebellion.

Just like the Machine Crisis of the Golden Age, humanity suffered betrayal once again. Although the Horus Heresy was ultimately suppressed, the Human Empire was severely weakened, and the Emperor vanished without a trace.

After that, the Human Empire endured repeated divisions, battles, and chaos, along with attacks from alien races. Humanity won again and again, only to fail again and again. Then, after an unknown number of tens of thousands of years had passed, someone finally proposed an unbelievable plan.

The Black Hole Project.

In the eyes of those people, every threat facing the Human Empire had been caused by the evil gods of Warp Space.

But destroying the evil gods of Warp Space was nearly impossible. As mentioned before, Warp Space was the realm where the souls and emotions of all things were reflected. In other words, unless every living being in the world perished, even if the evil gods of Warp Space were defeated, they would be reborn.

However, Warp Space was not invincible. All things restrained one another. Warp Space gave rise to beings such as Psykers, but Psykers also had a natural enemy.

They were beings known as Untouchables.

No one currently knew why such beings had come into existence, but one thing was certain: Untouchables were the only beings with no reflection in Warp Space. They were like black holes within Warp Space. Moreover, when Untouchables appeared near Psykers, they could weaken or even sever the Psykers' connection to Warp Space and its power.

Naturally, Untouchables were hated by the living because of this. They were like soulless beings; their very existence drew disgust and hostility from all living creatures.

Yet the Black Hole Project drew its inspiration from the Untouchables.

Simply put, these people intended to create a sufficiently large "void" within Warp Space and completely shatter the balance of its power.

That way, even if they could not kill the Chaos Gods, they could still deal them a devastating blow.

It was like a nation on Earth, facing imminent ruin, deciding to launch nuclear weapons at the entire planet.

If we die, everyone dies. If I'm doomed, don't expect to get away unscathed.

Even killing eight hundred enemies at the cost of a thousand of our own would be a bloody profit.

What these people did was effectively purge the entire universe clean. Then... whatever remained could only be left to humanity's survivors in the future.

The Black Hole Project was a tremendous success. Warp Space nearly collapsed, and after suffering that blow, all the evil gods fell into slumber. Without the protection of their gods, the other alien races were also severely weakened. In the end, the Human Empire had used an indiscriminate attack to send every civilization in the universe back to the Stone Age, forcing everything to begin anew.

But naturally, the evil gods were unwilling to sink into eternal sleep. So they continued using every means possible to tempt their followers and make them work even harder, so that they could awaken sooner—at the very least, before the others did.

The players awakened during this Dark Age. Their task was to disrupt the evil gods' plans as much as possible, delay their awakening, and strengthen themselves as much as they could in preparation for the evil gods' return—or even eliminate the threat forever. Otherwise, once the evil gods recovered, all they could do was wait in despair for death.

What he had to do now was destroy the God of Filth's plan!