The World Government Rear Fortress.
Silence filled the somewhat spartan conference room.
The atmosphere was heavy and oppressive, even sorrowful.
The World Government had also suffered devastating losses.
One member of God's Knights had died in battle, dealing a crushing blow to the Celestial Dragon family behind him.
God's Knights now had a vacant seat that could not be filled.
That was because four God's Knights Candidates with top-level combat strength had died in battle.
To fill it, a powerful Celestial Dragon from another Celestial Dragon family would have to volunteer.
Otherwise, they would have to wait for the God's Knights Candidates to mature.
That wait could easily last more than a decade.
Nearly half of the dozens of God's Knights Candidates had been lost. Most Celestial Dragon families had suffered heavily, with only a few families that had held back escaping without any deaths.
The young Celestial Dragons had also survived under the protection of others.
Even where there had been losses, they were well within what those families could bear.
Of course, these losses still could not compare to those of the God Valley War.
After all, God's Knights had lost half their members during the God Valley War, while more than a hundred Celestial Dragons had died.
Of course, although fewer had died this time, the losses were not that far behind.
The God's Knights Candidates were the future of the Celestial Dragons, and so many had been lost at once.
Although the Celestial Dragons' status was not actually based on strength, powerful Celestial Dragons invariably held considerable standing.
Many Celestial Dragons of ordinary standing had risen through God's Knights.
Fortunately, after the Fiorella Family had formed a marriage alliance with the Kronos Kingdom,
Hades's father-in-law, whom he had secretly met a few times, had left God's