242. Clear Day's Ring
Saying this, he removed the white armband and tied it around his head, drawing his katana and flashing a do-or-die look:
"Our very lives are meaningless in themselves. It was His Majesty the Ring King who gave us work and status, who made us into samurai set apart from common folk. Our existence is precisely for that purpose. Life is but a fleeting dream; only when I die on the battlefield do I truly live!"
"Come, soldiers! The moment of decisive battle has arrived! Don't bother wondering who the enemy is—we are the warriors of gods, the samurai of Heaven. This nation is ours to protect!"
"Ten-thousand! Years!"
He shouted loudly, finally rousing the troops' will. The soldiers lifted their heads, gazing at his figure. The samurai felt a surge of excitement: "Yes, exactly! Fight! We must keep fighting! If we don't fight, we cannot survive!"
Bang!
As he finished speaking, the large doors behind him were suddenly pushed open. Li Aozi casually tossed in the corpse of the Gamma-tier Great Onmyōji, clapped his hands, and cast his gaze over them, asking curiously:
"Is that so?"
"That's… Abe, Abe the Great… Great Onmyōji?"
"Impossible—he was Gamma-tier!"
"He killed a Gamma-tier, and his hands aren't even dirty—"
The soldiers' spirits, just having been rallied, crumbled into panic once again. The samurai's pupils constricted; he had never imagined that one of Tianhuan's strongest, the renowned Great Onmyōji, would be disposed of like a mere lab mouse, neck twisted, face purple, tossed here like trash.
It was… it was simply…
"Enough with the chatter."
With one hand behind his back, Li Aozi's eyes glimmered with a blue Omega Energy radiance. He spoke in a calm voice:
"Hurry and choose."
Several sharp swords clattered onto the floor.
"Either submit to me…"
Helmets and prosthetic limbs were voluntarily removed.
"…Or die here."
The samurai glanced around. Though countless soldiers had already thrown aside their gear, kneeling to the man as though worshiping a god, he had no intention of begging for mercy.
Besides, several others were just like him.
His heart filled with bleakness, yet at the same time he felt a tinge of solace. Raising his katana—a treasured blade with a golden guard named "Gyozamaro," the highest honor a Tianhuan samurai could achieve—he roared:
"Together with my comrades, I will forge a new future!"
"Me too! Even if it's a god we face, so what? Our purpose in living is to slay gods!"
"Don't underestimate the bond between us!"
"Let him witness the possibilities of Tianhuan's people!"
The samurai raised their voices, drawing their blades and charging at Li Aozi.
"Attack!"
Clang—
Li Aozi snapped his fingers.
[Sequence Ninth•Gravity]
In the blink of an eye, the charging samurai dropped to their knees, their spines pinned into the floor as though nailed there. With a wave of his hand, their bodies were heaped into a pile.
He walked forward calmly and pointed a finger.
[Sequence Fifty-Six•Remaining Moon]
The Tianhuan samurai, just a moment ago stacked like a small mountain of flesh, were instantly flattened. From skin down to organs, they became paper-thin cross-sections, laid out on the ground like slices pressed between glass slides, revealing every detail of their insides.
Li Aozi passed among the crowd without taking their lives. He simply tossed aside a handful of Holy Monument Church business cards.
No need to say anything further. It wouldn't be long before he gained a new batch of followers.
Humans are that sort of creature: for a foe they cannot possibly defeat, they will either be spurred to challenge them as a lifelong rival, constantly striving to grow stronger—or else be utterly subjugated, coming to admire their foe's allure and becoming captives in more ways than one.
At that point, Jōan-kyō was officially liberated.
Parliament had been cleared.
Li Aozi immediately called Gretorvo on comms:
"That should be the last of Jōan-kyō's armed forces, Gretorvo."
"Thank you very much for your help, Mr. Isaac Maxim. Please send my regards to Li Aozi. Without your assistance, we'd have paid a much greater price to accomplish all this."
On the other end, Gretorvo Nighsong, looking more seasoned and composed than two years ago, gave a small laugh, then spoke gravely:
"Though the Akaban Squad now controls the capital, Jōan-kyō, the military, financial groups, and noble families spread across Tianhuan remain formidable. Besides the Republican elements represented by the Akaban Squad, many others hope to claim a share in leading the country."
"What's your take on this?" Li Aozi asked curiously. "Given Tianhuan's condition, if you don't establish a unified government, you'll wind up with factional warfare and a divided realm. Parts of Tianhuan were already annexed territories. If you can't make them obey, I could always help you—"
"No! That won't be necessary."
Gretorvo quickly refused.
The Battle of Jōan-kyō took all of 18 minutes to finish, liberating the capital outright. Frankly, someone with constipation might still be in the restroom longer than that.
Isaac couldn't care less about other people's country—Hojo Heavy Industries or whatever else. Unleashing Remaining Moon to create dimensional barriers, then lobbing Sequence Omega Energy attacks in all directions, had produced astronomical economic devastation.
No one dared let a walking cataclysm like Isaac linger. If Isaac kept going, the only thing left would be scorched earth. By comparison, the Outside World would seem developed.
"This is, after all, a matter for the Tianhuan people themselves. Even if it ends in civil war, it's something they must go through."
Gretorvo's words were tactful. After all, relying on foreigners to win a war would leave them open to accusations of illegitimacy.
"I'll unify the army, and Xia Jianjing will help me transform the Akaban Squad into a true Tianhuan national force. Only then will the people rally behind us, and only then can our cause continue moving forward."
Gretorvo began outlining his ideas to Li Aozi:
"Up to now, we've only broken the shackles around Tianhuan's neck. The shackles in their hearts remain. If Tianhuan's people are ever to become real 'Tianhuanese' rather than just 'people living in Tianhuan,' we need sweeping reform in economics, education, and culture. And sure enough, not every faction supports progress. Some back monarchy or theocracy or corporate nobility. Our army is formed specifically to stand against them…"
Gretorvo wasn't some political novice. He raised numerous ways to govern—like creating a republican government so parties could take turns in power, thus preventing excessive bloodshed. Or reorganizing the legislature based on regional populations so that everyone had suitable representation.
Li Aozi listened for a while, glancing at Gretorvo's stats. Indeed, he had a political class—[Prime Minister].
However, it was only level 5. His constituencies were mainly [Intellectuals] and [Military], leaning more heavily toward the former, likely because Gretorvo used to be a doctor, so the intelligentsia identified with him more strongly.
In contrast, citizens, landowners, capitalists, industrialists, entrepreneurs, workers, farmers… basically every other group had low support rates for him.
After all, Akaban Squad's official leader in Tianhuan is Xia Jianjing, currently recognized as acting president—but in truth, Xia Jianjing only handles the military. Internal administration and ideological guidance have always been Gretorvo Nighsong's domain.
Gretorvo Nighsong is a unique figure. Unlike a blood-and-iron political leader such as David Lin—who uses the military to rule the nation—or Crown Prince Rudolf, adept at stirring up nationalism for personal gain, Gretorvo is an idealist. He only reached the position of Prime Minister with direct support from Li Aozi and lacks solid political foundations or manpower.
Truly securing his regime will be no small test for him.
After mulling it over, Li Aozi said:
"I shouldn't meddle in the rest. Civilization depends on the hard work of its people to find a way forward. I've fulfilled what Mr. Li Aozi entrusted to me. The rest is up to your people."
Gretorvo was a bit taken aback. When Isaac first contacted him, he'd half expected Li Aozi to exploit the situation, turning Tianhuan into a puppet state serving Li Aozi alone.
But, surprisingly, neither Isaac—wielding the power of a walking disaster—nor Li Aozi on a distant star had any interest in that.
"If I may ask abruptly… Mr. Isaac, what is your power exactly? You're clearly just Alpha rank, yet you exhibit such terrifying destructive force—it's practically…"
"Divine."
Li Aozi smiled knowingly:
"Think of it as Li Aozi being the god who granted me this power."
"A god…"
"Mr. Gretorvo, let me remind you: in the Star Abyss, gods aren't what we typically imagine as spiritual authorities explaining the unexplainable or leading believers on a metaphysical level."
Spreading his hands, Li Aozi went on:
"In the Star Abyss, gods are the path humanity follows to transcend, achieve a supreme sense of justice, or pursue ultimate truth."
"The era of gods ruling over people in the Star Abyss ended long ago."
"Now is the time for us to harness the gods, to burn the divine flame in service of our grand narrative!"
"A grand narrative, you say?"
Gretorvo clenched his fists. His eyes shone with excitement:
"I like that term more than 'nation' or 'society.'"
"Entropy-kun sealed us away for five centuries, and the Ring King's mythology enslaved us for a full seventeen hundred years!"
"Yes. Now, the tales we tell are no longer of a king's death or of a lone hero's legend, but of the Tianhuan people writing their own story."
The seeds of that narrative were already sown.
Li Aozi's lips curled into a faint grin.
The presence of the White Obelisk provided the conditions for it. David Lin's early ascension accelerated the Frost-Plated Republic's reforms. If Tianhuan could successfully secularize and establish a republic, he'd have the prerequisites he needed.
These changes can't be accomplished by his power alone; countless individuals' efforts are required, alongside a competent government executing things properly. Rulers like Gretorvo, David Lin, and Rudolf must not err.
Humanity's civilization will inevitably achieve glorious unification.
Putting away his communicator, Li Aozi glanced at the series of achievement notifications popping up on his interface and shrugged.
"As expected, even though my nationality changes at random, I still want to shape a narrative of my own."