Chapter 188: Improvisation (1)
Orthes massaged his eyes. After all, the quickest way to undo the sealing barrier was for him to use his 'eyes' to forcibly unravel the formulas that had been grafted onto them one by one.
He didn't know if it would help his eyes recover, but he felt like he had to do something, so he was fiddling with his eyelids.
"Orthes."
It was Carisia's call. Orthes stopped massaging and walked towards Carisia.
"What is it?"
"We have an opinion from the directors."
In theory, Carisia was a being who had obtained both White Light's and the Artificial Commandments' magic power. She could seize and eavesdrop on both White Light's communication channels and Hydra Corporation's communication channels.
However, the gap between 'being able to' and 'realizing it' was not something that could be overcome so easily. Even an ordinary mage would have exploded without finding a stable point between the magic power supply of the two Ten Commandments, but to reach the level where she could freely switch between the two channels in such a short time.
"Ah. Come to think of it, I shared the situation with the directors, right?"
"Yes. They said that a problem had erupted in Nokmok, which was supposed to be a distraction-purpose front... other than the seven fronts we had designated as the main battlefields. I even conveyed the fact that Argyrion was trying to slander us."
In Orthes' plan, the Ten Commandments that Hydra Corporation and their allies would directly interfere with were seven.
First, White Light. This was the most basic of the Heavenly Schism Array. If White Light could not be obtained, the Heavenly Schism Array was destined to fail.
This stage was successful.
Second, Yellow Thunder. This was the Ten Commandments that Lampades had to occupy. The jamming signal amplified by the output of the Yellow Thunder Ten Commandments would paralyze communications on other Ten Commandments fronts.
There were no real priorities in the five fronts after the two most important fronts. To be precise, there was one front that should not be prioritized for seizure, but rather a front where the succession war should be postponed until the very end.
It was Black Dark, which Kine was in charge of.
Kine was going to seize Black Dark using the fusion of Holy Incantation and magic she had realized - which she claimed she realized thanks to Orthes, but Orthes could not accept that assessment - and her Divine Magic political maneuvering.
Of course, Kine could not conquer Black Dark Magic Tower alone. No matter how outstanding her talent was, even if she received magic power support from the Ten Commandments, and even if she mobilized both political maneuvering as Divine Magic and political maneuvering as social skill to create a considerable number of friendly factions in a short period of time.
Even the elders might not be susceptible to Divine Magic political maneuvering. So Orthes gave Kine a very unique mission.
Kine had to engage in political maneuvering in Black Dark Magic Tower.
But it wasn't to conquer Black Dark. It was to attempt to politically maneuver Black Dark to conquer other magic towers.
If White Light and Yellow Thunder collapsed according to stage 1 of Orthes' plan, intense chaos would descend upon the Ten Towers. The news that White Light had collapsed would be a shock and horror, and if Yellow Thunder also fell soon after, the fear would spread uncontrollably.
That was when Kine had to step up.
Even though succession wars were declared in all the other magic towers and they were experiencing 'challenges to authority' according to Orthes' plan, why was it that no one challenged Black Dark Magic Tower?
Even those disrespectful people who were trying to subvert the hierarchy by taking advantage of the chaos in the magic society feared Black Dark!
The Tower Lord of Black Dark was absent, but the power of Black Dark Magic Tower did not come from a single powerful Tower Lord. The near-infinite numbers of the undead legions, including the Spartoi, were the true power of Black Dark.
Precisely because they knew this, those rebellious groups could not dare to approach Black Dark. Only Black Dark could maintain such strict order.
The Tower Lords of the Ten Towers were absent, and the remaining White Light and Yellow Thunder had collapsed. In this chaotic situation, a 'strong leader' was needed to lead the magic society.
And that leader, of course, had to be Black Dark, which was maintaining order.
With this logic, Kine was planning to have Black Dark embark on a war of conquest. The word war of conquest was too blatant, so Orthes' advice was to express it as a 'grand choice for maintaining law and order' when engaging in political maneuvering.
If the political maneuvering worked properly, Orthes would be able to create a more advantageous Ten Commandments front with Black Dark as the vanguard.
Hector's Knights were supposed to face Silver Iron after being dispatched to Yellow Thunder Tower.
This was for practical reasons. The knights' fighting techniques had been entered into the golems' automatic combat devices and sold as products for many years. Silver Iron was the leading corporation at the pinnacle of that golem manufacturing industry.
It was known that the golems of Silver Iron Magic Tower possessed more powerful strength, more elaborate skills, and faster speed than the knights of the old era. But there was one thing they had overlooked.
Golems had been accumulating fighting technique data for a long time, improving the precision of their combat programs. This was because fallen knight families continued to sell their visions to Silver Iron.
But was it purely for wealth and glory that they passed on their visions without hesitation?
Of course, there were also knight families who sold their visions purely for money. However, there were also fighting techniques injected according to the Knights' grand plan to induce the combat patterns of Silver Iron Magic Tower's golems.
In that way, the Knights had been teaching fighting techniques to golems for hundreds of years. In parallel with analyzing all the movements and postures that golems could use, and creating a perfect solution to that fighting technique.
The golems of Silver Iron Magic Tower were evaluated to have completely ended the era of knights, but in the future, they were raised to be defeated by knights.
But the fronts to be assigned to the remaining three were not clear. In the operation plan, Kynemon was supposed to be in charge of Zaton, Niobe was supposed to be in charge of Blue Water, and the Divine Cult was supposed to be in charge of Scarlet Flame, but the plan could change flexibly depending on the troop strength and the state of the front.
The role of those three was the reserve.
Niobe could use Blasphemia's authority to prevent Panoptes's intervention, and the Divine Cult could use Proditor to release high-ranking priests to any front. The information warfare capabilities using Kine could not be ignored either.
The capabilities of the organization that Kynemon possessed were not comparable to Blasphemia and the Divine Cult, but unlike the two, he was highly reliable. The Bubble of Oblivion that Orthes had returned to him was a move that allowed Kynemon to be operated as a secret weapon to change the tide of the front.
However, this operation plan was meaningless at this point.
Even if Hydra Corporation and the allied forces were combined, the maximum number of fronts that could be involved at one time was seven. Three fronts that could not be interfered with immediately occurred.
Orthes classified the attributes of each of the Ten Towers by collecting the attributes that were 'least suitable for waging attrition warfare'. Freezing Ice, Flying Wind, and Green Wood. These were the three magic towers with the longest average time from the start to the end of the succession war.
For these three fronts, Orthes prepared for 'a ragtag coalition of nobodies' to buy time appropriately. If the coalition led by Hydra Corporation secured seven of the Ten Commandments, the magic power that could be substantially mobilized, including the Artificial Commandments, would be at the level of 8 Ten Commandments.
A level of magic power gap would occur that could not be overturned by any means with the remaining three Ten Commandments. If this stage was reached, it would be Hydra Corporation's practical victory.
"Those goddamn Argyrion bastards. I don't know how they got here."
All plans were twisted when Argyrion appeared in Green Wood. A situation where the prevention of Argyrion appearing in Green Wood had to be prioritized over the victory of other Ten Commandments fronts.
The interference signal that Lampades was sending out from Yellow Thunder Tower had to be temporarily stopped to send a communication, but Argyrion's slander was a problem.
What if Argyrion's slander reached the other Ten Towers through the gap created by the removal of the interference signal?
All the remaining Ten Towers might gather together to prepare for an expedition against Hydra Corporation.
'If Hector old man has secured Silver Iron, it might be worth trying to wage a decisive battle...'
There was still no news from Silver Iron. Orthes took a breath.
'First, I need to listen to what the directors are saying and think.'
"What are the directors saying about the current situation?"
***
"They're just saying to turn off the jamming signal from Yellow Thunder Magic Tower."
"Yes? Then the possibility of our side being singled out as the mastermind behind everything and being attacked becomes too high."
Practically, Orthes was the mastermind behind everything. But the generous Carisia did not point that out.
"Argyrion is still fighting in Green Wood, right? It's clear who is an easier enemy, Argyrion who has not secured a Ten Commandments, or Hydra Corporation who has."
"Huh?"
If you think about it, it was a simple story. Argyrion's seizure of Green Wood was a 'currently ongoing' threat, and Hydra Corporation's seizure of White Light was an 'already happened' event.
If Argyrion was left unattended and obtained the Ten Commandments like Hydra Corporation, the Ten Towers would be in a much more disadvantageous position. For the Ten Towers, the priority was to suppress Argyrion before the decisive battle with Hydra Corporation.
"They analyzed that even if a Ten Towers alliance is formed, there is a high probability that they will attack Argyrion first rather than us."
It was a persuasive analysis. One more fact came to Orthes' mind, who closed his eyes for a moment.
Carisia's voice was similar to White Light's.