Hearing the report, Ge Wajia opened his eyes.
His slanting eyes seemed very indifferent.
He said, "All buried underground... Why has it come to this?"
The person opposite didn't speak, only beads of sweat began to form on his forehead.
Ge Wajia continued, "It's been quite some time since my teacher defected and left. It's also been a while since we decided to abandon it; so why, even today, has everything not been moved away?"
"...Sorry, Chairman..."
The researcher's body was already trembling.
"The benevolent father never uses punishment to teach the world," Ge Wajia said. "The benevolent father always takes upon himself the sins of all things. When we do not perform well enough, the benevolent father bestows more blessings to help his followers grow, in the hope that they may succeed next time."
Upon hearing this, the researcher trembled even more intensely.
But in the end, he didn't dare to say any more and instead bowed deeply: "I will heed your teachings."
Ge Wajia waved his hand, signaling the other to leave.
Just a few dozen seconds later, low, pained, yet mixed with a sense of pleasure, inhuman howls came from outside.
Ge Wajia closed his eyes once more amidst the growling sounds, entering a trance-like state.
His consciousness arrived in a thick void. Voices of grandeur, benevolence, or cruelty whispered continuously in his ears. Continue reading stories on empire
And now, he didn't carefully distinguish what those whispers from heaven were about like he had done at first; he only felt in entirety, eagerly absorbing all the information contained within.
He only worried that his own wisdom and spiritual perception weren't enough, unable to fully comprehend every piece of teaching from heaven, understanding just a tiny bit.
While he was experiencing the gospel from heaven, a noisy voice rose from deep within his heart.
"Don't believe, don't listen... be cautious... they are deceiving you... they are the demons..."
Ge Wajia furrowed his brows, harshly suppressing those words rising from the depths of his heart.
The whispers from heaven became clearer and more profound at that moment. One voice directed him to dedicate that 'thing' which always contradicted, to the benevolent father.
It was a very tempting offer.
Every time that voice rang out, many painful memories from the past would surge forth.
At this moment, that's what was happening.
In those memories, it seemed he was a war hero.
He was one of the Rage Owl Star People, having the good fortune to follow a Prophet named Hu Ke, working and learning by his side.
And then, the war broke out. First, it was said that there were major accidents in the exploitation of the Spiritualized Gas Fields on the other two continents, followed by a massive Low Energy Storm that swept over those continents. It even crossed oceans, bringing tsunamis along with it to assault the main continent.
It was a scene like the sky and the earth were breaking apart.
However, after the natural disasters, on the Rage Owl Star's two subsidiary continents, several enormous abyssal rifts appeared. Hordes of demons emerged, crossing the ocean in fleets, igniting two main fronts, setting the main continent's battlefield ablaze.
Ge Wajia remembered, at that time he abandoned his studies to join the army, using what he had learned from his teacher to fight for the survival of humanity.
Their efforts were effective. The Planetary Defense Force was far from a match for the demons that crossed the veil of reality, but with noble sacrifices, they fought without yielding an inch in incredibly disadvantageous battles.
Under layers of interception, the demons always maintained a great advantage in battle, but their advance was anything but easy.
Eventually, they held off the demon's onslaught, and received reinforcements from the Star Realm's empire.
But the arrival of Starfleet, Star Realm Army, didn't save this world.
Ge Wajia, as a person who had personally experienced that prolonged war, thought just that.
Originally, he was overjoyed at the arrival of the empire's reinforcements and boldly accepted the Star Realm Army commander's reorganization of the Planetary Defense Force to continue fighting those creatures.
But what did he witness?
To strike against the demons, to prevent more people from 'falling,' orbital bombardments were conducted without hesitation. One after another, cities that hadn't completed evacuation or hadn't even begun to evacuate were destroyed by their own; to stop more abyssal rifts, more Psychic Energy Fields were destroyed, bringing about even greater climatic disasters...
These actions are hard to say were wrong.
But looking at it from an objective point of view, did the empire's army save Rage Owl Star?
Throughout the decades of a drawn-out war, both sides used extreme measures, various weapons of the Extinction Order were unleashed, then counteracted by both parties. During this process, countless people were sacrificed, and Rage Owl Star, once beautiful and fertile, became incredibly desolate.
In the end, humanity achieved 'victory.' All the demons on the planet were eradicated.
But was this a victory for the Rage Owl Star People?
99.5% of the Rage Owl Star People died in the war. Was this the victory they wished for?