Kaijin Fighter: So I Have to Make Monsters, So What?-Chapter 1527: A Hot War

The following is an abridgement of the history between the Erupting Dawn Empire and the Sacred Flame Theocracy.

The Dozing Salamander continent, like every continent, was home to a myriad of empires and kingdoms that were known to rip into each other for no reason other than plain old politics and resources.

However, there was precisely one war that had been going on for literal centuries and had a very good reason behind it: the War of the Sacred Flame.

The participants of this war were two factions known as the Sacred Flame Theocracy and the Erupting Dawn Empire.

On one side, the Sacred Flame Theocracy was a theocratic nation. obviously, they worshiped a literal sacred flame (rumored to be the Mother Sun Flame) known to cure the sick, heal the wounded, and overall protect the place from all manner of evil beings. As such, the various sects and subsects of the theocracy varied in terms of temperament and practice, but they were all united in their love for the sacred flame. Additionally,This theocratic nation was led by the Sacred Spark Speaker, an avatar of the sacred flame that was elevated to the status of Aether Saint and was quite literally chosen by it to serve as both its supposed voice and protector.

Emphasis on the word "supposed."

On the other side, the Erupting Dawn Empire was...a touch more sadistic. Under the leadership of Emperor Mexazuma, this once small kingdom that only constituted about five thousand people and a small mountain kingdom had ballooned into a massive empire that had destroyed and absorbed thirteen other kingdoms and two other empires. As such, many of the noble houses that composed the empire’s various political structures were actually fallen royal families. On top of that, Emperor Mexazuma was a proper Aether Saint armed with a very powerful Platinum tiered aether treasure.

And that right there was the rub and reason for the ongoing eternal war between the two civilizations.

The more refined someone’s cultivation became, the higher the tier they rose, and the pickier they had to be in regard to the type of aether they were supposed to consume. Or rather, it would be more accurate to say that only increasingly more potent and pure aether medicines and treasures had even an inkling of a chance of affecting them anymore.

Emperor Mexazuma cultivated a Major World Grade aether formula that had the ability to grow exponentially as long as he absorbed stronger and stronger aether flames from all sorts of sources.

And lo and behold, there was a very powerful aether flame in an empire that was across his empire’s border.

To give Emperor Mexazuma the benefit of the doubt, though, he did try to use diplomacy and gifts to secure a portion of the Mother Sun Flame, but he was refused.

Multiple times.

Once he was rejected for the tenth time in a row, with the very understandable reasoning that the Mother Sun Flame was sacred to the Sacred Flame Theocracy, Emperor Mexazuma decided that the best way to get what he wanted was to go on an all-out invasion.

Emperor Mexazuma personally led the first assault, leading to his empire claiming over half of the territory that was originally the Sacred Flame Theocracy’s in a single year. However, that was about as far as he and his forces would be able to go for the next sixteen years.

Despite his best efforts, despite multiple champions and talented generals rising and falling one after the other, none of them were able to get any further.

Why?

Because as it turned out, there were a lot of people, and a lot of other kingdoms, who had benefitted from the kindness of the Sacred Flame Theocracy. As such, they were more than willing to band together and push back against the Erupting Dawn Empire.

However, this all amounted to what was essentially a stalemate.

A stalemate that could easily be tipped if a certain outside force of nature decided to support one side or the other.

...I wonder who that force of nature is...

"Logos, Pathos. What the fuck am I staring at?" Zhen Liu asked as he stared at what appeared to be a pair of giant scrolls that reached from the ceiling to the floor of the library’s main hall.

<=You wanted a pro and con list; we made you a pro and con list. =>

"Right..." Zhen Liu hissed.

After Axer had informed Zhen Liu and the others about how they were going to need the Mother Sun Flame to perform the simple-sounding task of merging the remnants of Lythero’s swords together, there was a bit of a debate amongst them about how they were going to do just that.

Jinju Ren, Rianna, Olstenna, and Alice were of the opinion that the best course of action was to pick one of the sides and assist them in their respective war efforts. The kaijin were essentially armies unto themselves, and they could be easily used to strike at the heart of either side. At which point, during the chaos of battle, they could simply steal some of the flame and fuck off with the power of Zhen Liu’s [Key to Anywhere].

On the other hand, Alicia, Zhen Xing, Zhen Tai, and Harriet were of the opinion that they could just use diplomacy to at least borrow the Mother Sun Flame. They didn’t have any bad blood, and Zhen Liu did have the uncanny ability to get along with...most people. Sometimes.

And if worse came to worse, they could be bailed out by the kaijin.

As for Lythero, Antonio, Taurna, and Lyona, the natives of the continent, they wanted to be as far away as possible from the ongoing war between the Erupting Dawn Empire and Sacred Flame Theocracy, because they had heard stories about how brutal that conflict was.

Not only that, but they had experience talking to former soldiers and slaves that were on the frontlines of that shit.

It wasn’t great.

However, the ultimate decision for all of this still came down to Zhen Liu, so he decided that the best course of action for the time being was to weigh the pros and cons of all of these choices with the help of the curators.

Thankfully for him, they had gone above and beyond when they had created the lists explaining the reasons why he should support one side over the other.

Unfortunately, the lists were also incredibly long.

Zhen Liu may have had enhanced intelligence because of all the cultivation shit he’s been doing, but he could still find such tasks to be incredibly fucking boring.

"Ugh...let’s get this over with."

Regardless of his griping, though, Zhen Liu still proceeded to look through the lists.

It took him a half hour to look through both lists, understand the pros and cons of both, and come to a singular conclusion after taking in all of the information.

"Holy shit, I can’t support either of these motherfuckers," Zhen Liu concluded. "They both suck! Well...hmmm."

Evidently, things weren’t as black and white as some history books made this conflict out to be.

...The following is the historical details that were left out...

Despite it appearing as if the Erupting Dawn Empire was the aggressor in this war between them and the Sacred Flame Theocracy, the truth was...a bit more nuanced.

The Mother Sun Flame, which served as the heart of the theocracy, was actually originally from a small village called Little Dawn, the village that would become the Erupting Dawn Empire’s capital.

The story goes, at least amongst the tribespeople and old wisemen, that the Mother Sun Flame was stolen from Little Dawn Village, only to be suddenly propped up as a sacred flame to legitimize some hockey-ass cult in the middle of nowhere.

Once this information reached the ears of the people of Little Dawn, they had attempted to try and steal it back, only to get nearly wiped out in the process.

The survivors of this failed assault realized that they were nowhere near strong enough to take it back by force, so they decided to retreat and empower themselves before getting to the point where they could take back their flame.

Unfortunately, in the process of getting to the point where they could steal back the flame, they had lost themselves to the concept of war, glory, and bloodshed.

They first defeated an enemy kingdom that tried to take them over, then they had to fight another, then another, then they fell into vicious in-fighting, until it all culminated in the formation of the Erupting Dawn Empire as people know it today.

At the same time, that hokey-ass cult had developed into a real religion that actually did good for the world and the people who lived in it.

In other words, while one side was originally a noble people who became corrupt and greedy in the face of achieving ultimate power, the other was initially corrupt and greedy and became noble over time.

Sins of the past vs Sins of the present, as it were.

...

"Who the fuck do i even support in this..."