The truth about the Lichtkrieg 2

"The truth about the Lichtkrieg? Is that truly what you're the most curious about, in this situation?" Yoria asked

"Yes" Tyler replied without any hesitation. "I want to know how deities pulled the strings of history during all this time"

"I see... very well, then"

She prepared her voice, and then started to narrate the story:

"As you must know, the Paradise Council saw the day in the middle of the 24th century" she said. "After our previous discussion, you now know that the Andromeus-Silveren Empire is under the Silent One, so I think you already guessed who's behind its eternal enemy, the Paradise Council"

"Genova..." Tyler uttered. "The Council was formed by Genova and His Angels..."

"Precisely. Along with several of the brightest minds of humanity, those that fully embrassed their faith in this twisted God that is Genova, they created the Paradise Council as a technology company, acting as charity on the side. The curch of Genova was created slightly later, in year 2470, spreading the faith across the planet. It was at that time that another individual integrated the highest sphere of the Paradise Council, or rather Paradise Company, as it was named at that time, the one that is still today considered as its most legendary member: Feng Chang"

Feng Chang, the creator of Fefnir technology... Tyler interest and impatience kept growing, as Yoria kept narrating:

"Feng Chang, upon joining Paradise Company, immediately converted to the faith of Genova. Apparently, he even became friend with every Angel, especially the elder sister, Aldéa Genova. From what I heard from my meeting with other deities, him and the Angel of Forgiveness were best friends... of course, I never met him myself, so I can't assure it" she said. "What's to note is that, at that time, Genova had bestowed upon most of the Paradise Company higher-ups various Blessings, making them his Saints, including Feng Chang. It's also at that time that the first Nova beast corpse was discovered"

"The first Nova beast corpse... it appeared right after the Council's creation..." Tyler thought out loud. "Not only that, but an S-rank Nova beast, that appears on Earth of all planets... and already dead, at that... it isn't a coincidence, is it?"

"Indeed, it isn't, Genova's the one who made it appear. It doesn't change the fact that, using the corpse, and the Blessing granted by his Lord, Feng Chang could ultimately perform the miracle that allowed humanity to take another step toward supremacy: he created Fefnir technology. With it, the Paradise company kept gaining in importance, until it eventually became one of the great global superpowers of humanity, almost at the same level as the United States of America.

And of course, it eventually surpassed even them in term of influence, even before the expension in the Milky Way redifined the concept of what a 'nation' is, considering the massive change in scale. That's about that time that the Paradise company was renamed as the Paradise Council, and that the Genova curch became the most practiced religion, in between 2680 and 2695. But at this point, Feng Chang had already long left. And it's only a few years later, precisely at the first day of the 28th century, that his life ended"

"Ended... naturally, or not?"

"Good question. Feng Chang was a saint, meaning his lifespawn was far superior to that of a normal human. Even then, he was still a human after all. Most of those being granted a Blessing have a lifespawn hovering between two and a half, and three and a half centuries. Feng Chang was 254 years old at the time of her last breath, it could perfectly be natural, just like it could perfectly be a murder. Most likely, none of us two will ever know, and honestly it's something I'm not really curious to know anyway"

She stopped for an instant so she could recover her breath, and then continued:

"Hundreds of years later, the Pact Era arrived. You should have understood that by now, but if the Paradise Council didn't conquer the entire galaxy despite having the Angels on its side, it's not because they couldn't but because they didn't want to do so" she said. "Genova's goal was to use an artificial war situation, and then a cold war situation, to push humanity forward without taking off its freedom. Even today, everything the Council puts in place on its territory almost solely aims for this, they just do it in twisted ways"

"Freedom... I can't believe it" Tyler said. "Everything I saw... The way the Council used all these people, not only as slaves but as human expendable to create more Fefnir technology for bitchy privileged, and the way they imprisoned litteraly everybody in their territory in a fucking class system, that's not freedom. That's fucking tyranny"

"Maybe, yet from a statistic viewpoint, it is actually what leads to the highest degree of freedom"

"No... that can't be..."

"That's the worst part, Tyler. It can"

Just like Yohan did with Erica, she proceeded to explain to Tyler how the Paradise Council's methods favorised the emergence of new possibilities, and new parties. She explained everything in details, without excluding the slightest.

"So from what you're saying, freedom... is nothing but a bunch of criteria, that you can only fulfill via using the sectors system?" Tyler asked, teeth clenched. "IS HUMANITY'S FREEDOM NOTHING BUT THAT, AN 'OBJECTIVE' PRODUCT OF SHITTY CRITERIA?"

"Yes, Tyler, that's why so many people want to change the world. Because the God of this world is also the one behind the tyranny, and yet He's still the one being the most devoted to the greater good" Yoria replied. "We live in an era of madness, where freedom itself is nothing but statistics. It doesn't matter if you accept it or not, that's the reality of our world now"

Tyler clenched his teeth, but he said nothing and sat back, covering his face with his hand.

Freedom was a statistic.

By now, Tyler could accept that he was never a hero, and never truly fought for freedom. But now, it all made things so much worse...

Or maybe it made them better instead? If freedom was such an abominable thing, if acting for the greater good requested to make such mad and evil choices, wasn't it better not to do so?

That question... did he even want to learn the answer to it?

"Just... just go straight to the point, about what happened during the Lichtkrieg" he said. "Please"

"You can't accept the truth? Don't worry, deities or not, nobody can at first, but soon or late, you'll get used to the unfairness, just like the rest" Yoria said. "As for the Lichtkrieg, you must know it, but it happened at a time where everyone thought that a new war would arise, due to the domineering position of the Paradise Council at the time. Naturally, the Council didn't want such a thing, as conquering the galaxy would definitely get in the way of their 'freedom', and so, they purposefully created small problems inside of their own territory to justify not going to war with more credibility.

And that was their biggest mistake. Even though, all this time, Genova had maintained the Silent One imprisonned, it didn't stop Them from slowly assembling a group composed of the infamous sinners that were overwhelmed by the flow of history, but refused to disappear in its depth: us, the Great Sins. The Silent One granted each of us an Authority, allowing each of us to command one of the Sacred Fields, the seven aspects that compose reality, in the same way as Angels do. At the time where the Pact Era was coming to an end, our ranks were already complete"

"And you used this opportunity where the enemy was weakened, and wasn't aware of your existence, to attack?"

"Precisely. To give you a clearer understanding of the situation, while assembling the seven Great Sins, the Silent One also focused all its might to spread the cult of Silence inside of a single Stellar Field"

"The Andromeus Field..."

"Precisely. With the help of the Great Sins, and of multiple apostles They Blessed across the century when it took place, They completely converted the Andromeus field. I won't tell you what abominations the Sins, or even some apostles like Blue Jass, Hawk Grimms or Nightingale committed to achieve such a result in such a short period without being noticed by any other Stellar Fields, but know that it was way worse than what you saw on Londris. Happily - or not - most of these infamous apostles had already died by the time of the attack on the Council. Led by me, all seven Great Sins, alongside all the forces of the Andromeus Field, launched an attack on the Silveren Field"

"That's why the Silent One chose the Andromeus Field, because it was the only one with a common border to the Silveren field that wasn't already under the Council..."

This information of course was important, but Tyler was just as curious to know who Blue Jass, Hawk Grimms and Nightingale were, and what they did as apostles of Silence.

Apostle... Now, he also was one... was he going to go insane because of it? Assuming he wasn't already insane, of course.

"Yes, and thanks to the surprise effect, we could defeat and absorb the Silveren Field, the first one colonized by humanity, and the most important one at that" Yoria said. "To do so, Great Sins made sure to destroy or weaken every defense line of the Silveren Field, transwalking across the stars, so that the war spaceships of the Andromeus army could take over. In the end, the Council didn't even have the time to send backup, and Angels couldn't intervene: against opponents that were prepared for them, without any prior knowledge about them, and facing for the first time a power that wasn't inferior to their, they had to take the time to analyse the foes, and prepare a riposte, especially considering they were at a numerical disadvantage because of Cain's departure. In the end, the Silveren Field had already been conquered, and its conversion to the faith of Silence was halfway when they finally launched a surprise assault on us. That's when it happened: the greatest conflict between deities since the imprisonnement of the Silent One, implicating every deity beside them in a battle that shook reality and killed stars"

Shook reality? Killed stars? What with these terms that seemed to come from some emo teen novel with character that are overpowered for nothing?

'Tssk... Why am I even surprised anymore after the satanic-puppet-mutated-zombie-in-a-demonic ghost-city thing' Tyler scoffed as the image of Mavarel flashed through his mind briefly. 'Wait a minute...'

"Did you just say every deity beside the Silent One?" Tyler asked. "In this case, does that mean..."

"Yes, Cain was also part of the conflict" Yoria confirmed. "As sneaky as he is, he would have never missed such an opportunity to make things harder for Genova's side, and also for the Silent One's side to a lesser degree. And you probably guessed it, but one last deity participated in the Lichtkrieg. In fact, I firmly believe that He is the one who planned it all rather than the Silent one"

"So the Lichtkrieg, this event that is considered by historians as the most mysterious ones in history..."

"Yes Tyler. He was one of the participant, and the war ended as soon as He descended. God's descent is what stopped the war, Genova Himself is the one who ended the Lichtkrieg"