Back on Gaia, the effect of the missing emperor is ravaging the lands of Saint Empire. At the start, the Crown Regent - the Devilheart family – dared not show their true nature when they had concerns due to the Crown Princess Relestia’s legitimacy, but with her missing for four years, their ambitions stirred uncontrollably. Within the four years, plans to remove her guardian, the Snowdrifts guild, became increasingly pressing but were thwarted time and again. Even when they try removing all the factions affiliated with the guild from power, there was not much that they managed to achieve and this is because the Snowdrifts held the key to many of the most profitable trades across Gaia and had powerful connections like the King of the Thieves Rielon and the Grand Elder Feng of the Trade Federate. Multiple formidable factions also openly shown their support or had ironclad relations with the Snowdrifts, like the Solitary Swords clan and two of the three Great Noble houses, but the biggest resistance to the Crown Regent came from the guild members themselves. In the four years where the Devilheart family festered like an infected wound, the guild had been amassing untold amounts of fortune and used it to get their members into central positions of countless organisations. Almost every member was assigned such a task which they all dutifully completed. Of course, with an almost unlimited budget and the latest war tech to support them, their objectives were easily met. The members of the guild became either heir apparent to their families or otherwise quickly climbed up the ranks in the military or for the different clans and houses. Snowdrifts members from power in the military climbed to the rank of captain of a thousand soldiers at least, whereas for the clans and houses, they easily earned the position of elder – if not through the bombardment of resources, then by their exceptional cultivation speeds that is made possible by the Origin Manuscript. It can only be said that the four years when Emperor Galahad went missing, that the Snowdrifts became the last bastion of the Vestimore family Yet, all these changed when Kairos Astroire was captured by the mages of the south.

  No matter how much the Snowdrifts achieved, it is for a fact that the Devilheart family had always been a force equal or above the three Great Nobles. The Devilhearts had been there since the founding of the Saint Empire but when others had been enjoying the fruits of supporting the emperor, they had been preparing to dethrone the one they just helped. Now without Kairos’ presence, the Devilheart is like a great beast that finally broke free of its cages. Of course, despite making the Fifth Prince into their puppet, his claim to rightful rule is still bland and weak compared to the Crown Princess, making their obvious first step to dictatorship to pluck out any and all influences of the old governance. It is expected by all that their targets would be the Snowdrifts as well as all the factions still under the banner of the Vestimore family. Using a high pressure sweep under the magnifying glass, all opposing factions were repeatedly checked for even the slightest unlawfulness. If not to hinder them, at least it can cause them severe annoyance. At the same time, the Devilheart family activated their hidden cards. Almost all the major departments of the empire had high level executives secretly loyal to the Devilheart and upon receiving their mission they started dissolving Vestimore’s control from within.

  Now that the Snowdrifts had relocated out of Saint Empire, the Crown Regent once again tried to seize control of the empire, leaving only the regular people in the dark. Of course, this made the next logical step to let loose unfounded rumours of the old rule. Very quickly after, the majority of the gentry – from the most common Ten Thousand Aristocrat families to the prestige Hundred Noble houses - were forced to make statements about the corruption and weak leadership of the missing emperor. Those who refused to obey found all their livelihoods taken away and had to fold to reality. When everyone is saying something negative about the crown, even those lying started to be brainwashed. The masses also fell quickly to the lies and the Devilheart family openly awarded those that sided them and punished those who did not. As long as the regular citizens starts believing in the lies then the Crown Princess that was chosen by the emperor would be a smear instead. Falsehoods were propagated as news, planting ideas that Emperor Galahad committed countless atrocities. Evidence was made up and used as proof, yet no one could overturn it. Citizens who still believed in the old emperor became harshly pursued for bounty. Three weeks were all it took for most of the uninformed masses to gobble up the propaganda like it was absolute truth. Villagers everywhere foolishly blamed the incapable Emperor Galahad for all the hardships in their lives, even when they had lesser in the past compared to now. After all, when everyone is agreeing, it must be real. The terrified people still hoping that the old rule will return, hid their thoughts deep in their hearts. They were certain that there is no way the Devilheart family could tell who is a hidden supporter of the emperor, but when the Devilheart threw out a hefty reward for anyone who can prove their neighbour is against their rule and all hell broke loose and even those who are innocent became accused.

  It was at this time that the guild struck. Despite staying far in the north-west, the Snowdrifts, moved in with meticulous timing and the precision of a surgeon. The businesses they had in Saint Empire had not only made a fortune for the guild but also became one of the largest economical pillars of the country. One can only imagine the turmoil and great unease that rippled throughout the lands when this pillar plucked itself out of the ground and ran off. Do not think that it is incompetence for the Devilheart to allow such a thing. Whether the plans were seen through or not, there was nothing that the Devilheart can do about it in face of the tremendous speeds where the Snowdrifts extracted their businesses, especially when their business partners helped keep the secrets until the very last moment. As the Crown Regent was forced to deal with a mountain of unfulfilled contracts and work stoppages throughout the lands, the Snowdrifts arranged for a hundred over extraction teams that swiftly entered Saint Empire borders like ghosts. Their only mission is to aid the people that wants to escape north-westwards. Assigning the Dark Hall in charge of this operation proved to be an exceptional choice as well. For an intelligence department created by Galahad to become the eyes and ears of a superpower like Saint Empire, their abilities are reliable – to say the least.

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  The first to embark to the new city are the faithful soldiers, armies rallied under the banner of Snowdrifts and the name of Martial King Esley Restrio – The East Wind. They followed the extraction teams and volunteered to protect others along the journey and then take up arms to guard the city when they arrive. Masses of peasants, farmers, merchants, and people of all trades safely travelled to the Snowdrifts City, hoping to contribute their efforts in the coming war or even just to make war money.

  This was possible because Saint Empire’s military control largely remained uncompromised of the Devilheart’s influence, as the Corps under Third and Fifth Prince numbered only four million strong whereas the emperor had six million loyal soldiers. Even if over half their number had to remain in place to guard the cities and the border, more than a million soldiers could pack up and leave. The same goes for the Corp under the Third Prince. Although the Devilheart family tried to dip their finger into the pie, the military system is built to resist external factors, thus at least half a million men also joined the journey north-west to continue serving the Vestimore family. Without saying, only the Fifth Prince’s three million men remained tightly controlled since their leader became a puppet making the total military strength of Saint Empire decrease to a force of eight million strong and many of them are not very willing to follow the Devilheart’s regime.

  Almost a third of the nobles and clans also left the empire joining them in the journey, despite many had to abandon or liquidate their assets cheaply. Of course, not everybody did so out of loyalty. Many of those noble families who found themselves unwittingly on the side of the Snowdrifts because their heirs are comrade-in-arms with Kairos and the boys. (Amongst those noble houses are the Angelheart, Northern Cross, Blue Frost, Light Rose, Resounding Thunder, Steel Rose, and the Dark Gods. The clans are the Solitary Blades, Mountain Cat, White Snow, Purple Turtle, Pink Chicken, and the Dark Swords. Of the three great noble houses, only the moon clan of the Sun and Moon clan defected to the Devilheart family while the Sun clan remained neutral.)

  At this point of time, everyone believed that the Snowdrifts City will develop into another superpower and can one day challenge the Devilheart family and return the throne to the Vestimore family, albeit it might take years. Yet no one expected the Devilheart family to collude with the Phrixus royal house of Silent Lambs Empire in order to bring about a calamity no one in their right minds would consider. They had long known about the Devilheart family having an iron grip of control over many of the Ten Thousand Aristocrats, the Thousand Aristocrats, the Hundred Aristocrat Families, the Thousand Nobles, and the Hundred Noble Houses. Besides them, there are the countless itinerant adventurers who were either bought over or raised as orphans by the Devilheart family. Yet no one knew that these people were not meant to be a fighting force to overthrow Saint Empire’s throne but sacrifices to unseal great and terrible beings. The Fiends of all worlds, the devils. If the evil ones are released, not just Saint Empire, but all of Gaia will be threatened. Demon armies will march, countries will raze, and blighted land will spread like wildfires.

  The Phrixus had long been corrupted by those fiends, and knew the complex workings of rituals that can erode the divine seals holding the evils back. They just needed dark energy that can power their occult rites of desecration. Dark energies provided by hopeless despair, endless greed, self-righteousness, perverse obsession, incontrollable rage, blinding vainglory, stubborn inaction, and unrepressed gluttony. According to their requirements, the amount of energy generated depends on the strength of these negative emotions whilst the purity of the energy depends on the level of corruption. One must know that the greater the initial good, the more terrible it is when perverse. This made the young and vulnerable a target for this unholy ritual.

  Unfortunately, even with so much sacrifice, the seals of the pantheon of gods are still too formidable for mere mortals to breach. They need more deaths and suffering to strengthen the devils. Not just Saint Empire and the Silent Lambs Empire, but the southern mage countries, the Frosthral Feudal State, and the technologically advanced eastern pirates are all roped in like a swirl of bubbling chaos, and so, the greatest war that Gaia will ever see is brewed.