Chapter 782: Chapter 403: There’s Nothing Left to Lose_2

Why don’t we form a political alliance? You can use your backing to help me ascend to the position of Patriarch.

After I reach the top, I will also give you some of the Patriarch’s powers to manage."

"Deal."

"Then it’s agreed, Madam Patriarch Griffin."

...

The cooperation ended with the former Patriarch leaving in a somewhat undignified manner.

But clearly, because of the tacit agreement between him and his wife, the previous Patriarch, although willingly stepped back in the end, also felt he lacked the qualification to sacrifice everything for the Empire.

The patriarchs of the four families learned the "Empire Prophecy," which only past patriarchs are privy to, from him.

The former Patriarch’s thoughts were quite straightforward and not entirely aimed at him intentionally.

He simply believed that if someday Tal would abandon the Empire’s interests for personal and family gain, someone had to stop him.

To make Griffin’s descendants act cautiously, just one of the five guardian families wasn’t enough.

So he approached the Purgatory Dragon Family, which had served the most as Imperial Chancellor, and the Celestial Flame Bird Family, which had produced the most prophets.

As for the serpent and the wolf.

That was more to prevent him from acting recklessly.

"Do you really believe in prophecy and are willing to risk everything for something so ephemeral?"

Tal was furious.

Even he was just lost and hadn’t truly submitted to the prophecy.

Who could ascend to the demigod status would believe in something like that?

He didn’t understand what these families were thinking.

But Peter Snake coldly said, "Of course we don’t believe, but to maintain the continuity of the Empire, we will use every method with some degree of probability."

Your Griffin prophecy is just a small part among countless contingencies.

Tal Griffin, don’t overthink it; for the Empire, we will pay any price."

"Even yourselves?"

"If it’s just me, then it would be too good."

At that moment, Tal knew he had lost.

The past Griffin truly was a model of cunning strategy.

These four patriarchs were the ones most staunchly standing for the Empire’s interests among the thirteen families.

Or, more brutally, their beliefs were their greatest political propositions, also the cornerstone of their standing as family leaders.

By then, he had already become the Empire’s Honorary Emperor.

He couldn’t ignore the opinions of other patriarchs.

——Especially in situations where there were two houses standing together among the five guardians, and the other two also getting involved.

Having understood this, he could only coolly say, "I’ll communicate with the child. If he refuses, then no matter how much you say, I won’t agree."

...

Later, everything unfolded like a nightmare.

After his wife left, the child he painstakingly protected also went.

At that time, the mechanism for inheriting the great sin wasn’t clear.

Because most of the time, they weren’t targeting a single person for the great sin.

A developed great sin often requires joint targeting by several times more strong individuals of the same level.

Where countless attacks simultaneously crush the great sin, it is impossible for the power of the great sin to be directly inherited by the slayer.

Moreover, when an individual accidentally kills a yet-to-grow great sin entity, or overpowers with sheer force, it often leads to self-destruction due to being unable to bear the backlash of the power of the great sin.

Thus, few truly know about this.

Because he protected his son well, he never allowed the sin of envy to harm him.

However, he never expected that in the end, the one harmed wasn’t Envy.

His son instead killed Envy and became the new generation’s great sin.

In a daze, he felt a misconception of fortune’s arrival.

He confessed his selfishness, knowing it was not his son who died, but the second generation Envy, he had a sense of finally escaping the nightmare of the prophecy.

——But things did not go as he wished. After a rainy night, that child stopped breathing mysteriously.

No external interference.

No sign of injury.

Just suddenly forever asleep on the bed.

...End of recollection...

All past events, unwilling to be recalled.

Unbeknownst to him, spring passed and came again, flowers bloomed on the path.

Year after year, the falling snow whitened Tal’s hair.

He had nothing left to lose.

But he was not resigned.

He was indignant!

When did the Lokeshi people ever pin their future hopes on elusive prophecies?

Instead of thinking so much, it’d be better to consider what method to use to save Lokeshi’s flame.

He looked at the three plans laid out before him, and shook his head, saying:

"Unexpectedly, the Empire hasn’t collapsed; the interior has already split like this."

Just saying, the situation is worse than he imagined.

His fingers brushed lightly over those three plans.

"Escape"

"Relocation"

"Confrontation"

Three plans, each containing merely brief two words.

Yet fully represent the three visions for Lokeshi’s future direction within the Empire.

"Escape" is the shared vision of Tal Griffin’s faction and the Red-eyed Two-winged Tiger Family.

"Relocation" is led by the Roaring Moon Lion, aiming to migrate the Empire’s main battle force entirely to the East and West Monet Kingdoms.

The Roaring Moon Lion faction had long anticipated the death of the Cosmic Serpent under the Monet Kingdom.

As the plans unfold step by step, the Griffin family’s prophecy was long known to the patriarchs.

The Roaring Moon Lion seems convinced that the prophecy will be fulfilled and therefore didn’t put hope on protecting the homeland.

He and several family leaders below planned to transfer all living forces to Monet, seize control of Monet, and use the Empire’s original lands as buffer zones, then lead Monet and his soldiers to counterattack.

In this way, even if the prophecy comes true, so what?

The Lokeshi Empire gets destroyed, but it still exists in another form.

It might even strike back at any moment with the reverse push.

Even though later cleaning up the battlefield would be troublesome, the Empire’s foundation is still there; the Empire still has a future.

Thinking of this, Tal sneered.

The idea of the patriarch of the Roaring Moon Lion was outright foolish.

What makes him think that Louis Charles Julius would be the Sin King in the prophecy?

He even persuaded the Confrontation faction to treat some members of the assassination squads as "pawns," turning them into potential troops for the Curse Binding Legion.

In Tal Griffin’s view, this behavior is akin to betrayal.

To be honest, shouldn’t the most likely candidate for Sin King be some destitute Black Sun?

He’s not one now only because he hasn’t gone mad yet.

Finally, he focused his attention on the Confrontation faction.

This faction was formed by the four families originally privy to the prophecy.

They are determined to confront the adversary on their own land.

But they seem to forget that their actions are akin to destroying the Empire’s foundation.

The Empire believes in itself, not in gods, which brought it to this day.

Yet Bart Jean, leading the Confrontation faction, is total madness now.

By repeatedly allowing Ense to participate in Lokeshi’s national affairs, don’t they know once bound too deeply, it would easily plant internal hazards within Lokeshi, giving Ense a chance to annex Lokeshi?

Choosing to let allied forces from various countries come to fight on Lokeshi’s land, haven’t they considered this could intensify the Empire’s internal conflicts and possibly cause more damage from the coalition forces than external enemies?

The above two points might be bearable, after all, to acquire more substantial military force, one must pay some cost.

But the last point is the most incomprehensible to him.

They even persuaded the Relocation faction to agree to let churches propagate beliefs within the Empire?

Losing the spirit of challenging Heaven ingrained in Lokeshi people’s bones will not only permanently impair the successors’ ability to cultivate their innate gods but also relinquish the power of public opinion.

How dare these people!

Thinking about this, he finally made up his mind.

The "Escape" plan must be carried out.

Only this way can Lokeshi’s fire truly be preserved.

Moments later, the communication crystal lit up, and a figure in a black cloak appeared in the video.

"Lord Tal, have you finally chosen to agree?"

"I will cooperate as much as I can. You must act swiftly."

"Of course, let the Love God’s dark side offer you everything you desire."