Chapter 751: Secret Undercurrents

What was an Undead Emperor?

There was probably no need for me to repeat how difficult and inconceivable it was to become an Undead Emperor, nor would I need to repeat what this level represented. All of us Level 4s had gathered together already just for the sake of defeating two Undead Emperors.

Although giving the most powerful individuals level categorizations was a rather foolish way of measuring their power, it would be impossible to assess the Undead Emperors’ danger level without such level categorizations.

Intelligent undead would revere Undead Emperors as the most venerated rulers of undead.

It was supposed to be impossible for Undead Lords to reach the next level. Thus, Undead Emperors had all achieved the impossible.

Of course, the most realistic of all was how ordinary people referred to Undead Emperors.

Calamities.

Apart from very few exceptions, every time a new Undead Emperor appeared in the mortal plane, that would be a calamity for all the living.

Any new Undead Emperor would summon all Undead Lords in the area who had their own secret schemes, organizing a new undead army to attack the entire world with.

After that would be a world war. This type of war was different from the Holy War. Fighting against an Undead Calamity was less severe, but it would affect a greater area. The losses would be astronomical if the Undead Calamity couldn’t be stopped early.

There were countless examples of this in the history books.

The end result would typically be that the Undead Emperor was defeated. However, few Undead Emperors were directly killed. Most managed to escape to other planes. The Ice Plane, Deathmist Plane, and other such planes which were filled with negative energy that the living couldn’t handle had gradually become planes for the undead.

Were there Undead Emperors who didn’t try to attack the living?

According to my knowledge, the only exceptions were some of the Undead Emperors from the Tark Republic as their situation was rather special, with no other exceptions at all…

The reason for this was half because of the undead’s status in the mortal plane, while also half because the undead would naturally be obsessive. Very few undead who had reached the peak would still have a normal personality.

By the time that an Undead Emperor really appeared, the Undead Lords would have waited several decades or even centuries already. They definitely wouldn’t pass up such an excellent opportunity.

It was precisely because the Undead Emperors were the rulers of the undead, with the ability to gather Undead Lords under them, that they gained the title of “Emperor”. That was why all undead would address them as “Your Majesty”.

In a way, the undead’s veneration for Undead Emperors also reflected the endless irreconcilable conflict between the living and the undead.

The undead also desired salvation, their own country, and the existence of an Undead Emperor.

Any Undead Emperor who appeared would automatically begin leading the undead in fighting against both the Order Gods and Chaos Evil Gods. The Undead Emperor would try and create a country for the undead.

Although the Undead Emperors were nominally only Level 4, even a newly ascended Undead Emperor would still easily be able to beat a Low God. In any time that wasn’t a period of Holy War, a new Undead Emperor would be so powerful that they could easily suppress normal Level 4s. Undead Emperors were just like demon kings who required a team of powerful individuals to take down.

Every Undead Emperor’s appearance would represent an escalated conflict between the living and the undead, and that it was time for yet another harvest of the living’s souls.

The most recent Undead Emperor had appeared a bit more than a century ago. He had even defeated the Holy Church’s allied armies and almost destroyed the entire mortal plane. In fact, even after he was defeated, his faction still remained intact, and successfully established a country for the undead. This Undead Emperor ranked among the top of Undead Emperors in history… cough, I should probably refrain from mentioning more specifics as it wouldn’t be humble of me to brag.

“I was so close! Next time, I’ll definitely make the entire world into an undead world!”

Actually, only the Undead Emperors themselves knew that this so-called “almost” was really a practically insurmountable mountain.

Unless the entire Order Faction and Chaos Faction were both completely defeated, it would be impossible for the entire mortal plane to only belong to the undead as that would mean that the Cycle of Reincarnation would have completely lost its meaning. What meaning would there be in having a world that only had the unchanging undead?

No Undead Emperor would be an idiot. They had realized such a maxim already after their defeats. Some were dejected and remained as hermits within their own Death Planes. Some focused instead on their personal research and undead creation.

But in a way, as long as undead still existed in the world, their unwillingness to die and previous grudges would produce more intelligent undead. Even villains needed someone to offer them salvation. The undead also needed their own ruler.

Every Undead Calamity’s threat level would depend on the particular new Undead Emperor’s power level, but even more on how much time had passed since the previous Undead Calamity.

To explain, the longer the time that had passed since the previous Undead Calamity, the more Undead Lords there would be. Each Undead Lord would represent their own army. Although these undead armies were of various sizes, accumulating them all together would be quite a frightening force.

The Yongye Calamity had almost destroyed the mortal plane. Apart from Emperor Yongye being rather unique, it was also because the previous Undead Emperor before him had appeared more than 500 years ago. Too many undead had been accumulating since then.

Although most Undead Emperors had been former humans, the ogres and elves had suffered the most from the Undead Calamities. That was because human history and lives weren’t nearly as long in comparison to the long-lived species…

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2000 years of history would be around 50 generations for humanity to learn about. However, the same amount of time was just one long story to the long-lived Superior Elves.

The Superior Elves probably hated and feared seeing a new Undead Emperor appear more than anything…

“Undead Emperor? How can this be? The previous Undead Calamity was just slightly over a century ago.”

Everyone’s reactions were rather amusing. Some were afraid, some were on guard, and some even prepared to fight.

Although Harloys revealing her power in order to dominate the initiative was one of our goals, I was still rather displeased to see how proud the silly cat was.

“Why did it become like this… For the first time ever, I had a pet as well as someone who truly understood me, overlapping these two types of happiness, which then brought along even more happiness, so I should have obtained a dreamlike bliss, yet why did things become like this… Even though I, I was clearly the first one… no matter if it was becoming an Undead Emperor first, or being cursed at and feared first, or becoming the center of attention… Alright, alright, I’ll go out by myself without you all needing to beat me up.”

I was no longer able to make up such rubbish anymore. Imitating the characters in White Album 2 was far too difficult for me. Anyone who enjoyed that trash anime deserved to be beaten to death.

And seeing how Amelia looked right now, if things went on, she would probably soon try and kill Harloys.

Things instantly became chaotic here, yet I actually laughed.

The current situation was actually quite good. Halent had summoned powerful individuals from various countries to ally together against two Undead Emperors. This was also Halent’s way of showing off his own power and authority by showing his ability to gather such talent under his command. Since he was the host and leader here, he would need to show concrete power on a higher level. Otherwise, his invisible status within this alliance would be lowered.

The Undead Emperors were a threat for Bardi, but they were also an opportunity for Bardi to regain lost reputation and improve its status.

Bardi’s allies hadn’t sent so many powerful individuals to do nothing here. In a way, this was our loose alliance’s first allied military action. Authority would need to be supported by actual power and combat achievements. A mega empire’s status would only be achieved through war, not words.

Allies acting together was an opportunity for everyone to show off their own might.

The Undead Lords from Xiluo wouldn’t be able to assist much other than providing information on the undead. They would be at an absolute disadvantage against the Undead Emperors. They might even become a burden. Yet, I still insisted on them coming here in order to show off the Mist Alliance’s power.

Originally, I hadn’t understood why the Mage Country had sent such an extravagant group of archmages. Still, even Amelia had personally led her wood spirits, which was quite a good explanation of how things were.

This was a silent and peaceful competition. It was likely that we would have to fight large-scale battles as allies later on in the Holy War. This first-time allied battle’s results and power shown would directly influence future authority and the right to command in this alliance. Nobody would be foolish enough to keep their best forces behind at such a time.

It would be more convenient for all members of this alliance if they showed off their strength at this time for the sake of future international communication, in order to avoid others thinking that they were weak and easily trampled over.

Even Auland, which was involved in its own war, had sent troops as reinforcements to Bardi. It was just that Auland’s ships were still en route.

I knew that Halent would definitely have prepared some mega ace in order to awe everyone as the host. I was also confident that no matter what Halent brought out, it wouldn’t attract anywhere near the amount of attention that I would. Harloys and I were two Undead Emperors who commanded several top-level Undead Lords. Not only that, this 2v2 clash of Undead Emperors was only the first card up my sleeve.

As expected, Halent’s expression became slightly strange when he heard that the Mist Alliance’s Elven Empress had successfully leveled up to become an Undead Emperor, but his expression was restored to the same typical faint smile in just an instant.

10 years had passed already. Halent had previously been a pure military person, but now he had evolved into a good politician as well.

Besides, Bardi absolutely couldn’t afford to lose this battle against the two Undead Emperors after making such a grand show of everything by inviting so many allies. If Bardi still lost after this, not only would Bardi lose its citizens’ expectations and concrete benefits, a loss would also severely damage Bardi’s political clout in their capacity of a mega empire.

“Halent’s still too naïve. He’s just like a young child who’s in a hurry to show off a shiny new toy to his friends. Reputation isn’t worth much at all. Bardi has such an incredible foundation that they don’t even need to do anything. Their status is well known already. Why risk things in a gamble? If I was in Halent’s position, I would quietly finish the war before doing anything so grand. Start doing things grandly after winning, and think of something else if there’s another loss. The effects won’t be worse at all.”

“Ha, you make it sound easy because you’re only a bystander. It’s actually all your fault,” Harloys said through soul communication.

I was rather surprised to hear this. How was this connected to me?

“Just think about how much pressure Halent must be under from you and the Mist Alliance making so much progress over the past few years. Back when Bardi allied with the Mist Alliance, Bardi was the big brother, while the Mist Alliance was only a remote backwater. What’s the Mist Alliance like now? What’s Bardi like now? Yes, it’s really fun to surpass others, but the ones being surpassed won’t have as much fun. As Halent is the leader of Bardi and Orloss’s successor, he has a heavy responsibility that someone like you who always shirks responsibility will never understand.”

Harloys’ words were so logical that I was unable to counter them.

Still, I felt more and more pessimistic about how there were so many powerful individuals gathered here.

Right now, everyone was discussing the expected combat results and how to divide the glory as if the Bardi’s previous defeats against the Undead emperors had happened decades ago rather than just recently.

Only Undead Emperors would know just how ridiculous other Undead Emperors were. Everyone here felt that they had won already? Weren’t they underestimating the enemy a bit too much?

There were no absolutes in the world. I had witnessed plenty of military forces that set out fully confident that they would win, only to be completely defeated in the end.

“Perhaps I should find an excuse to stall a few days longer before heading out.”

“Don’t say anything. With your jinxing abilities, I’ll never accept being the first to go out on the frontlines.”

Harloys was that confident in me? Er, I meant lacked so much confidence in me? I was clearly quite confident this time!

“You’re confident that something unexpected will happen?”

Fine, she was correct in guessing that. Now then, what type of excuse should I find to remain behind for a few days?