The choice of the people of the 's heart trembled suddenly when she heard Cassius' words. She wanted to escape, but she couldn't help but look at the people on the ground, especially at their faces.
"how come."
The people of the empire who heard the news of the war did not show the expected fear, panic, disgust and other emotions. Instead, everyone's face was flushed, and each face of different appearances was filled with bright smiles.
The workers in the arsenal were happy because the war would bring a flood of orders.
Although overtime work is extremely tiring, it can also bring them more generous rewards, allowing them to buy a house in the city earlier and become true Istalia.
The soldiers in the army were happy because war brought honor and status.
In the minds of the soldiers, under the protection of the Burning Emperor, who symbolizes strength and victory, they are invincible and unbeatable. War is nothing more than a ladder to climb to a higher position and a test of the brave.
The tavern owner and waiters were also very happy because the war would bring booming business.
After the war, the soldiers who received their pay and spoils would rush into the tavern, spend money recklessly, party all night long, and even scatter gold coins everywhere.
The players were even more excited. They opened bottles of champagne and even ran naked in the streets to celebrate the long-awaited good news.
In their eyes, there is no such thing as a cruel war. These are just large-scale dungeons for gaining experience and grabbing equipment!
After seeing these people of the empire, who had different identities and statuses but were all cheering for the coming of war, Olivia fell into deep self-doubt.
She didn't know what to say for a moment.
Why, why are all the people celebrating when the country is about to fall into war? Is she the only one who is wrong?
Is this war of aggression really just?
Olivia recalled what Cassius had said just now: "War is a means, not an end." "The Empire will bring true order to the continent of Feanso." "This is not out of personal desire, but the common choice of the people of the Empire."
The red dragon's voice seemed to have some kind of magic that made Olivia identify with it from the bottom of her heart and dragged her thoughts into the abyss bit by bit.
In an instant, countless images like oil paintings flashed through Olivia's mind: the Fadlan people wailing in the artillery fire, the red dragon circling in the sky, and the imperial workers toiling day and night in the factory.
Finally, the scene remains as the ancient silver dragon, a symbol of the old order, falls from the sky.
Olivia shook her head suddenly and murmured in a low voice, her eyes were already blurred: "No, it shouldn't be like this. The future order shouldn't be like this. It's too cruel and too tyrannical."
Cassius lowered his head and approached the silver-haired girl with a smile. His sulfurous and slightly hot breath washed over Olivia's fair face.
The look in the red dragon's light golden vertical pupils was particularly strange, as if it was looking at a newborn baby, which made Olivia feel a little uncomfortable.
"Olivia, you are still too naive."
Cassius looked up at the sun in the sky and sighed: "The old order is already crumbling, and all the old economic forms, all the relationships and political systems adapted to them will be shattered.
After the collapse of the old order, an era of chaos will come, and a new order will emerge from the darkness and turmoil.
Like any transformation in nature, this process is inevitably bloody and cruel, and it is inevitably accompanied by the death of countless people and the destruction of countless families. No one can stop this.”
Cassius lowered his head again, staring closely at Olivia, who looked extremely small in the giant claws, and said in a heavy voice: "Olivia, I thought you would understand me.
I just want to use the power of the empire to speed up this inevitable process and make people's suffering shorter, just like using a scalpel to cut open the skin and take out the newborn baby. "
"Casius, you"
Olivia raised her head and looked in amazement at the majestic face that revealed a hint of sadness. For a moment, she didn't know whether it was a true expression of feelings or another deception.
Although she still couldn't fully understand what Cassius said, she was vaguely convinced by him.
Maybe—this unique red dragon really is saving the world?
Olivia only felt the space in front of her eyes distorted and the world spinning. When she came to her senses, she had escaped from the red dragon's claws and staggered to the altar of Istalia.
She looked up and saw the Red Dragon Emperor showing his majestic and tall figure to his people, spreading his extremely wide wings and casting a huge shadow in the city of Istalia.
"Roar--"
The red dragon slowly raised its head and howled toward the sky, making a long roar that shook the earth and echoed throughout the Anzeta Wilderness.
Olivia lowered her head and saw that the people in the city were looking at the red dragon in the sky devoutly, even fanatically.
"Casius, it's really His Majesty the Emperor! It's really Him!"
"Praise the Great Red Dragon!"
"As long as Your Majesty is here, we will definitely win!"
They crowded forward like fanatical pilgrims, some even knelt down and kissed the ground, because it was a great honor to appear under the shadow of the wings.
In the boiling crowd, people were shouting at the top of their lungs. Their voices and shouts were like surging waves, one after another, as if their enthusiasm would never stop and their strength would never be exhausted.
——Because the emperor in the sky is their greatest spiritual support and source of strength, who can give them endless power.
"Long live His Majesty Cassius! Praise the only and supreme emperor of Anzeta!"
"His wings are wider than the sky; his back is taller than the earth; his tail is longer than the mountains. All nations come together to worship the great red dragon in the sky!"
The knights of the Dragon Oath Temple recited their prayers solemnly, while the monks of the order sang the magnificent "Hymn of Cassius" together.
In this warm atmosphere, even Olivia was infected and felt inexplicably excited.
When she looked up at the sky again, the sun's rays shone on the red scales. The red dragon spread its wings against the light, and golden lines outlined the almost perfect contour of its body.
Along with the stirring music, a solemn and sacred atmosphere spread out. In her beautiful blue-gray eyes, Cassius at this moment was like a statue of god, sacred, majestic and inviolable.
For a moment, Olivia felt confused, and confusion appeared on her delicate face. She could no longer tell what was going on.
She couldn't tell which one of the two, the red dragon who spoke fiercely just now and the emperor who looked like a god now, was the real Cassius. Or maybe they were just one aspect of the Burning Emperor.
Olivia couldn't help but mutter to herself, "What is the real you like, Cassius?"
At the same time, the red dragon flapped its wings high in the sky, overlooking the creatures below and accepting the countless fanatical gazes of the people of the empire.
With his extremely high status and various constant spells such as [Eye of True Vision], Cassius was able to see the nectar-like power gushing out from the souls of the people of the empire - that was faith, extremely pure faith.
"Very good, that's it. When I possess true godhood, they will all become the source of my power."
"But now, what is more important is to wake them up, bring them the passion for war, and let the resting beast of the Burning Empire - wake up completely."
Cassius looked down at the crowd and thought to himself.
The next moment, the Supreme Dragon Crown inlaid with gems appeared on the red dragon's head, shining brightly under the sunlight, adding a bit of majesty to him.
"My dear subjects"
The red dragon slowly opened its mouth, and a thunderous sound echoed in the city of Istalia, and even with the help of the power of the empire, it spread throughout the entire Anzeta Wasteland.
In an instant, whether it was Batto City and Northwind Castle in the north, or Stravburg and Blackrock Castle in the south, as long as they were cities affiliated with the Burning Empire, huge dragon head phantoms appeared in the sky above them.
——This is none other than their ruler, the Burning Emperor Cassius.
While Cassius was speaking, the dragon head phantoms all opened their bloody mouths and made the same solemn sound.
At this moment, not only the citizens of Isdalia, but nearly ten million citizens of the entire Burning Empire - whether they were humans, hobgoblins, tieflings, ogres, or those wyverns and chimeras, they all raised their heads and looked at the emperor in the sky.
"Hello, my dear subjects."
"I am Cassius Klauberu Norikius, the sole ruler of the Anzeta Wasteland and the Emperor of the Burning Empire."
The Red Dragon's tone did not fluctuate much, he simply stated his identity in a calm manner - even though this was known to everyone in the empire.
However, just this one sentence caused the entire empire to boil, with millions of people shouting and cheering.
"Long live!"
"Long live His Majesty Cassius!"
"Praise the great red dragon! May your majesty bless us to be invincible and indestructible!"
There is no need for excessive rhetoric, nor is there any need to reiterate the amazing achievements. As long as the Burning Emperor appears there, he is already a symbol of victory and hope, and can bring endless power to the people of the empire.
Of course, there are also players from various local "Dragon Control Club" branches who shout out treasonous declarations, wanting to touch His Majesty Cassius's tail, claws, and even
Eventually, they were reported by the enthusiastic masses who had had enough and were arrested by the Tieflings of the Imperial Guard.
Cassius, hanging high in the sky of Istalia, paid no attention to these trivial matters. He continued his speech in a steady and powerful voice:
"Today, I send you out not only to fight, but also to defend justice and challenge those injustices."
The [Fine-Talker] opened fire at full force, making Cassius's distortion of right and his claim that aggression was the defense of justice seem so justified that even millions of people in the empire were unaware of the problem.
"These southerners have land that is far richer and more abundant than ours. In the words of the former Emperor of Fadlan, this is a land of God flowing with honey and milk, and buried with gold.
We were trapped in the desolate and barren wasteland of Anzeta and endured thousands of years of poverty until the establishment of the Empire, when the situation began to improve. "
Cassius flapped his wings again, stirring up a fierce hurricane, and his voice became a little excited, even revealing a hint of indignation.
“But—they didn’t cherish it! The foolish descendants of God fought each other for the legacy of the Holy Fadlan Empire. They greedily occupied all the land in the middle of the continent, turning what should have been a paradise into a hell!
Don’t we, the people of the Burning Empire, deserve such land? Are we just going to watch those proud Fadlans fight over it?”
"cannot--"
Countless people of the empire were infected by Cassius' words. Their faces turned red and they shouted angrily, their voices rising like a tsunami.
Seeing that people's emotions had reached their peak, Cassius said firmly and forcefully: "As the emperor of the Burning Empire, I cannot allow this to happen!
I hope that my subjects can also have their own territory under the sun, and can hold their chests high with pride because they are citizens of the Burning Empire!
Only when our flag flies high over the land of North Ethel amid cheers of victory, and these remnants of Fadland accept the coming of peace, can I feel truly at ease and have true peace.
We will also make the name of the Burning Empire famous in the land of Feanso, so that those despicable southerners will be in awe of us and never dare to look down on us again!"
"conquer--"
"Devote everything to the great blueprint of the Burning Empire!"
"We will establish a new order! We will make the name of the Burning Empire a nightmare to them!"
This series of declarations made the emotions of the people of the empire rise one after another, and they waved their fists, letting the shouts and war cries sweep across millions of square kilometers of land in Anzeta.
Although Cassius' speech was full of sophistry and logical loopholes, under the influence of this fanatical atmosphere, the people of the empire had already lost their reason and even lost themselves, becoming part of the brutal war monster.
Whether workers, officers, citizens or merchants, they were all caught up in this inexplicable war frenzy, which intensified under the catalysis of the imperial order.
And this is exactly the effect that Cassius tried every means to achieve. Compared with the Anzeta Wasteland, the Feiansuo Continent is so large that as long as the empire stops, it is likely to suffer a serious counterattack.
Therefore, once the war begins, the Burning Empire needs to continue conquering without stopping until it occupies the entire continent of Feanso.
Now, at the call of its master, the terrifying beast of the Burning Empire has fully awakened, and its target is the prey in the south.
On top of the Great Altar of Istalia, Olivia looked at the fanatical crowd and felt that she was out of tune with them. She couldn't help feeling a little lost, as if she was naturally unable to fit in.
Maybe, she was really wrong.
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