Chapter 2420

2420 - Public Opinion

"The Four Great Powers, the pillars of the universe as people say, have begun recruiting the Behemoths." Theo spoke calmly.

"...?" Renara turned with great astonishment, "Only now do they remember something like this?"

The Four Great Powers are extremely ancient, and their authority has reached the farthest corners of the universe, continuing every day and every minute, yet nothing like this has ever happened before.

"There was no need for it before." Theo explained, "There are power struggles among the four entities, each of them trying to take a step forward and become more important or more influential, but that was the limit of their entanglements—a war between any of the Four has never occurred."

Then he continued, "And there was no need for any war either, for each of them monopolizes something the others do not touch... The Tyrant monopolizes the applications of the Path of Space, the Dreamer monopolizes the Soul Society and all the great soul techniques, the Syndicate monopolizes underground businesses and natural resources of all kinds, and the Council of Thrones monopolizes the role of the policeman at which it excels... Each of the Four has equal influence over all the Behemoths of the universe due to those monopolies; they could summon them or even give them orders, there was no need to pressure them into becoming followers."

"...One could say that to them, the universe was a cake divided into four large pieces, and each of them was eating from a piece equal to a quarter of the cake, each of them satisfied." Then he paused for a moment, "Until my father appeared and decided the division was unfair."

"......" Renara's brows furrowed gently.

"My father is now imposing a new reality." Theo spoke with his arms crossed, "We now subjugate Sector 90 East and Sector 117 West, and between them there are five Behemoths who have declared their allegiance to him—this has never happened before." Then he smiled, "Overnight, we gained five ancient Behemoths along with their sons, at least about 200 Dominators ready to fight in the name of Lord Robin... and that's without counting any other strength we possess, without counting you and Lord Hedrick."

Then he tilted his head slightly, "In their eyes, what we're doing is mobilization—we're not just expanding our sphere of influence but also increasing our power at a pace that is swift and miraculous to them, and this is undoubtedly frightening for powers that have never witnessed such rapid expansion before. I'm certain that if they were confident of victory, they would have already attacked us by now."

“…We believe this sense of danger is what drove those forces to do the same… They haven’t yet moved their armies outside their sphere of control, but they are summoning the Behemoths, near and far, and demanding their submission…” Then he looked ahead, “Or at least complete neutrality, in exchange for their assistance in the event of an invasion.”

“They help them in exchange for neutrality?” Renara asked.

“Correct.” Theo nodded, “This has ruined any initiative to communicate with the Behemoth of Relativity—Glacion has been repelled more than once at its hands… The Middle Sector 88 has become a major obstacle that must be broken, and the coming days will witness a great explosion there, and in Middle 89 before it.”

“Are you saying someone will help the Behemoth of Relativity against us?” Renara’s eyes gleamed.

“Yes.” Theo nodded, “We’ve confirmed the presence of followers of The Tyrant Intiras, Lord of Thrones Qarun, and the Syndicate there in Middle Sector 89, already engineering the next battlefield. In fact, we’ve detected the presence of at least seven other Behemoths… We’ve never witnessed anything like this before. Never has such a gathering of great powers against a common enemy occurred, not even in the days of the Space Beasts’ invasion or the Great Annihilation was there this kind of cooperation.”

“…?” Renara’s eyes opened wide.

Then Theo waved his hand calmly, "The good thing is they haven't moved their armies themselves, but judging by the scale of the support I see, if they can't launch a full-scale counteroffensive against us using the Relativity Galaxy and their monstrous army, they'll set it up as an obstacle we're compelled to avoid and circle around, just as we're currently doing with the mid-tier Sector 110 and the Galaxy of Destruction."

Then he turned to Renara, "But this will leave many gaps within our territories, leaving many variables... something like this must not happen."

"..." Renara nodded, "The boredom has exhausted me while polishing the Galaxy anyway. Where will I go now? Do we start with the Galaxy of Destruction?"

"Don't concern yourself with that side; Lord Hedrick will handle it... Now you need to leave a good impression on the attendees." Theo gestured downward with a nod, "These are the very ones the Four Pillars are trying to draw toward themselves, distorting our image in any way and turning them against us. We took your coronation and Lord Hedrick's as an opportunity to hold these celebrations for a reason..."

Theo paused for a moment, "We must spread the idea that we are not demons as the Four Powers try to paint us, that we are people who listen to reason and are ready for agreements beneficial to all... Otherwise, if we remain silent, we'll find ourselves alone against the entire universe."

He narrowed his brows slightly. "The campaign Lord of Thrones Qarun is waging against us regarding the support, funding, and strengthening of the Crimson Plague is a disaster in itself. Worse, he's begun painting everyone who resists us as some kind of hero of humanity. And unfortunately, the Cosmic Elder's absence due to exile makes the whole matter deeply suspicious... We're starting to look like someone who was entrusted with a sacred duty and then began abusing it."

"Did all of this happen simply because we started expanding? Three major powers, with at least seven Behemoths backing them, all helping someone against us? Is that reasonable, Your Highness Theo?" Renara was utterly bewildered.

"..." Theo looked down. "I spoke with my father about this. He said he believes—*believes*—that those people are backed by external entities like the All-seeing God, with the intent of weakening the universe." Then he continued, "I don't want to rely on theories I'm not certain about, so let's stick with the theory that people are afraid of our rapid expansion."

"..." Renara kept staring at Theo for minutes, then turned her gaze back toward the ceremony, toward thousands of hypocritical, wary eyes.

Then she stood with a smile and descended toward them. "Welcome, all of you, to my humble palace. Welcome."