Twenty-four, Great Times

  "...the plight of our army is beyond description: the cold winds are raging, while the soldiers still have no clothes to cover their bodies; their homes have been destroyed, and their families have nowhere to go; and we have made no preparations for this. In addition, our military's financial reserves have been completely depleted, and food reserves are also extremely scarce. Due to the suspension of military pay and reduction of rations, most soldiers and civilians are on the verge of **; the shortage of ammunition is constraining the army, and the entire army cannot even continue to fight, and many villages and strongholds in the front line have been forced to be abandoned."

  I don't know who is responsible for this terrible situation now. But I can be sure that if the supply in the rear cannot be improved quickly, the front-line troops will undoubtedly disintegrate one after another. Whether to fight or retreat, please make a decision as soon as possible.

  New Hampshire State Senate President in the midst of a snowy struggle

  At the end of the telegram was a line of small characters: Read, road icy, transportation inconvenient, allowed to abandon some strongholds and retreat, Zena.

  Although the underground city was always spring, the dangerous situation described in the letter still made Phil's back feel a chill after he had just been promoted to colonel. However, seeing it through to the end, he could only let out a long sigh and put down the letter from Chairman Zena requesting aid from the front lines, folding it up and putting it back in the envelope. At the same time, he began to consider with a headache how to tactfully but firmly refuse the request that the council members would inevitably make for him to send troops north immediately.

  After Ludwig's successful campaign in Sohn-Nom, he returned to the icy north and led a group of poorly supplied militiamen against the Elven army. At first, he could still get some limited supplies from the War Zone Command, but after Sophia landed at Emon Port, New Mordor was too busy with its own affairs, and the War Zone Command automatically disbanded, leaving Ludwig without even this meager support. By now, Ludwig is basically exhausted on the front lines and can no longer hold out, sending one plea for help after another, hoping that Chairman Zena will lend him a hand.

  But what can President Zena use to pull him through? It's the middle of winter, and transportation is extremely inconvenient. Moreover, President Zena doesn't have many resources at her disposal. Food and ammunition were depleted during the defense of New Masobray City, and although the southern states promised to bear some of the burden, they've been dragging their feet until now. As for troops, it's not even worth thinking about - several recruitment centers are so deserted that you could set up a bird net at the entrance. The conscription bill has been tossed around in the Continental Congress several times, but it can't be passed due to strong opposition. Therefore, New Masobray State currently doesn't have any decent military power.

  "But the worst history has changed after all." Fili opened the window, outside was the underground square of New Morsul City. Many blankets and tents were piled up on the ground, looking dirty and messy. Not a few refugees from Emon Port were still stranded in this temporary refugee camp in New Morsul City, living on relief food issued by the government. Although they were in a desperate situation, they had survived after all.

  New Masoburak City did not fall, and the worst-case scenario for Emmon Port has occurred. Although the port was once occupied by the enemy, most of the residents had already evacuated, and fewer than a thousand people actually died. Sophia Liria, who should have been fighting on the battlefield for many years, also died, while I, a black household name, became the commander of an army corps, just one step away from becoming a general.

  Fili? Taylor, this little butterfly that strayed into a different time and space. Has already stirred up a huge storm in this turbulent world. The future has begun to take a path completely different from the history books, his "clairvoyance" is no longer so effective.

  But even with these changes in details, the world is still in an era of turmoil and war. The glory of the old era is about to end, and the dawn of a new era has not yet risen. The world is searching for a way out in bloodshed. To stand out in this chaotic world, one needs courage, wisdom, and perseverance that exceed ordinary standards, as well as indispensable luck.

  In the midst of chaotic times, everything is being reshuffled and anything can happen. How to gain one's own benefits in the chaos is a heavy lesson for every speculator. So far, Phil Taylor has managed quite successfully.

  But now, the turmoil is only a relatively calm prelude compared to the entire era. The truly earth-shattering change will not occur until much later. At that time, whether speculation can succeed or not will be the difference between ascending to heaven and falling into hell. Even gods who stand on the wrong side will be destroyed, let alone insignificant mortals.

  In this world, gods can die and mortals can be immortal.

  This is a two-sentence proverb that has been circulating in many countries for many centuries, said to be from the mouth of a great sage, but its specific origin can no longer be verified.

  By turning oneself into an undead creature, such as a lich or vampire, or by using advanced magical techniques to extend one's lifespan, mortals can in some sense achieve immortality. For example, many of the great arcanists of Netheril during the First Empire era achieved this feat

  The power has lived up to now, and its lifespan has exceeded that of most gods. It's absolutely possible to say that it has achieved immortality.

  And indeed, gods can die. As early as the era of the collapse of the First Empire of Nisrael, the Nisrael pantheon suffered heavy casualties. In the subsequent "Years of Turmoil", the three dead gods Mirk, Bane and Bal walked the earth in the guise of saints, only to be killed by mortals. The murderer became the Lying Prince Shirek, making the god a diamond gift package in people's minds. As for the position of the goddess of magic, it has already changed hands several times. Therefore, this view that gods can die is also unquestionable, and the world generally calls it "fallen".

  Regarding the downfall of gods, there is a saying in textbooks: The position of god itself is like a throne, and the god sits on it to issue orders. As long as the factors that produce the position of god still exist, the position of god is difficult to be destroyed. However, although not easy, the position of god can be weakened, can be divided, and can be taken away by other gods. More importantly, the guy sitting on the throne can be replaced.

  But in those days, such changes were still extremely rare, and it was only a few times in thousands of years. Under the oppression of Aeolus, the king of the gods, the struggle between the gods could only be considered as

  But now this world has become crazy and strange. Gods fall every day, while mortals can often be immortal!

  When the guardian god Heim united with Mistr and Eltria, they directed the greatest betrayal in history through the hands of Emperor Termanent Tan Shul, using an ordinary iron axe to chop the sleeping King of Gods Aeo into pieces, and then divided his divine kingdom. The old order and laws were completely overturned.

  The great mountain that pressed down on the heads of all gods collapsed with a loud crash, and the elegant and refined style of the aristocracy among the gods was completely destroyed. The cruel law of the jungle where the weak are preyed upon by the strong became the new game rule for both mortals and gods. The entire world is nothing but a huge stage for a zero-sum game, where the gain of the successful is the loss of the failed. All gods either voluntarily or forcibly put down their hypocritical masks, donned the skin of beasts, and devoured each other, interpreting this world in a pathetic way that doesn't quite fit Darwin's theory of evolution.

  The gods turned themselves into beasts that drank blood and dwelled in the forest, while their followers on earth were their roots and claws. In order to survive, a god had to destroy other gods' means of survival, or at least leave them severely injured and crippled, thus rendering them powerless to harm him. If we look at the history of the world, it can be seen that the relationship between the gods has already transitioned from the feudal era's fragmentation to the colonial empire era's mutual devouring. Sealing a god is no longer something to be rejoiced about; if a weak and small god does not become an appendage or cannon fodder for a powerful god, then it will only have the path of being collectively strangled by all the gods. Just like how colonial empires treat weak and small nations.

  How to make oneself and one's followers survive and thrive in a world that has suddenly become cruel, has become a difficult problem for the gods. Those who answer correctly will survive, those who answer incorrectly will perish, everything is just so ruthless.

  Under the new rules, civilization defeats barbarism, order defeats chaos, and the representative product of civilization and order is "the state". The gods who grasped the state became strong and prosperous, while those who failed to grasp the state could only struggle on. When the gods who grasped the state began to use the machinery of the state to exclude other beliefs, many gods representing barbarism and chaos were eliminated and lost their competitive ability. What follows is the competition between various civilized states.

  X'zeth, the Scourge of the Elves, was the first to succeed in this struggle. Seizing the opportunity presented by the demise of Corellon Larethian and Lolth, he usurped the throne of the elven pantheon, fueled by the hatred that permeated his entire race. And at the cost of tribal divisions, he forged the elves under his command into a massive war machine filled with fanatical ideas of revenge.

  The spirits of Yongju Island shed their gentle, kind and just appearance from then on, becoming unadulterated colonialists and terrorists. They first crossed the vast Traceless Sea, extorting enormous wealth from the indigenous people of the Mazka continent with blood-stained swords. Then, using this as a shield, they launched a grand "Spirits' Great Invasion" against the civilized nations, using bloody and terrifying "total war" to defeat those loose and disorganized countries, pushing the spirits' power, which had been declining for thousands of years, back to its peak.

  Xue Fulaosi used the memory of his tribe's past dominance to evoke the elves' hatred for outsiders, condensed the hatred into a unified citizenry, and then gained tangible benefits through external plunder, thus winning the first round of this competition.

  However, hatred can unite a nation and also drive it to madness beyond redemption. Madness means chaos and lack of rationality. A force lacking in rationality is impossible to hold the winner's throne for long.

  Mystara, the Goddess of Magic, was the second to succeed in this competition. She first took the last remnant of the Nefaria civilization from Shar, the Night Goddess, by taking over the Shadowfell's stronghold, and merged it with the already conquered Silvermoon Federation to form the Second Nefarian Empire. Then, she allied herself with Elune, the Dark Maiden

  Ryulong? La Ruxin led the spirits of the gods, starting from the first continental spider Ros, and began a long campaign to compete with Sal for the dark region. Due to the main force being tied up underground, the Second Empire of Nisrael was powerless to open up new territories in the surface world for a long time, and could only place its hopes on the distant New Continent. Thus, there was the New Nisrael Thirteen States.

  When the "Great Invasion of the Elves" began, the Second Narsilean Empire was just a loose confederation of city-states. However, the elven army's swift blades quickly pushed the surrounding forces towards this empire without an emperor. With the rich resources of the New Continent and the Dark Territory, Mystara appeared as a savior to the people of various countries who were suffering from the elven invasion, incorporating their lands and gods into her territory, calling herself the leader of the Anti-Elven Invasion Alliance, gradually making Narsilean truly worthy of the title "Empire".

  It can be said that the "Great Invasion of the Elves" has created a glorious achievement for the Elven Kingdom that it has never had in thousands of years, and also created a powerful opponent that it has never had in thousands of years. The empire is still loose now, but its overall strength has jumped to the top of the world. Once the next step of integration is completed, the future will be boundless.

  However, the goddess of trade and wealth, Wogin, came to pick fruit.

  A unified empire means a unified market, and large-scale maritime colonization means prosperous ocean trade. A vast country without prosperous domestic and foreign trade to support it is simply unimaginable. The Kingdom of Elves and the Narsiel Empire, while expanding their territory, also provided a stage for Wogin to show off his skills.

  After Xue Fula's discovery of the threat of Wogin, he creatively and thoroughly abolished almost all trade activities in the Elf Kingdom. Instead, a planned economy system was adopted, relying on government agencies to replace the market to allocate all resources. Although this massive national economic plan clearly exceeded the working capacity of the Elven Kingdom's bureaucracy, it also very effectively eliminated any roots of Wogin in the Elven Kingdom. Of course, this system, which transcended its time, not only had to pay a lot of extra resource waste but also made the whole nation cry out in suffering, wanting what they couldn't have. The Elf Kingdom thus became the mortal enemy of free trade and the Church of Wogin.

  However, the magical goddess Mystara and her empire of Thyatis could not do this, for her empire was only a loose confederation, and any blow to trade would cause the seemingly powerful empire to disintegrate in an instant. So Mystara could only helplessly watch as Wokan expanded his power step by step within the empire's borders, until he threatened her own position of rule. The only advantage was that Wokan had never considered Mystara his archenemy.

  In a somewhat crude way of putting it, in this world where the Ferren continent is the center of civilization. The goddess of magic, Mystera and the dark elf girl, Eris, using the Nazereth Empire as their tool, occupy the highest throne that governs most civilized races. Of the two, Mystera is the queen and Eris is the empress. The god of knowledge, Ogma, is their majordomo, standing beside the throne, but never having any hope of sitting on it.

  Xefras, the spirit of spite and malice, sat on a smaller throne with some other elven deities, gazing at the two goddesses with envy and resentment, wishing to shatter their thrones along with the goddess above. Thus began the Great Elven Invasion and the war that engulfed the world.

  Trade and Wealth Goddess Wogin took advantage of her advantageous position in the World Bank. She made rapid progress in this era of economic globalization, opening up a path with gold coins and squeezing onto the highest throne of Mysterra and Elyse. She is working hard to overthrow the two goddesses and make them her concubines, allowing herself to reign supreme. The internal social contradictions within the Nazereth Empire are one manifestation of the arduous struggle between the three goddesses' bitter rape and counter-rape.

  The difference between these two struggles is that Xuefeng wants "destruction", his victory represents the extinction of many civilizations other than the elves. Jin wants "overthrow", even if she ascends to the throne, she still needs the support of Mistra and Elise. In fact, the three are symbiotic, with only a difference in status, but no life-and-death struggle.

  In short, the global backdrop of this era is characterized by two aspects: on one hand, a military struggle between a multi-racial alliance led by humans and the colonial forces of the elves; on the other hand, an internal struggle within the alliance between faith in magic and faith in money. As for who will ultimately emerge victorious - humans or elves? Money or magic? After a long period of gestation and preparation, everything has now reached a critical juncture where the outcome will be decided once and for all.

  At this moment, a butterfly quietly appeared in the remote New Zealand 13th state, far away from the center of civilization. With its fragile wings and a hint of precognition, it made an effort to stir up a storm. The scale of this storm is not very large at present, but how it will be in the future, no one can know for now, including the butterfly itself.

  Filius Taylor stood in the dimly lit underground training grounds, gazing at his disheveled subordinates, feeling a sense of uncertainty about their future.

  Above his head, a thick layer of rock still raged with wind and snow. (End of Volume 3)