Myth: The Spiritual Dominator

"'Royal Order'... So that's what it is. I understand."

"Everything in human society, including the gods and the lives ruled by the gods, must abide by it."

"So even powerful heroes don't dare to confront a country head-on, but some chaotic and crazy demons don't need to care about such shackles."

"The powerful monsters in the legend can wreak havoc on the kingdom, but they are often killed by heroes; heroes who can kill monsters cannot conquer a country with their own force, and this is the difference between the inside and the outside of order."

Suddenly realizing, Andrea felt that she finally understood the rules and order of the world today.

Be it gods, humans, or even other intelligent beings, most of them can gain certain benefits from this order.

In fact, the only ones who are truly restricted are the gods other than the King of Gods and the demigods at the top of the human world.

Only they are unable to demonstrate their full power because of this rule and have to be restricted by the kingdom and the people.

But they had no choice but to accept it, because the one who made the regulations was the King of Gods, who was also the source of a considerable number of divine bloodlines in the world.

Even beyond that, although Ryan didn't say it explicitly, Andrea still vaguely sensed something.

Just look at the effect of this system and you will know who are the ones who are really restricted by the God King. They are nothing more than all the "strong ones" in the entire God Court system except himself.

If the entire system of the divine court is a pyramid, then the God King is the top of the pyramid.

And those restricted gods and demigods in the world are the ones closest to the cutting edge.

In addition, there are the vast majority of nobles, kings of average strength, and even the professionals who make up the elite army, they are the middle part of the pyramid.

As for the remaining civilians without extraordinary powers, whether there is a "royal order" or not, they are at the bottom of the tower, and it's just a matter of who they serve.

In this situation, comparing it with Zeus's behavior, Andrea also had some vague insights.

As a ruler, you need to make those who are second only to you respect and obey you.

Then let those who are separated from you by a level gain benefits from the order you personally established, and create an overall conflict of interests with those who are just below you.

This is the best situation for you.

And there should be more behind this logic. Andrea's intuition tells her that the current wars between countries and conflicts between gods may also be a manifestation of the wisdom of the King of Gods in this regard.

It can be said that Andrea could only learn about how powerful the God King was from documents whose authenticity was unknown.

But his wisdom as a ruler seems to have always been around everyone.

"Father often said that he didn't trust gods. He also knew that many gods were powerful only because they were born as gods. But even so, he believed that some gods really understood something in their long lives and summed up knowledge that mortals often find difficult to understand."

"He also said that the more widely promoted and the longer they are circulated, the less people care about them. Often, they contain the most useful wisdom."

Sighing, Andrea felt that she was still far from achieving her goal.

"Now that I know the rules of human warfare, what should I do next?"

"Now that the national war has begun, the gods can no longer rely on divine descent to defeat the Athenian army. Should I directly march my troops to the border and besiege Eleusis?"

"Of course not."

Looking at Andrea who had given up thinking, Ryan smiled.

This wasn’t a case of self-destruction, it was purely a change of heart in the middle of the night, where he was faced directly with the death of a loved one, and then seamlessly transitioned into his first murder while also trying to appease the citizens of Athens.

After all these operations, Andrea's spirit was almost at its limit, so she inevitably relaxed in front of someone she could trust.

"If it was just a war between Athens and Eleusis, you shouldn't do this. Because this is a rebellion, not a response to a foreign enemy."

"When dealing with foreign enemies, a lion will use all its strength to fight a rabbit. That is 'those who commit crimes against the country will be punished no matter how far away they are.' However, if you still use all your strength to deal with a small rebellion, it will only make people think that Athens has weakened and lost its former strength after the change of the throne."

"What's more, Athens has only been centralized for a few decades, and a considerable number of its troops are conscripted. At the current speed of mobilization, I'm afraid that by the time you have recruited and are ready to go, three months will have passed."

"And now Athens is not just facing the rebellion of Eleusis, the threat from the western countries is the biggest problem. Their power alone may not be as strong as Athens, but when most of the power of the entire Olympian pantheon comes in droves, I'm afraid we still need to prepare early."

"Well...what should I do?"

Andrea asked, as if she was thinking hard.

"Of course, we will use the royal army to quickly suppress the rebellion. After all, the enemy is still using your brother's name as theirs, claiming that Demophon is the legitimate heir to Athens."

"In this situation, it is obvious that we should act quickly and not give Eleusis, which has also rebelled hastily, a chance to reorganize. We should directly use our elite troops to break into the city and intimidate the entire Athens."

"At the same time, the main forces of the country will immediately deploy troops in the western border and recruit soldiers to act according to the situation. In the south, envoys will be sent to seek friendly alliances. In the east, maritime trade will be reduced to prevent the invasion of the believers of the sea god. When the time comes, we will see which side has the opportunity between the east and the west, and we will attack instead of defend and win the first game. This is the correct way of military strategy."

Ryan said casually without giving it much thought.

This is not some earth-shattering wisdom, it is simply the standard response to such situations.

"But having said that, you still have to be prepared."

"This war will not be easy for Athens to win."

"Well, I know."

Nodding, Andrea cheered up: "In fact, I am ready to fight in the Acropolis one day in the future."

"Right in front of the great temple of the goddess, showing the fearlessness of the Athenians."

"But speaking of which, Ivan..." Blinking, Andrea asked, "What is the art of war?"

In later myths, Chaos was the 'God of Military Strategy', but after personal investigation, Ryan was sure that he was not.

Just like Athena's psychic artifact was regarded as a god by later generations, it was probably the result of some false rumors.

So looking at Andrea with a confused look on her face, Ryan didn't know how to explain it better.

There are various strategies in this era, but there is no one who has achieved great success and written a book to summarize the past and bring forth new ideas.

Therefore, as of now, there is indeed no systematic military strategy in the Chaos world.

"Just think of it as a summary of the art of war. Although there are not many wars in the world, there are many in some places."

In the world of Chaos, where are wars the most frequent?

Of course it is the battlefield of hell and abyss.

This is the most appropriate explanation, and anyone who wants to understand it will not find it strange.

However, even Ryan did not expect that the excuse he gave at the time would lead future generations to come to the same conclusion when they looked back on history thousands of years later.

Human morality comes from God and comes from the Golden Age; while conspiracy and cunning come from the devil and have been passed down from the Silver Age to the present.

Morality is certainly worth praising, but cunning is not useless either. Because as the crystallization of human wisdom, the earliest military tactics of mankind were inherited from this.

······

Athens acted quickly and without any delay. Not long after, Andrea announced the war order in the palace.

Troops from many city-states will be recruited from now on, and then gathered in a large city in the west.

In the afternoon of the same day, the knights of the royal city began to gather.

In this age of myth and fantasy, the so-called "knight" can be said to be quite characteristic of the times.

They belong to the lowest level of the ruling class and are the most direct manifestation of a kingdom's military power.

As for the reason, it can be traced back to the beginning of the supernatural system.

The extraordinary power in the world today, when traced back to its source, is roughly nothing more than an extension in the direction of spiritual elements, or an expansion from the perspective of material life.

And at the beginning of everything, it was the survivors of the Golden Age before they became the first professionals in the world to step into the legendary realm of material life.

In his perception, he had gone through four stages of change. (See 3-20)

In the first stage, the energy belonging to material life began to be born.

It is condensed from blood, flesh, and bone marrow, and can also enable the mortal body to break the innate limitations of mortal things.

Before this, there will always be a limit to pure exercise and training.

The birth of the first ray of life energy indicates that the upper limit of mortal things can be broken.

However, this so-called breakthrough is not so direct and obvious in its external manifestation; it is more of a beginning.

In the second stage, when this material life energy exceeds a certain limit, it begins to be actively controlled by the owner, who can consciously strengthen his or her body.

With this ability, professionals can unleash more powerful abilities when needed.

But at this point, compared with witchcraft and divine arts, the warriors still cannot show any signs of being extraordinary.

Although they run faster, have more strength and better physique, in fact, if they face a group of armored soldiers with bare hands, their only option is to escape.

Therefore, many times, professionals at this level are not even considered extraordinary, but just soldiers with better qualities.

As for the third stage, this is the first watershed for warriors.

The third level of clergy is called high-level priest, and the third level of wizard has completed the initial transformation of the soul and can use the soul to roam the surface of the spiritual world during meditation.

When a warrior reaches this stage, the transformed material life energy can finally leave the body and begin to affect the outside world.

At this point, even a professional without any inheritance can choose to become a "Knight".

And becoming a 'knight' meant becoming the most ordinary member of the so-called Knights Templar, and the lowest level of the ruling class on earth.

Although they are still unable to release "sword energy", warriors who have reached this stage can cover their weapons and armor with their own life energy.

And if the armor is forged in a special way, it can even achieve an effect where one plus one is far greater than two.

In addition, their life energy can also act on other lives.

For example, knights can make their mounts, which they use day and night, have greater endurance and strength.

Furthermore, when there are enough knights releasing life energy at the same time, and there are people who are good at this to support them, their energies may even be intertwined.

This interwoven energy will form a net, weakening any force coming from the outside and enhancing its own lethality.

Such an army is the so-called "Knights", and is a real tool used to intimidate the strong in the world today, or a treasure to defeat the weak with one blow.

It can be said frankly that whether a country is a local independent city-state or a continentally renowned kingdom is most directly determined by whether it has such a knightly order.

Of course, although people nowadays don’t have any feelings about it, if someone in the future were to look at it, they would inevitably feel that the name of the Knights Templar appeared a little too early.

Perhaps in the original history, this era when demigod heroes frequently emerged should be the beginning of the birth of supernatural powers, rather than the earlier Bronze Age.

It was not until after the Trojan War that the path to transcendence gradually spread across the earth.

This kind of power structure based on the "knights" who hold power will gradually form and last for thousands of years in later generations.

But now, everything is much earlier.

If it weren't for the existence of gods, perhaps the world at this time would have already begun to transition towards true "feudalism".

"It's early indeed."

"At least in that imaginary world, I have never known what a 'knight' is."

"But this is not surprising. After all, there was no 'Great Alchemist Hermes' in that era."

With a self-deprecating laugh, Hermes in the high tower watched Solomon's moving figure outside.

Naturally, he also received notification about the war, but the young new king seemed to have not figured out how to communicate with him, so he did not meet with him.

Seeing this, Hermes went with the flow and only let his students go with the army.

In recent days, his experiment has reached a bottleneck.

Although he had a way to continue, he still wanted to do more experiments, such as "blood sacrifice" as one of them.

In addition to this, he had already planned to go and take a look outside the Huanshi River.

He knows that there is nothing outside this world.

But outside of that virtual world he once lived in, it was 'real'.

Every failure makes you wiser. If you can, then see more.

Maybe if he changes his angle or perspective, he might get some new inspiration.

"Let's do it now. The sooner we go, the sooner we can return."

"After that, there may not be enough time."

He let out a breath and stretched out his hand.

Then at the bottom of the tower, a crystal stone flashed slightly and then fell into the palm of Hermes.

"The battle between gods and men... Although I never had the chance to witness the end of Troy, if I think about it, I know that this kind of thing will not have a good outcome."

"The God King has his own plans, and the gods have their own plans. They all think they can win in the end."

"Oh, after all the fighting, I don't know who is swimming naked when the tide goes out."

With a smile, Hermes disappeared into the tower.

He didn't intend to attract anyone's attention on this trip. It would be best if he could leave and return silently.

Anyway, this war on earth will not begin immediately, and now is far from the time for him to appear.