There was hardly a time that S-ranker were annihilated like fly.

Sure, massive battle between S-rankers happened regularly, but most case often ended in a retreat or a mutual agreement to stop. A clear-cut case of victor and loser were rare. Even in most of those cases, such battles took hours to conclude. The battle-royale between Marley the Magpie, Scathach, Judy Mann, Telomer Grandy and Arden Christy against Samael Wayward was considered by many media to be the harshest S-rankers brawl in living memory with clear cut loser. It took three hours to end with Wayward and Marley escaping, Judy Mann and Telomer injured, Arden Christy presumed dead (until she showed up later) and Scathach walked out as the last woman remaining in the ring.

Although Duke Acrisius tried to suppress the news, the consecutive defeats of both Kakia and Promtus were treated like an ominous omen. But to both the public and the soldier at large, the Centuria’s Praetors were beaten after a long, odious battle. Only, the 10000 soldier who accompanied Promtus knew of the truth, but even their mind couldn’t comprehend such two gods-like pillars kissing the ring under fifteen minutes.

And now, under gazes of hundred thousand, this nigh-impossible feat was repeated in the most irrefutable manner.

Seven-hits. It took an upper-cut, a combo and a haymaker for Dream to KO an S-ranker cold. Ornith’s body laid amongst the shattered brick and pool of his own blood beside his master as a testament of changing times.

Duke Acrisius gritted his teeth. Three minutes in and he was ready to believe the masked monster was the omen of the end.

Seizing that moment, the armor-clad crimson beast imprisoned by the Isle of Knowledge S-ranker shattered the barrier holding it, but a pool of ink emerged like a shadow and bound it with long thin Arcane.

A lonesome figure of the Chronicler, in Horizon Dawn's issue blazer, levitated above the battlefield, chaining the beast down with the classic dose of his [Paradiso]. Around Hikma, a dozen of aerial drones decent from the sky.

It was then Rem made a speech. His voice being amplified by speaker on the drones.

…

“I know my entrance is unexpected, and certainly isn’t wanted. Technically, I am here to do only one thing and in every version of the future all of you will be stopping me from doing it. To cut the matter short, I am here to help the kid play the hero. To all those who are listening, there are two versions of how this little hang-out end.

“One version: we walked out here with Penelope, and you went back to do whatever it is you are doing. Play poker. Chat. Hit each other with a cannon. Whatever it is, I don’t bloody care. It is your free will to be an ass, and I won’t stop that. In this version, I can guarantee that you the opportunity to walk out of here alive with all my blessing.

“In the second version, you decide to be a prick. Maybe our Dukes can’t accept my intrusion, or maybe your little sponsors want to have a dick measuring contest. In this scenario, I can’t guarantee anything. I can only promise to hold back as much as I humanly can, but it is your own choice to have a close-casket funeral.

“So, what it will be ladies, gentlemen, cunts, civility or casket? Anyway, before we get started, anyone wanting an out is free to do so.”

…

Rem spoke in a leisure manner, and one soldier from Minos’ camp decided he had a dog to feed and promptly edged closer to the ravine entrance before bolting away.

No one bother to stop him. Several of his friend, freed from peer pressure and disgrace of being the first to flee, followed. Their commander attempted to stop them, but something invisible force locked his body in place.”

“Two hundred thousand and only twenty have a brain,” Rem muttered as he turned to Phillip. “Well, that is your cue. Time to talk the girl into it.”

Penelope, the girl being spoken about, asked, “Into what?”

“Penny, since Acrisius technically already taken out the contract, doesn’t this mean your value to the nation is pretty much zero?” Phillip asked

“Why does that matter?” Penny was still confused.

“It matters because there is no point in you staying anymore,” Phillip said. “You are free now, but only you alone can make it official.”

Penelope finally got what Phillip said.

“I-I don’t-,” Penny struggled.

“Every nation is fated to end,” Rem crafted his poetry. “But, girl, you can always choose the ending.”

Penelope looked around her, and finally, after a month of loneliness and even more time staring into the barrel of defeat, she wasn’t alone anymore.

So the queen took a deep breath and proclaimed, “I, Penelope the First of Centuria, from this moment forth, abdicate the throne to take responsibility for all my previous failures! From now on, the Centuria family is no longer fit to manage this land. The fate of the nation, upon this second, belongs to the people! I am done being her majesty Queen Penelope. I am just a normal old Penny now! Just let the people sort the new leader themselves!”

The air froze over, and one girl’s heart was lighter than it had been in years.

…

“What the hell did she just do?” ZZZ Millione’s eyes widened at this curve ball.

“You tell me?” Elish Metis said.

It was Duke Eurytheus, holding the fort outside the valley and observing the event through a scrying spell, who asked the most important question, “Wait. If Penelope gave up the throne and left the management of the country to the people, then doesn’t that meant… none of us could be the next king?” he muttered. “Our right to rule and the excuses to rebel is to dispose of the ineffectual ruler. But would it still worked if the technical ruler abdicates the throne and give the power to the people? Penelope is already defeated, but until she passes the position or if the new king disposes of her and took the reign, she is still the Queen.”

…

Minos quickly worked out the newest concept invading this war, “Title alone is powerless without power but the Monarch of Centuria still possesses a royal prestige,” he reminded himself then struck with another revelation, “that is a reason people either married the old royalty or wipe them out when creating a new regime. But if Penelope erases her family from the royal rank before ceding authority to the new king, and left the decision to the population, then isn’t that mean the throne of Centuria has no inheritor?”

…

Duke Acrisius finally arrived at the only answer.

“What have you done?” He glared at the masked man. “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!”

“Nothing, the girl does it, not me,” Dream, Rem, shrugged. “Sure, I gave the guy who can talk her into doing it a push, but that is only it. The boy talks to his girlfriend. The girl finds the strength, and by her own volition, deep-six your plan.”

“My plan isn’t dead yet!”

“It is,” Rem dumped the metaphorical ice-water of Acrisius’ ambition. “Your entire plot pin around the fact you are a better monarch than Penelope and this entire coup is for the good of the nation. Well, I, the kid and Penny there agree with a part of your statement. But giving a power to you is a tad risky, so we done away with the middleman. We give the people the power to choose their leader.”

Acrisius exploded, “But… but… but they are scattered all over the place!”

Rem smiled ear-to-ear behind the mask.

“Exactly!” Rem tuned the speaker's volume to rub the fresh dose of karmic punishment on the entire civil war. “You, through your stupid civil bickering, have scattered the demographic of Centuria all across the compass direction! And now it is impossible to count the vote and elect the new leader. Your right to rule is effectively dead, boi. The entire nation is going to fragment into fifty different warring states helmed by leaders elected by bandits and refugees. If you are so good at your job, then you should be able to pick up the piece, right?”

…

Everyone heard Rem’s sentence, and it hit hard.

“He broke a nation?” Millione eyes swirled in confusion. “This is ridiculous! The entire unification campaign will take years. Tai Hua and the rest of Tengen will take this opportunity to bite.”

“No shit,” Elish was in awe at the masked man audacity.

Civil war and unification weren’t the same.

Civil strife implied the nation was still in one piece. The institution simply split apart and turned against itself. The victor of the war could force the other to concede their right to rule, and everything went back to business as usual. The country hadn’t sunk, simply change in hand and management.

A complete fragmentation was another story. It meant all counties were out for themselves. The institution was so broken it lost any commanding power. The nation was officially put to bed, and each fiefdom would be a nation of their own until someone subjugated them again. Centuria was in this state, but the title of Queen Penelope still held a marginal recognition. With all three Dukes’ army, it was still possible to crown a new king, regathered the scattered citizen, and patched the holes when the new regime rose to power. It wasn’t good or healthy for anyone, but it was still possible to have a nation call Centuria.

Penny’s proclamation put the final stake in the heart of the sinking ship. The wheel was effectively smashed. Without legitimacy, the king’s decree had no weight and thus a stable regime couldn’t be established and the people won’t come back. However, those scattered people tasked with selecting the new king couldn’t do so with the infrastructure full of holes, thus new leaders couldn’t be elected.

It became a chicken and an egg problem. What came first? The king who gathered the people or the people who made the king.

It was an impossible mathematical problem. The kind that would melt a super computer. Here, it was the entire nation being burnt by this logic bomb.

“No!” Acrisius faced this unexpected TNT with the grace anyone expected. “I can still do this! Penelope’s proclamation hadn’t been made public! If I kill her and proclaim myself a monarch, I can still gain the authority. I can do this!”

“You can’t,” Rem’s voice was an arctic air. “Penny will walk out of this valley alive and live the happy life she always wanted. If any smartass tries to stop that from happening, I will follow the footstep of my spiritual predecessor and teach you why they call our name when all hope seems lost.”

“You think that will stop me!” Acrisius brandished his sword at Rem. “You think any of the three dukes will let that pass?”

“You won’t,” Rem was under no illusion of the sheer audacity of his mission. “But you are free to bring your complaint to my face. In which, I have only one thing to say… bring it!”

Everyone with a meager amount of commanding power immediately for the girl’s head.

“Attack!”

“Kill Penelope!”

“Don’t let her leave this place alive!”

“We must capture her at all costs!”

It was the historic moment. The entire military forced of Centuria, numbered over 250000, declared war against the Horizon Dawn members of six over having an innocent girl be a political scapegoat. It was a battle of legend where egos got broken, career sank, tavern song and catchy sea-shanties were made. It wasn’t a political war, but the ultimate triumph of good over evil, vainglorious ambition struggled, for it might against condemnation from the blade of empathy.

It was the favorite fable of Acropolis, the Hidden Vault Showdown, a legend that taught children the value of dignity, the raw power and valor of simply being a force for someone to lean on. That true courage in being true to one's conscience in face of impossible odds.

But the question the starry kids took to heart was likely the coolest one.

When evil lure its head, violence is simply a question, and the answer is yes.

…

Rem was skill in violence. He was even more skilled in warfare.

“Release the fear toxin!”

“The what!?” Penelope yelled a few meters away from him, but Atlanta, prepped with the plan, quickly injected her with the antidote. “Ow,” she turned toward Atlanta. “What was that for?”

“For that!” Atlanta pointed at the drone that opened up its storage and emptied the content — a brown gas.

Multi-tonnes of gas made by Cytortia in the last month flooded into the battle-field. In no time, it diffused across the battlefield, rapidly inhaled by the soldiers on all sides of the fence. The gas smelled sour, but the effect was effective and ruthless.

“Monsters!” A soldier screamed, stabbing another in the throat. “They unleash a monster hoard on us.”

“No!” Another man tried to stab Elish Metis, only to be punched by sound waves.

ZZZ Millione barely dodged a fireball in the face and retaliated by slicing the icicle rushing at her with a flick of a harp-string. She felt the surrounding crowd blended in an amalgam of beasts, monsters and nightmarish slimes of creation. Darkness and fear clouded her mind.

Meanwhile, Elish Metis were already gang-up by a dozen of his own soldiers. They were all convinced that his colorful languages were curses.

…

“Fear toxin!” the Isle of Knowledge’s S-rank trembled in disbelieves. “They drop a fear toxin on an entire army?”

“Fucking hell,” Elin Rockshooter looked at the pandemonium the entire battlefield decent into in disbelief. “Why did no one ever do this?”

“Because it will hit their own!” Then the realization hit the combat researcher. “Holy shit, they are playing their lack of numbers as advantage! They can afford to use the chemical weapon because they don’t have to worry about mass-producing antidotes.”

Elin looked at the stage far ahead with newfound respect. Few people would walk in the fight outnumbered 10000 to 1 and used that as an advantage.

“They are good,” Elin focused her power. “But what would they do,” she blasted forth her spell, “when we dispersed the cloud!”

Nothing happened. There was no explosion in the air, nor parting of the fear-lace cloud.

Elin dumbly trailed off, “What…”

Boom!

A glass arrow exploded at the two like a missile.

…

A far distance away, Rem coordinated the assault through the octopi network.

“Dream, I was enchanted by the air and the ground with [Mistral] and [Terrafon],” Hikma said through the Za Wa’s terminal. “They won’t be dispersing the gas.”

“Good,” Rem commended. “Ace, laid down the suppressive fire. If you couldn’t take the S-ranker out, pin them down.” Rem then turned his communication channel to Ehto, “Architect, I want you to encircle behind and take out the reserve force. EMP the transport and the war-machines! We are going to win the battle before they fire a single shot.” Finally, he circled to Melody, “Empress, if Fido makes a funny face, blast him!”

As Rem shouted the order to the communicator, Acrisius stared at how his path to glory was about to be shot down the moment the actual battle took off.

It appeared tacticians were cut from different cloth.