Chapter 1 The Omen

Undoubtedly, the Divine Oracle was the most important event in the last few millennia. After all, the last oracle was, well, last time (thousands of years ago). The transformation of such mythological legends, of which almost no one had any concept, into reality left everyone in awe.

In short order, the Continental Alliance Chairman convened all committee members and powerhouses to begin recalling and analyzing the Divine Oracle.

Because the matter was sudden and truly of great importance, no one engaged in any boring bureaucratic red tape or probing pleasantries. For the first time, the entire Alliance's de facto rulers and high-ranking officials were all present.

"So, why wage war? Did the Gods say?"

The speaker was the Alliance Minister of Finance. His bald head, said to be capable of reflecting the aetherial concentrated light cannons fired by the eighth-generation Void-class Melody Armor of Atlantis, was not as famous as his miserly nature. The bald minister frowned and said, "I must say in advance that the Alliance's finances are very tight. The mining and exploration of deep-sea mines in the southern sea require a lot of capital and time..."

His words were euphemistic and gentle, but the voice that followed was not so friendly: "They say fight, so we fight? Who the xx are They?"

The voice was indignant, and although the tone was crude, it was clearly the sentiment of everyone present—the conference room used technology originating from Atlantis, and even the Gods could not eavesdrop.

"They're the xx God-Kings," someone said sarcastically. "I've never seen a God who hasn't done anything for thousands of years, and whose first oracle after thousands of years is to have us launch an all-out war. Quite an eye-opener."

"Exactly. Don't They think about how much this war will reduce national support? No one wants to fight now. We just reached a border development agreement with Atlantis last month to build a mutual trade market... If we fight now, wouldn't decades of negotiations and consultations be in vain, and all investments and construction go down the drain!"

"Indeed," someone agreed. "It is said that during the ancient Second Era, the oracle also insisted that the then Light-Dark Nations Alliance go to war with the Atlanteans, claiming they were demons... When I read history back then, I felt baffled. Why should we listen to the Gods and fight a civilization that was obviously very powerful? Were the civilization's leaders back then brain-dead or spineless?"

"Respect the ancients!" A scholar slammed the table. He rebuked the previous speaker: "Back then, the Gods often descended with divine power, a vast power that even we today would find difficult to resist. It was normal for the ancients to listen to them... But in fact, since the war with the Atlantean nations, the Gods have never descended with divine power, no matter how badly we were beaten, or even almost had our core territory captured, the Gods did not descend with oracles or divine power."

"And I remember you're a demigod descendant, right? Your bloodline traces back to ancient times, also a descendant of the Gods! Are you scolding yourself?"

The person who was refuted clicked his tongue and muttered unhappily, "This is all tens of thousands of years ago, how can we not all be considered descendants of the Gods? Can't we even scold those idiots..."

This was the situation.

The Continental Alliance, in principle, inherited the Light-Dark Alliance's faith in the Gods... and followed the Sky God-King Deus as the supreme God.

However, with no miracles or oracles for thousands of years, how devout could this faith be... obviously impossible, right?

If the Gods could communicate and interact properly, then regaining faith would obviously not be difficult. After all, the foundation was already there. In a world with real Gods, faith was not something unacceptable.

But to open Their mouths and demand a world war... there was no way anyone could agree with that.

"The Gods probably don't have the energy to care about us."

A tall and sturdy powerhouse asserted: "Obviously, according to ancient records from the First Era, the Atlantean nations were once believers of an ancient God called 'Zhuzhou', also known as 'Xiguang'. Zhuzhou engaged in a divine war with our Gods, and their prophets parted the clouds and raised the Atlantean continent from the sea, creating the prototype of the Atlantean nations."

"The Gods above us are probably fighting a divine war with Zhuzhou, and don't have time to care about us. And during the Second Era, it is said that the Atlantean nations came with goodwill, but our ancestors listened to the oracle and massacred the envoys, which caused the irreconcilable hatred between us and the Atlantean nations."

"Irreconcilable my ass. From the Second Era until now, who knows how many tens of thousands of years have passed? We and Atlantis haven't fought a war in seven hundred years. As long as the Atlanteans are willing to forgive us, we can send the Minister of Foreign Affairs to kneel and apologize."

A female divine descendant with hair that looked like flowing water said, "To be honest, those families who issued the massacre order back then should all be dead by now, right? At least none of them have inherited it. We internally purged the Continental Alliance seven or eight times when we unified, there's no way any of them are left."

"So."

At this moment, the Federal Chairman frowned. This tall giant-descendant powerhouse slammed the table, causing the entire conference room to tremble three times: "It seems that everyone is unwilling to fight, right?"

This question did not need an answer. The many high-ranking officials under the Alliance might still maintain some restraint, but those free overlords and immortal powerhouses would not give the Chairman any face: "If you want to fight, go fight yourself. I won't risk my life for these Gods."

"Don't pressure me, do I look like I want to fight?"

The Federal Chairman felt a headache at this moment. Of course he didn't want to fight. The civilian exchanges between the continent and Atlantis were extremely frequent. Seven hundred years of peace might not have erased the hatred, but at least the new generation really didn't want to fight... Who wanted to fight a war? Wouldn't it be better to exchange technologies and cooperate for development? The world is so big that it can accommodate the Alliance and Atlantis, and in fact, there's enough room for seven or eight more forces.

This generation of Federal Chairman was a proponent of peaceful development. He has been working hard to smooth out past hatred and pain, and has made many efforts... After all, it's too bizarre to ask someone tens of thousands of years later to empathize with the hatred of the ancients tens of thousands of years ago. If it were on Earth, that would be a Stone Age feud lasting into modern society. Even if you only count the seven hundred years of peace, that's at least three dynasties rotating. Who remembers the family feud from three dynasties ago?

Now, relations between the Continental Alliance and Atlantis have warmed up. In a few more generations, they can probably completely negotiate peace, normalize diplomatic relations, and end the Cold War.

At that time, both sides would open up trade, mutually develop resources, jointly conduct scientific agreements, and then explore the boundaries of the world and pioneer the future. Wouldn't that be wonderful?

This is the general trend of the world, and what the people want!

Wage war? Wage a fart war!

The people like it, who are the Gods to say otherwise!

That's what they said.

But the actual situation was not good.

Ultimately, the Gods possessed extremely vast power. Through inherited ancient books, the Federal Chairman was very clear that the Fenrir Inner Sea, occupied by the Atlantean nations, that terrifying deep pit capable of destroying the Alliance's core area with a single blow, was formed by the Gods descending with divine power to attack the Dushi Ark led by the First Prophet of Atlantis, Zhou Buyi.

That kind of power was difficult for even the current Continental Alliance to replicate... It required using the most bottom-of-the-barrel technologies and integrating the power of the entire Alliance to barely match it in terms of pure destructive force.

However, the First Prophet and the Gods could casually unleash such an attack!

Although the Gods weren't much to look at, They possessed such terrifying destructive power, so not wanting to fight would also be very troublesome... If They descended with divine punishment, the Atlantean nations might be fine, but the Alliance would definitely be gone.

Obviously, all the powerhouses present knew this key point.

But they weren't the Alliance Chairman, especially those powerhouses from the Alliance side. At worst, they could take their families and defect to Atlantis—after so many tens of thousands of years, the blood of the original same race had long been mixed. If you really wanted to trace relationships, half of the Alliance's high-ranking officials had blood relations with Atlantis, and vice versa.

Therefore, these people dumped everything on the Chairman to make a decision.

But, no matter what.

The current Continental Alliance was decisively different from the Light-Dark Alliance of the past.

That was, compared to the Second Era people who could unthinkingly carry out extermination and massacre operations for the sake of a Divine Oracle, and the many demigod heroes of the First Era who, even knowing that Zhou Buyi's actions were better for the world, still followed the oracle to eliminate him.

The high-ranking officials of the Continental Alliance of this era had their own thoughts.

Whether it was selfishness, or desire, or some other idea... at least, these ideas were not forced on them by anyone, but were their own choices.

They had the right to think about why, without blindly following.

Until the end, the high-ranking officials of the Continental Alliance finally made a decision.

"We can't risk civilization."

The Alliance Chairman said in this way, the giant's tone was calm: "The power of the Gods is not something we can directly confront—ancient books do say that the Gods are fighting with Zhuzhou, and the facts also prove that They haven't cared about us for thousands of years."

"But even if one main God descends and brings disaster upon us, it would mean the death and injury of tens of millions or hundreds of millions of people. We can't afford to take that risk."

Raising his hand, he stopped the other high-ranking officials who wanted to speak. The Chairman said solemnly: "Of course, we also know very well that if we are really foolish enough to wage an all-out war with the Atlantean nations, then the number of deaths would not be as simple as hundreds of millions..."

According to the power of both sides' space-based carriers, instantly destroying a large city of tens of millions of people could not be said to be easy, but it could be said to be as easy as turning over one's hand.

In a real all-out war, the trading cities on both sides of the border alone would have hundreds of millions of people, and they would be instantly wiped out.

"So."

The Chairman smiled and proposed a possibility: "Why don't we discuss it with the other side?"

"Discuss it with the other side?"

This suggestion really exceeded the expectations of everyone present.

"What does this mean?" The most straightforward powerhouses spoke up, and the bald Minister of Finance suddenly understood, and he said with pleasant surprise: "Wait, Chairman, do you mean..."

"Yes, that's what I mean!"

And the giant Chairman's mouth curled up, he raised his hand, and a communication magic circle floated in his palm: "Let us talk to the leaders of the neighboring Atlantean nations... talk about the news that the Gods have reappeared and are demanding that we 'wage war'."

Immediately, the many high-ranking officials present also realized, and they all showed smiles.

……

——Atlantis Continent·Where the Divine Tree is Located——

The central building of the Federal Nations.

The leader of the Atlantean United Nations put down the communication magic circle carrier. The information transmitted in this extremely secret channel, which no one knew except for a few high-ranking officials, made him show a subtle expression.

"Divine Oracle..."

He muttered softly, with confusion: "Demanding war?"

The man was silent for a while, unable to understand: "It's been thousands of years, haven't these Gods calmed down yet? I thought They had already learned their lesson. Could it be that the Zhuzhou Honored God hasn't beaten Them all down yet?"

Compared to the Continental Alliance, which hadn't had a Divine Oracle for thousands of years, the Atlantean Federal Nations could occasionally receive some inspiration from the heavens.

For example, "The Zhuzhou Honored God beat the Gods again," "The Zhuzhou Honored God is winning every battle," "The Zhuzhou Honored God conquered the past and the future," such messages that sounded too mysterious to know whether to believe them or not... These messages existed, but what difference did it make if they didn't?

At most, everyone could take advantage of the 'Divine Revelation' to take a few more days off, and everyone would have an excuse to celebrate the Victory Festival.

But now…

"These Gods are definitely just threatening, They're just desperate."

The Federal leader could easily come to such a conclusion—because the divine power of the Zhuzhou Honored God protecting the Atlantis continent had not decreased, but had become even more profound, which was enough to show that those Gods had really been beaten black and blue by the Honored God, so They could only break the pot and threaten Their former subordinates to fight with themselves and others, indirectly containing the Honored God's combat power.

But the problem came…

"It's been tens of thousands of years, and the last war was seven hundred years ago. What on earth are those Gods on the Yiluotaer Continent thinking?"

Shaking his head slightly, the Federal leader shook his head, and he prepared to notify the high-ranking officials of other countries: "But so be it, if those Gods break the net and the fish die, it would indeed be a trouble."

Saying this, he also showed the same smile as the Alliance Chairman, with a hint of strangeness: "Joint exercise… is it?"

This was the plan set by the Continental Alliance.

They were prepared to outwardly agree to the Divine Oracle and 'wage war' with the Atlantean nations, but this was just an appearance. In reality, they would only use drones and autonomous melody constructs to conduct virtual warfare, conducting an 'exercise' on the scale of the entire front.

No real humans would go to the battlefield, and no equipment with real high lethality would be used.

The battle between the two sides would only exist 'in words' and 'in virtual reality'!

In this way, they could test whether the Gods had the ability to truly descend with divine power, and also better understand the situation of both sides, preparing for deeper cooperation in the future.

Besides, maybe this exercise would become lively, and they could also get some 'rewards' from the Gods!

After all, They were still Gods who actually existed, so give Them some face—the two major forces would put on a show for Them, which wouldn't be a disgrace to so many years of faith!

The Alliance Chairman and the Federal leader nodded in unison: "It is indeed a good idea."

——Resonance Era·4437——

A fierce and unparalleled 'war' that affected the entire continent officially opened under the sky!