The Owl Dragon Empire's supreme command.
Several images of light appeared within the holographic command room.
"Marshal, how do matters stand now? And which fellows that cannot tell good from ill have jumped out!" Chu Xuan looked at Charlotte in the chief seat, and there was a darkness in her face as she said it.
Charlotte said nothing.
And Lilith at her side raised a hand, and opened out an interstellar map that held the whole of the Owl Dragon Empire.
And upon that map, region after region could be seen marked out,
chiefly in two colors of region.
Yellow and red.
The red regions were the fewer, and the yellow the more.
"These red regions are where rebels have been plainly found, or where interstellar powers have declared their independence. And all of them have gathered fleets of their own; and some have gone so far as to fall upon our people, our works and our bases in their own parts. Some five hundred thousand warships of armed force in all. And of red regions there are thirteen." So saying, Lilith pointed at these red regions.
Chu Xuan ran her eye over them.
There was such a red ring near enough everywhere,
and even within the Starlight Kingdom's own borders.
Which made the wish to kill in Chu Xuan's heart stronger still.
"For so broad a rebellion to appear all of a sudden. This is beyond doubt no coincidence, but a thing someone has long been plotting," said Medusa, commander of the Third Legion's fleet group.
Lilith nodded. "Upon this point the Royal Embroidered-Uniform Guard has said that it is a failure of their own work. For before this they had heard certain things, touching… the Emperor. And certain notions of wishing to be independent. But none had acted upon them. And upon that, the Emperor's attitude before was this: judge the deed, and not the heart. So long as they did nothing over the line, they were to be left alone. But by the look of it now, His Majesty was too merciful to them by far."
"Say it plainly: what are we to do next?" Shen Bing, commander of the First Legion's fleet group, who in the ordinary way is a lady gentle and refined, had upon her face at this moment a frost that might have frozen space itself.
"Whoever betrays the Empire. Death without pardon." Charlotte spoke at this.
She raised a hand, and a black roll appeared.
And upon it were the powers and the names of family after family.
"Every family and power upon this roll is to be cleared away entirely. The direct line, killed. The collateral lines, imprisoned in perpetuity. And all persons connected with them dealt with at the heaviest!" There was the wish to kill even in Charlotte's voice.
And at this Xue Xiaoxiao raised a hand with great care and said: "That… I do not pity them, mind. Only, at such a time, if we kill so many… may it not raise fear among the common people? For His Majesty… this matter… has spread abroad already; and though we give it out abroad that he is in seclusion,[1] and that his work stands in the place of his attending the relevant councils. Yet… once the seed of that doubt is planted…"
And at this Chitong spoke, and said coldly: "Particular times call for particular means. With His Majesty away, we cannot have any mercy in us. These people hold that with the Emperor gone they may make what trouble they please. And if we are merciful to them, will not more of the lookers-on come by the thief's heart and the thief's nerve besides? So in a thing of this kind. There may be a first time only; and at that first time they must be killed until they dare not entertain the notion of a second."
And Charlotte spoke at this. "This is the conclusion Lilith and I are agreed upon. So that the rest of you need only carry it out. All the answering for it is borne by Lilith and by me."
"Yes!" said the generals with one voice.
"And the yellow regions? How are those to be handled?" Su Lan asked.
"The yellow regions are those interstellar powers that stand in the Royal Embroidered-Uniform Guard's records as suspected of independence, or of other notions. But which to this moment have made no open move. So for these yellow regions, send further legion fleets to hold them, but let there be no change in the outward policy. Keep it loose without and tight within, that we may meet any sudden case."
And there was a chill in Lilith's eyes. "And should they dare entertain any notion whatever, death without pardon!"
And they all of them nodded in agreement.
Lilith said hard upon it: "And next, let the tasks be divided…"
And they looked, each of them, at the task given to her.
Some had the keeping of order; and some were to go and clear out their own houses.
"Have you any question upon your several tasks? If you have, raise it now. Changes may be made." Charlotte looked round at them.
And one with an eye for it would have marked that the tasks set the several generals were not arranged at random.
For the region Chu Xuan was to clear lay within the Starlight Kingdom's borders.
And the region Chitong was given lay within the range where the demon race had lived before.
And the wolf-girl Baixue and the other beast-folk had the Warhammer Interstellar Federal Kingdom chiefly in their charge.
……
It could be seen that in these arrangements there was the meaning that each general should clear out her own house.
"There is no difficulty. Whoever betrays the Empire, though they be of the Chu family, must be cleared away. The last time, they were given one chance. And this time, if they still cannot tell good from ill. Death without pardon." There was nothing but ice in Chu Xuan's face.
And the last time she spoke of was that small business of fire in the rear at the Owl Dragon Empire's founding, while they were engaged with the Order hive-race.
Only that the case then was nothing like so wide and so loud as this.
"The Emperor gave them one chance. And since they could not keep hold of that chance, let them not blame our guns for being uncivil." There was sternness in Chitong's face as well, and even a thick wish to kill in it.
For she had marked a moment ago that among those red regions there were, of all things, people of her own family.
Which was simply a disgrace.
"To make trouble at such an hour. Then they must be brought to know clearly what price they are to pay!" the wolf-girl Baixue said without ceremony.
And by the air of her, were it allowed, she would without the least ceremony have served the enemy up a feast of interstellar missiles.
"Since there is no objection. Then let it be carried out by this arrangement." Charlotte would have given the order.
But at that very moment,
the handheld terminals of both Charlotte and Lilith sounded,
with an alarm that pierced the ear.
And both of them knit their brows.
For this is the Royal Embroidered-Uniform Guard's transmission of intelligence at the highest grade.
Which means that this intelligence is of great weight.
Charlotte and Lilith looked at it at once.
And in the very second they saw it, the color of their faces changed.
"What has happened?" Xue Xiaoxiao asked before she thought.
"The case has altered. The angel race. Something very great has happened." Charlotte clenched her fists.
…………
The Angel Kingdom. The War Angel King's star system. The War King's Holy Temple Mount.
"Wells, are you mad!" Angelia, the Holy Angel Queen, looked at the cage that had come down all of a sudden.
Made of some material of a particular kind, for all the world like a cage woven out of light.
And with a beauty in it besides.
And which even an Angel Sovereign, a creature whose body is of so strong a make, can hardly break out of.
For the Holy Angel Queen had never in the world supposed that the War Angel King would play out such a thing as this.
He had bidden her come to his Angel King's Holy Temple Mount, saying there was weighty business to discuss.
And the moment she came in, he had her shut up.
And thereupon set out his plan.
To make the angel race independent once more, and splendid!
"I am mad? What wrong have I done? I am the Angel King of the angel race, and the meaning of my being is that the angel race should be strong and flourish!" Wells, the War Angel King, walked slowly up the steps and sat down upon his throne.
And looked down upon the Holy Angel Queen penned within the cage.
"We are at present a part of the Owl Dragon Empire. We are in alliance with the Owl Dragon Empire, and to do such a thing as this at such a time is betrayal! Aren't you afraid of drawing the fire onto your own body!" The Holy Angel Queen glared at the War Angel King upon the throne.
"Betrayal? You speak as though the Owl Dragon were our master. This world has always been the strong eating the weak. And as for drawing the fire onto myself? If Zhao Chen were still here. I would not do this; I would honestly build up my own angel race, and would even be the most valiant warrior of Zhao Chen this Emperor. But… he is not here!" the War Angel King said coldly.
"You!" The Holy Angel Queen was in a fury.
But there was some alarm in her heart.
For in truth, of Zhao Chen's having been lost in that earlier engagement, and even of his having fallen, she knew something already.
And she had even tried several times, by way of sounding them, to learn of the matter; but Charlotte and Lilith had refused her each time.
The reason given being that the Emperor is at present at work upon a new model of interstellar warship, that he may face the Order which may yet come down upon them!
"Since that man is gone. Then this Owl Dragon Empire has no need to exist either. I, Wells, and this angel race of mine. Will honor only the strong, and not those women," the War Angel King said calmly.
"The weak are destined to be swept away. That is the law of the universe."
"And what if Zhao Chen is living yet!" The Holy Angel Queen asked it back, and her feeling was somewhat out of her own governing.
The War Angel King checked a moment, and then said flatly: "He cannot be living. And if he is living. And I have failed. Then I am willing to bear every consequence of it."
"Bear every consequence? You must know what an utter ruin this will bring down upon the angel race!" The Holy Angel Queen roared it.
It is seldom indeed that this Angel Queen may be seen with her feeling out of her governing.
The War Angel King said nothing, but only looked at the Holy Angel Queen quietly.
And then left this Holy Temple Mount,
leaving the Holy Angel Queen within the temple, in her worry and her unrest.
For she guessed at what might be happening outside.
But had at present no power whatever to stop it.
And could only hope that matters would not go to a pass past mending.
For the angel race, having been through those wars before, can bear no more tossing about.
And because the War Angel King had suddenly declared the angel race independent, the whole of the angel race's territory was in an uproar.
And a great many had not so much as grasped what the case was,
before the planets and the space stations they were upon had gone over to a state of martial law.
And the War Angel King had arranged it long beforehand.
And above all against those subordinates of the Holy Angel Queen's,
such as… the Holy Dragon Angel Legion,
which is the most elite ace fleet the angel race holds at present.
"What is it you mean to do! Have you gone mad!" Commander Tilia looked at the bridge held down by a body of angel soldiers, and at the muzzle already set against her own head.
And looked at these countrymen of hers past all believing.
For the Holy Dragon Angel Legion she serves in had, as it happened, come back to a star port to refit.
And in that time certain persons had asked leave to come aboard and make an inspection.
Which is a procedure the Holy Angel Queen and the War Angel King had both agreed to, so that she thought nothing of it.
But she had never supposed that this body of people, upon coming to the bridge to report to her.
Would seize the bridge by force outright.
"What we carry out is the Angel King's order. Commander, you have need of rest. Our angel race shall rise independent once again. We belong to no empire whatever." An angel soldier with a golden sash bound about his arm said it, cold and proud.
Hearing what the man said, Tilia felt herself gone cold in an instant from her head to the soles of her feet.
For she knew now what it was they meant to do.
"The Angel King? It is not possible! His Majesty the Angel King could never send down such an order. You are pushing the angel race into a pit of fire!" Tilia roared and cried it out.
"Hold your tongue! I had long heard that Commander Tilia was a loyal follower of the Owl Dragon Empire. I did not believe it before. But I believe it now. Do not forget that you are an angel! You are not of the human kind, nor a dog of the Owl Dragon Empire! Someone, take her down for me!" This man gave the order.
"Yes. It is Wells, isn't it! It was he who sent the order down. His Majesty the Holy Angel Queen would never do such a thing. That wretch Wells, he is a madman. And he will assuredly pay the price for this decision of his!" Tilia roared and cried it out, and both her eyes were bloodshot.
She had never in her life been so angry as now, nor so far out of her own governing.
Not even when she stood before the demon race, nor before the Order hive-race.
Had she ever been so.
But soon her figure was gone from the bridge.
"Go on with our plan," this angel said, cold and proud.
For among the angel race, setting the Holy Dragon Angel Legion aside, in military strength alone the War Angel King's forces are the more numerous to begin with.
And with the War Angel King having come prepared this time besides.
And with the giving out abroad that the Owl Dragon Empire's Emperor Zhao Chen was dead.
While the greater part of the angel race were still in their bewilderment, the whole hold upon power was already gathered into the War Angel King's hands.
And it was not the angel race alone.
For even in the Holy Radiance Kingdom,
civil strife broke out.
"Report, newest word! The Northern Star Region's governor Gilbert has proclaimed himself risen in revolt, and would set up the Holy Radiance Empire afresh. And in the other star regions rebellions great and small have broken out, of which the Western Star Region's is the gravest; the Western Star Region's governor Melissa is lost, and cannot be reached. Your Highness, what are we to do now? For outside, the word of the Emperor's being lost has spread abroad already." A subordinate looked in his worry at Saint Cana upon the throne.
And the body of ministers in the great hall wore each a different look upon them at this moment.
For if that Emperor Zhao Chen were truly dead, then the Owl Dragon Empire's threat might be said to be gone at a stroke.
For of the Owl Dragon Empire, what they feared was more than anything that man.
And who does not wish his own country to be an empire; and who is willing to stoop beneath another?
The more so as it is but a few years, and no few remember the Holy Radiance Empire of old.
"Allow me to think upon it further. Do you all go down first, and settle the people and the star region's lands." Saint Cana's countenance did not change.
And thereupon, heedless of the astonished eyes of the others,
she walked straight out of the great hall.
And at this her father, Saint George, now governor of the Eastern Star Region, reached her by link.
"Saint Cana, in this case as it stands. What do you mean to do?" There was a great heaviness in Saint George's tone.
Saint Cana said as she walked: "I make no declaration abroad at present; to declare too early would do nothing but sharpen the quarrel. Hold them off first. But… Father, remember who it is that gave us all that we now have."
Saint George's end was silent a moment, and then answered: "I understand."