Chapter 325: What They Chose to Believe

"It’s over..."

Mirelle had barely spoken before cracks spread across her body. The blast struck a moment later, and she broke apart like a shattered porcelain figure.

She was one among countless victims.

The light of Destruction swept through the capital. Bodies, buildings, trees—everything in its path disintegrated. In a matter of seconds, the entire capital map disappeared beneath its glare.

Nearly ten thousand Domains were erased, together with the Lords, Heroes, troops, and workers still inside them.

Beyond the capital, the light weakened. It did not stop.

Arlen had managed to get his Griffin across the map boundary. Relief was just beginning to loosen his face when the glare caught him from behind.

Pain tore through his body.

He raised his trembling arms. Red cracks were spreading across his skin.

His scream broke as flesh began to fall away. A moment later, both rider and Griffin came apart, scattering through the air.

Farther away, death came less quickly.

On a shoal tens of kilometers from the capital, several Lords writhed on the ground. Their skin had peeled away beneath the light, and every movement ground sand into exposed flesh.

Desperate to live, they swallowed recovery potions.

Fresh skin formed, then split and fell away again.

Destruction clung to them. This was the power of a Law. Even if they returned to the Homeworld, they would need an exceptionally powerful Lord to cure it.

One woman could bear the pain no longer. She struck her head against a rock and died.

Across Blackmere, the Peace Strike had turned a clear coastal morning into hell.

A full minute passed before the light faded.

At the center of the capital lay a crater a kilometer deep and ten kilometers across. The map could repair itself, but how long would a wound like that take to close?

Lethria watched from phased space. A thought occurred to her, and she cautiously extended the tip of one wing into the open air.

Several scales immediately lost their luster.

"Ow."

She drew the wing back at once.

"They say the power of Destruction can linger for decades. A hundred years, sometimes. I can believe it now."

Her sapphire eyes returned to the crater.

"That capital is finished."

A capital site was among a Province’s most valuable resources. With its site ruined like this, Blackmere had lost half its value in a single strike.

Soon, reports carried beyond the sealed area began reaching the Homeworld Channel. Survivors posted more than a hundred pictures and several shaky videos, accompanied by furious, grief-stricken accounts of what they had seen.

The Channel erupted.

——

"A Peace Strike?"

At Highcrest, Edran Frost watched the relayed footage from the newcomer sector. His eyes narrowed.

"Western Beacon actually went through with it?"

"We’ve confirmed it, my lord," Merrick said quickly. "It is neither a prank nor a rumor. The Legendary Meridian sent into Black Banner waters fired on Blackmere, whose capital had been unable to relocate. The site is in ruins."

Edran said nothing for a moment.

Then he laughed.

"What fools we’ve been fighting."

The main forces of Cloudrest and the other eleven allied Provinces had only just reached Sunhaven. Sending them there had been a considerable risk. Western Beacon had chosen that very moment to turn its quarrel with the Black Banner into an open rupture.

The Crown’s thirteen Provinces could profit while their enemies fought.

New statements appeared beside the relayed footage. Edran’s smile faded as he read them.

"They don’t even have the courage to admit what they’ve done. Now they’re accusing our thirteen Provinces? Do they take everyone else for idiots?"

The sequence was easy enough to understand. Western Beacon had squeezed the other Provinces while trying to claim every place in the ranking’s top ten. The Black Banner, resentful of its treatment, had betrayed its ally. Western Beacon had answered the challenge to its authority with a Peace Shell.

Every step made sense.

And yet, Edran could not quite shake the feeling that it had all unfolded a little too neatly.

——

Western Beacon’s official response had been swift.

[Western Beacon has always sought peace. We will never initiate a war of Peace Strikes.]

[This attack was carried out by the thirteen Crown Provinces in an attempt to place the blame on our nation.]

[Those Provinces have developed from rebels against the Crown’s lawful order into an organized international terrorist force. Their actions are deliberate, coordinated, and directed against the Homeworld.]

[If allowed to continue, they may one day bring about the destruction of our entire Realm.]

[We call upon all Homeworld citizens to sanction this dangerous faction, led by Divine Province, and work together for a better future.]

Black Banner Lords answered in a fury.

Those with speaking rights filled the Channel. Others paid to make their messages heard.

[Two months ago, you announced that you were sending a Peacebringer down to maintain order in the newcomer sector!]

[A month ago, you sent your Meridian to threaten us!]

[If you never intended to start anything, what was your warship doing in our inner sea? Sightseeing?]

[You fired it. At least have the courage to admit it!]

Crown Lords had been enjoying their enemies’ misfortune. Being named as the culprits wiped the smiles from their faces.

[How shameless can you be? You managed to blame this on us too?]

[I’m delighted the Black Banner was hit. If I had a Peacebringer, I’d be tempted to send it there myself. But we’re not taking responsibility for your attack!]

[Look carefully, everyone. The Black Banner is their ally. Displease Western Beacon, and this is what friendship gets you.]

[A Legendary Meridian cruiser! Who else in the newcomer sector has one? Stop insulting our intelligence!]

Neutral nations and Provinces joined the condemnation. They already resented Western Beacon’s attempt to keep the Firstborn Gate for itself. The Peace Strike gave every grievance a fresh voice.

After that one statement, Western Beacon offered no further response.

Behind its silence, its leaders were in turmoil.

——

When the first reports arrived, officials in both the older sectors and the Homeworld had been alerted immediately.

"Who gave the order to fire?"

"How many times did we say this was a deterrence mission?"

"Issue a statement. Put it on the Crown. We cannot admit responsibility!"

That had produced the declaration now being mocked across the Homeworld Channel.

Then the investigation caught up with it.

They checked once. They checked again. Every report returned the same answer.

The Peacebringer brought down from the upper sector had been kept in Western Beacon’s heartland, well fed and comfortably housed. It had never left.

The shell really had not been theirs.

The discovery brought a colder kind of silence.

Someone else possessed a Peacebringer. Someone had destroyed a Provincial Capital while making the entire Homeworld believe Western Beacon had done it.

"Find them," an official said. "I want to know who is setting us up."

"Could it be the Bastion extremists?"

Several people seized on the suggestion.

"It must be. Who else would do something like this?"

A raised hand stopped the argument.

General Oswald Graves was over a hundred years old. He happened to be back on the Homeworld visiting his family, and the crisis had drawn him into the meeting.

"The matter is settled," he said. "The Crown did it. To be precise, Divine Province did it."

He turned toward the officials responsible for public statements.

"Prepare the evidence. Find witnesses. Create them if necessary."

A major general frowned.

"General, no one will believe an accusation like that. A Peacebringer and a Legendary Meridian cruiser are beyond anything Divine Province could possess at this stage."

Graves gave a cold snort.

"Belief isn’t always a matter of what someone knows. It can be a choice."

He looked around the room.

"And I think the Black Banner will soon choose to believe us."