Chapter 460: Ch
Simultaneously, a separate operation will be dispatched to the Elfheim Empire to assist Empress Valoria with her internal matters, which will then transition into forcing our way into the Life and Death Realm to establish a permanent outpost. All of this will require the absolute, full deployment of our battle forces—and even I will be making a personal move on the battlefield this time around."
Kallus listed each objective one by one, laying everything out solemnly and seriously before every high-ranking member present in the council chamber.
"What—what?" Ezra spoke in surprise. "You... you will be participating as well?"
"Isn’t—isn’t the battle fleet itself more than enough for these three tasks?" Grand Admiral Thrawn followed up right after Ezra.
While the others didn’t speak at that moment, it didn’t mean they weren’t surprised when they heard that their Imperial Commander would also be making his move. This was something that would be happening for the very first time, and they couldn’t help but feel worried—not for Kallus, but for the rest of the galaxy and even beyond when they witnessed the power of their Empire’s supreme foundation: the Obliterator-class Super Dreadnought.
They all felt that Kallus’s participation would actually be overkill, believing he should only make a move when the situation absolutely demanded it. But these were merely their private thoughts, which none of them dared to actually speak aloud. They were well aware of their positions and knew who made the decisions here; they also knew their Imperial Commander had his own calculations and could never be wrong. So, just as quickly as those thoughts appeared, they vanished, with everyone giving it a brief moment of consideration and nothing more.
But who was Kallus? He understood their thoughts with just a single glance, for his relationship with his subordinates was like that of a god to his believers. He was their god, and they were his completely loyal and attached followers. Thus, reading their minds was just that easy. Yet, he didn’t mind it, because everyone had their own perspectives, and it should be that way. If they didn’t think for themselves and just blindly followed whatever he said, what would be the difference between them and the cult that was thrown off the Earth into a meager Tier 1 sub-star system with nothing much to speak of?
Even though they ultimately didn’t speak their minds aloud, it was the thought that counted. And that was the fundamental difference between his subordinates and the fanatics of a regular god, whose blind belief rendered them unable to think and process things appropriately—even when their actions could cause a massive negative impact. That was not the case here. If Kallus truly did something he shouldn’t, his subordinates would speak up, no matter how much they revered him.
Pushing those reflections to the back of his mind, Kallus spoke up. "My intervention is absolutely necessary. This time, I really want to show everyone what true power looks like, and give them a stark choice: either offend us and be placed on our hit list, or be friends with us, become our partners, and join this wagon of growth that we are leading instead of remaining stuck on things that are just not worth it."
Kallus spoke slowly, explaining exactly why he wanted to move and the goals he intended to achieve by taking the field.
"Like I said before, I am tired of any random Tom, Dick, and Harry coming after us and constantly giving us headaches, whether it’s in the border regions or through the reprisal attacks that Commander Alex took care of. It will happen again and again.
While we can easily deal with it, having it constantly come our way stops us from focusing on the things that are far more important—which is a headache I would rather not have. I would much rather focus on tangible things critical to our growth and our needs.
And anyway, we need to establish our prestige! Staying low and trying to grow quietly in a galaxy where the resources we need are fought over tooth and nail by so many—while humans are viewed as a race to be subjugated—is a pitiful strategy.
Not to mention, we have the strength to withstand any and all kinds of trouble we might face here.
After all, no matter how much trouble we cause, at the end of the day, no truly mighty cosmic power will pay much attention to us anyway. On the scale of the universe, a single galaxy—especially one like the Milky Way—has no real relevance at all.
So, we have nothing to worry about. And if we have nothing to worry about, then we can afford to be much more open about our might."
Saying that, Kallus let his body relax against his seat while looking at everyone in front of him, all of whom wore thoughtful expressions on their faces.
Slowly, they all began to nod their heads unconsciously. Someone chimed in, "Now that you have put it that way, Emperor, it really is like that."
"Indeed, being constantly troubled by these ants and having to deal with them again and again is a massive headache. Showing our absolute strength will make them stay miles away from us; only those completely lacking a brain would come looking for trouble with us. Not only that, but doing this will establish our prestige, sending shivers down the spine of every local power.
When the banner of the Federation is raised and the army moves to secure and form our official Federation territory, many powers within those zones who aren’t members yet will readily agree to our demands—and rather quickly at that. After all, it will be a matter of life and death for them, which will make it much easier for me to handle things," Yanshi spoke in argeement.
And following these two, others began voicing their own thoughts, agreeing in their own way. However, some still spoke their minds fully; while they agreed with the overall direction, they didn’t completely accept the initial layout without input, instead offering their own ideas.
Some of these suggestions were readily accepted by Kallus. Naturally, there could be gaps in his own planning.
No matter the position and supreme power he held individually and over them, Kallus was legally still a young man not yet twenty based on his actual biological age—even though his soul age was more than a thousand years old, having spent vast stretches of time in the Universal Domain and various time palaces to increase his cultivation and strength.
When it came to the finer nuances of large-scale military strategy and planetary logistics, he was still far behind.
Having not much personal experience in these massive strategic campaigns himself, he was thankful that his subordinates were individuals who possessed lifetimes of experience in these exact fields. They unhesitatingly pointed out the blind spots in his strategy and actively worked to improve it, much to his delight. It was something he never quite got used to, and something he was immensely proud of as well.
After all, he didn’t want to create an empire where everything existed solely because of his physical presence, functioning such that if he were gone, everything would collapse. That was one of the core reasons he had held back from making personal moves in the past, despite knowing that his direct intervention could have made their prior expansions much faster and simpler.
Like dealing with the Minotaur Clan, or dealing with the Hegemony Fleet forces, or even handling the Star Empire and the Alchemy Association-type powers. He could have easily dealt with them using his own overwhelming strength back then. Frankly, with the Obliterator at his disposal, it would have taken him a week at most to completely wipe those powers from the galaxy.
Yet, ever since receiving the Obliterator, he had truly never deployed it in actual combat, to the point where even he himself had no exact measure of its full destructive capabilities.
He had done all of this strictly to give his subordinates the time and breathing room to build a foundation that was robust, self-sustaining, and powerful even without him. That way, when the day came for him to leave the territory to challenge cosmic entities of his own caliber, expand their outer reach, and secure high-level resources for the empire’s next phase, his people back home would face no trouble at all and could keep on growing independently
After all, Kallus’s plans were far too grand for his empire to be contained here forever, and within the confines of this galaxy alone, who knew how much longer he would have to wait for it to reach a level where he could truly begin expanding his celestial reach? But that would have to wait.
Who knew? It might not even happen that way, after all, as nothing was ever set in stone. Perhaps he might discover a hidden treasure trove of high-level resources, causing his own strength to break through by an entire realm and allowing him to open up a larger-scale resource deposit within his universal domain.
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