Cthulhu Gonfalon

Chapter 897: Vol V Chapter 257

Sui Xiong’s words prompted a flurry of discussion amongst the gods. The God of War was especially tense, and he furrowed his brows intensely, clearly in deep thought.

After a long while, he sighed and said, “I really don’t understand. How do you know so much as a jellyfish? I’ve explored this topic for so many years, and yet, I am still far off in terms of knowledge as compared to you… What exactly did you use to do in the past?”

His tone was light and a little teasing, showing that he was joking more than resentful.

Sui Xiong thus replied in a similarly light tone, “In the sea? I used to isolate myself and meditate. I never left my spot for many years and only trained all the time. Every day, I did 100 pushups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats and ran ten kilometers. In the end, as you all can see now, I became toned and stronger.’

It was a pit that there were no comics in this world, and thus the gods were not really able to understand Sui Xiong’s humor.

Sui Xiong did not mind, though, and he laughed at his own joke, internally praising himself for being able to somewhat subtly avoid God of War’s question about his past life. He then resumed talk on formal matters on the war between the humans and the Orcs. In the end, they still needed to decide which side they should support.

“Since war itself cannot ensure growth, we should try to stop this war from happening then,” the Goddess of Joy said.

Sui Xiong nodded. This was rather common sense and did not need to be debated much further.

Just at this moment, the God of Celebration and Pleasure suddenly spoke up. “I want to say some things that are possibly out of my area. It is a message spoken on behalf of a friend. Do not ask me for this friend’s identity as I will not reveal it… I am just passing on the message.”

Sui Xiong could kind of guess who this “friend” was, and he was immediately interested in what the God of Celebration and Pleasure had to say.

Naturally, Javier was also aware of which “friend” it was, and there was really no need for the God of Celebration and Pleasure to continue concealing this identity. However, he was adamant about the matter. This was because, between the gods, as long one was not enemies with another, they would remain courteous with each other.

“My friend says that the best way to stop a war is not to force the two aggressive sides into peace. It is to separate them and prevent them from meeting each other or minimizing their interactions to truly achieve peace as they will have lower chances of conflict then.”

The gods thought about this suggestion for a while before nodding.

Although this “friend” had a slightly skewed perspective, the notion was mostly correct. When two sides were equally aggressive and uncompromising, but still wanted to achieve peace, the best and most reliable way would be to separate them and reduce their interactions.

If the two opposing parties were not hostile, such as personalities like Void Mask, they would be willing to live harmoniously alongside those they disliked. However, if the opposing parties were both used to getting their way or the upper hand and often expected others to give in to them, if they met, be it in the long term or short term, an actual war would definitely happen eventually.

Before Sui Xiong had crossed over to this world, he had seen a famous quote online that roughly translated to the idea that two alpha tigers could not co-exist on the same mountain, unless one were male and the other were female.

In this case, the humans and Orcs were akin to the two tigers in the analogy. If one were male and one were female, they would probably be able to co-exist in harmony. However, following the example given, both the humans and Orcs could be said to be alpha males with horrible tempers.

It was thus not surprising that put together, they would definitely clash and engage in battle.

Sui Xiong was silent for a while before asking, “What if I insist on preventing this war from happening?”

“You would have to allow each side more time to prepare for the battle and to stock up their resources. This way, it will be a more hostile and intense battle,” Javier probably had already gotten the answer from the aforementioned “friend” and answered without hesitation.

Sui Xiong frowned and thought for a longer period of time before replying, “What if I continue to oppose the battle, then?”

“You are too busy. You won’t be able to find a good opportunity nor have sufficient energy to do so,” Javier said.

“Time is not the issue here.”

“In that case, you could change the battle around. Instead of it being a battle of life and death, it could be broken down into several small-scale sub-battles. Economic warfare could be included as well.” This time, it was Javier’s turn to hesitate before he could reply. “In that case, it wouldn’t be like the past where bodies lined the street and fresh blood flowed everywhere. However, realistically speaking, if you were to do this, there would be a greater quantity of victims and deaths in the long run.”

Javier paused for a second before continuing, “My “friend” requests for the God of War to estimate the death toll if the humans and Orcs were to engage in one ultimate battle. After all, in the past few years, they have already been attacking each other, and many have already died because of this conflict.”

As he spoke, he glanced at the God of War, Wenner.

The God of War was of course clued in on who this “friend” was, and he nodded. Using his priesthood, he retrieved materials from this world’s core and did some calculations in his head.

After he did so, shock became clearly written on his face.

“I think it’s safe to assume that the God of War has made the necessary calculations? The exact statistics are not needed. I would just like to know which method is best,” Javier said.

The God of War sighed and said, “The current killings’ death toll exceeds that of a potential one-off battle. It exceeds by a lot, actually.”

He thought for a while before adding on to his point. “In reality, if the humans and Orcs continue their current state of killings for 300 years, the death toll will exceed a one-off battle. If they continue for 1000 more years, the death toll would be quadruple that of a one-off battle.

All the gods fell silent as they were unsure as to what to say toward these statistics.

“Actually, this situation is similar to when someone is injured. When the wound has suppurated, one needs to choose between opening the wound to remove the pus or to cover up the wound,” Javier said. “Of course, with Void Mask’s capabilities, the wound could possibly be covered up very well, and one may not be able to identify it. However, nevertheless, there is no way to fully treat this wound, is there? Since there is no way to fully heal it, why not change to a method that would cure it? Although it would be painful, it would at least be effective.”

Sui Xiong was silent and did not speak for half a day. He could of course force his way through and argue that he would settle for any solution that was not war. Yet, what good would that do?

The war between the humans and the Orcs would definitely need to be solved somehow. There was the fact that the humans and Orcs had completely different values and societal mindsets. Even if this were two similar neighbors back on Earth, they would still fight till one side lost in order to achieve actual peace.

This “friend” had a clear and logical attitude towards the current issue. Even if Sui Xiong stopped or prevented an actual war between the humans and Orcs for now, they would still fight eventually no matter what. Even if Sui Xiong continued to oppose an actual war, he would also eventually have to change his methods and defeat the Orcs till they were no longer aggressive.

Sui Xiong really could not find a good enough reason to go against this logic and these gods. The most important thing was that even if he could convince these gods, he could not guarantee that this would not be an issue again in the future.

Perhaps, just as this “friend” had said, instead of letting the humans and Orcs continue to be enemies and kill each other permanently, they should be allowed to fight one giant war and identify a clear victor. The victor could stay on the Main Plane and the loser would leave for a faraway place. Effectively, the conflict would then end there and then.

This was better in the long term!