"Going forward, I want you to begin a full-scale war against his empire immediately. Suppress their growth at all costs and by any means necessary. I will be making this my personal domain going forward from this moment. I will not leave or abandon this position until I see your empire completely fall and burn to ashes," she said coldly, her tone shifting completely. Her words made Stephen jolt in shock as his pupils shrank, and Andrei nodded instantly, too scared to disappoint her.
"Understood," everyone within the throne room spoke in unison, responding easily and confidently about this matter. Then again, with two SSS-tier talents now under their command and control, they were absolutely sure they would emerge victorious from any conflict. But they couldn't help but notice how Stephen wasn't particularly bothered or concerned by the upcoming war, something which made Chu Yin's eyes narrow with suspicion and careful observation. The ice mirror shattered into countless fragments a moment later, dissolving completely.
"Stephen, why did you go ahead and deliberately draw unneeded attention to us like this?" Stephen's father, who was also Seth's father, asked with a weary sigh at what had just transpired before his eyes.
"We have already allied with 3 other SSS-tier talents on our side now. I have serious doubts that they could do anything meaningful against us with that kind of power disparity," Stephen said with an easy, confident smile spreading across his features.
"Being low-key and patiently waiting for the perfect time to reveal one's hand is the proven way to achieve lasting victory in any conflict," Seth's father said softly, his tone carrying the weight of hard-earned wisdom. "And since when exactly did Seth move away from England?"
Stephen simply shrugged in response, neither knowing the answer nor particularly caring to find out such trivial information about his brother.
"We should locate his exact location and kill him swiftly before he becomes a problem. I want to avoid any future trouble or complications that he might cause," Seth's father said softly, settling back into his seat and closing his eyes in tired contemplation.
"What could something as small and insignificant as him possibly do to threaten us?" Stephen said without a single care in the world about his younger brother's potential threat level. The last time he had seen Seth in person, his brother had been completely mentally and physically broken, lacking even the basic will to continue living.
Disowned by the family, and forced to watch helplessly as his girlfriend publicly dumped him and then went on to do absolutely everything in her power to please Stephen instead. Yeah, he was honestly shocked that the pathetic loser was somehow still alive after all that trauma.
So war broke out on a massive scale that Stephen himself genuinely didn't expect or anticipate. Chu Yin was fighting without any care whatsoever for the manpower being lost in the brutal conflict, throwing soldiers into the meat grinder without hesitation. Then there was that terrifying one-eyed female who repeatedly jumped onto the battlefield, seemingly fighting with a reckless abandon that suggested she was actively seeking death.
But the aggressive American actions scared everyone watching, and Stephen was able to successfully gather many people to his banner for support. Well, by "many people," what that really meant was literally everyone who was not already on the side of the Americans had been convinced or coerced to support him against the common threat.
From deliberately enraging the wild beasts and monsters to attack their enemies, to orchestrating numerous attempts to assassinate each other's leadership. All of the involved parties threw absolutely everything they had at each other without restraint, and everyone participating completely ignored the far more pressing problem at hand about dealing with the ever-growing monster threat.
Well, Chu Yin didn't particularly care much about the monsters; she would simply leave dealing with them to Seth when he finally arrived. Right now, at this very moment, all she genuinely cared about was hunting down and killing Stephen.
It was hell on earth in the truest sense; it was an all-out war without limits or mercy. A catastrophic battle between the eighteen SSS-tier talents that existed in the world. Chu Yin's side had successfully gathered eight SSS-tier talents under her banner, while Stephen's opposing side had managed to assemble a total of ten SSS-tier talents.
But there was a critical difference: Chu Yin's side was genuinely united with shared goals and trust, while Stephen's side was merely made up of other SSS-tier talents who had been forced to unite out of desperation to avoid being completely overwhelmed by Chu Yin's coordinated forces… Well, it helped that Chu Yin was shockingly able to fight 2 or 3 SSS tiers by herself.
The conflict didn't stop there and only escalated further. Thanks to the fact that the monsters being born naturally in this world, rather than being spawned, possessed genuine intelligence and self-awareness, both Stephen and Chu Yin even began forming alliances with monster factions. Since these intelligent monsters shouldn't really be called monsters anymore, but instead should be properly referred to as demi-humans with true wisdom and culture, it meant they could be reasoned with, convinced to work cooperatively, and integrated into the great war effort.
As time passed and the war dragged on, Stephen's side was eventually forced to merge all their separate territories into one single huge empire, since they alone couldn't make any real meaningful progress or achieve victories against Chu Yin's united and coordinated forces. As a direct result of this consolidation, only two major human empires exist in this world now.
Meanwhile, there were a total of eight distinct Demi-Human empires that had risen to power. In South America, the regional overlord position had been claimed by the nine-headed hydra, a deadly S-tier monster with an impressive combat power exceeding 100 million. It had united with Chu Yin's side after careful consideration, having no real choice in the matter when one considered how many powerful SSS-tier talents were positioned right next door to its territory.
In Antarctica, the regional overlord was a Polar Bear known by the imposing title of the Celestial Polar Bear. With a combat power of 91 million, its might was anything but small or insignificant. It had chosen to unite with Stephen's side, thanks largely to the fact that Stephen had managed to reach it first and establish diplomatic contact before Chu Yin could.
In the North Pole, the overlord position was held by a frost demon. This deadly monster had united with Chu Yin's side, having fallen deeply in love with her and was simply simping over her.
Africa was split into two distinct parts, with one half supporting Stephen and the other half supporting Chu Yin in the ongoing conflict. The southern region of Africa was under the control of the Lion Demi-Humans; they had naturally submitted upon meeting Golden Lion, who possessed a bloodline that transcended their own bloodline in power and prestige, even though his bloodline wasn't fully awakened yet.
The northern region was under the control of the Hippo demi-humans, a deadly faction who had joined Stephen's side. They had united with Stephen for their own strategic reasons.
In Asia, two major Demi-Human empires could be found dominating the landscape. The Mighty Tiger King and the Rainbow Peacock had risen to power. These two powerful Demi-Humans had taken control of the two main regions of Asia that had relatively small human populations.
Australia had united with Golden Lion, and the decision was heavily influenced by the all-seeing Spider demi-human who seemed to possess the power to foresee the future or something similar. After consulting its visions, it decided that joining Stephen's side would inevitably mean death, while joining Chu Yin's side meant winning the war.
But even in this unending chaos and constant conflict, a precarious balance soon emerged and stabilized. The realization had dawned that nonstop battle was doing all parties involved more harm than good in the long run, so smaller skirmishes here and there took place regularly, but nothing ever forced the eighteen SSS-tier and above talents to make their direct moves or reveal their full capabilities.
"Is this wise? We are united with the demi-humans now, knowing full well they would keep growing progressively stronger with each passing day," an African man said with concern evident in his voice. He sat at a large round table where all of the SSS-tier talents on Chu Yin's side had gathered for this council meeting.
"It's no big deal at all. My husband should be arriving soon, at which point things would go smoothly for us and resolve themselves naturally," Chu Yin said without any care or concern in her tone, causing everyone present to frown at her with varying degrees of skepticism and worry. By this point in the conflict, many people genuinely thought Chu Yin was crazy or delusional, and many others didn't think her mysterious husband was nearly as great as she constantly claimed he was.
Sure, they had heard scattered reports and stories of Seth's deeds and how he was supposedly able to instantly copy and replicate magic he had seen being cast just once with perfect accuracy. But it was extremely hard to believe he was truly special or uniquely powerful when the highest tier a talent could possibly be was SSS-tier, and there had only been eighteen SSS-tier talents ever recorded, and they had already met with all of them personally.
"Mary, what does fate have to say about our situation?" Turning to the side, Golden Lion asked softly and respectfully. Mary was the one-eyed woman who, like Chu Yin, was also considered crazy. But Mary was crazy in a different sense—she knew with absolute certainty that she wasn't going to die or lose this war, so she didn't care about danger and acted recklessly without any self-preservation instinct.
Thanks to her unique eye ability, she was all-seeing and could read the threads of fate itself, and she had been the very first person to join Chu Yin's side from the very start. This decision was partly because she genuinely couldn't defeat Chu Yin in direct combat, and secondly, something to do with Seth.
Adding to the credibility of Chu Yin's claims, the Spider Demi-Human had agreed to work with them due to something it had seen about the future in its own visions. Well, although the gathered SSS-tier talents had their doubts and reservations about this whole situation, they were willing to wait things out patiently and see if her husband was actually so great before moving to try and pressure her to get her mind checked professionally, or else they would seriously consider overthrowing her leadership. Honestly, she was acting far too crazy and unpredictable for comfort.
[A/N: This was rushed; otherwise, it would be like 10 chapters away from MC. Sorry about that.]