A chilling, deathly silence descended upon the Sky Serpent Secret Realm town. The human Commander's final words had rendered the Centaur Clan utterly speechless, robbing them of their righteous fury and replacing it with a cold, political reality. The grief-stricken Centaur father, however, was past reason. He stared at the Commander, his bloodshot eyes burning with a venomous mix of fury and anguish.
"But what does any of this have to do with my daughter?!" he roared, his voice cracking with unbearable pain. "She's just a child! A child! She was supposed to earn her Tier 1 promotion today, not... not die at the hands of some monsters!"
The Commander's expression did not soften. "Is that so?" he countered, his voice a blade of ice. "Your Centaur Clan's children are children, but our human children are not? Your daughter is innocent, but were the human children that Lord Lulufu and his group chased and hunted down the day before yesterday innocent? Were the two students who were just peacefully leveling up in the Instance, minding their own business, and then surrounded by your Centaur Clan and almost killed, innocent?"
The Centaur father's fury only intensified. He stomped a hoof on the ground, the sound echoing through the tense silence. "But what does any of this have to do with my daughter?! They didn't even know those humans! What did she do to deserve this?! My poor Celia…" his voice trailed off, consumed by grief.
"Is that so? Then what are you doing now?" the Commander sneered, a flicker of something close to pity in his eyes. "You really have mastered the art of double standards. You claim this has nothing to do with your daughter, so who killed your daughter? The humans here? They were not even aware of what transpired! Yet you still brought your men here, killing everyone you saw, destroying property, and attacking innocents. Is this not an act of blind, collective vengeance?"
He took a slow step forward, his voice dropping to a low, dangerous growl. "Since you feel entitled to do that—to take out your anger on innocent humans who had nothing to do with your loss—then why are you surprised that the two humans who were innocently ambushed and hunted by your clansmen would also take their vengeance on your children?"
The words were a direct hit, a dose of bitter reality. The Centaur father was left speechless, his jaw hanging open in shock, his mind unable to process the hypocrisy of his own actions.
The Commander's sneer deepened. "It is meaningless to talk about this anymore. You just need to remember one thing: it was not humanity who started this war, but your Centaur Clan. It was your leaders' arrogant actions that pushed an individual to take justice into his own hands, and it was your own uncontrollable rage that turned a targeted attack into a regional war. Since it has begun, no one can predict how far it will spread."
He gestured to his forces, who now held the tactical high ground. "We humans do not want war. We profit from peace and cooperation. But if you want it, we can give you a war so terrible that your clan will be forced to choose between annihilation and peace."
After the last sentence was spoken, the scene fell into a deathly silence. The Centaur Clan's faces turned crimson with a fresh wave of humiliation and fury. They knew the human Commander was a powerful Professional of a very high rank. His strike had demonstrated a power they could not hope to match. They dared not act rashly.
"Whether it's war or peace, we'll discuss it later," the Commander concluded, his voice now calm and detached, the brutal business of war over for the moment. "But one thing is clear: find whoever killed your children and deal with them. That is your duty. But whoever dares to take their anger out on innocent humans again—in this city or any other—we will retaliate in kind. We have the numbers, the power, and now the just cause to do so. That is all."
With a final, imperious gesture, he turned and led all the human Professionals in his contingent to retreat in an orderly, disciplined manner. The Centaur Clan wanted to stop them, to get their vengeance, but dared not step forward, watching helplessly as the humans left. Finally, they were left with nothing but their burning rage and the knowledge that they had just suffered a profound, strategic defeat.
They let out roars of impotent, grief-fueled fury at the empty space where the humans had stood.
In the distance, still shrouded in perfect stealth, Vincent and Thalia had witnessed every single second of the confrontation. Their hearts, which had been in their throats in sheer terror for the innocent humans, had gradually settled. The Commander had arrived just in time, and his cold, calculating speech had perfectly shifted the entire political narrative in humanity's favor.
Vincent fell into a deep, heavy silence. The victory, the successful diversion, and the Centaurs' impotent rage, all felt hollow now. Thalia looked at him, her youthful face confused. "Brother?" she whispered.
Vincent let out a long, shuddering breath. He felt the weight of his actions, the blood on his hands that belonged not just to his enemies, but to a cause he had just dragged innocents into. "Let's go," he said, his voice flat.
Thalia was startled for a moment, then followed him silently. "Not killing anymore?" she asked, the excitement she had felt minutes ago gone, replaced by a sudden, sober understanding.
"Not killing anymore," Vincent confirmed, shaking his head slowly. He had a lot to process. "We are too weak now. Before, we were just focused on venting our anger and enacting our vengeance. We didn't think about the ripple effect. Our actions… they required others to pay the price. Let's level up first."
The reality was crushing. He and Thalia were an unstoppable force on an individual level, a Tier 0 and Tier 1 duo operating with the power of Epic Professionals. But they were not yet powerful enough to be truly responsible for the consequences of their actions.
He had deliberately carved the message, "The Horse Slayers, Paradise!" to draw all the hatred to himself and to his secret organization. He had thought it a clever tactical maneuver. It was now painfully clear that it was a useless, arrogant gesture. The Centaur Clan saw only two things: "human" and "attack." His personal vendetta still implicated the innocent.
He thought back to the scene he had just witnessed. If that veteran Commander hadn't appeared, all those humans in the Sky Serpent Secret Realm town—innocent, unconnected to him—would have died. Their deaths would be on his hands.
The cold, hard truth slammed into him: whether he wanted it or not, he was a representative of humanity. In the eyes of the Centaur Clan, he was not just an individual, but a symbol. A Centaur would not see a man named Vincent; he would see "humanity" as the perpetrator. This was the same way he himself had subconsciously regarded the Centaur Clan—he saw the enraged father of a murdered daughter and still felt a cold, distant satisfaction, believing that retaliating against any Centaur Clan member was a retaliation against Lulufu.
This made him deeply understand for the first time that wars between individual clans and conflicts between entire races were entirely different beasts. His actions were not just personal revenge; they were a spark that could ignite a continent-wide inferno.
"Then where do we go?" Thalia asked, her voice small.
"Let's go to the Gloomy Jungle," Vincent said, his mind made up. He needed to witness the consequences of his actions firsthand. "I want to see the situation there. I want to see the war that we started." He had to understand the scale of what he had done before he could decide what to do next.
"Damn humans!"
In the once-bustling town of the Gloomy Jungle, the battlefield was a maelstrom of destruction. A cacophony of exploding mana, the sharp hiss of skills, and the guttural roars of furious warriors filled the air. The town, which had stood as a symbol of human and Centaur co-existence for years, had followed the fate of the Rabbit Instance town, being reduced to smoking rubble in a matter of minutes.
The ground was a gruesome tapestry of bodies—human and Centaur alike—a testament to the fierce, unforgiving nature of a war that had erupted without warning. Yet, despite the staggering casualties, neither side would retreat.
Lulufu's face was a mask of savage vengeance. He clashed repeatedly with his old opponent, Silas, the leader of the Iron Fang City Professionals. Lulufu, a Tier 3 Warrior, was a whirlwind of offensive fury, his powerful attacks cleaving through the air with devastating force. But Silas, a Tier 3 Tank, was a bastion of unyielding defense. The two of them were a study in contrast, one all-out offense and the other unwavering resilience. Each time one took a massive chunk of damage, a flash of green light from their respective support teams would envelop them, their health bars instantly restored. They were locked in a duel of titans, a perfect stalemate.
On the other side of the square, Titus—the Tier 3 Knight—confronted the head of the Long Reach City Combat Affairs Department, a battle of pure martial skill. Both were Warriors, their blades a blur of motion as they fought an evenly matched battle, their status also constantly maintained by a dedicated support team.
This was the unspoken understanding of large-scale battle. In a situation where a single high-Tier Professional could unleash a single skill and kill dozens of lower-Tier enemies, the strongest individuals would be tasked with fighting their equals. The "kings" fought the "kings" so the war could continue. Without this agreement, the battle would simply end with a few bruised powerhouses standing over an annihilated battlefield—a meaningless victory.
The Centaur Clan had come with a terrifying, unquenchable rage, and their initial offensive was a thing of raw, unstoppable fury. But faced with the determined, disciplined resistance of the humans, their anger had gradually subsided. Their minds, cleared of the red mist, now faced the grim tactical reality of the situation. They gritted their teeth, but they continued to persevere, caught between their pride and the chilling cost of their rage.
It wasn't until both sides had suffered more than half casualties, and the bodies of their kin lay in a thick carpet of carnage, that the Centaurs realized the terrifying determination of the humans. They had believed this would be an easy, cathartic slaughter. They were horribly, tragically wrong.
"Sir, our casualties are heavy, and the humans are more determined than we imagined… Should we continue?" a Centaur warrior whispered to Titus and Lulufu as he retreated to recover health and stamina.
The two lords' faces immediately became ferocious. "YOU COWARD!" Titus snarled. "Centaur Clan warriors would rather die in battle than surrender to humans!"
On the human side, the situation was just as grim.
"Chief, casualties are heavy. Commander Fang and his team are rushing over, but we believe the Centaur Clan also has massive reinforcements on the way… Should we continue to hold the line?" a weary human Professional whispered to Silas and the head of Long Reach City's Combat Affairs Department.
"This time, we cannot retreat. The cost is too great," Silas said, his eyes deep and unwavering. "This isn't just about the Gloomy Jungle. If we fall here, the Undead Mountain and Rabbit Instance will also be lost. It will affect every other Tier 1 and Tier 2 Instance in the region, and even the Sky Serpent Secret Realm."
He was speaking of the domino effect, a strategic nightmare. If these crucial leveling Instances were lost, Iron Fang City and Long Reach City would lose their very reason for existence. Without Instances, where would Professionals level up? Where would they find the resources and materials to grow stronger? The only option would be to retreat to the southern cities, leaving the border open to invasion.
He spat out the last part of his thought with contempt. "Don't say that again. If we retreat from one city today, and another tomorrow, how many cities does the Emberlyn Kingdom have to retreat from before we are pushed back to the capital? Once all the outer cities are occupied by other races, what do you think they'll do next?"
So, when a war hasn't started, you can endure, concede, and manage the situation. But once the first blow has been struck, retreat is no longer an option.
Thus, a deadly stalemate had been reached. The humans could not retreat. The Centaur Clan would not retreat. The war had just begun.