Chapter 1288: The Path Ahead

"We need to stop him from reaching Godhood," Amun said, his voice carrying the firmness of someone who had already accepted the scale of the task ahead.

"If Theras succeeds, there will be no second chance for us. A God who has achieved complete resonance with Fate and established his own Path would stand beyond the limits we currently understand.

Whatever defenses we build, whatever armies we gather, none of it may be enough to stop him once he reaches that level. We cannot allow him to take that final step."

"Then our first objective should be to keep the fourth fragment out of his hands," I replied. "You said it can nullify his connections to those bound to him, which means it is not merely a missing component of the System. It is also one of the few things capable of interfering directly with the foundation of his plan. As long as we retain it, he cannot complete the harvest with the certainty he wants."

Amun gave a slow nod, acknowledging the logic behind my suggestion.

"That must be our first priority. However, we cannot mistake that for a complete solution. Even without it, Theras can still attempt the harvest using the three fragments he has already incorporated into himself.

The chance of success may be far lower, but it is not zero, and someone who has spent countless ages preparing for Godhood will not abandon his ambition simply because one part of his plan is missing. If he believes he is running out of time, he may even decide that the risk is worth taking."

"Then we need to make sure he has fewer resources to work with, regardless of whether he obtains the fragment or not."

"Exactly." Amun’s gaze sharpened. "The second part of our plan must be to weaken his forces before the Fate Harvest begins. The seven Eternal Legions are the backbone of his military power, and we cannot allow them to remain intact while he prepares to consume the populations of entire universes. We need to identify the strongest among those legions and eliminate them, dismantling the forces most capable of defending Theras and carrying out his orders."

He paused before adding another part to the strategy.

"We must also begin freeing the vassal universes. Every universe that remains under his control contributes to the population he intends to harvest, and every one we liberate reduces the number of beings he can reach without resistance.

It will not be enough to defeat a few armies or destroy a handful of strongholds. We need to disrupt his control over the territories he has spent ages gathering, forcing him to divide his attention between protecting his empire and completing his plan."

I considered his words, weighing their implications against everything I had learned during my three years in the Origin Expanse.

Until now, the war had largely been fought as a struggle for survival, with the Prime Universe defending itself against incursions and attempting to eliminate the threats that crossed into its territory. Amun was proposing something far more ambitious, an offensive designed to strike at the foundation of Theras’s power before he could put his final plan into motion.

"You intend to declare war on him," I said, making the conclusion explicit.

"I do." Amun did not hesitate. "We have spent too long reacting to his movements, waiting for the next invasion and hoping that our defenses will hold. That approach has brought us this far, but it will not save us from what is coming.

Theras has already decided the fate of every universe under his control, and if we continue to wait until he begins the harvest, we will be fighting on his terms. We need to force him to respond to us, destroy the preparations he has made, and create enough uncertainty that he cannot execute his plan when he wants to."

The determination in his voice was unmistakable, but I could not ignore the imbalance between the forces he wanted to challenge. The Prime Universe had survived the previous invasions and even managed to kill several enemy Demi-Gods, yet those victories had come at a time when the Eternal forces were probing our defenses rather than committing their full strength.

The Eternal Universe had existed as the center of Theras’s power for ages, while the Prime Universe was still recovering from the battles that had nearly torn it apart.

"You know the difference between our forces and his better than anyone," I said. "The Prime Universe is still far weaker than the Eternal Universe, and that is before we account for the seven Eternal Legions, the Demi-Gods serving under Theras, and the forces he can summon from the vassal universes.

We have managed to defend ourselves, but launching an offensive against his territory is an entirely different matter. What makes you believe we can win a war against an enemy with such an overwhelming advantage?"

Amun’s expression softened slightly, though the resolve in his eyes remained unchanged.

"Because I have not spent all these years preparing only to defend this universe. You are right that the Prime Universe cannot match the Eternal Universe in raw military strength, and I have no intention of pretending otherwise.

But the forces you have seen so far are not the entirety of what we can bring to this war. I have been preparing our own forces, strengthening our defenses, and arranging things that could not be revealed before the time was right. We are not as helpless as Theras believes us to be."

He then turned his attention toward the space between us, where the faint traces of the System’s presence seemed to linger even in the depths of the ancient battlefield.

"And we are not fighting alone. We still have the System, and its role in this conflict is far from over. Theras has spent ages using its power to prepare his harvest, but he does not possess complete control over everything it can do.

The fact that you exist as its Executor is proof of that. The System chose to place its trust in you, and your growth over these past years has already changed the balance in ways Theras may not fully understand."

I could not deny that my own existence was evidence of something unusual about the System, though I still did not know the full extent of its intentions or why it had chosen me for the role of Executor.

I had spent years using its functions to grow stronger, and the Null Core it had given me had become the foundation of my current power. Yet the System had also remained silent about many things, leaving me to uncover their significance through experience rather than explanation.