Mythology: Spiritual Ruler

"'Royal Order'... So that's what it is, I understand."

"Everything in human society, including the gods and the lives under the rule of the Gods, must abide by it."

"So even powerful heroes dare not confront a country head-on, but some chaotic and crazy monsters don't need to care about this shackle."

"The powerful monsters in the legend can cause chaos in the kingdom, but they are often killed by heroes; heroes who can kill monsters cannot conquer a country with their own force, and this is the difference between inside and outside the order."

Suddenly realizing, Andrea felt that she finally understood the rules and order of the world today.

Whether it is gods, humans, or even other intelligent lives, most of them can get some benefits from this order.

And the ones who are really restricted are actually the gods other than the God King and the demigods at the top of the world.

Only they cannot show their full power because of this rule and have to be restricted by the kingdom and the people.

But they can only accept it, because the one who made the regulations is the King of Gods, who is also the source of a considerable part of the blood of the gods in the world.

Even beyond that, although Ryan did not say it explicitly, Andrea still vaguely sensed something.

Look at the effect of this system and you will know who are the people who are really restricted by the God King. It is nothing more than all the "strong people" in the entire God Court system except himself.

If the entire God Court system is a pyramid, then the God King is the top of the pyramid.

And those restricted gods and demigods in the world are the part closest to the top.

In addition, the vast number of nobles, kings of average strength, and even professionals who constitute the elite army are the part in the middle of the pyramid.

As for the remaining civilians without extraordinary power, whether there is a "royal order" or not, they are at the bottom of the tower, and it is nothing more than who they serve.

In this case, in contrast to Zeus's behavior, Andrea also has some vague insights.

As a ruler, you need to make the existence second only to you respect you and obey you.

Then let those who are separated from you by a layer gain benefits from the order you personally established, and have an overall conflict of interests with those who are second only to you.

This is the best state for you.

And there should be more behind this logic. Andrea's intuition tells her that the wars between countries and the conflicts between gods are probably the embodiment of some wisdom of the God King in this regard.

It can be said that how powerful the God King is, Andrea can only understand from the documents whose authenticity is unknown.

But his wisdom as a ruler seems to have always been around everyone.

"Father often said that he did not trust the gods, and he knew that many gods were powerful only because they were born as gods, but even so, he believed that some gods really understood something in their long lives and summed up the knowledge that mortals often find difficult to understand."

"He also said that often some things that are promoted more widely, spread longer, and are less cared about by people often hide some of the most useful wisdom."

With a sigh, Andrea felt that she was still far away.

"Now that I know the rules of human war, what should I do next?"

"Since the national war has begun, the gods can no longer rely on the gods to deal with the Athenian army, so should I directly send troops to besiege Eleusis?"

"Of course not."

Looking at Andrea who had given up thinking, Ryan smiled.

This is not self-destruction, it is purely a change in the middle of the night, facing the death of relatives directly, and then killing for the first time seamlessly, and appeasing the citizens of Athens.

After a set of operations, Andrea's spirit has reached the limit, so it is inevitable that she relaxes in front of people she can trust.

"If it was just a war between Athens and Eleusis, you shouldn't do this. Because this is a rebellion, not a response to foreign enemies."

"When dealing with foreign enemies, a lion will use all its strength to fight a rabbit. That is 'those who openly offend the superior country must be punished even if they are far away'. But using all your strength to deal with a small rebellion will only make people think that Athens' strength has declined after the change of the throne, and it will no longer be the same as before."

"What's more, Athens has only been centralized for a few decades, and a considerable part of the army is conscripted. At the current speed of assembly, I'm afraid that by the time you have conscripted and are ready to go, three months will have passed."

"And now Athens is not just facing the rebellion of Eleusis, the threat from the Western countries is the biggest problem. Their power as a country may not be as strong as Athens, but when most of the power of the entire Olympus pantheon comes out, I'm afraid they still need to prepare early."

"Well...what should I do?"

As if thinking hard, Andrea asked.

"Of course, we should use the royal army to quickly pacify it. After all, the other party is still using your brother's banner and claims that Demophon is the legitimate heir of Athens."

"In the face of this situation, it is obviously better to be quick and not give Eleusis, which also rebelled hastily, a chance to reorganize. We should directly use elite troops to break the city and intimidate Athens."

"At the same time, the main force of the country will immediately deploy troops in the western border and recruit soldiers to act according to the situation; to the south, we will send envoys to seek friendly alliances; to the east, we will shrink maritime trade and guard against the invasion of Poseidon believers. At that time, we will see which side of the East and the West has the opportunity to attack instead of defend and win the first game. This is the right way of military strategy."

Ryan said casually without thinking too much.

This is not some earth-shattering wisdom, it is just a standard response to this situation.

"But having said that, you have to be prepared."

"It's not easy for Athens to win this war."

"Well, I know."

Nodding, Andrea cheered up: "In fact, I am ready to fight in the Acropolis one day in the future."

"Just in front of the great temple of the goddess, showing the fearlessness of the Athenians."

"But then again, Ivan--" Blinking, Andrea asked: "What is the art of war?"

In the myths of later generations, Chaos was the 'god of art of war', but after personal investigation, Ryan confirmed that there was no such thing.

Just like Athena's spiritual artifact was regarded as a god by later generations, it was probably the result of some rumors.

So looking at Andrea with a puzzled face, Ryan didn't know how to explain it specifically.

There are all kinds of strategies in this era, but no great master has written a book to summarize the past and bring forth new ideas.

So as of now, there is indeed no systematic art of war in the world of Chaos.

"Just think of it as a summary of the art of war. Although there are not many wars in the world, there are many in some places."

In the world of Chaos, where are the most frequent wars?

Of course, it is the battlefield of hell and the abyss.

This is the most appropriate explanation, and people who want to understand it will not find it strange.

But even Ryan did not expect that the excuse he gave at the moment would make the later humans come to the same conclusion when they look back on history ten thousand years later.

Human morality comes from the gods and comes from the Golden Age; while conspiracy and cunning come from the devil and have been passed down since the Silver Age.

Morality is naturally worth praising, but cunning is not useless. Because as the crystallization of mortal wisdom, the earliest military tactics of mankind were inherited from this.

······

Athens acted quickly, without any delay. Not long after, Andrea announced the war order in the palace.

The troops from many city-states will be recruited from this moment, and then rush to a big city in the west to gather.

On the afternoon of the same day, the Knights of the Royal City began to gather.

In this mythical and fantastic era, the so-called "Knights" can be said to be quite characteristic of the times.

They belong to the lowest level of the ruling class and are also the most direct embodiment of the military power of a kingdom.

As for the reason, it can be traced back to the beginning of the birth of the extraordinary system.

Today, the extraordinary power of the world, in the final analysis, is roughly extended in the direction of spiritual elements, or expanded from the perspective of material life.

And at the beginning of everything, it was the survivors of the Golden Age before they became the first professional in the world to enter the legendary field in the field of material life.

In his perception, he had experienced four stages of change. (See 3-20)

In the first stage, the energy belonging to material life began to be born.

It was condensed from the flesh and blood, and it could also come to allow the mortal body to break the innate limitations of mortals.

Before this, simple exercise and training always had an upper limit.

And the birth of the first ray of life energy indicates that the upper limit of mortals can be broken.

However, this so-called breakthrough is not so direct and obvious in the external manifestation, it is more of a beginning.

In the second stage, when this material life energy breaks through a certain limit, it begins to be actively controlled by the owner, and can consciously strengthen his body.

With this ability, the professional can burst out more powerful abilities when needed.

But at this point, compared with witchcraft and divine arts, the combat professionals still can't see any signs of extraordinary.

Although they run faster, have stronger strength, and better physique, in fact, if they face a team of armored soldiers with bare hands, they still have only one way to escape.

So many times, this level of professional is not even regarded as extraordinary, but just a soldier with better quality.

As for the third stage, this is the first watershed for combat professionals.

The third level of the clergy is called the high-level priest, and the third level of the wizard has completed the initial transformation of the soul, and can use the soul to roam in the surface of the spirit world during meditation.

When the combat professionals reach this step, the transformed material life energy can finally leave the body and initially affect the outside world.

At this point, even professionals without any inheritance can choose to become a "knight".

Becoming a ‘knight’ means becoming the most ordinary member of the so-called Knights, and the lowest level of the ruling class in the world.

Although they cannot release ‘sword energy’ yet, warriors who have reached this stage can cover their life energy on weapons and armor.

And if the armor is forged in a special way, it can even achieve the effect of one plus one being far greater than two.

In addition, their life energy can also act on other lives.

For example, the knights can make their mounts, which they spend every day with, have stronger endurance and strength.

And further, when there are enough knights releasing life energy at the same time, and there are people who are good at this as support, their energy may even be intertwined.

This intertwined energy will form a layer of net, weakening any external power, and can also enhance the lethality they have.

Such an army is the so-called "Knights", and it is also a tool used by the world today to deter the strong, or a treasure that can defeat the weak with one blow.

It can be said that the most direct proof of whether a country is a local independent city-state or a famous kingdom on the continent is whether there is such a Knights.

Of course, although people nowadays don't feel anything, if a person in the future looks at it, it is inevitable that the name of the Knights appears a little too early.

Perhaps in the original history, this era of frequent demigod heroes should be the beginning of the birth of extraordinary power, not the earlier Bronze Age.

It was not until after the Trojan War that the road to extraordinary power gradually spread on the earth.

This kind of power structure with "knights" who hold power as the foundation will gradually form and last for thousands of years in the future.

It's just that now, everything is much earlier.

If it weren't for the existence of the gods, perhaps the world at this time has begun to transition towards true "feudalism".

"It's really too early."

"At least I never knew what a 'knight' was in that illusory world."

"But this is not surprising. After all, there was no 'Great Alchemist Hermes' in that era."

With a self-deprecating laugh, Hermes watched Solomon's figure moving outside the tower.

He naturally received a notice about the war, but the young new king seemed to have not figured out how to communicate with him, so he did not meet him.

Seeing this, Hermes just went with the flow and only let his students go with the army.

In recent days, his experiment has been stuck in a bottleneck.

Although he has a way to continue, he still wants to do more experiments, such as 'blood sacrifice' is one of the attempts.

In addition, he had thought about going outside the Ring River to take a look.

Outside the world is the void, he knows.

But outside the illusory world he used to be, it is 'real'.

Every failure makes you wiser, and you can see more if you can.

Maybe he could get new inspiration from a different angle or perspective.

"Let's do it now, the sooner we go, the sooner we'll come back."

"There may not be enough time later."

He exhaled and stretched out his hand.

Then, at the bottom of the tower, a crystal stone flickered slightly and fell into Hermes's palm.

"The battle between gods and men... Although I didn't have the opportunity to witness the end of Troy, as long as I think about this kind of thing, I know that there will be no good results."

"The God King has his own plans, and the gods have their own plans, and they all think they can win in the end."

"Hehe, fighting back and forth, I don't know who is swimming naked when the tide recedes."

He smiled, and then his figure flashed, and Hermes disappeared in the tower.

He didn't intend to attract anyone's attention on this trip. It would be best if he could leave and return silently.

Anyway, this battle on earth will not start immediately, and now it is far from the time for him to appear.