Chapter 1066
Unlike the attack on the Citadel of Exalted Light, where destroying the Citadel would have caused grave injury or death to Zaur Beridze, destroying structures on Gniteria did not serve the same tactical purpose. The Silver Fang wasn’t suddenly torn apart just because some of their buildings had been destroyed and a single elder was dead.
However, the assault was a clear warning to them. They’d chosen to cause trouble with the wrong people, and they were going to suffer the consequences for it. The death of that elder wasn’t going to collapse their sect… but in turn, it also wasn’t a trivial loss. The damage to their morale would also be widespread, likely causing them to be more cautious. Their tactics could keep their raiders safe, but if they had nowhere to return to that could only last so long.
At the same time as the assault on Gniteria, the Scarlet Alliance launched several more attacks on their closest border planets, targeting mainly defensive infrastructure such as the formations used to maintain the barriers. They had no intention to attempt to occupy planets immediately, but they could make them more difficult to defend in the future.
Though the Scarlet Alliance was eager to retaliate, they still preferred to not be drawn into a protracted war. Thus preparations were made for a potential diplomatic resolution- now that they had made a show of strength, they could leverage that for better concessions. Though actually solidifying diplomatic channels would be difficult. They might need to bring a show of force to one of their planets with the intention to hold that position.
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Far away in the lower realms, people were not merely sitting idly. Though they had taken some time to allow people to recover from the invasion, a few decades returned them to proper stability. With certain plans that were being made to connect to the Chaotic Conglomeration more long term, more attention was given to the western region.
For the most part, the Lower Realms Alliance had branched out in an easterly direction- partially because of the Sylanis Cluster being directly in their path, partially because Anton had explored to the east, and finally because they hadn’t encountered as many occupied planets nearby to the west.
The cluster of systems that had once been part of the Numerological Compact but was now simply referred to as the Unified Sector was the largest grouping of people by far, and it was a significant distance away. Ultimately, there had only been so far that the Lower Realms Alliance was willing to stretch itself while preparing for the war. Now, they had an opportunity to cut off the upper realms from access to the lower realms entirely, if they could liberate every occupied system from their influence.
The Lower Realms Alliance was able to tolerate those who did not want to join them. For centuries they remained at peace with the Sylanis Cluster, even after the alliance’s combined power dwarfed the few systems. They would have accepted Ekict’s desire for independence. But they could not abide active threats, especially anyone with a continuing connection to the upper realms.