Shepherd Tantra

Chapter 810 Don't want to eat? Then don't eat at all
"…your only friend."

Aleister repeated Pomponazzi's words.

She held up the red wine glass, and her slender fingers gently slid along the wall of the glass.

She wanted to laugh: "So, you killed your friend's descendants, took away his queen and heirs... and his country?"

Although Aleister had never met Queen Louise or Valentine VIII outside of the promotion ceremony, she knew the Moon Child... or in other words, the personality of all the extraordinary people in the Path of Love. Aleister could directly guess what they had experienced.

If there were a big data statistics for the promotion ceremony in this world, Aleister could be sure that... in the rejection path of the full moon ceremony, the total BAN rate of the path of love must be in the top three.

The first one should be the previous adaptation path, after all, it was notoriously difficult to break down and slip away.

——If you are not afraid of death, why do you want to be an adapter!
Once you put your own survival as the top priority, it will naturally not be a good thing for your teammates.

Now that the Lord of Scales and Feathers has obtained the warrior profession, and with the support of the power of the Pillar Gods, he has transformed a large number of extraordinary people who originally belonged to other paths but whose philosophies were already in the disputed area where different paths overlapped into adapters. The philosophy of the Adaptation Path has changed from "surviving in vain" to actively "fighting for living space", and the reputation of the Adaptation Path should also improve to a considerable extent.

To the extent that other paths are unpopular, the path of love should now be strong enough to at least maintain second place and strive for first place!
“That’s because they’re on the wrong path.”

Pomponazzi's expression remained unchanged. "It was not me who first abandoned Xingti and strayed from Bashir's path, but they. No one has more authority to say this than me, because I am the one who has been watching over this path since its inception.

"Among the many countries that split from the Helasar Empire, only the ruler of Xingti was born a commoner. Not only the king and officials...except for me and the principal who gave up power after the establishment of the country, even the second Red and Black Prime Minister we elected was also born a commoner.

"The more capable you are, the more work you will do. Strength is supreme. Anyone can get a stage to show their talents in Xingtan, as long as they really have such ability. People with talent will get a stage to hone their talent, and those who have trained their abilities will take over everything.

"'Even the most ferocious and dull beasts have the potential to be elevated to gods'. This is the essence of Star Antimony Alchemy, and it is Bashir's lifelong will. Even when he ascended to the dream world, he still believed in this concept - and believed that this was the most correct path, the path that could make the country most prosperous..."

"…Because of the Herasil Empire."

Aleister supported his chin with his left hand and said softly: "After all, the empire was destroyed for this reason."

In the last days of the empire, the vast majority of capable people were not given positions that would accommodate them.

It wasn't even an era of competition or internal competition, but rather an era where there was no competition at all - bloodline had already determined everything. No matter how hard one tried, a fifth-level transcendent of common origin could not compare to a third-level transcendent of noble origin... because the former was just an individual, while the latter controlled relationships and power.

When the common people split into many organizations and competed and fought among themselves, the common interests of the nobles made them united. Any attempt to seize the power of the nobles would trigger a fierce counterattack from all the nobles... It can be said that the one who truly ruled the empire was no longer Hercules, but the nobles of the Hercules Empire.

In this case, talent is no longer talent...but a real threat.

Because even without these talents, the empire would still be an empire, strong enough to be indestructible, unshakable, and inviolable.

But with these people, unstable voices will appear within the empire.

"—So the empire was destroyed."

Pomponazi answered calmly, revealing a bit of wisdom in his words: "Short-lived people's thoughts are limited by what they see. Bashir was born in the last generation of the empire, so he naturally believes that the root of all social contradictions comes from the rulers' lack of attention and rejection of talents. It is also for this reason that he attaches great importance to the selection of talents and is wary of the solidification of power.

“But back then… after his death, Xingti almost immediately fell to the brink of collapse.

"Because every faction in the country is very powerful. Bashir even took the initiative to cultivate their ambitions and desire for power, which made it impossible for Valentinian II to suppress them at the beginning of his reign. Every faction made preparations to ascend to the throne and connected with each other for this idea. At that time, Black Eagle and Narcissus were still in existence, and some factions even chose to communicate with them in order to gain power to overwhelm other factions.

"The internal strife in Xingti was even more intense than it is now. A decree could be repealed within two days of being issued, because the person who issued the decree had been fired and replaced by someone more powerful.

"The extraordinary people above are fighting fiercely, and even fighting each other. The people below have no idea which law they are following or whether the regulations have expired. Everyone lives in a daze. No one can clearly say what they plan to do in the future, and what they can't do now."

"It was only then that we realized... It turns out that in addition to being strong, a country also needs to pay attention to stability. The reason why the first generation of Xingti was stable was because Bashir subdued everyone. Once he left, chaos came unexpectedly."

"——This is actually because although the system proposed by Valentine I was a good idea, it was actually not perfect."

Aleister nodded and added, "He is too powerful, so he doesn't want the system to restrict him. But his successor may not have such power, so they can't draw enough power from the system to protect themselves."

Aiwass had learned this history in Avalon before - but it was used as a negative example of "what would happen if a multi-path transcendent held a high position" to warn the people of Avalon.

Although Avalon's exclusive authoritarianism caused a lot of chaos and suppressed national development, these bad things did not happen. Even in the era of Prince Lloyd or the Hanged King, there was no such chaos.

"So at that time, the principal and I took action together... We suppressed them again, recognized Valentine II, and granted him the dignity of a king. This is why the nobles still respect and fear the Black and Red Prime Minister to this day."

Peng Bonazi sighed with a complicated expression: "Since then, Xingti's rule has gradually stabilized." The expression on his face looked like a sigh, loss, and sarcasm.

"what about now?"

Bayard said leisurely, "Do you regret it? Do you think it was a mistake for you to hand over the power to Valentine?"

"You don't know me very well, Lady Bayard."

Pomponazzi shook his head: "I am not adaptable to authority... The power of the material world has no temptation for me. If I really want to get the star antimony, there are plenty of opportunities. In addition to me, the 'Principal' is the same - for us, there is not much difference between ruling a country as a king and raising a group of cattle and sheep as a shepherd.

"It's more of a job than a pleasure. When you transcend the mundane world too much, you will only feel bored when you look at those mortals... What they quarrel about, what they fight about, what they try their best to get, what they pursue all their lives, and what they pass down from generation to generation, everything is nothing but vanity. In the face of great times, everything that was once brilliant will wither like a flower.

"I have only lived for a few hundred years. I'm sure that the elves who have lived longer will be more indifferent to such things. This may also be the reason why the Theocracy can maintain neutrality.

"——Isn't that the case with you?"

"I...have something I want to pursue."

Aleister was silent for a moment, then answered softly.

At that moment, she had some random thoughts in her mind:

Today, Aiwas and Aleister are able to keep moving forward with such determination and enthusiasm, largely because the world is facing numerous crises.

The Fallen Angels have come, the Tail Rings have spread, the Ring Angels are plotting, and there is a secret that will lead to the end of the world in the future.

As the saying goes, even if the sky falls, there are always tall people to hold it up...but what if they are the tallest tall people?

They had no choice but to push forward. For this extremely difficult goal, even if they burned everything, it might still be unattainable, so how could there be room for slacking off or daydreaming?

but……

When the final enemy is defeated, the war to end all wars will be over.

What would Aiwass do then?
Will he return to his destroyed daily life? Will he still have a daily life? Or will he abandon his unnecessary emotions and self and become a god or pillar?
As a child of the moon who is also on the path of love, Aleister seemed to understand Pomponazzi for a moment:
If Aiwass became a god and she was abandoned and cut apart... perhaps she would be much crazier than Pomponazzi.

"So, you gave power to Valentinian II and took power away from Valentinian VII... because you don't want to play anymore?"

"I don't want to wait any longer."

Pomponazzi said frankly, his tone was extremely sincere and from the bottom of his heart: "Today's Valentine I is worse than before, and the path of the Knights of the Golden Stone has not yet been reached; today's nobles are still the nobles at the founding of the country, and there are so many extraordinary people among the people that they can't find jobs. The truly talented are being excluded again.

"The founding of Star Antimony relied on civilians, but now the civilians of Star Antimony are facing the same dilemma as the Empire. History is still repeating itself, and the development of the world is like a circle without a beginning or an end. Even if I try hard and can start over again and reset everything... but what's the point of just patching it up like this?

"Even if Xingtan can slowly reform to solve these problems, after the final changes are completed, it will no longer be Xingtan. It is not the Xingtan that Bashir and I fought for back then. Why should I protect it?"

"...You don't want to unite with other Moon Children to rebuild the Helasar Empire," Aleister suddenly understood Pomponazzi's real purpose, "You just want to destroy Star Antimony!"

"Indeed, I want to destroy Xingtan - but so what?

"I want to kill it while it's still alive, not just a corpse; I want to destroy it before it's too ugly for me to look at, so that people in the future can at least have hope. Let them feel sorry for the star and recall its former glory, instead of being like after the empire was destroyed, as if everyone can come and step on it and analyze why it was destroyed from a high position.

"Without my sponsorship, help and protection, Xingtan would never have been born. Since Xingtan in the past was born because of me, let Xingtan today die because of me."

The blond, red-eyed young man spoke slowly and clearly: "Although the principal has a lot of experience, he has not contributed anything to the establishment of the country. And I am at least the founder of half of the Star Antimony Kingdom... I think I have the power to end it.

"Xingti belongs to me and Valentine. But now Valentine is no longer Valentine, but I am still me.

“So, it’s mine.

"This is not about taking... this is about giving back."

(End of this chapter)