Arcanum: Chaos Path

Chapter 448 Qiao San felt something was wrong
King George III felt that something was amiss lately.

Everything was progressing smoothly as he had anticipated. With the help of his ancestors, he was successfully carrying out the Black Emperor ritual, had reached a cooperation agreement with the Witch Cult, and even received help from the Red Angel of the Aurora Society. It seemed that he would soon reap the rewards of victory, while the three gods of night, storm, and steam seemed to know nothing about Augustus's actions.

Normally, given this trajectory, he could become the Black Emperor in no time—though he might fail to advance and die or turn into a monster.

But for some reason, George III felt a vague unease, as if something had slipped out of his control without his knowledge.

"Am I being too sensitive, or is my spirit reminding me..." George III rubbed his temples. He then took out several intelligence reports, which were investigations into the three major churches. The results of the investigations were all normal.

George III then flipped through several intelligence reports, which were about several border cities. Due to the geographical location, George III was somewhat concerned about the situation on the border. However, since the capital was quite far from the border and there were no convenient means of communication at the time, George III could only ascertain the situation there through intelligence sent back by his informants, subordinates, and officials.

Everything was normal, except that Intis seemed a bit restless and there was a possibility of war breaking out.

George III's brow furrowed even more as he began to peruse other intelligence reports, his brow furrowing even more deeply.

Everything is as it was, everything is as usual, everything is as usual...

All the intelligence, all the undercover agents, and all his subordinates were describing one thing to him: everything in Rune was as it had always been.

“No, something’s not right.” George III suddenly stood up from his chair. As the king chosen by Augustus and the future Black Emperor in reserve, George III, though a scoundrel, was by no means stupid. Therefore, even though there was nothing wrong with the intelligence, he still keenly sensed something was amiss.

In fact, George III's intuition was correct, because after reaching an agreement with Rolin, the Church of the Night, the Church of the Storm, and the Church of the God of Steam and Machines all tacitly chose to block the Augustus family's intelligence network.

After all, as the saying goes, "know yourself and know your enemy, and you will win every battle." Conversely, when a person's ears and eyes are covered, and what they see and hear is all carefully arranged, the probability of them making a mistake increases significantly.

The Augustus family, now weakened by the combined efforts of the three major churches, has become blind and deaf.

"Someone come here..." George III intended to call in his personal attendant, but he stopped abruptly halfway through the call.

Because George III realized that if all the intelligence he had received was false, it meant that many of his men had either rebelled, been subdued or replaced, so were the people in the palace really reliable?
In the past, George III would not have doubted this, but now he had to.

So George III did not choose to summon his personal attendants, but instead took another path—he secretly sought out William I, Augustus's ancestor.

"What's wrong?" William I looked up at his disappointing descendants and asked.

“Ancestor, I suspect…” George III then explained that he had discovered there might be a problem with the intelligence he had received recently, and then said with a serious expression, “If this intelligence is indeed false, then it means that someone has blocked our intelligence network. This is not something that just any organization can do, not even any one of the three major churches could do it…” George III’s expression turned grim as he finished speaking.

“Unless the three major churches join forces.” William I’s expression was surprisingly calm, contrary to George III’s expectations. He simply sighed and said, “George, do you know why the family wanted you to become the Black Emperor?”

“Because only the family that possesses the true god has a real voice before the seven gods, and can gain a glimmer of hope in the end times,” George III answered without hesitation.

“Yes.” William I nodded, looking at his descendant before him, and said, “I thought the Seven Gods wouldn’t oppose this. Even if they didn’t want an eighth God to appear, they wouldn’t directly oppose it after it happened, in order to fight against the end times.”

“But I seem to be wrong…” William I sighed. Did William I, as the first in line, really not realize what had happened to George III?

Of course not. William I even sensed something was amiss earlier than George III.

However, after realizing that something was wrong, He did not take any action, but let it all happen.

“Ancestor, you knew all along…why?” George III’s eyes widened in surprise. Then, as if struck by a thought, he said, “Are the Triune Gods really so invincible?”

“No, the three gods are not so scary. Although Sequence 0 is indeed incredibly powerful, they cannot easily leave the Astral Plane now, and are also hindered by the end of the world. For Augustus, they are not that scary.” William I shook his head and looked at George III, saying, “What I fear is the existence behind the gods.”

"It is the being who changed the minds of the gods and united them; He is the one who opposes all of this."

William I was unaware of Rolin's existence, but he suspected it was not difficult. As a being who had lived since the Fourth Age, William I had witnessed many events, so he was well aware of the current state of the Seven Gods, and the conflicts between Storm, Sun, and Wisdom.

William I was well aware that while there were deities who wanted to change the current state of society, none of them chose to intervene drastically in the real world due to the impending doom and the need for social stability and anchor points.

It was precisely because he was so aware of these things that William I was terrified when he discovered that most of the seven gods seemed to be making secret moves and preparing for some kind of change, and that the gods of storm, sun, and knowledge no longer seemed to be in opposition as before.

He didn't think that this was because the gods had suddenly become great people or had gone mad. William I knew that there was only one reason why the gods would do this—there was an irresistible will that compelled them to do so.

And an existence that even the gods cannot defy… William I took a deep breath, his gaze falling on George III, and suddenly smiled, saying, “Perhaps we will all die here today.”

(End of this chapter)