Rise of the Cosmic_Emperor-Chapter 793 Tortured Devouts... And Wedding Bells.
The news of the events at the battlefield, the disappearance of an entire territory, had spread basically an hour after it happened.
The spreading news mostly referred to the disappearance while the Emperor and the whole interested Haron camp were treated to detailed information on all events.
The part that was especially expressed was the strength of the masked Avatar of the Sapphirine Prince and just how well he had managed and taken control of the situation of him battling peak semi-saints and Saints.
This of course was all instantly considered a big problem for the Harons and they especially considered it to be a massive oversight on their part... An oversight that Amador Haron was determined to correct.
The very next day an imperial decree was passed to every Duchy and within every Duchy, it was passed to every city. So long as a location was populated by breathing people, it was subjected to the decree.
The decree banned the coming together of any group under any heading that was not in some way subject to the Haron Supremacy.
If a family wished to worship a god of their choosing, that god had to come second... Nothing must be superior to the Haron Emperor whose godly blessing was the only accepted and recognized on the continent.
This decree was strongly enforced especially in the powerful regions of the continent and the whiff of any form of coming together that was not serving the purpose of upholding the Haron Imperial might would be faced with the wrath of said might.
Now of course, generally, the Herons still had control of the continent and so the force of the decree fell on the denizens of the Dane Duchy who had accepted the faith of the Sapphirine Prince with them all kept under surveillance.
The other areas that Hal had spread his influence to were not widespread and those who had accepted the faith in those specific areas were quick to lie low while scrutiny went over their heads but alas, the devouts in the Dane Duchy did not have that luxury.
These devouts kept their staunch belief in the faith very minimal in noise but they all refused to let it go while taking the risk to still say prayers to the Sapphirine Prince whenever they had the chance.
In fact, a few even took to boldly use the term 'Cosmic Emperor' to refer to the Prince as that was less easy to match with the Sapphirine Cult.
Alas, that jig was quickly up when those who had been at the battlefield noted it was a name the Priestess of the cult had used to address the false god.
Prisoners were taken to be used to make it clear that the decree was serious and that there would be no leniency.
After the example that had been made of the Prisoners, the fire of defiance appeared to have been fanned rather than quenched as the members of the Sapphirine Cult regressed to referring to the lord by his very first title 'The Malevolent One'. 𝗳𝒓𝙚e𝓌e𝚋𝙣𝚘𝐯𝙚𝙡.𝑐૦ｍ
They all felt clever as that title was a bit of a hidden joke among members of the cult who had all been taught the history of the Cult to know how aged that title was.
Never did any member of the Sapphirine Cult verbally or otherwise renounce the Sapphirine Prince, the Cosmic Emperor, but they did get people fooled into thinking the focus of their worship had changed.
This worked for a while and then it didn't... The fact that they were organized was clear and this time, a few devouts caught in the act faced torture. The sort that had them wishing for death.
Even then, whenever these tortured devouts were set free, they decided to take their torture as a blessing to no longer give a damn about punishment.
They would encourage many to worship the Lord of the cult in secret while they went about preaching loudly with excerpts they had received of the Infinite Scripture from the codex of infinity.
"When my lord sends out his Avatar again, he will SMITE YOU ALL! YOU SHALL NOT BE ABLE TO BEAR HIS WRATH!!!
HE SHALL RAIN DOWN HIS MALEVOLENCE UPON YOU!!!
YOUR WIVES, MOTHERS, DAUGHTERS SHALL ALL BE HAPPY PARTAKERS IN HIS DEBAUCHED JUSTICE!!!"
In every city, such evangelists would rise and the stark majority were women who always proved hard to catch or find. They would appear, yell out ominous warnings and preachings and seemingly vanish.
One thing to note though was that none of their preachings tried to turn others to the faith... It was always just condemning them as the evangelists knew there was no saving those bunch.
The Danes as well as all major families in the Duchy capital were basically the Emperor's right hand in enforcing the decrees and it had the Emperor feeling calm that the madness of the cult had failed to take over the Capital. 𝗳𝐫𝘦e𝘸𝗲𝚋𝓃𝚘v𝘦𝘭.𝑐𝒐m
Four months after the disappearance of Sapphire City, the situation with members of the Sapphirine Cult (Everywhere in the Dane Duchy apart from the capital) was well contained and the people were much more demure. Even accepting to be drafted into the Army charged with protecting the Duchy in case of any attack.
Speaking of attacks, there had been none from the Dystopians.
Even if there was though, the Emperor believed he had covered and protected the most important areas just in case.
The Imperial City which was basically its own Duchy was surrounded by four of the twelve Duchys, those four were; Doxon, Dane, Dreg, and Akene, and as that position could prove an issue should the four be taken over, that four were the Emperor's main focus.
Every single one of the four Duchys was highly on alert and at the mere note of an attack and they would call for reinforcements from any of the others.
***
Meanwhile,
Sassy had been at the Dragon Tribe for all those months and had truly mingled among the bunch and gotten very close to some of them... The most notable of whom was Reyna.
The dragon lady sporting impressive talent had been quite easily drawn in by the fact that the Prince was Hal and while she was not bursting with excitement, that connection did let her relate to Sassy.
Sassy was well aware of ongoing events in a time-warped Sapphire City but was not about to be bitter at not getting the chance of such long-term fucking with her master. She let none of it affect her professionalism and built a pseudo-friendship with Reyna.
Reyna was Sassy's major introduction to the Dragon clan as well as the conspiratory plans so far happening between the Dragon and Pheonix clans.
The two clans were secretly working on combining forces and stealthy measures were already being taken for a union between a dragon prince and a Phoenix princess.
That marriage was meant to truly solidify the growing bond.
The plan had been underway for a long time but there was a fundamentally separating factor that was hindering the coupling.
This was not too surprising... It had always been that way and even stretched into repulsion... A union between the two had always been next to impossible.
Any member of either of the clans was able to mate with any of the many other races but not with each other...
They used to think it was just a survival instinct that was trying its very best not to let two governing powers combine and thereby undermine each other. This was supported by the lack of Union with the other two ruling powers.
However, the Dragon and Phoenix clan realized their situation was of a different sort while also discovering what sort of power their union would grant.
They might not have known the reason for their inability to come together but Sassy did; Both the Dragon and Phoenix clans were progenies of two Primevals and both Primevals were staunchly against one another just as the Devil Queen Nihasa and the Virtue Queen Sariel were against each other...
... I.e one was an agent of Chaos and the other an agent of Order.
Anyway, they were overcoming that factor but the process was slow and while it went on, the two clans were being more agreeable... A detail that Elenor of the Dystopian Devil Tribe was feeling unsettled by. It would seem her worry was not unfounded.
A joining of the Dragon clan and Phoenix clan would immediately present an imbalance... The very steady and even hold of power by the ruling quad is what had allowed things to run as well as they did so far.
A combination would grant the Pheonix and dragon clans the strength to be superior.
The moment Elenor ever heard of this looming imbalance, she would work her hardest to put an end to it... But who the hell would tell her?
Certainly not Sassy.
It had taken four months for Sassy to discover what the plan was and that was even though she was residing in the palace.
Hell, she had needed Reyna to know. That was how secretive the Dragon clan was being.
