章節 1314: Collapse
Vahn's global announcement had, as could be expected, far-reaching consequences. Though a number of people hadn't taken his words at face value, as they had their own system of beliefs to drive their decision-making, it quickly came to light just how serious the man calling himself an Emperor had been.
Many people still had the mentality that they would be going to work as usual, trusting that their government and military would be the ones to handle this strange and incomprehensible event. What they didn't expect was that the entire global market had crashed in an instant as suppliers lost their factories while most industrial equipment had been crippled. Even cars, the main way in which many people got around, simply didn't work any longer once they had been safely parked, stranding numerous people.
The only vehicles still in service were ambulances, fire trucks, and a few other emergency vehicles, so long as they were used as intended. This meant most of the streets were largely empty, despite the best efforts of mechanics to try and fix the issues. Unfortunately, this was made impossible by the fact that most parts had been irreversibly damaged and, even if they managed to contact one of their usual suppliers, replacement parts could no longer be produced as nearly every assembly line had been downed.
What terrified people the most, however, was the complete shut down of telecommunications systems networks and the internet. Those in so-called 'First World Countries' were hit the hardest by this as, in recent years, people were so reliant on the interconnectivity of their devices that they were incapable of adapting to the sudden changes. They were now completely severed from the stream of data they had used to make all their important decisions and, to make matters even worse, the emergency broadcast system informed them that intermittent power outages would become common while, in some regions, the grid was already down completely...
When it finally began to sink in just how terrifying the transition was going to be, people began to flock to grocers, supermarkets, and even farms themselves to steal and loot produce. In countries like China and the United States, this resulted in the nation's militaries cracking down hard on the population while, in many cities and states, people took up arms to protect their businesses and homes.
It was almost like an end of the world scenario as, despite elevating themselves above the other countries of the world, the people in these so-called First World Countries immediately resorted to extreme violence and barbaric behavior once the systems designed to make their lives more convenient had collapsed. They immediately turned to looting, breaking and entering the homes of their former neighbors, and hoarding everything they could get their hands on for fear that it would be taken from them.
One of the hardest-hit countries in this entire transition was the United States as, with their very loose gun control, gun violence peaked demonstrably just hours after Vahn's announcement. It didn't matter if the military had declared martial law as, with too many people to police, absolute anarchy had consumed the once proud nation overnight. There had even been a few skirmishes between the military, armed citizens, and local gangs as, realizing how drastic the changes they faced would be, the worst part of people had come out alongside their self-preservation instincts.
---
While chaos ensued, Vahn bore witness to these events through hundreds of projected monitors, each floating around him in a hemisphere. The atmosphere around him had become solemn as, while he had expected chaos, the fervor in which humanity showed when it came to harming itself was mortifying. If people had followed the instructions provided, they would be aware that food and water weren't significant concerns. The Empire had more than enough resources to feed the entire planet's population and, while it would certainly be a little less convenient, even a complete novice with Magecraft would be able to produce freshwater...
It was sad to see but, despite having been looked down upon by other, more advanced, societies, the members of Second and Third World Nations were adapting far faster. They lived their lives in constant fear of starvation while, with few exceptions, things like clean water and electricity were extremely rare commodities. Because of this, they were largely unaffected by the changes and, by following the instructions, many of which were spread by word of mouth, they were actually living better lives than before.
Though he knew there was a fair amount of bias skewing his observations, Vahn could see that the more 'convenience' people used to shape their lives, they less capable they were of actually living productively. They were entirely reliant on the systems designed to control and profit off of them so, without this infrastructure, billions of people immediately turned to violence. They had lived in a society that perpetuated the idea of individuality thus, outside of close family and small circles of friends, they were grossly incapable of working with other members of their community.
Vahn had severely underestimated how indoctrinated advanced societies had become as, with very few exceptions, the more prosperous a nation had been prior to the announcement, the worse the fallout. The only exceptions to this were countries like the United Kingdom, Egypt, and, curiously enough, places such as Japan and South Korea. These were places where the Magus community had strong standing and, as a result of strenuous control laws, the people were less prone to violence.
A stark contrast to most countries, the people in these regions followed the instructions of their government while many, rather than immediately turn to rioting, read the documents uploaded to their personal devices. Thus, instead of killing and robbing each other, they gathered together in relative peace as they patiently waited for the distribution of food and other pertinent resources, all of which was provided for free. Some had even taken the instructions on their computers very seriously and, with strong imaginations and an even stronger desire to use Magic, a few talented individuals were even able to use rudimentary beginner spells before the day had passed.
The biggest inconvenience to these communities was the breakdown of the internet and phone networks but, with their large populations concentrated in very small areas, information spread quickly by word of mouth and megaphone. It was a stark contrast to countries with comparably large land and a rather diminutive population, places where people literally needed cars to get around due to living so far apart from each other.
This was one of the things Vahn intended to address during the transition as there was literally no reason for humans to live in such divided communities. People did not need a significant amount of land for themselves and their families. Rather, the earth should be something that people could freely explore in order to observe its beauty and challenge themselves.
With this in mind, Vahn intended to concentrate the human population to a few localized cities in order to preserve their numbers, reduce the logistical nightmare of overseeing billions of people, and protecting the environment. Having them live far apart was extremely impractical as it made the existence of continent-spanning highways, comprehensive railways, complex flight paths, and other transportation infrastructure necessary. All of these were dead-end technologies and, with the transition of the world back to its nascent state, monsters, spirits, and other fantastical beasts would soon reclaim the land.
Vahn knew that the death toll would be even greater if humanity hadn't been united by the time the transition had completed so, while the current chaos was troubling, it was necessary in order to prepare humanity for what was to come. They needed to adapt and learn to live alongside the other races, themselves, and the planet. If they could not do this, the only fate that awaited them was constant strife and an endless cycle of destruction perpetrated by the ridiculous need to have more of something than someone else.
Even if he needed to become the target of the entire species' hate, Vahn didn't particularly mind as this was the type of traumatic event a species needed to undergo if it was to have any hope of changing for the better. It was only when the seeds of corruption sprouted, growing through the foundation of society until it completely collapsed that you finally realized how messed up things had been. Vahn was intending to expose this truth, remove the roots, lay a stronger foundation, and usher in an era of genuine prosperity, not just for humanity, but all sapient species...
If things had remained as they were, most Spiritual entities born into the world would be quickly corrupted by the influence of humans. Even worse, there would be a number of Tier 4 and Tier 5 entities returning to the world, most of which would not hesitate to twist humans to their will. This included the Gods who, in the ancient past, used the beliefs of humans to turn against the planet itself. They were bound to attempt something similar in the future as, without any restrictions on how and where they could manifest, isolated human populations would quickly fall under the influence of one or more deities.
By having humanity congregate in a few locations, they would be much easier to protect against the forces that would readily exploit them. This was something Vahn had to be concerned about as, the more divided humanity was, the harder it would be to keep the gods in line. There were a number of them who could shake the Empire individually but, united, they would be a terrifying foe that even Gaia and Alaya wouldn't be able to fend off.
The higher the concentration of mana in the atmosphere, the more easily the Laws of the world could be bent by those proficient in its use. This meant that, as the regression continued, more powerful entities would begin to appear in the world. Eventually, the first generation of Gods would return to the Surface and, while they may not turn against Gaia a second time, he still had to consider the fact they were able to defeat her the first. He knew they would immediately try to seed themselves as the rulers of the world once again so, in order to prevent a repeat of history, Vahn needed humanity to be united.
He only wished this could be explained to people in a way they could understand but, until things had started to stabilize, this would be an exercise in futility. They didn't have the time or energy to focus on anything other than preserving their own lives and, with more than half the population of the mind that only their god or gods existed, they would be extremely resistant to anything that proved otherwise. In fact, with the changes forced upon them, many people turned to the leaders of their respective religions for answers, something Vahn would be forced to address in the very near future.
For now, however, he was more focused on laying the necessary support infrastructure to protect as many people as possible while preparing his forces to begin policing the entire world. He also needed to assign personnel to protect the facilities as there were already some foolish idiots who were trying to monopolize and police the food-production factories. The fact they thought they could get away with this, only hours after his announcement, completely baffled Vahn. However, if humanity wasn't prone to extreme bouts of foolishness, such extreme actions wouldn't have been necessary in the first place...
(A/N: Sorry guys, I'm completely out of commission atm. As soon as my sickness began to go away, I got a very severe ear infection. At this point, the entire right side of my head is in pain and I can't even close my jaw. I've been trying to sleep without any success and, even with antibiotics and pain killers, it just hurts too much to focus on anything. I feel like my ear is going to explode from the pressure. It hurts. I can't even describe how badly it hurts T_T...)
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章節 1315: Fervor
Vahn knew it would be a logistical nightmare to observe and police every region without having forces of his own to occupy select areas. He had already been making preparations for this but, in his original timeline, it would have been several years before he started implementing assigned territory. Now, however, he realized that, without a representative force to keep order, there were quite a few people who would exploit the power vacuum to try and secure power and authority for themselves.
This wasn't something new to Vahn but he hadn't expected them to do something foolish like trying to seize, regulate, or even outright destroy the food production facilities. Common sense dictated that you shouldn't antagonize a powerful and unknown force but, as if this was a foreign concept to them, several groups around the world did just that. They didn't seem to consider the consequences at all, perhaps believing their actions went unnoticed.
Even these groups weren't the most troublesome, however. No, that title belonged to the various small religious organizations that immediately seized power within their social circles.
It turned out that, with a complete breakdown in communications technologies, people tended to flock towards authority figures to make decisions on their behalf. Since a considerable number of people around the world believed in one religion or another, people of similar beliefs began to band together. Vahn had even received reports of small towns and villages imprisoning those that had tried following the instructions provided by the Empire. They used their religious doctrine to make Magic out to be some dark craft and, in some of the fundamentalist communities, Vahn had even been labeled as the Devil.
The ironic part of this statement is that, while lambasting others as evil, these so-called righteous individuals would capture, imprison, or outright torture people who had just wanted to make their lives easier. What annoyed him more so was the fact that some people had determined that the phenomenon of people disappearing around the world was some kind of delayed Rapture event as it generally protected children and those known to be good people. This had caused a wave of religious zealotry to spread and, without the means to distribute information and properly police a frightened population, some truly terrifying acts had been carried out in the name of various gods.
Even more troublesome, though it was within his expectations, some people actually started to proactively commit suicide. This alone wouldn't have been a problem but, with rumors of the end of the world causing widespread panic, some troubled mothers and fathers resorted to drowning their children or jumping off buildings as a family. These events were witnessed by many people so, in the days immediately following the address, millions had resorted to committing suicide while some of the budding religious cults used the fact that someone didn't vanish into motes of light as an excuse to commit heinous acts.
Vahn had always known that dealing with the religious community would be the most difficult part of the transition as, no matter how much logic was presented before them, a surprising number of people would committedly ignore it. Anything that didn't coincide with their belief systems was, in their minds, just some kind of clever scheme designed to corrupt their soul. They would band together with like-minded individuals and fight tooth and nail against anyone who didn't believe in the same things as them, a sad truth that had plagued humanity for thousands of years.
Now, Vahn had committed one of the ultimate taboos in the minds of the religious inclined as, rather than affirm their beliefs, he broadly revealed the existence of multiple gods. This action alone had turned a large portion of the population against him as, no matter how much proof he provided, they had already determined he was lying based on the fact he didn't support their belief system. These people proactively interfered with the lives of other people and, more often than not, resorted to extreme violence on the premise that the other party was some pawn in a grand scheme to undermine their beliefs.
Because of these developments, Vahn felt a lot of pressure to deal with the Holy Church sooner, rather than later. They had actually sent a delegation to the waters around Avalon but, rather than sue for peace, the specialist group had been carrying holy artifacts that, in essence, served the purpose of weapons of mass destruction. They had been intending to gain access to Avalon and, once inside, use the artifacts in a final act of martyrdom.
Needless to say, the Holy Church hadn't taken kindly to the fact that Vahn essentially ousted their God as a being wholly different than what they purported it to be. Rather than some omniscient and omnipotent entity that had the ability to do anything, yet chose not to, it was just one half of the Counter Force. All of their Prophets and Saints were just people that had been chosen to act as an extension of Alaya's will while possessing some unique Innates that drew her attention to them in the first place.
Even if Vahn gathered together every mortal Prophet, Demigod, or Saint-turned-Counter-Guardian, it wouldn't matter when it came to convincing those that believed wholeheartedly in a specific system of beliefs. They had people willing to die in order to perpetuate their beliefs and, even if he exposed the many flaws and scandals within each religious organization, their believers would just chalk it up to hearsay or fabricated data. The only 'real' solution was to either wage war against them, which never turned out favorably, or focus wholly on a secondary system of beliefs that people were more drawn to.
Vahn didn't particularly care about communities that intended to separate themselves from the society he intended to build. So long as they did not instigate conflict, damage the planet, or repeat the same mistakes of the past, he would allow them to live as they please. He didn't even mind if someone wanted to become some kind of Hermit living out in the vast woodlands that would inevitably cover the planet as, in the end, the main purpose behind his system was to allow people to live as they please, so long as it was in a non-destructive manner.
With this in mind, Vahn needed to deal with the Holy Church and, if they were not willing to see reason, he would have to systematically cripple them. He was not going to wait around as they performed Grand Rituals and tirelessly attempted to assassinate members of the Empire so, after the initial delegation had been sent, Vahn teleported directly above the Vatican's airspace. This was where the headquarter of the public face of the Holy Church, the Roman Catholic Church, was located.
Vahn wasn't surprised to find nearly six-million people gathered together in the relatively small city as, being the center of one of the world's largest religions, they had a very large following in the surrounding city of Rome, Italy. Now, fearing the beginning of the end times, people had migrated from the surrounding regions to seek guidance from their Pope, the religious figure that supposedly served as the representative of God...
Seeing the 75-year-old Italian man attempt to pacify and calm his believers, Vahn actually felt a small amount of pity for the aged individual. From what he could tell, the man had a very pure aura and, though his Magic Circuits were almost entirely inert, his affinity with the Light element was extremely high. This was a rather curious development but, considering he had the beliefs of billions of people supporting him, it wasn't too far-fetched to imagine that his aura was actually purified as a result.
A stark contrast the religious fervor that seemed to be tearing apart other regions, the Pope's message to his people was patience, fortitude, and belief. He disavowed violence and, using the phenomenon of people vanishing into light as an example, encouraged people to live good lives so that they would ultimately be selected by God. His message was one of peace and tolerance, even though there were literally millions of people crying out for the destruction of the Empire...
Deciding to make time to meet with the Pope directly in the near-future, Vahn turned his attention away from the elderly man. His eyes passed over the various Cardinals and Bishops, many with far less pure auras than the Pope himself, before landing on a group of strangely dressed priests, the leader of which was glaring at him with hate-filled eyes. They were clearly members of the Holy Church and, unlike the people gathered below, they were extremely perceptive to the presence of a foreign entity within the Vatican City.
No longer concealing his presence, Vahn slowly began to descend from the sky as divine light began to radiate out from his body. This drew a lot of attention to him and, for a brief moment, silence seemed to dominate the massive crowd until a few people realized exactly who he was. Then, as if the words of their Pope had been for naught, a hysteria seemed to overtake the people nearest to Vahn as they attempted to surge toward him like a tidal wave of flesh and hatred, some shouting things like, "Kill the Devil...!" in borderline feral voices.
As if a chemical reaction had been set off within the crowd, a massive riot was on the verge of breaking out. This was one of the dangers of religions and mob mentality in general as, if you had just a few crazy people in the fray, they could instigate violence among the entire group. People always seemed to be on the verge of letting out their inner demons and, knowing there would be little to no consequences, they were quick to riot if they believed they could get away with it.
Unfortunately, no amount of normal humans had any hope of surmounting Vahn as, even in a state sealed by [Enkidu], he could still move upwards of two-million kilos. If they wanted to have any hopes of moving him, they would have to crush each other like a mindless swarm, something made impossible by the fact that those closest to him quickly cowed in the face of his aura. This was before he had even released it fully as, at least for the time being, he would attempt to settle things peacefully.
Despite setting in motion events that would ultimately claim billions, Vahnd didn't want the lives of millions of people on his hands. Thus, with the ease of a man taking a stroll through a park, Vahn slowly walked towards the landing of St. Peter's Basilica as an area of 10m in his immediate surroundings was virtually impossible to penetrate. This was in spite of the massive outcry his presence had caused by, whenever someone more zealous passed the group given pause, they too would quickly lose any willpower to trespass further as something deep inside of them made even a single step impossible.
Eventually, people began to realize something was amiss so they began to split and, by the time he had reached the landing, much of the fervor had died down. This was aided by the fact that, as soon as Vahn appeared, the Pope tried to keep people calm without turning tail. Rather, his hazy brown eyes actually reflected a subtle blue glow as a resolute yet kind smile adorned his wrinkled visage. This was a phenomenon that was only present in Tier 4 entities and those who were able to use Divine Power but, due to the Laws of the Nasuverse, even normal people could potentially rival gods if they had enough belief placed in them.
Fortunately, the Pope didn't seem to show any hostility whatsoever so, even without Vahn having to take action, the crowd was slowly brought under control by the aged man's aura. They began to look toward him as if he was a living god, some going so far as to kneel down, praying fervently in the presence of this unseen force. As for Vahn, he casually ascended the steps, passing massive stone columns and several nervous members of the Clergy that fundamentally lacked the courage to bar his passage...
(A/N: Existence is pain. I write because I feel the need to do so. I don't want to just post 'update' chapters anymore. Also, for anyone that might get upset about the presentation of some religions in the next few chapters, remember that this is a work of fiction. There are literal gods present in this world so don't treat it as a direct translation of reality. I'm not badmouthing any religions, its prophets, or its followers. Be good to each other.)
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