"Alright. Nothing more to add. You don't need to report back to me after this. Just handle the rest on your own. If you run into any problems that brute force can solve, come find me."

Wang Yu didn't bother stretching the discussion further. He'd already said all he could. Anything beyond this meeting—communicating with the Alliance and assigning responsibilities, for example—wasn't something he was suited to handle. He gave a final instruction, then withdrew from the Prayer Network and stepped out of the Church of Nightfall's meeting room.

The moment he returned to his body, he noticed Avia was no longer deep in thought. She sat by the table, waiting for his consciousness to return.

"Did something happen over at the Church?"

Avia asked about the matter he had gone to deal with while she pondered her own thoughts.

"Nothing much. The Alliance sent an invitation to Aleisterre. They're preparing to move openly against the Utopia. I said a few things and told them to decide for themselves. Everything's recorded, so you can take a look."

Wang Yu spoke casually. The Perfect Fractal lens had captured the entire meeting. He was genuinely curious to hear Avia's opinion on the matter.

"That's good. As for this issue of void affinity, I think I've formed a hypothesis, but I'll need your help to verify it."

She didn't check the recording immediately. Instead, her eyes glimmered with excitement as she shared the conclusion she had just reached after her long contemplation.

"Alright, tell me what you need."

Wang Yu raised a brow. For her to make progress this quickly... Well, it was exactly what he expected.

After Wang Yu's exit, the others remained inside the meeting room to finalize practical arrangements. Charles was the one to restart the discussion.

"Since we've received the archbishop's confirmation, our course of action is clear: accept the invitation from the Alliance, join them, and work together to eliminate the Utopia.

"Joining the alliance is a given, but there are precautions we must establish beforehand. Chiefly, the Church of Nightfall will not serve as cannon fodder, and neither will we be used as a consumable resource. This is the attitude we must assert in this cooperation.

"As for combat strength, the dragons are the strongest among us. Considering that the Church of Nightfall is ultimately a loose collective, even if our members are stronger than Aleisterre's own forces, we cannot gather them as easily. Thus, for now, we'll treat Aleisterre's military strength and our own as roughly equivalent.

"That's why I personally propose that decisions involving combat strategy should be centered around the dragons. After all, the main reason the Alliance invited us was because of them. And I, for one, have absolute faith in their wisdom."

Charles began laying out his plan. When it came to war, he proposed deferring to the dragons' judgment. His reasoning was simple: very few in the Church of Nightfall truly understood the dragons' capabilities. If they were to draft strategies without that understanding, oversights would be inevitable. Only by following the dragons' own arrangements could they unleash their full might.

As for Miselyx, chief of the white dragons, Charles had seen his skill at command firsthand. It was formidable, and would more than suffice for this role.

The proposal was sensible, and no one present voiced an objection. Miselyx accepted the position with a calm, confident smile.

"Thank you for your trust. Since I've taken on this responsibility, I will see it done properly. First, we must determine the Utopia's actual objective.

"‘Building a utopia' is far too vague a goal. What we need is something concrete—how they plan to accomplish it.

"Half of our current information on them comes from the recent reports provided by the Alliance. The other half comes from Lord Wang Yu, who has encountered this organization multiple times. One thing is certain: they possess extraordinarily deep historical roots. Many named figures throughout history seem to have ties to them.

"If they laid out foundations for this plan back in the old days, then matters will be very troublesome indeed. Unfortunately, that seems very likely to be the truth. Ethan Harris, once thought to be dead, has appeared once again. If that can happen, what else might be hiding in the shadows?

"We must prepare ourselves. History is easily distorted, twisted, and rewritten. Our methods of learning it are limited, and we cannot verify any of it firsthand. We cannot even determine whether the information we possess is real.

"Our enemy may very well be a presence that buried itself beneath the tides and dust of history, leaving traces we cannot find, preparing schemes we cannot uncover, and concealing truths we cannot imagine. In any case, we stand completely unable to predict their next move."

Miselyx spoke with a depth born from lived experience. The dragons, after all, had spent their years of disappearance living under a web of lies and misdirection.

"That is why, even as we search for their traces, our decisions may indeed need to be as simple and straightforward as Lord Wang Yu suggested. After all, he did manage to slay one of the strongest legends, Ethan Harris, a Sword Saint of legend.

"And there's an easy way to understand what the Utopia wants: fight them. Engage them directly. We need to see for ourselves what these people are trying to accomplish."

Miselyx concluded his thoughts.

"Agreed."

"Understood."

"Got it."

Voices of assent echoed around the room. They accepted his decision unanimously.

"Praise the Lady of the Night!"

The meeting ended with unified voices of praise.

Once their course was set, the entire Church of Nightfall got to work.

Charles, Miselyx, and several others took the lead in negotiating with the Alliance, finalizing the terms of cooperation and wrestling over the usual issues of authority and interest.

Aleisterre, meanwhile, began approving the immigration of even more Church of Nightfall members, expanding its population while accelerating construction on all fronts. Whatever scale the coming battles might reach, the Church of Nightfall held fast to one principle: eat well, sleep well, and have a nice home.

On that point, Aleisterre's Council, Edward included, performed admirably.

The Church's merchant guild, its academies, and various affiliated organizations all began implementing changes in policy as soon as the meeting concluded. They began consolidating industries, converting a portion of their capital into materials more likely to be needed in wartime, and generally strengthening their resilience. Warehouses across the territory quietly filled with supplies. When the moment came, their doors could be thrown open at any time for the Church's use.

After the meeting, Father Fang sought Charles out for a private conversation.

"The Church of Light will also join in the crusade against this organization."

The archbishop's calm, smiling declaration left Charles momentarily stunned. The Church of Light seldom acted of its own initiative. When a situation's righteousness could not be clearly judged, their usual stance was to wait and observe.

"Since when is the Church of Light this proactive? Don't tell me you people actually think this so-called Utopia is irredeemably evil?"

"No, not exactly. The Pope himself received a divine vision from the God of Light, instructing the Order of Paladins to join the campaign against the Utopia. I've never heard of such a phenomenon in all my time in the Church of Light. That's why we're taking action."

Father Fang shook his head. The decision did not represent a unanimous moral judgment from the Church of Light. Rather, it reflected the Pope's intent—an unusually large factor in this matter.

"Come to think of it... who is the Pope of the Church of Light again? I've never seen him. Don't tell me he's another legend from ancient times. Does he know something the rest of us don't?"

Now that he understood the reason for their involvement, Charles found his curiosity drifting toward the Pope's identity. As far as he knew, no one had ever actually seen the man appear in public.

"I don't know either. His identity has always been shrouded in mystery. That much is true. But he is acknowledged by every archbishop in the Church of Light, myself included. This time, he even spoke to each of us individually."

There was resignation in Father Fang's voice. The Pope was a uniquely enigmatic figure within their institution, and even he knew very little about him.

"Sounds... suspiciously like a charlatan..."

Charles rubbed his chin as he muttered a thoroughly irreverent remark.

"I'm here to pass on a message from him. To tell the truth, even I don't fully understand what he meant."

"Going forward... the Church of Light may need the Church of Nightfall's protection."

Father Fang ignored Charles's habitual blasphemy and simply delivered the Pope's message.

"Huh? The Church of Nightfall... protecting members of the Church of Light?"

As expected, Charles froze on the spot.

It wasn't the message itself that shocked him, but rather the sheer absurdity of the idea. Even now, the Church of Nightfall couldn't compare to the vast institution that was the Church of Light. How could it possibly fall to them to offer protection?

"Couldn't he be clearer? Fine, whatever. The Church of Light is certainly our ally. Helping each other goes without saying."

After a few seconds of bewildered silence, Charles gave his answer without hesitation. Whatever the Pope's deeper reasoning was, working together would benefit both faiths.

"In that case, I'll see you at the meeting with the Alliance. I'll try to arrange things so I can act alongside you."

"See you."

All across the continent, various powers made their decisions in a surprisingly short span of time. They each chose how to respond to the strange new force emerging within the orcish kingdom. Some waited and watched, others prepared for opposition, and some even signaled a willingness to cooperate.

As for the Alliance, once their investigative team vanished without a trace, preparations for a formal assault began at once. From the five races, they selected a vanguard unit whose mission was simple: to probe the Utopia. They would test the strength of the Utopian forces and prepare for the first, cautious foray into the unknown.